Eurasia

Ethiopia’s plan to build Red Sea military bases fuels tension with Egypt

Amid the stalled negotiations with Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia is expressing its intention to build military bases in the Red Sea. Ethiopia recently made fiery remarks that further fueled tensions with Egypt over the controversial dam Addis Ababa is building on the Blue Nile. On June …

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For the U.S. and Russia, ‘Stable and Predictable’ Would Be a Good Start

When U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met last month with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Reykjavik, it prompted inevitable comparisons with another high-level encounter in Iceland’s capital: the famous October 1986 summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that set the stage for the thawing of the Cold …

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America Comes and Goes. Trans-Atlantic Tensions Are Forever

“First thing I’m going to have to do, and I’m not joking,” candidate Joe Biden said last September in a campaign interview about America’s European allies. “If elected I’m going to … get on the phone with the heads of state and say America’s back, you can count on us.” …

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The U.K.’s Incoherent China Strategy

Earlier this month, the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, delivered a speech in Parliament setting out measures to ensure that British businesses do not profit from what he called the “industrial scale” forced labor of minority Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region. However, Raab’s remarks made no mention of …

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Orbán’s EU Agenda Follows Populist Script

The image of the inward-looking populist who rejects international cooperation is inaccurate. On the contrary, populists engage quite actively in regional and international organizations, and the leadership of these organizations and their member states do not yet know how to respond to the populist challenge. In a new book, researchers …

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Eritrea blames the US for ‘destablisation’ in Ethiopia’s Tigray

Eritrea’s foreign minister accuses Biden administration of ‘stoking further conflict and destabilisation’ in Ethiopia’s north. Eritrea’s foreign minister has blamed US administrations that supported the Tigray People’s Liberation Movement (TPLF) for the last 20 years for the current conflict in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region, adding that blaming Eritrea for the …

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Islamic State suicide bombing kills two in Libya

The Libyan civil war ended with a cease-fire in October of 2020, and a transitional government is now in power. An Islamic State (IS) suicide bombing left two people dead in Libya on Sunday. The explosion occurred at a checkpoint in the southwest city of Sabha, killing a police officer …

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Hamas chief in Egypt for talks ahead of meeting of Palestinian factions

Egypt has tried in the past to foster cooperation between Palestinian factions that is seen as crucial to any wider efforts to promote peace in the region. Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Cairo on Tuesday for the first in a series of talks this week between Egyptian authorities and …

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Bulgarian official admitted Hezbollah involvement in bus bombing

A Bulgarian prosecutor provided evidence to the court handling Hezbollah’s involvement in the Burgas bus bombing. A Bulgarian prosecutor provided detailed evidence to the Bulgarian court handling Hezbollah’s involvement in the 2012 Burgas bus bombing which killed five Israelis and their Bulgarian-Muslim bus driver, but the court refused to accept …

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Taliban Pledge No Retaliation Against Afghans Who Worked for Foreign Troops

The Taliban have urged Afghans who worked for departing U.S. and NATO militaries in Afghanistan over the years not to “desert” their war-ravaged nation for fear of retribution by the insurgent group. Monday’s Taliban pledge comes as thousands of Afghans employed, mostly as interpreters, by the United States and allied …

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