Iran

Thursday

Peter Frankopan

Israel’s attack on Iran has been planned for years

From our UK edition

It was clear at the time that what happened on 7 October 2023 would change the Middle East. What was perhaps less obvious was the impact it would have on the rest of the world. In addition to the suffering in Gaza, the weeks and months that followed Hamas’s horrific attacks have seen the reconfiguration of Syria, the effective dismantling of Hezbollah, the decapitation of the leadership of Hamas and now, with Iran, a time when the decision-making in Tehran, Jerusalem and Washington will have a profound effect on the shape of the emerging global order. Historians like to think about turning points and moments in the past where the wheels of history turned. In one sense that is, of course, true about 7 October.

Rod Liddle

Come friendly bombs and fall on Iran

From our UK edition

It is heartening to see the lefties out marching in defence of mullahs and their enlightened rule of Iran. The Stop the War Coalition has been organising protests the length and breadth of the country, demanding ‘Hands off Iran’. It is harder for the marchers to identify specifically with their cause than it is when they’re marching about Palestine: Iranians don’t wear keffiyehs. Perhaps they should take on their marches an intricately woven carpet or some uranium-235. Or maybe design some sort of badge that can be cheaply manufactured and somehow symbolises the country – I would suggest the image of a crane with a homosexual dangling at the end of it.

Wednesday

Neal Pollack

Call him Daddy

Sitting next to Donald Trump at the end of a short NATO summit, Mark Rutte, head of the organization, looked quite amused as he listened to the President describe the Israel-Iran conflict.  "They've had a big fight, like two kids in a schoolyard," Trump said. "You know, they fight like hell, you can't stop them. Let them fight for about two to three minutes, then it's easy to stop them." Raising a fist, Rutte added: "And then Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get (them to) stop." Soon after, flanked by two of his Apprentices, Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio, Daddy Trump gave his own press conference. He talked for 15 minutes before he took a single question. The Netherlands, he said, “has the most beautiful trees. I want to bring some back with me.

Donald Trump
Democrats
Charles Lipson

Democrats vexed by Trump’s success in Iran

There are serious, unanswered questions about the impact of America’s bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites. Three stand out. How much was actually destroyed? Where is the highly-enriched uranium that Iran apparently removed from the Fordow site before the bombs fell? And is America threatened by Iranian sleeper cells, perhaps hidden among the more than 700 Iranians whom the Biden administration released into the American interior after they crossed the border illegally? Nor are they the only threat. We have no idea how many terrorists are among the 2 million “got aways” who were seen on surveillance cameras crossing the border but never apprehended.  Those are serious questions about serious threats, and they deserve thoughtful, bipartisan inquiry. They won’t receive it.

Tuesday

James Heale

Iran: ‘what the f***’ is going on?

From our UK edition

14 min listen

It is rare to see the President so visibly frustrated (see The Apprentice, circa 2004), but after Iran and Israel seemingly ignored his ceasefire announcement – and his plea on Truth Social, ‘PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!’ – Donald Trump has come down hard on both sides. In a clip taken this afternoon he exclaimed: ‘These are countries who have been fighting so long and so hard, that they don't know what the f*** they're doing.’ Succinctly put by the President. The exchange of fire could be the expected tit-for-tat seen after the announcement of ceasefires in other global conflicts, but it has dampened the mood at Nato, which world leaders were approaching with cautious optimism, believing the road to de-escalation was clearing. What happens next?

Cockburn

Can Zohran Mamdani stop the Cuomo machine?

You don’t mess with the Zohran Here in the capital, the President has been doing his utmost to wrangle Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran into a ceasefire neither government seems to want. It’s... not going great. As he departed for the NATO summit at the Hague, Trump said of the conflict: “We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.” Meanwhile on the Hill, senators are poring over the Big, Beautiful Bill to see if they can whip up a version of it they’re willing to pass by July 4. But Cockburn finds himself looking north to the Big Apple – and wondering whether the mayoral primary could offer signs of life for the Democratic party.

Neal Pollack

Memories of the 12 DAY WAR

President Trump didn’t start the war. But if we’re to believe the greatest social-media post of all time, he sure finished it, and quickly. Either way, he definitely branded it, and in geopolitics, as in business, branding is everything. If you break the terms of the brand, Israel and Iran have found out, the President is going to whup you, at least verbally. “Upon the 24th Hour,” Trump posted yesterday about a peace of his own making on Truth Social, a website of his own making, “an Official END to THE 12 DAY WAR will be saluted by the World. . . . On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, ‘The 12 DAY WAR.

Monday

Kate Andrews

We need to hear from Tulsi Gabbard

Where is Tulsi Gabbard? The country’s Director of National Intelligence has been glaringly absent as the biggest national security story in years continues to develop. In both the lead-up to and the aftermath of President Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, Gabbard has barely been seen, or heard. It’s a strange time for the chief of the US intelligence community to go silent, leading to a growing number of questions that Americans – particularly MAGA Americans – would like answered.It’s Gabbard’s now-infamous testimony to Congress in March – and a video posted to social media earlier this month – that are thought to have sidelined her from the Trump administration in recent weeks.

Tim Shipman

Does the government support Trump’s Iran strikes?

From our UK edition

13 min listen

The weekend saw the US launch airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, with Tehran warning of ‘everlasting consequences’. Despite an emergency Cobra meeting and Luke Pollard’s morning media round, we are still waiting for an answer on whether the government supports Trump’s action. Keir Starmer’s assured and confident position on the world stage now looks to be in peril, as he is pulled between Trump, his attorney general and the court of public opinion. Can he de-escalate? Also on the podcast, Nigel Farage delivered a speech this morning in which he announced changes to non-doms and unveiled a new ‘Britannia card’ – although most of the questions afterwards centred on the situation in the Middle East.

Neal Pollack

Donald’s divine inspiration

President Trump appeared in the long hallway Saturday night, flanked by his Three Sons – J.D., Pete and Little Marco – to let us know he’d done the big violence in Iran. It was a somber moment, a war moment, though, as Trump said on Truth Social after he’d ordered the dropping of the Mother of All Bombs deep into the heart of old Persia, “NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE.”   Terry Southern, the screenwriter of Dr. Strangelove, couldn’t have dreamed up a line so darkly ironic, but Trump gifts us with daily comic diamonds, intentional and unintentional. Saturday’s crown jewel came at the conclusion of his statement, the time usually reserved for “God Bless America.

donald trump divine
Roger Kimball

On Iran, trust Trump’s instincts

What now? After the daring and what everyone is describing as a “flawlessly executed” attack by the United States on Iran’s hardened nuclear facilities Saturday night, Macbeth’s words must be on the minds of many: “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly.” Things did not work out so well for the Thane of Cawdor, as Macbeth then was. But even though his attack was not “the be-all and the end-all” he wanted, everyone who wishes for peace must second his opening argument.

Trump

Sunday

Ben Domenech

Trump shows the world what he’s made of

In what will likely be remembered as the most monumental decision of his presidency, Donald Trump decided to pull the trigger. The very vocal portion of his supporters that advocated publicly against action to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities found out, much to their chagrin, where they stand in the pecking order. Under Trump, the President himself, alone, decides what will be done – and he will not be threatened, cajoled or blackmailed out of doing what he believes to be right. Trump has been emphatic since 2011: Iran cannot be allowed to have a bomb. And he was willing to go as far as sending seven B-2 bombers thousands of miles across the seas to make sure of it.What does this do to Trump's coalition?

Trump

Friday

Cockburn

Did the Wall Street Journal just prevent a war?

Zero-hour was approaching. A joint US-Israeli attack on the mullahs’ mountain fastness at Fordow seemed imminent. The B-52s were on the tarmac, the USS Nimitz had taken to sea, Ambassador Mike Huckabee was reaching for the smelling salts.  And then? A last-minute pause. “I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” said the President. Delays like these have now become a standard part of Trump’s box of tricks. If a drama – like the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs of earlier this year – can be kept going for a little longer, then all the more time to extract further concessions from the opposing party. As negotiating tactics go there are certainly worse ones. But was there another reason?

Wall Street Journal
Iran
Charlie Gammell

Whatever happens, Iran will still seek a nuclear weapon

An Iranian politician sits on a sofa giving an interview about Iran’s nuclear ambitions. "Why should Iran not have a nuclear weapon when France, the UK and the US all have nuclear weapons? What is the difference between our nations?" The politician goes on to lay out Iran’s regional intellectual and cultural superiority, citing an illustrious history going back centuries, explicitly linking Iranian exceptionalism with the issue of nuclear power. You’d be forgiven for thinking that this Iranian politician was an official of the Islamic Republic. It was the Shah and the year was 1973.

Thursday

Cockburn

The Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz roast

Tucker Carlson teased an upcoming podcast with Senator Ted Cruz Tuesday night by posting a short, fiery clip from the two-hour interview. The clip spotlights Cruz's alleged ignorance of basic information about Iran. But, after Cockburn watched the much anticipated episode, he is sad to say that the grown men's yelling competition featured in the teaser turned out to be a faithful representation of the podcast as a whole. Here are Cruz and Carlson's zestiest and best delivered zingers: When discussing the Iran-backed assassination attempt of the former secretary of state Brian Hook, Cruz said, "Killing terrorists is a good thing.

Tucker Carlson screenshot
Lara Prendergast

Starmer at sea, Iran on the brink & the importance of shame

From our UK edition

46 min listen

Starmer’s war zone: the Prime Minister’s perilous position This week, our new political editor Tim Shipman takes the helm and, in his cover piece, examines how Keir Starmer can no longer find political refuge in foreign affairs. After a period of globe-trotting in which the Prime Minister was dubbed ‘never-here Keir’, Starmer’s handling of international matters had largely been seen as a strength. But as tensions escalate in the Iran–Israel conflict, global events are beginning to create serious challenges. They threaten not only to derail the government’s economic plans but also to deepen divisions within the Labour party, particularly between the leadership and much of the parliamentary party. Tim joined the podcast alongside The Spectator US editor Freddy Gray.

Tim Shipman

The inside story of how Labour is dealing with Iran

From our UK edition

16 min listen

This week, our new political editor Tim Shipman takes the helm and, in his cover piece, gives us the inside track on how Labour is dealing with Iran, Donald Trump and the prospect of escalating war in the Middle East. He writes that this could be the moment when all of Keir Starmer’s chickens come home to roost: his well-curated international image is at risk of crumbling as global crises present greater challenges; his hands are tied by legal advice from the controversial Lord Hermer; the Chagos Islands are being drawn into the US’s retaliation plans; and there remains the looming threat of backbench rebellion over Labour’s national security strategy. Tim is joined by James Heale and Lucy Dunn to discuss what may be Starmer’s biggest test yet.

Charlie Gammell

Striking Fordow will not solve the Iran problem

From our UK edition

The world is watching Donald Trump to see if he will give his military the green light to use one of America’s most deadly weapons, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (Mop), to destroy Iran’s underground nuclear facilities at Fordow. As a man with a seemingly inexhaustible need for attention, this is a gratifying position for him to be in. But a potentially dangerous one for the rest of us. ‘Trump doesn’t have a taste for war,’ someone said to me recently. ‘War’s bad for business.’ This appears to be true so far; we have certainly seen Trump try his hand at peace-making in Gaza, Ukraine and Iran with consistently poor results. But history is full of examples of far more principled men than Trump acquiring a taste for war through a thirst for power and money.

Douglas Murray

What else could Israel do?

From our UK edition

Over the past few days British readers have been able to enjoy a number of hot takes on the situation in the Middle East. First, there have been all the politicians, such as the Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who have called for our government to step in and ‘de-escalate’ the conflict between Israel and Iran. But even leaving aside whether the mullahs in Tehran can be swayed by Britain or Scotland, ‘de-escalation’ is the only surefire way to ensure that they continue to pursue a nuclear capability. Elsewhere, the BBC has been playing a blinder. When the conflict began, it decided that its audience would be well served by having the celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall give his thoughts on the matter.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: War in the Middle East, drought in Yorkshire and a knighthood for Beckham

From our UK edition

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, announced a full national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs (which he had previously opposed) on the recommendation of Baroness Casey of Blackstock, who had been asked to audit the matter. His announcement came after four men born in Pakistan and three Rochdale-born taxi drivers of Asian descent were convicted of offences against two teenage girls who were repeatedly raped and assaulted in Rochdale from 2001 to 2006. The Casey report said that Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire had ‘disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds amongst suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation’.