*News and analysis

TEHRAN (IQNA) – The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah condemned the publication of derogatory cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), saying that an affront to Muslim sensibilities and Islam’s most revered figure cannot be justified as a right to free speech and opinion.   In a statement published on Sunday, Hezbollah expressed ...

The Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the obstinate insistence in France on insulting the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad [PBUH]. In a statement on Saturday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh vehemently condemned any offensive action against or disrespect for the divine messengers of God, particularly the seal of the prophets, the ...

TEHRAN (FNA)- Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh announced that Iran has blacklisted the US Ambassador to Iraq Matthew Tueller and two other diplomats over their key role in carrying out acts of terror, violating the fundamental principles of human rights and imposing ‘cruel and illegal sanctions’ against the Iranian nation. ...

Hemmati made the remarks on Wednesday, addressing the governors of the central banks of the member-states of the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) via video conference. “It is expected from the IMF to quickly and without any discrimination and without being influenced by political lobbying or pressures from other ...

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin suggests that, what he calls, the era of the United States’ “absolute dominance” throughout the international community is far over as the world’s power relations are undergoing important changes. “The United States, which at some point absolutely dominated, can hardly claim to be exclusive,” Putin told ...

Iran’s Air Defense units launched a large-scale military exercise covering more than half of the country’s territories. The joint air defense exercise, codenamed ‘Guardians of Velayat Sky-99’, kicked off on Wednesday morning, attended by air defense units from the Army and the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps [IRGC]. Various types of ...

The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations has reiterated the country’s sovereignty over three Persian Gulf islands, saying those territories have always been and will always remain Iranian. Speaking at a virtual meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Majid Takht-Ravanchi reacted to some unsubstantiated accusations raised against Iran’s regional role ...

The Iranian Foreign Ministry says any attempts by the “sanctions-addicted” US to impose unilateral restrictions on Iran will fail as the move is in violation of international law. “The sanctions-addicted United States is not far to once again compensate for some of its blatant failures in the [United Nations] Security ...

The world is waking up to a new reality post the devastating pandemic that brought everything to a grinding halt. One of them is the rise of China as the undisputed new economic superpower. According to the IMF’s World Economic Output 2020 released recently, China has now overtaken the US ...

Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen believes that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the “Israeli” entity “should not be an obstacle nor a condition for continuing contact with them in order to establish bilateral relations between us and the countries of the region”. This comes as the Saudi authorities allege that ...