Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held two phone conversations with his French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault and German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the latest developments in Syria and Egypt.

US Secretary of State John Kerry began talks with Pakistan’s new government on Thursday, likely to be dominated by the fight against Islamist militants as US troops withdraw from Afghanistan.

The United States still plans to hold a major military exercise called Bright Star in Egypt in mid-September, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday, even after the Egyptian military’s toppling of the president