# Simon Sebag-Montefiore on the Iran war: Trump’s mistakes, Israel’s overreach and the end of the ‘Middle East’ Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/iran-the-latest-6656846/simon-sebag-montefiore-on-the-iran-war-trump-s-mistakes-israel-s-overreach-and-the-end-of-the-middle-east Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/iran-the-latest-6656846/simon-sebag-montefiore-on-the-iran-war-trump-s-mistakes-israel-s-overreach-and-the-end-of-the-middle-east.md Podcast: [Iran: The Latest](https://stenobird.com/podcast/iran-the-latest-6656846) Published: 2026-08-30T07:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/battle-lines-israel-gaza/episodes/simon-sebag-montefiore-on-the-iran-war-trumps-mistakes-israe Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6583019ebbd71a00175001c8/e/6a8ec12f6634e0e9ba8a977c/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/iran-the-latest-6656846/episodes/simon-sebag-montefiore-on-the-iran-war-trump-s-mistakes-israel-s-overreach-and-the-end-of-the-middle-east Duration seconds: 2474 ## Resource "Israel is in a situation of kind of spectacular military virtuosity, but also strategic impoverishment. You cannot kill everybody."  On today’s bank holiday bonus episode of Iran: the Latest , Venetia Rainey speaks to historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore to get a historian’s view of the US-Israel-Iran war. Simon argues that Donald Trump’s biggest mistake was not stopping after 2025’s Operation Midnight Hammer, and that Benjamin Netanyahu is leading his country into a potential intra-Jewish civil war.  Plus, why the Iranian regime is a Mahdist-praetorian oligarchy, how the geopolitical concept of "the Middle East" became obsolete, and which dictators from the region’s modern history haunt him.  Simon Sebag Montefiore’s new book, The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East , is out now. Highlights Trump’s mistakes, Israel’s overreach and the end of the ‘Middle East’ Historian and author Simon Sebag-Montefiore on the Iran war CONTRIBUTORS: Venetia Rainey, co-host and executive producer @venetiarainey Simon Sebag-Montefiore, historian and author @simonmontefiore WATCH US ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJnf_DDTfIVAif-vifC6F2aoPB8GIw6dk CONTENT REFERENCED: Simon Sebag Montefiore: Appeasing radical activists will make the West ungovernable https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/simon-sebag-montefiore-the-cauldron-interview/ Simon Sebag Montefiore: Starmer’s foreign policy risks rewarding aggressive extremists https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/07/montefiore-starmers-foreign-policy-rewards-extremists/ Winner Best News and Analysis Podcast - Publisher Podcast Awards 2026 Nominated Podcast of the Year - Society of Editors News Podcasts Awards 2026 Nominated Best News, Politics and Current Affairs - British Podcast Awards 2026 The T… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/iran-the-latest-6656846/episodes/simon-sebag-montefiore-on-the-iran-war-trump-s-mistakes-israel-s-overreach-and-the-end-of-the-middle-east/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/iran-the-latest-6656846/simon-sebag-montefiore-on-the-iran-war-trump-s-mistakes-israel-s-overreach-and-the-end-of-the-middle-east.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.