A US Department of Defence official said that the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will assure Gulf countries of the US commitment to security in the region. Austin will also stress the need to refrain from normalisation with the Assad regime in Syria. The United States is committed to diplomatic means and sanctions to counter Iran’s nuclear file. 

The foreign ministers of the EU27 and the Eastern Partnership countries met in Brussels this week to take stock of the progress to date and actively prepare for the upcoming Summit. Various sources told commonspace.eu that it was a positive meeting.

Key figures, from both Libya’s past and present including leaders of some of the current political parties, announced their bid for the Libyan presidency. Saif al-Islam and Khalifa Haftar are among the major candidates while current PM Dbeibah is yet to announce.

The European Union was among a number of international organisations and governments calling for an end to fighting and resumption of negotiations. "The EU urges Armenia and Azerbaijan to exercise utmost restraint, disengage their military forces on the ground and respect the commitments undertaken in the framework of the two trilateral agreements", a statement issued in Brussels said on Wednesday.

Gas prices increased on Tuesday (16 November) to the highest level in three weeks in the European Union. This is due to Germany's temporary shutdown of the certification process for the new gas pipeline Nord Stream 2. In addition, there is an outage at a major gas field in Norway, which is expected to last until Friday.