Conflict and Peace

Sergei Lavrov dismissed suggestions that Nagorno-Karabakh be annexed to Russia and said that the status issue needs to be resolved between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Lavrov indicated that there will be a role for the OSCE Minsk Group in resolving the status problem. Lavrov was speaking at the annual marathon new year press conference where he reviewed the work of his ministry in 2020.

Fighting broke out in Hodeidah province on Yemen's west coast between pro-government forces and Houthis forces on Sunday. Sources suggest that fighting started as early on Saturday and escalated the following day with the use of heavy weapons. 

Clashes erupted in Sudan's Darfur region leading to at least 32 deaths. Sudanese authorities imposed a full curfew in the province. There are at least 79 others who are wounded. 

The European Union has suspended its budget support for Ethiopia due to the worsening humanitarian crisis following the military campaign in Tigray region. The suspension of the support will be in place until humanitarian agencies are granted access to people in need of aid in the northern Tigray region. The support package amounts to 88 million euro.

"Azerbaijan faces a big challenge in restoring the territories it has retaken, most of which had been left delipidated for nearly three decades. There is first the task of cleaning the territories from land mines and other unexploded ordinance. Then laying down the infrastructure, such as roads and airports, and of course houses to enable the hundreds of thousands of people displaced in the 1990s and their families, to return. It is a huge task which president Aliyev appears to be cherishing. 'The great return' will dominate his agenda for the years to come".

NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, said on Thursday that NATO is ready to contribute to security building in Libya once conditions allow. On the diplomatic level, UN Secretary-General is reportedly planning to appoint veteran diplomat Jan Kubis as his envoy in Libya nearly a year after the last mediator stepped down. 

Peace in the Caucasus for the last three decades has been elusive, and appears to remain so. Lulls between fighting sometimes offer some respite from the violence, but real peace remains absent. It is now needed more than ever, but the "Pax Putin" is not the solution, argues Dennis Sammut in this op-ed

The newspaper Izvestya asked Russian experts on the Caucasus to comment, and it says that they believe that the threat of resumed hostilities has not completely vanished, "since radical elements on both sides and the position of Turkey can play a destructive role".