Iran's military

Iran's military has built a wall along more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) of its eastern border with Afghanistan, the main entry point for immigrants, local media reported on Monday.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Feb. 2 that his country will not start a war, but it will "respond strongly" to anyone who bullies it amid remarks by U.S. officials on attack plans on Iranian sites in the Middle East.

Iranian protesters and newspapers piled pressure on the country's leadership and riot police stepped up their presence in Tehran on Jan. 12 after Iran's military admitted that it had mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner.

Washington's ambassador to the United Nations warned Sept. 5 that, if left unchanged, the Iran nuclear deal could allow Tehran to pose the same kind of missile threat to U.S. cities as North Korea.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis will visit Turkey in the coming days, Turkish Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın stated on Aug. 17. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 5 again denounced the agreement between Tehran and world powers as a "bad deal" that will strengthen Iran's military and leave it with a large nuclear infrastructure.