The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have addressed the OSCE Permanent Council on Nagorno Karabakh conflict, US Co-Chair James Warlick tweeted.
On Wednesday the Co-Chairs held consultations with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier connected with the forthcoming German presidency of the OSCE.
Photo by The Dailly Star
At least 25 people have died and as many as 40 have been wounded in a suspected twin suicide attack in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, the Associated Press reports.
The explosion is believed to have taken place in a predominantly Shia neighbourhood Burj al-Barajneh, to the south of the city, a city official – speaking on condition of anonymity – said.
Witnesses said that there were only minutes between the two blasts.
According to Al Jazeera, security forces have urged residents in the area to stay away from the targeted sites.
Coffee shops and stores suffered extensive damage from the two blasts.
The area, located off a main highway leading to Beirut’s airport, is a well-known commercial and residential area in the capital’s southern suburbs.
Much of southern Beirut is a Hezbollah stronghold, which witnessed a string of deadly suicide explosions in 2014.
Azerbaijan asks Interpol to find and arrest Swiss citizen Vartan Sirmakes, the CEO of Franck Muller Group, abc.az reports.
According to the source, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Azerbaijan informs that the national central bureau of Interpol under the Ministry of Internal Affairs has already started these activities.
“Yesterday, the Nasimi district court of Baku chose for Sirmakes a measure of restraint in form of detention in connection with a criminal case initiated against him under three articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan,” the Prosecutor’s Office said.
Sirmakes is charged under Article 281.2 (public calls against the state), 318.2 (illegal crossing of the state border of Azerbaijan) and 192.2.2 (illegal business). The charges were brought on the fact that Sirmakes, without official permission of Azerbaijan, visited Nagorno Karabakh, where, as the Prosecutor’s Office said, he was involved in an illegal business and made open calls against the Azerbaijani state.
Photo by Natalia Garnelis/TASS
Russia is not doing anything that could harm Armenia or Azerbaijan in the issue of settlement in the mostly Armenian populated Azerbaijani enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday, TASS reports.
“We maintain very close contacts on Nagorno Karabakh settlement with our Armenian and Azerbaijani colleagues, and we do nothing that could damage the sides,” she said.
Zakharova replied to a journalist’s request to comment on media reports claiming that during his visit to Yerevan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had allegedly urged a return to some areas to Azerbaijan.
“I can confirm that our position on Nagorno Karabakh remains invariable,” she said. Focusing on how the matter was discussed at talks in Yerevan on November 9, she referred reporters to at the news conference after the talks.
“Minister’s commentaries were rather detailed and were made at an open news conference,” she said.
A joint Russian and Armenian air defense system project was launched long ago and is not connected to the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. Nevertheless, the crisis in the region proves the necessity of such measures, political analyst Sergei Minasyan said.
Russia President Vladimir Putin ordered to sign an agreement on the creation of a joint air defense system of Russia and Armenia. The decree was published Wednesday.
The system will allow for protecting the airspace far to the south of the Russian borders, political analyst Sergei Minasyan said.
“The system will comprise air defenses and Russian combat jets deployed to the Southern Military District. This would allow for monitoring the airspace far from the Armenian borders. The system will also help modernize Armenian air defenses and improve their operational range,” Minasyan told .
The deployment of air defense missile systems, radio-radars and jet fighters to Armenia will allow for protecting the airspace far from the Russian borders, including in the Middle East, he pointed out.
According to him, the initiative was launched long ago.
“It has been in the development for over 10 years. And now it’s just a coincidence with the Syrian conflict. The situation in the so-called Greater Middle East just proves that the measures are effective,” the analyst said.
Minasyan underscored that Moscow and Yerevan laid groundwork for the project back in the 1990s.
“From political and strategic points of view there have been no significant changes. The system still works. Russia and Armenia coordinate their actions in patrolling the airspace. The new joint air defense system would just be more effective,” he said.
Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl / Reuters
The Iranian First Deputy Industrial Minister Mojtaba Khosrowtaj confirmed the $7-8 billion loan from Russia.
“Yes, we have reached a high-level agreement. Now it’s the work of the banks to agree on the technical details of this scheme,” Khosrowtaj told RIA Novosti in an interview.
According to Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak, Iran asked Russia for a loan of $5 billion for infrastructure projects, mostly likely electrical power generation and the development of railways.
The loan is expected to boost trade between the two countries. The target is $10 billion, from the current $1.6 billion.
Novak visited Tehran in October, where he announced that Russia and Iran are considering setting up a bank to finance joint projects.
An Armenian civilian was repatriated today in an operation carried out under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Communication Programs Director of the ICRC Yerevan Office Zara Amatuni confirmed the news to
The woman had crossed the international border into Azerbaijan on 8 November 2015. Today’s handover took place on the road between the Azerbaijani town of Gazakh and the Armenian town of Ijevan, at the international border.
Acting as a neutral intermediary and in accordance with its mandate, the ICRC facilitated this repatriation in conjunction with the Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities. The individual in question had previously confirmed to ICRC staff that she was returning of her own free will. ICRC representatives were also in contact with her family prior to the operation.
On the basis of its mandate under the Geneva Conventions, the ICRC has been working in the region since 19n92 in connectio with the Nagorny Karabakh conflict.
The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs will hold consultations in Germany today, US Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick has tweeted.
The meeting comes ahead of the forthcoming German presidency of the OSCE.
“We look forward today to consultations with Germany, the incoming chairman-in-office of OSCE. Let’s work together for Nagorno Karabakh peace,” Warlick said.
Photo by AFP
Government forces have broken a siege by Islamic State (IS) of an airbase in northern Syria, state media report, the BBC reports.
Army units had made contact with troops defending Kuwairis airbase, east of Aleppo, and eliminated large numbers of militants, the Sana news agency said.
The facility had been under attack by the jihadists for nearly two years.
Syrian government forces were holed up inside the Kuwairis base under siege from Islamic State, while pro-government forces tried to reach them with air support from Russia.
The successful assault on the base comes a week after the Syrian army battled Islamic State to regain control of a road southeast of Aleppo and took back control of the government’s only supply route into the city.
Areas around Aleppo have seen weeks of heavy fighting after Syrian troops, backed by Lebanese and Iranian fighters, launched an offensive to retake surrounding territory from rebels and jihadist fighters.
The Media Center, in cooperation with the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, held a panel discussion on how the geopolitics of the South Caucasus will be affected by the emergence of new Iranian-Russian ties in the energy sector.
Russia’s energy giant Gazprom has been talking to Tehran about potential investments in Iran’s natural gas sector in the event the sanctions on Iran are lifted. Possible deals include a swap where Russia would supply gas to northern Iran via pipelines running through Armenia or Azerbaijan and take a share in liquefied natural gas exported from Iran’s Gulf terminals in return.
Expert on Iran Sevak Sarukhanyan is not optimistic about the perspectives of this cooperation. He says that “when speaking about joint Russian-Iranian energy projects, one should keep in mind there are more difficulties than opportunities.”
“The difficulties first of all come from the economic situation in Russia. The second problem is Iran’s legislature, which seriously restricts foreign investments in the oil and gas sector,” he said.
The expert added there is another important factor that should be taken into account. “Iran uses its oil and gas factors in its negotiations with the EU and is more interested in seeing European companies investing in the country, as it will reinforce Iran’s positions in Europe, accelerate the process of elimination of sanctions and bring high technologies to the country. However, this will not prevent some kind of cooperation beyween Russia and Iran.” Sevak Sarukhanyan added, however, that it’s hard to predict how this will relate to the South Caucasus.”
A new energy axis between Russia and Iran envisages serious changes for the countries of the South Caucasus, at the same time affecting the political relations in the region. Sergey Minasyan, head of the Political Studies Department at the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan considers that with absolutely matching problems and interests in the Middle East, Russia and Iran are actually in a “situational military-political alliance.”
“It’s obvious that the problems and interests of Moscow and Tehran are more than similar. Moreover, a “situational military-political alliance” has been formed in the face of Iran, Iraq, Assad’s administration and Moscow,” he said.
According to the political scientist, “this geopolitical rapprochement between Tehran and Moscow has contributed to two developments: Russia’s decisive role in solving the puzzle around Iran’s nuke program and Russia’s actions in Syria.” However, Sergey Minasyan agrees that speaking of Russian-Iranian economic cooperation, especially in the energy sector, is still untimely.