Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

An Iraq fan poses before the World Cup 2022 Qualifier 2nd round Group C football match between Iraq and Iran at Amman International Stadium in Amman, Jordan on November 14, 2019. (Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)

The Plants like flower grow up in the wild. Spring 2014 near Paveh, Kermanshah, Iran

Samy Rose Moshiri, an Iranian American artist and activist, covers the mouth of Belarusian activist Yadviga Krasovskaya after dousing themselves in fake blood on stage at a Freedom Rally for Iran, in support of Iranian women and against the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, outside City Hall in Los Angeles, California, U.S., October 1, 2022. (Photo by Bing Guan/Reuters)

A young Iraqi shepherdess cools down buffaloes in wastewater filling the dried-up Diyala river which was a tributary of the Tigris, in the Al-Fadiliyah district east of Baghdad, on June 26, 2022. Iraq's drought reflects a decline in the level of waterways due to the lack of rain and lower flows from upstream neighboring countries Iran and Turkey. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

Night lovers; Hormozgan province, Iran. “In this picture, you can see the Milky Way rising on a fascinating spring night on the Persian Gulf coast. The stunning cliffs of this area make every viewer imagine and even talk to them! The light pollution from a faraway city was quite strong, so it was a challenging post-processing process. I’m a nightscaper who tries to achieve an artistic look in my images, and in this image, I tried to convey and capture the magic of this location”. (Photo by Mohammad Hayati/Milky Way Photographer of the Year)

A Hezbollah supporter fires a rocket-propelled grenade in the air to celebrate the arrival of Iranian fuel tankers to Lebanon, in the eastern town of Baalbek, Lebanon, Thursday, September 16, 2021. The delivery violates US sanctions imposed on Tehran after former President Donald Trump pulled America out of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers three years ago. (Photo by Bilal Hussein/AP Photo)

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during his visit to a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Otay Mesa, California, U.S. September 18, 2019. Trump threatened to do “dastardly things” to Iran in response to the drone attacks on the world’s largest oil plant in Saudi Arabia. The US President indicated he is wary of involving America in another war in the Middle East – but he did not rule out a military attack. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Reuters)