Last Thursday morning the Iranian news website Entekhab ran, without irony, the headline: “Taliban call on Pakistan and Iran to show restraint and urge both sides to settle differences through diplomatic means”. If proof were needed that a new, more dangerous world order may be upon us, the Taliban cast in the role of advocates for restraint seems conclusive.
Each day last week evidence mounted that the long-feared moment of escalation born out of the destabilising war in Gaza had arrived. The scenes in Gaza were too raw, and the geopolitical consequences for the conflict too vast, to remain confined within its borders.
On the weekend of 13-14 January, four waves of US missile strikes, some involving the UK, hit the ports and inland strongholds
