Iranian officials on Saturday responded to reports of a possible large-scale US attack with threats to strike Israel and regional energy infrastructure, as public anxiety grows and motorists form long queues at gas stations.

Xi Jinping’s promise to Donald Trump that China would not arm Iran is being tested by Tehran’s alleged pursuit of Chinese MANPADS, relatively cheap weapons that could make future US and Israeli air campaigns more dangerous and expensive.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said authorities rushed to announce Ali Khamenei’s death and call supporters onto the streets after “overseas media” broke the news, fearing the situation on the streets could otherwise “take a completely different turn.”

Iranian security forces took control of a hospital in the western city of Khorramabad during January's nationwide crackdown, according to medical staff, transferring dozens of critically wounded protesters to the morgue instead of receiving further treatment.

An illicit Iranian gambling network helped move at least $4 billion through an unlicensed Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange that also handled funds for sanctioned Iranian institutions, a Reuters investigation found.

A dual British and Azerbaijani national has been arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of carrying out hostile surveillance for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in the first overseas investigation under Britain's National Security Act.