Tag Archives: Nato

US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan sounded upbeat after their first face-to-face talks on Monday, although they did not announce major breakthroughs in the relationship between the two allies, at odds over Russian weapons, Syria, Libya and other issues. “We had a positive and productive meeting, much …

US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will discuss problematic bilateral ties on Monday including Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 missiles, but there is little hope they will resolve any of several disputes that divide NATO. The two leaders will hold their first face-to-face talks since Biden took …

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey’s central bank had agreed with China to increase an existing currency swap facility to $6 billion from $2.4 billion, in a move that could boost foreign reserves. Turkey’s FX reserves plunged by 75% last year, raising concerns about a possible balance of …

Turkey should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan under the 2020 deal for the pullout of U.S. forces, a Taliban spokesman said on Thursday, effectively rejecting Ankara’s proposal to guard and run Kabul’s airport after U.S.-led NATO forces depart. The development raises serious questions for the United States, other countries and …

U.S. President Joe Biden and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet to discuss Syria, Afghanistan and other regional issues next week and will also look at the “significant differences” between Washington and Ankara, the U.S. national security advisor said on Monday. Speaking at a White House briefing, Jake Sullivan said …

The UN chief said foreign fighters and mercenaries remain in Libya in violation of last October’s ceasefire agreement and called for their withdrawal and an end to violations of the UN arms embargo, saying these are “critical elements” for lasting peace in the north African country and the region. Secretary-General …

Egypt and Turkey on Thursday held talks on the conflict in Libya, where they back competing factions, on Syria and the security situation in the eastern Mediterranean, in a push to rebuild their fractured relations. The discussions, held over two days and led by deputy foreign ministers, were the first …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday that the withdrawal of foreign troops from Libya would be an “important signal” as both leaders vowed to support the new interim government there, a German government spokesman said. Libya’s new Government of National Unity (GNU) was sworn …

At least three rockets hit the Iraqi military air base of Balad, north of Baghdad, where some US contractors are billeted, Iraqi security officials said on Monday. Three other rockets fell near the base in the attack on Sunday, the sources said. No casualties or damage have been reported. No …

-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Turkey and all U.S. allies on Wednesday should refrain from making further purchases of Russian weaponry, threatening the possibility of more sanctions. Frayed relations between NATO allies Turkey and the United States were further tested over the weekend after President Joe Biden recognized …

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan urged U.S. President Joe Biden to swiftly reverse his declaration that the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire constituted genocide, an action he said was upsetting and diminished bilateral ties. Biden’s historic declaration on Saturday infuriated its NATO ally Turkey, which has said the announcement …

Tensions between Washington and Ankara may be further strained on Saturday when US President Joe Biden is expected to become the first US leader to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide of 1915 onward. The massacre of around 1.5 million Armenians in the early 20th century was formally recognized as genocide …

A drone dropped explosives near U.S. forces stationed at Erbil airport in northern Iraq late on Wednesday, Kurdish officials said, with no immediate reports of casualties. A separate rocket attack killed a Turkish soldier at a military base nearby, the Turkish defence ministry said. It was the first known attack …

Turkey will hold an Afghan peace summit from April 24 to May 4 meant to jump-start efforts to end Afghanistan’s war and sketch out a possible political settlement, Turkish authorities said on Tuesday. The summit includes the United Nations and Qatar as part of a U.S.-backed push to advance talks …

President Joe Biden has decided to withdraw the remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021, 20 years to the day after al Qaeda’s attacks triggered America’s longest war, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are expected to …

Canada on Monday scrapped export permits for drone technology to Turkey after concluding that the equipment had been used by Azeri forces fighting Armenia in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said. Turkey, which like Canada is a member of NATO, is a key ally of Azerbaijan, whose …

The United States will send two warships to the Black Sea next week, Turkey said on Friday as Russia, which has boosted its military forces near Ukraine, accused NATO powers that do not have a coast line in the region of increasing naval activity. The Pentagon declined to discuss Turkey’s …

Forces in Zawiya in western Libya on Wednesday released more than 100 captives taken from Khalifa Haftar’s eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) to solidify a months-long ceasefire and moves towards national unity. The men had been held since April 2019 when Haftar launched an assault to seize control of the …

The Afghan government and the Taliban agreed on Friday to try to accelerate peace talks, at a meeting in Moscow that followed an international conference there on the peace process, a senior Afghan official was quoted as saying. The United States, Russia, China and Pakistan called on Afghanistan’s warring sides …

The United States was joined by Russia, China and Pakistan on Thursday in calling on Afghanistan’s warring sides to reach an immediate ceasefire, at talks that showed Washington’s determination to win backing from regional powers for its plans. Just six weeks before a deadline for the United States to pull …

U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday that it will be “tough” for him to meet a May 1 deadline to withdraw the last troops from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war. Biden’s comments to ABC News were his most extensive to date about the deadline set …

A powerful car bomb near a police station on Friday night killed at least seven people and wounded more than 50 others in Afghanistan’s western Herat province, officials said. Herat Governor Sayed Abdul Wahid Qatali said several women and children were among the dead. He added that at least 53 …

Turkey and Egypt could negotiate and sign a maritime demarcation deal in the eastern Mediterranean if their ties, which have been strained, allow for such a move, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday. Ties between them have been frosty since Egypt’s army ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Mursi, …

Erik Prince, the private security executive and supporter of former U.S. President Donald Trump, “at the very least” helped evade an arms embargo on Libya, according to excerpts from a United Nations report seen by Reuters. Independent U.N. sanctions monitors accused Prince of proposing a private military operation – known …

The common interests of Turkey and the United States outweigh their differences and Ankara wants improved cooperation with Washington, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday striking a rare conciliatory tone. Ties between the two NATO allies have been strained over a host of issues. In December, the United States sanctioned …

Several rockets hit the Iraqi military air base of Balad north of Baghdad on Saturday, injuring one Iraqi contractor, Iraqi security officials said on Saturday. No group immediately claimed the attack. It was the second salvo of rockets to hit a base hosting U.S. forces or contractors in less than …

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday said there must be an immediate reduction of violence in Afghanistan, but did not offer any hints about whether the United States would withdraw its troops by a May deadline. “I urge all parties to choose the path towards peace. The violence must …

Turkey has hired a Washington-based law firm to lobby for its readmission to the US F-35 fighter jet program after it was suspended over its purchase of Russian air defenses, a contract filed with the US Department of Justice showed. Ankara had ordered more than 100 stealth fighters and has …

John Bolton, former US President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, said on Wednesday that while a return to the Iran nuclear deal appears to be a priority for the Biden administration, he doubts the sincerity of Tehran’s promises not to pursue the development of nuclear weapons. In an interview with …

At least 60 people were injured as hundreds of fuel vehicles exploded in a massive blaze that tore through a customs post in Afghanistan close to the Iranian border, disrupting power supplies and causing millions of dollars of damage. Iranian authorities sent fire engines and ambulances across the border, while …

Turkish soldiers conducting an operation against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq have found the bodies of 13 kidnapped Turks executed in a cave, the country’s defence minister said. The identity of the 13 Turkish citizens was unclear and the minister, Hulusi Akar, said their kidnapping had not …

Turkey will not turn back from its acquisition of Russian S-400 defense systems despite U.S. sanctions, it said on Thursday, but added it would seek to resolve issues with its NATO ally through dialogue. In December, Washington imposed sanctions on Ankara for acquiring the S-400s on grounds they threaten its …

Unknown gunmen attacked a United Nations convoy on the outskirts of Afghanistan’s capital on Thursday, killing five Afghan security force members who were escorting the international agency’s vehicles, the UN and officials said. The attack took place near Kabul, according to an Afghan interior ministry official, adding they believed the …

U.N. sponsored talks produced a new interim government for Libya on Friday aimed at resolving a decade of chaos, division and violence by holding national elections later this year. Mohammed al-Menfi, a former diplomat from Benghazi, will head a three-man presidency council, while Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, from the western city of …

The United States should extend the May 1 deadline for pulling all its troops from Afghanistan, and make force cuts contingent on progress in peace talks as well as by the Taliban in reducing violence and containing al Qaeda, a bipartisan report to Congress said on Wednesday. Washington should not …

Top advisers for Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke on the phone on Tuesday, marking the first official contact between the two countries since Biden took office nearly two weeks ago. Erdogan’s Chief Foreign Policy Adviser Ibrahim Kalin and U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan discussed …

At least three people were killed and seven wounded in a series of explosions in Afghanistan on Tuesday, after Western countries called on the Taliban to end a wave of violence that the group denies responsibility for. With Washington and NATO reviewing plans to withdraw their forces from the country …

The number of attacks in Afghanistan by the Taliban in the last quarter of 2020 were higher than the same period the year before, a U.S. watchdog agency said on Monday, after recent accusations by President Joe Biden’s administration that the Taliban has failed to live up to commitments needed …

Iran has hosted the political leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban during the past week, offering Tehran’s own help as a mediator in peace talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government that have become stalled in Qatar. Shi’ite Muslim Iran has been a foe of the hardline Sunni Muslim Taliban for …

The top UN official for Libya said Saturday that an advisory committee for representatives of Libya’s different regions has proposed a way forward for choosing a transitional government that would lead the war-torn country to elections late this year. The talks in Geneva, structured around the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum, …

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he hoped positive steps will be taken on Turkey’s role in the F-35 jet programme once U.S. President-elect Joe Biden takes office, describing Ankara’s exclusion for purchasing Russian defences as a “serious wrong”. Last month, Washington imposed long-anticipated sanctions on Turkey’s defence industry over …

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans to appoint veteran diplomat Jan Kubis as his envoy in Libya nearly a year after the last mediator stepped down, according to a letter to the U.N. Security Council seen by Reuters on Thursday. If there are no objections by any of the 15-member council …

Turkey and the United States have started talks to form a joint working group regarding U.S. sanctions imposed over Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defence systems, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday. Washington slapped the sanctions on NATO ally Turkey’s Defence Industry Directorate (SSB), its chief Ismail Demir …

A series of explosions hit the Afghan capital on Saturday morning, killing at least four people including two police officers, officials said. The deaths were caused by a sticky bomb attached to a police vehicle detonated in western Kabul, police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz said. The explosion wounded two civilians. Two …