Iran
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…
The warm-up
If Iran steps in, the worst is still to come
Can Iran help keep King Bibi in power?
Benjamin Netanyahu has a problem: he doesn’t have sufficient support to form a coalition. With 20 days left to complete…
Israel’s shadow war with Iran explodes into ‘nuclear terrorism’
If time flows at an even pace, then history does not. Joe Biden may still be new in the job,…
The West’s shameful Iranian capitulation
On a sweltering day in July 2018, German police pulled over a scarlet Ford S-Max hire car that was travelling…
Iranians don’t hate Israel
The decades since the Islamic revolution have weighed heavy on the people of Iran. Living in fear, under extreme levels…
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.…
Revealed: how Mossad eliminated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
The Mossad is not known for its touchy-feely approach. Whether it was the kidnap of Adolf Eichmann in the sixties,…
Al Qaeda and Iran’s dangerous partnership
What does the world’s foremost Shia power and the most notorious Sunni terror group have in common? Given that the…
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;…
Iran vs the rest
The next six weeks will be crucial for the Middle East
Biden would be a fool to reverse Trump’s foreign policy wins
‘We’re going to be back in the game,’ our presumptive and somewhat previous new president tells us. ‘It’s not America…
Mossad’s Lara Croft
If you love Fauda — and of course you do — you’re in for a long wait for season four,…
What Bahrain’s deal with Israel really means
On September 15, representatives from the oil-rich Kingdom of Bahrain will meet Israeli leaders at the White House to sign…
Leaked letter: Boris Johnson rejects Trump on Iran sanctions
A leaked letter to the UN Security Council shows that the British government has rejected the US position on Iran’s…
Muddle East
The Foreign Office has lost the plot
Pompeo is right on Iran sanctions
The halls of the UN are a habitual stage for empty gestures and vaporous rhetoric, but last Friday’s Security Council…
Get ready for the return of the Iran Deal
The Trump administration has the first successful foreign policy of any administration since that of George H.W. Bush. It must…
Hope in Iraq
Why the US assassination of Iran’s top general didn’t spark a war
