Battle Lines Trump edition: Has he brought peace to the Middle East?
This week, Donald Trump completed his first official trip abroad, a bling-filled tour of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE that was punctuated by lots of his favourite things: lucrative deals.
He also announced he would be lifting sanctions on Syria and that a deal with Iran is close.
It was a trip designed to focus on positive headlines, alliances, and good vibes - a rare narrative in the Middle East these days.
Venetia talks to Saudi policy analyst Dr Najah Al-Otaibi about how the trip went down in the Gulf, some of the deal highlights, and why Trump has such a close 'bromance' with Saudi leader Mohammed Bin Salman. There was one area where things weren't so positive - the Gaza war, which is set to intensify in the coming weeks despite growing warnings of famine amid an Israeli aid blockade.
Jonathan Crickx, Unicef's chief of communications in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, shares his insights and experiences from his recent trip to the Strip.
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Sky News
19 minutes ago
- Sky News
Israel-Iran live: Eight killed in Israel as Iran breaches Iron Dome; Tehran preparing to leave key nuclear treaty
Explained: What is Israel's Iron Dome? Israel's Iron Dome defence system was penetrated overnight as Iran launched renewed airstrikes, with at least eight people killed and nearly 300 injured. Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed to have used a new attack method that caused the multi-layered defence system to target itself. "The initiatives and capabilities used in this operation, despite the comprehensive support of the United States and Western powers and the possession of the most up-to-date and newest defence technology, led to the successful and maximum hitting of the missiles on the targets in the occupied territories," it said. But what is the Iron Dome and how does it work? The Iron Dome is Israel's highly prized air defence system. It uses radar to detect and intercept aerial attacks targeting the country. Mobile launchers and 'battle management centres' It was developed by Israel's state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems with US support. It consists of a series of truck-towed mobile units placed throughout the country. When their radars detect a threat, the information is sent to a "battle management centre" where military personnel analyse it, anticipating its path and impact point, and decide which missile launcher to use to intercept it. Counter missiles are then fired directly at the threat - or near it - so the shrapnel can neutralise it. The dome, known as Kippat Barzel in Hebrew, reacts within a matter of seconds and is manned 24 hours a day. Originally, it was designed to protect cities and strategic sites against missiles with a range of 2.5 to 43 miles, but it is thought to have been expanded. More than 90% effective It has blocked more than 90% of rockets fired towards Israel, with a naval version deployed to protect ships and other assets in 2017. This is at least partly why the number of Israeli deaths in the current fighting with Iran and Hamas has remained relatively low. Soon after it began operating, it became the envy of other militaries. Rafael says it has supplied at least two Iron Dome batteries to the US army, with Ukraine having made a similar request. Saturation point unknown Although extremely effective, it is not perfect. Overnight, a number of cities in Israel were hit by Iranian strikes, leading to several deaths, with more people trapped under the rubble. The dome also has a saturation point at which it would become overwhelmed, but this level is unknown. When fighting between Hamas and Israel broke out on 7 October 2023, 3,000 rockets were fired from Gaza at once. Israel also has medium and long-range defence systems, known as David's Sling, Patriot and Arrow.
BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
"We need to keep hitting them": Israelis in city struck by Iran back offensive
Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, has long been a stronghold of support for Israel's right-wing governing coalition. In the early hours of Sunday morning, an Iranian missile struck a 10-storey block of flats there, killing at least eight people and trapping dozens more under thick layers of the severe damage, locals here strongly back Israel's attack on Iran, which began on Friday and has targeted nuclear facilities, missile sites, air defences, an airport and other infrastructure as well as nuclear and military personnel. "It needed to be done," says Veronica Osipchik, 33, who lives about 200m (321ft) from the strike site. "But we didn't expect it to affect us like this."Ms Osipchik had the windows and shutters of her apartment completely blown through. Almost every building in the vicinity suffered similar damage."We were in shock," she said, sat on a camping chair alongside a suitcase packed with food and toiletries. The ballistic missiles that caused the damage in Bat Yam are far more powerful than the rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah over the past year and half. Those are mostly intercepted by Israel's sophisticated air defence first of those trapped under rubble were pulled out within hours. As of late Sunday, at least three people remained unaccounted for. "I saw fear in their eyes," said rescue paramedic Ori Lazarovich. "People came out all grey, covered in soot and ash and debris."Avi, a 68-year old who did not want to give his surname, was born and raised in Bat Yam. "We need to keep hitting [Iran]" he says. "Of course we have to keep going. Otherwise, they'll drop an atomic bomb on us.""They're weak. We're much stronger," he adds. "Israel is number one in the world."Emil Mahmudov, 18, agreed: "We should have done this sooner. That's what most Israelis think." Israel's justification for its attack on Iran is to stop its nuclear programme. For well over a decade, successive governments have sounded alarm about the Iranian regime gaining nuclear weapons - something Iran denies as Netanyahu has come under fire within Israel for the state of the war in Gaza, his chief political rivals - Benny Gantz, Avigdor Lieberman and Yair Lapid - have all expressed support for attacking Iran. Professor Yossi Mekelberg, of the Middle East Programme at Chatham House, says there has "always been support to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear military capabilities".But, he says, "this is much bigger than fighting Hamas in Gaza, even Hezbollah in Lebanon, or a very limited direct confrontation with Iran.""This is evolving into a full-blown war. And there is fatigue in Israel after 20 months of war.""If there are more casualties, if people are spending a long time in shelters, and if it becomes, again, another never-ending war," then support, he says, could mid-afternoon on Sunday, Israel's far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir - who was recently sanctioned by the UK government for "inciting violence against Palestinians" - arrived in Bat Yam to meet by a cohort of armed security personnel, he shook hands with shop owners along a street where many had their windows blown through by the shock of the blast. One, who did not want to give his name, was sat on a plastic chair outside his bakery, which he'd run for 29 years. He said he was there to prevent he support opening a new front against Iran? "Of course," he says, waving his hands. "What kind of question is that?"Netanyahu also visited Bat Yam on Sunday, to chants of "Bibi, King of Israel" - a play on a popular song about the Biblical warrior King David that many Jewish children learn in later, in an evening address, he mourned the dead, telling the nation: "This is a difficult day. I told you, there will be difficult days."Even with broad support for the conflict, if it continues to escalate - and civilian deaths continue to rise - there will be a question over how many difficult days the Israeli public will tolerate.
The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Iran threatens to leave nuclear weapons treaty as Israeli bombing enters fourth day
Iran has threatened to leave the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) as Israel bombing raids entered a fourth day, underlining the conflict's potential to trigger a broader war and Tehran's race to construct a nuclear weapon. The human cost of the war continued to escalate with both sides broadening their range of targets, as G7 leaders convened in the Canadian rockies with no clear plan to end the conflict. As he left for the summit on Sunday, the US president, Donald Trump, told reporters: 'Sometimes they have to fight it out.' Iran's health ministry said that 224 people in Iran had been killed by Israeli attacks, 90% of them civilian, and more than 1,400 had been injured. Israel's defence minister, meanwhile, threatened further bombing strikes on Tehran, where an exodus of residents has been reported, clogging roads out of the capital. In Israel, at least 23 civilians have been killed in Iran's retaliatory missile strikes since Israel's initial surprise attack on Friday morning, and nearly 600 have been injured, according to official sources. Both sides have targeted each other's oil and gas facilities, increasing the threat of environmental disaster, and explosions were reported on Monday near oil refineries in southern Tehran. The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, announced on Monday that Iran's parliament, the Majlis, was preparing a bill that would withdraw the country from the 1968 NPT agreement, which obliges it to forego nuclear weapons and to undergo international inspections to verify compliance. Baghaei added that Tehran remained opposed to the development of weapons of mass destruction. The country's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, also insisted that Iran did not intend to develop nuclear weapons but would pursue its right to nuclear energy and research. He pointed out that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had issued a religious edict against weapons of mass destruction. Israel is the only Middle East state with nuclear weapons and did not sign the NPT, but has never formally acknowledged its arsenal. It is seeking to maintain its monopoly with air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, claiming that Tehran was close to building a bomb. Previous assessments by US intelligence and the UN nuclear watchdog found no evidence that Iran had begun work on assembling a nuclear weapon. Israeli critics of the offensive say it cannot destroy Iran's reserve of nuclear knowhow – though Israel has targeted Iranian nuclear scientists, claiming to have killed 14 – and could push the leadership into ordering the assembly of nuclear warheads. There were reports on Monday of Israeli strikes on the Tehran headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard Corps al-Quds force, an expeditionary arm deployed in foreign wars. Despite Israeli claims to have air superiority over much of Iran, Iranian forces have still been able to launch ballistic missiles from their territory and some continue to evade Israel's multi-layered air defences. IDF officials estimate that it is has been able to intercept 80-90% of Iran's missiles, with 5-10% hitting actual residential areas. Eight more Israelis were killed overnight by Iranian missile strikes, including four in Petah Tikva where a missile hit an apartment block. Three people died from blasts in Haifa and an elderly man was killed when his home collapsed from the shockwave from an explosion in Bnei Brak, east of Tel Aviv. Iran's Revolutionary Guards claimed to have begun strikes 'more powerful and deadly than previous waves,' and to have found a way of causing confusion in Israeli air defence systems. There was no immediate way of independently verifying the claim. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, reported on social media 'some minor damage from concussions of Iranian missile hits' near the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv. An Israeli biology professor, Eran Segal, posted photos on X f damage to his laboratory at the Weizmann Institute, a scientific research centre which has been previously targeted by Iranian intelligence for its nuclear research. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Israeli strikes have caused damage to the above-ground part of the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, and to the nuclear complex in Isfahan. The IAEA director general, Rafael Grossi, reported on Monday that four buildings in Isfahan had been damaged in Friday's bombing raids: its central chemical laboratory, a uranium conversion plant, a plant making nuclear fuel for a research reactor in Tehran and a processing facility which had been under construction which would process enriched uranium into metal form, which is the form used in a nuclear warhead. Addressing the IAEA board of governors representing member states, Grossi said there were no signs of damage at the Fordow enrichment plant, which is deeply buried. Military commentators have suggested that Israel would find it hard to destroy Fordow and other underground facilities without the intervention of US forces, who have much bigger bunker-busting bombs. Iran urged the board to condemn Israeli attacks on its nuclear sites, which Grossi has also said are contrary to the UN charter and international law. Iranian state TV said the country fired at least 100 missiles at Israel, with no signs of a reduction in Iran's efforts to strike back against Israeli attacks, which have wiped out the top echelon of the Iranian military command. As Tehran residents evacuated the capital in increasing numbers, Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, threatened to make Tehranis 'pay the price' for Khamenei's decision to keep firing missiles at Israel in retaliation for the Israeli attack. 'The arrogant dictator from Tehran has become a cowardly murderer who deliberately fires at Israeli civilians to deter the IDF from continuing the attack that is tearing him down,' Katz wrote. 'The residents of Tehran will pay the price, and soon.' The Iranian state-backed news agency Fars reported that the authorities had executed a man found guilty of spying for Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad. It was the third execution of an alleged spy in recent weeks. Iran's chief justice, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, vowed there would be speedy trials anyone arrested on suspicion of collaboration. 'If someone is arrested for having ties to and collaborating with the Zionist regime, their trial and punishment should be carried out and announced very quickly, in accordance with the law and given the war conditions,' Ejei said, quoted by the Tasnim news agency. G7 leaders began gathering in the Canadian Rockies on Sunday with the Israel-Iran conflict expected to be a top priority. Before leaving for the summit on Sunday, Trump was asked what he was doing to de-escalate the situation. 'I hope there's going to be a deal. I think it's time for a deal,' he told reporters. 'Sometimes they have to fight it out.' Talks previously scheduled between the US and Iran in Oman on Sunday were cancelled and Iranian officials have signalled they will not resume any negotiations while their country is under attack. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said his goals for the summit were to try to ensure Iran did not develop or possess nuclear weapons, while ensuring Israel's right to defend itself. Merz added that Germany wanted to avoid escalation of the conflict and creating room for diplomacy. 'This issue will be very high on the agenda of the G7 summit,' Merz told reporters.
