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Middle East tensions

This Month

A woman grieves casualties at a humanitarian aid distribution point in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.

Australia and 24 other countries say the war in Gaza ‘must end now’

Nations condemned “the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs”.

Unlike Xi Jinping who cloaks coercion in civility, Donald Trump tends to punish allies who do not bend.

Standing up to Trump is the true test

Readers’ letters on dealing with China and the US, the productivity summit, the road to renewables and shaking up superannuation.

Israel steps up Syria strikes, hitting military headquarters in Damascus

Israel strikes Syrian military HQ as crisis grows

The Israeli government has stepped up attacks on Syria’s military in what it says is an attempt to protect the Druze minority group.

Are we seeing the outlines of a new Middle East?

Syria is the testing ground for what comes next in the Middle East, which could be a retreat from the overt sectarianism that has plagued the region.

Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke speaks to the media outside the East Melbourne Synagogue after an anti-Israel protestor set it alight on Friday evening.

‘Rarely ends with words’: Burke’s plea to curb antisemitic attacks

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke calls on communities to intervene when they see signs people may be engaging in bigoted language.

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Glastonbury Festival

Why Glastonbury was fast fashion, not art

From Australia to the UK, cultural gatekeepers who usually have a hair-trigger trained on bigotry are remarkably laissez-faire on matters that involve Jews.

June

A Palestinian man carries a wounded child after an Israeli strike on a residential building in Gaza City on Friday.

‘I think it’s close’: Trump says of potential Gaza ceasefire

The US president said it is possible that Israel and Iran-backed Hamas militants will agree to end their battle in Gaza within a week.

‘China is watching’: What Trump’s Iran strike means for Taiwan

Donald Trump has reasserted US power through the Iran bombings and forcing Europe to spend more on defence. But what does China think?

Donald Trump with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Why the US will remain the world’s policeman

The lesson of the Iran intervention is that America’s dreaded retreat from the world is more talked about than strictly realistic, whoever is the president.

US President Donald Trump criticised the media who reported on the intelligence report as fake news.

Trump compares Iran strikes to Hiroshima as he rejects Pentagon report

The US president was furious about a Pentagon report that said US strikes only set Iran’s nuclear program back a few months but said the two sides would talk next week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the Weizmann Institute of Science, which was hit by missiles fired from Iran, in the central city of Rehovot.

Iran-Israel conflict cools, but this is not the reset Trump wanted

The Islamic Republic is battered but not definitively defeated. Israel and the US, then, need to find alternative ways of securing lasting peace in the region.

Queensland farmer David Robb is cautious optimistic after a spike in the wheat price.

Farmers welcome wheat price spike after Iran conflict

Wheat farmers are hopeful about the year ahead after turmoil in the Middle East triggered a long-awaited upswing in the price of the key Australian export.

The surgical strike ordered by Trump helped contain the fallout - underlined by Iran having quickly agreed to a ceasefire.

Credit to Trump for putting American and global security first

The Australian Financial Review has rarely had a positive word to say about Donald Trump, yet he has done the world a favour by taking out Tehran’s nuclear program.

Donald Trump’s changes on the direction of Iran policy are head-spinning.

‘Regime change’ or peace: Trump’s head-spinning Iran policy

The president claims another Middle East war has ended – just days after the US joined it.

Donald Trump has the bulls running once again.

Iran’s weak response is a win for markets. But there’s more good news

Investors’ big war fears appear to have passed, and now the prospect of US interest rate cuts is getting stronger. That’s positive for complacent bulls.

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Protesters chant slogans and wave Iranian flags in Revolution Square, Tehran, to protest US attacks.

Trump surprises everyone, doesn’t break Middle East

The attitude of both the president and Iran after overnight missiles were directed at a US military base in Qatar, showed both sides were looking for an off-ramp.

Iran’s parliament has voted to close the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping channel through which 20 per cent of the world’s daily oil flows.

Want to stop high energy prices? End addiction to imported oil

The escalating conflict in the Middle East could have dire consequences for global energy markets and the economies dependent on imports – like Australia.

President Donald Trump arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.

Why Trump’s MAGA voters may be pro-war after all

Opinion may still change if the US finds itself in a long, drawn-out war, but it may have been wrong to think the president’s base would be turned off by strikes on Iran.

Flights diverted around the Gulf as Iran fired missiles at a US base in Qatar early on Tuesday morning (AEST).

Travel chaos in Gulf as planes divert, turnaround mid-flight

Qatar suspended flights over its airspace and flights in and out of Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest hub, were temporarily suspended.

A jet attached to a US air refuelling squadron leaves Al Udeid air base in 2023.

Iran attacks nerve centre of US air power

The Islamic Republic targeted the sprawling desert facility in Qatar that serves as a main regional military hub for American forces.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/middle-east-tensions-1nd1