Iran
Portrait of the week
Home The man seen in several Islamic State videos of hostages being beheaded, nicknamed Jihadi John by the British press,…
Beautiful losers
The ‘Great Kings’ of Persia were renowned for their good looks and imposing stature, but they will always, throughout history, be eclipsed by the Greeks, says Tom Holland
Good luck finding goodies and baddies in Iraq
If there’s a bright spot in the murky mess of Iraq, it’s that finally we have a war that it…
Hard times for Hamas
The party is out of favour with its foreign neighbours and with ordinary Gazans
Armageddon awaits
Sunni vs Shia, Saudi Arabia vs Iran. A new great war has begun
The Navigators
The 2014 winner of The Spectator’s award for unconventional travel writing
Diplomatic meltdown
President Obama’s flagship foreign policy of ‘leading from behind’ has had some surprising consequences. Not least among them is that…
No country for old men
‘Is he a good writer? Is he pro-regime?’ an Iranian journalist in London once asked me of Hooman Majd. Majd…
The good Iranian
If President Hassan Rouhani is anything like his mentor, peace has another chance
