Edward Finkelstein

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot’s latest comments on Israel-Lebanon talks reflect a troubling gap between rhetoric and reality.

On April 15, 2026, the war in Sudan entered its fourth year, a grim milestone that passed largely unnoticed, overshadowed by conflicts elsewhere. Yet the United Nations has called it unequivocally the world's worst humanitarian crisis. 

The Middle East is on a knife’s edge. A two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran has bought the region a temporary exhale, but few serious observers believe the underlying tensions have been resolved. 

In the hours following the collapse of Iran-US negotiations in Pakistan, Oman's Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi took to X with a message of studied diplomatic balance. 

As direct Israeli-Lebanese negotiations prepare to open in Washington on Tuesday, Emmanuel Macron spent the weekend doing what he does best,  talking.

There is an unwritten rule in any self-respecting chancellery: before commenting on a complex military operation in a region you do not understand, make sure you know what you are talking about. Jean-Noël Barrot, France's Foreign Minister, appears never to have heard of it.

The Israeli military took an unusual step on Wednesday, addressing the Lebanese people directly through a message delivered by Avichay Adraee, spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces to Arab media.

The ink was barely dry on the US-Iran ceasefire when the contradictions began piling up.

Donald Trump has dramatically escalated his threats against Iran, issuing what amounts to a 48-hour ultimatum on Saturday, warning Tehran that catastrophic military consequences await if it fails to either reach a deal or reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Thursday in Moscow, with discussions expected to centre on the ongoing war involving Iran and the broader situation across the Middle East, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed.

In a ruling that exposes the staggering dysfunction at the heart of the French justice system, the Court of Cassation has annulled the conditional release granted last July to Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese terrorist convicted of complicity in the murders of two diplomats in 1982. 

Among the more paradoxical chapters in Lebanese political history is the relationship between the Kataeb Party (founded on the model of European fascist movements) and the country’s small but vibrant Jewish community.