5 h. ago Lammy says Middle East needs ‘diplomatic solution’ after US talks

The comments came in the hours after calls between UK and US leaders.

Politics

53 h. ago Iran is the enemy Netanyahu has always wanted to destroy. Even from their bomb shelters, most Israelis support his war | Aluf Benn

Within Israel, Iran is seen as the ultimate threat. The prime minister knows this is his chance to rewrite his bloodied legacy “It’s 1938 and Iran is Germany The Jewish people will not allow a second Holocaust.” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, recited slogans like these incessantly for decades, urging action against the gravest threat to the Jewish state – a nuclear-armed Iran. He conveyed the message to successive US presidents. He presented a bomb cartoon at the UN. At countless Holocaust memorial events he described Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the present-day “final solution”.Netanyahu talked and talked about the pressing Iranian threat, but his listeners were not convinced. They dismissed him as an alarmist whose deadline Iran crossed year after year without deploying a nuclear weapon (it still hasn’t). Netanyahu’s critics at home taunted him as a chicken who would never dare to attack Iran’s nuclear installations – unlike his more decisive predecessors, who had ord...

Events

59 h. ago Middle East situation ‘perilous’, says Lammy amid calls for more talks

David Lammy flew from Washington to Geneva on Friday to meet Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.

Politics

64 h. ago Lammy urges Iran and US to keep talking as Middle East conflict continues

The Foreign Secretary met his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday alongside foreign ministers from France and Germany.

Events

5 d. ago Trump leaves Europe in the cold in the Rocky Mountains, and Iran with a stark choice

Trump sought to underline European irrelevance in the Middle East crisis. All now rests on what he proposesMiddle East crisis – live updatesDiscussing the dilemma facing western diplomats in confronting Iran’s nuclear programme, Henry Kissinger wrote in 2006: “Diplomacy never operates in a vacuum. It persuades not by the eloquence of its practitioners but by assembling a balance of incentives and risks.”Rarely has the balance of incentives and risks been placed so starkly in front of Iran’s leaders as now. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Keir Starmer in diplomatic push to head off Middle East crisis before G7 summit in Canada

PM to discuss Israel and Iran clashes with Mark Carney and expected to talk to leaders of US, France and GermanyMiddle East crisis – live updatesKeir Starmer is beginning an urgent diplomatic push to try to head off the crisis in the Middle East, as the Foreign Office warned Britons not to travel to Israel after further retaliatory attacks by Iran.Downing Street did not rule out the possibility of having to evacuate UK nationals from Israel if matters deteriorated, saying officials were keeping all contingency plans “under constant review”. Continue reading...

Politics