Iran
Britain will soon have to pick a side in the US-Iran spat
Crises in the Gulf and Conservative leadership elections come around with unnerving regularity. It is not unknown for both to…
Give Tucker Carlson a Nobel prize!
The strong favorite for the Nobel Peace Prize this year is Greta Thunberg, a girl who lectures grownups about climate…
Iran alone: Tehran’s perspective on escalating hostilities
On 20 May, Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, predicted that Donald Trump would fail to subdue Iran just as…
Trump’s Iran strategy: Keep your enemies close and your hawks closer
Washington, DC Donald Trump has an itchy trigger finger, and his name is John Bolton. The President’s national security adviser…
Donald Trump has been captured by the neocons
Until now Donald Trump has proceeded with relative impunity in foreign affairs. But his imposition of a terrorist designation on…
I was forced to wear a hijab. It wasn’t liberating
It was World Hijab Day earlier this month. You probably missed it, but you can imagine the idea: ‘global citizens’…
The attempt to bring back topicality to Ambridge has been far too effective
It’s becoming clear that the travails afflicting all the major players in The Archers, Radio 4’s flagship drama, are intended…
Iran’s boat people — and why they’re coming to Britain
When the migrant crisis started, about three years ago, it was seen as a mainly Syrian affair. Caught in the…
The people have not forgotten me: the exiled Empress of Iran interviewed
Somewhere in the bowels of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is a portrait from a lost world. Its subject…
Trump’s anti-Iran vendetta is starting to backfire
It says something about the level of political discourse in America that Donald Trump decided to trumpet sanctions on Iran…
Why do we support the Iran regime when it is bitterly hostile to our way of life?
President Trump has ended US participation in the Iran deal and imposed sanctions. No doubt this is annoying to the…
The internal logic of the NHS makes it ruthlessly cold-hearted
Gordon Brown, echoing Aneurin Bevan, says that the greatest gift that the NHS brings to people is ‘serenity’. He is…
Putin says he’s making Russia great again. In reality, it’s crumbling
This is Putin’s time. Next week, the Fifa World Cup kicks off in Moscow, and the Kremlin has spared no…
How hospices make you think differently about life
The timing of the Today programme’s series about hospices could not have been more apt, coming as it did so…
Death in the streets as anti-government unrest sweeps Iran
Home In a message for the New Year, as though it were an immemorial custom, Theresa May, the Prime Minister,…
The Iranian rebellion the world wants to ignore
If there is one lesson the world should have learned from Iran’s ‘Green Revolution’ of 2009 and the so-called Arab…
Saudi Arabia has united with Israel against Iran – and a desert storm is brewing
Until last weekend, the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh’s exclusive Diplomatic Quarter was colloquially known as the Princes’ Hotel. It was a…
How Britain fell for Saudi Arabia’s reforming Crown Prince
There are two ways of seeing the extraordinary rise of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince: the blood-stained debut of a new…
A Muslim’s insights into Christianity
I’m not a critic, I’m an enthusiast. And when you are an enthusiast you need to try your best to…
The Kurds are on their own
The routing of Isis in northern Iraq ought to be a time of international celebration, but as ever in the…
Low life
On Saturday night, I toddled up to the village hall for the fish-and-chip supper, quiz night and raffle — bring…
Iran is our natural ally
The Saudi town of Awamiya — like so many countless cities across Iraq, Syria and Yemen that are witnessing an…
High life
I switch personalities at Spectator parties, depending who the guests are: for our readers’ tea party, I am a warm…
Why the World Service is worth every penny
What makes the World Service so different from the rest of the BBC? I asked Mary Hockaday, the controller of…