War in the Middle East: New wave of attacks on Gulf states

Strait of Hormuz: Iran leverages control of a critical chokepoint in the global oil trade

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 co...

War in Ukraine: Zelensky meets Macron for talks on Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday for talks aimed at ramping up pressure on Russia to end its four-year invasion. The visit comes as Kyiv's allies worry that a temporary lifting of Russian oil sanctions by the United States will aid Rus...

REPLAY: US Defense Secretary holds press conference on Iran war

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says Iran’s new supreme leader “is wounded and likely disfigured.” Hegseth spoke Friday, a day after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei released a written statement vowing to continue the war. It was Khamenei’s first statement since he assumed Iran...

French officer killed in drone attack in Iraq

A French officer was killed in a drone attack in Iraq, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.  Earlier the Iran-backed Iraqi group, Ashab Alkahf, warned that French interests in the region were now targets after the arrival of a French aircraft c...

In Ukraine, war forces schools below ground to keep classes going

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, located just 30 kilometers from the front line with Russia, war remains part of everyday life. To protect students from missile strikes and drone attacks, schools have had to adapt. Part of the education system has moved underground. Today, 21 schools op...

French soldier killed in attack in Iraqi Kurdistan

A French soldier was killed in an attack in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, confirming the first French military death in the Middle East war. He did not say who was behind the attack. Since US-Israeli strikes on Iran last month engulfed the Middle East...

In first public comments, Iran’s supreme leader pledges to keep fighting

Iran’s secretive new leader issued his first public statements Thursday, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel....

NOMA chef steps down after New York Times report of abuse

PRESS REVIEW – Friday, March 13: We examine how the press is responding to Lebanon emerging as a new front in the US and Israel’s war against Iran. One paper describes the conflict in Lebanon as an extension of Israel’s war against Hezbollah. Also in the headlines: the chef and co-founder of...

Middle East: Millions forced from their homes since the start of the war

Up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced since the Middle East war erupted, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday and authorities in Lebanon say 800,000 have been forced from their homes as Israel’s military destroys buildings linked to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants....

Zelensky arrives in Paris for talks on pressuring Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Paris on Friday, his spokesman said, for talks with President Emmanuel Macron on ramping up pressure on Russia. The visit comes as talks brokered between Kyiv and Moscow by the United States to end the four-year invasion have been derailed by the US...

South Korea: The forgotten Jeju uprising and massacre

Nearly 80 years ago, a brutal crackdown on Jeju Island in southern Korea claimed tens of thousands of lives. In the aftermath of World War II, the Korean peninsula was drawn into the Cold War and divided in two: a Soviet-backed regime in the North, and a US-supported nationalist government in the S...

🔴 Middle East war live: Israel launches fresh round of strikes on Tehran

Russia is wrong to think Iran war will give it respite in Ukraine, says Macron

Russia is wrong to think the war in Iran will give it respite in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymr Zelensky. The leaders were meeting for talks on ways to increase pressure on Russia, including increasing sa...

Macron says officer killed in Iraq as pro-Iran group vows to target French interests

A French officer was killed in a Shahed drone attack in Iraq, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Earlier the Iran-backed Iraqi group, Ashab Alkahf, warned that French interests in the region were now targets after the arrival of a French aircraf...

US allows sale of Russian oil at sea as Middle East war sends energy prices soaring

The United States will temporarily allow the sale of Russian oil already at sea, the Treasury Department said on Thursday, as energy prices surged after US-Israeli strikes on Iran triggered war in the Middle East. The license permits cargoes loaded by March 12 to be delivered and sold until April 1...

Cocaine bound for Europe increasingly routed through West Africa

In tonight’s edition: a new report warns that trafficking routes from Latin America to Europe are increasingly passing through West Africa. The new US ambassador to South Africa has backtracked on his criticism of the "Kill the Boer" chant. And more than a month after Cyclone Gezani devastated ea...

Iran trolls Trump with AI-generated LEGO propaganda video

The war in Iran is not only being fought on the battlefield – it is also playing out online. Iran’s state media recently took a leaf out of the White House’s own social media playbook, mocking Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu with an AI-generated propaganda video styled like a LEGO animat...

Moscow court sentences 15 men to life in prison for jihadist attack on concert hall

A Russian court sentenced four perpetrators and eleven accomplices to life imprisonment on Thursday for the March 2024 attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, which killed 150 people, making it the country’s worst jihadist attack in more than 20 years....

Who gives the kill order? AI and the war in Iran

Warfare is always evolving, sometimes slowly: Napoleon’s armies travelled little differently from those of Julius Caesar. At other times, change comes faster than commanders can process, as the futile carnage of the First World War showed. The pace of change on the battlefield today? Fast – ver...

Israel strikes central Beirut after threatening to expand Lebanon operations

Israel renewed its strikes on Beirut on Thursday, as it threatened to expand operations and seize territory in Lebanon if Hezbollah did not stop its attacks. The Israeli military issued a call to evacuate ahead of the Beirut attack, after having also widened its evacuation warning for residents in...

Iran's supreme leader issues first statement since his appointment

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has issued his first statement since his appointment as the war with the United States and Israel rages. The statement was read on state television Thursday by a news anchor. FRANCE 24's International Affairs Commentator Douglas Herbert tells us mo...

From Sudan to Lebanon: ‘Wherever we go, war follows us’

In Beirut, refugees from conflict zones like Sudan and Ethiopia have once again been caught up in war — the very thing they hoped to leave behind in their home countries. FRANCE 24's reporter spoke to families sheltering at a Jesuit church in the Lebanese capital, who have lost everything f...

With Middle East in flames, Texan bunker maker sees business boom

Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the phone at Ron Hubbard's bomb shelter company in Texas hasn't stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse....

Middle East war: Dubai targeted by fresh Iranian drone strikes

#Dubai was among the targets of fresh Iranian drone strikes early on March 12, alongside Kuwait's airport. This comes after #Iran denounced a #UN Security Council resolution that demanded strikes on the #Gulf countries stop. Eleven civilians have died since the start of Iranian attacks in the regio...

France 'not sending any vessels to the Strait of Hormuz', Defence Minister Vautrin says

As Iran’s new supreme leader calls for the Strait of Hormuz to remain closed, France’s Minister of Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs, Catherine Vautrin, says Paris has no plans to send naval vessels to the strategic waterway. In an interview with FRANCE 24, she also stressed that France is not p...

Trump says Iran shouldn't come to World Cup for 'own life and safety'

US President Donald Trump warned Iran's football team Thursday their "life and safety" would be at risk if they took part in the upcoming World Cup in North America....

War in the Middle East: 'A sense of normality' back in Israel

The Israeli military said on Thursday that Hezbollah had fired around 200 rockets at Israel the night beforeFRANCE 24's Olivia Bizot reports from one of the buildings in Tel Aviv that was hit during the very first days of the war by an Iranian missile. Since then, "a sense of normality has returned...

US targets Iran mine-laying as war causes oil market havoc

The United States said Tuesday it was striking Iranian ships capable of mining the crucial Strait of Hormuz and threatened escalation if Tehran presses ahead, as the Middle East war wreaks havoc on global oil markets. The US military posted video footage of Iranian boats blasted by missiles and ot...

Novelist Dinaw Mengestu on the battle for freedom of expression

As he takes on the presidency of PEN America, Dinaw Mengestu explains why defending a plurality of voices is crucial at a time of censorship and revisionism. He also discusses how the organisation is working to rebuild its credibility after criticism over its failure to condemn the war in Gaza in 2...

Two votes, two standards: UN resolutions on Iran war underscores diplomatic dilemmas

The UN Security Council held two votes on the Middle East war, the first since the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran. A Bahrain-sponsored resolution condemning Iran -- but not the US and Israel -- was adopted. A second, Russian-sponsored one, condemning Iran and the US-Israel, was vetoed. FRAN...