Ex-PM: First 'Get Rid of' Hamas, Then Netanyahu | Conflict Zone

Oct 11, 2023 | "Netanyahu is history, he's done," Ehud Olmert told DW. He called the current Israeli leaders "violent, messianic thugs" and said that long term, Palestinians must be able to "exercise their right to self-determination." The center-right politician and former prime minister added that there was no alternative to the two-state solution with the Palestinians. On the issue of the scores of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas, Olmert said there was "no basis for negotiation" with Hamas — since, in his view, the Islamist militant group was not interested in negotiations. Olmert also told host Tim Sebastian that he thought there was little likelihood of direct military action against Iran, even though Tehran had "coordinated" the attacks and that a derailment of a US-sponsored diplomatic and security accord between Israel and Saudi Arabia would serve Iran's interests.

Former NATO General: Western Self-deterrence Only Prolongs Ukraine War | Conflict Zone

Sep 13, 2023 | Retired British Army General Sir Richard Sherriff says NATO may eventually need to conduct operations against Russia if the war in Ukraine dragged on and became “a running sore” in Eastern Europe. The former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, also told DW that Western self-deterrence had prolonged the war and that the best way to end the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling was to build a credible conventional defense in NATO.

How Russia‘s Corrupt 'Police State‘ Sells Its Own Spies | Conflict Zone

Nov 9, 2022 | If you really want to know about war, who’s murdering and torturing, who’s giving the orders and which weapons are being used, much of it is out there on the internet. There is still cause for hope, at least that's what Eliot Higgins the founder of the open-cource research orgnization, Bellingcat, believes.

Speaking to DW's Tim Sebastian, Higgins said Ukraine might be the best hope of achieving accountability and the internet is providing the means to build the case files.

Bellingcat has exposed Russian spies and assassins, now it is collecting the evidence of war crimes in Ukraine. The British founder of the group has been mining that raw data and incriminating the brutal and powerful.

In Ukraine his investigators are poring over evidence of Russian war crimes but he’s not averse to looking at Western actions elsewhere. "While I think we do have a reputation for focussing a lot on Russia….it gives us a lot more to write about.” Higgins doesn’t flinch from naming names, but he fights on an information battlefield – where facts – however detailed– are routinely contested and dismissed as fake news. Is truth already a devalued currency?

War in Ukraine: Zelenskyy Advisor Rejects Kremlin's Call for Talks | Conflict Zone

A senior advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says nuclear threats from Vladimir Putin need to be taken seriously, but told DW's Tim Sebastian that this is not the first time the Kremlin has sought to blackmail the world.

Ihor Zhovkva, who works in the president's office in Kyiv, said the world's nuclear powers needed to convince Putin to step back from nuclear threats as Russian forces continue to suffer setbacks in Ukraine — but that for now the only talks that will take place with the Kremlin are on the battlefield.

Zhovkva said that if Russia was serious about negotiations, it would not have conducted sham "referendums" in occupied Ukrainian regions and illegally annexed the territories. Zhovkva also underlined that Ukraine would continue to seek the prosecution of war criminals and the assistance of international organizations and partners to collect evidence. He said those Ukrainians who willingly collaborated with Russian occupiers would face punishment.

Former Moscow Rabbi Wants All Jews to Leave Putin's Russia | Conflict Zone

Moscow's former chief rabbi discusses anti-Semitism, morality and red line between democracy and authoritarianism in Vladimir Putin's Russia. Pinchas Goldschmidt spoke with Tim Sebastian from Berlin.

Hodges: Ukraine Needs to Get as Much Military Assistance from the West as Possible | Conflict Zone

Mar 15, 2022 • Former US Army Europe Commander Lt. General Ben Hodges says he thinks Vladimir Putin has badly miscalculated and will no longer be able to attack in Ukraine.

Hodges, who retired from active service in 2018, told Tim Sebastian that Russia is "close to culminating" and that the next ten days are critical.

Hodges said Ukraine needed to be supplied with as much military assistance from the West as possible and that he did not believe those around the Russian president wanted nuclear escalation.

Hodges also addressed reports that Moscow was seeking military assistance from China. "The Chinese have to decide what they want their role in the world to be."

European Human Rights Chief: Governments Must Take ‘A Long, Hard Look in the Mirror’ | Conflict Zone

Jun 10, 2021 • The Council of Europe’s latest report gives a stark warning on the state of democracy on the continent, saying the democratic environment and institutions “are in mutually reinforcing decline.”

But what can it do to reverse the backsliding? And how can it uphold human rights in countries who enjoy membership of the club but don’t follow its rules?

On DW’s Conflict Zone, host Tim Sebastian speaks to Dunja Mijatovic, the commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, on the line from Strasbourg.

Conflict Zone is Deutsche Welle's top political interview. Every week, our hosts Tim Sebastian and Sarah Kelly are face to face with global decision-makers, seeking straight answers to straight questions, putting the spotlight on controversial issues and calling the powerful to account.

US Election: Will Voters Turn on Trump after COVID-19 Response Catastrophe? | Conflict Zone

“Americans are looking for hope,” the Trump campaign advisor Mica Mosbacher tells Conflict Zone in the final days before election day.

But with over 200,000 people dead and more than eight million confirmed coronavirus cases in the US, will hopeful voters trust an incumbent president who has played down the threat and been accused of botching the country’s response to the pandemic?

Down the line from Texas, Republican strategist Mica Mosbacher joins host Tim Sebastian on Conflict Zone.

How Incompetent Is Donald Trump? Interview with John Bolton | Conflict Zone

John Bolton dicusses his time as national security adviser and his impressions of US President Donald Trump with DW Conflict Zone.

Four months before the next US presidential election, Donald Trump’s poll numbers are in a slump. Disaffected conservatives call him incompetent and are campaigning against the Republican president, citing the upward curve of new coronavirus cases in the US, the millions of unemployed Americans, and the protests and racial tension in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. They echo Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who says Trump’s leadership is inadequate.

One of his three former national security advisors, John Bolton, joined DW’s Tim Sebastian to discuss his impressions of President Trump on Conflict Zone. He has just releases his book on the issue 'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir'

Saudi Official: 'We Don't Have a History of Murdering Our Citizens' | Conflict Zone

Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, tells Conflict Zone his country is paying 'a great price' over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But he dismisses criticism from human rights groups over Riyadh's dire treatment of activists.

UK, EU Relationship Will 'Never Be the Same Again' | Conflict Zone

Britain's ruling Conservatives are buckling under the weight of Brexit. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expelled many of his own MPs for breaking the whip on a key vote and shut down parliament, but not before it denied him an early election and instead legislated to force Johnson to request an extension to the UK's Brexit deadline from Brussels. But will he obey the law? This week Conflict Zone's Tim Sebastian meets pro-Brexit Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen in London.

Conflict Zone is Deutsche Welle's top political interview. Every week, our host Tim Sebastian is face to face with global decision-makers, seeking straight answers to straight questions, putting the spotlight on controversial issues and calling the powerful to account.

"We're Surrounded by the Craziest People" | Conflict Zone | DW English (November 2015)

Tim Sebastian interviews Naftali Bennett, Israeli Minister of Education and leader of the right-wing Jewish Home Party.

'Do You Think We Should Impeach Him?' | DW English

Failure to repeal Obamacare, doubts about tax reform, and lingering questions over his integrity – how long will Donald Trump’s supporters stay the course? Tim Sebastian meets Republican Congressman Don Bacon on Conflict Zone.

Is the Russian Orthodox Church Serving God or Putin? | DW English

As the Russian Orthodox Church faces mounting controversy over its hard line agendas and its close ties to the Kreml, Conflict Zone host Tim Sebastian travels to Moscow to talk to representative Vakhtang Kipshidze.

"It Is Suicide to Turn Back to Turkey" | Conflict Zone

Italian Minister: "EU Can't Afford to Remain at Status Quo" | Conflict Zone

After Brexit, Sandro Gozi calls for a "relaunch of the European integration process" on DW's Conflict Zone with Tim Sebastian. But Italy has enough problems on its own: Nearly half of the population stated in May this year that they want to leave the EU, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given Italy the worst economic forecast of any other eurozone country. How is the Renzi government planning to solve these problems?