Name one kind of journalist article submitted weekly to the Times of Eswatini, where the ink is hardly dry at the time of submission. Yes, you got it! The answer is: Any article that attempts to capture the current position in the war between the USA and Iran. The reason being that, from hour to hour, we don’t really know where matters stand in that war.
Since the USA launched its first attack at the end of February 2026, we have never been provided with an explicit statement on precisely what precipitated the attack. One quite convincing theory is to reduce the vulnerability of the State of Israel to hostility in that region. The powerful Israeli lobby must surely be deeply concerned about the precarious position of its people in Israel. Furthermore, Israel lies almost alone in its strategic link position for the West in that Middle East section of the world.
So, now we go from day to day with the people of Iran worried like mad about being eliminated – Mr Trump’s threats have been fully explicit – ‘eliminating a civilisation’ and ‘… there won’t be anything left of them’.
The people of the United States are more into financial than personal damage, and so tied to their political party loyalty – inherited from birth and defended to the point of death – that there is barely a glimmer of revolt among Republican politicians and supporters. Indeed, Republican leaders in the USA have effectively caused the cancellation of a scheduled parliamentary vote that would have almost certainly ended the Iran war. Out in the big wide world, it remains for the rich to look indifferently and the poor look anxiously at the petrol station price boards.
Yes, it’s the poor who will suffer the most. The price of petrol in Eswatini has risen by 40 per cent and diesel by 65 per cent since the start of this war. That will impact on the price of almost everything. For various reasons, especially having to reduce sulphur emissions and facing a high world demand, diesel is now 25 per cent more expensive than petrol. And do we trust the suppliers, including retailers, to limit the increases to (proportionately) the increase in their own supply costs? Remember the onset of COVID-19 and the Ukraine war? The mumbles and grumbles down the aisles of the retail outlets reflected public opinion.
Hoping that the ink can remain dry on this submission to the Times, it appears that there is progress in the peace negotiations. It is nevertheless difficult to visualise since the requirements on each side are mutually exclusive. The USA wants all of Iran’s enriched uranium and a commitment to zero nuclear development, at least for a set period. Israel probably wants more. Both would like some control of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, however, wants full control of that Strait. Just don’t forget the U-turns and ups and downs of previous statements on this war. And in any event, this is just a stage in the peace agreement.
We never know ‘whether it’s Tuesday or raining’.
It’s perhaps unrealistic to expect the big boys on the block – the USA and China - to behave, during normal times, like grown-ups sharing a large part of a wonderful world and accepting more responsibility for the little boys on the block. This is not about taking full control of other countries but spearheading a drive to ensure that every country, including Iran, that has signed up to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), complies with the rules and standards of the Treaty. When adequate inspection standards confirm compliance with the Treaty, no one needs to go to war. But we don’t hear about it.
The ugly business of USA tariffs – a hit and miss initiative - dislodged the relatively harmonious relationship between the USA and China of 2024. Power and prestige became too dominant. Mr Trump was concerned that his people were buying too much from China instead of making it at home. If the two countries were genuinely big mates, they could agree on ‘horses for courses’.
The recent ‘summit’ was a nice little cosmetic set of meetings. But was it a coincidence that Trump, while there, was asked to make a significant concession regarding military support for Taiwan? We, in Eswatini, should worry about what the future holds for our friend in the East. And only days later, Xi and Putin were enjoying each other like crazy; videos and photos of the celebrations were shared with the rest of the world, especially Washington DC.
A global collaboration between the USA and China could pressurise and obtain full compliance from the other 183 countries that signed the Treaty. This could be reinforced by Russia joining up, after peace for Ukraine, with Mr Putin and his oligarchs having climbed into the 21st century, leaving the USSR quietly to history.
Those big countries could even resume playing football against each other. Now, that might go down very well. Depending, of course, on who wins the contest. Might another war be on the cards? As former Liverpool FC Manager Bill Shankly once said: “Football is not a matter of life and death; it’s far more serious than that.”
Name one kind of journalist article submitted weekly to the Times of Eswatini, where the ink is hardly dry at the time of submission.