The Interview

In an interview with FRANCE 24's Marc Perelman, Afghanistan's Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah speaks about the upcoming peace talks with the Taliban to be held in Turkey in April. He expresses hope for "significant progress".

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Israel's head of public health services Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis analysed the successful Covid-19 vaccination campaign by the Israeli government, with 80 percent of the eligible population already vaccinated against Covid-19. "You can get to a point in this pandemic where you open sectors and the disease goes down," she told us. On the vaccination of the Palestinians, Alroy-Preis said the arrangements with the pharma companies state that "we cannot take the vaccines out of Israel" but insisted she supported "giving vaccines to our neighbours."

Ahmad Massoud, the son of Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Massoud who was assassinated by al Qaeda two days before the 9/11 attacks, granted an interview to FRANCE 24 in Paris. Massoud expressed concern at the prospect of US troops leaving the country in May, warning that a rushed exit would lead to "civil war" in Afghanistan. He also condemned last year's deal reached between the US and the Taliban, calling it a mistake.

On February 26, Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, made a sudden and unexpected move in declaring his employer – the military junta – the illegitimate ruler of Myanmar in front of the UN assembly. In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, the diplomat describes what went through his mind before making the fateful speech, and why targeted sanctions are needed against a junta he says is “committing crimes against humanity”.

US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry granted an exclusive interview to FRANCE 24 at the US embassy in Paris. Kerry is on a trip to Europe to relaunch Washington's commitment to the fight against climate change. He said that with the election of Joe Biden, the US is ready to make up for its "inexcusable absence" over the past four years on the climate change issue under Donald Trump. Kerry expressed hope that the coming years will be "the decade of decision and the decade of action", but warned that "all countries need to do better".

In an interview with FRANCE 24, UK Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said the country hopes to offer inoculations to all adults by the end of July. He also discussed the slow rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines in France and the controversy surrounding the AstraZeneca jabs in Europe.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, the fiancée of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi hailed the recent decision by the Biden administration to declassify an intelligence assessment of her fiancé's shocking 2018 murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But Hatice Cengiz called on Washington to go beyond words and enforce "sanctions" or other "actions" against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, said the February 15, 2021 rocket attack on a US-led coalition air base in the Kurdish capital of Erbil that claimed several lives was “definitely a terrorist attack” and that a preliminary probe into the matter has given “a good indication of who was behind it”.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, Christine Schraner Burgener, the UN special envoy on Myanmar, held out hope that the military would not brutally crack down on the ongoing mass protest movement against the February 1 coup. She also called for "targeted sanctions" on leaders of the regime and said she had asked them to allow her to visit the country, a request they have rejected "for the moment".

Iranian Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, a former Revolutionary Guard commander and defence minister, is now serving as a military adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, he discussed Iran’s nuclear programme, saying "we have never, ever, taken any steps towards developing nuclear weapons and we never will". He also urged the US to return to the 2015 nuclear deal. Asked about the war in Yemen, in which Tehran supports the Houthi rebels, he said that Iran would withdraw from the conflict if Saudi Arabia did the same.