Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian bragged that he had “long but positive meeting” with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, and added that “What is important for Iran is to fully receive the economic benefits of the 2015 accord.”
INTRODUCTION
This paper is partly driven by a recent case of hate speech uttered by an Oromo student at Harvard University (1). In this speech, the student encouraged the Oromo youth to ’eat up the Amhara flesh and drink their blood’ and then implied that such actions are energizing and, indeed, can even make you smarter. (2)
On June 29th, Syria formally recognized Russia’s proxy states, known as the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic as sovereign nations, becoming the second country outside of Russia to do so. The unilateral decision by Bashir al Assad drew swift international condemnation and a formal split in diplomatic ties between Syria and Ukraine. Assad has become one of the most comfortable men in the world being shielded by the Kremlin, but his actions regarding Ukraine can very much backfire on his government in Syria.
As Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine enters its fifth month, a significant date has recently passed in another country — Belarus. May 23 marked one year since Belarusian authorities hijacked a commercial Ryanair flight transporting passengers, including Belarusian opposition figure Roman Protasevich, from Athens to Vilnius. While the incident may have faded from popular memory in some parts of the world, the situation in Belarus and on its borders is still top of mind for its regional neighbors in the Baltic countries. Trapped between its desire to diversify partnerships and its alignment with its single supporter, Russia, Belarus has pursued toxic policies that have brought new security challenges to the Baltic region.
Migrant crisis: Testing the resilience of the Baltic countries and the solidarity of the EU
Far from his home in the Republic of Congo, Harvest-Spring Kibonge represents a cookie-cutter immigrant success story. In Senegal, he got an education and then started a business running a modest open-air smoothie shop on one of the capital’s lively beaches.
Long viewed as North Africa’s most isolated and inscrutable country, Algeria is suddenly the belle of the ball. This year, Algeria has hosted official visits from Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and the foreign ministers of France, Italy, Portugal, Russia, and the United States (the first visit by a US secretary of state since 2014). Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman will travel to Algiers next month. Meanwhile, Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has visited Egypt, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar, and Turkey and is expected in Moscow later this year.
Ever since Russian troops first crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24, the Kremlin has employed characteristically euphemistic language in order to downplay the criminal nature of the unfolding invasion. This has led to the creation of an entire alternative reality where Russian troops are noble liberators waging a chivalrous campaign against dastardly Ukrainian Nazis who bomb themselves and stage fake atrocities by massacring their own civilian population.
Since Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the United States and Europe have deployed tools of economic warfare with the explicit goal of crippling the Russian economy and rendering the Kremlin unable to wage its war of aggression. The alacrity and scale of the Western response—which has included freezing Russia’s foreign-currency reserves, cutting off many Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system, and coordinating export controls—shook the foundations of the Russian economy.
A power struggle between eastern and western-based rival governments has brought Libya to the brink of renewed civil war.
U.N. mediators have failed, thus far, to persuade contending factions to agree to a process for national elections.
The Crown Prince and de-facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), visited key regional countries ahead of the planned July 16 regional summit with President Biden.
MBS’s visit to Egypt and Jordan, both key allies of the Kingdom, as well as to rival Turkey (Türkiye), sought to coordinate regional stances ahead of the Biden visit.