Iran’s missile diplomacy
It’s a time for delivering messages in the Middle East, where messages rarely come without their near constant attendant: violence.…
The toxic side-effect of the Trump Twitter ban
Almost two weeks on from the storming of the US Capitol it’s becoming plainer that the most substantive changes to…
Iran's people will pay a heavy price for Khamenei's vaccine politics
The Middle East is changing. Israelis now splurge at Gucci and Rolex in Dubai. Saudi women speed down desert highways;…
John le Carré’s London of exiles is alive and well
‘I’m an Englishman born and bred, almost.’ So says Karim Amir, protagonist of Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of…
Why Egypt's brutal regime is cracking down on critics
History is accelerating in the Middle East once more. Nuclear scientists are dying in Iran; and again, in Egypt, the…
Why Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed now
Yesterday afternoon someone assassinated yet another scientist working on Iran’s nuclear programme. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh headed up the ministry of defence’s…
Can dynastic restoration revive Lebanese fortunes?
Once more Lebanon is in crisis, and once more its leaders turn to what they most understand to solve things:…
Iran's embargo imbroglio
If 2020 is generally accepted to be a global annus horribilis, then it is perhaps fitting that the Islamic Republic…
Je Suis Charlie and the legacy of jihadism
‘You have insulted the prophet – we are al-Qaida Yemen.’ These words, terrifying yet clichéd, were spat at a female…
Did Erdogan order his generals to sink a Greek warship?
Could war finally be coming to the eastern Mediterranean? It’s not as excitable a question as it might first appear.…
An assassination verdict divides Lebanon
Almost a decade ago, I went to Lebanon to investigate who had killed its Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. It was…
Will health trump freedom in our post-coronavirus world?
Bernard Henri Levy’s latest book, The Virus in the Age of Madness, contains a striking quote from Rudolf Virchow, the 19thcentury…
The Israel-UAE peace deal was made in Iran
The last time I was in Israel people were preparing for the worst. ‘This crazy bastard is going to annex…
Lebanon’s existential crisis
It had to happen. On Monday evening, just under a week after 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a…
No bread, no heat, no hope: Life in Lebanon after the Beirut blast
Once again, crisis comes to Lebanon. Once again, people are dying young in the Middle East. Last night an explosion…
Erdogan, Hagia Sophia and the rebirth of an Islamic Turkey
Here in Greece the temperature is rising. As July rolls on, the heat thickens: people become irritable in 40 degrees.…
Iran's second wave could come crashing down on the regime
If Iran has performed one role in the time of coronavirus it’s been as a harbinger of things to come.…
Extremists are going to thrive in the post-lockdown world
Throughout the lockdown I’ve been nagged by a persistent thought. As I sit indoors and read the news; as I…
Coronavirus has exposed Iran's rotten republic
If coronavirus has taught us anything it’s that if you really want to understand something of a state’s essential character,…
Kim Jong-un: dead or alive?
Yet again the news from Pyongyang is both disconcerting and vague. Yet again North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is rumoured…
Could the Covid crash spark another Arab Spring?
They said we were going to uncouple from the Middle East. Barack Obama, they said, was going to pivot to…
A simple way for Keir Starmer to help Labour reject Corbynism
It’s over then. After almost five years, Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as Labour leader has come to a close. Corbyn ended…
Jews have always been blamed for plagues - coronavirus is no different
History has not usually been kind to the Jews. But even by its low and morbid standards, the 14th century…
Beware China's masked diplomacy
‘How do you deal toughly with your banker?’ This was the not quite rhetorical question that Hillary Clinton asked Australia’s…
Corona confusion is being ruthlessly weaponised
Few words have as great a hold on the contemporary imagination as ‘disinformation.’ Few words are as ubiquitous in contemporary…
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