Global

The Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership, held in the Iraqi capital on Saturday (28 August) brought many regional countries together including those who are usually at odds with each other. The conference was co-hosted by Iraq and France and was the first large gathering of Arab leaders in Baghdad since 2012. 

Both Georgia and Azerbaijan have been providing essential transit support for the evacuation from Kabul airport. 120 Azerbaijani soldiers returned back from Afghanistan on Friday (27 August) having been part of the defence of Kabul airport until the end. A larger Georgian contingent returned from the north of the country recently.

With the Iranian nuclear file expected to regain momentum after the summer break, Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, is keen on making a case against reaching an agreement as he visits the United States. Bennett meets US president Joe Biden today in Washington. 

Beijing can turn the situation in Afghanistan to its own advantage, argues Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed. Afghanistan has significant minerals, including rare earth metals, which China will be glad to import. Beijing  could also include Afghanistan in the “Belt and Road initiative” and use it as another land route towards Iran and the Central Asian republics via Pakistan, and through Iran via Turkey or via Armenia-Georgia-Black Sea route to Europe.

A state cannot be built from outside, with a foreign army standing on top of it to supervise the process, argues Dennis Sammut in this commentary. As the EU expands its global ambitions, it must be aware of the risks of "mission creep" and make sure the mistakes in Afghanistan are not repeated.

Several challenges sour the path of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the JCPOA countries. The last round of talks in Vienna concluded on 20 June with all draft deals rejected. Chief US negotiator Robert Maley said that "there is a real risk that they [Iran] are making unrealistic demands about what they can achieve in these talks." 

Tahani Alqahtani and Yasmeen Al-Dabbagh are two Saudi Olympic athletes paving a path for Saudi women's participating in the Olympics. Their participation at the Tokyo Olympics Games comes in light of the great strides the Kingdom is making for women in various fields. 

The European Union in a statement issued on Monday has accused China of being responsible for a massive cyber attack earlier this year. The attack targeted Microsoft Exchange servers, affecting over a quarter of a million servers around the world. The statement said the malicious cyber activities "significantly affected our economy, security, democracy and society at large. The EU and its member states assess these malicious cyber activities to have been undertaken from the territory of China." The statement appears to take EU-China relations to a new low not seen for decades.