Middle East & Africa | Week two of the war 

An explosive moment of truth for Iran and Israel

A test of Trump’s nerves, Iranian resilience and Israeli overreach 

An explosion
Photograph: Getty Images
|JERUSALEM|6 min read

Editor’s note: On June 21st Donald Trump said that America had bombed Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan, three nuclear sites

Explore more

A Kenyan reads a morning newspaper with reports on the U.S. election on front page

Donald Trump’s approach to Africa is very, well, African

What a meeting with five leaders says about his administration’s interest in the continent

US President Donald Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a dinner at the White House in Washington, DC

Ending the war in Gaza is still fiendishly difficult

Donald Trump and Israel’s generals are pressing Binyamin Netanyahu to make a deal


A billboard with the Hebrew slogan "a time for war, a time for settlement; now is the time for the 'Abrahamic Covenant'" is displayed in Tel Aviv on June 26, 2025

The Israel-Iran war has not yet transformed the Middle East

Peace deals may be elusive, and Gulf states fear the war is far from over


Kenya’s president is bad news for Kenya and Africa

William Ruto’s tenure is a how-to guide for sowing cynicism about democracy

Iran’s “axis of resistance” was meant to be the Shias’ NATO

But today transnational political Shiism is struggling for its survival

Israel’s weird war clock: 12 days for Iran, 21 months in Gaza

Making peace with the Palestinians looks much harder than with Iran’s regime or Shias in Lebanon