5 h. ago 'Strong case' for Donald Trump to attack Iran's nuclear sites with bunker

Sir John Sawers, head of the Secret Intelligence Service from 2009 to 2014, believes it may be better if the US president ‘got on with it’

Events

5 h. ago Trump approved Iran attack plans on Tuesday but then decided to hold off, report says

President still weighing U.S. intervention in Middle East in hope Tehran will back down

Politics

8 h. ago Israeli hospital hit by Iranian missile as Trump 'approves Iran attack plan' but yet to decide whether to strike

A number of people have been wounded in the attack on Soroka Medical Centre, according to a hospital spokesperson

Events

9 h. ago Trump considering Iran attack plan as UK's David Lammy flies to USA

Sir Keir Starmer convened a COBRA meeting to discuss the situation in the Middle East

Politics

9 h. ago Trump 'approves plan for attack on Iran and could launch strike in coming days'

Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened an attack on U.S. naval ships and troops if Donald Trump authorizes strikes on its nuclear bunkers as Israel is hit with a sixth day of bombing.

Events

16 h. ago Donald Trump privately 'approves attack plans' for Iran but withholds final order

Donald Trump has reportedly approved attack plans for Iran just hours after he issued a thinly-veiled threat at Iran, joking about joining Israel in attacking the Middle Eastern nation

Politics

19 h. ago Trump says he 'may or may not' attack Iran after Keir Starmer chairs emergency Cobra meeting

When asked about the possibility of US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, the president said: ‘nobody knows what I’m going to do’

Politics

23 h. ago Israel’s assumption US would get drawn into Iran war is being put to the test

President Donald Trump initially appeared to discourage attacks but Israeli officials claim they always had his supportIsrael’s attack on Iran was carried out with Donald Trump’s approval, government officials in Israel claim, and it appears to have been unleashed in the expectation – but not certainty – that the US would ultimately get drawn into the war.That assumption is now being put to the test as the US president weighs a decision on whether to join an assault he has increasingly embraced in his public pronouncements. Continue reading...

Politics

42 h. ago Is this Trump’s WMD moment? President overrules intelligence agencies on Iran to justify war

ANALYSIS: Donald Trump rose to power criticizing Bush-era politicians for lying about weapons of mass destruction. Now he is accused of doing the same, Richard Hall writes.

Politics

43 h. ago ‘Not our war’: bipartisan US lawmakers back resolution to block involvement in Iran

Republican Thomas Massie joins with Democrats in effort to require Congress approval before Trump attacks IranAs Donald Trump publicly threatens to join Israel in attacking Iran, an unlikely coalition of lawmakers has moved to prevent the president from involving US forces in the conflict without Congress’s approval.On Tuesday, Republican congressman Thomas Massie, whose libertarian-tinged politics have often put him at odds with Trump, joined with several progressive Democrats to introduce in the House of Representatives a war powers resolution that would require a vote by Congress before Trump could attack Iran. Democrat Tim Kaine has introduced companion legislation in the Senate. Continue reading...

Events

47 h. ago What are Trump's options to attack Iran?: How US has tens of thousands of troops in bases across the Middle East

Iran has threatened to drag the United States into the conflict by attacking their bases in the region should Washington intervene on Israel's behalf.

Politics

48 h. ago Trump cannot avoid the question much longer – is he going to join Israel’s war or not? | Rajan Menon

If he does nothing, the US president may alienate Israel’s fervent American allies. If he intervenes, he’ll undermine his own foreign policyDuring his three presidential campaigns, Donald Trump ran as an opponent of serial military interventions and wars of “regime change” à la Iraq and Libya, which neoconservatives and liberal internationalists alike had embraced after the end of the cold war. He correctly sensed that many Americans had tired of “forever wars”.Benjamin Netanyahu’s attack on Iran is a watershed moment for Trump. It will force him to reveal whether he truly represents a clean break with the foreign policy establishment, often referred to as “the blob”, or is in fact a continuation of it. It all depends on whether he decides to join Israel’s attacks on Iran.Rajan Menon is a professor emeritus of international relations at the City College of New York and a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies Continue reading...

Politics

64 h. ago Trump fires back at Tucker Carlson after he accuses US president of being ‘complicit’ in Israel

Donald Trump fired back at Tucker Carlson after he accused the US president of being “complicit”in Israel’s attacks on Iran.

Politics

68 h. ago The Guardian view on Netanyahu’s Iran war: long planned, recklessly pursued – and perilous for all | Editorial

Israel’s strikes against Tehran risk spiralling conflict, flout legal norms and may permanently bury the last chance for nuclear diplomacyIn late 2020, Gen Mark Milley – then chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff – urged Donald Trump not to attack Iran and to ignore pressure from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who was pushing hard for military action. Mr Trump backed down after the general warned that attacking Iran would start a war, with the risk of US officials being “tried as war criminals in The Hague”.Five years on, Israel’s prime minister has the fight with Tehran that he has spent decades preparing for, bolstered by Mr Trump’s claims that international law no longer applies. After all, why worry about red lines when The Hague’s already got a warrant out for you and your allies pretend not to notice? It helps when the US treats the international criminal court like a rogue actor. Mr Trump has even gone after the court’s judges and prosecutor for ...

Events

5 d. ago Netanyahu outplayed Trump on Iran. Now the US risks being mired in another war | Mohamad Bazzi

If Trump wants to be the peacemaker he claims to be, he must negotiate a new deal with TehranBefore dawn on Friday, Israel unleashed a wave of air strikes against more than 100 targets in Iran, including nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and air defense systems. The surprise Israeli attack also killed some of Iran’s most senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. The Iranian regime called it a “declaration of war” – and western powers raced to prevent a wider regional conflict that could draw in the US along with other countries in the Middle East.While the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claims that he’s trying to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the attack is as much intended to blow up ongoing negotiations between Tehran and Donald Trump’s administration. While Trump’s overall foreign policy has been a disaster, for months he had resisted Netanyahu’s pleas to give Israel a green light to attack Iran, with US assistance. Trump insiste...

Events

5 d. ago Trump scrambles to claim credit for Israel’s Iran attack he publicly opposed

Discordant US response as president says he was fully aware of plans for what Marco Rubio called a ‘unilateral action’ Middle East crisis – live updatesDonald Trump is walking a tightrope as he claims that he was fully aware of Israel’s plans to launch massive airstrikes against Iran while continuing to distance the US from those strikes and deny Washington took any active role in the preparations.The White House’s messaging has shifted quickly from Marco Rubio’s arms-length description of the Israeli attack as a “unilateral action”, to Trump claiming on Friday morning that he was fully in the loop on the operation and that it came at the end of a 60-day ultimatum he had given Iran to “make a deal” on its nuclear programme. Continue reading...

Politics

5 d. ago Voices: Why Israel’s attack on Iran proves Netanyahu is an unhinged messiah

Israel’s prime minister sees himself not only as the protector of Israel, but the saviour of the West. This, he believes, is how he should go down in history, writes former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas

Politics

6 d. ago Voices: Netanyahu’s ‘Israel first’ attack on Iran shows that Trump can shout – but no one is listening

Although the US president can effectively bully friendly states such as Canada, when it comes to the ‘strong men’ of the world, he has been played time and again, says Sean O’Grady

Politics

6 d. ago Israel snubbed Trump plea not to strike Iran after President said just hours before that an attack could 'blow' nuclear deal talks

Israel snubbed US president Donald Trump's plea not to strike Iran just hours after he said that an attack would 'blow' nuclear deal talks. 

Politics

7 d. ago US tells embassy staff to evacuate in Iraq over fears Israel is ready to attack Iran, as trump warns 'it could be dangerous'

Fears of an Israeli attack on Iran have escalated dramatically in recent days, with delicate nuclear talks between Iran and the United States appearing to stall.

Events