Israel has weakened Iran – but not destroyed it
With the ceasefire between Iran and Israel so far holding, a preliminary assessment of the 12-day campaign is now possible. Jerusalem…
Iran is isolated against the US and Israel
America’s entry into the war against Iran is the latest step up an escalation spiral that began in October 2023. What…
Only regime change will solve the problem of Iran
The Middle East currently stands at a crossroads. The future geopolitical balance and perhaps also the historical direction of the…
Iran is too weak to wage a ground war against Israel
As Israel advances its surgical reduction of Iran’s nuclear facilities and senior command, and Iran continues to launch missiles randomly…
Israel’s war with Iran is only getting started
With the launch of Operation ‘Rising Lion’, Israel appears to have sought to take advantage of a narrow window of…
Why Hamas won’t accept Witkoff’s Gaza ceasefire offer
US Envoy Steve Witkoff finally received an answer to his latest proposal for a ceasefire and hostage exchange in Gaza…
Iran is playing for time in the US nuclear talks
Over the weekend, the US and Iran held opening talks in Oman on Teheran’s nuclear programme. With the first round…
No one should be surprised about the Syrian massacres
Shock and outrage are appropriate, but no one really has an excuse for being surprised at the dreadful scenes that…
What is Israel’s plan for Syria?
Israeli leaders recently made clear that the IDF’s current military deployment into south-west Syria is not intended as a stop-gap…
Isis is filling the vacuum in Syria
‘Isis is taking huge advantage of the current situation in Syria,’ Ilham Ahmed told me, when we met in the…
The case for ending the Israel-Hamas ceasefire
The question now facing Israel is this: will the war in Gaza recommence? The ceasefire agreement was signed less than a…
Trump has exposed the hypocrisy of Gaza’s allies
US President Donald Trump has reiterated his call for Egypt and Jordan to accept residents of Gaza into their territory,…
Syria feels close to a zone of anarchy
Travelling from Syria’s Highway 42, which runs from Tabqa to the city of Homs, you can see the corpse of…
Hamas has exploited Israel’s weaknesses
When Hamas launched its war on Israel in October, 2023, it did so on the basis of a clear analysis…
We all knew Syria was hell
The liberation of Syria’s notorious Sednaya jail close to Damascus a week ago has resulted in a wave of belated…
What al-Jolani’s past can reveal about Syria’s future
In late February 2012 I was travelling through Syria’s Idleb province. I stayed for a few days in a town…
How Assad fell
The astonishing and abrupt fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus is a moment of historic importance for the Middle…
Success for Syria’s rebels is far from guaranteed
Syrian Sunni Islamist fighters are continuing to consolidate their gains in Syria’s Aleppo province. Almost the entirety of Aleppo city,…
A ceasefire deal won’t finish off Hezbollah
Nothing is yet confirmed, but it appears that a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah is imminent. The fighting, which…
The long roots of Iran’s hatred for the Jewish state
As the dust settles on the latest confrontation between Israel and Iran in the Middle East, the nature of the…
Israel won’t be distracted by ceasefire talks
Two senior US officials are in the Middle East this week, with the joint mission of negotiating an end to…
How Yahya Sinwar rose and fell
The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is a key milestone for Israel in its ongoing, grinding effort to destroy…
Where does Lebanon go from here?
Israel’s overt ground intervention into Lebanon is now entering its third week. So far, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have…
Was Hamas’s massacre the Middle East’s Franz Ferdinand moment?
Travelling through the Gaza border area on the morning of October 8, 2023, I was struck by a sense of…
Israel is likely to hit back hard against Iran
Iran’s decision to launch 181 ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday night followed a similar pattern to the attacks of…
