The Gulf narrows: Iran-Saudi relations

Is Binyamin Netanyahu’s time up as Israel’s prime minister? As a vote in parliament triggers the election campaign, our correspondent – and Netanyahu’s biographer – analyses what comes next. We join a US-backed counter-terrorism training exercise in Africa and question whether su ...  Show more

The latest Ebola emergency is different from previous ones: there is no vaccine, and the kind of community-level work that stops the spread has been thinned by aid cuts. Britain is likely to get a new prime minister soon; we profile Andy Burnham, the Labour party’s polling favour ...  Show more

The two regional rivals have negotiated a deal, ending a seven-year lapse in diplomatic ties. Elsewhere, though, Iran remains aggressive. We ask what to make of its <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/03/23/iran-wants-a-detente-with-its-neighbours-but-not-with-ame ...

Iran-backed proxies have killed three American soldiers and injured dozens of others in their weekend <a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2024/01/28/violence-spirals-as-irans-proxies-kill-american-soldiers?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm ...

A missile has reportedly struck a site in the Islamic Republic. If this is retaliation for Iran’s most recent attacks, then it is a muted response. But is there still a risk of escalation? As <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/04/16/gandhi-v-modi-crunch-time-for-cong ...

American airstrikes on Syrian bases linked to Iran are a reminder that Iran’s proxies lie behind many Middle East conflicts. But the ayatollahs’ angling for wider war in Gaza is a <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/10/23/irans-ayatollahs-play-the-middle-easts-mos ...