{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6583019ebbd71a00175001c8/6a8ec12f6634e0e9ba8a977c?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Simon Sebag-Montefiore on the Iran war: Trump’s mistakes, Israel’s overreach and the end of the ‘Middle East’","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6583019ebbd71a00175001c8/1787740472101-7d24fce5-863b-4c23-a592-f36a17c9bdbe.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>\"Israel is in a situation of kind of spectacular military virtuosity, but also strategic impoverishment. You cannot kill everybody.\"&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>On today’s bank holiday bonus episode of <em>Iran: the Latest</em>, 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.&nbsp;</p><p>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.&nbsp;</p><p>Simon Sebag Montefiore’s new book, <em>The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East</em>, is out now.</p><p>Highlights</p><ul><li>Trump’s mistakes, Israel’s overreach and the end of the ‘Middle East’</li><li>Historian and author Simon Sebag-Montefiore on the Iran war</li></ul><p><br></p><p>CONTRIBUTORS:</p><p>Venetia Rainey, co-host and executive producer @venetiarainey</p><p>Simon Sebag-Montefiore, historian and author @simonmontefiore</p><p><br></p><p>WATCH US ON YOUTUBE: <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJnf_DDTfIVAif-vifC6F2aoPB8GIw6dk\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJnf_DDTfIVAif-vifC6F2aoPB8GIw6dk</a></p><p><br></p><p>CONTENT REFERENCED:</p><p>Simon Sebag Montefiore: Appeasing radical activists will make the West ungovernable</p><p><a href=\"https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/simon-sebag-montefiore-the-cauldron-interview/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/simon-sebag-montefiore-the-cauldron-interview/</a></p><p><br></p><p>Simon Sebag Montefiore: Starmer’s foreign policy risks rewarding aggressive extremists</p><p>https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/07/montefiore-starmers-foreign-policy-rewards-extremists/</p><p><br></p><p><em>Winner Best News and Analysis Podcast - Publisher Podcast Awards 2026</em></p><p><em>Nominated Podcast of the Year - Society of Editors News Podcasts Awards 2026</em></p><p><em>Nominated Best News, Politics and Current Affairs - British Podcast Awards 2026</em></p><p><em>The Telegraph, Winner Podcast Publisher of the Year 2026 - Publisher Podcast Awards 2026</em></p><p><br></p><p>Audio Producer: Joleen Goffin</p><p>Video Producer: Max Bower</p><p>Researcher and Social Producer: Anna Hindmarsh</p><p>Studio Operator: Andy Watson</p><p>Executive Producer: Venetia Rainey&nbsp;</p><p>► Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor</p><p>► EMAIL US: Contact the team on battlelines@telegraph.co.uk</p><p>► GET THE LATEST HEADLINES: Find all our latest Iran coverage here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/iran-war/</p><p><br></p>","author_name":"The Telegraph"}