Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

December 17, 2024 | Seth J. Frantzman |

New Syrian transitional government meets with European, UN officials

The EU is also moving to reopen its mission in Syria, according to EU Foreign Policy head Kaja Kallas, France 24 reported.

September 5, 2024 | |

U.S. Reportedly Warned UK Against Arms Export Restrictions to Israel

Biden administration officials privately warned the United Kingdom against suspending arms exports to Israel over concerns that it could harm attempts to broker a ceasefire between...

March 28, 2023 | |

Activist’s Hunger Strike Persists as UK Fails to Designate IRGC as Terrorist Group

Latest Developments An Iranian-British citizen’s hunger strike outside the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office entered its 34th day today as London continues its refusal to designate Iran’s Islamic...

January 19, 2023 | |

Calls to Designate IRGC as Terrorist Organization Grow in the UK 

Calls to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization grew in the United Kingdom this week after Iran executed a prominent dual British-Iranian citizen on Saturday morning. According to Iranian news sources, Iran hanged former deputy defense minister, Alireza Akbari, 61, after accusing him of spying for the UK’s MI6 — the British equivalent to the CIA. According to the BBC, Akbari’s execution came after he was tortured and forced to confess on camera, though he later recanted. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed outrage over the execution, while the UK Foreign Office “summoned” Iran’s chargé d’affaires in London — a formality that entails a meeting with host nation officials to hear complaints.  

October 21, 2015 | Clifford D. May |

Cutthroats of the Holy Land

Over the years, Israelis have had to defend themselves from foreign armies, suicide bombers and missiles. Over recent weeks, they’ve been confronting a new threat: young Palestinians wieldi...

February 25, 2015 | Clifford D. May |

Putin’s Rules

Last week, two Russian long-range bombers skirted the southwest coast of England. British Typhoon warplanes scrambled from their base to “escort” the bombers away. Prime Minister Davi...

August 5, 2013 | Michael Ledeen |

A Chance for the New Iranian President to Prove He’s a Reformer

Co-authored by Linda Frum The inauguration of Hassan Rouhani as president of Iran on Sunday has stirred considerable hope among some Western observers for the start of a new era...

May 20, 2013 | Tony Badran |

Collision Course

President Obama is on a collision course with his allies on Syria. As Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France, and Britain call for more aggressive steps to topple Bashar al-Assad, the US president t...

April 10, 2013 | James Kirchick Haaretz |

A Friendship Without Prejudice: Thatcher’s Kinship with Jews and Israel

Thatcher’s personal narrative of the determined outsider made good has clear Jewish resonances, and may explain her well-known affinity for Jews and her defense of Israel....

March 18, 2013 | Robert Barnidge The Hindu |

Not So Strictly Legal

International lawyers must introspect about how their partisan allegiance clouded their determination of the lawfulness of the 2003 Iraq war. As some celebrate and others decry...

June 15, 2011 | World Defense Review

Beyond Mugabe’s Madness

Even by the ridiculously low procedural standards of Africa's club of presidents-for-life, last Friday's poll in Zimbabwe was a truly pathetic exercise. As Barry Bearak, the Pulitzer Pr...

June 13, 2011 | The Spectator |

Nice Work: The Taxpayer is Being Stung So This Lord Can Live in Admiralty House

Co-Authored by James Forsyth Mark Malloch-Brown, the minister for Africa, Asia and the UN, was the most prestigious recruit to Gordon Brown’s ministry of all the talents....

February 2, 2010 | |

Hezbollah Is Not The IRA

Islamist groups have invited a whole set of analogies purportedly aimed at better explaining them and how best to deal with them. One such analogy that has gained currency in recent years is the...

May 1, 2008 |

Pirates of Somalia: The Curse of the Failed State


On April 4, MY Le Ponant, an 850-ton three-masted luxury sailing yacht owned by CMA CGM S.A., a French firm headed by Lebanese-born businessman Jacques Saadé that is the third-largest container shipping company in the world, was en route from the Seychelles to the Mediterranean when it was seized in international waters in the Gulf of Aden by Somali pirates. A week later, after the owners had paid a ransom reported to be around $2 million, Le Ponant docked at the port of Eyl in the semi-autonomous northeastern region of Puntland and the 30 crew members – twenty-two Frenchmen, six Filipinos, a Cameroonian, and a Ukrainian – were released. French forces, however, tracked the attackers to the nearby fishing village of Jariban where helicopter-borne commandos disabled the escape vehicle with sniper fire and seized six of what is thought to have been an original band of twelve fugitives. The six prisoners were flown to Paris where they were arraigned before a French court on charges of theft, hijacking, and hostage-taking.

April 25, 2007 | Clifford D. May |

Hacks or Flacks?

Journalists are often accused of bias. Rarely do journalists level that charge against themselves. But the 35,000 members of Britain's National Union of Journalists (NUJ) have done exactly t...

December 6, 2006 | Clifford D. May |

Hezbollah’s War Crimes

Last summer, Lebanese-based Hezbollah commandos invaded Israel where they both killed and kidnapped Israeli soldiers, setting off a 34-day-long war. During that conflict, photographs of what were...

September 26, 2006 | Clifford D. May Scripps Howard News Service

With Fear and Favor

An essential American institution is in crisis but the story is not being covered by the mainstream media. That's because the institution in crisis is the mainstream media which appears inca...