Two years after the landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers took effect, many Iranians are on the street protesting, in part because the economic windfall from sanctions relief never fully materialized.
Iranian state TV on Wednesday broadcast images of thousands of people rallying across the country in support of the government, as the authorities calibrate a response to the largest wave of anti-government unrest in almost a decade.
Tehran’s costly efforts to project power beyond Iran’s borders in the wider Middle East are now exacting a political price at home as they become a focus of broadening protests.
Despite Syrian and Iraqi claims of victory, thousands of holed-up Islamic State militants have mounted a number of recent guerrilla-style attacks on civilians and military forces, according to the U.S.-led coalition and others.
Nearly a decade ago, Twitter played a starring role in a protest movement that swept Iran. Today, a loose-knit group of Iranian protesters has added a new tool: Telegram, a smartphone messaging app that people have used to share information about demonstrations and videos of gatherings.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday blamed Iran’s enemies for the wave of unrest sweeping the country, his first comments since the biggest protests in nearly a decade broke out last week.
The biggestwave of protests to hit Iran in almost a decade has backed the country’s leaders into a corner, and the Trump administration is increasing the pressure by threatening fresh sanctions if the government forcefully cracks down on the demonstrations.
Protesters, unhappy with recent economic moves in Iran, have called for the regime and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to step down, challenging the nearly four-decade clerical rule of the Islamic Republic.
The Trump administration is lobbying countries world-wide to support Iranians’ right to peaceful protest and is prepared to impose fresh sanctions if Iran’s government cracks down forcefully on the demonstrations, U.S. officials said.
A wave of protests in Iran on a scale not seen in almost a decade stretched into a fifth day despite government warnings, after at least 10 people died in the mounting unrest.
Antigovernment demonstrations broke out for a third day, extending Iran’s most widespread street protests in nearly a decade, with protesters demanding an end to the Islamic Republic regime and the rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Protests flared for a second day across Iran against high prices and unemployment, in the most significant expression of popular discontent in months over the government’s economic management.
A gun attack on a church near Egypt’s capital killed at least nine people and wounded five others, officials said, the latest in a string of assaults targeting the Christian minority.
The Trump administration plans to expand the number of U.S. diplomats and contractors in eastern Syria to help stabilize the once Islamic State-controlled part of the country, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said.
Israel intercepted rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on Friday, the military said, in what appeared to be an attack that targeted a memorial ceremony for a slain Israeli soldier.
Authorities in Tehran will no longer arrest people for breaches of Islamic codes, the Iranian capital’s police chief said Wednesday, a sign of easing social strictures under relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
Aid workers have begun evacuating more than two dozen critically ill patients from a besieged rebel-held Damascus suburb, amid mounting international pressure on the Syrian regime to ensure medical care for hundreds who need urgent treatment.
Syrian rebels and opposition groups on Tuesday rejected Russia’s proposed peace talks, accusing Moscow of failing to pressure its ally, President Bashar al-Assad, to end the conflict.
The Saudi government has released at least two dozen high-profile suspects held in a corruption crackdown, a sign that those accused are increasingly agreeing to settle.
Saudi authorities are demanding at least $6 billion from Saudi Prince al-Waleed bin Talal to free him from detention, people familiar with the matter said, potentially putting the global business empire of one of the world’s richest men at risk.
A social-media campaign aims to draw attention to the worsening humanitarian situation in Syria by asking people to tweet a photo of themselves covering one eye in solidarity with an infant who lost an eye in a regime airstrike.
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for a resolution rebuking U.S. President Donald Trump for recognizing the disputed city of Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital and for pledging to move the U.S. Embassy there.
Thursday’s United Nations vote admonishing the U.S. move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital underscored the overwhelming international support for the establishment of a Palestinian state and dealt a blow to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut American aid to countries that back a United Nations resolution faulting the recent U.S. decision to declare Jerusalem Israel’s capital.