**Talk**
Iran's Ambitions:
Implications for the Middle East, Israel and the World.
David Bradley talks to Former UK Ambassador to Iran, Nicholas Hopton, about Iran's intentions in the Middle East following the fall of Syria and that now that Trump is US President. He will also explore what life was like living in an authoritarian theocracy, and various unsettling moments for him and his staff .
Monday 24th February 2025
The Bridge Room (upstairs), The Prince Albert, 85 Albert Bridge Road, London SW11
Arrive 7pm - Drinks at the bar
Talk starts 7.30 pm
Optional dinner 8.30 pm
From £19 Early Bird.
About Nicholas Hopton
Cambridge-educated Nicholas Hopton served 35 years at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as ambassador to Qatar, Libya, Yemen and Iran from 2016 to 2018. He was the first ambassador there since breaking diplomatic relations between the UK and Iran in 2011. He is now the Director General of the Middle East Association, facilitating opportunities between the United Kingdom and the Middle East across business, culture, environment, education, and development.
What you'll discover at the talk includes:
* What are Iran’s strategic regional and global objectives? If they are achieved, what will the Middle East look like and how will that affect the World
* How the fall of the Assad Regime in Syria will affect Iran's forgn policy. Willhtat have blunted its ambitions?
* Could the Iranian Regime collapse like Assad's in Syria?
* What effect. will a new Trump Presidency have on Iran?
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​* How did diplomatic receptions work at the Embassy? Were the Mullhas happy to mingle? Were there moments of levity?
* How the Sunni-Shia divide and Mongol invasions are critical to Middle Eastern complexity.​
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* Why Saladin, after his victory over the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin in 1187, had been and is still revered by Muslims and Christians. ​​
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​* The horrors of the First Crusade and the Crusaders' sacking of Jerusalem and their subsequent slaughter of both Muslims and Jews sowed the seeds of hate towards Christians in the Middle East.
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* Why Acre was so strategic in controlling Syria, Palestine, and the Eastern Mediterranean, and how the Christians lost control of it in 1291 thanks to a drunken brawl that developed into a massacre of Muslims. ​
Monday 18th November 2024
The Bridge Room (upstairs), The Prince Albert, 85 Albert Bridge Road, London SW11
Arrive 7pm - Drinks at the bar
Talk starts at 7.30 pm.
Optional is at dinner 8.30 pm.
£35 each.
Cancellation Policy
If we must cancel the event or you (with at least five days' notice) can't make it, you will receive a complimentary ticket to another Revellers' Club-organised event. If there isn't one that you wish or can attend, you will receive a refund. Tickets are not transferable.