The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United States have said they will not abandon Afghanistan. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg joined Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and US Defense Secretary James Mattis at the news conference after holding closed door meeting, and reaffirmed the alliance’s commitment to Afghanistan, saying ‘NATO wants to ensure the […]

India and Afghanistan reviewed their bilateral relationship during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Afghan Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah on Thursday. “Strengthening strategic partnership with a close neighbour,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

India and the European Union will hold their 14th summit talks on October 6 during which both sides are expected to discuss a host of key issues including ways to remove hurdles for the long pending free trade agreement. The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MAE) said the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, […]

Iraqi forces on Friday recaptured four villages and cut a supply route used by Daesh terrorists in Iraq’s northern city of Kirkuk, according to an Iraqi military source. “Federal Police units and the Hashd al-Shaabi [a unit of the Iraqi army] have liberated the villages of Al-Awasi, Hamad al-Suwaid, Al-Amoudiya and Ghareeb al-Alkaya in Kirkuk’s […]

The U.S. has built a new military base in the Makhmour district of Iraq’s northern Nineveh province, according to a high-ranking Peshmerga officer. “U.S. forces are transferring supplies from the Qayara Base [near Mosul] to the new base to support forces now fighting to retake Kirkuk’s Hawija district from Daesh,” Jamal Iminiki, chief-of-staff of Kurdish […]

The United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic (CAR) is requesting about 750 more troops to help fill a “security vacuum” worsened by the withdrawal of US special forces as violence surges again, according to a confidential cable obtained by The Associated Press. The additional troops are needed in the southeast after the […]

Shabaab jihadists attacked a Somali army base early Friday in the southern town of Barire, killing at least eight soldiers and stealing equipment, officials and witnesses said. The assault on the Somali National Army military camp in Barire, around 40km west of the capital Mogadishu, began with two suicide attackers detonating their car bombs before […]

Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar asked Europe for helicopters and drones to fight rampant migration on the southern border of the war-wracked country. The request came after the commander, who backs a Tobruk-based administration that controls much of the east and south of Libya, travelled to Rome and Paris to bolster his stature as a […]

Italian officials urged Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar on Tuesday to “contribute effectively” to the U.N. effort to stabilize Libya, and ruled out any military solution to end Libya’s chaos. Haftar met Tuesday with Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti as part of Italy’s efforts stabilize its former colony and stem the flow of migrants to Europe.

UN Secretary-General Special Envoy for Libya Ghassan Salame launched a new round of talks on an action plan here on Tuesday in order to solve the political crisis in Libya. The meetings in Tunis will discuss certain issues in Libya, namely, the appointment of the commander-in-chief of the army, the preparation of a draft constitution […]

The Egyptian government has vowed not to relent towards South Sudan’s efforts to achieve peace and security, the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Foreign Affairs minister, Sameh Shook reportedly met South Sudan’s First Vice President, Taban Deng Gai on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, during which he […]

More than 92 per cent of Kurdish voters chose independence from Baghdad’s central government, Kurdish election monitors said on Wednesday. Hendrin Mohammed, head of the Iraqi Kurdish region’s election commission, announced the official results at a press conference, saying the referendum passed with 92.73 per cent support and a turnout of more than 72 per […]

Editorial In Al-Naba Weekly Exhorts ISIS Members To Honor Their Oath Of Allegiance To Al-Baghdadi The September 15, 2017 editorial of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) Al-Naba weekly, posted on the Nasher News Agency Telegram page and elsewhere, urges ISIS members to adhere to their oath of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. Issue 6 […]

Eighth round of talks in Geneva to start no later than early November, UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura says. A seventh round in July and a sixth in May ended without any breakthroughs in the almost six-and-a-half-year conflict. Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad […]

Romania’s Army will procure its first Patriot missile system by the end of the year, Defense Minister Mihai Fifor said on Wednesday. “We are waiting for the approval letter of the United States so that we can move on to contracting and we can purchase the first program,” he said.

Romanian President Iohannis announced on Thursday that he had cancelled the visit he planned to pay in October to Ukraine, due to the adoption of the education law by the Ukrainian Parliament, arguing the law drastically limits the access of minorities to education in their native language. “Subsequently, I have cancelled my visit to Ukraine […]

The European Union stressed Tuesday that it has consistently confirmed its full support for the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq. “It therefore appealed for the referendum not to be held in this unilateral manner, and especially not in disputed areas. It regrets that these calls have not been heeded,” said a spokesperson for […]

Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Croatia – will help together for the European integration of the Western Balkans countries. This is the reason why the foreign ministers, Ekaterina Zaharieva, Nikos Kodzias, Teodor Melescanu and Maria Peichinovic Bouric, met at a working meeting in New York. Ministers have reviewed what has been achieved so far by Albania, […]

At least eight terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group’s offshoot, ISIS Khorsan have been killed in an airstrike by the United States forces in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. The provincial police commandment in a statement said the airstrike was carried out in Nazian district of Nangarhar.

The United Nations opened talks with Libyan factions on Tuesday in the first stage of a new Action Plan which it hopes will bring peace to the country. Delegates from rival parliaments in Tripoli and Tobruk met at a national conference in Tunis, capital of neighbouring Tunisia, to debate changes to a proposed transitional constitution, […]

The United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in Central African Republic (CAR) is requesting about 750 more troops to help fill a “security vacuum” worsened by the withdrawal of US special forces as violence surges again, according to a confidential cable obtained by The Associated Press. The additional troops are needed in the southeast after the […]

At least three UN peacekeepers were killed on Sunday when their vehicle hit an explosive device in Mali’s troubled north, the UN’s mission to the conflict-torn country said. MINUSMA said the attack, which also left another five soldiers seriously wounded, took place early on Sunday on a road between the city of Gao and a […]

The United States says it has launched airstrikes in Libya that killed 17 Islamic State militants and destroyed three vehicles. In a statement on Sunday, US Africa Command says that in coordination with Libya’s internationally recognised Tripoli-based government, it struck a camp on Friday some 241km southeast of the coastal city of Sirte.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi announced on Thursday that the first phase of the liberation to retake the town of Hwaija from the so-called Islamic State (IS) has begun. Al-Abadi said in a press statement that the operation began at dawn on Thursday, just two days after Iraqi forces began an offensive against IS’ holdouts […]

Khemaies Jhinaoui, Tunisia’s foreign minister, used his address to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Friday to give strong backing to the special envoy’s roadmap for Libya. Mr Jhinaoui said Tunis was co-ordinating closely with Egypt and Algeria as Libya’s neighbours to back Ghassan Salame’s drive to revise the Libya Political Agreement […]

The United States and European Union on Wednesday urged Congolese security forces to refrain from using “excessive force” after soldiers fired on Burundian refugees last week, killing over 30. “The US government is dismayed by the violence and death of more than 30 Burundian nationals and a Congolese soldier in Kamanyola, in the eastern Democratic […]

The United Nations on Wednesday launched a new push to bring stability to Libya, which has been ravaged by chaos since the 2011 ouster of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and a new UN envoy on Libya, Ghassan Salame, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with countries […]

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signaled he would consider resuming military aid to Egypt which had been frozen because of concerns over its human rights record. “We’re going to certainly consider it,” Trump said as he met President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The Central African Republic’s president urged the United Nations on Friday to send more peacekeepers to his strife-torn country and ease an arms embargo in the way of equipping his weak army. Addressing the UN General Assembly, President Faustin-Archange Touadera said a recent upsurge in violence was linked to a battle for control of the […]

Vice President Mike Pence met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in New York on Tuesday and discussed the US strategy in South Asia, according to the White House. During their conversation, Pence highlighted ways Pakistan could work with the US to “bolster stability and prosperity for all in South Asia,” said the statement.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with The Associated Press (AP) that he welcomed the announcement by US President Donald Trump that the US is now going to be in Afghanistan on a condition-based mission and said NATO will also increase troop numbers to train Afghan forces. He did not however reveal details […]

The U.S. forces with coordination of Afghan military have doubled its airstrikes in Afghanistan, following Washington’s new strategy for the war-torn country, Presidential Palace (ARG) said Wednesday. According to ARG, drone and warplane raids were being “effective” in suppressing the insurgents across the country.

Iraqi security forces and paramilitary units launched a dawn assault Tuesday against one of the Daesh group’s last bastions in the vast western province of Anbar bordering Syria. The Joint Operations Command, which is co-ordinating Iraqi security forces battling Daesh, said an offensive had begun to retake the town of Anna and the nearby village […]

The European Union reiterated Wednesday its steadfast support for Iraq’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity and called for dialogue between Irbil and Baghdad to resolve outstanding issues. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini described the Kurdistan region’s planned September 25 independence referendum as “counterproductive,” saying that it “must be avoided.”

Egypt says that it will host the reorganisation of Libya’s army, currently an eastern-based force led by General Khalifa Hifter. A statement signed by the Egyptian Committee on Libya on Tuesday says Libyan military officers who met in Cairo recently chose Egypt as a starting point for plans to unify the army.