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Iran has declared war on the rest of the world

Douglas Davis

Wednesday, 19th July 2006

Douglas Davis says that this conflict can be traced back to the transport via Damascus of a lethal consignment of weapons from Tehran to Hezbollah

The question is not why Hezbollah launched its attack on a routine Israeli military patrol along the Lebanese border on 12 July, but why it chose that specific time.

One thing is certain: the attack was neither random nor impulsive. On the contrary, it appears to have been carefully calculated and intricately planned. Certainly Hezbollah would not have mounted such an operation without the prior knowledge and approval of its patrons — Iran, which arms, trains and funds Lebanon’s Shiite radicals, and Syria, which serves as a conduit and provides essential logistical support.

In fact, the operation had probably been on the drawing board for several months. According to intelligence sources, a major weapons consignment destined for Hezbollah arrived at Damascus airport from Iran in March. That was just one month after Iran had ended its voluntary co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which included surprise inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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The secret letters of the Jonestown death cult

Barry Isaacson

Thirty years after the mass suicides and murders in Guyana, Barry Isaacson unveils a cache of letters he found in his LA home, mapping the pain of one of the families

C’mon Cherie: even Goering stuck up a bit for Hitler

Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle says it is no surprise that Gordon Brown has ended up as surly and suspicious as he has: the memoirs of John Prescott, Lord Levy and Cherie Blair are appalling acts of treachery and avarice

I never want to be as insecure as Olivier

Tim Walker

Tim Walker talks to Greta Scacchi about her new role in The Deep Blue Sea, the gaucheness of Bill Murray — and being offered the lead in Basic Instinct

Meet James Purnell: the best hope Labour has of avoiding disaster

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson says that the 38-year-old Work and Pensions Secretary is the best candidate to succeed Gordon Brown. Already surging ahead at his department, he has the gift of sounding like an ordinary human being — and he understands the Cameron Conservative party

An Actor's Life

Joan Collins

Joan Collins lives an actor's life

Shared Opinion

Hugo Rifkind

If it's good that Harry was fighting the Taleban, why are we queasy when Israel fights Hamas?

The name of the game

Alex James

Alex James on his Slow Life

Ambushed in Somalia

Aidan Hartley

Aidan Hartley on the Wild Life

Is a TV drama about the royal family sacrilege?

Clemency Burton-Hill

Clemency Burton-Hill, who appears in the new ITV series The Palace, muses on the outrage it has provoked and the taboos that still govern fictional portrayals of the monarchy

Musharraf may now be the last best hope of Pakistan

Con Coughlin

Pervaiz Musharraf presides over a fearsomely chaotic and dangerous country, says Con Coughlin, but he is probably the only man who can save Pakistan from self-destruction