Head of Sudan’s Transitional Government, General Abdul Fattah Al-Burhan, announced that Israel is to play a key role in removing his country’s name from the US blacklist, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper revealed on Friday.
Political Situation
The United Nations said eastern Libyan forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar have refused to grant landing permits for flights bringing U.N. staff to and from Libya, a statement said on Wednesday. (Reuters, Canada, 12.02.2020)
Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir, confirmed that the kingdom opposes what he described as “Turkey’s incursion into Syria, and its support for extremist militias in Libya and Somalia.”
Turkish trucks carrying $10 million worth of tomatoes are stranded at the Russian border, again. The miles-long queues of vehicles awaiting clearance from Russian authorities are reminiscent of the strained ties between the two countries after Turkey shot down a Russian jet in 2015. After the incident, Russia slapped sanctions on Turkey and imposed a ban on Turkish agricultural imports. As the two countries slowly resumed ties, Russia lifted the restrictions on Turkish food imports, but the tomato ban remained in effect, reminding Turks that not all was forgiven and forgotten. Eventually, Russia lifted the ban on tomatoes too, but as tensions between Moscow and Ankara have escalated in the last few weeks over Syria, the tomato war has once again flared up. Producers in the southern Turkish city of Antalya, who sell 80 percent of their tomatoes to Russia, are expecting the government to resolve the rift. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has developed a close rapport with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is in a tough spot.
By Theophilus Abbah At the rate Boko Haram terrorists launch suicide attacks, lay siege on the military, kill helpless civilians, and kidnap the vulnerable in the North-East in spite of
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Boko Haram fighters on Sunday killed no fewer than 30 people who were travelers that spent the night in Auno, a community 25km away from Maiduguri. The attack which lasted
Read MoreIslamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS) is now seen by France and Sahelian countries as the greatest security threat in West Africa.
Reports about a drawdown of U.S. troops in West Africa and ISGS’s growing strength have led France and some countries in the region, including Chad, to increase their military presence throughout the Sahel.
This past week, TRAC Analyst, Kelsey Tamplin discovered on the Act for Free website (Actforfree.com), several claims of responsibility for Anarchists’ attacks in Berlin, Germany; Montevideo, Uruguay; and Thessaloniki, Greece in early January and at the start of February. The methods of attacks ranged from throwing stones at police vehicles to setting vehicles on fire.
European governments reluctant to take back individuals who were involved with the terror group in Iraq and Syria should be dealing with the aftermath of their foreign interventions.
The international agency Human Rights Watch has called on the Syrian and Kurdish authorities to investigate the fate of thousands of people who went missing while in the custody of the Islamic State armed group.
In the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 – an invasion which many Iraqis believe left their country in the worst condition it has been since the Mongol invasion of 1258 — there was much discussion in the media about the Bush Administration’s goal for “nation-building” in that country. Of course, if there ever were such a goal, it was quickly abandoned, and one hardly ever hears the term “nation-building” discussed as a U.S. foreign policy objective anymore.