Edmund Heaphy

Deputy Foreign Editor

Edmund Heaphy is Deputy Foreign Editor of RTÉ News. He previously worked with RTÉ Investigates and Prime Time. He has reported extensively from the Middle East on the conflict in Gaza and the 7 October attacks.

Rubble in Beirut - a portrait of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri is visible in the debris

Lebanon sees its chance - but it is fraught with danger

With Hezbollah battered and Iran focused on its own survival, Lebanon sees a rare opportunity to chart its own course - but Hezbollah's threats carry echoes of a darker past, writes Edmund Heaphy.

Middle East • 2 hrs

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 14: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (4th-L), accompanied by U.S. State Department Counselor Michael Needham (3rd-L), U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (4th-R), Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad (2nd-R) and

Talks expose deep rift between Lebanese govt, Hezbollah

The divisions over today's talks between Israel and Lebanon were visible on the streets of Beirut before the diplomats had even taken their seats in Washington, writes Deputy Foreign Editor Edmund Heaphy.

Analysis and Comment • 14 Apr

A Pakistani Ranger walks past a billboard for the US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad

US-Iran talks fail to clear even most basic hurdle

The US-Iran talks in Islamabad have ended without even an agreement to meet again - raising serious questions about what comes next, writes Edmund Heaphy.

Analysis and Comment • 12 Apr

Inside, daily life carries on as much as it can. In one room, a group of men found a small distraction - a game of cards, a few hours of forgetting.

The Beirut shelter that rarely empties amid crises

This centre first opened its doors in 2006, during another war between Israel and Lebanon. But the country has been through so many crises since then that it has rarely been empty for long.

Analysis and Comment • 13 Apr

Civilians inspect the site as a residential building lies in ruins and surrounding structures show heavy damage after an Israeli strike hits Corniche Al-Mazraa district in Beirut

Israel-Lebanon ceasefire talks risk stalling out of sight

Israel has agreed to Lebanon talks - but the fear is they will unfold away from the spotlight while the war continues, writes Edmund Heaphy in Beirut.

Analysis and Comment • 10 Apr

Damage is seen in the Ain el Mreisseh neighbourhood of Beirut, Lebanon,

Bloody day in Lebanon puts fragile ceasefire at risk

A ceasefire was declared in Washington and Tehran, but, here in Beirut, the smoke rising across the city this evening suggests it has not yet reached Lebanon.

Middle East • 09 Apr

TEHRAN, IRAN - MARCH 28: Journalists walk through the rubble of a foreign car repair workshop that was damaged during a joint U.S. and Israeli attack on March 28, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. The United States and Israel have continued their joint attack on Iran

Why regime change in Iran has no clear path forward

Talk of regime change in Iran ignores an inconvenient truth - there is nothing ready to replace the Islamic Republic, writes Edmund Heaphy.

Analysis and Comment • 05 Apr

Iranians hold anti-America banners outside the former US embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran on November 3, 2016, during a demonstration marking the anniversary of its storming by student protesters that triggered a hostage crisis in 1979.
Thousands of

Why lessons from a CIA coup in Iran should haunt Trump

The story of modern Iran begins with a CIA coup in 1953 - and its lessons should haunt Donald Trump, writes Deputy Foreign Editor Edmund Heaphy.

Analysis and Comment • 09 Mar

Smoke rises after Iran launched a missile attack targeting the headquarters of the US Navyâs Fifth Fleet in Manama

US and Israel clear their goal is Iranian regime change

The US and Israel have made clear their goal is Iranian regime change - and Iran will make the whole region pay for it, writes our Deputy Foreign Editor Edmund Heaphy.

Analysis and Comment • 04 Mar

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is pictured in London in September

Latest Epstein files bring different trouble for Andrew

Files left behind by the late Jeffrey Epstein reveal a hidden world of powerful men and some women who appear to have operated as though the rules simply did not apply to them, writes Edmund Heaphy.

Analysis and Comment • 19 Feb