About Nour News

Nour News

Nour News is an Iranian state-linked news agency based in Tehran, publishing at nournews.ir. Founded in 2019, it is affiliated with Iran's Supreme National Security Council, the country's top security decision-making body, and it publishes in Persian, Arabic, English and Hebrew. In a media system crowded with agency voices attached to different institutions and factions, Nour News occupies a specific niche: it is widely read by foreign governments, journalists and analysts as a channel through which Iran's security establishment signals its positions, sometimes in advance of official announcements. The BBC's media guide lists it among Iran's state-linked agencies, and the Wall Street Journal's 2026 guide to Iran's state-linked news agencies identifies it as the outlet linked to the Supreme National Security Council.

Founding and ownership

Nour News was founded in 2019, making it one of the youngest of Iran's significant news agencies. Its Persian name, نورنیوز, means "light news". The outlet is owned by the Salek Noor Cultural and Artistic Institute, a cultural body whose name it carries in a longer form. Its managing director is the journalist Maryam Salimi, and in July 2024 the appointment of Katayoun Lamezadeh as its editor was reported by the Tabnak news site. The agency's formal ownership through a cultural and artistic institute is typical of Iranian media structures, in which outlets are held by foundations, institutes or companies connected to the institutions they serve, rather than being directly branded as government organs. What distinguishes Nour News is the institution behind it: not a ministry or a university, but the secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council itself.

The Supreme National Security Council connection

The Supreme National Security Council is the body charged with safeguarding Iran's national interests and coordinating its defence and security policy, bringing together the country's senior political, military and intelligence leadership. An affiliated news agency gives that body something it historically lacked: a public voice. Iran International, the Persian-language broadcaster based abroad, described Nour News during the tenure of council secretary Ali Shamkhani as an outlet that "usually reflected" his views, an assessment it applied in June 2022 when Nour News reporting suggested Qatar was the most likely venue for talks between Tehran and Washington. Analysts who follow the outlet treat its analytical pieces as semi-official texts: commentary published by Nour News on subjects such as Gulf security, the United States' regional posture or Iran's negotiating positions is read as representing, or at minimum as cleared by, the security establishment rather than as independent journalism. That reading is precisely what gives the agency its influence beyond its domestic audience.

Languages and the Hebrew service

Nour News publishes in multiple languages, including Persian, Arabic, English and Hebrew. The launch of its Hebrew section was reported by IranWire in March 2022, a notable step for an Iranian state-linked outlet: a Hebrew service is not aimed at readers inside Iran but at audiences in Israel and at the analysts who monitor Iranian messaging directed at Israel. The multilingual structure mirrors the agency's function. The Persian service addresses the domestic audience and the Iranian political class; the Arabic service speaks to the Arab world, where Iran's regional role is most contested; the English service addresses Western governments and media; and the Hebrew service addresses Iran's principal regional adversary directly. Few Iranian agencies maintain a comparable language portfolio, and none of the others is attached to the national security secretariat.

Signalling role in diplomacy and security

Nour News is at its most consequential when it publishes information or framing ahead of formal announcements. Its reports have been treated by other media as authoritative on security decisions: when Iran's Supreme National Security Council approved the formation of a new national defence council in August 2025, presided over by President Masoud Pezeshkian and comprising the heads of the three branches of government, armed forces commanders and certain ministries, it was the SNSC-affiliated Nour News that reported the decision, in coverage carried internationally by news agencies. The agency also performs a denial and rebuttal function. In September 2022, for example, Nour News rejected a report by the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper claiming that Russia had asked Iran to withdraw its forces from parts of Syria after Israeli air strikes, calling the report false, saying the strikes had been exaggerated, and stating that strategic cooperation among Iran, Russia and Syria against terrorism in the Levant would continue. Press TV's account of that episode identified Nour News explicitly as affiliated with the Supreme National Security Council, underlining the weight its rebuttals are intended to carry.

Voice in negotiations and crisis coverage

Nour News is frequently the first Iranian outlet through which positions on negotiations become public. In June 2022, when Iran International reported that Tehran had suggested Qatar as the most likely venue for talks with Washington, the assessment rested on Nour News, which the broadcaster identified as the security council's outlet that usually reflected the views of its secretary, Ali Shamkhani. The agency also uses social media to prepare the ground for official moves: ahead of the August 2025 defence council announcement, Nour News posted on the platform X that, following structural reforms, the likelihood had increased of imminent changes at the level of certain high-ranking security institutions. During later crises its analytical output has been tracked by monitoring services as a guide to official thinking, as when it raised the possibility of an "October surprise" by Israel ahead of elections, arguing that military signals had increased the risk of war even while political channels remained open. This pattern, trial positions floated, decisions reported first and adversaries' claims rebutted, is the practical substance of the agency's reputation as the security council's public voice.

Editorial line and analytical output

Beyond straight news reports, Nour News publishes analytical articles that set out the security establishment's reading of regional events. Its analyses characteristically present Iran as the indispensable arbiter of Gulf security, treat cooperation between Arab states and the United States as misguided, and frame American and Israeli actions as strategic failures. Commentators who cite this material caution that it should not be treated as independent journalism: as one analytical summary put it, Nour News operates under the Supreme National Security Council and its analyses represent official or semi-official state positions published with the strategic communication objectives of the Iranian state. The agency's willingness to publish detailed doctrinal argument, including pieces setting out Iran's approach to maritime pressure and asymmetric warfare, is itself a form of signalling, publicising the architecture of Iranian strategy to audiences the establishment wishes to deter or influence.

Scrutiny and fact-checking attention

Because of its institutional role, Nour News attracts scrutiny from those who monitor Iranian state messaging. The Persian fact-checking site Factnameh published a profile of the outlet in April 2023, examining what it is and whom it speaks for. The BBC's Iran media guide, updated in July 2024, includes it in its mapping of the country's state-linked media, and the Wall Street Journal's April 2026 guide to Iran's state-linked news agencies, written by Saleh al-Batati, likewise catalogues it as the security council's outlet. This attention from fact-checkers and media guides reflects the agency's dual character: domestically it functions as a news service, while internationally it functions as a document of record for the positions of Iran's highest security body, quoted by wire services and newspapers that attribute its statements to the council's orbit.

Position among Iran's state-linked agencies

Iran's agency landscape maps closely onto its institutional landscape. IRNA is the official agency of the government; Fars is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; Tasnim is likewise associated with the security establishment; Mehr belongs to the Islamic Development Organization; ISNA began as a student agency. Nour News, arriving only in 2019, filled the remaining major gap in that map by giving the Supreme National Security Council a dedicated voice at a time when questions of war, negotiation and regional deterrence dominated Iranian politics. Its reports are routinely cited by international media with the formula "the SNSC-affiliated Nour News reported", a form of attribution that confirms the role the agency was created to play. Young by the standards of Iranian media, it has become one of the most closely watched Iranian outlets among the foreign analysts, diplomats and journalists who track Tehran's security thinking.