Rivalry between the national institutions in Tunisia threatens the basis of this rare but fragile democratic state in North Africa. Some parties have called for street protests in support of one side or the other.

Despite the deployment of the G5 force with the backing of France, the Sahel region continues to suffer from regular jihadist attacks. Although France and its allies participated in the G5 summit last week, they appeared to be pursuing diverging courses of action for combating threats from insurgents. 

Last year, 72 terrorism-related crimes were foiled in Russia, 25% more than in 2019, President Putin told the FSB.  Experts stress that extremist activity remains one of major challenges for the post-Soviet states. Bur Russians seem unclear who is friend and who is foe in their war on terror.

Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan appeared to be well entrenched on Thursday despite the fact that the command of the armed forces called on him and his government to resign. Opposition attempts to rally round the call and force the prime minister out failed when Pashinyan called his own supporters out on the streets. Radio Liberty reporting from Yerevan estimated the pro-Pashinyan crowd to have been around 20,000.

Water scarcity is one of the main environmental issues in the Middle East. About ten countries in the region are water-stressed countries.

The EU and the six GCC countries are looking for ways to develop their relations amid a changing international context. Human rights remain an issue. A ten year moratorium on capital punishment can offer a good basis for renewed EU-GCC relations argue the commonspace.eu editorial team in this commentary.