Senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey are holding emergency talks with Iran on Monday amid growing fears that the United States and Israel are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive against Tehran. The high-level meeting comes as Iran-backed Houthi rebels intensify missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia and President Donald Trump threatens further military action against Iran. Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkey’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin are attending the talks in Tehran with senior Iranian security officials. The delegations are also expected to meet Iranian…

The first new component under US Special Operations Command in twenty years formalises a relationship that has been operating in the shadows, and sends a signal to allies and adversaries alike. By André Pienaar When the Marine Corps stood up its special operations component in 2006, it did so after years of internal discussions about whether a service built around amphibious assault had any business inside the closed world of US Special Operations Command. Two decades on, the newest and smallest of the American services has made the same leap. On October 07, the US Space Force quietly activated Space…

By Ben farmer Two European hostages held captive by Islamic State militants in West Africa for more than a year have reportedly been freed after mediation by emerging Libyan strongman Saddam Haftar. Claudia Abbt, a Swiss national, and Eva Gretzmacher, an Austrian national, were flown to Benghazi in Libya after lengthy negotiations. The pair were kidnapped separately last year from their homes in the Niger desert town of Agadez and are thought to have been held by Islamic State in the Sahel (ISS). Haftar, the son of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, has helped win freedom for a series of hostages…

Britain’s nuclear deterrent, underwater communications cables and vital energy pipelines are at risk from Russian submarines because of serious gaps in the Royal Navy’s capabilities, MPs have warned. A damning report by the Commons Defence Committee has raised doubts about whether Britain’s depleted fleet of warships and nuclear-powered submarines could defend the UK against a Russian attack in the North Atlantic and Arctic. MPs warn that the Ministry of Defence has allowed critical anti-submarine warfare capabilities to decline at a time when Russia is expanding its military presence in the High North. Britain may be unable to protect vital transatlantic…

The United States has warned South Africa that it faces further punitive action after failing to meet a series of demands from the Trump administration over its foreign policy, treatment of white farmers and restrictions on American investment.Leo Brent Bozell III, the US ambassador to South Africa, said Washington had made clear that further measures were being considered and warned that the South African government should not mistake the threats for a bluff.In an interview with the The Common Sense, the ambassador accused elements of the South African government of wanting to return to the Soviet era and warned that…

Qatar is preparing to announce a new regional defence partnership to protect itself against missile and drone attacks following the war with Iran. Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Qatar was drawing lessons from the war to strengthen its military capabilities. He also warned that disruption to global energy supplies had yet to reach its peak. Speaking at the Global Security Forum in Doha on Monday, Sheikh Saoud, who is also minister of state for defence affairs, outlined plans for closer military cooperation with neighbouring countries to counter ballistic missiles, drones and cyberattacks. Sheikh Saoud said…

The British Army is being forced to overhaul how it treats wounded soldiers after the war in Ukraine revealed how drones can prevent casualties from being evacuated for hours or even days. Russian surveillance and attack drones have made it increasingly dangerous for medical teams and ambulances to reach injured troops, leaving some soldiers stranded on the battlefield without access to life-saving treatment. The threat has undermined the military’s long-established “golden hour” principle of getting seriously wounded troops to advanced medical care within 60 minutes. British Army medics are now preparing for future conflicts in which they may have to…

Zelensky’s warning about a PRC-backed rival to Starlink is less about one Russian constellation than about the end of the West’s monopoly on the connectivity that now decides modern wars. By Andre Pienaar Standing in Pryluky this month beside an apartment block that a Russian cruise missile had turned into a grave for twenty-two people, Volodymyr Zelensky chose to talk not about air defence but about LEO satellites. “Chinese representatives are involved in developing an alternative to Starlink,” he said. “They are getting closer, and they are passing it on to Russia. Russia could gain that kind of dominance.” Days…

By Ben Farmer African nations risk being dragged into the spreading Middle East war as the conflict’s tentacles cross to the Horn of Africa. Security crises on either side of the Red Sea are increasingly entangled, with geopolitical tensions now bouncing back and forth across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, experts warn. Gulf rivals competing to support warring factions in Sudan’s catastrophic war and a marriage of convenience between Yemen’s Houthis and Somalia’s al-Shabaab link conflicts in the Arabian Peninsula and Africa. “What is happening in the Middle East now is not going to stay in the Middle East,” said one…

Russian and Iranian propaganda operations have sought to exploit the violent protests sweeping France, spreading misleading claims and fabricated news reports to portray the country as descending into chaos, according to a new assessment by the Disinformation Commission. The report reveals how Russian-linked networks, Iranian government officials and far-right social media influencers have used the unrest to spread false information to millions of people across Europe and beyond. It also warns that Russian propaganda has appeared among sources retrieved by artificial intelligence search engines, raising concerns about attempts to influence information presented to the public. The 15-page assessment, dated October…

Egypt is planning to send troops to Saudi Arabia to help defend the kingdom against escalating missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis. The country’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has requested parliamentary approval for a possible deployment, with politicians expected to vote on Tuesday after three days of deliberations. The proposed mission would bring Cairo closer to direct military involvement in the widening regional conflict, as attacks on Saudi infrastructure and shipping routes threaten the interests of both countries. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have longstanding political, economic and military ties. Riyadh has been one of Cairo’s most important financial…

The man who ran Chávez’s secret channels to Havana, Tehran and Pretoria is now talking to Manhattan prosecutors. That changes the arithmetic of the trial. By André Pienaar  On Thursday, Nicolás Maduro stood shackled at the ankles before Judge Alvin Hellerstein in the Southern District of New York and refused, twice, to enter a plea to the new charge that he and his wife had presided over a state torture machine. He denounced the indictment, through an interpreter, as “false accusations and false testimony.” The judge entered the not-guilty plea for him and set the trial for 14 June 2027.…