The corporation that co-owns Iran’s largest mobile network also built its first satellites, manufactured its missile guidance systems, signed the agreement that makes its ballistic missiles GPS-jamming resistant, and provides the telecommunications intelligence that guides them to their targets. MTN Group holds a 49 per cent stake in that corporation’s joint venture. There is a sentence buried in the Iran Watch database entry for Iran Electronics Industries — a single clause that, properly understood, constitutes one of the most consequential corporate disclosures in the history of weapons proliferation accountability. Iran Electronics Industries, it states, “holds shares in Iran Electronic Development…

By Andre Pienaar The Trump Administration’s Cyber Strategy for America signals a decisive shift — from reactive compliance to proactive deterrence, with the protection of critical infrastructure elevated to a first-order national security imperative. For the Collective Defence community, this is the policy framework we have been waiting for. On 06 March 2026, the Trump Administration released a seven-page Cyber Strategy for America, accompanied by an Executive Order on Combatting Cybercrime. Together, these documents represent the most substantive recalibration of American cybersecurity posture in years: lean, action-oriented, and built around a recognition that the infrastructure underpinning modern civilisation is the primary…

United States President Donald Trump has postponed an ultimatum for the Islamic Republic of Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on its power infrastructure, saying the deadline was delayed after what he described as “good and productive” peace talks with Tehran. Iranian state media denied negotiations were under way and claimed Mr Trump had “retreated” from his deadline “out of fear of Iran’s response”. The ultimatum set a Monday evening deadline to reopen the strategic waterway or face strikes on Iranian power infrastructure. Over the weekend, Tehran responded to Mr Trump’s threat to “obliterate” its power…

Iranian missiles powerful enough to destroy a building could, in theory, reach Britain, but senior military sources believe they would likely be intercepted before arrival. Israeli officials claimed that Tehran launched two ballistic missiles towards the joint UK–US military base on the British Indian Ocean Territory of Diego Garcia, which lies 3,800 km from Iran. The first missile is understood to have been intercepted between Thursday night and Friday, reportedly brought down by a missile fired from a US warship. The second missile fell after travelling 1,990 miles, about 400 miles short of the US and UK outpost in the…

Iran has offered safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz for South African cargo after Pretoria refused American pressure to cut ties with Tehran. Mansour Shakib Mehr, Iran’s ambassador, said his country had a “very close dialogue and exchange” with South Africa and encouraged other members of the BRICS bloc to lobby the United States to halt the war. South Africa’s friendly ties with Iran have become a key source of tension in its already strained relations with Washington. The African National Congress (ANC)-led government of Cyril Ramaphosa has said its relationship with Tehran stems from a policy of neutrality…

Israel has killed Iran’s intelligence minister in an overnight strike in Tehran, according to the country’s defence minister, marking a significant escalation in the war between the two regional powers. Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Esmaeil Khatib was “eliminated overnight” as Israeli strikes intensified across Iran. Khatib’s reported death comes less than 24 hours after Israel said it had killed senior Iranian figures including Ali Larijani and Gholamreza Soleimani. Larijani was the most senior Iranian official to be killed since the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the conflict. “The intensity of the strikes…

The top official on counterterrorism within the Trump administration has resigned from his position after criticising the US war with Iran. National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent stated in a letter posted on X that Iran posed “no imminent threat” to the US. He also claimed that the Trump administration “started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby”. Kent, 45, is a US special forces and CIA veteran whose wife, navy cryptologic technician Shannon Kent, was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019. Kent becomes the most high-profile figure from within the Trump…

Ali Larijani, one of the most powerful figures in Iran’s leadership and the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, has been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Tehran, according to Israeli officials. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Larijani was targeted overnight by the Israeli Air Force in Tehran. If confirmed, the killing would represent one of the most significant blows to Iran’s leadership since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran earlier this year. The IDF said Larijani had emerged as a key decision maker in Iran…

Iran’s largest mobile operator and digital company, MTN Irancell, maintains roaming agreements, submarine cable links and SS7 signalling connections with every major Gulf telecommunications carrier hosting a US military base. Its majority owner, IEI, manufactures the missile guidance systems that struck those bases on 28 February 2026. This is the architecture of cyber-enabled kinetic targeting — and the listed MTN Group sits at its centre. On 28 February 2026, Iran launched retaliatory missile and drone strikes against the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Ali Al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait, military installations…

US President Donald Trump has said the country’s navy will protect ships in the Middle East “if necessary” in a bid to stop the energy supply crunch sparked by the US-Israel war with Iran. A fifth of the world’s oil and gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway wedged between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, but traffic has almost entirely halted following Iran’s threats to “set fire” to ships. President Trump made the announcement as it emerged that the US was also planning to arm Kurdish militias in a bid to create a popular armed uprising…

By Sean Rayment Donald Trump has refused to rule out sending American troops into Iran after launching a massive bombing campaign that the president says could last several weeks. The president said in an interview with the New York Post that he did not have the “yips” when it comes to sending Americans to war. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground,’” he said. “I don’t say it. I say, ‘Probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’” Defence Secretary Pete…

By Isabella Egerton Israel has confirmed the first operational use of its high-energy laser air defence system to intercept rockets launched from Lebanon, signalling a new era in modern air defence. Footage released by the IDF shows the system, widely known as Iron Beam and officially named Or Eitan (“Eitan’s Light”), destroying rockets fired towards northern Israel. The interceptions came after rockets were launched from Lebanon into northern Israel, as regional tensions escalated following Israeli and US strikes on Iranian targets. The laser system supplements Israel’s existing Iron Dome network. Unlike Iron Dome, which relies on Tamir interceptor missiles, Iron Beam uses a concentrated…