CMEC podcast

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie is at the 2024 Doha Forum and discusses latest events in the Middle East & North Africa, including the lightening collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, with ex-ambassador Nicholas Hopton, Director-General of the Middle East Association, the Right Hon. Victoria Prentis, former Attorney-General, Chris Doyle, Director of the Council for Arab -British Understanding, the...

Charlotte Leslie talks to renowned scholar and security specialist Dr H.A Hellyer FRSA FRHistS - Senior Associate Fellow in International Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) for Defence and Security (UK). He is also a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. What can the Middle East & North Africa expect under what is expected to be a turbulent 2nd Trum...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks Ex-Defence Secretary Sir Liam Fox about the growing global water crisis - the subject of Sir Liam's latest book, "The Coming Storm, Why water will write the 21st Century." The combination of an ever-increasing global population, climate change, industrialisation, urbanisation and limited natural resources means that one difficulty, above all, will shape the pol...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to The Right Hon. Alistair Burt, the highly respected former Foreign Office Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa on the first anniversary of the October 7th terror attacks by Hamas on Israel which resulted in the murder of around 1,195 Israelis, with another 251 taken hostage. The attacks in turn have led to a massive 12 month-long military re...

Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary The Right Hon. Andrew Mitchell MP was a special panel guest at CMEC's second conference event in Birmingham for CPC24 - "Tackling migration starts in North Africa" - does it?" CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie chaired the panel discussion which also included Middle East experts Ghanem Nuseibeh, the businessman and Chairman of Muslims against Antisemitism, and Maj...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie introduces a an impressive panel of Middle East experts at the Conservative Party Conference 2024 to discuss "The UK's global presence after October 7th". In the chair for the discussion is The Right Honourable Alistair Burt, the highly respected former Former Office minister for the Middle East. (@AlistairBurt UK.) The other distinguished members of the panel were D...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to Lt. General Sir Simon Mayall CB KBE - also an author, historian and an expert on the Middle East - about the current crisis in Lebanon. In recent days Israel has assassinated the head of Hezbollah - Hassan Nasrallah, and launched a series of airstrikes against Hezbollah and Hamas targets within Lebanon, killing Hamas's leader there, Fatha Sharif. An estimate...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to award-winning journalist and Arabist Gareth Browne who reports from #Beirut about the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasralllah and the implications for the Middle East and the world. @BrowneGareth talks to @CharlotteLeslie about what the effective decapitation of #Hezbollah? Has Israel destroyed the group that first emerged from...

The assassinations on July 31st by Israel of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in southern Lebanon have seriously escalated tensions in the region, and now acutely for Lebanon. CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to the award-winning journalist Gareth Browne who is based in Beirut, and writes about the Middle East for The Economist, about the expected...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie introduces highlights from the inaugural WiMENA (www.wimena.com) Women in Sports Conference that took place on June 6th, 2024 at Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea FC. The conference was held in partnership with the Arab British Chamber of Commerce ( abcc.org.uk) and featured inspirational sportswomen from the Middle East and North Africa as well as ambassadors, Mi...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to Amr Ramadan, a climate change young advocate and activist from Egypt who has been working with thew British Council. Amr talks about his work in tackling this enormous challenge. His own city of Alexandria is one of the cities facing the threat of climate-changed induced rising sea levels. Of all the threats we face, climate change is perhaps the greatest an...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie introduces the 76th anniversary commemoration of the Nakba from Methodist Central Hall in central London on May 15th 2024. The event is compared by Kate Hardie-Buckley, the film maker & journalist, and was introduced with a speech by H.E. Dr Husam Zomlot, Palestinian Ambassador to the UK. Contributions can be heard from Bakir Oweida, journalist & Nakba survivor, Ayme...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks about global conflicts from Gaza to Ukraine to Sir Richard Barrons, one of the British Army's most distinguished former generals. He has served in a variety of different theatres from Iraq to Afghanistan. He has warned that Ukraine could face defeat by Russia and talks also about the impact the war in Gaza is having on international relations. Sir Richard was A...

Chatham House Associate Fellow, Professor Yossi Mekelberg, talks to CMEC director Charlotte Leslie about the Israel-Palestine conflict, six months on from October 7th, and what it means for Israel, a future state of Palestine and the world. Yossi, Professor of International Relations and Associate Fellow of the MENA Programme at Chatham House, offers a critique of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benja...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to renowned attorney Daniel Seidemann. Since 1991, Daniel Seidemann has focused on the geopolitics of contemporary Jerusalem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2012, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him an honorary MBE for his work. Daniel talks to Charlotte about the Gaza crisis and how it has impacted his home city of Jerusalem and Israel as a whole. He singl...

In the second of CMEC's series of podcasts with the British Council - Charlotte Leslie discusses the growing prominence of the English language in francophone north Africa with Hamza Koudri -.the British Council's Country Director for Algeria. Speaking from Algeria, Hamza explains that English is becoming increasingly prevalent in north Africa - giving pupils and students access to greater opportu...

This year, Christmas will be dark in Bethlehem. In a special Christmas edition of the CMEC podcast, CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie discusses the Israel Palestine conflict, and the Gaza crisis with The Very Reverend Canon Richard Sewell - the Dean of St George's College in Jerusalem. Richard talks about the deep impact the terror attack of October 7th, and subsequent response from the Israeli gover...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie attended the 2023 Doha Forum & discussed the Middle East's and the world's response to the Gaza crisis with Chris Doyle, Director of the Council for Arab- British Understanding (Caabu) Jane Kinninmont, Policy & Impact Director for the European Leadership Network, The Rt. Hon. Dominic Grieve, ex-Attorney General for England & Wales, Ibrahim Olabi, a Syrian-British bar...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to Air Marshal Martin "Sammy" Sampson CBE DSO, experienced fighter jet pilot and military-diplomat extraordinaire to the Middle East and North Africa. Air Marshal Sampson's official job title is UK Defence Senior Advisor Middle East North Africa (DSAME) and visits countries throughout MENA. He is also the Armed Forces Muslim Champion and Trustee of the National...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie attends the IISS Manama Dialogue 2023 (@IISS_org) - at one of the gravest times of crisis for the Middle East- the Gaza-Israel conflict that began with the October 7th terror attacks by Hamas on Israel. Charlotte talks to two influential and experienced observers of the region, His Excellency Mr. Hossam Zaki, the Assistant General Secretary of the Arab League, and Ba...

Charlotte Leslie, the Director of CMEC, talks about the conflict in #Gaza to Gershon Baskin, distinguished former hostage negotiator with Hamas and Israel and the Middle East director of the International Communities Organisation. Gershon was involved in the negotiations over Gilad Shalit - the Israeli soldier held hostage in Gaza by Hamas for more than 5 years. Shalit was later released in exchan...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie speaks to the award-winning journalist, Gareth Browne, from Ramallah, in the West Bank, the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As the world's eyes are fixed on the Gaza Strip, events in the West Bank are moving fast. At time of broadcast, 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the West Bank. We look at the unfolding situation there, the war in Gaza, and the wi...

Charlotte Leslie, Director of CMEC, talks to Thomas Helm, the Jerusalem Correspondent for The National, the distinguished English language daily based in Abu Dhabi, about the recent tragedy and conflict in Israel and Gaza. Tom talks about the growing crisis on the ground in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) and the context of the latest conflict that began with the shocking te...

The UK government estimates that a UK-GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) could increase trade by 16 per cent. But FTAs do not come easy. The European Union has been negotiating with the GCC since 1990. Can Britain seal a deal that works at all levels? We talk to those at the front line of navigating the challenges. Speakers: Moderator: Nour Al Ali - Bloomberg News Lord Johns...

Charlotte Leslie, Director of CMEC, introduces the 2nd of a series of 4 debates at the 2023 Conservative Party Conference in Manchester. The Rt Hon Alistair Burt, the highly-respected two-time Minister of State for the Middle East, chairs the debate with two eminent guests - Con Coughlin, the Defence Editor of The Telegraph, and Shayan Talabany, an analyst at the Tony Blair Institute. The panel di...