Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani faces pressure to act against Iran-backed terrorist groups following increased attacks on U.S., European, and Kurdish assets in the country.

The first reports appeared on foreign screens, beyond the reach of most Iranians. On 28 February Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were signs that the tyrant is no more, suggesting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in a joint US-Israeli strike. Iranians watching state television, however, encountered silence. Government officials would neither confirm nor deny Khamenei's death. On one of the state broadcaster's channels, IRTV3, one news presenter urged viewers to trust him and the latest information the government had.

Iran says'ready for war' Which are Iran's main opposition groups? Iran's Khamenei says US will not be able to destroy government NewsFeed Iran's Khamenei says US will not be able to destroy government Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has taken aim at Donald Trump, stating that he will not be able to eliminate the Islamic Republic. The comments come as Iranian and US negotiators are holding mediated talks in Switzerland. Video: Humanoid robots take centre stage at China's Lunar New Year show Trump urges Iran to make nuclear deal saying he'll be'indirectly' involved

The US and Iran have agreed to hold nuclear talks in Oman on Friday, as President Donald Trump issued a blunt warning to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the meeting would start at 10:00 (06:00 GMT) in Muscat. US officials also confirmed it would happen there. The talks had appeared to be in jeopardy, with the two countries at odds over the location and parameters. Trump has built up US forces in the region and threatened military action if Iran does not agree a deal on its nuclear programme and stop killing protesters.

JERUSALEM - The Iranian regime's plot to assassinate former President Trump is the latest in a string of attempts by Tehran to lethally target American officials and Iranian American dissidents. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has effectively put bounties on the heads of Trump, his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and ex-National Security Advisor John Bolton for their roles in the U.S. drone strike that eliminated the global Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani in 2020. According to the U.S. government, Soleimani was responsible for the murders of over 600 American military personnel in the Middle East. BOLTON CALLS IRAN ASSASSINATION PLOT AN'ACT OF WAR,' CALLS ON BIDEN ADMIN TO'TERMINATE' NUCLEAR TALKS Former President Trump, left, and Iranian leader Ali Khamenei. Fox News Digital reported on Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security received intelligence from a human source about the planned Iranian assassination of Trump.

I last interviewed Ebrahim Raisi, the ultra-hard-line President of Iran, during his début appearance at the United Nations, in 2022. He spoke belligerently and with such speed that the interpreter struggled to keep up. He was the same on the U.N. dais, where he furiously waved a photo of General Qassem Soleimani and demanded that Donald Trump be tried for ordering his assassination--a "savage, illegal, immoral crime"--in a U.S. drone strike, in 2020. Back home, Iran was in turmoil after nationwide protests erupted in response to the death, in police custody, of a twenty-two-year-old named Mahsa Amini. She had been arrested for improper hijab; too much hair was showing.

In an extraordinary move, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has issued a fatwa against Artificial Intelligence, calling it "satanic." Anyone using the quickly developing technology would be punished by hanging, Iranian officials said. I am informing all virtuous Muslims of the world that a new satanic technology aims to replace the creation of Allah the almighty. I call on all Muslims wherever they may be in the world to refrain from and fight against all forms of artificial intellegence as they insult the sacred beliefs of Muslims henceforth. Whoever is killed in this cause will be a martyr, God willing.

Three members of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran were involved in a murder-for-hire plot against a New York-based journalist, a U.S. citizen, the Department of Justice alleged Friday. A loud blast has been reported at an Iranian military facility and officials in the country say it was the result of an "unsuccessful" drone attack. "One of (the drones) was hit by the ... air defense and the other two were caught in defense traps and blew up. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack did not cause any loss of life and caused minor damage to the workshop's roof," the ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA. Iranian news agencies earlier reported the loud blast and carried a video showing a flash of light at the plant, said to be an ammunitions factory, and footage of emergency vehicles and fire trucks outside the plant.

Israel is holding its largest-ever air force exercise this week with the participation of several countries including the United Arab Emirates, with whom it normalised ties last year. Amir Lazar, chief of Israeli air force operations, told reporters at the southern Ovda airbase the drills "don't focus on Iran", but army officials have said Iran remains Israel's top strategic threat and at the centre of much of its military planning. Israel has held the so-called "Blue Flag" exercises every two years since 2013 in the Negev desert to synchronise different types of aircraft, piloted by different countries to counter armed drones and other threats. With more than 70 fighter jets and some 1,500 personnel participating, this year's drills are the largest-ever held in Israel, Lazar said. Among the nations taking part are France, the United States and Germany, as well as the United Kingdom, whose aircraft flew over Israeli territory for the first time since the Jewish state's creation in 1948.

Iran's foreign minister apologized Sunday for recorded comments that were leaked to the public last week that offered a blunt appraisal of the country's power struggles, sparking a political firestorm in Iran less than two months before presidential elections and apparently drawing the ire of Iran's supreme leader. The recordings of Mohammad Javad Zarif included frank comments about the powerful late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Iraq last year, as well as criticism of his polices in Syria and his relations with Russia. "I hope that the great people of Iran and all the lovers of General (Soleimani) and especially the great family of Soleimani, will forgive me," Zarif said in an Instagram post. In a speech broadcast later Sunday, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to lambast Zarif for departing from the official line, although he didn't call him out by name. "It's a big mistake that must not be made by an official of the Islamic Republic," Khamenei said in veiled reference to the leaked comments.