Conflict and Peace

In an emotional address to the nation on the occasion of the start of the traditional Novruz holiday, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev addressed his countrymen from the city of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh, which has recently reverted back to Azerbaijani control following the 44-day Karabakh war.

The recent military campaign in the Yemeni province of Marib threatens local populations first and foremost. The military operations, which mostly are hit and run operations, threaten to displace at least 385,000 people, said the UN migration agency. Marib is home to about 800,000 IDPs who fled during various stages of the 5 six-year-old conflict.

OSCE Chairperson-in-office, Ann Linde, visited Yerevan on Tuesday for talks with the Armenian leadership. Linde, who is also Swedish foreign minister, met president Armen Sarkissian, prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and other officials.

The Azerbaijani president told the visiting head of the OSCE that his country's conflict with Armenia was "already in the history and we need to look to the future".

The rebel Houthi Movement has rejected a US peace proposal that was part of the incoming Biden administration new strategy for the region. The EU remains engaged with the Yemeni issue and also on Friday High Representative Josep Borrell spoke with the Yemeni foreign minister Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak.

Iranian hardliners are mostly rational political actors who are not ready to sacrifice Iran's security, and their own power, for the sake of ideological animosity towards the US or Israel, argues Benyamin Poghosyan in this op-ed. Even if a hardliner wins next June’s presidential election in Iran compromise with the US on the nuclear file is not only possible, but probable. This will be in the interest of both the US and Iran, as well as the entire Middle East region.

On his third and last day of his historic visit to Iraq, the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis on Sunday morning, arrived at the Hosh al-Bieaa centre in Mosul where he prayed, amidst the ruins of war and along with the people of Iraq, for all the victims of war in the country and throughout the Middle East.

Reuters reported on Wednesday (3 March) that US officials have met Yemen's Houthis in efforts to end the war. The meeting, which has not been announced officially, allegedly happened between US envoy Lenderking and the Houthis’ chief negotiator Mohammed Abdusalam in the Omani capital Muscat on 26 February.