August, 2021

• 13 August

  US Libya envoy visits Cairo to meet Haftar, Egyptian officials

  

  Move comes as part of efforts to ensure holding Libyan elections in December, says US Embassy in Tripoli TRIPOLI, Libya The US ambassador and special envoy to Libya began a two-day visit to Egypt’s capital of Cairo on Tuesday to meet with renegade Libyan General Khalifa Haftar and Egyptian officials, …

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• 13 August

  Israel’s Foreign Minister Starts Historic Visit to Morocco

  

  Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid landed in Morocco Wednesday afternoon, for the highest-level visit by an Israeli official since the two countries normalized relations last year after nearly two decades. The countries have not, however, established full diplomatic ties. Lapid was greeted at the airport in Rabat by Morocco’s Deputy …

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• 13 August

  Afghan President Dismisses Army Chief as 9th Provincial Capital Falls to Taliban

  

  Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reportedly has dismissed Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai from his post, after the ninth provincial capital fell to the Taliban early on Wednesday morning. The Taliban have captured more than a quarter of the country’s provincial capitals in less than a week. …

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• 13 August

  Russia-EU Gas Pipeline Nord Stream 2: An Expected Outcome And Delayed Consequences

  

  After almost two years of frenzied action started by President Donald Trump’s decision to sanction one of Moscow’s most ambitious energy projects, the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline,[1] the United States, under the newly elected President Joseph Biden, terminated all its attempts to derail the construction works and agreed …

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• 13 August

  Hossein Amir-Abdollahian named as Iran’s foreign minister

  New Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi named Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as the nation’s next foreign minister on Wednesday, succeeding Javad Zarif. Mr Amir-Abdollahian served as Iran’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs under conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and moderate Hassan Rouhani. He was appointed deputy foreign minister in 2011 under …

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• 13 August

  Iraqi foreign minister visits Iran to invite Raisi to Baghdad summit

  Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein arrived in Iran on Tuesday to personally invite new President Ebrahim Raisi to a summit in Baghdad aimed at defusing regional tension. Mr Hussein was expected to extend the invitation on behalf of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi at a meeting with Mr Raisi …

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• 12 August

  China: Crisis-Testing US Presidents

  

  Trump’s adoption of a realistic relationship with China successfully slowed any CCP plans for military expansion in the South and East China Seas. What ended any possibility of a warming trend in US-China diplomatic ties was Beijing’s repeated lies that there was no human-to-human transmissibility of its Wuhan virus. Soon, …

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• 12 August

  How do Afghanistan forces and Taliban compare?

  

  Analysts and officials say a Taliban victory is far from guaranteed, pointing to the resources of Afghan defence forces, who remain in control. The Taliban now controls about half of Afghanistan’s districts, after lightning pace offensives in the months since foreign troops began their final withdrawal from the country. But …

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• 12 August

  Taliban seizes eighth Afghan provincial capital in five days

  

  Taliban overruns cities of Farah and Pul-e-Khumri in fresh setbacks for Afghanistan’s government. The Taliban has captured two more cities in Afghanistan, taking the number of provincial capitals the group has seized since Friday to eight. Farah city of the eponymous southwestern province and Pul-e-Khumri of the northern province of …

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• 11 August

  United States Names Five African Jihadis as Specially Designated Global Terrorists

  

  U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday announced that the Department of State added to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) five terrorist leaders operating in Africa. The five are Bonomade Machude Omar, senior commander for Islamic State affiliate in Mozambique; Sidanag Hitta and Salem ould Breihmatt, …

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