India 'funds organisations behind terror activities in Pakistan': Bilawal Bhutto Zardari

TÊTE À TÊTE © FRANCE 24
13:49


Issued on: 06/05/2026 - 

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, head of the Pakistan People's Party, discussed the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. One year ago, after a five-day war between the two countries, US President Donald Trump announced a full ceasefire, but "there are underlying tensions that can, at any point, lead to yet another conflict", our guest warned.

The head of the Pakistan People's Party, which is part of the governing coalition, pointed out that the ceasefire "was meant to be the beginning of a process the Indian side had committed to at the time", but "unfortunately, that didn't happen". He claimed that India "continues to collectively punish the people of Pakistan by violating the Indus Water Treaty", which was suspended by India after the 2025 Kashmir attack. According to Bhutto Zardari, "both countries should engage in a dialogue in pursuit of peace through diplomacy".

Asked about India accusing Pakistan of hosting and supporting terrorist groups, Bhutto Zardari said Pakistan had been "consistently challenging this threat". He added: "Terrorism is not only an issue for Pakistan; this is an issue for India as well. Pakistan and India have no lines of communication, no means of coordinating. You can't counter terrorism without cross-border cooperation."

"Unfortunately, most of the terrorist attacks that do take place in Pakistan are linked to organisations within Afghanistan," Bhutto Zardari declared. Tensions between Islamabad and Kabul have been rising, which led to deadly air strikes on Kabul in March.

"As far as the Indian element is concerned, they continue to fund organisations that are behind terrorist activities within Pakistan," he claimed.

'No military solution to the Strait of Hormuz crisis'

With its strategic location at the crossroads of the Middle East, Pakistan has emerged as a central player in brokering the US-Iran talks. "There's no military solution to the Strait of Hormuz crisis," Bhutto Zardari said.

"Ultimately, we need to build on the momentum of this ceasefire for a more permanent solution, a more permanent peace," he added.

For Bhutto Zardari, the repercussions of a return to conflict would not affect only Pakistan – there would be "consequences for the entire international community".

BY: Marc Perelman

Is Tucker Carlson eyeing a 2028 US presidential run?


Issued on: 08/05/2026 - FRANCE24

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson knows how to get and keep an audience. Amid his recent criticism of US President Donald Trump, the controversial podcast host has drawn in fans from unexpected parts of the political spectrum. This week on FRANCE 24's media show Scoop, we look at Carlson's history, influence and ambition. Our guest is The New Yorker's Jason Zengerle, author of "Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unravelling of the Conservative Mind."

BY: William HILDERBRANDT

11:50 min From the show

FOUR YEARS LATE

CPJ demands update on US probe of journalist Abu Akleh’s killing in West Bank


The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday demanded a "public progress update" from the US Department of Justice on the investigation into the Israeli military's killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was gunned down while reporting for Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank in 2022.


Issued on: 08/05/2026 
By:FRANCE 24

A woman takes a photo of a mural dedicated to Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh after it was unveiled in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on August 30, 2023. 

© Nasser Nasser , AP

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday called for US authorities to relaunch their investigation into the Israeli military's killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was gunned down while reporting for Al Jazeera in the occupied West Bank in 2022.

In a letter to the US Department of Justice -- which oversees the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- and FBI chief Kash Patel, the global press freedoms group demanded a "public progress update" on Abu Akleh's death.

"Although the FBI reportedly opened an investigation into her killing in November 2022, it has made no demonstrable progress," the letter noted, adding that CPJ was "not aware that any formal interviews have been conducted with witnesses despite the willingness of multiple witnesses to cooperate."

"This troubling lack of concrete progress -- four years after Abu Akleh's death -- represents a profound failure of the US government to respond promptly and impartially to the killing of one of its citizens by a foreign military."

Abu Akleh was 51 when she was fatally shot on May 11, 2022 by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank, CPJ said.

Then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett initially claimed gunfire from Palestinian fighters was the likely cause of her death.

The IDF later released a statement saying it was "not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the gunfire" that killed Abu Akleh, adding there was "a high possibility that Ms. Abu Akleh was accidentally hit by IDF gunfire."
Truth in conflict

But CPJ notes that multiple independent investigations from leading news organizations "concluded that Abu Akleh was killed by IDF fire; some found evidence that she was deliberately targeted."

Abu Akleh was "a household name across the Middle East, widely respected for her courageous and in-depth reporting on Palestinian life," CPJ said, adding that she was wearing a vest marked "PRESS" and "clearly identified as press at the time of her killing."

In a separate statement Thursday, Abu Akleh's family also sought justice for violence at the veteran reporter's funeral -- Israeli police attacked her pallbearers, who nearly dropped her coffin -- saying "no one has been brought to justice, neither for her killing nor for the attack on her funeral."

"Her killing was not only a tragic loss for our family, but also a grave attack on press freedom and the fundamental right to report the truth," the family's statement said. "This ongoing impunity sends a dangerous message that journalists can be targeted without consequence."

Abu Akleh's death also made her a broader symbol of the Palestinian struggle: murals of her face adorn walls, her office's street in Ramallah was renamed in her honor and a museum was named for her.

In addition to demanding a public update on the investigation, press advocates called for the FBI to commit to a timeline to "complete a thorough criminal investigation and publicly release its findings," urging the agency to maintain an impartial and independent inquiry "free from political considerations."

CPJ said since Abu Akleh's killing, Israel has killed 258 more journalists and media workers across the Middle East, including 207 in Gaza alone.

Israel was responsible for two-thirds of journalist deaths in 2025, CPJ said.

The Israeli army rejects allegations of targeted violence, saying it does not intentionally target journalists or their families.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Germans confront past with Nazi party membership lists available online

Issued on: 08/05/2026 - FRANCE24

05:05 min  From the show


As Europe commemorates the 81st anniversary of the Allied victory over the Nazis this May 8, many in Germany are discovering long-buried family secrets. Nazi party membership lists – saved from destruction in 1945 – are now available online. In just a few clicks, the Nazi past of millions of German families is within reach.

This online access to Nazi party membership lists comes at a crucial time. As the generation that lived under the Third Reich gradually disappears, it is now their grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are daring to ask the long-taboo question: what role did my grandfather or and grandmother play under the Nazis?
Germany is often held up as a model for its remembrance culture. But an intimate reckoning with its Nazi past remains far from complete. In 2020, only 3 percent of Germans surveyed by Die Zeit said their ancestors had supported National Socialism – a figure that speaks volumes about the silence that still lingers within families.

FRANCE 24's Anne Mailliet, Caroline du Bled, Leyla Sobler, Raphaël Kominis and Nick Holdsworth report.

BY:

Anne MAILLIET

Caroline DU BLED

Raphael KOMINIS

Nick HOLDSWORTH

Leyla Sobler

Pentagon releases new files on UFOs

Issued on: 09/05/2026 -

Bright lights and mysterious objects, those are what could be found in a new batch of files on UFOs that the Pentagon began releasing on Friday as President Donald Trump taps into the public's long-held curiosities about "unidentified anomalous phenomena” in the broader universe.

Video by: FRANCE 24

Pentagon releases first batch of ‘top secret’ UFO files


The Pentagon on Friday released decades of previously classified UFO sightings recorded by the FBI and NASA and other federal agencies. At least two of the more than 160 documents date back to the 1940s and report sightings of flying "discs” and “saucers”.


Issued on: 08/05/2026 
By: FRANCE 24

This video grab image obtained April 28, 2020 courtesy of the US Department of Defense shows part of an unclassified video taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with "unidentified anomalous phenomena". © US Dept of Defense handout, AFP file picture


The Pentagon on Friday released a first batch of secret files documenting reported sightings of unidentified flying objects – some dating back to the 1940s – fanning speculation over whether extraterrestrial life exists.

Reports of flying saucers and discs, and a sighting of an orb that resembled the "Eye of Sauron" are among the incidents in the files, which are from the FBI, State Department and NASA in addition to the Pentagon.

Trump orders Pentagon, other US agencies to release files on UFOs and aliens

Interest in UFOs has been renewed in recent years as the US government investigated numerous reports of seemingly supernatural aircraft, amid worries that adversaries could be testing highly advanced technologies.

"These files, hidden behind classifications, have long fueled justified speculation – and it's time the American people see it for themselves," Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement.

More than 160 files were released on the website of the defence department, which officially refers to UFOs as "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena," or UAPs.

One file – from December 1947 – contains a series of reports on "flying discs."

"Continued and recent reports from qualified observers concerning this phenomenon still makes this matter one of concern to Headquarters, Air Material Command," a document in the file said.

An Air Force intelligence report – marked "top secret" – from November of the following year features information on reported sightings of "unidentified aircraft" and "flying saucers".

"For some time we have been concerned by the recurring reports on flying saucers," a document in that file said.

Another file summarises statements from seven federal government employees who separately reported "several unidentified anomalous phenomena" in the United States in 2023.

'Most compelling'

"The reporters' credibility, and the potentially anomalous nature of the events themselves – combine to make this report among the most compelling within AARO's current holdings," a description of the file said, referring to the Pentagon's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.

In one of the incidents, three teams of federal law enforcement special agents independently described "seeing orange 'orbs' in the sky emit/launch smaller red 'orbs.'"

In another, two federal special agents witnessed "a glowing orange orb... perched close to a rock pinnacle". That account included an artist rendering of a red-orange circle with a streak of yellow in its lower third.

The object was described as looking "similar to the Eye (of) Sauron from Lord of the Rings, except without the pupil."

President Donald Trump directed US federal agencies in February to begin identifying and releasing government files related to UFOs and aliens, saying the move was "based on the tremendous interest shown."

The Republican president also claimed the same day he issued the release order that one of his Democratic predecessors, Barack Obama, had revealed "classified" information in viral podcast remarks about the existence of extraterrestrial life.

"They're real, but I haven't seen them and they're not being kept in... Area 51," Obama told host Brian Tyler Cohen, referring to the top-secret US military facility in Nevada at the heart of many UFO conspiracy theories.

Trump told reporters at the time that Obama "gave classified information, he is not supposed to be doing that," while saying of his own beliefs: "I don't know if they are real or not."

No evidence has been produced of intelligent life beyond Earth.

In March 2024, the Pentagon released a report saying it had no proof that UAP were alien technology, with many suspicious sightings turning out to be merely weather balloons, spy planes, satellites and other normal activity.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Putin's 'paranoia': 'He is fearful of Ukrainians & afraid the elite around him is starting to break'

Issued on: 08/05/2026 - FRANCE24

Play (07:18 min)

From the show


Mark Owen is pleased to welcome Melinda Haring, expert on Ukraine, non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Eurasia Center and senior advisor to Razom Advocacy's advisory board. According to Haring, the psychological and military balance between Russia and Ukraine is pivoting. Her central argument, in the lead-up to Russia's May 9 Victory Day celebrations, is that the Kremlin's increasingly defensive posture reveals a profound shift in the war: "Vladimir Putin is finally afraid".

Haring frames the Victory Day parade not as a display of triumphant state power, but as a diminished and anxious spectacle. The contrast she draws is vivid and politically consequential: "A year ago, the celebration in Red Square was big and bold… This year, it's not big. It's not bold. It's going to be kind of pathetic and they're fearful."

In her telling, Ukraine's rapid advances in drone warfare and long-range strike capabilities have altered not only the battlefield, but the psychological architecture of the Kremlin itself.

Beyond military developments, Haring focuses on the realm of political psychology and elite instability. She paints a portrait of an increasingly isolated Russian president whose paranoia has deepened under the pressures of war, technological vulnerability and internal power struggles. "He's not only afraid of the Ukrainians wanting to whack him", she argues, "he's afraid that the elite around him is starting to break".

Perhaps most compelling is her broader reframing of the war narrative itself. Rather than accepting the mythology of Soviet military grandeur traditionally embodied in Victory Day commemorations, Haring redirects attention towards "the defenders of Ukraine and what they've been able to accomplish with so little."

VIDEO BY:

Ilayda HABIP

Mark OWEN

ANALYSIS

Russia loses ground – but not the war – in Ukraine

Moscow lost territory on the battlefield in April 2026 for the first time since Ukraine’s bold August 2024 incursion into Russia's Kursk oblast, according to an analysis published this week. Moscow's losses were equivalent to some 116 square kilometres across several areas of the front line.


Issued on: 08/05/2026 
FRANCE24
By: Sébastian SEIBT

Soldiers from Ukraine's 65th Mechanised Brigade train in the Zaporizhzhia region.

 © Andriy Andriyenko, AP

Russia lost territory in Ukraine in April for the first time since 2024, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) published May 2.

Ukraine gained some 116 square kilometres (45 square miles) along several areas of the front, including in the Sumy region north of Kharkiv but also further south in Zaporizhzhia province, says Huseyn Aliyev, a specialist on the war in Ukraine at the University of Glasgow.

The Russian advance has been slowing significantly since November 2025, according to the report, and is sluggish overall in 2026 compared to this time last year. But the changing nature of the war – and Russia’s increased use of infiltration tactics – make year-on-year comparisons difficult, it noted.

"Russian forces have been using infiltration tactics in part to create the perception of continuous Russian advances across the front and to support Kremlin cognitive warfare efforts to exaggerate Russian successes," the ISW wrote. "Russian forces, however, do not control these infiltration areas, which are often collocated among Ukrainian positions in contested 'gray zones.'"

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 2, 2026 © Institute for the Study of War

Tactical withdrawals?

But this is not a large-scale military retreat that would involve a strategic repositioning along the entire front, says Erik Stijnman, a specialist in military security and the Russo-Ukrainian war at the Dutch Clingendael Institute for International Relations.

These are more like tactical withdrawals, with both sides testing enemy defences at different points along the front line, adds Ivan U. Klyszcz, a Russia specialist at the International Centre for Defence and Security in Tallinn, Estonia.

Nevertheless, the situation is much bleaker for Moscow than at the same time in 2025.

Russia had already begun its spring-summer offensive as the weather conditions improved around this time last year, Aliyev notes. Russia is still managing to advance, albeit modestly, on the fronts it considers priorities, such as the region around Pokrovsk and towards the city of Kramatorsk.

Fewer soldiers, more drones

Ukraine’s territorial gains also demonstrate the effectiveness of its strategy of harassing Russian troops rather than simply holding onto positions, Klyszcz says.

Simultaneously, Ukraine is intensifying its campaign of launching ever-deeper strikes on Russian infrastructure, forcing Moscow to allocate more resources to defending its territory, says Will Kingston-Cox, a specialist on Russia and the war in Ukraine at the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) Verona.

The Russian army has been struggling for months to mobilise more troops, Aliyev says, including recruiting more aggressively from universities.

These recruitment troubles can be seen on the battlefield, Klyszcz observes, with troops that are less well-trained and less effective than last year.

The difficulty in finding new troops for the front is even greater for Ukraine than for Russia, which has a much larger population. But the realities of the front line – which is now largely manned by drones – makes any offensive far more dangerous and deadly for the attacker, says Kingston-Cox.

War of attrition

And Ukraine now has another technological advantage: Starlink 's decision to cut off Russian troops' access to its satellites was a major blow to Russia, which is now struggling to communicate as effectively as before.

In February, the Kremlin also began restricting access to Telegram, where a lot of tactical communication was previously shared.


Ukraine’s territorial gains could have a long-term impact if they allow Ukraine to recapture ever-more-strategic areas, Aliyev says.

Nevertheless, recent Ukrainian territorial successes should not be overestimated. The 116 square kilometres lost in April will mean nothing if Russia eventually succeeds in destroying Ukrainian defences.

This is now a true war of attrition, Stijnman says, in which territorial gains are less important than one side's ability to inflict more losses than the other can withstand.

This article was translated from the original in French.

Norway's Svalbard archipelago, a pawn on Russia's chessboard

Issued on: 07/05/2026 - FRANCE24

25:00 min From the show

Not far from the North Pole, in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, lies a piece of Russia. In NATO member state Norway, two Russian villages, or "settlements" as Moscow calls them, have been active for decades. This frozen, hostile land at the ends of the Earth has caught Moscow's interest.

Since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, this Russian presence in Norway has become a cause for concern. Relations between Oslo and Moscow have worsened and despite European sanctions against these "settlements" in Svalbard, Moscow is holding its ground.

A few kilometres away, residents of the Norwegian town of Longyearbyen are wary of the slightest move on the Russian side.

With Europe ever more divided between East and West, Svalbard is strategic. Both sides know this gateway to the Arctic and its natural resources is crucial. And Russia intends to maintain its presence on European soil.

A report for Arte and FRANCE 24 by Gaël Mocaer

ANALYSIS

Keeping the Lebanese army weak: A hardened US military doctrine at Israel's service

As Lebanon marks a month since “Black Wednesday”, when massive Israeli strikes killed 361 people, the international community continues to call on the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah. But the US legal imperative to ensure Israel has a “qualitative military edge” (QME) has kept the Lebanese military under-funded, under-equipped and unable to perform its role.


Issued on:  08/05/2026 - 
FRANCE24
By: Leela JACINTO

Two Israeli soldiers operate in southern Lebanon on April 29, 2026. © Ariel Schalit, AP

Exactly a month ago, Wissam Charaf was in Yarze, a picturesque town in the hills overlooking Beirut, when he suddenly heard the rumbling sound of an Israeli warplane just before it fired on a hill right across from where he was enjoying a break with his family from the Lebanese capital.

The warplane had struck Kayfoun, a town south of Beirut, which had been hit in the past during the waves of air strikes and bombardments Israel has conducted in Lebanon since October 2023. Charaf, like many Lebanese, had grown sickeningly accustomed to Israel’s frequent breaches of Lebanese sovereignty and airspace. So the 52-year-old filmmaker initially thought it would be more of the same in Lebanon’s new normal.

But this time, it was different. “Then there was another hit and then another hit. And then it went downwards towards Beirut, and it was like baba-baba-baba-baba-baba-baba-baba,” he said, recounting the sound of incessant, quick-fire strikes. “Under our eyes, downhill, Beirut was being bombed. It was massive. It was gigantic. It was everywhere.”

It was April 8. Black Wednesday, as the Lebanese call it. Operation Eternal Darkness as the Israeli military called it.


In just 10 minutes, the Israeli military offloaded 100 bombs across Lebanon, from Hermel in the far north, across the eastern Bekaa Valley, to Beirut on the western coast and down to the towns and villages in the country’s already battered south. The death toll on one day mounted to 361, including women and children. In a matter of minutes, Israel had carried out one of its worst mass killings in Lebanon’s history.

Amid an international outcry, diplomatic attempts to include Lebanon in the Iran ceasefire deal – which was announced by Pakistani mediators on April 8, before a US-Israeli rollback – went into high gear.

A week later, US President Donald Trump announced that the leaders of Israel and Lebanon had agreed to a 10-day truce. The US State Department brief on the ceasefire deal noted that, “All parties recognize Lebanon’s security forces as having exclusive responsibility for Lebanon’s sovereignty and national defense; no other country or group has claim to be the guarantor of Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

The long history of Israel’s entanglement with its northern neighbour has produced a diplomatic lexicon that is familiar to the Lebanese and the wider Middle Eastern public. Calls for the Lebanese security or armed forces – sometimes abbreviated to LAF – to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty dot realms of official agreements, briefings, notes and dispatches. Most bear a deceiving tone of resolution in a conflict that has defied diplomacy for decades.

Less well-known is another term, “qualitative military edge”, or QME, that has long been used in Washington policy circles. It was enshrined in US law in 2008, and guides US foreign policy to this day. QME pertains to Israel and is the underlying source, a growing number of experts say, of the bloodshed in the Middle East that shows no sign of abating.

In Lebanon, QME has a particular bearing as the country marks a month since Black Wednesday with Israel continuing to bombard Lebanon despite the shaky ceasefire, killing more than 2,700 people and displacing more than a million since the latest round of fighting re-erupted on March 2, following the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
An Israeli military concept becomes US law

The concept to ensure Israel always has a qualitative military edge over its enemies traces its roots to the country’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion. Drawing from the lessons of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Ben Gurion’s 1953 defence doctrine concluded that since Israel “will continue to be quantitatively inferior vis a vis the Arab world”, the new nation “must develop a very strong qualitative edge”.

In the US, the concept did not take hold until two decades later, following the end of the 1967 war, when then-president Lyndon Johnson approved the sale of F-4 Phantom fighter jets to Israel, according to the pro-Israel think tank The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

It was enshrined in US law in 2008 under George W. Bush’s presidency, when Congress passed the Naval Transfer Act, which requires the US to ensure that arms exports “to any country in the Middle East other than Israel shall include a determination that the sale or export… will not adversely affect Israel's qualitative military edge”.

The concept has continued to frame US legislation approving military aid to Israel through Republican and Democrat presidencies, including the 2012 US-Israeli Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, signed by Barack Obama, which mandates that the US must “help the Government of Israel preserve its qualitative military edge”.

It has ensured that Israel stands as the largest cumulative recipient of US military aid since its founding, receiving over $300 billion in assistance. Since the start of Israel’s Gaza war in October 2023, the US has enacted legislation providing at least $16.3 billion in direct military aid to Israel, according to the Washington DC-based Council on Foreign Relations.

“Initially, the idea [of QME] was simply to ensure that Israel always maintains technological and military superiority over any possible combination of regional adversaries,” explained Karim Emile Bitar, international relations professor at Beirut’s Saint Joseph University and a lecturer in Middle East studies at the Paris-based Sciences Po. “The fact that it's now embedded into US law affects arms sales and military assistance across the Middle East, including Lebanon.”

QME is “not a household concept” Bitar concedes, but it is important because “it’s one of the structural principles shaping US security architecture. It explains why some Arab states receive sophisticated weapons, those pro-US states that are very aligned with Israel, and others face major restrictions. And military aid to Lebanon has ceilings that have rarely been crossed”.

A national army weaker than a militia

In Lebanon, the flip side of Washington’s QME imperative to ensure Israel has the military edge is the enforced weakness of the Lebanese armed forces, according to many Middle East analysts.

“My critique of it [QME] is what it implies on the ground, which is this idea that we constantly hear that the Lebanese military needs to provide security in Lebanon and especially in southern Lebanon. But what we don't hear in this debate is that the Lebanese army is purposefully kept weak and under-prepared and under-equipped by the US and by Western countries that provide military aid and weapons,” said Mohamad Bazzi, director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies and a professor at New York University.

For more than two decades, Israel’s repeated attacks and encroachments on Lebanese territory have been aimed at fighting Hezbollah, the Shiite group with a military wing that is widely considered stronger than the Lebanese national army.

Hezbollah emerged from the 1980s Lebanese civil war – which ended with the 1990 Taif Agreement – stronger than the Lebanese national army, which had fractured along sectarian lines and dissolved during the brutal internecine conflict. At that time, Israel was still occupying southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s supporters argued that it was the only force capable of resisting the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon – which it did until the 2000 Israeli military withdrawal, giving the Arab world its first military victory against Israel.

Shadow of failed 1983 agreement haunts new Israeli-Lebanon talks

While the rationale for Hezbollah retaining its weapons ended with the Israeli withdrawal, the militia group had, by then, amassed considerable firepower from its backers in Tehran. It had also made in-roads into Lebanese politics under the protection of Bashar al Assad, the strongman in neighbouring Syria. But during the Syrian civil war and Lebanon’s crippling economic crisis, the group’s popularity began to decline – including among Shiites in a deeply divided country where sectarian political parties often provide for their communities in the absence of state services.

But Hezbollah’s plummeting popularity, and the groundswell of Lebanese discontent over the extent of its state capture, has not translated into its disarmament, much less extinction.

Over the past two years, Israel has conducted massive campaigns against the group, assassinating its leader Hassan Nasrallah and top commanders. On Thursday, the Israeli military announced that it had killed ⁠a commander of ​Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force in an air strike on Beirut in the first Israeli attack on the Lebanese capital since the ceasefire agreed ​last month.

Israel today has carved ​out a self-declared buffer zone extending as deep as 10 km into southern Lebanon. The population that once lived in these areas has been displaced, and many Lebanese fear a strike at any time, anywhere as the buzz of Israeli surveillance drones offer an incessant soundtrack to their daily lives.

And yet, the Lebanese Shiite group has managed to keep up its fight against Israel. “Hezbollah still possesses capabilities, even though it has been weakened. It still possesses capabilities that in some domains surpass those of the Lebanese state. It has a large missile arsenal. It has extensive combat experience that it gained mostly in Syria when it was fighting alongside Bashar al-Assad, and it has highly motivated, ideological cadres,” said Bitar.

Coffins of Hezbollah fighters are carried on a truck during a mass funeral procession in the southern village of Kfar Sir, Lebanon on April 21, 2026 © Hassan Ammar, AP

Hezbollah fights Israel, the Lebanese army polices

As it continues to battle the IDF in southern Lebanon and launch rockets into northern Israel, Hezbollah argues that it needs to retain its weapons since it’s the only force in Lebanon that can resist Israel.

Technically, Hezbollah has a point. “If the Lebanese military was better equipped and had the resources it needs, there would be a stronger argument for disarming Hezbollah. That's the crux of this issue. It would take away Hezbollah's argument that it needs to be the one that defends Lebanon because the military isn’t capable of doing it,” explained Bazzi.

The Lebanese army today is among the world’s weakest, ranking 118 in the 2026 Global Firepower index of 145 countries. The primarily US-funded military barely has a navy, with its patrol boats conducting mostly coastguard and anti-smuggling duties. Its “air force” has long been a source of Lebanese jokes, including on social media, where wags remark about its lowly Cessna helicopters hovering below Israel’s fighter jets combing the Lebanese airspace. Defence systems, vital for a country’s security in the modern age, are absent as Israel adds layers of shields to its Iron Dome system.

Despite the quips and barbs, the national army is a beloved institution. “The Lebanese army is widely respected by most Lebanese. The Lebanese people want to empower the army. They want the army to be in charge of security,” explained Bitar.

Bazzi agrees. “The Lebanese army has been hailed as this one institution that's cross-sectarian, that's been successful, that's been rebuilt in a way that preserves the power and the interests of the Lebanese state. We've heard a lot of that. But,” he added significantly, “it's never really confronted an external enemy.”

US envoy’s ‘wild interview’

Meanwhile the US and its European allies display all the signs that they want the Lebanese army to succeed, with statements proclaiming it the sole guarantor of Lebanon’s sovereignty amid frequent calls for the Lebanese army to disarm Hezbollah.

France, Lebanon’s former colonial power, also issues statements advocating the strengthening of the country’s security forces. In March, France repeated its call to “step up support to the Lebanese Armed Forces, whose mission in this difficult context is to continue disarming Hezbollah”. A Paris summit was set for April. But it was then cancelled due to the Iran crisis.

The gap between statements and reality spilled into the open last year, when Trump’s envoy for the region, Tom Barrack, publicly expressed what many Lebanese knew but never imagined they’d hear from a US diplomat.

US envoy Tom Barrack speaks at a panel in Antalya, southern Turkey, April 17, 2026.

© Riza Ozel, AP


In what came to be called Barrack’s “wild interview”, the US envoy called for the Lebanese state to disarm Hezbollah before confessing that Washington does not want to arm the Lebanese army. “We don’t want to arm them… so they can fight Israel? I don’t think so,” Barrack said.

The clincher however came when the US diplomat noted that the Lebanese army was not going to “go knock on the door of a Shia house… and say, 'Excuse me, ma’am, can I go and take the rockets and the AK-47s out of your basement?”

Barrack’s comments, Bitar noted, were “very significant because it was a sort of acknowledgement that pushing the Lebanese army to take on Hezbollah would potentially lead to civil strife.”

More than three decades after the end of the civil war, the US still fears an injection of arms into Lebanon could set the populace at each other’s throats. Meanwhile it continues to provide Israel a qualitative military edge while the Palestinian issue remains unresolved after nearly 80 years.

A month after he watched Israeli warplanes conduct its Operation Eternal Darkness from a hill overlooking Beirut, Charaf is clear-eyed about the dismal chances for peace in his homeland. “The Lebanese army is torn between an international community that is telling them, fight Hezbollah, disarm Hezbollah, and we'll give you aid later. And the Lebanese army is saying, guys, if you want us to disarm Hezbollah, well at least give us weapons to do it,” he noted with a sigh.

“They're asking the Lebanese army somehow to obey the decisions of the Israeli army,” he added. “And they're asking the Lebanese army to do something that I would say is mission impossible.”

 

© France 24
02:03

Propaganda war: The Gen Z team behind Iran’s hit anti-Trump videos

Issued on: 07/05/2026 -

Satirical Lego animations depicting US President Donald Trump as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s puppet while casting Iran as the defender of the oppressed mark the latest propaganda coup for the Iranian regime in its war with the US. The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to one of the young Iranians behind the videos.

From being portrayed as Benjamin Netanyahu’s puppet to being shown entangled in the Epstein affair, Donald Trump has become the star of a series of satirical Lego animations.

Posted by Iranian officials and embassies, these videos have been a worldwide hit – marking a propaganda coup for the Iranian regime in its war with the United States.

The group that first created the videos calls itself Explosive Media. Our team spoke with their spokesman:

“We’re a group of friends. Most of us are students – or recently graduated. We’re between 19 and 25. We listen to a wide range of music – rap, pop.

We write our own rap lyrics. But when it comes to the final track – the singing voice – that part is generated using AI.”

The videos portray Iran as acting in self-defence and as the defender of people oppressed by the US around the world.

The group told FRANCE 24 they do not take orders from the Iranian regime. We were not able to confirm this.

“We’re independent. But even if people call it propaganda, does that really matter? What matters is whether American people believe us.

Whether they connect with what we’re saying. Because we see ourselves as speaking the truth.”
‘They don’t limit their religious acts to just reading the Quran or praying’

So how is it that young conservative Iranians who support the regime have adopted the codes of Generation Z? We put that question to Iranian journalist Ali Pourtabatabaei:

“From my perspective, this is not unusual. This is because the same tools and resources available worldwide for creating such animations have also been accessible in Iran. At the same time, rap has become very popular among Iranian youth.

It might be hard for people outside Iran to understand how young religious Iranians are aware of these possibilities and how to use them. Perhaps it’s because there are stereotypes about them.

They have interests and skills that go far beyond what we imagine.

They don’t limit their religious acts to just reading the Quran or praying. Making these kinds of videos and music can also be considered a religious act.”

BY:The FRANCE 24 Observers

Trapped seafarers traumatised by Gulf fighting: charities

At least 11 seafarers have been killed, according to the International Maritime Organization.

London (AFP) – Isolated and traumatised by drones and missiles, seafarers in the Gulf face grave mental suffering after more than two months stuck on board in the Middle East war, maritime charities warn.


Issued on: 09/05/2026 - 

Seafarers caught up in the US-Israeli war against Iran have faced mental trauma, charities say © Giuseppe CACACE / AFP

From captains to cooks, engineers and other officers, the workers who keep global freight flowing have found themselves not just stranded but in some cases right in the firing line of the US-Israeli war with Iran.

"We hear stories of how frightened they are. It's pretty scary," said Gavin Lim, head of the Crisis Response Network for the Sailors' Society, a UK-based seafarers' charity, who spoke with one crew whose vessel was hit. "They thought: 'We were going to die'."

Trade vessels have been struck by projectiles and fired on by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in dozens of incidents, according to the British maritime security monitor UKMTO.

At least 11 seafarers have been killed, according to the International Maritime Organization.

"They see drones flying, they see missiles flying, and then we see instances where the ships get hit," said Lim. "You can imagine that anxiety and fear building up. 'Are we just bait? Are we going to be a victim so that someone can make a point?'"

The Seafarers' Charity cites hypervigilance, burnout, fatigue, loneliness, depression and anxiety as some of the mental strains facing the 20,000 seafarers stranded by Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz since February 28.

At least two commercial vessels have been seized by Iranian forces under their blockade of the vital trade route. A video showed masked guards with guns boarding a ship.

"We heard that one of the seafarers, an officer, suffered a panic attack while the vessel was being boarded," said John Canias, maritime operations coordinator for the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF).

"Fortunately, the news is they have been taken care of... they have been allowed to speak to their family through the internet."

Bereaved families

The strain extends to the seafarers' families at home, worried about their stranded loved ones -- or in the worst cases, bereaved.

On March 1, the second day of the conflict, a projectile hit a tanker in the Gulf, killing a 25-year-old Indian seafarer as he started his shift in the engine room, said Melanie Warman, communications director for the Sailors' Society, who spoke to his family.

"The mother has been in and out of hospital, not eating. It's obviously a really desperate situation," she told AFP.

"For the families, this is really, really difficult. We hear from families who can't reach their loved ones on board ships and they're really frantic with worry."

Like the Sailors' Society, another sailors' helpline charity, the International Seafarers' Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN), fields calls from trapped workers and offers them practical and psychological support.

"Most of the calls are around repatriation -- what are their rights, how to go about it -- and also obviously the sort of the stress and the worry about being in a conflict zone and not being trained or prepared for it," said ISWAN's chief executive, Simon Grainge.

Training to cope

Some charities are working with shipping companies to strengthen support for seafarers under unprecedented strain.

"The most up-to-date guidance we have on mental health and attacks is really based around Somali piracy, which is more under control" since attacks in the Indian Ocean surged in the early 2000s, said Deborah Layde, chief executive of the Seafarers' Charity.

"One of the things that quite a few organisations are now calling for is really up-to-date guidance on how to deal with wartime issues," she added. "This isn't something that a lot of shipping companies are ready for."

To that end, the charity has turned to mental health professionals to help provide guidelines and a webinar to guide seafarers to cope with the stress of the situation.

"There's this constant higher level of stress and hypervigilance without that ability to reset as they might normally do. There's exhaustion," said Rachel Glynn-Williams, a psychologist working with seafarers who is involved in developing the webinar.

"At the point I pick up crew conversations, they will have been on hyper-alert for a sustained amount of time, so their nervous system will be heightened and it's going to take a little time, depending on the individual, for that nervous system to reset," she told AFP.

"For some people, it might be fairly soon afterwards, within a matter of days, if not hours. For others, it might take a little longer."

© 2026 AFP