Iran: The Latest

Could Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah ruin the US’s attempts to strike a deal with Iran?

News today about a fiery, expletive-laden phone call suggests Donald Trump is very upset with Benjamin Netanyahu and has forced him to halt a planned attack on Beirut.

Michael Young from the Carnegie Middle East Center think tank joins from the Lebanese capital to take Venetia Rainey and Sophia Yan through the latest news from this active frontline, how Hezbollah has been rearmed by Iran and what it means for the broader war.

Plus, Roland Oliphant gets a rare look inside Iran with Jan Egeland, secretary general of the aid organisation Norwegian Refugee Council, who describes the bombed-out police stations, factories, military posts and homes he has seen first-hand across the country.

Highlights
What Trump's angry call with Netanyahu means for the Iran war
Inside Iran: ‘Bombed-out police stations, factories and military posts’

CONTRIBUTORS:

Venetia Rainey, co-host and executive producer @venetiarainey
Sophia Yan, co-host and senior foreign correspondent @sophia_yan
Jan Egeland, NRC secretary-general @NRC_Egeland
Michael Young, Carnegie Middle East Center senior editor @BeirutCalling

Producer: Peter Shevlin
Executive Producers: Venetia Rainey & Louisa Wells

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor
► EMAIL US: Contact the team on [email protected]
► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/
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Iran has pulled out of peace talks to end the war with the US, accusing Israel of breaking the ceasefire by ordering strikes on Beirut.

Roland Oliphant and Venetia Rainey discuss the latest news, which comes after a series of military escalations over the weekend, including more tit-for-tat bombing between the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile in Lebanon, the Israeli army scored a symbolic and strategic victory by capturing Beaufort Castle as part of its expanding offensive in the country’s south, amid fierce fighting with Hezbollah.

Plus, how did Iran become a corrupt mafia state? Iranian journalists Yeganeh Torbati (New York Times) and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin (Iran International) have written a new book on the subject, Stolen Revolution, and join the show to explain why the war is likely to make things even worse.

Highlights
Iran quits US talks after Israel orders Beirut strikes
Plus: how Iran became a corrupt mafia state

CONTRIBUTORS:

Roland Oliphant, co-host and chief foreign affairs analyst @RolandOliphant
Venetia Rainey, co-host and executive producer @venetiarainey
Yeganeh Torbati, journalist and author of Stolen Revolution @yjtorbati
Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, journalist and author of Stolen Revolution @bozorgmehr

CONTENT REFERENCED:

Kasra Aarabi and Saeid Golkar: The West is ignoring the dangerous new partnership reshaping Iran from within
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/29/shadowy-new-hardline-alliance-reshaping-irans-regime/

Producer: Max Bower
Executive Producers: Venetia Rainey & Louisa Wells

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor
► EMAIL US: Contact the team on [email protected]
► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/

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Donald Trump says the US is lifting its blockade of Iranian ports and boats in the Strait of Hormuz - does this mean a peace deal is imminent?

Plus, Iran famously has two militaries: a regular army, and the IRGC. But Tehran also has a third force: its network of foreign militias in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. They played a key role in the recent war - and no outsider knows them better than Elizabeth Tsurkov. In 2023, while on a research trip to Iraq, the Russian-Israeli PhD student was kidnapped for nearly three years by Kataib Hezbollah, the most powerful of Iran’s Iraqi proxy militias.

Still recovering from the ordeal, she takes Sophia Yan and Roland Oliphant inside the group - and why she was surprised to learn that many of her kidnappers were “idiots”. Plus, she explains how they sustain Iran’s shadow economy, dominate politics in their host counties, and double up as fronts for massive embezzlement schemes.

Highlights
Donald Trump lifts US naval blockade on Iran
Elizabeth Tsurkov on being kidnapped by “idiot” Iranian militias in Iraq

CONTRIBUTORS:

Sophia Yan, senior foreign correspondent, @sophia_yan
Roland Oliphant, co-host and chief foreign affairs analyst @RolandOliphant
Elizabeth Tsurkov, fellow at the New Lines Institute @LizHurra

CONTENT REFERENCED:

Elizabeth Tsurkov: I Was Kidnapped by Idiots
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/01/kidnapped-baghdad/685470/

Producer: Peter Shevlin
Executive Producers: Venetia Rainey & Louisa Wells

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor
► EMAIL US: Contact the team on [email protected]
► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The United States has for the first time accused Iran of breaching the ceasefire, after Tehran fired a ballistic missile at Kuwait in response to the Americans hitting southern Iran.

Washington brushed off previous exchanges of fire as ceasefire compliant, so does the change in rhetoric herald a return to all-out war? The Telegraph’s Lottie Tiplady-Bishop explains why domestic developments in America means Donald Trump is more confident and feeling less pressure to secure a peace deal.

Plus, Alp Toker, the founder of Netblocks, explains what we learned from Iran’s record-setting Internet blackout and what it means for other authoritarian regimes around the world.

Highlights
‘Ceasefire violated’: US fury after Iran targets Kuwait base
‘The most intense game of chicken ever’

CONTRIBUTORS:

Roland Oliphant, co-host and chief foreign affairs analyst @RolandOliphant
Lottie Tiplady-Bishop, associate US News Editor @lottietipbishop
Alp Toker, Netblocks founder @atoker

CONTENT REFERENCED:

Trump: We’re not satisfied with Iran deal
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/05/27/iran-war-us-peace-deal-trump-strait-hormuz-latest-lebanon/

US military hits Iranian control centre in fresh strikes
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/05/28/us-military-strikes-southern-iran-peace-deal/

Terror and trauma under the world’s longest internet blackout
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/05/27/iran-relief-internet-restoration-weeks-war/

Producer: Peter Shevlin
Executive Producers: Venetia Rainey & Louisa Wells

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor
► EMAIL US: Contact the team on [email protected]
► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iran appears increasingly confident that it will secure a favourable end to the war with the US.

From demanding $24bn in frozen assets to publishing what they say is a draft peace deal to restoring the Internet after nearly 90 days, Tehran seems to feel victory both at home and abroad is within its grasp. Foreign correspondent Akhtar Makoii joins Roland Oliphant and Venetia Rainey to discuss the latest news from inside Iran, as well as the significance of one of the country’s biggest exports: pistachios.

Plus, as Israel launches a deadly new phase in its campaign against Hezbollah, UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel joins from Beirut to share her insights on what it’s like working as a peacekeeper in southern Lebanon caught between the two longtime enemies.

Highlights
Iran demands $24bn to sign US peace deal - will Trump accept?
'They think the war is over': Why Iran is restoring internet access

CONTRIBUTORS:

Venetia Rainey, co-host and executive producer @venetiarainey
Roland Oliphant, co-host and chief foreign affairs analyst @RolandOliphant
Akhtar Makoii, foreign correspondent @akhtar_makoii
Kandice Ardiel, UNIFIL spokesperson @hikandice

CONTENT REFERENCED:

Iran will sign peace deal only if US releases $24bn of frozen assets
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/05/26/iran-peace-deal-us-release-24bn-frozen-assets/

The $24bn cost of Trump’s capitulation on Iran
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2026/05/26/trump-us-iran-capitulation/

Akhtar Makoii: Iran’s hardliners are sabotaging their own government’s peace talks
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/05/26/iran-hardliners-sabotaging-peace-talks/

Producer: Peter Shevlin
Executive Producers: Venetia Rainey & Louisa Wells

► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor
► EMAIL US: Contact the team on [email protected]
► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.