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Iran

May 9, 2026

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China’s overland trade routes offer Iran wartime economic lifeline: What to know

Cargo rail traffic between China and Iran has reportedly surged since the US blockade began in April as Tehran seeks overland trade alternatives to help buy time.

A woman walks past a banner featuring Iran's late supreme leaders, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L) and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (C), next to newly elected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, in Tehran on April 19, 2026.

Analysis

Why Iran's wartime behavior risks lasting rupture with Gulf states

Iran's rhetoric and policies toward Gulf states have sharply escalated, raising questions about whether years of painstaking regional rapprochement can survive mounting distrust and maritime confrontations.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Traffic passes a billboard depicting Iranian ballistic missiles in service, with text in Arabic reading "the honest [person's] promise" and in Persian "Israel is weaker than a spider's web," Valiasr Square, Tehran, April 15, 2024. ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images.

Analysis

CIA report on Iran missiles undercuts Netanyahu as war euphoria dissipates

The findings cast doubt on Israel’s wartime gains and put pressure on Netanyahu’s campaign strategy ahead of elections.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Getty

US strikes Iran tankers as UAE reports fresh missile, drone attacks

Strikes on Iranian tankers and fresh exchanges in the Gulf escalate tensions as Washington awaits Tehran’s response to a deal proposal.

Latest News

What to know about Iran's 'Persian Gulf Strait Authority' to control Hormuz traffic

In this picture obtained from Iran's ISNA news agency on May 4, 2026, the Iran-flagged tugboat Basim sails near a ship anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas in southern Iran.

US sets expectations for Iraq’s next PM to confront Iranian militias

Popular Mobilization Forces

Analysis

China shores up Iran support as Trump seeks exit

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi of Iran meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China in Beijing on May 6, 2026. Credit: Telegram

Joyce Karam

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Diplomatic Correspondent

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Sabena Siddiqui

In Karachi, reporting on South Asia, Middle East, Iran

A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

Benjamin Houghton

In Durham, reporting on China in the Middle East

Rahim Rahimov

In Baku, reporting on Middle East-Caucasus ties

Mehrnaz Samimi

In Washington, DC, reporting on Iranian culture

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech during the inaugural session of the new parliament following February elections, in Tehran on May 27, 2020. - The 11th legislature since the Islamic revolution of 1979 opened as the country's economy, which has been hard hit by the novel coronavirus, gradually returns to normal. Rouhani, who is in the final year of his second and final term, called on MPs, collectively and individually, to place the "national interest above special interests", "party intere

Iran’s Rouhani dismisses outcry over journalist’s execution

Iran hanged journalist and blogger Ruhollah Zam on Saturday after a court found him guilty of "corruption on earth."

Israeli soldiers stand in front of an Iron Dome defence system battery, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells, in the Hula Valley in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, on July 27, 2020. - On either side of the Israeli-Lebanese border, the language is military: The Lebanese Hezbollah movement asserts that anti-Israel action is "irremediable", Israel warns the movement that it "is playing with fire". But according to analysts, from declarations to actu

Israel open to teaming up with Gulf states on missile defense, official says

Shift in tone comes as Israel hails "successful" missile defense exercise in cooperation with Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency

Men walk while wearing face masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Iranian capital Tehran, on November 30, 2020. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran hopes to unveil homemade coronavirus vaccine in March

As Iran reports considerable relief from the coronavirus pandemic, hopes are growing that the country’s indigenous vaccine could become available sooner than expected.

Iran's Rouhani attacks domestic critics over sanctions relief

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suggested today that he would not allow domestic critics of the nuclear deal to delay Iran’s reentry to the deal.

Turkey arrests 11 over abduction of Iranian dissident

Turkish intelligence believe Habib Chaab was lured to Istanbul and abducted by a group working on behalf of Iran.

Iran sentences Kameel Ahmady, British-Iranian anthropologist, to prison

Ahmady, who is ethnically Kurdish, had researched child marriage and female genital mutilation in Iran.

US Daniel Levinson (L) shows a picture of his father, ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson, holding his grandson Ryan during a press conference with his mother Christine at the Swiss embassy in Tehran, 22 December 2007. The wife of the former agent missing in Iran since March said today she has received "no answers" about his fate at the end of her trip to the Islamic republic in search of her husband, who Washington says went missing on a visit to the Iranian island of Kish. The Tehran government reiterated earlie

US sanctions Iranian officials over Robert Levinson’s abduction

The US government believes Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai were involved in the abduction, detention and probable death of the retired FBI agent.

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 25 : The President of Iran Hassan Rouhani arrives to meet UN Secretary-General António Guterres during the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations on September 25, 2019 in New York City. The United Nations General Assembly, or UNGA, is expected to attract over 90 heads of state in New York City for a week of speeches, talks and high level diplomacy concerning global issues (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)

Rouhani under fire for signaling nuclear deal reentry

Conservatives have rejected the idea of holding new talks with the United States.

Rouhani, Biden hint at pathways to resume Iran deal

The Iranian president wants Biden to reverse Trump policies, not start a new round of talks; the US president-elect makes clear US regional partners will also have their say.

Taxis line up to pick up customers at a taxi station in the Iranian capital Tehran on July 3, 2019. - The Iranian economy is struggling in part because of the crippling US sanctions targeting Iran's oil sales, banking transactions and major industries like steel and petrochemicals. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran’s budget banking on US lifting sanctions

The projected reliance on oil revenues is wildly optimistic, likely making the budget a wish list, at best.

US deploys long-range bombers, aircraft carrier to Middle East to deter Iran

The B-52 deployment comes amid the return of the USS Nimitz to the Persian Gulf.

Ruhollah Zam, a former opposition figure who had lived in exile in France and had been implicated in anti-government protests, speaks during his trial at Iran's Revolutionary Court in Tehran on June 2, 2020. - Iran said it has sentenced to death Ruhollah Zam. The court has considered 13 counts of charges together as instances of 'corruption on earth' and therefore passed the death sentence, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said. (Photo by ALI SHIRBAND / MIZAN NEWS / AFP) (Photo by ALI SHIRBAND/MIZA

Death penalty upheld for Iran journalist defector who turned from establishment

Ruhollah Zam, the son of a regime-connected cleric, was charged in June with "corruption on earth" for inciting violence in Iran's 2017 protests.