Category: Middle East

More than two dozen vessels belonging to Russia's so-called 'shadow fleet' have continued to traverse UK waters, despite Prime Minister Keir Starmer's recent authorisation for the military to detain ships exporting Russian oil.
Analysis of ship tracking data by Reuters reveals that sanctioned oil tankers are still passing along England's southern coast in the same volumes as before the government's announcement last week.
British officials had stated just under a week ago that the military was preparing to board vessels for sanctions breaches, with the hope that this public warning would compel the ships to adopt longer routes away from British territory.
Moscow condemned the move as “deeply hostile” and indicated potential retaliation.
However, since that declaration, the British military has not reported any boarding operations, while at least 25 sanctioned ships have entered British waters via the Channel, according to the Reuters findings.
James Fenne..

Israel’s new death penalty law is “cruel” and will unfairly target Palestinians, human rights organisations have warned.
The Knesset, Israel’s legislature, passed a law on Monday which would make death by hanging a default sentence for terrorism-related offences, particularly impacting West Bank Palestinians. The death penalty for ordinary crimes has been abolished in Israel since 1954 and the country has not carried out executions since 1962.
The passage of the bill marks the culmination of a years long drive by the Israeli far-right to escalate punishment for Palestinians convicted of nationalistic offences against Israelis.
It will also give Israeli courts the option to impose the death penalty on Israeli citizens convicted of similar charges, although legal experts have warned the language of the bill effectively confines those who can be sentenced to death to Palestinian citizens of Israel and excludes Jewish citizens.
The law will not apply retroactively to any prisoners Israel..

Iran on Monday defied Lebanon's expulsion order for its ambassador by saying he would stay, further increasing tensions in a country in the crosshairs of the latest fighting between the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israel.
Lebanon had declared Ambassador Mohammad Reza Shibani “persona non grata” in an effort to weaken Iran's diplomatic presence and have a charge d'affairs at its embassy instead. But the deadline to leave the country was Sunday.
“Our embassy in Lebanon is active,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told journalists. “Our ambassador, following remarks made by relevant Lebanese bodies and the conclusions reached, will continue his mission in Beirut and he is still there.”
Lebanese officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It was not clear what Lebanon would might do next or how diplomatic relations might be affected. The Iranian ambassador is reportedly in the embassy, where he is believed to have diplomatic immunity.
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Less than 12 hours after claiming Iran had accepted most of his purported 15-point plan to end the month-old American-Israeli war he started, President Donald Trump is renewing his threats to attack Tehran’s civilian infrastructure if the Iranian regime does not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
In a Monday Truth Social post, Trump said there’d been “great progress” in “serious discussions” with what he described as the “new and more reasonable regime” in Tehran but warned of more bombings if it falls apart.
“If for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely “stay” in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched,’” the president wrote.
“This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran ..

Thousands of Afghans who were put at risk after their data was leaked by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in a catastrophic blunder are still waiting to be brought to safety in the UK, more than six months after the scandal, The Independent can reveal.
Around 400 people who supported British efforts in Afghanistan and later had their personal information breached by the UK government have been left “trapped” in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries, struggling to get out.
Some 1,900 of their family members have also been left in limbo. One Afghan analyst urged the government to “redouble its efforts” to get the final families out, saying hundreds still “live in real danger of reprisals from the Taliban”.
The latest figures, from December 2025, obtained through freedom of information requests, show how UK evacuations are “working far too slowly when people’s lives are threatened”, campaigners said.
Chair of the Defence Select Committee Tan Dhesi said that while bringing people from Afg..

As the Iran war stretches into its second month, anger is mounting among some White House officials, according to a new report.
Discontent over the Middle East conflict is concentrated among younger, “more-right wing” staffers, an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter told Politico.
“They’re very frustrated,” the individual said. “They didn’t love the war to start with, and since it began, the constantly contradictory messaging from the president himself, is just brutal, brutal for staff to deal with and making their life really hard. He puts his people in a really tough position, especially people who are public-facing.”
The 79‑year‑old Republican president and other senior administration officials have offered up multiple justifications for the war, citing an imminent Iranian threat to the U.S. while also pointing to regime change as a factor. Trump has also sent mixed signals about when the conflict might end and whether or not he intends to deploy ground troops.
A White Hous..