Here is just a very short guide for the concerned:
While you find little, or nothing, comprehensive, well-researched and meaningful in Western mainstream media, there are lots to be gained from every day visiting the online homes of, say, Al Jazeera, Al Mayadeen, the Middle East Eye — and others too, of course.
Visit also their social media outlets and video channels, mostly however on Google-censored YouTube, but still. And subscribe to their newsletters and updates.
By the way, Al Jazeera has condemned YouTube’s compliance with an Israeli law banning the network’s livestreams in the country, warning that the move signals how major tech companies can be “co-opted as instruments of regimes hostile to freedom”.
As usual, David Hearst, is spot-on with “Iran’s battle for survival is the Arab world’s fight too,” sub-titled “Everyone in the region, whatever their past history with the Islamic Republic, should do their utmost to defend Iran and guarantee its sovereignty.”
If you choose to read only one of these, I recommend Hearst’s.
The Middle East Eye also brings you Soumaya Ghannoushi’s “Why the West will never accept Iranian sovereignty” sub-titled “This truth has endured for decades, from the 1953 removal of Mosaddegh to today’s looming US-Israeli strike.”
The MEE staff also has this fine overview of Trump’s irreparable hatred of Iran with various emphasis and arguments, “How Trump’s demands on Iran have shifted over time.”
Seyed Hossein Mousavian, the world renown Iranian former diplomat, now at Princeton, thinks constructively in his “How the Middle East can escape the cycle of conflict in 2026.” For once, someone takes a larger perspective in time and space and thinks constructively… See also his homepage with lots more.
Visit the Middle East Eye and find more yourself.
Al Jazeera’s Shola Lawal analyses the US military presence and build-up in the region, all around Iran. The maps with all the US bases speal volumes about the a-symmetrical character of this conflict; you look in vain for any Iranian military presence close to Europe or the US. Her illuminating display of US military might is “How does US military build-up off Iran compare to the June 2025 strikes?” — “And could a sudden deployment of major US naval and air force assets indicate a strike on Iran is imminent?”
Maziar Motamedi gives you valuable insights into the devastating combination of US and allies’ ruthless sanctions and domestic economic mismanagement in “Iran delegates import powers as US war threats keep economy unstable” — “Iranian governors gain new powers as country prepares for possible war amid sanctions and looming geopolitical tensions.”
If you do not feel pain in your heart on behalf of the Iranian people when reading this, nothing will move you.
There is also a lot be learnt from Al Jazeera’s explainer, “Iran since 1979: A timeline of crises” — “From a hostage crisis, a years-long war, and a nuclear dispute, Iran’s struggles remain pivotal to its identity.”
Follow Al Jazeera every day in time to come.
Al Mayadeen brings you this very reasonable Iranian viewpoint – “Iran rejects coercive talks, open to principled diplomacy: Ghalibaf“: “Iran says it remains open to diplomacy but rejects negotiations under military pressure, as Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf warns that coercion and threats undermine meaningful dialogue.”
And this interesting background story “US threatened attacks on Iranian facilities via 3rd party” — “An Iranian media official warns that any US strike on Iran, no matter how limited, would be treated as an all-out war, amid US political signaling through military buildup.”
It tells you very clearly that Iran this time sees any type of attack as a threat to its existence and will fight accordingly.
As a final example, read Samuel Geddes’ Latest US-backed regime change operation in Iran hits the wall: “Western attempts to weaponize protests and sanctions against Iran have once again collapsed, exposing that the West does not have a viable alternative to the Islamic Republic, and the limits of US power.”
Follow Al Maydeen every day in time to come.
And stop relying on Western US-dominated media. They don’t do true journalism and public education anymore in the field of international affairs.
Let me round this off with a completely different – and today almost non-existent — perspective, that of peace-making. You know, the world spends far too much energy on the past and the present and far too little on possible futures — and far too much on geopolitical diagnosis and doomsday-like prognosis without have a single thought on the quite relevant question: What can be done?
So militarised have minds become — in research, politics and the media. And the word peace has been disappeared in all three.
That said, world renown peace and future researcher Johan Galtung wrote a peace plan for the Middle East in 1971 — “A regional strategy for sustainable peace for Israel & Palestine: [1]-[2]-[6]-[20]” — in the Journal of Peace Research (JPR). However, today SAGE Publications seems not ashamed to charge you £ 29 to download single articles. So here is a 2015 short summary of Galtung’s – brilliant – insights and thoughts on the issue, 55 years ago published by TFF of which he was an inspirer, friend and Associate.
Ask yourself why that sort of thinking has disappeared – and whether a bit more constructive, healing thinking could help make the world, including the Middle East, just a little bit better. I mean, how can we create a better future if no one has the imagination to outline possible options and get them discussed?