Iran: The Latest

Iran and Israel have bombed each other for the first time since they agreed a ceasefire with the US in early April. Why? And can Donald Trump stop all-out war from re-erupting? Venetia Rainey and Roland Oliphant bring you all the latest updates from the past 24 hours, plus chief foreign affairs commentator David Blair and foreign correspondent Akhtar Makoii discuss how we got here, the domestic fa...

How did heavily sanctioned Iran create a drone so cheap, deadly and effective that everyone from Russia to the US has copied it? From the Gulf being inundated with attacks by Iranian Shaheds to Ukraine finding innovative new ways to counter the Russian version, Tehran has mass-produced a strategic weapon that has challenged traditional Western air-defence thinking.  To look at how Iran did it...

The US military is secretly helping ships circumvent Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz along a new route hugging the Omani coast.  Bryan Clark, a former US Navy officer and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, looks at whether this is a solution to the Hormuz crisis that has plagued Donald Trump and the rest of the world since the war began. Plus, Hezbollah accuses Lebanon of “sur...

Is Donald Trump waiting until after the World Cup to restart the war with Iran despite the largest attack on the Gulf since the ceasefire began? Violence erupted overnight in the Middle East after the US attacked a ship heading to Iran and Tehran fired missiles and drones at Kuwait and Bahrain. Roland Oliphant looks at the latest news of clashes in the Persian Gulf and speaks to Maziar Bahari, fou...

Could Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah ruin the US’s attempts to strike a deal with Iran? News today about a fiery, expletive-laden phone call suggests Donald Trump is very upset with Benjamin Netanyahu and has forced him to halt a planned attack on Beirut. Michael Young from the Carnegie Middle East Center think tank joins from the Lebanese capital to take Venetia Rainey and Sophia Yan through...

Iran has pulled out of peace talks to end the war with the US, accusing Israel of breaking the ceasefire by ordering strikes on Beirut.  Roland Oliphant and Venetia Rainey discuss the latest news, which comes after a series of military escalations over the weekend, including more tit-for-tat bombing between the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile in Lebanon, the Israeli army scored...

Donald Trump says the US is lifting its blockade of Iranian ports and boats in the Strait of Hormuz - does this mean a peace deal is imminent? Plus, Iran famously has two militaries: a regular army, and the IRGC. But Tehran also has a third force: its network of foreign militias in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. They played a key role in the recent war - and no outsider knows them better than Elizabeth...

The United States has for the first time accused Iran of breaching the ceasefire, after Tehran fired a ballistic missile at Kuwait in response to the Americans hitting southern Iran. Washington brushed off previous exchanges of fire as ceasefire compliant, so does the change in rhetoric herald a return to all-out war? The Telegraph’s Lottie Tiplady-Bishop explains why domestic developments in Amer...

Iran appears increasingly confident that it will secure a favourable end to the war with the US. From demanding $24bn in frozen assets to publishing what they say is a draft peace deal to restoring the Internet after nearly 90 days, Tehran seems to feel victory both at home and abroad is within its grasp. Foreign correspondent Akhtar Makoii joins Roland Oliphant and Venetia Rainey to discuss the l...

The US says it has bombed Iranian mine-laying ships in the Strait of Hormuz and a missile launch site in southern Iran. Tehran says it has downed American drones. Is the war about to restart? Former Royal Navy officer Tom Sharpe explains what we know about the latest tit-for-tat military activity today and why the timing is unusual. He also gives an inside look at the threat posed by Iran’s newly...

In this special bank holiday episode, we’re taking a break from looking at the US-Iran war and focusing instead on tanks.  Since it first appeared on the Somme battlefield, the tank has dominated and defined modern warfare. It has been such a successful concept that its distinctive silhouette - two tracks, a turret and a gun - has barely changed in a hundred years. But can it survive in the c...

With Iran peace talks deadlocked, US military attention appears to be turning to another longtime enemy: Cuba.  This week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Cuba a threat to US security. Indictments have been issued against its elderly former president Raúl Castro. Claims about a Cuban drone stockpile aimed at the US have been leaked to the press. The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier has...

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...