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July 15, 2026

Tehran 6:46 pm

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A ship sails off the coast of Ajman on July 10, 2026.

Interview

Why Strait of Hormuz no longer rattles oil markets as much: IMF

The fund's Middle East director, Jihad Azour, told Al-Monitor that the big Gulf energy producers now have more capacity to absorb the shock.

Jihad Azour

Jihad Azour

Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund

A general view of the Iranian Embassy on July 13, 2026, in London, England.

Analysis

How UK's IRGC designation raises stakes for Iran and Europe

Following Britain's designation, Iran has presented a unified front in which all institutions are projecting the IRGC as an integral component of national sovereignty.

A correspondent in Tehran

By A correspondent in Tehran

In Tehran, reporting on politics

A photograph shows a damaged building in the aftermath of a drone strike in the Seef district of Manama on March 10, 2026.

Bahrain sentences 3 to life in prison over ties to Iran's IRGC: What to know

The sentencing comes as Bahrain continues to crack down on individuals allegedly spying for Iran, at a time when the IRGC has resumed its strikes against US assets in the Gulf.

Latest News

Trump hosts Iraqi PM Zaidi as Iran war intensifies

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House, Washington, DC, July 14, 2026.

Trump retreats from Hormuz 20% fee plan in pivot to Gulf investment deals

SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images

Oil prices climb to $85 as US-Iran attacks intensify, Hormuz traffic stalls

AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

As Trump prioritizes Hormuz, Israel fears Iran rebuilding nuclear program while preserving ballistic missile threat

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

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

Bahraini police arrive to disperse protestors during clashes following the funeral of Ali Abdulghani, 17, whose family says died of injuries suffered in a police chase, in the Shiite village of Shahrakkan, south of Manama on April 5, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED AL-SHAIKH/AFP via Getty Images)

Bahrain claims it foiled Iranian-backed terrorist attacks

Bahrain has charged 18 people with allegedly plotting attacks in the country with support from Iran.

This picture taken on August 25, 2019 shows damage inside a media centre of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah in the south of the capital Beirut, after two drones came down in the vicinity of its building earlier in the day, with (L to R) pictures of Iran's former and current Supreme Leaders, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, seen next to a computer terminal. - Hezbollah said on August 25 that one of the drones was rigged with explosives and caused damage to its media centre, but den

US imposes sanctions on Iranian intelligence, Hezbollah-linked targets in Lebanon

New US sanctions affect 47 individuals and entities in Iran as well as three targets in Lebanon.

Iran dismisses US push for snapback sanctions

Iranian officials have rejected the idea that the United States will implement the snapback sanctions that were rejected.

Pompeo: US to return to UN to ensure Iran sanctions enforced

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the international sanctions on Iran will return this weekend, despite opposition from most of the Security Council.

High unemployment forces Iranian Kurds into smuggling, with deadly consequences

A new wave of deadly violence targeting Iranian Kurdish smugglers in the country's mountainous border region has renewed focus on decades-long state neglect of the minority group.

A man holds a phone while reading a story published on Tasnim News Agency's website about the recent news of a US-brokered deal between Israel and the UAE to normalise relations, in Iran's capital Tehran on August 14, 2020. - Iran strongly condemned the agreement, blasting it as an act of "strategic stupidity" that would only strengthen the Tehran-backed "axis of resistance". The Israel-UAE deal marks only the third such accord the Jewish state has struck with an Arab nation, an historic shift making the Gu

Arab deals with Israel predictably rile Iran

The normalization of ties between Israel and two Arab states has left the Islamic Republic uneasy in a region where it is surrounded by more adversaries than allies.

This picture taken on March 14, 2020 shows a general view of Hafte Tir square in Iran's capital Tehran. (Photo by STRINGER / AFP) (Photo by STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran hard-liners slam European ‘meddling’ in execution case

Iran's staunchest loyalists are expressing rage at European states that have condemned the execution of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari.

A woman holds a portrait of Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari during a demonstration on the Dam Square in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on September 13, 2020, against its execution in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz and against the Iranian government. - Iran said it executed wrestler Navid Afkari, 27, on September 12, 2020 at a prison in the southern city of Shiraz over the murder of a public sector worker during anti-government protests in August 2018. Reports published abroad say Afkari was condemned on the

Iranian activists condemn execution of wrestler

Many activists have spoken out against the execution of wrestler Navid Afkari.

TOPSHOT - A worker of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA waves an Iranian flag as the Iranian-flagged oil tanker Fortune docks at the El Palito refinery in Puerto Cabello, in the northern state of Carabobo, Venezuela, on May 25, 2020. - The first of five Iranian tankers carrying much-needed gasoline and oil derivatives docked in Venezuela on Monday, Caracas announced amid concern in Washington over the burgeoning relationship between countries it sees as international pariahs. (Photo by - / AFP) (Photo

Iranian fuel tankers reported off coast of South Africa

The tankers are reportedly bringing oil to Venezuela and may be taking the longer African route to avoid US forces following a seizure in August.

Iranian 200-kilometre (120-mile) range Qader (Ghader) ground-to-sea missile is launched on the last day of navy war games near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran on January 2, 2012. AFP PHOTO/JAMEJAMONLINE/EBRAHIM NOROOZI (Photo credit should read EBRAHIM NOROOZI/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran holds annual war games near Strait of Hormuz

The three-day military drills come as the Donald Trump administration wants to restore international sanctions on Iran.

A schoolboy arrives with his mother while mask-clad as part of new COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic precautions, outside Nojavanan school in Iran's capital Tehran on the first day of schools re-opening on September 5, 2020. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) (Photo by ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

Iran's Rouhani says schools to remain open despite criticism

President Hassan Rouhani is facing criticism for reopening schools as the coronavirus continues to plague the country.

Iranian worshippers demonstrate after the weekly Friday prayers on January 23, 2015 in Tehran to protest against a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that was published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an edition issued a week after 12 people were killed by Islamist gunmen at its Paris offices. Iran denounced the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo but has also condemned as "insulting" and "provocative" its publication last week of a new cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ M

Iran infuriated as Charlie Hebdo reprints 'sacrilegious' cartoons

Iranian officials are expressing rage at a provocative rerunning of cartoon portrayals of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, but have refrained from calling for retaliation or issuing death fatwas.