Award-winning novelist

When states are attacked, authority gravitates towards institutions capable of mobilising resources, enforcing discipline, and coordinating a military response

The appointment suggests the Revolutionary Guards have the upper hand

Cairo and Tehran have been at loggerheads since 1979, but the Iranian threat has always acted as a check on Israeli ambitions. If Iran is completely defeated, Israel will reign supreme.

Even if it stays on the sidelines of the US-Iran war, the country is fragile. Unlike larger economies that can absorb shocks in global markets, it has little room to cushion the impact.

The iftar table, if it still exists, no longer represents joy, but anxiety and scarcity