Persian Gulf

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration says American civilian flights can resume operations over much of the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman region

U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf have loudly pushed for hawkish policies by Washington to pressure, isolate and cripple Iran, but this high-stakes strategy is now being put to the test by the unexpected U.S. strike that killed Iran’s most powerful military commander last week, thrusting the region closer to full-blown conflict.

Iran has discovered a new oil field in the country’s south with over 50 billion barrels of crude, its president said Sunday, a find that could boost the country’s proven reserves by a third as it struggles to sell energy abroad over U.S. sanctions. The announcement by Hassan Rouhani comes as Iran faces crushing American sanctions after the U.S. pulled...

The 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran may have ended after 444 days, but both America and Iran still remain captive to a crisis that began 40 years ago. While those held hostage at the embassy ultimately would be released, Iran to this day holds dual nationals and those with Western ties as bargaining chips for negotiating deals. Cries of...

Iraqi security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters Saturday, killing at least one and wounding more than 200 in the capital Baghdad and in the country’s south, police officials and a semi-official human rights commission said. The largest protest took place in Baghdad, where tens of thousands of people gathered in and near...

The U.S. is deploying dozens more fighter jets and additional air defenses to Saudi Arabia, beefing up efforts to defend the kingdom against Iran even as President Donald Trump repeatedly insists that America must get out of endless Middle East wars. Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced the deployments Friday just hours after Iran said two missiles struck one of its...

Iran’s supreme leader announced on Tuesday that “there will be no talks with the U.S. at any level” — remarks apparently meant to end all speculation about a possible U.S.-Iran meeting between the two countries’ presidents at the U.N. later this month. Iranian state TV quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying this is the position of the entire leadership of...

The U.S. continued to build its case Monday that Iran was behind the fiery weekend attack on key Saudi Arabian oil facilities that raised new war worries and sent energy prices soaring. Three people familiar with the intelligence told NBC News that American intelligence showed that the attack was launched from Iran – an assessment that is likely to escalate...

A weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom’s oil production threatened Sunday to fuel a regional crisis, as the U.S. released new evidence to back up its allegation that Iran was responsible for the assault amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal. President Donald Trump said the U.S. had reason...

The shipping agent for an Iranian supertanker caught in a diplomatic standoff says the vessel is ready to depart Gibraltar on Sunday or Monday, as the U.S. made a last-minute effort to seize it again. The head of the company sorting paperwork and procuring for the Grace 1 oil tanker in the British overseas territory said the vessel could be...

The Trump administration will pursue a free-trade agreement with Britain as soon as possible after it leaves the European Union, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday as the country’s new foreign secretary made his first official visit to the United States. Pompeo also thanked the government of new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for agreeing to join a U.S.-led...

Germany’s foreign minister is ruling out his country’s participation in a proposed U.S.-led mission to protect maritime traffic in the Persian Gulf area. The U.S. recently asked allies to contribute to a mission to secure maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping corridor, in the wake of increased Iranian aggression in the...

Iran’s seizure of a British oil tanker was a response to Britain’s role in impounding an Iranian supertanker first, senior officials said Saturday, as newly released video of the incident showed Iranian commandos in black ski masks and fatigues rappelling from a helicopter onto the vessel in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The seizure prompted condemnation from the U.K. and...

Rather than tangle with a stronger U.S. military, Iran is poking and prodding its Western antagonists in ways apparently designed to avoid triggering war but that nonetheless seem to heighten the risk of missteps and miscalculation that could lead to an armed conflict with global consequences. The tensions picked up Friday with Iran reporting it had seized a British-flagged oil...

The British navy said it prevented three Iranian paramilitary vessels from impeding the passage of a British commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz early Thursday, a day after Iran’s president warned of repercussions for the seizure of its own supertanker. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard denied the allegations, saying if it had received orders to seize any ships it would have...

British soul singer Joss Stone says she was deported from Iran after arriving in the Islamic Republic as part of a worldwide concert tour, even though she didn’t plan to perform there. Posting on Instagram, Stone appears in a video wearing a white headscarf saying: “Well, we got to Iran, we got detained and then we got deported.” She said...

Iran has broken the limit set on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, international inspectors and Tehran said Monday, marking its first major departure from the unraveling agreement a year after the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the accord. The announcement by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and later confirmation by the U.N....

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is reaching out to wary foreign leaders to frame alleged Iranian attacks in a Middle East oil shipping route as a problem for the world at large, especially for Asian countries vitally dependent on that oil. Pompeo, in a series of Sunday television interviews, emphasized the U.S. international outreach in the wake of what the...

Donald Trump’s national security adviser said Wednesday there was “no reason” for Iran to back out of its nuclear deal with world powers other than to seek atomic weapons, a year after the U.S. president unilaterally withdrew America from the accord. John Bolton, long a hawk on Iran, also claimed — without offering evidence — that the alleged sabotage of...

Iraq offered to mediate in the crisis between its two key allies, the United States and Iran, amid escalating Middle East tensions and as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers steadily unravels. Iraqi foreign minister, Mohammed al-Hakim, made the offer Sunday during a joint news conference in Baghdad with visiting Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. “We are trying to help...