Qatari FM’s Tehran Visit: Goals and MessagesQatar’s top diplomat discussed bilateral ties with Tehran officials. But that was not all. He possibly carried messages to Iran from Saudis and West.
Oxfam Urges UK to End Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia after Journalist Murder ReportOxfam aid agency urged British government to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia after a US intelligence report concluded that the Kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) had ordered and directed the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Missing Dubai Princess Urges British Police to Investigate Sister’s Abduction CaseMissing princess Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, one of the daughters of the Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has urged the British police in a letter to re-investigate the alleged abduction of her older sister from a Cambridge street more than two decades ago.
Turkey Denounces EU Expression of Support for Pro-Kurdish PartyTurkey condemned the European Union (EU)’s support for the country’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), saying the bloc should rather be concerned about the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)’s crimes in northern Iraq.
Biden to Call Saudi King Salman ahead of Releasing Khashoggi FindingsPresident Joe Biden reportedly is to call call Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz on Wednesday, ahead of the scheduled release of a US intelligence report detailing the brutal killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Axis of Resistances refers to countries and movements with common political goal, i.e., resisting against Zionist regime, America and other western powers. Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Palestine are considered as the Axis of Resistance.
Kurds are an ethnic group in the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region, which spans adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. They are an Iranian people and speak the Kurdish languages, which form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian branch of Iranian languages.
Alwaght- In parallel with internal debates over the formation of intra-Afghan talks between the government and Taliban militants, yesterday, a high-level delegation from the group, led by political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, left for Islamabad upon the invitation of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry to hold talks with Pakistani officials.
Alwaght- Yesterday, Moscow, the Russian capital, witnessed the end of the meeting of defense ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. As it is clear from the guests and participants of the meeting, this conference was organized with the focus on security and defense issues. The meeting was attended by defense ministers from 13 countries, who, according to the Russian Defense Minister, as chairman of the summit, discussed, in addition to a joint statement on counterterrorism and international extremism, ensuring international and regional security for all members, unity of efforts to prevent war and armed conflict, and also further strengthen military cooperation in the current situation.
Intra-Afghan talks, or in other words, talks between the central government of Kabul and the Taliban will begin in Qatar on Saturday. In this regard, the High Council for National Reconciliation of Afghanistan issued this statement: Afghan government delegation headed by Abdullah Abdullah to leave for Doha, Qatar on Friday to start intra-Afghan talks. In a statement, the High Council for National Reconciliation of Afghanistan expressed hope that after a long wait, the talks will be the beginning of peace and stability and the end of war and violence in Afghanistan. The Taliban also announced the dispatch of six of the group’s prisoners to Doha, of which France and Australia opposed their release. With this in mind, the question now is that what are the most important areas of dialogue between the parties and to what extent is it possible for an agreement to be reached between the parties? In order to answer this essential question, has sought the analysis of Pir-Mohammad Mollazehi, a senior expert on Afghanistan’s issues.
The national security adviser to the Indian government walked out of a virtual Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting hosted by its chair Russia, after Pakistan had “deliberately projected a fictitious map that Pakistan has recently been propagating,” India’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava explained.
Alwaght- On September 11, 2001, an unbelievable and astonishing event occurred, bringing about major changes in the world’s economy, particularly in the politics and governance of the West Asian region. At that time, in the days and months after 9/11, many political observers saw the al-Qaeda terror attacks on the Twin Towers, that were directed by Osama bin Laden, as an instantaneous and historic excuse needed to advance US strategy by neoconservatives of America (George W. Bush was in office at the time).
Pakistan called for a "transparent" judicial inquiry, under international scrutiny, into the "extra-judicial" killing of three Kashmiris in the Indian-administered Kashmir in July.
Alwaght- The prolonged intra-Afghan peace talks in Doha, Qatar, between Afghan government representatives and the Taliban delegation has not yet progressed in such a way for an agreement to be reached. War and insecurity has intensified over the past week, resulting in heavy casualties on both sides, Afghan civilians included amongst them. In a landmark move, the chairman of Afghan High Peace Council (HPC) Abdullah Abdullah traveled to Islamabad on Monday for a three-day visit to discuss the Afghan peace process with Pakistani officials. This is Abdullah Abdullah’s first visit to Pakistan as the chairman of the High Peace Council since 2018.
Thousands of Pakistani protesters poured to the streets of the country’s largest city of Karachi on Sunday, calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
India rejected as fabricated” and “figments of imagination” accusations by Pakistan that New Delhi had helped fund militant groups on Pakistani soil, Reuters reported.
Thousands of people gathered on Saturday to bury the bodies of 11 Hazara Shiites who were killed at the hands of ISIS terrorists in Pakistan’s Balochistan province on January 3.