Iran
Immaterial world
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
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…
Why Iran is stepping up its maritime piracy
On Tuesday there was an attempted hijacking of a tanker in the Gulf of Oman. According to the UK Maritime…
Why is the EU attending the butcher of Tehran’s inauguration?
At the beginning of the year Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was forced to hastily cancel a diplomatic…
Iran is running out of water
It’s far from an exact science, but if you want to get a sense of where the world is heading…
Tehran is repeating the Shah’s mistakes
The Iranian province of Khuzestan is oil-rich but water-poor. At the best of times, the southwestern region is a problem…
The Afghan withdrawal will only embolden the West’s enemies
‘How many thousands more Americans, daughters and sons, were you willing to risk?’ Biden asked critics of the decision to…
The dark past of Iran’s new presidential favourite
‘Each vote counts…come and vote and choose your president. This is important for the future of your country.’ These were…
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