John Healey says extra deployment is defensive response to ‘expanding threat’ from Iran
The UK is sending more military support to the Gulf, taking the total deployment to 1,000 troops, amid more jibes from Donald Trump about Britain’s refusal to get involved in offensive operations against Iran.
Speaking from Qatar where he met UK troops, the defence secretary, John Healey, said the extra deployment was in response to an “expanding threat” from Iran.
Continue reading...Death confirmed of Esmail Khatib, the third senior Iranian figure killed in 24 hours, as Israel also launches intense airstrikes on Lebanon
Israel struck Iran’s giant South Pars gasfield on Wednesday, marking a major escalation of the war, hours after Israeli forces killed the regime’s intelligence minister and launched some of the most intense airstrikes in Beirut for decades.
The attack on the Pars site in the Persian Gulf, which Iran shares with Qatar and constitutes the world’s largest natural gasfield, prompted Tehran to warn neighbouring states that their energy infrastructure could be targeted “within hours”, and triggered furious rebukes from Qatar and other nations in the region.
Continue reading...Instruction comes as Israel continues to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launches retaliatory strikes
The Israeli military has ordered the entire population of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate, as it continued to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and US bases across the region.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs – more than 500,000 people – to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately”, before Israel launched airstrikes on what he described as Hezbollah targets. The area covered by the order included several hospitals and government ministries.
Continue reading...Pageantry and trillion-dollar promises reveal how Washington’s loyalties may be tilting toward the Gulf
The White House welcome bestowed on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was the most lavish of the Trump presidency, and a gaudily clear statement of its foreign policy priorities.
It was billed as a mere working visit, but it was more extravagant than any previous state visit. The president greeted the prince on the south lawn, the White House’s biggest stage. There were uniformed men on horses bearing flags and a flypast of fighter jets.
Continue reading...More than 150 psychiatrists sign letter condemning contract to host exams in country with well-documented human rights abuses
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is facing a backlash from members over a controversial partnership with Qatar’s state healthcare provider.
The college has signed a contract with the state-owned Hamad Medical Corporation to host international exams in Doha, enabling psychiatrists from across the Middle East and beyond to apply for membership.
Continue reading...Majed al-Ansari calls for international force to be set up urgently to pave way for Israeli withdrawal
Gaza risks sliding towards a deadly limbo where a ceasefire is nominally in place but killing continues, a top Qatari diplomat has warned, calling for rapid progress in setting up the international security force and administration to pave the way for full Israeli withdrawal.
“We don’t want to reach a situation of no war, no peace,” said Majed al-Ansari, adviser to Qatar’s prime minister and spokesperson for the foreign ministry.
Continue reading...White House says it is important ‘that we get this done quickly’ as indirect talks restart in Sharm el-Sheikh
A US delegation led by envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to join talks in Egypt on Wednesday to reinforce President Donald Trump’s involvement in the newly restarted negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
The indirect talks at Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian resort city on the Red Sea, entered their second day on the second anniversary of the Hamas surprise attack into Israel that triggered the bloody conflict.
Continue reading...Text appears meant to assure the Qataris following Israel’s surprise attack on the country targeting Hamas leaders
Donald Trump has signed an executive order vowing to use all measures including US military action to defend the energy-rich nation of Qatar – though it remains unclear just what weight the pledge will carry.
The text of the order, available Wednesday on the White House’s website but dated Monday, appears to be another measure by Trump to assure the Qataris following Israel’s surprise attack on the country targeting Hamas leaders as they weighed accepting a ceasefire with Israel over the war in the Gaza Strip.
Continue reading...Barbie Reynolds, 76, and husband Peter, 80, said it was never explained to them why they were imprisoned
A British couple who were reunited with their family in the UK after being released from almost eight months in detention in Afghanistan have said they feared being executed by the Taliban.
Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife, Barbie, 76, who arrived at Heathrow on Saturday, said it was never explained to them why they were imprisoned in Afghanistan after their arrest in February.
Continue reading...Barbie Reynolds, 76, and husband Peter, 80, were released after being held without charge for nearly eight months
A British couple who were detained without charge for nearly eight months by the Taliban in Afghanistan have arrived in the UK.
Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, were released on Friday, having been arrested as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan, in February.
Continue reading...Arab states say US should use its leverage and influence as they promise to ‘activate joint defence mechanisms’
Gulf leaders meeting at an emergency summit in Qatar have called on the Trump administration to use its leverage to rein in Israel following the unprecedented Israeli attempt last Tuesday to assassinate Hamas negotiators in Doha.
Speaking after the meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the group’s secretary general, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, said: “We … expect our strategic partners in the United States to use their influence on Israel in order for it to stop this behaviour … they have leverage and influence on Israel, and it’s about time that this leverage and influence be used.”
Continue reading...US secretary of state, who is visiting Jerusalem, warns of ‘Israeli counter reaction’ if allies recognise Palestine
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has put the Trump administration’s full support behind Benjamin Netanyahu in a visit to Jerusalem, saying Washington’s priorities were the liberation of Israeli hostages and the destruction of Hamas.
In public remarks standing alongside Netanyahu, Rubio did not mention the possibility of a ceasefire, and did not repeat his earlier criticism of Israel for carrying out an airstrike last week aimed at Hamas leaders in Doha, the capital of another close US ally, Qatar.
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That brings the press conference to a close, as Netanyahu takes a moment to acknowledge both his and Rubio’s staff who are sat in the front row.
The main takeaways from the event, which lasted just over half an hour, are that the US views international efforts to recognise the Palestinian state as a hindrance to peace efforts and that Netanyahu refuses to rule out future strikes on Hamas leaders – wherever they are.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: For decades, Gulf states have believed that a close relationship with US will guarantee their safety. That is no longer the case
Good morning. Last Monday, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, announced that his country had accepted the US ceasefire proposal to end the devastating war in Gaza. The very next day, Israel attempted to kill Hamas’s negotiating team while they were in Qatar’s capital to discuss that same proposal.
Israel, initially bullish about the success of the operation, has since grown more doubtful that it killed any Hamas leaders in Doha. Hamas said that while six people were killed in the bombing – including the son of Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy head of its political bureau – the top leadership including the negotiating team survived.
UK news | Britain will “never surrender” to far-right protesters who use the English flag as cover for violence and to instil fear, Keir Starmer has said, condemning attacks against police officers and racist harassment after more than 110,000 people attended an extremist London rally.
Crime | Christian Brueckner, prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has refused to be interviewed by the Metropolitan police before his pending release from prison in Germany, Scotland Yard has said.
US | The Utah governor, Spencer Cox, has said 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing Turning Point USA executive director Charlie Kirk, “does come from a conservative family – but his ideology was very different than his family”. Robinson was not cooperating with authorities, said Cox.
Europe | Poland’s foreign minister has said the Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace was an attempt by the Kremlin to test Nato’s reactions by incremental escalations without prompting a full-scale response, as Romania became the second Nato country to report an incursion in a matter of days.
Television | It was a full sweep for Adolescence at the Emmys, winning every award in which the show was nominated tonight. Fifteen-year-old Owen Cooper made history as the youngest ever actor to win the Emmy for best supporting actor in a limited series. Emmy awards 2025 – full list of winners
Continue reading...US secretary of state says Trump ‘not happy’ about Israeli attack that targeted Hamas officials in Doha for Gaza talks
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has held talks in Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu aimed at limiting the diplomatic damage to both countries by Israel’s attempt to assassinate Hamas leaders in Qatar, its continued demolition of Gaza, and the accelerated expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli prime minister took Rubio on a tour of the Western Wall, where both men placed written prayers between the stones, before taking his American visitor underground to view archeological excavations.
Continue reading...The attack in Doha upended a decades-old assumption – and left Arab leaders questioning how much they can still rely on Washington
On Thursday, Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, led a funeral at the state mosque. Flanked by officials in white thobes, he prayed over six caskets – one draped in a Qatari flag and five bearing Palestinian flags.
Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday, which also killed a Qatari officer, marked an unprecedented moment for the Gulf kingdom. The attack undercut the assumption that has underpinned Qatari foreign policy for three decades and reverberated across the Arab region: be useful to the United States, and it will protect you.
Continue reading...The White House is caught between supporting Israel’s war against Hamas and patching up relations with a key US ally in the region
In the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas negotiators in the heart of Qatar’s capital Doha, the White House appeared sidelined from halting a conflict that Donald Trump has claimed only he could mediate.
As details of the diplomatic flurry before Tuesday’s extraordinary strike were revealed, it was claimed that the White House had little say in how Israel opened its latest front in its war against Hamas – this one on a US ally hosting negotiations days after Trump had claimed he was close to reaching a deal.
Continue reading...‘Immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and a huge surge in aid into Gaza’ only route to peace, says PM
Keir Starmer has condemned Israel’s strike on Qatar before a meeting with the Israeli president in London on Wednesday.
The UK prime minister said the military strike, which targeted Hamas leaders stationed in Doha, was a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and risked “further escalation across the region”.
Continue reading...Deal would include 60-day halt to violence and exchange of half of living Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners
Hamas officials say they have accepted a proposal for a Gaza ceasefire deal that would include the release of half of the approximately 20 remaining living Israeli hostages as part of a phased resolution to the war, as Gaza health officials said 62,000 Palestinians had died in the 22 months of war.
The proposed deal follows negotiations between Hamas and Egyptian and Qatari officials that have been taking place in Cairo in recent days, and comes after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was confronted on Sunday by Israel’s biggest protests of the war, which called for a deal to secure the release of the hostages.
Continue reading...President tries to downplay issue amid growing outrage from conservatives
President Donald Trump will meet with Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Wednesday to discuss negotiations over a Gaza ceasefire deal, Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted on X.
Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since 6 July, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the conflict.
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