Middle East
Trump’s anti-Iran vendetta is starting to backfire
It says something about the level of political discourse in America that Donald Trump decided to trumpet sanctions on Iran…
The true face of Islam won’t be found in mosques or Muslim schools, but at the British Museum
In Britain today, Islam in its original essence is not to be found in mosques or Muslim schools, but on…
How did mild-mannered eye doctor Bashar al-Assad end up a mass murderer?
‘How did this mild-mannered eye doctor end up killing hundreds of thousands of people?’ someone wondered about Bashar al-Assad in…
Did Jared Kushner punish Qatar because of a building on Fifth Avenue?
New York Talk about high life this is not. I smelled a rat long ago, but then the scent got…
Benjamin Zephaniah once found the leg of a man in the back of a Ford Cortina
‘For me rhyming was normal,’ said Benjamin Zephaniah, reading from his autobiography on Radio 4. Back in the 1960s, on…
BBC Arabic’s version of Woman’s Hour is rather different to Radio 4’s
When the BBC’s Arabic-language network went out on air for the first time 80 years ago, on 3 January 1938,…
Putin the peacemaker
When Russia entered the Syrian civil war in September 2015 the then US secretary of defense, Ash Carter, predicted catastrophe…
The good Palestinian
Shubbak, meaning ‘window’ in Arabic, is a biennial festival taking place in various venues across London. The brochure reads like…
The Spectator’s notes
I don’t think there is a Royal College of Public Relations, but if there were, it should teach a course…
Why are children in Guernsey extolling Islam to their parents?
I have never been to the island of Guernsey. This is a large world and we have a finite amount…
Cameron’s great escape
An interview with the Prime Minister
The pretend war: bombing Isil won’t solve the problem
Britain, France and America are in a protracted fight against Islamic radicalism. Pity our leaders have no idea how to win it
The Spectator’s Notes
When Jeremy Corbyn says it is better to bring people to trial than to shoot them, he is right. So…
Iran’s hidden war with the West – and what we can do to fight back
It’s up to Britain to ensure that the nuclear dealdoes not allow a greater threat to the Middle East
The Pope’s moment
On Tuesday, Pope Francis set foot in the United States for the first time in his life. His plane touched…
The royal road to peace
What the Middle East needs is more constitutional monarchies
Battle ready
For most of history, religion and war have been the most powerful social instincts of mankind and its chief collective…
Who’s running Libya?
Certainly not the government that Cameron hopes will help fix the migrant crisis. He’d be better off talking to my old driver
A real rescue plan
It’s lazy and wrong just to focus on the migrants who make it here
Barometer
Gesture politics A royal home movie from 1933 apparently showed the future Queen, aged seven, and her mother giving a…
Vespasian vs Islamic State
As Ahmed Rashid argued last week, it is hard to see what the West is doing in the Middle East,…
A deal for the good of the world, but in Vienna rather than Brussels
As an occasional lecturer on the abstruse topic of the efficacy of sanctions in conflict resolution, I find myself much…
Diary
One strange consequence of my job as a foreign correspondent is discovering beautiful places when terrible things happen in them.…
Ali Baba and the 300 hostages
The kidnappers who prey on desperate migrants in Greece’s border badlands
Shifting sands in Saudi
Why America’s once-cautious ally suddenly looks so skittish
