Middle East

After the massive direct Iranian attack on Israel, many breathed a sigh of relief that Israel’s defences were mostly well prepared and highly effective. The one death reported was that of a Gazan Palestinian man killed by shrapnel near Jericho. So much for Iranian solidarity with the Palestinians. Yet tensions remain high as further Iranian aggression may follow. This time, it could the Jews of Europe, the UK or America who are the targets.  Iran has a history of responding to setbacks with global terrorism Israel’s impressive strategic operational activities in Lebanon and Syria have not only severely limited Hezbollah’s abilities, but also restored Israel’s intelligence and military deterrence in

There is a satirical Israeli song from the Second Lebanon War, ‘Yalla Ya Nasrallah’, with the chorus: ‘Come on, oh Nasrallah/We will screw you, inshallah/we’ll send you back to Allah/with the rest of Hezbollah’. The lyrics are doggerel, but I mention it for two reasons. One, it’s an absolute banger of a tune and, two, all that it threatened has now been carried out. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah for 32 years, was killed last night in an IDF strike on the Islamist terror group’s underground command centre beneath a Beirut suburb. My city my people 😂🇮🇱 Tel Aviv “Yalla ya Nasrallah, We will f*ck you Inshallah, We will return

We all know what happened on 7th October 2023. But those of us who have watched the Israeli government’s compilation of footage from the day, as well as other videos sourced from the darker corners of the internet, know more than most the extent of atrocities carried out by the Palestinian terrorists who invaded through the Gaza border. There is no sanitisation here, no softening of the terror Now everyone can get a sense of what truly happened, thanks to Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again, the film by Yariv Mozer which screened last night on the BBC and is available on iPlayer and Paramount+ in the US. The documentary delivers a

The recent fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is a war that’s not yet officially a war, initiated by a political party without a mandate that takes its orders from Tehran, in support of a Palestinian party that few Lebanese care about. Hezbollah was the jewel in the Mullah’s turban It is a decades-old conflict, an exhausting, deadly stalemate, but this recent escalation could prove to be decisive. There’s a chance Israel could finally deliver a dagger blow to Hezbollah. This would be a staggering achievement because the Iranian-backed Shia militant group controls many, if not all, of the levers of power in Lebanon, and has been a constant irritant to

Hezbollah’s response to the killing of senior official Fuad Shukr, when it finally came, was a more minor event than anticipated. For weeks, both the Lebanese Shia Islamist group and its Iranian patron have been threatening a terrible revenge for the recent assassinations in Beirut and Tehran. It is now clear, however, that neither Hezbollah or Iran wishes to risk a descent to all put war at the present time. Iran appears to have relegated its response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran to some point in the future. Hezbollah, meanwhile, sought to target two sites of high significance – the Mossad headquarters, and the HQ

As the dust literally settles across southern Lebanon in the aftermath of the Israeli airstrikes, we are starting to see an answer to the question of whether this will be the escalation that leads to all-out war. Hezbollah has declared an end to the first phase of revenge for Israel’s assassination of its most senior military commander Fuad Shukr, who masterminded the killing of 241 marines and 58 French soldiers in 1983, in Beirut last month. Its planned attack on the headquarters of Mossad and Unit 8200, Israel’s fabled military intelligence directorate, has been averted. Casualties appear to have been very limited. Jerusalem’s spy chiefs have flown to Cairo to

Following the killings of Hezbollah’s Fuad Shukr and Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh, Israel and the Middle East are poised and waiting for the next move. The two killings represent a significant humiliation for the Iran-led regional axis, which until this point had been projecting a sense of achievement and satisfaction.  Is Israel prepared to up the ante to the point of regional war? The October 7 massacres and the subsequent war may not have come at the express order or at the precise time wanted by the regime in Tehran. But events have proceeded largely in a way satisfactory to it. Israel appeared to be isolating itself diplomatically, unable to deliver a deathblow

Israel has been accused of killing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a strike on Iran overnight. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but Hamas said Haniyeh was ‘killed in a treacherous Zionist raid’ and vowed revenge. If indeed Israel did target Haniyeh in his Tehran residence it could mark a major escalation in the conflict. Iran will be humiliated that, even in the heart of its capital, Haniyeh was not safe. Hamas said Haniyeh was ‘killed in a treacherous Zionist raid’ Israel is yet to respond or issue a statement, but the country did say that it carried out a separate strike on Beirut yesterday in response to a

Labour isn’t typically known for offering a more hawkish foreign policy platform than the Conservatives, but at the last election there was an exception: Iran. Yvette Cooper and David Lammy have spoken in strong terms about toughening up Britain’s approach to Iran George Robertson, the former defence secretary and Nato secretary general leading the government’s defence review, has described Tehran as part of the ‘deadly quartet’ of nations working together to challenge the Western-led global order. Both Yvette Cooper and David Lammy have also previously spoken in strong terms about toughening up Britain’s approach to Iran. With the Home Office and Foreign Office on board, Sir Keir Starmer has the

A wave of violence targeting Syrian refugees is spreading through Turkey, triggered by allegations of the sexual harassment of a child by a Syrian man in the city of Kayseri. The child, also Syrian, was related to him, according to the authorities. Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, 3.1 million Syrians have been granted temporary protection in Turkey, according to official figures. But now there are growing public demands for them to return to Syria, fuelled by both the governing and opposition parties in Turkey. As reports of the incident in Kayseri snowballed on social media, mobs combed the streets, attacking and burning houses, businesses, and