The Revolutionary Guards can take their fight beyond Iran’s borders, says Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, responding to the US killing of a top general and to unrest at home over the accidental downing of an airliner.

Iranian protesters and newspapers pile pressure on the country’s leadership and riot police step up their presence in Tehran after Iran’s military admitted that it had mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner.

Herewith are some of the remarks made by top leaders in response to the Iranian statement on its responsibility for the crash.

Iran’s message was clear with its missile strikes on US bases in Iraq. This would be their only response, and that they would now wait and see what the US would do. US President Trump made the final decision that the US response would be sanctions, signalling to advisers that the threat of escalation was off the table.

Pope Francis urges the United States and Iran to avoid escalation and pursue “dialogue and self-restraint” to avert a wider conflict in the Middle East.

Iran has developed “asymmetrical” responses - ballistic missiles, deadly drones and a web of militia allies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, among other things - with the aim of being able to inflict pain while avoiding the traditional battlefield.

Oil prices rise over 1% on Monday, pushing Brent above $70 a barrel, as rhetoric from the United States, Iran and Iraq fanned tensions in the Middle East after a US air strike which killed a top Iranian military commander.

Iran's ancient and rich cultural landscape becomes a potential US military target as Washington and Tehran lob threats and take high-stakes steps toward a possible open conflict.

Pope Francis calls for dialogue and restraint two days after the killing of a top Iranian military commander by the United States.

John Bolton's departure from the White House removes an obstacle to the possibility of US-Iranian nuclear talks, but the odds of such a dialogue leading anywhere remain low, current and former US officials say.

The United States applies to seize an Iranian tanker in Gibraltar, halting its expected release at the last minute and preventing a possible swap for British-flagged tanker held by Iran.

Gibraltar police have said that all four crew members of the Iranian Grace 1 tanker have been released on bail without charge after it was detained last week on suspicion of breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria.

US President Donald Trump threatens to obliterate parts of Iran if it attacked "anything American," in a new war of words with Iran which condemned fresh US sanctions on Tehran as "mentally retarded."

US President Donald Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for the downing of an unmanned $130-million surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching the attacks, the New York Times reports.

Two "flying objects" damaged a Japanese tanker in a suspected attack in the Gulf of Oman, but there was no damage to the cargo of methanol, the president of the shipping company has said.

The United States has blamed Iran for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday that drove up oil prices and raised concerns about a new US-Iranian confrontation, but Tehran has bluntly denied the allegation.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has warned of unintended clashes in the crisis-hit Middle East after meeting the Iranian president in Tehran, amid a brewing confrontation between Iran and the United States.

China's senior diplomat Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that recent US words and actions had harmed the interests of China and its enterprises, and that Washington should show restraint, China's foreign ministry has said.

US President Donald Trump tells his top advisers that he does not want to get the United States involved in a war with Iran.

US President Donald Trump urges Iran's leadership to sit down and talk with him about giving up Tehran’s nuclear programme and says he cannot rule out a military confrontation given the heightened tensions between the two countries.