CMEC podcast

CMEC Director, Charlotte Leslie, Chairs a panel at the Syria Britain Business Council's conference in Damascus, on 1st July 2026, with Alia Ayoub Agha, of Ayoub Agha Group, Nadine Chaoui, Managing Director of Al-Inaya Drugstore and Chaoui & Co, chair of The Women's Business Committee at the Federation and Damascus Chamber of Commerce, and Nazek Jandali, Vice Chairwoman of Jandali Group

Does the recently approved, illegal, E1 Settlement Development in the Occupied West Bank make peace impossible? And what are the incentives for peace for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he faces elections in Israel in the autumn? Director of The Council for Arab British Understanding (Caabu)

In the latest CMEC podcast, CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to Simon Penney CMG, former UK Trade Commissioner for the Middle East and Pakistan. He was appointed in May 2018. He was also His Majesty's Consul (HMCG) to Dubai, appointed in January 2021. Simon spent the majority of his career in the banking sector, with extensive experience leading corporate and financial institution groups and t...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to former trade commissioner for the Middle East and Consul General to Dubai, Simon Penney, and to international lawyer, Marcus Booth, both based in the UAE. Simon returned to the public sector in 2023 and has lived in the UAE for 17 years.

CMEC Director talks to Gareth Browne, the Dubai-based Middle East Correspondent of The Economist. Gareth believes there are already signs of the beginning of the collapse of the Iranian regime - just days after the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini.

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to Nicholas Hopton - a former UK ambassador to Iran and three other countries in the Middle East - about the current conflict in the Middle East following the attacks on Iran by the US and Israel, as well as the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini. What happens next, and what can be done to prevent this conflict escalating further? Ni...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Arabist and Mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, about Yemen - its history, recent past and current conflicts.

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie is at the Saudi Media Forum in Riyadh where she talks to US Public Affairs expert, Jason Epstein, about the extraordinary transformation that's taken place within the Kingdom over the last decade as well as the Trump administration's current policy in relation to the Middle East and Iran in particular.

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie discusses the past and future of the troubled Islamic Republic of Iran with two distinguished ambassadors , Sir John Jenkins and Nicholas Hopton.

CMEC Director talks to maritime expert Dr Ian Ralby about the critical but largely overlooked role played by the sea in all of our lives and in the conflicts in the Middle East - the strategy behind the Houthis strikes on tankers in the Red Sea, how they have jeopardised Egypt's frail economy and the trade routes on which we all rely; how Russia's frantic search for a warn sea port after losing it...

One year on from the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie reports from the 2025 Doha Forum. She talks to Michael Lawrence OBE, Chief Executive of Asia House; Baria Alamudddin, respected commentator and journalist; Nicholas Hopton, Director General of The Middle East Association and former UK ambassador to Qatar, Iran, Libya and Yemen, and to Alicia Kearns, shadow Home...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie reports on Middle East current affairs from the 2025 Manama Dialogue and talks to Iain Lindsay OBE, former UK ambassador to Bahrain and now advisor to the country's prime minister Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa; Shayan Talabani, geopolitics analyst with the Tony Blair Institute; and Ibrahim Hamidi, Editor-in-Chief of Al Majalla magazine.

CMEC Chairman The Rt Hon. Kit Malthouse MP chairs a panel of distinguished experts examining the future of the Levant & its people. The panel comprises Emir Majid Arslan, academic & leading member of the Lebanese Druze community; Prof. Lina Khatib, Associate Fellow of the Chatham House MENA programme; & Lt Gen. Sir Simon Mayall KBE CB, soldier, author & former MENA advisor to the Ministry of Defen...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie chairs a distinguished panel of experts and asks them how does the UK tackle the chronic under-reach of its soft power in the MENA region. The panel includes Omar Bdour, author and Founder & CEO, London Arabia; Tony Davis, boxing coach for the Bahrain national team; & Nicholas Hopton, Director-General of the Middle East Association and ex-ambassador to 4 MENA countri...

"The future of Christianity in a changing Israel" is the subject for the first of 3 CMEC debates at the 2025 Conservative Party Conference. CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie introduces 4 distinguished speakers: Mr Ghanem Nusbeibeh, Chairman, Muslims Against Antisemitism; Maj. Gen. Jonathan Shaw CB CBE - former Assistant Chief of the General Staff; Jamie Eyre, CEO, Embrace the Middle East; & - speakin...

CMEC Special: The UK joins 149 other countries in recognising the state of Palestine. CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie attends a raising of the flag at the Palestinian Mission to mark this historic event. These edited highlights of the commemoration include excerpts from speeches by His Excellency Dr Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian Ambassador, Hamish Falconer MP, minister for the Middle East and the R...

Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, former MENA Minister, gives CMEC members a private briefing on the "12-day war" strikes by Israel and the USA, against Iran in June 2025.

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie hosts a discussion between two distinguished MENA experts, the soldier & scholar, Lt. Gen. Sir Simon Mayall, and Lebanese-British academic Professor Nader El-Bizri. The wide-ranging discussion covers #Lebanon and its relations with Syria, extremism, economics and how religion also acts as a key driver of identity. They also discuss the ongolng crisis and tragedy of #...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to Tom Helm, Jerusalem Correspondent for The National Newspaper. Tom reports from his home in The Old City, in Jerusalem, about the current and growing Middle East omni-crisis with Israel attempting to knock out Iran's Uranium enrichment capacity and seemingly non-stop slaughter in Gaza. What happens if the US joins Israel's attack on Iran and what happens to N...

Damien McElroy, the London Bureau Chief for The National newspaper, introduces the distinguished MENA expert Prof. Lina Khatib (Chatham House, SOAS, Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center) for a fascinating CMEC-hosted talk at the House of Lords about Lebanon, which is now under new political management. Important contributors to the discussion include H.E. Mr Rami Mortada, Lebanon's ambassador to the U...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to celebrated Lebanese journalist and editor Nayla de Freige, who is also president of the world-renowned international annual Baalbek Festival, held among the ancient ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, north east of #Beirut.. Nayla, CEO of L'Orient-Le Jour media group, describes the terrible impact on Lebanon and the grave threat posed to her home - t...

Expert & insightful discussion on what happens next in post-Assad Syria

CMEC Director talks to Cameron Hudson about the civil war raging in Sudan. Cameron Hudson is Senior Fellow in the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies based in Washington, DC. He has served in a number of high level roles in think tanks, NGOs and with the UN and in the U.S. government specialising in Sudan and genocide. Cameron began his government career as an inte...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks to Saudi sports star, in the ring, on the pitch, and in management, Rasha Al Khamis about the success and popularity of women's sports in Saudi Arabia and the extraordinary cultural and societal changes that have made it possible. Rasha Al-Khamis is one of the women leading the way in Saudi sport. She served for more than five years on the board of directors of...

CMEC Director Charlotte Leslie talks about the dramatic events in Syria and the sudden collapse of the 53-year old Assad regime to author and journalist Con Coughlin, the executive defence and foreign affairs editor of the Telegraph, and author of several books, including his latest book, Assad: The Triumph of Tyranny.