Iran will remain closed to US influence and continue to oppose US policies in the Middle East after its nuclear deal with big powers, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday, noting either country can still block the accord.

It is hard to picture Iran’s nuclear talks with world powers without the beaming face of foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who, in reaching a deal, has shown the power of what Iranians call ‘smile diplomacy’.

Iran’s supreme leader has criticised the film American Sniper, saying the movie about a US soldier fighting in Iraq encourages violence against Muslims, a state-run newspaper has reported.

Six Iranians arrested for appearing in a video singing along to Pharrell Williams’ hit song Happy were given suspended sentences of 91 lashes and six months in prison for obscene behaviour, a news website quoted their lawyer as saying.

A regional passenger plane has crashed while taking off from the Iranian capital Tehran, killing 39 people and leaving another nine injured.

An Iranian passenger plane has crashed while taking off from an airport near the capital Tehran, killing 48 people on board.

A deal on Iran’s nuclear programme would legitimise its regional influence in a way that’s not occurred in decades, says Mai Yamani.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Along with his grip on Iran’s politics and its military, the Reuters investigation into Setad shows there is a third dimension to his power: economic might.

The polls have opened in the election that will decide a successor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran’s supreme leader has strongly rejected proposals for direct talks with United States on its nuclear programme and other issues.

Hard-line Iranian students stormed the British Embassy in Tehran today, tearing down the Union flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Tunisian police have arrested dozens of Islamist demonstrators set on attacking the offices of a television channel that had shown the award-winning film 'Persepolis', officials said.

Israel said Iran’s decision to send two navy ships through the Suez Canal today was part of a campaign to gain spreading influence over the Middle East.

Two Iranian naval ships entered the Suez Canal today, the first time in 30 years that Tehran has sent military ships through the strategic waterway.

Clashes between Iranian police and tens of thousands of protesters wracked central Tehran today killing one person, as opposition supporters tried to evoke the spirit of Egypt's popular uprising.

Iran flooded Tehran with police and militia today to crush any pro-Egypt marches it feared could turn into anti-government demonstrations.

Investigators today found the black box from a passenger jet which crashed while trying to make an emergency landing in a snowstorm in north-western Iran, killing at least 77 people.

The crew of an IranAir jet which crashed in a snowstorm, killing up to as 77 people, reported a technical failure before the disaster, it emerged today.

The son of an Iranian woman whose death sentence by stoning caused world outrage has been released on bail.

An Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery confesses to helping a man kill her husband in a re-enactment on state television – the latest state-orchestrated broadcast in a case that has raised an international outcry.

AN Iranian woman whose sentence of execution by stoning for adultery provoked a worldwide outcry will instead be hanged for murder today, a human rights group said.

Eighteen members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were killed in an explosion at an ammunition depot at a military base in western Iran.

IRANIAN authorities have suspended the sentence of death by stoning for a woman convicted of adultery, the foreign ministry said yesterday, after weeks of condemnation from around the world.

IN his first State of the Union address to the European parliament, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso yesterday spoke for the great, great majority of Europeans when he described the sentence imposed on an Iranian woman convicted of adultery as “barbaric beyond words”.

Iran will not send a woman who had faced death by stoning on an adultery conviction to Brazil, which has offered her asylum, the president said.

The lawyer of a woman at the centre of an international outcry after she was sentenced to death by stoning in Iran is in Turkey and has the option of applying for asylum, the UN’s refugee agency said today.

THE lawyer for an Iranian widow sentenced to be stoned to death for an adultery conviction expressed cautious optimism over the weekend after Iran said it will review the decision, which has drawn international condemnation.

Three American hikers jailed in Iran met their families today in an emotional reunion for the first time since their arrest 10 months ago.

Iran’s supreme leader sharply denounced the US, accusing it of plotting to overthrow its clerical leadership, in a frosty response to an overture by President Barack Obama for better cultural ties with Iran.

In a fresh appeal directly to the Iranian people, US President Barack Obama said in an online video that the US wants more educational and cultural exchanges for their students and better access to the internet to give them a more hopeful future.

Iran’s president marked the anniversary of the nation’s foundation as an Islamic republic today by declaring it is now a “nuclear state”.

Hundreds of thousands of pro-government demonstrators gathered in the central square of Tehran today to mark the 31st anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

Iranian security forces stormed a series of opposition offices today, rounding up at least seven prominent anti-government activists in a new crackdown against the country’s reformist movement, opposition websites and activists reported.

TENS of thousands of mourners turned the funeral of Iran’s leading dissident cleric into an anti-government protest yesterday.

Tens of thousands of mourners turned the funeral of Iran’s leading dissident cleric into an anti-government protest today.

Tens of thousands of mourners joined the funeral procession for Iran’s most senior dissident cleric today.

The family of Iran’s most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, say he has died at the age of 87.

GOVERNMENT supporters rallied across Iran yesterday to protest against an opposition “insult” to the Islamic Republic’s revered founder, with some calling for pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to be executed.

Thousands of riot police and Revolutionary Guard members armed with tear gas, batons and firearms were deployed outside Tehran University today to prevent student demonstrations backed by the opposition.

Iran faced more world condemnation today after parliament backed the Cabinet appointment of a man wanted for the bombing of a Jewish centre in Argentina.

Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament approved most of President Mahmoud Ahamedinejad’s choices for key Cabinet posts today, including endorsing the defence minister nominee who is wanted by Argentina for a deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural centre.

IRAN expanded its mass trial of opposition supporters yesterday, adding 25 more defendants – including a Jewish teenager – who are accused of involvement in unrest over the disputed presidential election.

Iran expanded its mass trial of opposition supporters today, adding 25 more defendants, including a Jewish teenager, who are accused of involvement in unrest over the disputed presidential election.

IRAN’s police chief acknowledged yesterday that detained protesters were abused in prison and the country’s top prosecutor said those responsible for the mistreatment should be punished, in unusually pointed criticism of security officials.