JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said that his government will continue settlement construction in the occupied West Bank. “We will continue to build in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] and there will be no freeze of constructing the settlement. […] Things will happen in order,” Bennett said. Meanwhile, Bennett sai...
ANKARA – The European Union’s foreign policy chief has declared a number of Russian diplomats working in Brussels persona non grata. “Today, I decided to designate persona non grata a number of officials of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the EU for engaging in activities contrary to their diplomatic status,” Josep Bor...
ANKARA – The Latvian Foreign Ministry has said that it will close two Russian consulates and the staff has been asked to leave the country. The ministry said the consulates in Daugavpils and Liepaja will be closed and the diplomatic staff of the consulates general are declared personae non grata. It said the decision was […]
STOCKHOLM – Sweden has expelled three Russian diplomats in protest of Moscow’s alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde summoned Moscow’s ambassador to Sweden and informed him about the decision. Underlining that Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine, Linde said Sweden and the EU have strongly condemned Russ...
WASHINGTON (AA) – Russia could have been deterred from waging a war on Ukraine with US military forces’ presence in the country, a top American general said Tuesday. Testifying alongside Defense Chief Lloyd Austin at a hearing by the House Armed Services Committee, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Russi...
ANKARA (AA) – Improving Turkish-Israeli relations will strengthen regional stability, the Israeli foreign minister said on Tuesday. Yair Lapid’s remarks came during his visit to the Greek capital Athens, where he arrived on Tuesday for a meeting with foreign ministers of Greece, and the Greek Cypriot administration. Referring to the R...
WASHINGTON (AA) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed Tuesday for a key meeting of NATO foreign ministers, saying that recent visual evidence made it clear the mass atrocities in Ukraine were not the “random act of a rogue unit.” “It’s a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities. T...
ANKARA (AA) – Turkiye’s National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar on Tuesday met with his Malian counterpart Sadio Camara in Ankara and condemned the latest terror attacks in Mali. The two officials held a one-on-one meeting along with talks with delegations behind closed doors. According to the Turkish Defense Ministry, Akar and Camar...
WASHINGTON (AA) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed Tuesday to the UN Security Council to urgently adopt sweeping internal reforms after he suggested the body is incapable of achieving its principal objective. Addressing the Council directly, Zelenskyy asked the body that is charged with ensuring international peace and se...
SRINAGAR, Jammu & Kashmir (AA) – In the narrow lanes of Srinagar, capital of Indian-occupied Kashmir, Mohammad Yusuf Muran, a deaf and mute walnut woodcarver, is busy crafting a sculpture of a lion and a stag in his 200-year-old workshop that has housed the finest craftsmen over many generations. Upon entering the workshop, one finds [&hel...
