ANALYSIS

Xi Jinping’s promise to Donald Trump that China would not arm Iran is being tested by Tehran’s alleged pursuit of Chinese MANPADS, relatively cheap weapons that could make future US and Israeli air campaigns more dangerous and expensive.

Iran's ballistic missile strike on US forces in Jordan and its seizure of three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz have dealt a fresh blow to efforts to preserve last month's Iran-US understanding.

President Donald Trump's repeated vow to "finish the job" in Iran appears to extend well beyond Tehran's nuclear program, according to experts, pointing instead to a broader plan to permanently weaken its military power, regional reach, and potentially its hold on power.

A Ukrainian strike that killed a sailor aboard an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea has drawn a vow of retaliation from Tehran and warnings that two wars, fought until now a continent apart, are beginning to converge into a single theater.

Consumer prices in Iran are nearly 89 percent higher than a year ago, as the country compresses into weeks the kind of inflation shock Americans experienced over all of 2022.

Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz appears to have dealt far greater damage to its own trade with China than to Beijing's commerce with the rest of the Persian Gulf, according to newly released Chinese customs data.

Russia’s turn to imported gasoline after Ukrainian attacks damaged its refineries is adding demand to a tight Asian fuel market, creating a potential new complication for Iran as it struggles to cover a daily shortfall of about 30 million liters.

President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to strike Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, but experts say the deeply buried nuclear facility, potentially central to Tehran’s efforts to restore enrichment, may be far harder to disable than his warning suggests.

Pakistan and Qatar are pressing ahead with efforts to revive Iran-US diplomacy, but Tehran has yet to publicly endorse the initiative as fighting continues over the Strait of Hormuz and resistance to renewed negotiations grows within sections of the Iranian establishment.

Foreign intelligence penetration of Iran is hardly a secret. But Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has now suggested the operation goes beyond locating officials or stealing information and seeks to influence decision-making inside the Islamic Republic itself.

An Iranian plane landing in Houthi-controlled Yemen looked like an oddly minor victory for Tehran. But it may have been the opening move in an effort to rebuild the allied force capable of threatening a second global maritime chokepoint alongside the Strait of Hormuz.

The alleged recruitment of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by Mossad reads like a spy thriller and has been denied by his office. But it has renewed interest in Iran's most controversial president—and the ruthless infighting that turned a Leader’s darling into a political outcast.

Barely 37 percent of working-age Iranians have a job. Yet the government's official unemployment rate is only 7.5 percent. The gap between those two figures reveals less about Iran's labour market than about the way it is measured.

A reported US strike on a railway bridge in northern Iran has drawn attention to a lesser-known front in the widening conflict: the battle over the transport corridors linking Iran to Central Asia, Russia and China.

Hamas says it is stepping away from governing Gaza. But is it actually giving up power or turning away from its longtime backers in Tehran?

The looming end of Payman Jebelli’s term as head of Iran’s state broadcaster has become a political test of whether the country’s new leadership is prepared to rein in hardliners accused of hijacking public media.

As Iran adjusts to life after Ali Khamenei, a question once considered unthinkable is moving into the open: is the role of Supreme Leader itself being redefined?

As Iran holds week-long funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, the political dynamics unfolding behind the scenes point to a striking reality: the succession question that dominated elite politics for more than a decade did not end with his death.