Le président tunisien Kais Saied s’est insurgé contre les manifestations qui ont eu lieu dans le pays. Il a répété son engagement à garantir l’égalité de tous devant la loi en recevant le ministre de l’Intérieur Taoufik Charfeddine.
Plusieurs personnes étaient dans les rues de Tunis la semaine dernière, une manifestation qui avait été interdite par les autorités dans le cadre des restrictions contre le Covid-19.
Going into 2022, many of the main issues that dominated the European Union’s (EU) relations with the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), from the ongoing talks in Vienna to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, as well as the uncontrolled influx of migrants from the region and Turkey’s long-stalled membership bid, remain on the agenda. Is the new year likely to see a resolution of any of these issues or any other significant changes in relations between the EU and the countries of the region?
On Jan. 13, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed alarm that millions of Afghans are on the “verge of death” thanks to a lethal brew of “freezing temperatures and frozen assets.” This was no idle warning. Notwithstanding the decline in fighting following the Taliban’s victory in August 2021, Afghanistan’s economy is in a deepening spiral of impoverishment and destitution.
Three days have passed since the Houthi attack on the UAE, yet there’s still a lot we don’t know about what really happened. That’s not uncommon. When the Iranians attacked Saudi oil processing facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais in the fall of 2019, it took several weeks to figure out who truly was behind the attack, where they launched it from, what weapons they used, how those weapons performed, and why Saudi air and missile defenses failed to respond.
The State Department announced, on Jan. 19, that Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, is departing for a round of consultations in the Gulf and London. He’ll be joining U.N. Special Envoy Hans Grundberg, who has already arrived in the region. According to the announcement, Lenderking is being dispatched “to press the parties to de-escalate militarily and seize the new year to participate fully in an inclusive UN-led peace process.”
Russia is trying to decrease the influence of the eighth brigade in south Syria, in order to bolster the government’s presence there, according to North Press.
Russia is trying its best to strengthen the Syrian government to reassert its control over south Syria, most notably the Daraa governorate, the birthplace of the protests against the Syrian government.
A Russian-backed campaign by the regime is targeting ISIS in the Syrian Badia, where sleeper cells are conducting deadly attacks, according to Zaman al-Wasl.
Syria and Iran are deepening economic cooperation, as Iran is about to launch a Syrian-Iranian joint bank, according to Asharq al-Awsat.
Syria and Iran reached an agreement to launch a joint free trade zone and bank, the Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam Qasemi announced this weekend, in a bid to deepen economic ties.
Describing his visit to Russia as a milestone in the promotion of ties between Tehran and Moscow, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said cooperation and dialogue between the two states would contribute to regional security.
Speaking to reporters before leaving Tehran for Moscow on Wednesday morning, Raisi said he would make the visit at the invitation of his Russian counterpart with the purpose of enhancing the neighborliness and regional diplomacy.
Reportedly, Russian state energy giant Gazprom said it has not booked any capacity to pump gas to Europe through the Yamal pipeline in February underscoring a sharp drop-off in Russian exports to the region so far this year.
Gazprom said pipeline exports of Russian gas have tumbled 41% from a year ago so far in January, underlining the impact of a reversal in the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which usually pumps Russian gas into Europe, from Germany to Poland. Data from German network operator Gascade showed that this was occurring for a 28th consecutive day on Monday.