Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s brinkmanship over Finland and Sweden’s bid to join NATO has put Turkey back at the top of the news. I provided some background, including a scoop on Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s bullying of his Swedish counterpart Anna Linde over her support for the US-backed Syrian Kurdish group which Turkey labels terrorist during a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Berlin.
Key points
The Biden administration is confronting Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine without direct military engagement, but a triple threat of inflation, starvation, and a coalition that is not sufficiently global promises trouble ahead for the United States and its position in a global order that is suddenly on an accelerated path to change.
In the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and particularly since the outbreak of hostilities, the United States and NATO allies have taken numerous steps to bolster allied force posture in Eastern Europe, enhancing deterrence against further Russian aggression and demonstrating the Alliance’s ability to defend its eastern flank. The Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security’s Transatlantic Security Initiative has been tracking it all, as visualized in the animation, graphs, and table below.
Iraqi writer Farouk Yousef pointed out that after the US gave Iran $90 billion following the signing of the nuclear agreement with the Obama administration in 2015… the bulk of the money… was spent on terrorist groups run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as terrorist groups run covertly in other Arab countries.
Les conflits et les catastrophes naturelles ont contraint environ 60 millions de personnes à fuir leur lieu d’habitation l’an dernier, selon une étude rendue publique par des ONG. Ce bilan, en constante augmentation, pourrait bien s’alourdir encore en 2022 avec la guerre en Ukraine.
Les principaux producteurs et exportateurs de pétrole d’Afrique se réunissent jusqu’au 19 mai à Luanda, la capitale angolaise. Ils cherchent des solutions pour accroître les investissements dans le secteur pétrolier et la transition énergétique.
La Sous-Secrétaire générale des Nations Unies pour l’Afrique, a regretté, mercredi, devant le Conseil de sécurité, la décision des autorités de transition du Mali de se retirer du G5 Sahel et de sa Force conjointe, alors que le contexte sécuritaire dans la région ne cesse de se dégrader.
Lors d’une réunion du Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU, le sous-secrétaire générale pour l’Afrique Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee a rappelé que le terrorisme et l’insécurité continuent de se développer dans la région du Sahel.
Taiz, a city in central Yemen, is besieged by Huthi rebels and practically cut off from the rest of the country. Restored road access would save lives and build trust that could help bring peace to Yemen, but time is short.
According to recent reports from the region’s leaders, the Ukrainian city of Kherson, which Russian forces have held since the early onset of the invasion of Ukraine, is now asking Russia to let them be part of their country.