It's Stokes' fifth club in two years.

We are confronted by a US presidential second-term election cycle. We all must contend too with various interests. Do we have in play a version of ‘operation boot’? The 1952 US/UK regime-change operation in Iran. And do people regionally also view the late, recently murdered Major General Qasem Soleimani as an Iranian Che Quevara? Would Iran’s supreme Ayatollah be viewed as an Iranian Fidel Castro? How annoying for a rightist US administration: a Cuba in the Middle East. How much more death and devastation will flow out of our fossil-fuel dependency and the military powers of the main players, the chief one being the US?

Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was shot down “unintentionally” by Iran on Wednesday shortly aftertake-off.

Over the years, I have perfected the povhol — the poverty holiday, or travel on a shoestring.

Iran has admitted its military accidentally shot down the Ukrainian passenger plane amid heightened tensions with the United States over the killing of senior Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.

There must — mustn’t there? — have been someone in the room who asked questions when the US president, Donald Trump, and his advisors met to discuss the proposal to kill Iran’s General Qassem Soleimani.

There is hardly a more politically-charged fulcrum of international affairs in the world than the Straits of Hormuz in the Middle East.

After US President Donald Trump walked away from the Iranian nuclear deal, which closed the door on diplomacy, his administration’s pretext of freeing Iranians from authoritarianism is similar in tone to previous US war propaganda in this region.

For a politician who once declared as a child that he would like to be ‘king of the world’,the leadership of his country may have to suffice, writes David Hughes.

Opec agreed to extend oil supply cuts until March 2020, three sources said, as the group’s members overcame their differences in order to prop up the price of crude amid a weakening global economy and soaring US production.

Whether four oil tankers in the Gulf were attacked by Iran or whether the incident was orchestrated by the US, both should desist for the sake of peace, says John Andrews.

Oil soared more than 5% higher yesterday after Iran shot down a US military drone, raising fears of a military confrontation between Tehran and Washington.

Iran is set to break the uranium stockpile limit set by Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in the next 10 days, the country's atomic agency said.

In a midsummer week that may culminate when — if — the sinister buffoon Boris Johnson becomes the 14th British prime minister of Queen Elizabeth’s near seven-decade reign, it is not hard to argue that politics have failed.

As well as internal pressures, Iran’s leaders have faced significant anti-government activity from ethnic minority groups, but have failed to engage, writes Brenda Shaffer.

Ireland international Anthony Stokes has joined Iranian side Tractor Sazi.

Iran feels under attack. Its efforts to reach out to the US are slapped down, the time between reach and slap a measure only of the degree of duplicity, says Peter Van Buren.

Iranian search and rescue teams have reached the site of a plane crash which authorities say killed all 65 people on board, according to reports.

A spokesman for Aseman Airlines has told state TV that the plane crash in southern Iran has killed all 66 people on board.

Social media postings have shown at least five women in Iran protesting against the obligatory Muslim headscarf by taking theirs off and waving them on sticks.

Despite their difference Iran and Russia are both becoming big players in the Middle

An Iranian oil tanker collided with a bulk freighter and caught fire off China’s eastern coast, leaving its entire crew of 32 missing and causing the tanker to spill oil into the sea, authorities said today.

A UN Security Council emergency meeting on the protests in Iran showed Tehran "the world will be watching" its actions, the US ambassador has said.

Iran's Supreme Leader has accused his country's enemies of meddling in recent protest rallies, as the reported death toll reached 20.

From spectacular fireworks in Hong Kong and Australia to a huge LED light show at the world's tallest building in Dubai, here is a look at how revellers around the world have welcomed in 2018:

Iran's president Hassan Rouhani has said people are free to protest in his first comments since widespread demonstrations against the government began.

A wave of spontaneous protests over Iran’s weak economy have swept into Tehran, with students and others chanting against the government just hours after hard-liners held their own rally in support of the clerical establishment.

Police in Iran's capital Tehran have said they will no longer arrest women for failing to observe the Islamic dress code in place since the 1979 revolution.

Police have detained 230 boys and girls at separate parties in the Iranian capital Tehran in which alcohol was involved, according to reports.

French president Emmanuel Macron is using instability in the Middle East to cast himself in the role of honest broker and position France as Europe’s top player, says Maysam Behravesh.

A British mother jailed in Iran has spoken from prison in Tehran to thank those campaigning for her release.

Boris Johnson is to meet the husband of jailed British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of her being offered "diplomatic protection" as part of Government efforts to secure her return from Iran.

Shay Given is Ireland’s all-time longest serving player, having played from 1996 to 2016, as he amassed 134 caps. His last competitive game saw him carried off injured in the famous 1-0 win over Germany. Now 41, he’s a free agent.

Former Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy has revealed that the memory of guiding the country to the World Cup finals still burns as brightly as the fires that illuminated the night sky in Tehran following their triumph in Iran.

IN disavowing the hard-won 2015 Iran nuclear deal, US president Donald Trump has just made the world more dangerous for this and future generations, angering both friends and foes in the process.

Donald Trump’s blistering attack on the Iran nuclear deal has emboldened extremists in the Middle Eastern country, writes Abbas Milani.

US president Donald Trump blamed the Obama administration for lifting sanctions just as Iran's government was facing "total collapse".

An Irish woman has won a London divorce court fight with her wealthy estranged Iranian husband.

If the US president scuppers the nuclear deal, Iran, a proud, resource-rich nation, which also has a large uranium stockpile, will not capitulate, says Seyed Hossein Mousavian.

Authorities in Iran have arrested a leader of the Islamic State extremist group, according to local reports.

Almost 500 people suffered respiratory and other symptoms after a chlorine gas leak in southern Iran.

US President Donald Trump has signed a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia, conceding under pressure from his own party that a warmer relationship with Moscow was not in the country's best interests.