Hosting the conversation

Middle East Experience

Latest News

Trump-backed peace push leaves Azerbaijan and Armenia one step from final accord, top diplomat says

By Andrew Osborn(Reuters) -A peace push backed by U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Azerbaijan and Armenia just one step from a final peace deal and is a paradigm shift in the strategically important South Caucasus region, a top Azerbaijani diplomat said on Saturday.Trump welcomed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in the White House on Friday and witnessed their signing of a joint declaration aimed at drawing a line under their decades-long on-off conflict.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Trump-backed peace push leaves Azerbaijan and Armenia one step from final accord, top diplomat says

UK arrests 200 backing banned pro-Palestine group

Police in London arrested at least 200 people Saturday for supporting Palestine Action at the latest and largest protest backing the group since the government banned it last month under anti-terror laws.The UK capital's Metropolitan Police said it expected to make further arrests at the demonstration in Parliament Square, as organisers claimed only a "fraction" of the hundreds who turned out had been detained."That claim simply isn't true," the Met said in a statement, noting some of those there were onlookers or not visibly supporting Palestine Action.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: UK arrests 200 backing banned pro-Palestine group

How a CIA hit on al Qaeda ensnared a US citizen in Afghanistan

By Jonathan LandayWASHINGTON (Reuters) -As a crowd looked on, uniformed Taliban surrounded the Toyota Landcruiser in which Mahmood Habibi, a naturalized U.S. citizen, sat. Other Taliban smashed open the door of his Kabul apartment, emerging later with his laptop and papers.Blindfolded in the back seat, Habibi and his driver were driven off by gunmen sporting shoulder patches of the Taliban's feared secret police, the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), according to several witness statements in U.S. government possession seen by Reuters.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: How a CIA hit on al Qaeda ensnared a US citizen in Afghanistan