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…

The death Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following joint US-Israeli airstrikes has thrust Iran political and religious hierarchy into the process of selecting a new supreme leader.Under Iran’s constitution, the supreme leader is appointed by the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body elected by the public every eight years.Candidates for the Assembly are first vetted by the Guardian Council, tightly controlling who can run.When the position becomes vacant, the Assembly convenes to deliberate and select a successor.The decision requires a simple majority vote.In the interim, a provisional three-member leadership council assumes the supreme leader’s duties until a replacement is formally appointed.It…

By Staff Writer The killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader and Minister of Defence decapitates the ownership chain of Iran’s largest digital company, co-owned by the MTN Group and now operated by an IRGC veteran as a wartime weapons platform. Israeli strikes on Tehran on Saturday killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Defence Minister Amir Nasirzadeh, according to Israeli officials briefed on the operation and confirmed by multiple Western intelligence sources. The significance of these deaths for the future of the Iranian state will be analysed extensively in the days ahead. But there is a corporate dimension to the killings that has received almost no…

By Staff Writer The regime’s second total communications shutdown in eight weeks is now operated by a terrorist veteran — installed after his predecessor was fired for not cutting the network fast enough. Iran’s internet connectivity collapsed to approximately four per cent of normal levels on Saturday morning as US and Israeli forces struck targets across Tehran, including the Office of the Supreme Leader, the Ministry of Intelligence and the Ministry of Defence. NetBlocks confirmed a near-total shutdown of internet, mobile and SMS services nationwide. At the operational centre of the blackout sits MTN-Irancell, Iran’s largest mobile network with more…

The United States and Israel have launched a pre-emptive air campaign against Iran striking targets across the country in what the US President said was a “massive and ongoing operation”.President Donald Trump said the bombing attacks were aimed at destroying Iran’s military and nuclear capabilities, thwarting Tehran’s support to proxies and the destruction of its theocratic government.The operation called “Epic Fury” is expected to last several days with multiple military, nuclear and political institutions being targeted.The attacks spurred a furious Iranian retaliation, with multiple barrages striking Israel, Bahrain, Dubai, Qatar and Jordan.The attacks began with Israeli strikes Saturday morning, a…

By Ben Farmer Ethiopia, Eritrea and Tigray are once again massing forces on the Horn of Africa, raising fears that one of the bloodiest African wars of recent years could resume. Diplomats have warned that Ethiopian federal and Tigrayan troops have deployed in strength along the border of the country’s northern Tigray region. The Tigray civil war is estimated to have killed around 600,000 people between 2020 and 2022, when Ethiopian troops, backed by local militias and the Eritrean army, fought rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Ethiopia and Eritrea emerged victorious, but the peace deal has not…

By Sean Rayment Royal Navy submarine HMS Anson arrived in Western Australia today, marking a major milestone in the AUKUS partnership, which supports security and stability in the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic and delivers good jobs and growth in the UK, Australia and the US. AUKUS is the trilateral security partnership between Australia, the UK and the United States to build new attack submarines and develop advanced military technology that will help protect all three nations, drive growth and support security in a new era of threat. In a significant step for the AUKUS programme, Australian personnel will work alongside UK engineers to…

By Sean Rayment Russia is losing more troops than the country’s armed forces can recruit for the first time since the Kremlin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian army has been sustaining almost 40,000 casualties a month since November, while recruiting up to 35,000 troops to sustain the invasion, Western officials said. Ukraine’s intense counter-attacks have pushed Russia’s casualties to more than 1.25 million since the war began four years ago. The figure is also higher than the total sustained by the United States during the Second World War. Al Carns, the UK’s Armed Forces minister, said Russia’s effort…

By Andre Pienaar Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the shadowy former police officer who built the Jalisco New Generation Cartel into one of the most violent and far-reaching criminal enterprises in history, is dead. The Mexican Army confirmed on Sunday that “El Mencho” was fatally wounded during a special forces operation in the mountain town of Tapalpa, Jalisco, and died while being airlifted to Mexico City. The operation, supported by US intelligence channelled through the newly established Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel, represents the most consequential blow against Mexican organised crime since the arrest of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán a decade ago.…

Iran and the US will hold a third round of nuclear talks on Thursday in Geneva, in a bid to avoid a military conflict between the two adversaries.The US has spent several weeks building up its military forces in the Middle East, with President Donald Trump warning on Thursday that “really bad things will happen” if no deal is reached to solve a longstanding dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme.Detail of the latest round of talks were revealed Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, who announced that Iran was will to continue talking to avoid war.“Pleased to confirm US-Iran negotiations are now…

The Miami summit presents an historic opportunity to turn the fight against illicit wildlife trafficking into a pillar of economic security — but only if the G20 holds its own members to account. By Dr Dion George When President Trump announced that South Africa would not be invited to the 2026 G20 summit in Miami, a chorus of outrage followed. Multilateralists called it a breach of norms. African Union diplomats protested. Editorial pages warned of precedent-setting exclusions. But those who understand what has been happening inside South Africa’s governing structures and what those structures have allowed to happen to the…

By Sean Rayment Russian soldiers are using “invisibility cloaks” to hide from heat-seeking Ukrainian drones capable of locking on to individual thermal signatures. The cloaks are designed to prevent troops from being attacked by drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras and high explosives. The cameras allow drone operators to target Russian soldiers in all weather conditions, both by day and by night, because they can identify heat emitted by the body. To help protect themselves from attack, Russian troops have begun wearing £60 cloaks and ponchos often used by hunters to stay warm in winter or bad weather. The thermal…

By Sean Rayment Britain will send a Carrier Strike Group back to sea in 2026 in a major show of force across the Euro-Atlantic and High North, reinforcing NATO’s deterrence at a time of rising Russian threats in the region. Known as ‘Operation Firecrest’ and led by HMS Prince of Wales, the largest warship in the Royal Navy, the UK will deploy the strike group across the North Atlantic and Arctic. It will include world-class Royal Navy warships and RAF fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets to bolster defence and security. The move comes as Russia’s military activity in the North Atlantic…