Spare a thought for Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, heading the US negotiating team, as they met with Qatari Emir Al Thani this week to discuss the ‘progress of the negotiations’ between the US and the Iranian regime in the Qatari capital, Doha. While the venue for the talks has shifted from Pakistan to Switzerland […]
Hormuz has been front-page news for a month. The oil price has been reported, the tanker attacks recorded and the reserve releases announced. What has not been explained is why none of those responses have moved much oil. Oil does not simply flow through Hormuz, as it relies on a surprisingly large and complex web […]
Iran’s strike on Ras Laffan this week was not just an attack on Qatar, but on one of the most important energy hubs on the planet. In this extract from his book ‘Material World’, Ed Conway explains why this vast LNG complex matters so much – and why damage there could reverberate through gas markets, […]
The war in Iran continues, and Donald Trump is trying to avoid an enduring oil shock by assembling an international alliance to protect the Strait of Hormuz. But as the realities on the ground play out, so too does the war of narratives. Vali Nasr, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who frequently appears on […]
If you want to feel really gloomy, think back to the beginning of the 1990s. The West had won the Cold War. The Gorbachev era seemed to suggest that Russia was embarking on a path of stability and democracy. There were indications that the Chinese leadership was interested in cautious moves towards international legality. Other […]
For years, Iran’s Islamic Republic tried to sell a picture to the world, as George Orwell once put it, by ‘giving an appearance of solidity to pure wind’. Its negotiating technique was never complicated; it was simple stonewalling. Yet it is striking how different administrations interpreted that posture. Barack Obama saw them as complicated, sophisticated […]
Greta Thunberg is not sailing her eco-friendly boat across the Caspian Sea to stand with Iranian protesters. Nor are Javier Bardem, Angelina Jolie or Mark Ruffalo using their platforms to amplify Iranian voices. You do not hear chants of ‘Death to the IRGC’ at concerts. There are no celebrity hunger strikes, no emergency motions passed […]
The footage emerging from Iran – scant as it is, due to the regime’s imposed blackout on communications – is gut-wrenching. Security forces firing on unarmed protesters; rows of black bodybags, with screaming relatives scouring morgues for loved ones. As violence to suppress the protests escalates and with the death toll reportedly having surpassed 500 […]
Just over two years ago, November 9, 2023 began like any other day. By midday, my life had changed forever. I miraculously survived an assassination attempt ordered by the Islamic Republic of Iran. That should have been a turning point in Europe’s policy toward Tehran. I was the first European politician targeted on European soil […]
As someone who has spent a decade presiding over the Mother of Parliaments, I am acutely aware of the value of liberty, democracy and the rule of law. These are values too often taken for granted in established democracies but denied to millions who yearn for them. Among the most tragic examples is Iran, where […]
Last night, Israel launched a audacious series of airstrikes against Iran, code-named Operation Rising Lion, targeting nuclear facilities. Among the targets were the Natanz enrichment facility, ballistic missile sites and senior military officials. The operation, meticulously planned by the Israel Defence Forces and the Mossad – Israel’s intelligence agency – marks a significant escalation in […]
Everyone is getting emotional, a Kremlin spokesman tells us, in a condescending tone. He is right. Everyone is, and much good it is doing us. Throughout the West, from the bond markets to the Black Sea – not to mention the South China Sea – we seem to be facing strategic weakness, economic uncertainty and […]
Even as Donald Trump’s chaotic tariffs dominate the news headlines, we cannot forget that his administration is also conducting valuable work around the world. Despite the strange misstep on Signal, the US strikes on the Houthi militia are ongoing. This is vital for protecting the world from Houthi atrocities. When discussing Yemen and the Houthis, […]
Shortly after Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the former leader of Hezbollah, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, revealed that Nasrallah’s bunker, located under a hospital in Beirut, held half a billion dollars in cash and gold. Over the past year and a half, Israel has gone to great efforts to significantly […]
Confusion is worse confounded. As far as I can tell, no one foresaw the fall of Bashar al-Assad. So it is hardly surprising that no one has any clear idea what will happen next. Some 20 years ago, I spent a bit of time in Syria in the days of Hafeez al-Assad. The country seemed […]
If you think you’ve had a tough year, spare a thought for Ayatollah Khamenei. Iran’s Supreme Leader has had a 2024 to forget, with his sulphurous statesmanship boosting opposition towards his regime at home and abroad, while allies fall by the wayside. The speed with which Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria collapsed has shocked Tehran. […]
Last year, on October 8, I walked past a group of anti-Israel protesters on my way into the Labour Party conference. This was before Israel had acted against Hamas in Gaza and the terrible details of the October 7 massacre – the torture, rapes, beheadings and cold-blooded killing of children and elderly people – had […]
The fate of Lebanon is heart-rending. It should be one of the glories of the Levant and of Mediterranean civilisation. At ground level, the Lebanese have always had an appetite for a good time: every vice imaginable can be found in Beirut. But there’s one problem. The pleasures of dolce far niente are likely to […]
The request for arrest warrants for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, by the International Criminal Court has given critics of the war in Gaza an enormous boost and the apparent endorsement of an impartial international body. It is one of the ICC’s few forays outside Africa: warrants have only […]
Since the savagery of Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7 last year, and the ensuing bloody conflict in Gaza, there has been sharp controversy over the role and nature of the UNRWA. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was established in 1949 to provide relief for […]
Israel’s war in Gaza and more limited conflict with Hezbollah on its northern border with Lebanon is taking a toll on the Israeli economy. In the final quarter of 2023, Israel’s gross domestic product (GDP) – a measure of a country’s economic health – shrank by almost 20%. Consumption dropped by 27% and investment by […]
A video showing a Jewish man being advised by police to hide his Star of David ‘for his own safety’ while watching a pro-Palestine parade in Edinburgh went viral on social media yesterday. While many people criticised the officer concerned, I think he was acting in good faith. That is to say he perceived a […]
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