Middle East matters

Hamas announced this week that it had dissolved the de facto government, saying it was ready to hand over power to a group of technocrats appointed by Donald Trump's Board of Peace. Israel dismissed the move as a stunt. But with the Israeli military continuing to bomb Gaza despite the ostensible ceasefire, while controlling more than 60 per cent of the territory, and with the technocratic committe...

In this edition of Middle East Matters, Nadia Massih is pleased to welcome our Jerusalem correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky as well as Amberin Zaman, chief correspondent for Al Monitor, a Washington-based independent news organisation that covers the Middle East and North Africa. Zaman argues that Israel's apparent recognition of the Armenian genocide is less a principled historical reckoning than a "...

More Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries are competing in the 2026 World Cup than at any previous tournament, much to the delight of fans from Morocco to Jordan. But as always with sports, politics is never far from the pitch. Iran, of course, springs to mind. Never before has a country hosted a World Cup while at war with one of the competing nations.

The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is at the heart of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the United States and Iran. Under the terms of the deal, the US will immediately lift its blockade of Iranian ports. The Islamic Republic, for its part, will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and charge no toll for commercial vessels for a period of 60 days. However, the presence of sea mines in the...

After weeks of US President Donald Trump insisting that a deal with Iran is just around the corner, violence has flared up again. Part of the challenge for Trump is that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu no longer have the same priorities. Washington wants an out from a war that's roiling oil markets and is increasingly unpopular at home. But Netanyahu faces elections by the end of...

In the show this week, we look at how Syria could benefit from the oil crisis triggered by tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. After Iran effectively closed the strategic waterway, Syria's Mediterranean port of Baniyas found itself emerging as a hub for crude oil transported overland from the UAE and Iraq. Could Syria – a country in desperate need of investment after 14 years of civil war – establis...

A United Nations commission, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have all separately concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war in October 2023. The cultural life of the enclave is also profoundly threatened, with historic buildings destroyed and writers, poets and academics among that huge deat...

Nadia Massih is pleased to welcome Dr Andreas Krieg, Senior Lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King's College London and Fellow at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies. According to Krieg, "Iran is fighting a war against the global economy." By targeting the UAE, and especially Dubai, Tehran is not merely retaliating militarily but seeking to exploit what Krieg calls the "Achilles he...

The new Syrian administration is trying to provide justice for the tens of thousands tortured and hundreds of thousands more killed by the regime of former dictator Bashar al-Assad. But is enough being done to investigate and prosecute those accused? Some tentative steps have been taken. A trial is underway in Damascus of Assad himself and his brother Maher, although neither are in the country and...

While the events of October 7, 2023, may have pushed some Israelis and Palestinians apart, Maoz Inon and Aziz Abu Sarah say they've become like brothers. When Maoz lost his parents in the attacks, Aziz, who himself lost a brother during the first intifada, reached out in a gesture of friendship. Their extraordinary story and the deep optimism they feel for the future is told in a new book, "The Fu...

Hezbollah plunged Lebanon into war with Israel in early March. Six weeks later, the group, which had suffered setbacks in 2024, is still putting up a fight. But how? And can the Lebanese government succeed in getting the militant group to disarm? In this edition of Middle East Matters, we are joined by Dr. Matthew Levitt, Fromer-Wexler Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute and Director of its...

When will the Strait of Hormuz be open for business again? A fragile ceasefire may be in place, but for now maritime traffic through the waterway remains at a near standstill. There is growing evidence that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has laid mines in the Strait, a move likely to deter shipping companies from making the journey. FRANCE 24 speaks to Adi Imsirovic, lecturer on the energy systems at...

Nadia Massih is joined by Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. He situates Israel’s military actions in southern Lebanon within a broader political and strategic framework that extends well beyond immediate battlefield objectives. 

Nadia Massih is pleased to welcome Clémence Bectarte, a lawyer at the Paris Bar, specialising in international criminal law and international human rights law. She is working with survivors of the Yazidi genocide, whose experiences reveal both the depth of the brutal systematic violence and the enduring struggle for recognition and basic justice. The testimonies presented in this case are not only...

As the Iran-Israel-US-Lebanon war makes headlines around the world, what is happening in the occupied West Bank? Expropriation of Palestinian land, settler attacks and killings have long been the story of the West Bank, but human rights campaigners and experts say that amid the fog of regional war, attacks are on the rise and Israeli settlers are emboldened. We take a closer look in this special e...

Amid the current crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, Nadia Massih is pleased to welcome Dr. Guy Laron, Author of "Oil Wars", Historian and Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. According to Dr Laron, what we are witnessing is not merely a regional confrontation but a textbook demonstration of how energy chokepoints shape global power. Iran’s strateg...

For this final edition of Middle East Matters, we bring you a series of reports from our correspondents in the region. We begin in Israel, where as the war in Gaza drags on, divisions in Israeli society are growing more stark. Immediately after the attacks of October 7, the vast majority of people supported the government's decision to pursue Hamas aggressively. But a growing, vocal minority argue...

Around a dozen donor countries are freezing funding to UNRWA, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, after Israel alleged that 12 UN staffers took part in the October 7 Hamas attacks. The UN has fired the employees in question and promised a full investigation. The budget cuts come at a profoundly challenging time. A quarter of the population of Gaza is starving, and UNRWA is the biggest aid pr...

From Lebanon to Iraq and Syria, the ripple effects of the war between Israel and Hamas are being felt, but nowhere more so than Yemen. For months now, Houthi rebels there have been firing missiles at cargo ships in the Red Sea, prompting the US and UK to bomb targets inside Yemen this past weekend. FRANCE 24 spoke to Dr Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen specialist at the University of Cambridge.

The International Court of Justice is to hold hearings this week on a case brought by South Africa, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza and seeking a halt to its military campaign. Israel has described the allegations against it as "baseless" and intended to stir up lethal hatred of Jews. FRANCE 24's Shirli Sitbon tells us more about South Africa's decision to file the case, the Israeli response a...

In this edition, we look at the ripple effects of the war in Gaza. In the Red Sea, Houthi rebels from Yemen are stepping up their attacks on vessels in the vital shipping lane, saying they're doing so in protest at Israel's actions in Gaza, even though many of the ships in question are not Israeli-owned. Might that lead to a wider conflict? We speak to Abdul Ghani Al-iryani, senior researcher at t...

He's claiming that his remarks were "misinterpreted". The Emirati oil executive leading the COP28 climate conference in Dubai has come out fighting after widespread criticism of his suggestion that there was "no science" indicating that a phase-out of fossil fuels was needed to contain global warming. A controversial choice as president, Sultan al-Jaber argues he's "uniquely placed" to persuade th...

This week, we are starting to learn more about the conditions of the mainly Israeli hostages held in Gaza. Those who have been released tell different stories: some received medical attention, while others were denied it. Many were held in the dark, with little food. What is clear is that all the hostages suffered a massive ordeal; we take a closer look. Plus, FRANCE 24's Wassim Nasr tells us why...

The world's eyes are on Gaza at the moment, and rightly so. But violence is also continuing in the occupied West Bank. Even before the October 7 Hamas attacks, 2023 was already the deadliest year for Palestinians there in two decades. Now, violent confrontations are happening almost every day. Israel says it is trying to stamp out militant groups in the West Bank, but civilians are being killed. F...