Simon Sebag-Montefiore on the Iran war: Trump’s mistakes, Israel’s overreach and the end of the ‘Middle East’

About this episode

"Israel is in a situation of kind of spectacular military virtuosity, but also strategic impoverishment. You cannot kill everybody." On today’s bank holiday bonus episode of Iran: the Latest, Venetia Rainey speaks to historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore to get a historian’s view of the US-Israel-Iran war. Simon argues that Donald Trump’s biggest mistake was not stopping after 2025’s Operation Midnight Hammer, and that Benjamin Netanyahu is leading his country into a potential intra-Jewish civil war. Plus, why the Iranian regime is a Mahdist-praetorian oligarchy, how the geopolitical concept of "the Middle East" became obsolete, and which dictators from the region’s modern history haunt him. Simon Sebag Montefiore’s new book, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East, is out now. Highlights • Trump’s mistakes, Israel’s overreach and the end of the ‘Middle East’ • Historian and author Simon Sebag-Montefiore on the Iran war CONTRIBUTORS: Venetia Rainey, co-host and executive producer @venetiarainey Simon Sebag-Montefiore, historian and author @simonmontefiore WATCH US ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJnf_DDTfIVAif-vifC6F2aoPB8GIw6dk CONTENT RE