Iran: The Latest

Oil flows will not return to normal until the second half of next year - even if the Strait of Hormuz opens now. That’s the grim prognosis of the UAE’s most senior oil executive. But even if it does open, Iran is implementing a system of tolls that will have long-term implications, both in the Middle East and further afield. International economic editor Hans van Leeuwen tells Roland Oliphant how...

Iran has threatened to spread the war beyond the Middle East if Donald Trump starts bombing the country again. Is it an empty threat or should we be worried? Jonathan Hackett, a former US Marine Corps interrogator and special operations intelligence officer, joins the podcast again to discuss the state of Iran’s military capabilities, their Mosaic Doctrine and what next for the war with Venetia Ra...

Donald Trump has postponed his “scheduled” attack on Iran for now, but who is winning the online war between the two countries? America’s military has pumped out videos of air strikes and missile attacks, often spliced in with video game footage and overlaid with high octane music for maximum effect. Meanwhile, Iranian activists have created slick Lego animation videos set to hip hop music. Veneti...

Executions have soared inside Iran, with new Amnesty data today showing more than 2,000 people were given the death penalty in 2025.   Roland Oliphant speaks to Iranian journalist in exile Maryam Mazrooei about the “bloodthirsty” regime’s latest tactic to scare citizens into silence amid the war with the US and Israel. She also explains why the mood inside the country is increasingly dar...

Donald Trump ended his high stakes trip to China claiming Xi Jinping had promised not to arm Iran, wanted the Strait of Hormuz open, and backed his goal of preventing Tehran getting a nuclear weapon.  But does any of that amount to a change in Chinese policy, and will it do anything to bring the frozen but still rumbling conflict to a close?  Sophia Yan speaks to Andrea Ghiselli, a China...

As two more ships are attacked in the Strait of Hormuz and the ceasefire in Lebanon nears its end, all eyes are on the high-stakes US-China summit in Beijing. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping say they agree that Iran must not have nuclear weapons and that the Strait must be reopened - but what does that mean in practice?  Ahmed Aboudouh, Associate Fellow for Middle East and North Africa at Chatham...

Weeks of American and Israeli airstrikes inflicted grievous losses on Iran’s military. Or so we thought.  Now, US intelligence assessments suggest that Iran retains 70 percent of the missiles and launch vehicles it had before the war - including most of the sites threatening the Strait of Hormuz.  Holly Dagres joins Roland Oliphant and Sophia Yan to unpack the implications. She also expl...

The US-Iran ceasefire is on ‘life support,’ says Donald Trump. Iran may enrich Uranium to weapons grade if the war resumes, says its government.  All this sets the stage for Donald Trump’s trip to Beijing this week, where he will ask Xi Jinping for help bringing the war to a satisfactory end. Might the two most powerful men on the planet might find a way to re-open the Strait of Hormuz and en...

As Donald Trump rejects Iran’s rejection of his peace terms, diplomatic efforts to end the war are back where they started. David Blair explains how this leaves Donald Trump with little choice to restart the war - but with little appetite to do so.  And with time running out before the US president heads to China for a high-stake summit with Xi Jinping. Memphis Barker explains how Xi Jinping...

The US and Iran have traded fire - and blame - in the Strait of Hormuz, is the war about to restart? The ceasefire is looking shakier than ever after America bombed Iranian coastal cities overnight. It said it was a response to Tehran attacking three US destroyers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Today, Iran has attacked the UAE with drones and missiles. President Donald Trump says the US str...

The focus of the US-Iran war rests once again on the Strait of Hormuz, is there any way to get it open again?   Since Donald Trump cancelled Project Freedom, Iran’s chokehold on the vital waterway is as tight as ever. But James Parkin has some ideas. The former Royal Navy rear admiral was in charge of the task force that broke the last attempted IRGC shut down in 2019, and tells Roland O...

Is America’s Operation Epic Fury really over? Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US’s military campaign against the Iranian regime has finished, and there are growing reports of a US-Iran peace deal in the offing. Venetia Rainey and Roland Oliphant break down the top three news stories you need to know today, from why Donald Trump has ended Project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz to the impor...

Is the US-Iran war about to restart amid escalating tensions in the Strait of Hormuz? Donald Trump has launched Project Freedom - a US Navy mission to break the Iranian blockade imposed since the beginning of the war. However, while the White House has framed the escort of neutral vessels as a “humanitarian gesture”, Tehran sees it as an escalation. Iran has fired missiles and drones at ships and...

Within living memory, Tehran ruled an oil-rich great power brimming with intellectuals inspired by British democracy. So how did it become an impoverished rogue state at war with the West? In this special Bank Holiday edition, Ali Ansari, professor of Iranian history at the University of St Andrews, takes Roland Oliphant through Iran's tumultuous modern era: from the 1906 Constitutional Revol...

Donald Trump faces a critical decision as the Iran war drifts into a stalemate: double down on military force or hope the US blockade will break the deadlock.   Amid a deadline today for Trump to get Congress’ approval for further military operations under the War Powers Act, new reports suggest the Pentagon has requested the deployment of America’s Dark Eagle hypersonic missiles to the...

The UK is in shock after an Iran-linked Islamist group claimed yet another attack on Jews in London.  In the wake of the Golders Green stabbing attack, national security editor Rozina Sabur looks at what we know about the shadowy online group known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI) and its links to the Iranian regime.  Plus, as Donald Trump weighs whether to take further milita...

From the Strait of Hormuz to Lebanon, the Iran war has seen the West’s foes adopt asymmetric warfare with growing efficacy.  Fresh off the boat from the Omani side of the Strait, Adrian Blomfield joins Venetia Rainey and Roland Oliphant. He explains how being out on the busy, misty and historic waterway helped him to understand why it is almost impossible for the US to counter Iran’s so-calle...

Iran’s regime is facing an existential crisis prompted by the US-Israeli war.  Despite taking a military battering and the economy being in ruins, Tehran refuses to surrender to Donald Trump. Historian Arash Azizi takes Roland Oliphant and Sophia Yan inside the clash between the regime establishment and the ultra-hardliners who fear their vision of the Islamic Republic will not survive peace....

The US has severely depleted key munitions in the Iran war - and it’s already having global consequences.  From delayed deliveries to allies such as Japan, South Korea and Ukraine, to a knockon impact on any future wars - such as a potential conflict with China over Taiwan - new analysis of America’s strategic stockpiles do not make for comfortable reading. Venetia Rainey talks to Mark Cancia...

The US-Iran ceasefire has limped into its third week, but can stuttering peace talks deliver a deal before war resumes?  Roland Oliphant is joined by Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House, to discuss the latest news and updates, including what Mojtaba Khamanei’s reported injuries tell us about the balance of power in Tehran.  She also explains...

What will it take to protect the Strait of Hormuz from Iran’s sea mines and fast boats? With Tehran now charging extortionate tolls, attacking commercial ships who do not get permission to transit and reportedly laying around 20 sea mines, the vital waterway has become a living nightmare. President Donald Trump today told the US Navy to fire on any boats laying mines, but with Pentagon estimates t...

Instead of peace talks today, the US-Iran ceasefire is on the brink of collapsing and the Strait of Hormuz is heating up.  Despite the two-week deadline expiring today, JD Vance never boarded a plane to Pakistan for negotiations and neither did anyone from Iran. Instead, Donald Trump has extended the ceasefire indefinitely and the IRGC has today attacked several more international ships. Is t...

Can the US and Iran strike a last-minute nuclear deal to end the war? With the two-week ceasefire deadline expiring on Wednesday, peace talks are tentatively set to go ahead in Pakistan between US Vice President JD Vance and an Iranian delegation led by Mohammad Ghalibaf. Donald Trump has threatened to resume bombing if negotiations fail, but a major stumbling block remains: Iran’s nuclear program...

Will the weekend showdown in the Strait of Hormuz collapse the US-Iran ceasefire? After Iran opened and then closed the Strait, attacked an Indian tanker and turned around ships, Donald Trump ordered the seizure of a sanctioned Iranian vessel that was attempting to pass through the US blockade. What followed was a new first for the war: shots fired at the Iranian container ship’s engine and the wh...

Is Iran giving up its enriched uranium? US President Donald Trump says Tehran has agreed to hand over all of its “nuclear dust” - a potentially huge concession in the war. Venetia Rainey and Roland Oliphant discuss why this would be so significant and what might have been offered to Iran in return. They also discuss what this means for US-Iran peace talks and the latest updates from the Strait of...