January, 2021

• 30 January

  Turkey, Greece hold first round of exploratory talks since 2016

  Greece and Turkey have started a new round of exploratory talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul to settle a long-running dispute over energy exploration and territorial rights in the eastern Mediterranean. The dialog was held following a five-year hiatus on Monday, after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu invited Greece …

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• 30 January

  Biden’s ‘Low Bar’ for Improving Ties With Nigeria

  President Joe Biden will need to combine prudence with creativity to forge a more productive relationship with Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and its largest economy. Notwithstanding Nigeria’s relative decline as a power within Africa, U.S.-Nigeria ties remain extensive by regional and continental standards. But they’ve been stymied in recent …

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• 30 January

  Biden Must Make Hard Choices Quickly on Afghanistan

  Afghanistan may not rank in the top tier of U.S. President Joe Biden’s policy priorities, given the host of pressing crises in the United States. But Afghanistan’s fate hinges in large part on how the Biden team decides to approach the country’s conflict and its tenuous, still-nascent peace process. Biden …

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• 30 January

  Iraqi Kurdish officials call Iran’s Soleimani film ‘insult’ to Peshmerga

  Peshmerga that fought on the front lines against the Islamic State see the film as an “insult and belittling the role of Peshmergas.”

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• 30 January

  Explosions over Riyadh as CENTCOM commander visits region

  No group has yet claimed credit for the blasts, which came three days after the Saudi military said it shot down an enemy projectile over Riyadh. Two explosions were heard over Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh on Tuesday afternoon, Reuters reported. Video circulated on social media showing puffs of smoke suspended …

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• 30 January

  Turkey enraged by Clintons’ TV show exalting Syrian Kurdish women fighters

  Turkey’s state-run press agency is churning out angry coverage of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea producing a TV series about the Syrian Kurdish women fighters who were key in defeating the Islamic State.

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• 30 January

  PA vows to sue US ambassador over support to Israeli settlements

  The Palestinian Authority has threatened to sue former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman after he recognized the City of David settlement project in Jerusalem.

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• 30 January

  How Egypt is supporting Sudan in border conflict

  As tensions escalate between Sudan and Ethiopia on the border, a Sudanese delegation headed to Cairo raising questions about Egypt’s role in the conflict. A delegation from the Sudanese Sovereignty Council, headed by Lt. Gen. Shamseldin al-Kabashi and Director of the General Intelligence Service Jamal Abdul Majeed, visited Cairo Jan. …

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• 30 January

  Netanyahu bristles in warning as Biden seeks reentry to Iran deal

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hinting to the new US administration that reentering the original nuclear deal with Iran could spell Israeli military action.

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• 30 January

  Indirect Deaths: The Massive and Unseen Costs of America’s Post-9/11 Wars

  “I got out of the Marines and within a few years, 15 of my buddies had killed themselves,” one veteran rifleman who served two tours in both Afghanistan and Iraq between 2003 and 2011 said to me recently. “One minute they belonged and the next, they were out, and they …

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