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Erdogan Announces New Meeting on Sweden's NATO Bid

19 October 2022, Türkiye, Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes part in a parliamentary bloc meeting of his Justice and Development Party. (Turkish Presidency/dpa)
19 October 2022, Türkiye, Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes part in a parliamentary bloc meeting of his Justice and Development Party. (Turkish Presidency/dpa)
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Erdogan Announces New Meeting on Sweden's NATO Bid

19 October 2022, Türkiye, Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes part in a parliamentary bloc meeting of his Justice and Development Party. (Turkish Presidency/dpa)
19 October 2022, Türkiye, Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes part in a parliamentary bloc meeting of his Justice and Development Party. (Turkish Presidency/dpa)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said another meeting on Sweden's NATO membership bid would be held later this month after hosting Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson in Ankara on Tuesday.

Kristersson was hoping to persuade Türkiye to drop its opposition to Sweden joining the US-led military alliance, with Ankara accusing Stockholm and Finland of harboring outlawed Kurdish militants.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the Nordic neighbors abandoned their long-held policy of non-alignment and applied to join NATO, said AFP.

Erdogan -- who is seeking re-election next year -- is in a position of strength, having persuaded Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to stop blockading Ukraine's grain exports.

After meeting Kristersson at the presidential palace in the Turkish capital, Erdogan said a joint meeting would be organized in Stockholm later this month, without specifying the date.

The Turkish leader said he "sincerely wished" for Stockholm to join NATO, but added: "We understand their security concerns, and we want Sweden to respond to ours."

Kristersson described his meeting with Erdogan as "very productive".

"Sweden will live up to all the obligations made to Türkiye in countering the terrorist threat," he said.

The Swedish parliament on Tuesday said it would vote next week on a constitutional amendment that would make it possible to strengthen anti-terror laws, a key demand from Türkiye.

The amendment will make it possible to introduce new laws to "limit freedom of association of groups involved in terrorism", the parliament said in a statement, adding that the vote was scheduled for November 16.

- 'Cautious optimism' -
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Ankara last week to press the case for Sweden and Finland, saying their accession would "send a clear message to Russia".

Stoltenberg stressed the two had agreed on concessions to Türkiye in June, which included addressing its request for "terror suspects" to be deported or extradited.

Writing in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet on Monday, Erdogan's advisor Fahrettin Altun voiced "cautious optimism" that the new right-wing government in Stockholm would take "concrete measures" to meet Ankara's concerns.

Türkiye accuses Sweden in particularly of leniency towards the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its Syrian offshoot, the People's Protection Units (YPG).

Ankara says it provided Sweden and Finland in June with a list of people it wanted extradited.

Since then, Sweden has authorized one extradition for fraud. Both Stockholm and Helsinki say that extradition decisions are made by the courts.

The PKK is blacklisted by Ankara and most of its Western allies. But the YPG has been a key player in the US-led military alliance combatting the Islamic State group in Syria.

While Sweden has in the past voiced support for the YPG and its political wing, Kristersson's government appears to be distancing itself.

- Cashing the NATO enlargement card -
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom told AFP in October he was convinced Sweden could satisfy Türkiye's demands.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto told journalists on Monday he expected joining NATO would "happen in reasonable time".

Some analysts nevertheless believe Türkiye's presidential and parliamentary elections in June 2023 could delay the Nordic bids.

"The Turkish side will ratify their membership when it feels it is the best moment to cash that card," said Ilke Toygur, professor of European geopolitics at the University Carlos III in Madrid.

"I sense that many countries in NATO already assume that enlargement will be next year, maybe even in the second half of next year," she told AFP.

"It is widely assumed that Türkiye is also trying to negotiate for other things. It could be the F16s. It could be about its overall relationship with Russia."

Leading US senators have threatened to block the sale to Ankara of US F16 fighter jets unless Türkiye ends a maritime border dispute with Greece.

Türkiye, which seeks to maintain good relations with Ukraine and Russia, has not joined Western sanctions on Moscow and has acquired a Russian missile defense system while also supplying Kyiv with combat drones.

"It remains to be seen if Erdogan thinks he's got enough signs of goodwill from Sweden and it's therefore in his political and military interest to declare victory, or if he thinks sticking to the current line will serve his re-election campaign," said a European diplomatic source.

There was still a "reasonable chance" Türkiye would ratify the NATO bids before the 2023 elections, the source said.

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World

Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Warns Will Not Give Up Enrichment Despite US War Threat

Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
Traffic moves through a street in Tehran on February 7, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iran will never surrender the right to enrich uranium, even if war "is imposed on us,” its foreign minister said Sunday, defying pressure from Washington.

"Iran has paid a very heavy price for its peaceful nuclear program and for uranium enrichment," Abbas Araghchi told a forum in Tehran.

"Why do we insist so much on enrichment and refuse to give it up even if a war is imposed on us? Because no one has the right to dictate our behavior," he said, two days after he met US envoy Steve Witkoff in Oman.

The foreign minister also declared that his country was not intimidated by the US naval deployment in the Gulf.

"Their military deployment in the region does not scare us," Araghchi said.

World

Washington Post Publisher Will Lewis Stepping Down Days after Big Layoffs

A person walks outside The Washington Post headquarters in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2026. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO
A person walks outside The Washington Post headquarters in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2026. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO
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Washington Post Publisher Will Lewis Stepping Down Days after Big Layoffs

A person walks outside The Washington Post headquarters in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2026. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO
A person walks outside The Washington Post headquarters in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2026. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO

Washington Post publisher Will Lewis said Saturday that he’s stepping down, ending a troubled tenure three days after the newspaper said that it was laying off one-third of its staff.

Lewis announced his departure in a two-paragraph email to the newspaper's staff, saying that after two years of transformation, “now is the right time for me to step aside.” The Post's chief financial officer, Jeff D'Onofrio, was appointed temporary publisher, The Associated Press reported.

Neither Lewis nor the newspaper's billionaire owner Jeff Bezos participated in the meeting with staff members announcing the layoffs on Wednesday. While anticipated, the cutbacks were deeper than expected, resulting in the shutdown of the Post's renowned sports section, the elimination of its photography staff and sharp reductions in personnel responsible for coverage of metropolitan Washington and overseas.

They came on top of widespread talent defections in recent years at the newspaper, which lost tens of thousands of subscribers following Bezos' order late in the 2024 presidential campaign pulling back from a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, and a subsequent reorienting of its opinion section in a more conservative direction.

Martin Baron, the Post’s first editor under Bezos, condemned his former boss this week for attempting to curry favor with President Donald Trump and called what has happened at the newspaper “a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.”

The British-born Lewis was a former top executive at The Wall Street Journal before taking over at The Post in January 2024. His tenure has been rocky from the start, marked by layoffs and a failed reorganization plan that led to the departure of former top editor Sally Buzbee.

His initial choice to take over for Buzbee, Robert Winnett, withdrew from the job after ethical questions were raised about both he and Lewis' actions while working in England. They include paying for information that produced major stories, actions that would be considered unethical in American journalism. The current executive editor, Matt Murray, took over shortly thereafter.

Lewis didn't endear himself to Washington Post journalists with blunt talk about their work, at one point saying in a staff meeting that they needed to make changes because not enough people were reading their work.

This week's layoffs have led to some calls for Bezos to either increase his investment in The Post or sell it to someone who will take a more active role. Lewis, in his note, praised Bezos: “The institution could not have had a better owner,” he said.

“During my tenure, difficult decisions have been taken in order to ensure the sustainable future of The Post so it can for many years ahead publish high-quality nonpartisan news to millions of customers each day,” Lewis said.

The Washington Post Guild, the union representing staff members, called Lewis' exit long overdue.

“His legacy will be the attempted destruction of a great American journalism institution,” the Guild said in a statement. “But it’s not too late to save The Post. Jeff Bezos must immediately rescind these layoffs or sell the paper to someone willing to invest in its future.”

Bezos did not mention Lewis in a statement saying D'Onofrio and his team are positioned to lead The Post into “an exciting and thriving next chapter.”

“The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity,” Bezos said. “Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”

D'Onofrio, who joined the paper last June after jobs at the digital ad management company Raptive, Google, Zagat and Major League Baseball, said in a note to staff that "we are ending a hard week of change with more change.

“This is a challenging time across all media organizations, and The Post is unfortunately no exception,” he wrote. “I've had the privilege of helping chart the course of disrupters and cultural stalwarts alike. All faced economic headwinds in changing industry landscapes, and we rose to meet those moments. I have no doubt we will do just that, together.”

World

US Concerned About Expansion of Terrorism in Sahel, West Africa

Members of the Nigeria Armed Forces interact with residents following an attack in Woro, Kwara State, on February 5, 2026. (Photo by Light Oriye Tamunotonye / AFP)
Members of the Nigeria Armed Forces interact with residents following an attack in Woro, Kwara State, on February 5, 2026. (Photo by Light Oriye Tamunotonye / AFP)
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US Concerned About Expansion of Terrorism in Sahel, West Africa

Members of the Nigeria Armed Forces interact with residents following an attack in Woro, Kwara State, on February 5, 2026. (Photo by Light Oriye Tamunotonye / AFP)
Members of the Nigeria Armed Forces interact with residents following an attack in Woro, Kwara State, on February 5, 2026. (Photo by Light Oriye Tamunotonye / AFP)

The United States is concerned by the “expansion” of al-Qaeda affiliates in the Sahel and West Africa, including Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and ISIS-Sahel’s territorial gains.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz shared the concern in his remarks at this week’s UN Security Council Briefing on Terrorist Threats to International Peace and Security caused by terrorist acts.

Highlighting JNIM and ISIS-Sahel’s territorial gains and use in particular of kidnapping for ransom, Waltz said the threats are increasingly diffuse and complex as they involve foreign fighters converging in multiple conflict zones.

The diplomat cited the latest Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team report, which showed that terror cells continue to adapt and exploit instability across Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Waltz said ISIS’ growing focus on Africa, and the resilience of its cells in Syria and Iraq, and the persistent threat from ISIS-K in Afghanistan, truly reinforces the need for sustained, coordinated counterterrorism efforts.

Washington is particularly concerned by terrorist groups’ exploitation of new technologies, such as commercial satellite communications, artificial intelligence, drones and cryptocurrencies, he said.

“All of these further complicates the threat landscape and it requires our vigilance, vigilance from Member States and particularly where I think there is room for all of us to improve – is our coordination with the private sector as we face this threat,” Waltz added.

The ambassador called for further disruption of terrorist financing networks, saying the recent successes in Somalia and in West Africa demonstrate that following the money and stopping the money to these various groups can have bold decisive effects.

He said the US commends UN Member States whose counterterrorism operations have constrained ISIS and al-Qaeda, especially in Iraq, Syria, and Somalia.

He also urged all states to strengthen cooperation, including intelligence sharing and joint operations, and to support the effective implementation and evolution of the 1267 sanctions regime.

“Member States should collaborate on screening and information sharing to prevent terrorist movement across borders, in support of UN Security Council Resolution 2396,” Waltz noted.

Last November, the United Kingdom, which currently chairs the UN Security Council, expressed similar concern about the proliferation of terrorist groups in the Sahel and West Africa.

The US has sent a small team of troops to Nigeria, the general in charge of the US command for Africa said on Tuesday, the first acknowledgment of US forces on the ground since Washington struck by air on Christmas Day.

General Dagvin RM Anderson, head of the US military's Africa Command AFRICOM, said the US team was sent after both countries agreed that more needed to be done to combat the terrorist threat in West Africa.

“That has led to increased collaboration between our nations to include a small US team that brings some unique capabilities from the United States,” he told journalists during a press briefing in Dakar on Tuesday.