
Battle Lines: The Telegraph's foreign policy, geopolitics and global conflict podcast
Battle Lines is The Telegraph's foreign policy, geopolitics and global conflict podcast. It offers expert analysis and on-the-ground reporting from China and the United States to the Middle East and Europe.
Twice a week, veteran foreign correspondents Roland Oliphant and Venetia Rainey bring you on-the-ground dispatches from the world's most volatile regions and informed analysis from world-class experts.
Whether it's the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Gaza conflict, Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific, tensions between India and Pakistan, or the civil war in Sudan, Battle Lines covers the world's most critical flashpoints with depth and clarity.
When will China invade Taiwan? Can Trump bring peace to the Middle East? What should Europe do to help Ukraine beat Russia? Is Iran building a nuclear bomb? What is the point of NATO? Can the United Kingdom still defend itself?
Created by David Knowles, Battle Lines answers all these questions and more, bringing together the best of The Telegraph's international, geopolitical, and conflict reporting in one place.
Plus, every Friday, the podcast delves into the seismic impact US President Donald Trump is having on the world - from peace talks to tariffs to migration policy.
Don't forget to follow and leave a review to stay updated on the latest in global conflict and foreign affairs.
Telegraph subscribers get early access to bonus episodes of Battle Lines and its sister podcast, Ukraine: The Latest. You can subscribe within The Telegraph app or click here for more information.
Battle Lines ' hosts are:
Roland Oliphant
Roland Oliphant is Chief Foreign Analyst at the Telegraph. He was previously the paper's chief foreign correspondent and before that its Moscow correspondent, living in Russia for 10 years. He has reported from the frontline of the Ukraine-Russia war and Iran's capital Tehran during election time, as well as across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Venetia Rainey
Venetia is Planning Editor (Audio) at The Telegraph, and was previously the paper's Weekend Foreign Editor. Before that she worked as a foreign correspondent for over a decade, living and reporting across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. She was the producer and writer behind Hong Kong Silenced and How To Become a Dictator - two limited series podcasts looking at the rise of China.
On top of covering the week's news, Battle Lines also takes a step back to look at historical, social and cultural takes on conflict and foreign policy. Below are a selection of some of those episodes:
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Iranian-Americans have backed President Trump's strikes on their home nation as they hope the intervention could trigger a revolt against the Ayatollah's regime. In Maryland, one of the largest Iranian communities in America where over 16,000 Iranian people live, residents have expressed a cautious optimism over the strikes. An Iranian-American DC resident called Alireza, who declined to give his second name, told the outlet that the news of Trump's 'bunker buster' bomb raid on three key Iranian nuclear weapon factories on Saturday night filled him with hope. He said world leaders in the past had ignored the oppression of the Iranian people at the hands of the regime, but after Trump's strikes, 'it shows that they can't do anything and they are weak.' Hashemi said that Iranian political identity has been 'deeply shaped by the fact that Iran has been on the receiving end and the humiliating end of external intervention.' '(This) created the social conditions for the 1979 revolution', he said, when the country's liberal shah was replaced by a hardline Islamic regime that remains in power to this day. Israel began bombing Iran last week in a bid to stop the country building nuclear weapons, after its leaders vowed to use them to obliterate Israel. On Saturday night, Trump dispatched B-2 bombers with huge 'bunker buster' bombs to try and destroy three nuclear weapons factories, including the infamous Fordow facility that sits buried under a mountain. Alireza and others hope that Trump's strikes will finally topple the country's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Pushing for regime change in Iran has long been avoided by US presidents, before Donald Trump on Sunday night stunned the Middle East again as he called to 'MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN.' In a shock post on Sunday night to Truth Social, Trump wrote: 'It's not politically correct to use the term, 'Regime Change,' but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn't there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!' The message from the president directly contradicted remarks from his top allies just hours earlier, with Vice President JD Vance telling ABC: 'We don't want to achieve regime change. We want to achieve the end of the Iranian nuclear program.' A majority of Republicans support America's entry into the war - but there has been vocal criticism too, from leading MAGA figures including Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Steve Bannon. However, direct American intervention to end to the Ayatollah's regime is exactly what many Iranians in America are hoping for. Reza Rofougaran, a 72-year-old real estate broker in Maryland, told the Baltimore Sun that he emigrated from Tehran shortly after the 1979 revolution, and worked as a journalist in his home country before the regime censored his newspaper. After being randomly arrested on the street, he said he 'decided that no matter what, I'm going to leave the country and come back to the U.S.' He said he is '100 percent against the Islamic regime in Iran and hope for a regime change.' Rofougaran, a US citizen since 1997, added that he was unsure if American intervention would have the desired effect given past foreign policy struggles in the Middle East, and would 'prefer this regime goes down by the people of Iran themselves.' 'A good majority of Iranians' oppose the regime, he said, but at the same time they 'are saddened by these attacks.' 'I am not happy with any attack on my homeland,' he said. The divide between the desired outcome of regime change and skepticism over how to achieve it follows decades of US presidents floating strikes on Iran but backing down due to the risks involved, before Trump pulled the trigger on Saturday night. 'Unfortunately, no one helped us. Obama didn't help us. Biden didn't help us,' Rofougaran added. 'The current situation, actually, I'm sort of happy, that actually, Israelis start supporting Iranian people.' A National Iranian American Council survey of Iranian Americans shortly before Israel's strikes on Iran found that 53 percent strongly or somewhat opposed US military action. The number that strongly or somewhat supported American intervention stood at 36 percent. Trump's strikes did not target or kill any civilians in Iran. Experts say many Iranian-Americans fled to the US to escape persecution, with that life experience explaining their support for potential regime change. 'Many Iranian Americans are here fled the regime because of either economic deprivation or political persecution,' Nader Hashemi, the director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at Georgetown University, told the Baltimore Sun. Rofougaran said Iranians he has spoken to both in the US and his home country say they are 'happy' with the Israeli strikes 'because of the precise attack' that only killed or injured soldiers and no civilians. 'You are not attacking civilians, people. They are attacking the mullahs, the top [IRGC] commanders and the people in charge,' he said. Now, with the world waiting for Iran's response to the US strikes, he hopes the Iranian people will see the bombings as an opportunity to push for regime change. 'The whole thing is changing in 10 days,' he said. 'They want to have a peaceful government.'