Middle East
Forget Geneva: the real US-Iran carve-up is happening in Iraq
While Obama talks centrifuges in Geneva, Iranian-backed militia are redrawing the map of Iraq
It’s all kicking off in the Islamic world. Nothing at all to do with Islam, of course
They have been burning churches and murdering Christians again in Niger. You’d think that they’d have more immediately pressing concerns…
Barack Obama: anatomy of a failure
Whatever happened to Barack Obama?
How Islamic State commanders squeeze their hostages for every penny
Islamic State commanders know exactly how to extract the greatest possible profit from their hostages. Some care about little else
The myth of the White Widow
Samantha Lewthwaite almost certainly isn’t as monstrous as the papers say. And she definitely isn’t as important
Hannibal (and Alexander the Great) vs the Islamic State
Whatever the Islamic State hopes ultimately to achieve by its current onslaught on all and sundry in the Middle East,…
Secretive, arrogant and reckless: the young T.E. Lawrence began life as he meant to go on
The Lawrence books are piling up, aren’t they? I don’t mean the author of The Rainbow, though as I write…
What will it take for us to stop doing business with Qatar?
Qatari money has flooded into London – but also into much less savoury places
The wars that really are about the oil
You can’t understand any of the world’s crises without understanding petropolitics
Asylum seekers are dying in British ports. It’s time we looked after them properly.
The tale is now familiar: shouts are heard from inside a freight container and police are called. A cargo of…
David Frum’s diary: When Hamas shoots at Israel, they’re shooting at my kid
Wellington, Ontario A British visitor to this village might be disoriented by the flags. They look almost exactly like the…
Spectator letters: A defence of nursing assistants, a mystery shotgun, and a response to Melanie Phillips
Poor treatment Sir: Jane Kelly’s article (‘No tea or sympathy’, 2 August) on the lack of empathy and emotional support…
Israel is drifting away from the West – but condemnation won’t help
Glaring, the ennui over Israel. The way we drag our eyes to the page, and sigh, and want to read…
I like the look of this exciting new Islamic State. But why don’t they want Belgium?
There is something attractive about almost the whole of southern Europe being part of an immense and somewhat rigorous caliphate,…
After 100 years, the mess we made of the Middle East is coming full circle
When I hear the words Sykes-Picot I more often than not feel like punching an Englishman or a Frog —…
The only trouble with Tel Aviv – flying there doesn’t feel scary any more
‘There’s a dark cloud rising from the desert floor/ I packed my bags and I’m heading straight into the storm/…
If we have to let generals run Egypt, must we pay for them, too?
America has let Egypt’s old military oligarchs take hold again. Must it carry on paying for them, too?
A Colder War, by Charles Cumming - review
The title of Charles Cumming’s seventh novel is both a nod to the comfortable polarities of Cold War and also…
Libya is imploding. Why doesn't David Cameron care?
A few days ago I went to a talk about Syria; one of those events for the concerned layman, in…
Israelis don’t care that we hate them. But they’d like to know why
Israelis’ theories on why it’s fashionable for the West to despise them
Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East's 30 year war
Sunni vs Shia, Saudi Arabia vs Iran. A new great war has begun
The one man who makes me hope for peace in Syria
As Syria’s second peace conference looms, and we prepare ourselves for a lot of hot air drifting over from Geneva,…
Act now to save the Middle East's Christians
The Middle East’s most persecuted people need our support
Norman Stone: From Syria to Iraq, the mess of the first world war is with us still
So many of the world’s troubles, even today, can be traced back to the empire-builders of 1914 – and the peace-makers of 1919
You’ll mock me, but I have to ask: why don’t any of my friends have holiday homes?
Hugo Rifkind 9 August 2014 9:00 am
This is to be one of those columns that makes the writer faintly wish there wasn’t an internet. It would…