Iran
Inside the new Arab-Israeli alliance
As Jordanian fighter jets shot down Iranian drones heading for Israel on Saturday night, there were joyful cries of Allahu…
The Lebanese always return home
Beirut You might have thought that the threat of the Gaza war spiralling into an all-out regional conflagration, along with…
My letter from Chris Packham
I do not know Chris Packham, the BBC nature broadcaster, personally, but he wrote me a letter last month, enclosing…
How dangerous is the Sunni-Shia schism?
What unites the two groups is more fundamental than what divides them, says Barnaby Rogerson, and the more serious conflict among Muslims concerns ethnicity and language
Joe Biden’s Middle East diplomacy is a wreck
Joe Biden prides himself on his decades of foreign-policy experience, his ability to talk tough yet be kind, and his…
What Iran gains from the conflict in Israel
What Iran gains from provoking Israel
Has VR finally come of age?
VR ‘immersion’ is everywhere in London this autumn, but is it of any value? Stuart Jeffries takes the plunge
Kamikaze drones are the future of warfare
The West is struggling to confront the modern military technologies of Russia, Iran and China. A year and a half…
A trail of dirty money
In 2015, a dedicated DEA agent pursues a Mafia capo involved in a vast cocaine shipment, a Hezbollah militia leader and an elaborate Middle Eastern arms-trafficking ring
Can we brainwash our enemies?
Disinformation is on the rise, and Britain’s spies are on the back foot. Our intelligence leaders warn about election meddling,…
Salman Rushdie was never safe
The stabbing of Salman Rushdie sends a renewed message to the world: take Islamism – the transformation of the Islamic…
The West cannot do business with Iran
Salman Rushdie’s would-be assassin might have been a lone wolf. He might have had no contact with military or intelligence…
The odd couple: Israel and Turkey’s tentative alliance
Israel and Turkey’s tentative alliance
Starmer is playing into Iran's hands
Who was to blame for Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe being held captive in Iran? It shouldn’t take a professor of ethics to…
Why is Biden copying Obama's mistakes with Iran?
There was a picture taken today that says more than just a thousand words. The photograph was snapped in Sharm…
A history lesson for those calling Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe 'ungrateful'
In the latest installment from the idiot age of Twitter, #ungratefulcow has been trending. The reason? Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had expressed, mildly and politely,…
Hacks in uproar about Nazanin briefing
Welcome home Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, released after six years imprisonment. The 43-year-old returned to the UK last week after the government settled a…
How the Foreign Office secured Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release
There was a rare display of unity in the Commons chamber this afternoon when Liz Truss gave a statement on…
Can Boris get the Saudis to pump more oil?
The oil price is up by more than 40 per cent since the start of the year. It is being…
Inside Joe Biden’s disastrous negotiations with Iran
One of the West’s great foreign policy failures of 2021 was the Iran nuclear negotiations, which remained bitterly unresolved as…
Mossad is prepraring to strike at the heart of Iran’s nuclear programme
Iran is about to be hit by a fresh wave of Mossad operations, sources in Jerusalem have told me. This…
Iran is an immediate winner of the Taliban takeover
A staple of observing politics is watching rhetoric curdle into reality. Operation Enduring Freedom, thought up and slapped together in…
Iran's 'Ghost Armada' and its secret alliance with China
When a British security guard was killed in an Iranian drone attack last month, the response from the government was robust. Boris…
Can Iran's 'butcher' president make peace with the Saudis?
It’s official: after eight years of a relatively pragmatic administration, Iran is now under new management. Ebrahim Raisi, a disciple…
Broken dreams
Oliver Balch 8 July 2023 9:00 am
Interviewing the Continent’s refugees and poorest rural inhabitants, Ben Judah reveals a world far removed from Brussels politics or Eurovision optimism