Biden Names Jeff Zients as New White House Chief of Staff

The new White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, AP file photo
The new White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, AP file photo
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Biden Names Jeff Zients as New White House Chief of Staff

The new White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, AP file photo
The new White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, AP file photo

President Joe Biden on Friday named his former top Covid-19 aide Jeff Zients to White House chief of staff -- one of the most crucial positions in an administration gearing up for a likely re-election campaign.

Zients replaces Ron Klain, who saw Biden through the first two years of his term in the post, arguably the most powerful behind-the-scenes job in any US administration. The swap will take place on February 8, a day after Biden delivers his State of the Union address to Congress.

The departure of Klain, who has worked with Biden throughout his decades-long Washington career -- from senator to vice president, then victor over Donald Trump in 2020 -- will deprive the 80-year-old president of an especially close, trusted aide.

Chiefs of staff do everything from managing access to the president, setting his agenda, communicating with political power brokers and acting as a constant crisis manager and sounding board for ideas.

"During the last 36 years, Ron and I have been through some real battles together. And when you’re in the trenches with somebody for as long as I have been with Ron, you really get to know the person. You see what they’re made of," Biden said in a statement.

Klain is credited with masterminding the intricate, behind-the-scenes negotiations between the White House and lawmakers in Congress that has seen Biden get a string of landmark bills passed, often against expectations in the last two years.

Until November's midterm elections, Democrats held a razor-thin majority in both houses of Congress and Klain was instrumental in preventing the various party factions from splitting at key moments.

On Twitter, Biden described Klain as a "once in a generation talent with fierce intellect and heart."

Zients, who oversaw the vast Covid-19 pandemic response when Biden took office, is considered a skilled technocrat, who does not have the deep political connections of Klain but will aim to make sure that the earlier legislative victories are followed through.

"A big task ahead is now implementing the laws we’ve gotten passed efficiently and fairly," AFP quoted Biden as saying.

"When I ran for office, I promised to make government work for the American people. That’s what Jeff does," Biden said. "I'm confident that Jeff will continue Ron's example of smart, steady leadership."

Biden has not yet declared he is running again but is widely expected to do so, potentially pitting him again against former President Donald Trump in 2024.

Zients will also be taking over just as Republicans flex their muscles in the House of Representatives, where they won their own tiny majority in November. With the hard-right of the party in the ascendant, Biden is due to face a series of aggressive investigations into his policies and the business activities of his son Hunter.



Armenia’s PM Says He Must Return Disputed Areas to Azerbaijan or Face War 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 2, 2024. (Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via Reuters)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 2, 2024. (Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via Reuters)
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Armenia’s PM Says He Must Return Disputed Areas to Azerbaijan or Face War 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 2, 2024. (Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via Reuters)
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) countries in Almaty, Kazakhstan, February 2, 2024. (Sputnik/Dmitry Astakhov/Pool via Reuters)

Armenia could face a war with Azerbaijan if it does not compromise with Baku and return four Azerbaijani villages it has held since the early 1990s, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a video published on Tuesday.

Pashinyan was speaking during a meeting on Monday with residents of border areas in northern Armenia's Tavush region, close to a string of deserted Azerbaijani villages that Yerevan has controlled since the early 1990s.

The four villages, which have been uninhabited for over 30 years, are of strategic value to Armenia as they straddle the main road between Yerevan and the Georgian border.

Azerbaijan has said the return of its lands, which also include several tiny enclaves entirely surrounded by Armenian territory, is a necessary precondition for a peace deal to end three decades of conflict over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Baku's forces retook last September.

Russia's TASS state news agency quoted Pashinyan as telling residents in the video clip that was circulated by his government that failure to compromise over the disputed villages could lead to war with Azerbaijan "by the end of the week".

"I know how such a war would end," he added.

Yerevan suffered a major defeat last September when Baku's forces retook Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning offensive, prompting almost all of that region's estimated 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.

Though Karabakh is recognized internationally as Azerbaijani territory, the region's ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence from Baku since the war of the early 1990s.

Peace treaty

Baku and Yerevan have said they now want to sign a formal peace treaty, but talks have become bogged down in issues including demarcation of their 1,000 km (620 mile) shared border, which remains closed and heavily militarized.

Pashinyan has signaled in recent weeks that he is willing to return Azerbaijani land controlled by Armenia, and suggested rerouting Armenia's road network to avoid Azerbaijani territory.

Azerbaijan also continues to control areas internationally recognized as part of Armenia.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday his country was "closer than ever" to a peace with Armenia, in remarks made after holding talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Baku.

Stoltenberg held talks on Tuesday with Pashinyan in Armenia, which is nominally a Russian ally though its relations with Moscow have deteriorated in recent months over what Yerevan says is Russia's failure to protect it from Azerbaijan.

As a result, Armenia has pivoted its foreign policy towards the West, to Moscow's chagrin, with senior officials suggesting it might one day apply for European Union membership.

In a statement posted on Tuesday on the Telegram messaging app, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested Yerevan's deepening ties with the West were the reason for Armenia having to make concessions to Azerbaijan.


North Korea Says Kim Jong Un Supervised Tests of Rocket Launchers Targeting Seoul 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks on as he guides a training of the fire division, in North Korea, March 18, 2024, in this picture released on March 19, 2024, by the Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks on as he guides a training of the fire division, in North Korea, March 18, 2024, in this picture released on March 19, 2024, by the Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)
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North Korea Says Kim Jong Un Supervised Tests of Rocket Launchers Targeting Seoul 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks on as he guides a training of the fire division, in North Korea, March 18, 2024, in this picture released on March 19, 2024, by the Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks on as he guides a training of the fire division, in North Korea, March 18, 2024, in this picture released on March 19, 2024, by the Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA via Reuters)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a live-fire drill of nuclear-capable “super-large” multiple rocket launchers designed to target South Korea's capital as he vowed to boost his war deterrent in the face of deepening confrontations with rivals, state media said Tuesday.

The report came a day after South Korea and Japan said they detected North Korea firing multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward waters off its eastern coast, adding to a streak of weapons displays that have raised regional tensions.

Experts say North Korea’s large-sized artillery rockets blur the boundaries between artillery systems and ballistic missiles because they can create their own thrust and are guided during delivery. The North has described some of these systems, including the 600mm multiple rocket launchers that were tested Monday, as capable of delivering tactical nuclear warheads.

Photos published by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency showed at least six rockets being fired simultaneously from launch vehicles and flames and smoke blanketing what appeared to be a small island target.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said later Tuesday that it assesses North Korea conducted more launches than what was shown on the photos. Lt. Col. Lee Chang-hyun, a deputy JCS spokesperson, said that South Korea categorizes the North Korean weapons system tested Monday as a ballistic missile in view of its characteristics and capacities.

KCNA also said North Korean troops in a separate test simulated exploding an artillery shell at a preset altitude. The report didn't specify whether that test was to rehearse how a nuclear weapon would be detonated over an enemy target.

Kim called the 600mm multiple rocket launchers key parts of his arsenal of weapons that are supposedly capable of destroying Seoul if another war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula.

“(Kim) said that it is necessary to further impress upon the enemies that if an armed conflict and a war break out, they can never avoid disastrous consequences,” the KCNA said. He called for his army to “more thoroughly fulfill their missions to block and suppress the possibility of war with the constant perfect preparedness to collapse the capital of the enemy and the structure of its military forces.”

Lee, the South Korean deputy spokesperson, said South Korea and the United States have been bolstering their response capabilities against North Korea's increasing nuclear threats.

North Korea’s launches came days after the end of the latest South Korean-US combined military drills that the North portrays as an invasion rehearsal. It was unclear whether the North timed the launches with a visit to Seoul by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who on Monday attended a democracy summit and held talks with South Korean officials over the North Korean threat.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen since 2022, after Kim used Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate his testing of missiles and other weapons. The United States and South Korea have responded by expanding their combined training and trilateral drills involving Japan and updating their deterrence strategies built around strategic US assets.

There are concerns that North Korea could further dial up pressure in an election year in the United States and South Korea.

In a fiery speech to Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament in January, Kim declared that he was abandoning North Korea’s long-standing goal of reconciliation with the South and ordered the rewriting of the North’s constitution to cement its war-divided rival as its most hostile adversary. He said the new charter must specify North Korea would annex and subjugate the South if another war broke out.


Iranians Tighten Belts for Nowruz Festivities

People shop at a market in Tehran on March 12, 2024, as they prepare for Nowruz. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People shop at a market in Tehran on March 12, 2024, as they prepare for Nowruz. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iranians Tighten Belts for Nowruz Festivities

People shop at a market in Tehran on March 12, 2024, as they prepare for Nowruz. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People shop at a market in Tehran on March 12, 2024, as they prepare for Nowruz. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Millions of Iranians will travel to be with their families for Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on Wednesday but economic troubles in the sanctions-hit country are weighing on the festivities.

Iranians will celebrate the start of the year 1403 at exactly 26 seconds past 6:36am (0406 GMT) on March 20, matching the astronomical time of the spring equinox.

Globally, some 300 million people will wish each other "Happy New Year" ("Nowruz mobarak") including in Iran, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and among Kurds in Türkiye, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.

"It's the most important holiday of the year, the one where we forget our problems to get together with our loved ones and dream of a better year," said Marjan, a young woman from Tehran who, like the other people AFP spoke to, declined to give her full name.

Celebrated for 3,000 years, Nowruz marks a two-week break when Iranians travel within the country or, for the more fortunate, abroad. Yet many have plans for diminished feasts this year.

"Food products are far too expensive because of inflation," Afshar, a 44-year-old accountant, told AFP at the Tajrish bazaar in northern Tehran.

Annual inflation officially stands at 44 percent, according to local media, after hitting 46 percent last year.

"I bought meat at 700,000 toman (around $12) per kilo, but I only earn 9.8 million ($160) per month after a 30-year career," said a 68-year-old resident of Tehran who did not wish to be named.

In a bid to simplify transactions, Iranians have long referred to their currency as the toman and chopped off a zero.

"The situation is deplorable," said Ghassemi, a 28-year-old real estate agent, calling on the government "to mobilize to improve the situation and better manage the country".

Last Nowruz, Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei acknowledged that Iranians felt "bitterness" due to "high prices, particularly of food and basic necessities".

He then tasked the government with measures to implement "inflation control".

Authorities in Iran have blamed Western economic sanctions for the surge in prices.

The sanctions were reimposed by the United States in 2018 after Washington unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 agreement that eased sanctions in return for curbs on Tehran's nuclear program.

Since then, Iran has suffered from the continued devaluations of its currency and a surge in prices.

Despite the headwinds, Iran recorded stronger growth than expected in 2023.

The International Monetary Fund estimated that growth reached 5.4 percent last year and increased its 2024 forecast from 2.5 percent to 3.7 percent.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi recently denounced "the enemy's strategy" which he said aimed "to create despair within society".

He was speaking two weeks after the March 1 legislative elections, which had a turnout of just 41 percent, the lowest since the 1979 Revolution.

"Dissatisfaction" is high with the "economic, employment, poverty or inequality" situation, Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the late Ruhollah Khomeini who founded the Islamic republic, told reformist newspaper Etemad on Saturday.

Many experts in Iran have attributed the low voter turnout to popular dissatisfaction, in particular over economic issues.


Daughter of North Korea’s Kim Might Be Heir Apparent, Says Seoul

This picture taken on March 15, 2024 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 16 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and his daughter Ju Ae (2nd R) visiting the Gangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on March 15, 2024 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 16 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and his daughter Ju Ae (2nd R) visiting the Gangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
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Daughter of North Korea’s Kim Might Be Heir Apparent, Says Seoul

This picture taken on March 15, 2024 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 16 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and his daughter Ju Ae (2nd R) visiting the Gangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on March 15, 2024 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 16 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L) and his daughter Ju Ae (2nd R) visiting the Gangdong Comprehensive Greenhouse in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

Seoul's Unification Ministry on Monday added its voice to growing speculation around Kim Jong Un's succession plans, saying they have not "ruled out" that his daughter could be next in line to lead North Korea.

Pyongyang state media on Saturday referred to Kim's teenage daughter as a "great person of guidance" -- "hyangdo" in Korean -- a term typically reserved exclusively for top leaders and their successors.

Analysts said it was the first time Kim's daughter -- never named by Pyongyang, but identified as Ju Ae by South Korean intelligence -- had been described as such by the North.

It has redoubled speculation that the teen, who often appears next to her father at key public events, could have been chosen as the next leader of the nuclear-armed North, for a third hereditary succession.

"Usually the term 'hyando' is only used to refer to the highest-ranking official," Koo Byoung-sam, a spokesman for Seoul's Unification Ministry, said at a briefing Monday.

"We are not ruling out the possibility of Ju Ae's succession", he said, adding that Seoul was "monitoring the situation and remaining open to possibilities."

However, he warned that if Ju Ae were to take her father's place as the fourth leader of the reclusive state, "North Korean people will bear the brunt of the fallout", he said.

Ju Ae was first introduced to the world by state media in 2022, when she accompanied her father to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Since then, the North's official outlets have referred to her in various ways, including the "morning star of Korea" and "beloved child".

She has been seen at many of her father's official engagements, including military drills, a visit to a weapons factory, and a stop at a new chicken farm.

In an image released by Pyongyang on Saturday, Ju Ae was seen using binoculars to observe recent paratroop drills, standing beside her father and senior military officials.

Before 2022, the only confirmation of her existence had come from former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who made a visit to the North in 2013 and claimed he'd met a baby daughter of Kim's called Ju Ae.

Seoul had initially indicated that Kim and his wife Ri had their first child, a boy, in 2010, and that Ju Ae was their second child.

But last year, Seoul's unification minister said that the government was "unable to confirm for sure" the existence of Kim's son.

Kim Jong Un inherited the regime after his father's death in late 2011 and has overseen four nuclear tests under his watch, with the latest one conducted in 2017.


Kremlin Says Only Way to Protect Russia Is to Create a Buffer Zone with Ukraine 

This handout photograph published on the official Telegram account of the Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, on March 17, 2024, shows a fragment of a rocket following a missile strike in Belgorod. (Photo by Handout / Telegram / @vvgladkov / AFP)
This handout photograph published on the official Telegram account of the Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, on March 17, 2024, shows a fragment of a rocket following a missile strike in Belgorod. (Photo by Handout / Telegram / @vvgladkov / AFP)
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Kremlin Says Only Way to Protect Russia Is to Create a Buffer Zone with Ukraine 

This handout photograph published on the official Telegram account of the Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, on March 17, 2024, shows a fragment of a rocket following a missile strike in Belgorod. (Photo by Handout / Telegram / @vvgladkov / AFP)
This handout photograph published on the official Telegram account of the Belgorod region governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, on March 17, 2024, shows a fragment of a rocket following a missile strike in Belgorod. (Photo by Handout / Telegram / @vvgladkov / AFP)

The Kremlin said on Monday that the only way to protect Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks was to create a buffer zone that would put Russian regions beyond the range of Ukrainian fire.

The Kremlin was commenting after President Vladimir Putin raised the possibility of setting up such a zone in a speech after winning re-election on Sunday.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Against the backdrop of (Ukrainian) drone attacks and the shelling of our territory: public facilities, residential buildings, measures must be taken to secure these territories.

"They can only be secured by creating some kind of buffer zone so that any means that the enemy uses to strike us are out of range."

After winning re-election, Putin said he did not rule out setting up such a buffer zone.

"I do not exclude that, bearing in mind the tragic events taking place today, that we will be forced at some point, when we deem it appropriate, to create a certain 'sanitary zone' in the territories today under the Kyiv regime," Putin said.

Putin declined to give any further details, but said such a zone might have to be big enough to stop foreign-made weapons striking Russian territory.

He made the remark after being asked whether he thought it necessary for Russia to take Ukraine's Kharkiv region, which borders Belgorod, a Russian province that has come under regular attack from Kyiv's forces since 2022.

Russian forces initially tried to seize Kharkiv region in February 2022, but were routed from most of the area in a Ukrainian counteroffensive in September that year.

Russian in September 2022 said it had annexed the four Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, even though it did not fully control any of them.

The Ukrainian leadership has said that Russia's annexation is illegal and that it will not rest until every last Russian soldier is expelled from Ukrainian soil.


Mahsa Amini's Death in Iran Custody was 'Unlawful', UN Mission Says

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran’s "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran’s "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
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Mahsa Amini's Death in Iran Custody was 'Unlawful', UN Mission Says

A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran’s "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
A police motorcycle burns during a protest over the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died after being arrested by Iran’s "morality police", in Tehran, Iran September 19, 2022. WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

A fact-finding mission mandated by the United Nations said on Monday the death of Mahsa Amini in custody of Iran's morality police was "unlawful" and caused by violence and that women in the country remain subjected to wide-ranging discrimination.
The death of 22-year-old Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman, in September 2022 while in custody for allegedly violating the Islamic dress code unleashed months of mass protests across Iran. Her death marked the biggest challenge to Iran's clerical leaders in decades, Reuters said.
"Our investigation established that her death was unlawful and caused by physical violence in the custody of state authorities," Sara Hossain, chairperson of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
She said the protests that followed were marked by "egregious human rights violations", including extra-judicial executions, arbitrary arrests, torture and ill-treatment, as well as rape and sexual violence.
"These acts were conducted in the context of a widespread and systematic attack against women and girls, and other persons expressing support for human rights," Hossain said.
"Some of these serious violations of human rights thus rose to the level of crimes against humanity."
In response, Kazem Gharib Abadi, secretary general of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, accused the fact-finding mission of a "glaring lack of independence and impartiality".
Hossain said that since the protests, women and girls in Iran were confronted daily by discrimination "affecting virtually all aspects of their private and public lives".
"It is hard to fathom that in the 21st century, women's access to the most basic service and opportunities, such as schools, universities, hospitals, and courts, or to opportunities for employment in government or other sectors, should be subjected to a wholly arbitrary requirement of wearing the mandatory hijab," she said.


Azeri President Says Peace with Armenia Is Closer Than Ever 

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg deliver press statements following their talks in Baku on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Handout / Azerbaijani presidency / AFP)
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg deliver press statements following their talks in Baku on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Handout / Azerbaijani presidency / AFP)
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Azeri President Says Peace with Armenia Is Closer Than Ever 

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg deliver press statements following their talks in Baku on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Handout / Azerbaijani presidency / AFP)
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg deliver press statements following their talks in Baku on March 17, 2024. (Photo by Handout / Azerbaijani presidency / AFP)

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said on Sunday his country is "closer than ever" to a peace with Armenia, half a year after Azerbaijan recaptured its Karabakh region from its ethnic Armenian majority, prompting a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians.

"Today, we are in an active phase of peace talks with Armenia," Aliyev said in remarks after meeting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Baku, according to a transcript published on the Azeri leader's website.

"We are now closer to peace than ever before."

Stoltenberg said he welcomed the move towards peace between the two nations.

"I appreciate what you say about that you are closer to a peace agreement than ever before," Stoltenberg said, according to a transcript published on NATO's website.

"And I can just encourage you to seize this opportunity to reach a lasting peace agreement with Armenia."

In December, the South Caucasus neighbors issued a joint statement saying they want to reach a peace deal and have since held numerous talks, including two days of negotiations in Berlin in February.

The press office of Armenian's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not immediately respond to Reuters' request to comment on Aliyev's statement.

Armenia and Azerbaijan first went to war over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1988. After decades of enmity, Azerbaijan in September recaptured Karabakh, controlled by its ethnic Armenian majority since the 1990s despite being internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan.

The offensive prompted most of the region's 120,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to neighboring Armenia.

Armenia described the offensive as ethnic cleansing. Azerbaijan denied that and said those who fled could have stayed on and been integrated into Azerbaijan.

Key elements in securing a treaty are demarcation of borders and the establishment of regional transport corridors through each others' territory.

Armenia has also raised the issue of determining control of ethnic enclaves on both sides of the border.


China Congratulates Putin on Election Win, Says Ties Will Strengthen 

Russian President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin meets with the media at his campaign headquarters in Moscow on March 18, 2024. (AFP)
Russian President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin meets with the media at his campaign headquarters in Moscow on March 18, 2024. (AFP)
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China Congratulates Putin on Election Win, Says Ties Will Strengthen 

Russian President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin meets with the media at his campaign headquarters in Moscow on March 18, 2024. (AFP)
Russian President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin meets with the media at his campaign headquarters in Moscow on March 18, 2024. (AFP)

China congratulated Vladimir Putin on Monday on winning Russia's presidential election and said the strategic relationship between the two countries will continue to strengthen.

Putin won a record post-Soviet landslide in Russia's election on Sunday, cementing his already tight grip on power in a victory he said showed Moscow had been right to stand up to the West and send its troops into Ukraine.

"We firmly believe that under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Putin, China-Russia relations will continue to move forward," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters when asked about the vote.

"China and Russia are each other's largest neighbors and comprehensive strategic partners in the new era."

China has strengthened its ties with Russia over the past few years, even as Western criticism of the war in Ukraine intensified.

The two countries declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when Putin visited Beijing just days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

It has been reported that China and Russia are preparing "several meetings" between Xi and Putin this year.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia, and Lin said the two heads of state would continue to maintain close exchanges.


Taliban Admits Need for International Community after UNAMA Mandate Extended

Afghan workers cover themselves with the plastic sheets during the rainfall as they sit on their hand carts along a road in Herat on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)
Afghan workers cover themselves with the plastic sheets during the rainfall as they sit on their hand carts along a road in Herat on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)
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Taliban Admits Need for International Community after UNAMA Mandate Extended

Afghan workers cover themselves with the plastic sheets during the rainfall as they sit on their hand carts along a road in Herat on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)
Afghan workers cover themselves with the plastic sheets during the rainfall as they sit on their hand carts along a road in Herat on March 12, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)

The Taliban have welcomed the one-year extension of the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission (UNAMA) in Afghanistan, hoping the move will revive relations with the international community.

The Taliban position came on Saturday despite criticism from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his call for the movement to lift all restrictions on girls' access to education immediately.

On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously extended the mandate of UNAMA until March 17, 2025, highlighting the UN’s crucial role in promoting peace, stability and inclusive governance in Afghanistan.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban, said Afghanistan needs to foster diplomatic relations with international organizations, especially the UN, and the international community, adding that UNAMA can contribute in this regard.

However, he condemned “unfair pressures” on Afghanistan and reiterated the demand that frozen Afghan assets be released.

The UN and the Taliban authorities have still not agreed on the appointment of a UN special envoy to Afghanistan. The Security Council had adopted a resolution last December calling for the appointment of an envoy for the country to coordinate engagement between Kabul and the international community.

Guterres’ Report

In a report to the Security Council, Guterres said that not withstanding the complex challenges, there remains a potential future in which Afghanistan is able to achieve sustained economic growth by promoting trade and transit with the neighboring countries, thus reducing its dependence on foreign aid, as well as the end state described in Security Council Resolution 2721.

He said Afghanistan could return as a country at peace with itself and its neighbors, fully integrated into the international community and meeting its international obligations.

The UN chief then referred to the independent assessment of the Special Coordinator, Feridun Sinirlioğlu, who took comprehensive stock of the current situation and offers a way forward that will require commitment and compromises from all stakeholders.

Guterres praised the “overall consensus that the international community was united in its continued engagement on Afghanistan, and in a more coherent, coordinated and structured manner.”

He said the de facto authorities are making efforts to present their policy directions through the drafting of a “domestic and foreign policy approach” led by de facto Deputy Prime Minister, Abdul Kabir, who has conducted consultations with de facto officials as well as with ulema and elders.

Also, Guterres said: “Despite dwindling financial resources and competing priorities, the need for assistance funding to support the people of Afghanistan has further increased due to the earthquakes, large-scale returns of Afghans from Pakistan, and persistent drought.”

He added that the UN continues to deliver vital humanitarian assistance in a principled manner to the country’s most vulnerable communities.

“I implore donors to urgently renew their support for the 23.7 million people in need of life-saving responses,” he said. “I also reiterate my appeal to the de facto authorities to rescind their restrictive measures imposed on Afghan female aid workers and Afghan female staff of the United Nations in order to facilitate the reach and effectiveness of humanitarian operations.”

The UN chief then tackled the issue of drugs in Afghanistan. “The drug ban by the de facto authorities resulted in a large reduction in opium cultivation but also led to a vast loss of income for farmers, which, compounded by the absence of alternative income sources, has the potential to incentivize some farmers to revert to p oppy cultivation,” he said.

Girls’ Education

In his report, Guterres said the accessibility and quality of education for girls in Afghanistan remain deeply concerning.

“As the ban on secondary schooling for girls remains, the start of the new school year in March will be another day of grief for Afghan girls and for the world,” he noted.

Therefore, the UN chief reiterated his call for the immediate reversal of the ban.

He said the continued restrictions of the de facto authorities against women and girls, including the arrest and detention of women and girls for not observing hijab, are unacceptable.

“Such actions are in direct violation of their fundamental human rights and carry enormous stigma for women and girls in Afghan culture, creating a chilling effect among the wider female population who are now afraid to move in public,” Guterres added.


Pakistani Airstrikes Target Suspected Pakistani Taliban Hideouts in Afghanistan, Killing 8 People

FILE PHOTO: Taliban forces patrol near the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a day after US troops withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Taliban forces patrol near the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a day after US troops withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
TT

Pakistani Airstrikes Target Suspected Pakistani Taliban Hideouts in Afghanistan, Killing 8 People

FILE PHOTO: Taliban forces patrol near the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a day after US troops withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Taliban forces patrol near the entrance gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, a day after US troops withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 31, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Pakistani airstrikes targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside neighboring Afghanistan early on Monday, killing at least eight people, two days after insurgents killed seven soldiers in a suicide bombing and coordinated attacks in a northwestern region, officials said.
The Afghan Taliban government denounced the strikes, which are likely to further increase tensions between Islamabad and Kabul, The Associated Press said.
According to a Pakistani security official and an intelligence official, the airstrikes were carried out in Khost and Paktika provinces bordering Pakistan. The officials provided no further details. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
There was no immediate comment by Pakistan’s military. The Pakistani Taliban — a separate militant group but allied with the Afghan Taliban — also confirmed the strikes, saying the attacks killed several women and children.
It was not immediately clear how deep inside Afghanistan the Pakistani jets flew. The airstrikes were the first since 2022, when Pakistan targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan. However, Islamabad never officially confirmed those strikes.
Separately, in January, Pakistani strikes — in a tit-for-tat exchanges with Tehran — hit Pakistani militants inside Iran.
Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that Pakistan's airstrikes on Monday killed three women and three children in the district of Barmal in Paktika province while two other women were killed in a strike in Khost province.
“Such attacks are a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and there will be bad consequences that this country will not be able to control,” Mujahid said.
On Saturday, seven soldiers were killed when suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden truck into a military post in the town of Mir Ali, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. Troops responded and killed all six attackers in a shootout, the military said.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari attended the funerals of the soldiers and vowed to retaliate for their killings, saying “the blood of our martyred soldiers will not go in vain."
Saturday's attack on the military post was claimed by a newly formed militant group, Jaish-e-Fursan-e-Muhammad. However, Pakistani security officials believed the group is mainly made up of members of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, which often targets Pakistani soldiers and police.
Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad based security expert, said Monday's strikes were in retaliation for a series of TTP attacks, especially the one on Saturday in Mir Ali where an army lieutenant colonel and a captain were among those killed.
Ali said the Pakistani strikes came within 24 hours of Zardari's promise of strong retaliation.
“It also indicates that Pakistan’s patience for the Afghan interim government’s continued hospitality for terrorists conducting frequent attacks on Pakistan from inside Afghanistan has finally run out,” he said.
The Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 as the US and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout after 20 years of war. The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan emboldened the TTP, whose top leaders and fighters are hiding in Afghanistan.
Though the Taliban government in Afghanistan often says it will not allow TTP or any other militant group to attack Pakistan or any other country from its soil, the Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks inside Pakistan in recent years, straining relations between Kabul and Islamabad.