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.

Iran has made it no secret that it plans to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) to help better its military capabilities, but Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is now turning to Iran's private sector in a move he thinks will boost his crippling economy. On Sunday, Raisi met with private sector companies to announce Tehran's intent to invest in digital businesses. Raisi claimed the move would not only help develop Iran's AI capabilities, but help achieve his goal to grow the economy by 8%, reported pro-government media outlet Tasnim News Agency. However, experts remain skeptical about whether the move will actually fix Iran's economic woes and said they are more concerned by the abilities AI would grant Tehran when it comes to the battlefield. An Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle, the Shahed-136, is being displayed at Azadi Square in western Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 11, 2024, during a rally to mark the 45th anniversary of the victory of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tehran, Iran – Iran has unveiled a new drone that it says is capable of striking targets in Israel. The Iranian Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics unveiled the Mohajer-10 on Tuesday as part of an exhibition and ceremonies marking Defence Industry Day. President Ebrahim Raisi and senior commanders in the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attended the event. The unmanned attack aircraft, which resembles the MQ-9 Reaper manufactured by the United States, was also shown in videos taking off from an unidentified airstrip and flying. It is said to be capable of carrying a variety of bombs and anti-radar equipment and of conducting surveillance.

Former DHS adviser Charles Marino breaks down the national security risks posed by the U.S. shooting down the third flying object in a week on'Fox News Live.' Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to pay a state visit to China this week at the request of President Xi Jinping, Beijing confirmed Sunday. The visit, scheduled from Tuesday to Thursday, is Raisi's first to China since 2021 and is intended to strengthen ties between the two countries, both U.S. rivals. FILE: In this file photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping pose for a photo on the sidelines of a meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Sept. 16, 2022. Raisi will meet with Xi and their delegations will sign cooperation documents, according to Iran's state news agency IRNA. Meeting with Iranian and Chinese business leaders and Iranian expatriates in China is also part of his itinerary, the report added.

Iran has strongly condemned a call by France, Germany and the United Kingdom for the United Nations to investigate the accusations that Russia has used Iranian-origin drones to attack Ukraine, according to its foreign ministry. Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, said on Saturday that the call by the so-called E-3 group of countries was "false and baseless" and that it was "strongly rejected and condemned". Ukraine says Russia has used Iranian-made Shahed-136 attack drones that cruise towards their target and explode on impact. "The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in its pursuit to protect its national interest and to secure the rights of the noble Iranian people, reserves the right to respond to any irresponsible action," the Iranian foreign ministry website quoted Kanaani as saying. "It will not hesitate to defend the interests of the Iranian people," he said, without elaborating.