EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, both on trips to the Mideast, warned on Saturday against the Israel-Hamas war escalating into a regional conflict as hostilities increased following the killing this week of a top Hamas official. “It is absolutely imperative to ensure Lebanon is not drawn into … Read more
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is confident Sweden will join the military alliance by July at the latest, he told German news agency DPA this week. The next NATO summit will be held in Washington from July 9-11 and the Nordic country will be a fully-fledged member by then, he said. Sweden and Finland abandoned decades … Read more
The Turkish Super Cup football final to be played in Saudi Arabia on Friday was canceled after a dispute with Saudi authorities over the players’ shirts, according to media reports. The match between Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe was scheduled for Friday evening in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, but it had to be postponed over what the clubs described as “some … Read more
Anchal Vohra is an international affairs commentator and was based in Beirut until recently. The India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) was launched on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi amid much fanfare. A key pillar of United States President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific and Middle East strategies, the American leader hailed the project as … Read more
The foreign affairs committee of the Turkish parliament on Tuesday gave its approval for Sweden to join NATO, reported Turkey’s Anadolu news agency. This brings Sweden a step closer to joining the Western military alliance. It also comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delayed action on Sweden’s bid for a year, arguing the country … Read more
The Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee will once again take up the issue of Sweden’s NATO accession Tuesday, according to a parliamentary statement cited in media reports. Turkey is one of two NATO countries, along with Hungary, that has yet to approve Sweden’s bid to join the military alliance following Russia’s full-scale assault on Ukraine. … Read more
