TEHERAN “KEEP THE ENEMY confused, and always take the opportunity to kick him in the balls when he’s down.” General Doug Dugout, of Retaliate Retaliate Retaliate, a right-wing think tank based in Pretoria, South Africa, was commenting on the news that President Donald Trump has struck Iran’s nuclear facilities, despite a two-week warning and his…

TEHERAN “IRAN CAN ABSORB a hell of a lot of punishment, and remain essentially Iran. Israel is essentially conducting a raid here. It cannot follow up bombing success with boots on the ground. It could easily wear itself out just trying to bomb everywhere it needs to bomb in Iran. It’s a very big country.…

OUR TREASONOUS DOG WRITERS THE LOSS OF one senior commander is a misfortune, the loss of two, possibly carelessness, but the loss of more than that is a sure sign treachery could be at work. The Israeli decapitation of top-line Iranian leaders is causing many in the Islamic Republic’s hierarchy, political and military, to suspect…

KYIV A SENIOR UKRAINIAN general has suggested that his country needs to attack Iran if it is to regain the attention of the West, and keep aid flowing. “The war in the Middle East has exacerbated our problems,” says an officer close to the general. “The West, NATO, they have all grown tired of our…

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…