Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Monday

Jason M. Brodsky

American weakness made the Iran attack possible

This weekend, the Islamic Republic of Iran launched an unprecedented attack against Israel. For the first time since 1979, Iran’s leadership launched strikes from Iranian territory at Israel proper using more than 300 drones and missiles, with the vast majority shot down. In the handful of cases where Biden has responded militarily, it has been mostly aimed at Iran’s proxies and dispensable facilities in the region These strikes took place ahead of Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 85th birthday on April 19. His regime is deeply unpopular at home and planning for succession. Yet Khamenei has demonstrated a surprising willingness to take risks in his old age. His strategy towards Israel

Mikhail Fridman

The sanctions against me are a huge injustice

Early on the morning of 1 December 2022, 50 helmeted and body-armoured National Crime Agency officers and a media relations officer burst into Athlone House, my home in Highgate, north London. They seized telephones and computers and issued a derogatory press release. The police could not name me, but pictures of the inside of my house with police officers inside soon circulated on social media. My assets and businesses in Britain and the EU have been in effect nationalised Raids of this kind may be familiar in repressive regimes. But I did not expect them in Britain, a perceived champion of fair play, the rule of law and a declared

Katy Balls

David Cameron urges Israel to show restraint

All eyes are on the Middle East this week following Iran’s attack against Israel on Saturday night. Nearly all of the 300 drones, cruise and ballistic missiles fired at Israel were stopped by the country’s air defences. The UK, US and Jordan also helped protect Israel during the attack. Since the bombardment, the line from the Iranian government is that this is a case of ‘job done’ and they have no plans to go further. However, Israel has pledged revenge and so the matter is far from closed. Cameron tried to say that Israel was in a way already winning despite the bombardment This morning, David Cameron used his first

Steerpike

Watch: David Cameron says Iran has suffered ‘double defeat’

The question of how Israel will respond to Iran’s attack dominated David Cameron’s first broadcast round since he became Foreign Secretary last year. Immediately condemning Iran’s attack as a ‘very, very dangerous act in an already dangerous world’ on BBC Breakfast, Cameron added that ‘fortunately, it was a failure’. The Foreign Secretary told LBC’s Nick Ferrari that ‘Iran has suffered a double defeat: a defeat because they’ve failed, but a second defeat because the world can now see that they are the malign influence in the region’. But it’s not Iran that Israel should be focusing on now, Cameron believes: They have every right to respond and you’d understand that

Limor Simhony Philpott

How will Israel hit back against Iran?

Iran’s attack on Israel signals a new era. For the first time, Iran targeted Israel directly, not only through proxies – and not in a way that leaves room for deniability in order to limit Israeli reprisal. The attack on Saturday night, in response to the killing of two Iranian generals in Damascus by Israel, included 185 explosive drones, 110 ballistic missiles and 36 cruise missiles launched from Iran, Iraq and Yemen. Israel, alongside allies that include American, British and Jordanian forces, managed to shoot down 99 per cent of the munitions aimed at Israel and avoid the death and destruction that would have ensued. The question is what happens

James Heale

Sunak set for final game of Rwanda ping pong

Parliament’s return from recess this week means the Rwanda Bill is now back in the Commons for the final game of ping pong. Rwanda has previously dominated the news agenda whenever it is debated in parliament. But this week it is expected – by both supporters and opponents of the scheme – to feature far less heavily in the headlines. A good indication of where MPs’ minds are at is to look at the predominant focus on policing, rather than migration, in this afternoon’s Home Office questions. One government source referred to this week as ‘process-y’, with a Rwanda sceptic conceding that ‘a horrible sense of inevitability hangs over the

Gavin Mortimer

France and Britain have both shamefully neglected the white working class

Emmanuel Macron told a communist newspaper earlier this year that he didn’t consider Marine le Pen’s National Rally part of the ‘Republican arc’. By extension, the French president presumably thinks the same of the 13,288,686 million men and women who voted for Le Pen in the second round of the 2022 presidential election. In the event of a war with Russia, or another hostile state, would the president therefore consider Le Pen voters unworthy of serving in the Republic’s military? The average Le Pen supporter has much in common with Britain’s Red Wall voter; they tend not to have gone to university, to have been hit hard by deindustrialisation and

Sunday

David B. Green

Netanyahu’s political survival is his top priority

On Sunday morning, Israelis – those who hadn’t already spent part of the night in bomb shelters or safe rooms, unable to sleep – woke up to the good news that nearly all of the approximately 300 missiles and drones fired from Iran hours earlier had been destroyed before crossing into Israeli airspace. One Israeli was injured in the attack, but no one was killed. As has been the case since the 7 October disaster that marked the start of the war in Gaza, Israel’s military and technological prowess had performed successfully and efficiently. No less impressive than the military feat of keeping these weapons from hitting their targets in

Arieh Kovler

Netanyahu can’t ignore the scale of Iran’s attack

Today was supposed to be the day we sent our kids back to nursery. For two weeks, my toddler and baby have been home with a nasty stomach bug that turned out to be shigella, a bacterium that causes dysentery and that has been ripping through Israeli troops in Gaza. Then, on Saturday night, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesperson for the IDF, announced that schools and nurseries would be closed nationwide today, due to the Iranian threat.  The parents’ WhatsApp groups grumbled that this, alone, was a disproportionate response by Iran, throwing Israel into turmoil the week before Passover. But then the news reports became starker: we should expect a drone

Paul Mason

Israel has a chance to de-escalate after Iran’s failed attack

Iran’s strike on Israel yesterday is, simultaneously, a moment for alarm and calm. Alarm because, by unleashing more than 300 drones, cruise and ballistic missiles in response to Israel’s attack on its Damascus consulate at the start of the month, Iran is basically saying: we can do this every time Israel or its allies cross a line. Calm because not only did Israel repel the attack, it did so thanks to collaboration from its Western allies and friendly Arab states, with both Saudi Arabia and Jordan opening their skies to US combat aircraft. Israel has the right to defend itself, and will doubtless respond militarily. But its allies have a

Joe Bedell-Brill

Atkins: British planes operating in region at time of Iran attack

Conflict in the Middle East entered a new dangerous phase on Saturday night, as Iran launched over 300 drones and missiles against Israel, its first direct military attack against the country after years of shadow warfare. On the BBC this morning, Health Secretary Victoria Atkins told Laura Kuenssberg this was an ‘incredibly significant attack’. She confirmed that British military planes were operating in the region as part of pre-existing missions, although could not clarify whether British planes had taken part in shooting down missiles and drones. Yvette Cooper: ‘We strongly condemn this reckless attack’ Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper condemned Iran’s actions, saying that whilst the international community had been

Ian Williams

The rusting Philippine ship raising US-China tensions

The rusting and disintegrating hulk of a former Second World War landing ship has become an unlikely but dangerous flashpoint in US-China relations. The Sierra Madre, built for the US navy to land tanks, has for several decades been stranded on a shoal in the South China Sea. But now it has become a symbol of Beijing’s growing aggression in the region and its disdain for international law. The Philippines, which bought the ship in 1976, intentionally grounded her on the largely submerged Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly islands in 1999 to defend their claim to the territory. There she has remained to this day as a lonely symbol of sovereignty and home to a small contingent of Philippine marines. For many years,

Sean Rayment

Despite their failed attack, Iran should not be underestimated

Iran’s overnight mass drone attack on Israel was supposed to be payback for the assassination of Iranian Republican Guard Corps commander General Mohammad Reza Zahedi. In truth, though, it was a tepid, face-saving response which the ayatollahs in Tehran knew would fail. In the early hours of this morning, the Iranian army described what it called ‘Operation Honest Promise’ – the drone and missile attack on Israel – as a complete success. But in reality, the attack had minimal tactical impact, despite the highly orchestrated flag waving jubilation in Tehran’s Palestine Square. Iran’s military would have made certain that both Israel and the US, knew what was coming Former MI6 Chief Sir

Fraser Nelson

What Iran’s failed attack says about Israel

Some 300 missiles and drones were dispatched by Iran towards Israel last night, the largest such assault in history. The IDF say 99 per cent of them were shot down by the air forces of Israel, the UK, US and Jordan. So rather than weaken Israel, Iran’s attack has ended up convening showcasing an extraordinary military alliance – with Arabs, Israelis, Americans and British acting as one to neutralise the assault.  Not a single one of the 200 drones or cruise missiles made it into Israel. Only some faster-moving ballistic missiles hit their target and even they inflicted only light damage to the Nevatim air base. The only reported casualty

Ian O’Doherty

The real reason Ireland is going to recognise Palestine

When the Irish foreign minister Micheal Martin recently stood up and announced to the Dail that Ireland would officially recognise a Palestinian state ‘within a matter of weeks’, there were no sharp intakes of breath or fits of fainting in the chamber. Irish political parties have long been relatively united in their calls for full recognition of a Palestinian state. But this was the first time there had been an explicit statement of intent, and within a specific timeline. Relations between Ireland and Israel have traditionally been poor since diplomatic ties were established in 1975. But events since October 7 (which many Irish politicians seem to have conveniently forgotten) have

Saturday

Stephen Daisley

Israel cannot afford a hot war with Iran

Iran’s drone and missile attack on Israel is an escalation from the fiery but ultimately empty rhetoric we are used to from Tehran. In different times and with a different prime minister in Jerusalem than the gun-shy Benjamin Netanyahu, it is the kind of inflammatory move that could have provoked a much graver Israeli response than last night’s events are likely to. However, Israel can neither afford nor does the current leadership particularly want a hot war with Iran at this point. Of course, it is already in such a war, indirectly at least, since the Islamic Republic was the guiding hand behind the October 7 massacre. But there is

Limor Simhony Philpott

How will Israel respond to Iran’s attack?

Iran’s retaliatory attack, which Israel has been expecting since it killed Iranian commanders in Damascus on 1st April, has started this evening. For the first time, Iran is attacking Israel directly. It has launched over 100 drones carrying explosives towards Israel from Iran, Iraq and Yemen. The drones will take between 8 and 10 hours to arrive to Israeli airspace, and it is expected that those that manage to evade Israeli defences could arrive to Israel at some point between 11pm and 1am. It has also been reported that cruise missiles have been launched towards Israel. These take roughly two hours to reach Israel if they are not shot down.

Fraser Nelson

Iran has struck back – but is it war?

When Israel assassinated a top commander in Iran’s Quds Force in Damascus a fortnight ago, it knew that Tehran would have to respond with a direct attack. So news this evening – that Iran has sent a swarm of kamikaze drones that will take nine hours to reach Israel – is in line with those expectations. Israel had already called up reserve units for its air defence: tonight’s dispatch of about 50 Shahed drones (used regularly in Ukraine) was the minimum of what was expected. Israel says it will try to take them out as they fly over Iraq (they have already been filmed en route). The question is whether Iran will later reinforce

Steerpike

Watch: Pro-indy filmmaker’s bizarre currency claim

Another day, another nationalist gaffe. This time it’s pro-indy filmmaker and columnist — for that august journal the National — Lesley Riddoch in the spotlight. In a rather bizarre attempt to persuade the good people of Scotland that independence wouldn’t be a terrible idea, Riddoch has demonstrated exactly why the Nats should not be in charge.  In a stilted documentary clip, Riddoch tries to contrast the Denmark-Sweden crossing with one that could exist between Scotland and England in an alternate reality. As she’s driving, Riddoch tells the camera of the ‘frictionless border between two different countries’. They have ‘different systems, different languages and different currencies’. She goes on: Does that

Terry Barnes

The unimaginable tragedy of the Sydney stabbing attack

Bondi Junction, in Sydney’s affluent eastern suburbs, is well known to many British backpackers and tourists. Close to the city’s most famous beaches, it is where locals and visitors go to shop, enjoy the many cafes, or catch the train to town. The sprawling Westfield shopping complex there is a popular place. This Saturday afternoon, a pleasant autumn day, it was filled with shoppers, and people catching up with friends over coffee or just passing the time. None of them would have expected a rampage by a seemingly ordinary man, dressed in an Australian rugby league team jersey and shorts, wielding a knife. ‘He looked like a man on a