Beyond the Headlines

A series of protests escalated into a full-blown revolution in Iran and became a turning point in the history of the Middle East. On February 11, 1979, the rule of the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi ended, the Iranian monarchy was overthrown, and the country has since been referred to as the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the decades since, Iran has become a major player in the region, either through direct involvement in conflicts or through supporting or forging alliances with militant groups in Lebanon, Iraq and other countries. And to this day, Iran-linked or supported groups remain influential players – in the Israel-Gaza war, for example, helping to widen the conflict to other Arab countries. In this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines, on the 45th anniversary of those seismic events, host Nada AlTaher reflects on the 1979 Iranian Revolution, exploring the complex legacy it left, and looking at its influence on today’s geopolitical tensions.

The US has stepped up its involvement in the Middle East conflict with a barrage of strikes against Iran-allied targets in various locations in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The strikes are in response to a deadly drone attack on American troops at a base in Jordan on January 28. These attacks have increased the tensions between the US and Iran-backed militias that started in October 2023 when Tehran-linked groups in Iraq launched drone attacks on a US base there. These militias and others like them have been responsible for at least 180 attacks on US targets since October 18. In this week’s episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at the recent US air strikes, the impact of this intervention, and where this is all this heading.

The Israel-Gaza conflict is evolving into a complex web, transcending the borders of the region to the international community. The week started with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest court, making a historic ruling, ordering Israel to take all measures to prevent genocide against Gazans and allow vital aid into the Palestinian enclave. Meanwhile, another UN organisation took a hit, with the largest humanitarian entity operating in Gaza, UNRWA, seeing nine countries either withdrawing or planning on withdrawing their funding. This is expected to affect two million Palestinians who rely on the organisation for assistance.   Things further escalated when three US soldiers at a small military base on the Jordan-Syrian borders were killed in a drone strike that US President Joe Biden blamed on Iran-backed militants. A day later, the Syrian defence ministry said several Iranian advisers were killed in Damascus by Israel. In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at how all these issues tie in together, what each means for the region and the world, and what are their implications.

This week saw the biggest single loss of life for Israel in Gaza since the war began with 24 soldiers killed on January 22 in two separate attacks, bringing its total military deaths to more than 200 since October 7. Israel has called up about 360,000 reservists and tens of thousands of soldiers have been sent to fight inside Gaza, where more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in three months. Israel says that the city of Gaza is now completely encircled, with many Gaza residents now living in tents near the Rafah border. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher analyses Israel’s military moves.

Every year, political and business leaders from around the world come together in the quaint ski resort of Davos nestled in the Swiss Alps for dialogue on the pressing global issues, including not just economic challenges, but environmental concerns and political roadmaps. The 54th edition of the World Economic Forum took place while many countries in the Middle East are grappling with geopolitical tensions, from the Israel and Gaza conflict to Sudan. The annual meeting is also happening while the world is still adapting to the rapid advancements in generative AI. So, as Davos closes, what happened there this year and - what does it tell us about the direction the world is heading? In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Enas Refaei in Davos dissects the annual event with The National’s Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi and CNN’s Richard Quest.

Experts have long warned the violence in the Gaza Strip could spill over into a wider conflict. And those warnings have become more relevant and real today. The US and Britain launched overnight strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, these attacks being carried out from the air and sea in response to the Iran-backed militia's attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, affecting commercial shipping. The mission was a response to the rebel group’s nearly 30 attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea since November. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks at how the Red Sea has become a battlefield and what impact that has had on global trade.

Gaza has borne the brunt of three months of war between Israel and Hamas. Mosques and churches have been destroyed. More than 200 out of Gaza’s 325 heritage sites, many of them centuries old, are gone. Israel’s weapons have killed, injured and maimed tens of thousands. Many of the wounded are being left to bleed while others are arrested, stripped and blindfolded. For Israel, the shocking and unprecedented attacks of October 7 stung hard – and the response has been constant with no sign of slowing down. This week on Beyond the Headlines, host Nada Al Taher looks at the future of Israel’s war on Gaza.

2024 will be a big year in global politics. A slew of important general elections will be held across the developing world – in India, Pakistan and Indonesia, to name but three. Wars may continue to rage in Gaza, Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Myanmar and elsewhere, driving millions of people deeper into poverty and displacement. Though there is some hope that in at least some of these conflicts, there remains space in which to find political solutions. But 2024 is set to be a year of high stakes in the West, too. Next summer will see parliamentary elections in the EU, and by the year’s end the US presidential election and a British general election. In fact, it could be the first time in more than 30 years that citizens of the English-speaking world’s two nuclear powers – Britain and America – pick their leaders in the same calendar year. On this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Sulaiman Hakemy discusses what elections and war will mean for the western world’s political outlook in 2024.

For the past 11 weeks, life has been brutally disrupted in Gaza. 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, the majority women and children, and over 50,000 wounded.   The ongoing humanitarian crisis has left more than a quarter of the population starving, according to the UN. The flow of aid into Gaza is far from sufficient, and the distribution process poses its own set of challenges, leaving those in need struggling for survival.   In this week’s episode of Beyond The Headlines, host Nada AlTaher looks into the complexities of aid delivery in Gaza, and the obstacles faced in getting essential aid from trucks into the hands of those who need it the most, speaking to representatives of the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund and the Norwegian Refugee Council, whose teams are on the ground in the strip.

The global stocktake, or what is now known as the UAE Consensus, is the first-ever climate deal to transition away from fossil fuel - and it has been unanimously approved by almost 200 nations in Dubai. This is significant, as no previous Cop text has mentioned moving away from oil and gas.   It took over two weeks of negotiations that intensified in the last days of the summit as several key players and countries were pushing for tougher language in the Cop28 agreement, to “phase-out” fossil fuels, not just transition away or phase down, as a choice of words.   Countries were locked in a series of meetings to break the deadlock on the issue of fossil fuels, and the heated negotiations pushed the summit to extend for one more day until all countries could agree on the language used in the agreement.   In this episode of Beyond the Headlines, host Sarah Forster unpacks the key outcomes of the conference and examines the areas where the international community agreed or disagreed.