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 …
Read More »Taliban going for broke, peace treaty or no peace treaty
A prominent women’s rights advocate who was part of Afghanistan’s government’s team of negotiators at the intra-Afghan talks with the Taliban said that despite the negotiations in Doha, Qatar, the insurgent group believe in regaining power “through military means.” “(Since signing the deal with the US), the Taliban feel they …
Read More »Scores killed by latest car bomb in Afghanistan
Attackers set off a truck bomb in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, according to provincial officials, as violence continues in the war-torn nation despite peace talks taking place in Qatar. Attaullah Khugyani, a spokesman for the provincial government, said the number …
Read More »Rouhani wants US out of Syria, period
The illegitimate presence of U.S. forces in Syria should end immediately, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a video conference broadcast on Iranian state TV on Wednesday. Iran would continue its support for Syria’s legal government, Rouhani said. Source: Reuters
Read More »Yemen peace talks slotted for December, Mattis
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that peace talks between Yemen’s warring parties were likely to take place in early December in Sweden. Western countries are pressing for a ceasefire and renewed peace efforts to end the more than three-year conflict, which is seen as a proxy war …
Read More »Syria talks slotted for November 28-29
Russia, Turkey, and Iran will hold the next round of talks on Syria on Nov. 28-29 in Kazakhstan, Kazakh foreign minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said on Monday. Delegations of the Damascus government and the Syrian rebels are also set to attend, Abdrakhmanov told reporters. Source: Reuters
Read More »North Korea says US Vice-President Pence’s comments ‘stupid’
A senior North Korean official has dismissed remarks by US Vice-President Mike Pence as “stupid”, casting further uncertainty about a planned meeting between the two countries’ leaders. Choe Son-hui said the North would not “beg” for dialogue and warned of a “nuclear showdown” if diplomacy failed. In recent days, both …
Read More »Rebel groups reject talks on Syrian conflict hosted by Russia
Syrian rebel groups on Monday rejected Russia’s planned Sochi conference on Syria, saying Moscow was seeking to bypass a United Nations-based Geneva peace process and blaming Russia for committing war crimes in the country. In a statement by around 40 rebel groups who include some of the military factions who participated in …
Read More »Vladimir Putin’s diplomatic push in Middle East seals both Syria’s fate and diminishing role of the US in the region
Exactly one year ago, Syrian President Bashar al Assad, with Russia’s help, was laying waste to the last rebel-held neighbourhoods of Aleppo. Cluster bombs and bunker-busters fell out of the sky “like rain”, one resident said at the time. Children mistook the bright lights of phosphorous munitions for fireworks. The …
Read More »Iran leader: Talks to help stabilize Syria
The Latest on Syria talks (all times local): 6:25 p.m. Turkey’s president says trilateral talks with the leaders of Russia and Iran have critical importance for bringing peace to Syria. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking after Wednesday’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the Russian Black Sea resort of …
Read More »Yemen allies agree to end tensions after deadly clash: officials
Leaders of the Houthi group and loyalists of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, allies in Yemen’s civil war, said on Tuesday they had agreed to ease tensions between them after three people were killed in a clash. The violence late on Saturday between members of the Iran-aligned Houthis and Saleh …
Read More »U.S. calls Kushner’s Mideast talks ‘productive,’ doesn’t commit to two-state solution
A U.S. delegation led by Jared Kushner had a “productive” meeting with the Palestinian Authority on how to begin Middle East peace talks, the State Department said Friday, although some Palestinian officials expressed frustration that the Trump administration still has not committed to a two-state solution. Both sides agreed to …
Read More »Jared Kushner heads to Jerusalem and Ramallah to talk peace
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will travel to Israel and Ramallah in the West Bank this week. Kushner will arrive Wednesday, meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, and then going to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Kushner trip was first reported in …
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