India has stressed on deeper engagement and commitment by the UN Security Council to ensure long-lasting peace in countries torn by civil war and to avoid relapse into conflict. In an an Ambassadorial-level meeting of Organisational Committee, Peacebuilding Commission here yesterday, Deputy Permanent Representative of India Ambassador Bhagwant Bishnoi said …

US President Barack Obama has nominated veteran diplomat David Hale as the next ambassador to Pakistan. A career foreign service official, Hale is currently the US Ambassador to Lebanon, a position he has held since 2013. Obama named him for the post yesterday and if confirmed by the Senate, Hale …

US Defence Secretary and Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said on Wednesday that the fight against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group may take longer than the three year timeline stipulated in President Barack Obama’s force authorisation request. “I cannot tell you that our campaign to defeat ISIL (IS) would be …

Both sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine have withdrawn most of their heavy weapons from the frontline, says Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. In an interview with state television on Monday evening Poroshenko said government forces had “withdrawn the lion’s share of multiple launch rocket systems and heavy artillery”. “We …

NATO Secretary GeneralJens Stoltenberg has accused Russia of continuing to arm and train separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. His comments on Wednesday at the NATO headquarter in Brussels came a day after NATO warships began exercises in the Black Sea.

Libya’s warring factions will resume the UN-sponsored talks on March 11 in Morocco after a three-day peace dialogue was paused on Saturday, theUnited NationsSupport Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said in a statement on Sunday. A three-day UN-sponsored dialogue between Libya’s warring factions held here was paused on Saturday, allowing time …

Tunisian security forces on Monday uncovered a second arms cache in three days near the border with Libya, the interior ministry said. “As part of ongoing operations against terrorist cells and their members… [security forces] have discovered a new weapons cache 15km from Ben Guerdane” in the southeast, it said.

Spain said on Tuesday it has dismantled a militant Islamic cell in its North African enclave of Ceuta that it claims was ready to attack either Spain or other targets in Europe. Police arrested two suspected militants as part of a wider security operation that began in January, the Interior …

Islamic militants attacked an army checkpoint in northern Sinai near the border with Gaza early on Wednesday, killing an officer, officials said. The attack came as Egypt’s Islamic State affiliate, which is based in the restive peninsula, claimed responsibility for two attacks the previous day.

NATO demanded March 11 that the OSCE be given full access to verify the withdrawal of heavy weapons in eastern Ukraine and called again on Russia to end support for the separatists. The condition that both Ukraine and pro-Russian rebel forces pull back heavy weapons is a key element in a February 12 Minsk ceasefire accord …