The move echoes both Egypt, which is in the process of building a new capital city, and the lightning fall of Damascus in Syria.

Switzerland has demanded more information from Iranian authorities after a Swiss citizen was arrested in the country and died in prison, the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) said on Friday.

A Swiss national who was arrested and accused of spying in Iran died by suicide in prison on Thursday, according to Mizan Online, a news agency affiliated with Iran’s judiciary.

Iran's once-youthful population is aging fast, fuelling economic fears as cash-strapped couples resist a government push for more children.Driven by rising life expectancy and dramatically declining birth rates,

An Iranian government spokesperson announced that the country is moving its capital city to the south by the coast, inciting both support and backlash.

According to local reports, prison officials stepped in to rescue the Swiss national at the Semnan prison, some 180 kilometres (110 miles) east of Tehran. But their efforts were in vain.View on eurone

Iran is reeling from a cratering economy and stinging military setbacks across its sphere of influence in the Middle East. Its bad times are likely to get worse once President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House with his policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran.

Last year was one to forget for Iran as the country’s clerical establishment suffered a series of setbacks at home and abroad. Analysts say without major shifts in policy, the new year will only worsen matters for a vulnerable Iran.

For weeks, Iranian officials have downplayed the fall of their ally in Syria. But an important general has offered a remarkably candid view of the blow to Iran, and its military’s prospects.

Exclusive: Trump’s former secretary of state and foreign policy chief told an Iranian pro-democracy conference in Paris that the change of administration in Washington will mark an end to the current

The withdrawal marks the demise of a yearslong effort in which Tehran used Syria as a hub in its regional strategy to spread influence and wage proxy war against the U.S. and Israel.

Weeks before Trump's inauguration, Iran is preparing for potential threats to its nuclear facilities – and for the possible domestic reaction.