Conflict and Peace

It seems that there is no agreement as to whether the Karabakh conflict is resolved or not. Azerbaijan is willing to accept the status quo de facto, although it still claims those parts of Karabakh still under the control of Armenians. For the Armenians, the status of Karabakh remains an important issue since they hope that they can salvage something, after their military defeat, through political negotiations in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for discussions on the implementation of the Karabakh settlement envisaged in the 10 November trilateral statement which ended fighting in the second Karabakh war. The three leaders signed a joint statement at the end of the four hour meeting.

In a late statement on Sunday night, the US State Department declared the Houthi group in Yemen a terrorist organisation. The State Department also designated Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, Abdul-Khaliq Al-Houthi, and Abdullah Al-Hakim as Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). All three are in high leadership positions within the organisation. 

The Yemeni government renewed its demands to include the Houthis on the international terrorism lists. These demands come in light of a recent Houthi attack on Taiz which followed the attack on Aden Airport last month.

ِThe UNOCHA says 10,600 people have been displaced following the attacks on two villages in Niger's Tillaberi region earlier this month. The Tillaberi region has been frequently targeted by terrorist groups based in Mali since 2017, with a state of emergency declared in the area. Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali in the Sahel are at the epicenter of one of the world's fastest-growing displacement and security crises.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev are expected to meet in Moscow next week together with the Russian President Vladimir Putin. This will be the first meeting between the two leaders since the recent war they fought with each other, and their 10 November agreement which brought it to an end.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has expressed a need to bolster the country’s demining capabilities, referring to demining as the country’s main task in the restoration of the acquired territories in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.