Decision comes after Chinese foreign ministry’s external security affairs chief holds first such meeting with Iranian and Pakistani counterparts in Beijing.

US Secretary of State’s Saudi visit was aimed at boosting ties with a long-time ally, which has forged closer relations with Washington’s rivals.

Tehran claims the new weapon can travel at 15 times the speed of sound; it appears to have a movable nozzle, which could allow it to evade air defences.

The US Treasury says the network of over a dozen people and entities in China and Iran enabled the procurement of sensitive and critical parts technology for Tehran.

Three fast-attack Revolutionary Guard vessels with armed troops aboard approached the merchant ship at a close distance, prompting a US destroyer and Royal Navy frigate to respond, the US Navy said.

It is thought to be the first assault of its kind since the Taliban swept to power in 2021 and began to crack down on the rights of Afghan women and girls.

‘The countries of the region...realised that only cooperation with each other brings security to the area,’ Iran’s navy commander said.

The internet is divided over Iranian model Mahlagha Jaberi’s Jila Saber bodycon dress with a neckline resembling a noose, in protest of her home country’s ‘wrongful executions’ – here’s what we know

The recording, which is in the hands of prosecutors, purportedly shows the ex-president understood he retained classified material after he left the White House.

Elaheh Mohammadi is accused of ‘colluding with hostile powers’, which could mean death penalty, after she covered funeral of 22-year-old who died in custody of morality police.

State TV aired footage said to show the launch of an upgraded version of the Khoramshahr 4, which is able to carry a 1,500kg warhead.

A man convicted of the capital crime of ‘corruption on earth’ was executed in front of large crowds, which rights groups have denounced as a ‘medieval’ practice.

The US Air Force on May 2 released rare images of the weapon, the GBU-57, known as the ‘Massive Ordnance Penetrator’. Then it took the photos down.

Ali Shamkhani will be replaced by Ali Akbar Ahmadian, who sits on the country’s Expediency Council that advises the supreme leader.

Iran’s judiciary said Shahrooz Sokhanvari, a man known as ‘Alex’, was the leader of an ‘escort and trafficking network of Iranian women and girls’ to countries in the region.

Bipartisan legislation on Thrift Savings Plan targets investment in companies based in or closely tied to China, Iran, North Korea and Russia.

Weibao Wang’s case was among five announced by a ‘strike force’ aimed at countering efforts to illicitly acquire US technology by nations including Russia, Iran and China.

Last year’s 883 recorded executions were the most since 2017, activists said. The death penalty is also used extensively in North Korea and Vietnam but as with China, figures there remain ‘shrouded in secrecy’.

Iranians are concerned about online safety and privacy when using approved local apps such as Bale, Neshan, Snapp! and Soroush .

Authorities have made legal threats, closed some businesses serving women not wearing the hijab and are using CCTV to identify women without a hijab.

Syria’s membership was suspended 12 years ago early on in the uprising-turned-conflict, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced millions.

Farajollah Cha’ab was a leader of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz and was accused of masterminding a 2018 attack on a military parade.

Analysts said the comments at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting were tailored to his Indian hosts and other members.