FROM OUR REPORTERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST NOT SINCE BENITO Mussolini attacked a broken France in June 1940, has a world leader been so desperate to grab the spoils of victory earned by the talent and sweat of another nation. Donald Trump is demanding unconditional surrender from Iran, a country with which the United States…

ANYWHERE BUT HERE CORRESPONDENTS IF EVERY CLOUD has its silver lining, then the spike in demand for private jet transport in Iran is the single bright point in what is happening in that benighted country. “Amazing what a little all-out war does for the desire to travel, particularly among the ruling class of a belligirent,”…

TEHERAN AN EXPLOSION AT Iranian state television station IRIB, may not have been an Israeli missile but instead a disgruntled viewer sick of so many repeats being shown. “This could even have been a soldier who has access to Iranian missiles and a programming grudge against the network,” says media in conflict expert Dr Clame…

WASHINGTON, DC WHILE DONALD TRUMP did not arrange for the Israeli attack on Iran so he could avoid meeting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, he has held out the crisis created by the mutual exchange of missiles as his excuse for exiting the current G7 gathering in Canada, prematurely, thus achieving the end result in…

BELGRADE, THURSDAY “IF THE AMERICANS join the Israeli aggression, we could be forced to target Shannon Airport, which the *Great Satan uses as a transport hub for its armed forces, with missiles; if we target that, President Trump’s ungodly golf course in County Clare is not far away, so we can hit it too. Prepare…

LONDON BRITAIN’S FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE agency, MI6 has a new C, which is what the boss is called, unless it’s a James Bond movie when C is M. The new C was formerly Q, head of the technical section of MI6, and also worked for MI5, the British Internal Security Service, letters unknown, before becoming Q…

FROM OUR INTELLIGENCE WRITERS “WE CAN KILL every last one of them, the entire leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” These are the words of a senior figure in Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence service, who talked to the Kookaburra Bugle by AI encryption, from his base inside Iran. “No point in them throwing away…

TEHERAN DESK IF IRAN KEEPS raining down missiles in the numbers it has been firing at Israel, some of them could fall on the Palestinian lands of the West Bank and Gaza, an expert has warned. “Iran is firing missiles like they were volleys of arrows, with little real direct targeting, which means that if…

JERUSALEM NOW THAT THE shooting has started, Israel has the edge in weapons; while Iran fills in its gaps with rhetoric. But Iran does have an advantage it hasn’t used yet against Israel – population. There are almost 90 million Iranians, which gives them a 10 to advantage over Israel. Even a pick-up truck army…

BEIRUT IT’S THE DOG that hasn’t barked. Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, normally a loyal ally of the Islamic Republic, appears to be sitting out the current hostilities with Israel. “Israel did a lot of damage to Hezbollah a while back – remember those pager assassinations – and the Lebanese Government has its eyes on…