The Interview

FRANCE 24 spoke to this year's joint Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, co-founder of the digital media company Rappler and an outspoken critic of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Asked whether journalism is becoming more dangerous around the world, she told FRANCE 24: "It is more dangerous, it requires more sacrifices, just to do what journalists have always done."

In an interview with FRANCE 24, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai insisted the country was not in a new Cold War with China despite lingering tensions over trade. She also stressed that the US was keen to repair ties with France and Europe after a recent Australian submarine dispute, which led to the first-ever recall of a French ambassador to the United States.

FRANCE 24 spoke to Fawzia Koofi, who was Afghanistan's first female deputy speaker of parliament. She was also part of the negotiating team representing the previous Afghan government that met with the Taliban in Doha. She believes the Taliban were never actually "meaningful" or "serious" about what they promised on women's rights during the negotiations: she says they just wanted to obtain the withdrawal of US troops. But Koofi believes the country's new rulers will have "no choice" but to work with women.

FRANCE 24 spoke to Ali Maisam Nazary, head of foreign relations for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), an anti-Taliban military alliance which recently set up a parallel government in response to the Taliban taking power. Nazary claimed that the country's new rulers "are not victorious" in Afghanistan's north-eastern Panjshir region, that the "resistance is continuing" and that the NRF actually controls "more than half" of Panjshir, despite Taliban "propaganda" to the contrary.

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh spoke to FRANCE 24 on the sidelines of the Normandy World Peace Forum. The diplomat reiterated that Tehran was ready to resume talks with world powers on Iran's nuclear programme soon, but cautioned that "details" and "issues" needed to be reviewed beforehand. The biggest issue, in his view, is the removal of the "800 new unilateral and illegal" sanctions imposed on Iran after Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear deal back in May 2018.

Exactly one year after the start of the 44-day war between Azerbaijan and Armenia for the control of the contested Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev granted an exclusive interview to FRANCE 24 from the capital Baku. Aliyev said Azerbaijan was ready to "work on a future peace agreement" with Armenia, but warned that any move by Yerevan to reclaim territory lost in last year's war would be met with a fierce response by his country.

Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd has slammed the ongoing submarine dispute with France as a "foreign policy and national security debacle" for his country. Rudd told FRANCE 24 that France had "every right to be angry" over the sudden loss of a multibillion-euro submarine contract with Australia, after Canberra chose to buy US nuclear submarines instead. He also called for a parliamentary probe into the decision by Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Exiled Belarus opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya granted an interview to FRANCE 24 and RFI during a visit to Paris. More than a year after the disputed presidential election that saw Alexander Lukashenko win a controversial sixth term and led to a crackdown on the opposition, Lukashenko remains in power, despite Western sanctions. Tikhanovskaya, who says she won last year's election, discussed the next steps for the beleaguered opposition and urged France to "take on the role of mediator" in an international dialogue on Belarus's political crisis.

Dr. Habiba Sarabi is one of four women who took part in the negotiations with the Taliban in Doha at the end of 2020. She is also the first woman to have ruled an Afghan province, that of Bamiyan. Sarabi, who was in Doha when the Taliban took power, spoke to us from the Turkish city of Izmir, where she now lives. She called the withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan "a big mistake", branding the US pullout "irresponsible".

In an interview with FRANCE 24 from South Africa, Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine said he was "definitely the elected president of Uganda". Wine, who unsuccessfully ran for the country's top job in January, accused President Yoweri Museveni of "mass murder" and called on the Ugandan people to "liberate themselves" from a "dictatorship". Comparing Museveni to ousted dictators Robert Mugabe, Omar al-Bashir and Muammar Gaddafi, Wine predicted it was "just a matter of time" before the president "ends up in the dustbin of history".