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Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why I'm banned from Iran, Israel and the US – despite breaking no rules
Persian by blood, British by birth. A dual citizen who visited Iran every year of her life – until recently – to see the relatives still living there. I wouldn't change my heritage for the world, but I'd be lying if I said it hadn't caused a few problems when it comes to travel. It's a strange thing, being effectively barred from three of the world's most fascinating countries – without ever having broken a single rule. As a British-Iranian journalist, I've found myself… less than welcome, shall we say, in Iran, Israel and the US. Caught in a tangled web of international politics and passport technicalities, I've been forced to forgo opportunities and miss moments that matter. I remember being offered a press trip to Israel in the early days of my career – long before recent events – and telling my dad the exciting news. He shut it down almost instantly. 'If you go, you may never be allowed back into Iran,' he warned. At the time, I couldn't believe the two were so mutually exclusive. I'd hoped to visit Israel and Palestine with open eyes, to experience the people and cultures first-hand. But that door closed before it ever opened. The irony? Iran is now effectively off the table too. I haven't been banned – not officially – but as a journalist, the risks of a misunderstanding at the border are all too real. My parents' growing concern about my return is likely justified, no matter how frustrating it is to hear. And then there's the US. In 2016, I received an email informing me that my ESTA – the visa waiver British travellers take for granted – had been revoked. No explanation, just a blunt notification that I'd now need to apply for a full tourist visa. The reason? A sweeping policy affecting anyone who holds Iranian nationality or has travelled to certain countries since 2011. It was Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan at the time – and more have since been added to the list. I know what you're thinking: just give up the Iranian citizenship. But that's easier said than done – and not something I want to do. My Iranian passport may be expired, but holding onto it, or even just the national ID card, is a tether to my roots. To the country in which my parents were born, where my grandparents are buried, and where so many of my relatives still live. Retaining that citizenship is more than a legal technicality – it's a deeply personal connection to my culture, my language and my family. Growing up, I didn't always appreciate those annual visits, but I now see them as some of the most meaningful experiences of my life. And I'm far from alone. Thousands of dual nationals, including friends and colleagues, find themselves in similar limbo. Holding onto that second passport is, for many of us, a way of preserving our identity. But it comes with baggage: extra scrutiny at borders, bureaucratic hurdles and, in my case, a growing list of no-go zones. I've lost count of the number of times someone's told me, 'Just apply for an ESTA!' as if I haven't thought of that. Being shut out of a country based on your heritage is frustrating enough, and being met with blank stares or misguided advice when you try to explain why just adds insult to injury. I was lucky, in some ways. After graduating, I did manage to travel across the States – a three-month coast-to-coast road trip that I'll never forget. I returned again that winter for New Year's Eve in New York. At the time, I'd been torn between the US and backpacking through Southeast Asia. Now I'm glad I chose America – because that window has long since closed. Lately, though, I've had the itch again. There are places I'd love to revisit, friends I miss and cities I've yet to explore. But it's not simple. Getting a US visa isn't impossible, but appointments are backed up, and processing can take months. I could maybe get one for 2026 – if I'm lucky. Even then, there's the risk of being pulled aside at customs. It's an exhausting process to go through every time you just want to travel. I've already missed out on so much. I can't see the Savannah Bananas play (yes, really – look them up on Instagram). I've had to turn down work trips, missed invitations from friends, and soon I'll miss a close family friend's wedding in New York. None of my immediate family can go. My mum wanted to celebrate her 70th birthday in California next year. I've told her to keep up her gym routine and take her vitamins – we may have to delay that milestone. As for Iran, I haven't seen some of my relatives in a decade. When one set of aunts and uncles were able to get visas to visit their son in Canada, my sister and I flew out to meet them there. I'm so grateful we did. It's bittersweet to see travellers on Instagram and TikTok venturing to Iran, sharing the beauty of the country I know so well – its hospitality, its landscapes, its culture. I feel a pang of envy every time. Because while the world feels more connected than ever, people like me remain quietly, frustratingly, stuck in between.
South China Morning Post
18-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
By eroding US soft power, Trump is ceding the contest to China
In the grand theatre of international politics, soft power – the art of attraction without coercion or payment so eloquently defined by the late Joseph Nye – was long considered the gleaming crown jewel of American influence and the glaring deficiency in the Chinese arsenal amid the countries' rivalry for pre-eminence. Yet since US President Donald Trump's return to office, the balance of international attraction has been shifting remarkably in Beijing's favour. On the domestic front, the US administration's actions have profoundly compromised America's soft power reservoir. Its attacks on academic freedom and termination of student visas weaken the allure of American higher education, a key soft-power asset that fosters global appreciation for US values. Cuts to federal research grants, such as those for the National Institutes of Health, threaten America's technological leadership. A recent Nature survey of scientists in the US revealed an alarming finding – 75 per cent of respondents were considering relocating amid funding instabilities – a potential brain drain that would severely impair the nation's capacity to attract and retain talent. According to Nye, liberal democracies typically score high in national attractiveness because they are generally perceived as more legitimate and trustworthy than their non-democratic counterparts. Trump's authoritarian tendencies – his expressed admiration for autocratic leadership styles, prioritisation of loyalty over expertise in staffing his administration and efforts to bend news coverage to his will – undermine the rule of law, a cornerstone of US soft power, tarnishing its image as an exemplar of democracy.
Irish Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Military axis of Russia, China and North Korea will test what the West stands for
'Up Periscope'. We are all familiar with these words from wartime movies. They signify that those who have been tensely awaiting events are about to reconnect through a narrow aperture with the wider world. In the fast-moving world of international politics, diplomacy and trade, sometimes there is urgent need to survey where we are, while standing back from the bewildering detail thrown at us by the rush of events. From the point of view of nation states of Europe, some very obvious changes have happened. Vladimir Putin 's Russia, President Xi Jinping 's China and Kim Jong-un 's North Korea have emerged as members of a de facto military coalition that many believed had disappeared with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war. All three members of this coalition are nuclear powers. All of them are autocracies of one kind or another. All of them are united by a loathing of the West and all it stands for. That in turn poses the questions: what is the West and what does it stand for? Until the advent of Donald Trump , the West considered itself to be a worldwide community of functioning liberal democracies. That community stretched from Japan through many Asian states, and included Australia and New Zealand. While India did not consider itself to be a part of the West, it did consider itself to be a non-aligned democracy (the biggest in the world) that could do business with western states and respected the international rule of law. Many parts of Latin America also see themselves as functioning democracies, and most of Europe, with the exceptions of the Russian Federation and Belarus, claim to be democratic states. The powerhouse in terms of security behind the West was North America including the US and Canada. READ MORE The question is whether there is any effective counterbalance to the military axis of Russia, China and North Korea. The presence of China's armed forces on parade at Red Square, and direct participation by North Korean forces in the invasion to eliminate Ukrainian democracy, remind us that a balance is necessary. Trump's second term, and the chaotic but deeply dysfunctional relationship between Washington, Moscow and Kyiv, has changed all previous assumptions utterly. To the foregoing must be added the Middle East arena. The US obviously considers that Binyamin Netanyahu's Israel is of equal importance as any European state in terms of its ally status, the UK included. This brings us to the fundamental question. Does the Trump administration regard the European Union as a hostile entity as distinct from an economic competitor? The conversations between senior Trump officials during their leaked security discussions concerning the planned Houthi air strikes suggest visceral, almost blind, hostility against 'the Europeans'. Bearing in mind that the UK was willing to co-operate with US air missions designed to counter the Houthi threat to international shipping in the Red Sea zone, can it really be that Washington has conceived a new deep animus against other European states as perceived obstacles to its policies? Or should we swivel the periscope to look at other indications of Trumpism's attitude towards and plans for Europe and the EU? It is worth recalling that Elon Musk actually discussed the possibility of King Charles reversing the results of the last UK election by removing Keir Starmer as prime minister. It is also worth reminding ourselves that the Trump administration has signalled active sympathy for Germany's AFD. Victor Orbán 's Hungary seems firmly cemented into political alliance with Trump and Netanyahu (and Washington's sympathies with Marine Le Pen and Nigel Farage are all too obvious). Political developments in Romania and Slovakia and repeated suggestions that the democratically-elected Zelenskiy government in Ukraine is somehow illegitimate are all part of a Trumpian playbook. I believe that so-called sophisticated analysts who dismiss the obvious aims and methods of Trump as a strategy of unsettlement directed against counterparties in political negotiation are dangerously naive. The leaked comments about Europe are a better indicator of underlying attitudes and aims. All of this leaves the EU in particular, and the UK as its major ally on Ukraine, in a quandary. It is increasingly obvious that there are lines of fragility and dissent between the EU Commission's view of itself in international affairs and the various outlooks of its individual nation state members. The issue of migration – especially economic migration disguised as asylum-seeking – is an ever growing issue for the political viability of the EU. Angela Merkel 's naivety and, I regret to say, her arrogance posing as morality, has proven to be a political bridge far too far. EU member states now realise the folly of inserting into the EU charter of fundamental rights a wholly outdated and unsustainable recognition of asylum rights so open to massive abuse as a cover for migrancy. Migration is not only an issue for Starmer's UK. The entire EU badly needs a fundamental reset on migration if minimal cohesion and goodwill is to be preserved. The fate of the union depends on facing up to this glaring vulnerability. It's that serious.
