From Yemen to Ukraine, how Iranian drone technology is wreaking havoc

Special A handout picture provided by Iranian Army office on August 24, 2022 shows kamikaze drones during a two-day drone drill at an undisclosed location in Iran. (AFP)
A handout picture provided by Iranian Army office on August 24, 2022 shows kamikaze drones during a two-day drone drill at an undisclosed location in Iran. (AFP)
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Updated 10 October 2022

From Yemen to Ukraine, how Iranian drone technology is wreaking havoc

From Yemen to Ukraine, how Iranian drone technology is wreaking havoc
  • Yemen’s Houthis and other militias have used Iranian-made drones to target Saudi civilian facilities 
  • Last month Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6 made their combat debut in Ukraine in the service of Russia 

IRBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: Armed drones designed and manufactured by Iran have given Tehran’s militia proxies across the Middle East a unique capability to wreak havoc throughout the region.

The Houthi militia in Yemen, for instance, has frequently used explosive-laden drones to target Saudi Arabia. Tehran provided these militants with the means and the know-how to assemble and launch these drones to devastating effect.

In September 2019, Iranian drones and cruise missiles were used to attack oil processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais in eastern Saudi Arabia, causing significant disruption to global oil markets. 

Iranian drones have also been deployed inside Iraq, demonstrating just how widespread their proliferation has been in this volatile region. Last week, US forces said they had shot down an Iranian Mohajer-6 drone heading for Irbil, capital of Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdistan region.

Now, for the first time, Iran’s home-grown unmanned aerial vehicles are being put to the test in a different war altogether. 

In September, Iran’s drones made their combat debut in Ukraine in the service of the Russian military, where they appear poised to play a significant role in the eight-month-old eastern European conflict. Ukrainian forces shot down Iranian kamikaze drones sold to Russia in an effort to target civilians, which led President Volodymyr Zelensky to dismiss Iranian diplomats from the country.

 

“It is sad that we have to recognize that the Iranian government is lying, as the Russian Federation government is, because we had contact with Iran’s leaders at the topmost level. We talked to the embassy, we had the ambassadors called up to the Ministry of External Affairs, and we were assured that nothing was sold to Russia, it wasn’t their drones, and nothing of the kind,” he recently told Arab News’s Frankly Speaking.

“We have a number of these downed Iranian drones, and these have been sold to Russia to kill our people, and they are — you’re right — they are being used against civilian infrastructure and civilians, peaceful civilians. Because of that, we sent Iranian diplomats away from the country. We have nothing to talk with them about.”

Nicholas Heras, director of strategy and innovation at the New Lines Institute, says there are significant differences in how Russia and the Houthis choose to deploy their fleets of Iranian drones. 

“The Houthis are deploying these loitering munitions in a more strategic manner, generally trying to strike high-value targets inside Yemen but beyond their zone of control or inside Saudi Arabia. Iranian drones serve as the Houthis’ air force on the cheap,” he told Arab News.

“In Ukraine, the Russians are using the Iranian drones in a more tactical sense, using them to strike at Ukrainian artillery or arms depots that are closer to the frontlines. The Russians are basically using these drones like another type of artillery round, whereas the Houthis use them more like intermediate missiles.”

According to US officials, Iran is supplying Russia with “hundreds” of armed drones in a bid to turn the tide of the war against the Western-backed Ukrainian armed forces, which have reclaimed vast swathes of the country’s eastern territory in recent weeks. 

In an exclusive interview this week with Frankly Speaking host Katie Jensen, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “We have a number of these downed Iranian drones, and these have been sold to Russia to kill our people. 

“They are being used against civilian infrastructure and civilians, peaceful civilians. Because of that, we sent Iranian diplomats away from the country. We have nothing to talk with them about.”

Russia has already used several of its newly acquired Iranian loitering munitions, also referred to as kamikaze or suicide drones, in this war. These particular drones are relatively cheap and can be used in large numbers, enabling them to overwhelm enemy defenses, reach their target and self-destruct.

Russia recently employed, or at least attempted to employ, this technique in Ukraine’s southern Odesa port and the city of Mykolaiv using Iranian Shahed-136 loitering munitions. 




A military parade in Septemberm 2022 in Sanaa, during which drones and missiles that have been hallmarks of the Iran-backed militia's military campaign filed past a grandstand. (AFP/Houthi Media Office)

Iranian-made drones have also targeted Ukrainian artillery positions in the Kharkiv region. Ukraine’s military authorities say they have shot down several such drones, including the larger Mohajer-6 model, in recent days. 

The Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6 are two very different drone types, designed to achieve different objectives. 

“Shahed-136 is a loitering munition with a significant range, while Mohajer-6 is a mid-range ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) and combat drone with a range of around 200 kilometers,” Samuel Bendett, a research analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses, told Arab News. 

“The one Mohajer-6 drone that was recently downed probably fell victim to operator error or Ukrainian EW (electronic warfare) systems.”

Although individually they have different applications, the two drone models have also been known to be used in tandem.




Wreckage of an Iranian Shahed-136, shot down by the Ukrainian armed forces near Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. (Ministry of Defense of Ukraine/Social Media)

“Russian commentators indicate that Mohajer may have been directing Shahed-136 to target, given that Shahed-136 does not have its own camera and has to rely on GPS for targeting,” said Bendett.

“Mohajer-6 is roughly comparable with the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone in capabilities, which gives the Russians employing it as an ISR and combat system a rough parity with some Ukrainian drone capabilities.”

James Rogers, the DIAS associate professor in war studies within the Center for War Studies at the University of Southern Denmark and non-resident senior fellow within the Cornell Tech Policy Lab at Cornell University, also described the Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6 drones as very different systems, “designed to fulfill important operational gaps for the Russian military.”

“The Shahed-136 can be used in rudimentary swarms of five drones or less and is roughly comparable to a growing family of loitering drones, like the (American) Switchblade 600 or the (Israeli) Harop,” Rogers told Arab News. 

“In contrast, the Mohajer-6 is a weapons platform that can fulfill a surveillance role and also deploy its own missiles and guided bombs. This makes it broadly comparable to the TB2 type of drone, in the fact that it is a longer endurance multi-purpose weapon.”

According to Bendett, some Ukrainian sources estimate the cost of the Shahed-136 is as little as $20,000 per unit, “making it cheap enough to be mass-produced by the Russians.” 

“In fact, some Russian Telegram channels are indicating that such mass production has already commenced at Russian enterprises,” he said. “If used en masse, they can pose a challenge for the Ukrainian air defenses and cause damage.”




n September, Iran’s drones made their combat debut in Ukraine in the service of the Russian military, where they appear poised to play a significant role in the eight-month-old eastern European conflict. (MEHR News Agency)

Nevertheless, Bendett is doubtful Russia’s new Iranian drone capabilities will prove to be a game-changer in the Ukraine conflict.

“They will not be able to reverse Ukrainian gains, since such gains are made by infantry and combined arms operations that hold territory,” he said.

“They can, however, cause a serious headache for the Ukrainians given a possibly high rate of attrition of weapons, systems and personnel due to continued attacks by Shaheds.”

Rogers, meanwhile, believes it is still too soon to determine whether the Shahed-136 and Mohajer-6 “will have a transformative impact” on the Russian war effort.

“A number of the Iranian drones have already been shot down by the Ukrainian military, but there are reports of them being used successfully against the US-supplied High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems that have been indispensable to Ukrainian forces,” he said. 

Indeed, the GPS-guided Shahed-136 has proven remarkably accurate, as demonstrated by the “recent Ukrainian admission that Shaheds have struck artillery batteries as well as stationary targets like buildings in Odesa,” said Bendett. 

However, the drone model lacks sophisticated electronics, and a robust electronic warfare defense “can interfere with their operation,” he added.




Wreckage of another Iranian Shahed-136, shot down by the Ukrainian armed forces near Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. (Ministry of Defense of Ukraine/Social Media)

It would be wrong to underestimate the significant advantages drone technology can bring to the battlefield.

According to Rogers, the Shahed-136 is comparable to a modern cruise missile “in that it can hit targets with precision and explode on impact but differs in the fact that it can remain airborne, survey the battlefield and adjust its target in reaction to developments on the ground.

“It can also be used in a multi-drone ‘swarming’ deployment to saturate ground defenses, opening the floodgates — so to speak — to a range of other missiles and rockets,” he said. 

Bendett likewise believes the Shahed-136 has given the Russian military the ability “to launch long-range loitering munitions at targets in large numbers at different tactical and operational depths.”

This is significant because it is “something they have struggled to do in the preceding months given their limited stocks of domestic loitering and combat drones.”

He added: “Russia also gains valuable lessons from Iran’s own use of these drones via their multiple proxies across the Middle East, possibly adding to new tactics and procedures in Ukraine.” 

Aside from providing Russia with lessons and doctrines, these drones also serve as substitutes for Russia’s depleting stockpile of cruise missiles, which will likely take Moscow years to replenish to pre-war levels.




A Ukrainian soldier looks up to the sky after hearing the sound of a drone during a patrol in the frontline city of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region, on September 24, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

“With trade restrictions and embargoes placed on Russia, the military has found it hard to replace lost military assets,” said Rogers. 

“This is why the convenient arrangement with Iran has emerged. It allows Russia to obtain military capabilities it has run low on or does not have the supplies to produce.”

The more battle testing Iran’s drones rack up in Ukraine and across the Middle East, the more sophisticated they are likely to become. That is why Heras believes both Kyiv and Riyadh need to enhance their air defenses to adequately deal with this threat.

“The Ukrainians have used portable anti-air missiles fired by infantry or vehicles to shoot down the Iranian-made Russian drones, albeit with a mix of success and failure,” he said. 

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has expended a large number of expensive Patriot interceptor missiles, which cost millions of dollars per shot, against Houthi drones that cost mere thousands to manufacture. 

“Eventually, Israeli- and American-developed anti-air systems intended for smaller rocket types could be useful for both Ukraine and Saudi Arabia,” said Heras. 

“Especially for Saudi Arabia, which would need these defenses to protect strategic targets that the Houthis prefer to strike.”


In Egypt’s ‘Garbage City,’ a charity teaches children to recycle

In Egypt’s ‘Garbage City,’ a charity teaches children to recycle
Updated 12 sec ago

In Egypt’s ‘Garbage City,’ a charity teaches children to recycle

In Egypt’s ‘Garbage City,’ a charity teaches children to recycle

CAIRO: As a child growing up in Cairo’s Manshiyat Nasser, a shanty town also known as “Garbage City,” Teresa Saeed spent her free time rummaging through the piles of rubbish strewn everywhere to find paper and materials to indulge her love of drawing and painting.

Now 34, she runs a charity that encourages children in the area to make creative and positive use of their environment by exploring the space and recycling.

In Manshiyat Nasser, a neighborhood of unpainted brick buildings east of central Cairo, many streets and buildings are piled high with rubbish collected from across the metropolis and processed or recycled informally.

“The whole idea is that these children are constantly surrounded with recycling. Why not teach them how to recycle in a way that reduces our consumption and benefits society?” she said.

Saeed’s charity Mesaha, the Arabic word for space, runs weekly recycling activities for 150-200 children aged 6-15.

In two-day workshops, the children gather plastic bottles, sticks, cardboard, paper and cans, and transform them into piggy banks, musical instruments, puzzles, or paintings.

“These activities help children connect with their environment and think outside the box,” Saeed said. “Instead of being angry at my surrounding environment, how can I do something that adds value to it?”

Saeed hopes to expand the project to other areas in Egypt.

“I dream that those children will grow to be leaders of change in their future professions or wherever they go” she said.


Tunisia cuts off water supply at night amid severe drought

Tunisia cuts off water supply at night amid severe drought
Updated 4 min 48 sec ago

Tunisia cuts off water supply at night amid severe drought

Tunisia cuts off water supply at night amid severe drought

TUNIS: Tunisian authorities have started cutting off drinking water at night in areas of the capital and other cities, residents said, in what appears to be a bid to reduce consumption amid a severe drought.

Cutting off water without prior announcement, in areas of the capital Tunis, Hammamet, Sousse, Monastir and Sfax, threatens to fuel social tension in a country whose people suffer from poor public services, high inflation and a weak economy.

Officials of the water distribution company contacted by Reuters declined to comment.

Tunisia is suffering a serious drought, prompting officials to say the ministry may begin to cut off water supply at night over the summer to reduce consumption due to the scarcity of reserves in the country.

FASTFACT

Tunisia is suffering a serious drought, prompting officials to say the ministry may begin to cut off water supply at night over the summer to reduce consumption due to the scarcity of reserves in the country. The continued lack of rain, however, appears to have prompted authorities to start doing so early in some places.

The continued lack of rain, however, appears to have prompted authorities to start doing so early in some places.

Yassin Mami, a lawmaker in the new parliament, said officials from the national water company informed him that the reason for the frequent interruption of water supply in Hammamet city, was “because the country is threatened by water scarcity.”

Tunisian dams recorded a decrease in capacity of around of 1 billion cubic meters due to scarcity of rain from September 2022 to mid-March 2023, Hamadi Habib, a senior official in the agriculture ministry, said.

The Sidi Salem Dam in the north of the country, a key provider of drinking water to several regions, has declined to only 16 percent of its maximum capacity of 580 million cubic meters, official figures showed.


Israel’s ‘fired’ defense chief hangs on

Israel’s ‘fired’ defense chief hangs on
Updated 6 min 7 sec ago

Israel’s ‘fired’ defense chief hangs on

Israel’s ‘fired’ defense chief hangs on
  • Aides said he never got the notification letter formally required for his removal from office

JERUSALEM: The Israeli defense chief whose dismissal by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brought the country’s political crisis to a climax is remaining in office until further notice, aides said on Tuesday, suggesting government indecision on how to proceed.

Beset by unprecedented nationwide protests at his nationalist-religious coalition’s signature plan to overhaul the judiciary, Netanyahu on Monday pressed the pause button and called for compromise talks with the center-left opposition.

“We are in the midst of a crisis that is endangering the basic unity between us,” he said in a prime-time television address. “This crisis necessitates that we all conduct ourselves responsibly.”

His move stabilized Israel’s shaken economy. But questions remained about Netanyahu’s credibility — including within his own camp — after dissent by some senior Likud party colleagues.

Among these was Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who on Saturday broke rank by openly calling for a halt to the overhaul in the name of preventing anti-reform protests from spreading in the military. A day later, Netanyahu said he was firing Gallant.

Ordinarily, that termination would have gone into effect on Tuesday. But Gallant aides said he never got the notification letter formally required to begin the 48-hour countdown to his removal from office, and was continuing to work indefinitely.

Asked whether Gallant was being kept on or replaced, spokespeople for Netanyahu and Likud had no immediate comment.

An opinion poll by top-rated Channel 12 TV found that 63 percent of Israelis — and 58 percent of Likud voters — opposed a Gallant ouster. Similar majorities supported Netanyahu pausing the reforms.

But with 68 percent of Israelis faulting him for the crisis, Channel 12 found that, were an election held today, Netanyahu and coalition allies would lose. Two of those parties, Religious Zionism and Jewish Power, voiced misgiving at the reform pause.

Jewish Power’s leader, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, said Netanyahu had assured him that if compromise talks over the Passover festival and other national holidays in April fail, the coalition would pursue the reforms unilaterally.

In parliament, the coalition on Tuesday tabled for final readings a key bill that would give Netanyahu greater control of the system for selecting judges. A parliamentary spokesperson called this a technicality. Asked how soon the coalition could call a ratification vote, he said: “In theory, the day after.”

There were charges of bad faith from the opposition, which has already named a negotiating team for the compromise talks.

“A gun is being held to our heads,” tweeted former Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman. He accused Netanyahu of using the pause in the judicial overhaul to deplete the anti-government protests, and urged fellow opposition leaders to withdraw their negotiators until the judges’ bill is withdrawn from the plenum.

Likud has yet to say who would represent the coalition in the talks. There was no immediate word from President Isaac Herzog, the host of the negotiations, on when they might begin.

While Israeli streets were mostly quiet on Tuesday, some of the tens of thousands of Israelis who have held escalating protests against the judicial overhaul said they would return.

“I will continue protesting until these reforms are completely dropped, because this isn’t a set of reforms, this is a coup by the executive,” said Eitan Kahana, a 27-year-old demonstrator in Jerusalem.

Critics say the judicial overhaul threatens the independence of the courts. Netanyahu, who is on trial on corruption charges he denies, said the reforms balance out branches of government.


Determined to see fair vote, Turks mobilize for May election

Determined to see fair vote, Turks mobilize for May election
Updated 9 min 24 sec ago

Determined to see fair vote, Turks mobilize for May election

Determined to see fair vote, Turks mobilize for May election
  • Observers should be able to prevent any attempts to cast votes in the names of people who died in the earthquake but who had yet to be removed from the records

ISTANBUL: Sensing the best chance yet to end President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two-decade rule in Turkiye, his opponents are mobilizing to make sure every ballot is counted in a May election and to guard against any tampering in what is expected to be a tight vote.

With the stakes so high, concerns about potential irregularities have been heightened by upheaval wrought by February’s devastating earthquakes in the southeast, where some 50,000 people were killed and millions made homeless.

Yigit, 26, a student from southern Turkiye, said he will watch the polling in his hometown of Antakya come election day on May 14, to make sure nobody tries to cast ballots in the name of his parents, who died in the disaster.

“I will wait at the ballot box to make sure that no one else is voting in their place,” Yigit said.

His parents have not been officially declared dead because their bodies were not found in the rubble. They still appear as eligible voters, said Yigit, who declined to give his full name.

The election marks the toughest political challenge yet for Erdogan, who was already facing criticism over an economy in crisis when the earthquake struck. While polls show him trailing opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the race remains tight and campaigning is just beginning.

An alliance of six opposition parties hoping to unseat the president is planning measures to safeguard a free and fair election, including recruiting professionals such as lawyers to monitor the voting, said Idris Sahin, deputy chair of DEVA Party.

DEVA officials are comparing voter lists from Dec. 31 with the updated registry in the earthquake zone, he said, including checking whether those who moved away are registered in their new residences and whether those who died have been removed.

Observers should be able to prevent any attempts to cast votes in the names of people who died in the earthquake but who had yet to be removed from the records, Sahin added.

“It is not clear whether some citizens are alive or dead in the earthquake zone. Our members need to be careful about these records,” he said, adding that this number could be between 3,000-5,000 at most.

Opposition parties have alleged electoral irregularities in the past, including criticism of measures taken by the High Electoral Board and Erdogan’s influence over the country’s newsrooms.

Turkiye ranked the 123rd among 167 countries in 2019 according to the Electoral Integrity Project, an academic study which compares elections worldwide.

However, there were no accusations of major rigging in the most recent, 2018 presidential election and the opposition candidate conceded. Erdogan’s AK Party has said it is committed to a free and fair election that respects the will of the people.

FASTFACT

With the stakes so high, concerns about potential irregularities have been heightened by upheaval wrought by February’s devastating earthquakes in the southeast, where some 50,000 people were killed and millions made homeless.

Turkish elections are typically monitored by hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country of 85 million people.

Opposition parties and nongovernmental organizations say the exodus of more than 3 million people from the disaster zone poses extra concerns. The earthquake devastated 11 provinces that were home to 14 million people.

“We have a problem updating the electoral records correctly and ballot box security after such a disaster,” said Bekir Agirdir, a board member of pollster KONDA research.

“How many people are actually relocating? How many people will be properly registered on the voter lists?“

The YSK electoral board has said there are no obstacles to holding elections in the southeast, and has announced additional measures such as setting up ballot boxes for voters in temporary shelters and allowing those who moved away to easily change their registered address.

Vote and Beyond, an NGO focused on election security, will commission some 100,000 volunteers as monitors for its system to cross-check the records at each of the 200,000 ballot boxes.

Erdogan’s AK Party has also said it will commission observers.

Mehmet Rustu Tiryaki of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) said some 9 million voters are registered in the area affected by the earthquake. While some 300,000 to 500,000 of them were thought to have changed addresses, many of those who had left the disaster zone had not, added Tiryaki.

For Yigit, the earthquake and what he sees as the government’s slow response to the disaster weighs on him as he decides how to vote.

My parents “were not protected, and no help came. This time, I will also vote with this responsibility on my shoulders,” he said.


Meet the “communicator 2.0” and Arabic voice of diplomacy at the French Foreign Ministry

Meet the “communicator 2.0” and Arabic voice of diplomacy at the French Foreign Ministry
Updated 37 min 49 sec ago

Meet the “communicator 2.0” and Arabic voice of diplomacy at the French Foreign Ministry

Meet the “communicator 2.0” and Arabic voice of diplomacy at the French Foreign Ministry
  • In the twilight of a long and distinguished career, Patrice Paoli is working to define the future of ministry’s interaction with the Arab world
  • He said his mission is to develop a social media presence through which French officials can talk to the Arab world about politics as well as culture, history, literature and sport

PARIS: Since his appointment on Jan. 23 as ambassador in charge of communication in Arabic for the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Patrice Paoli has been the Arab voice of French diplomacy in the media and on social networks.

He regularly posts messages and videos in Arabic on his official Twitter account, for example, and engages with users in discussions about the topics they cover.

This might not seem out of the ordinary in the internet age but it marks a significant development for a ministry previously known for its more conservative and persistently traditional approach to media and public relations.

Paoli, a former ambassador to Lebanon and several other countries, said his mission is to express France’s positions in more modern ways, far removed from the well-beaten path of formal press releases and written statements. He is, in a way, the “communicator 2.0” of the Quai d’Orsay, the home of the French Foreign Office, tasked with being the voice of France in the Arab media on issues related to foreign policy.

His post will develop over time, Paoli told Arab News en Francais, adding: “We’ll see how it evolves. My mission is to see if this means of communication is useful and what is its added value.

“The idea took shape last autumn when someone proposed this post to me after I returned from my post (as ambassador) in Cuba.”

The goal, he explained, is a more personalized form of communication and “to express ourselves about different topics in plain language by putting words to situations in a different way from a press release.” There is also a desire to share “a little of what France is and (break) the stereotypes people may have of the diplomat.”

The most important goal for Paoli is to set a template for the future by creating more empathy, and humanizing and putting a real face on institutional communications.

“I’m going to retire soon, so I’m working to define the post and establish it in the time I have left and to pass the baton to someone else next autumn,” he explained.

His mission is, above all, to develop a social media presence through which French officials can talk to the Arab world about political issues as well as culture, history, even literature and sport.

HIGHLIGHT

The most important goal for Paoli is to set a template for the future by creating more empathy, and humanizing and putting a real face on institutional communications.

He describes it as “a work of passion that I’m taking with the direction of communication and the press. It’s a complement to the remarkable work of this direction, in a world of communication that’s more and more complicated, where it’s necessary to go very quickly and take everything that’s happening into account.”

During a personal trip to Marseille a few days ago, Paoli posted several messages on Twitter touting the plurality of this Mediterranean city: A place of blended culture and the entry point to France in the south of the country.

While on a recent trip to Cairo to participate in a meeting of French ambassadors to the Middle East, he tweeted about his visit to the Pyramids of Giza, the recently renovated Blue Mosque, and his general impressions of returning to the large Arab capital after many years away.

As a specialist in the Arab world, Paoli was immersed in Arab culture during his youth as a result of the posts that his diplomat father held, and then as his own diplomatic career developed. This took him to Egypt, Yemen, Jordan and Lebanon, and he was also director of the Foreign Ministry’s North Africa and Middle East Department from 2008 to 2012.

His love for the Arabic language, among several other languages, dates back to his childhood. At the age of four, while his family lived in Washington, he learned English. Later, in Libya, he learned German and Russian.

He was introduced to Arabic when he attended a French high school in Tripoli, where it was a required class. He recalled that it was difficult to begin with but, such was his admiration for his Arabist diplomat father, in whose footsteps he dreamed of following, he persevered and won a prize for his ability in the language.

Paoli pursued his studies in classical Arabic at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris, then passed the Concours d’Orient to join the ranks of diplomats. It was therefore with great enthusiasm that, in the twilight of a long and distinguished career, he accepted his current post.

In a sense, his career has come full circle and it represents a most harmonious end to a professional life and a love of Arabic that began with the first book he read in the language, Tambo le Petit Lion — and he still treasures his copy, which has pride of place on a shelf in his office at the Quai d’Orsay.