Iran Players Sing National Anthem at World Cup Match

Iran's teammates sing the national anthem prior to the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group B football match between Wales and Iran at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al-Rayyan, west of Doha on November 25, 2022. (AFP)
Iran's teammates sing the national anthem prior to the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group B football match between Wales and Iran at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al-Rayyan, west of Doha on November 25, 2022. (AFP)
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Iran Players Sing National Anthem at World Cup Match

Iran's teammates sing the national anthem prior to the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group B football match between Wales and Iran at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al-Rayyan, west of Doha on November 25, 2022. (AFP)
Iran's teammates sing the national anthem prior to the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group B football match between Wales and Iran at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al-Rayyan, west of Doha on November 25, 2022. (AFP)

Iran's national football team sang during the playing of their national anthem at their second World Cup match against Wales on Friday having refrained from doing so in their opening game earlier this week in apparent support of protesters back home.

Loud jeers were heard from Iranian supporters as the anthem played, with the team singing quietly as it played.

Iranian authorities have responded with deadly force to suppress protests that have marked one of the boldest challenges to its clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution.

Inside the stadium ahead of the match, a number of supporters had shown support for the protests.

A woman with dark red tears painted from her eyes held aloft a football jersey with "Mahsa Amini - 22" printed on the back - a reference to the 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman whose death while in the custody of morality police two months ago ignited the nationwide protests, a Reuters photo showed.

A man standing next to her held a shirt printed with the words "WOMEN, LIFE, FREEDOM", one of the main chants of the protests.

Ahead of the World Cup, protesters had taken heart from apparent shows of support from a number of Iran's national teams which refrained from singing the national anthem, such as the basketball team.

Team Melli, as the soccer team is known, have traditionally been a huge source of national pride in Iran, but they have found themselves caught up in politics in the World Cup run-up, with anticipation over whether they would use soccer's showpiece event as a platform to get behind the protesters.

Asked on Thursday about the unrest at home Iran national team striker Mehdi Taremi said they were in Qatar to play football. "We are not under pressure," he added after players refused to sing the national anthem in their first match at the World Cup against England.

Before travelling to Doha, the team met with hardline Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Photos of the players with Raisi, one of them bowing in front of him, went viral and prompted an outcry on social media.



Iranian Students Protest in Tehran and Isfahan, Says Local Media

Shopkeepers and traders walk over a bridge during a protest against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)
Shopkeepers and traders walk over a bridge during a protest against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)
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Iranian Students Protest in Tehran and Isfahan, Says Local Media

Shopkeepers and traders walk over a bridge during a protest against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)
Shopkeepers and traders walk over a bridge during a protest against the economic conditions and Iran's embattled currency in Tehran on December 29, 2025. (Handout / Fars News Agency / AFP)

Student protests erupted on Tuesday at universities in the capital Tehran and the central city of Isfahan, decrying declining living standards following demonstrations by shopkeepers, local media reported.

"Demonstrations took place in Tehran at the universities of Beheshti, Khajeh Nasir, Sharif, Amir Kabir, Science and Culture, and Science and Technology, as well as the Isfahan University of Technology," reported Ilna, a news agency affiliated with the labor movement.


Iran Designates Royal Canadian Navy a Terrorist Organization

Iranians drive past a huge banner of former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani ahead of the sixth anniversary of his assassination at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 30 December 2025. (EPA)
Iranians drive past a huge banner of former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani ahead of the sixth anniversary of his assassination at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 30 December 2025. (EPA)
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Iran Designates Royal Canadian Navy a Terrorist Organization

Iranians drive past a huge banner of former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani ahead of the sixth anniversary of his assassination at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 30 December 2025. (EPA)
Iranians drive past a huge banner of former Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani ahead of the sixth anniversary of his assassination at Valiasr Square in Tehran, Iran, 30 December 2025. (EPA)

The Iranian foreign ministry designated the Royal Canadian Navy a terrorist organization on Tuesday in what it said was retaliation for Canada's 2024 blacklisting of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

In a statement, the ministry said that the move was in reaction to Ottawa declaring the Guards, the ideological arm of Iran's military, a terror group "contrary to the fundamental principles of international law".

Iran "within the framework of reciprocity, identifies and declares the Royal Canadian Navy as a terrorist organization," the statement added, without specifying what ramifications if any the force will face.

On June 19, 2024, Canada declared the IRGC a terror group. This bars its members from entering the country and Canadians from having any dealings with individual members or the group.

Additionally, any assets the Guards or its members hold in Canada could also be seized.
Canada accused the Guards of "having consistently displayed disregard for human rights both inside and outside of Iran, as well as a willingness to destabilize the international rules-based order."

One of the reasons behind Ottawa's decision to designate the force as a terror group was the Flight PS752 incident.

The flight was show down shortly after takeoff from Tehran in January 2020, killing all 176 passengers and crew, including 85 Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

The IRGC admitted its forces downed the jet, but claimed their controllers had mistaken it for a hostile target.

Ottawa broke off diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2012, calling Iran "the most significant threat to global peace".

Iran's archenemy, the United States, listed the Guards as a foreign terrorist organization in April 2019 while Australia did the same last month, accusing the force of being behind attacks on Australian soil.


Kyiv: Russia Shows No Proof of Alleged Drone Attack on Putin Home

A satellite image of Vladimir Putin's residential complex in Roshchino, Novgorod region, Russia, on August 31, 2023. 2025 Planet Labs PBC, via Reuters (archive)
A satellite image of Vladimir Putin's residential complex in Roshchino, Novgorod region, Russia, on August 31, 2023. 2025 Planet Labs PBC, via Reuters (archive)
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Kyiv: Russia Shows No Proof of Alleged Drone Attack on Putin Home

A satellite image of Vladimir Putin's residential complex in Roshchino, Novgorod region, Russia, on August 31, 2023. 2025 Planet Labs PBC, via Reuters (archive)
A satellite image of Vladimir Putin's residential complex in Roshchino, Novgorod region, Russia, on August 31, 2023. 2025 Planet Labs PBC, via Reuters (archive)

Russia has given no "plausible evidence" for its claim that Ukraine launched a large-scale drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin's homes, Ukraine said Tuesday.

"Almost a day passed and Russia still hasn't provided any plausible evidence to its accusations of Ukraine's alleged 'attack on Putin's residence. And they won't. Because there's none. No such attack happened," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said in a post on X.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists in a call: "I don't think there should be any evidence if such a massive drone attack is being carried out, which, thanks to the well-coordinated work of the air defense system, was shot down”.

Peskov also said Russia would "toughen" its negotiating stance in talks on ending the Ukraine war following the alleged attack, which Kyiv denies.