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Arab Digest editor William Law's guest on this week's podcast is the Chatham House Iraq expert Renad Mansour. The government of Ali al-Zaidi faces tough choices in a dangerous neighbourhood with the ever present threat of a hot Iran war breaking out again and challenges at home curbing endemic corruption and restraining pro-Iranian militias. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law invites the Egyptian writer Abdelrahman ElGendy onto the podcast to discuss his just released book Huna: A Memoir of Revolution, Prison and Becoming. He was 17 when he was arrested in 2013 and spent six years in Egypt's brutal prison system. Their conversation ranges over the centrality of words and language in resistance, the imperative of liberating Palestine and the complicity of all of us in acts of repression and genocide. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law's guest this week is Nick McGeehan director of FairSquare. Their conversation focusses not just on football and Manchester City but on the wider effort by Abu Dhabi's ruling family to destroy political Islam, a campaign that has armed a genocide in Sudan and embraced Nigel Farage's Reform UK as a useful ally. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the Gulf banking and finance analyst Andrew Cunningham. Their conversation focusses on the impact on Gulf financial sectors as the Iran conflict enters its eighth month and Saudi Arabia is forced back into a hot war against Yemen’s Huthis. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law brings the Syrian pollster and analyst Malik al-Abdeh onto this week’s podcast to talk about the pressure that Syria’s president Ahmed al-Sharaa is facing from growing protests on the economic front to the menacing presence of Israeli troops in southern Syria. Al-Abdeh argues that time is running short for the president to deliver solutions that will move the country forward. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

The Iran expert Trita Parsi joins Arab Digest editor William Law to discuss the direction the Iran war is heading towards. With the Trump administration insisting the Iranians will buckle and capitulate and Iran standing firm will Israel take matters into its own hands, including using nuclear weapons, as Netanyahu seeks an election victory? Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law’s guest this week is the Digest’s energy analyst Alastair Newton. With the war between the Huthis and Saudi Arabia flaring up and continued uncertainty over what steps Donald Trump will take in the Iran war the outlook remains bleak over the next several months that any relief will come on the price of crude and refined oil with the result that economic hardship will spread across the globe. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is caught in a vice: US bases there are the target of Iranian missiles and influential Jordanians are calling for the removal of the bases but the US presence is part of the 1994 peace deal with Israel which is now threatening to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank and into the kingdom. Arab Digest editor William Law is joined by the journalist Nour Halabi to discuss Jordan’s dilemma. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law welcomes the Brooking Institution’s Aslı Aydıntaşbaş as his guest this week. Their conversation focusses on the Mecca Pact, the defence deal signed by the Saudis, Pakistan and Türkiye. The pact is designed to provide security against threats from both Iran and Israel in a neighbourhood where increasingly war, rather than diplomacy, is the weapon of choice. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Arab Digest editor William Law kicks off season 8 of the Arab Digest podcast with the Gulf analyst and author Kristian Coates Ulrichsen. As the war with Iran settles into no war no peace the Gulf states find themselves caught in an insecure landscape facing both Iran and Israel and unsure what President Trump will say or do from one day to the next. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Coming in at number 1 in our top five is the 6 May 2026 podcast with the North Africa analyst and ECFR visiting fellow Tarek Megerisi. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Coming in at number 2 in our top five is the 14 April 2026 podcast with the Gulf security and defence analyst Andreas Krieg. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Coming in at number 3 in our top five is the 19 May 2026 podcast with the Gulf banking and finance analyst Andrew Cunningham. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Coming in at number 4 in our top five is the 15 May 2026 podcast with Nick McGeehan, the director and co-founder of the non-profit organisation FairSquare which focuses on sport to promote systemic change and stop human rights abuses. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.

Today we launch our top five podcast countdown. Coming in at number 5 is our 29 April 2026 podcast with the Levant expert Dr Lina Khatib. Sign up NOW at ArabDigest.org for free to join the club and start receiving our daily newsletter & weekly podcasts.