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Stories related to violent conflicts, diplomatic tensions, and conflict prevention, mediation and resolution.

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News
Egypt rejects Israeli "offer" for an exit only Rafah checkpoint in Gaza
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Egypt rejects Israeli "offer" for an exit only Rafah checkpoint in Gaza

3 December 2025
Egypt has rejected an Israeli "offer" for opening for exit only the Rafah checkpoint in Gaza. According to the Egyptian State Information Service, Egyptian authorities refuted on Wednesday afternoon reports that Israel claims it will open the Rafah crossing, the only lifeline for Gaza to the outside world, but only for those wishing to leave the besieged coastal enclave.  Citing an Egyptian official, the service stated that ''any agreement to open the crossing will cover both entry and exit, in line with US President Donald Trump's plan for humanitarian and political arrangements following the ceasefire.'' Cairo reaffirmed its adherence to the plan and UN Security Council Resolution 2803, including the right of return for Palestinians and maintaining two-way operations at the crossing. Earlier in the day, Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced that the Rafah crossing would reopen ''within the next few days,'' marking the first such move since February 2025. According to the statement, departures would require prior Israeli security approval and would follow mechanisms previously implemented under EU supervision. Notably, the statement made no mention of the entry of humanitarian aid, which continues to flow through the Kerem Shalom crossing. A Palestinian official also echoed the Egyptian denial of Israel's claim. The announced agreements stress that no Palestinians will be forced to leave Gaza. Those who choose to travel will have the right to return, while humanitarian aid will continue through UN agencies, the International Red Cross and Crescent, and other independent organisations. A European Union official, who requested anonymity and is familiar with the matter, told TNA that the EU has received no official notification from Israel regarding new arrangements, stressing that "no changes exist beyond the January agreements, and we await Israel's formal approval for crossing operations under the Trump plan. "Reopening the crossing will follow mechanisms jointly supervised by the EU and the Palestinian Authority to ensure oversight and transparency, according to the EU official.

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Editor's choice
News
Yemen ceasefire holds amid report of talks between Saudis and Houthis and despite ongoing problems in Taiz
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Yemen ceasefire holds amid report of talks between Saudis and Houthis and despite ongoing problems in Taiz

16 June 2022
Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthi movement (also known as Ansar Allah) have resumed direct talks to discuss security along the kingdom's border and future relations under any peace deal with Yemen, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, according to a report by Reuters news agency. The virtual talks between senior Saudi and Houthi officials were facilitated by Oman, both sources said, with one adding that there were also plans for a face-to-face meeting in Muscat if there is enough progress. Meanwhile, speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on Yemen, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg welcomed the fact that the truce between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government has held, but called for action to open road communications with the city of Taiz.
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Opinion
Opinion: Autonomy within Azerbaijan is not a solution for the future of Karabakh
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Opinion: Autonomy within Azerbaijan is not a solution for the future of Karabakh

16 June 2022
As Armenia and Azerbaijan seek ways in which they can normalise relations between them, the discussion on the future of Nagorno-Karabakh, and particularly of the Armenian population living there, is also gathering pace. On 8 June commonspace.eu published an op-ed by Kamal Makili-Aliyev suggesting autonomy may be one way of moving relations forward. In this counter opinion, Vahagn Avedian disagrees and says that governance problems in Azerbaijan make the prospect of an autonomy within that country unattractive for the Armenian population of Karabakh. He argues that "the only viable path forward is still what the Madrid Principles envisioned, namely granting the Karabakh population the right to determine their future."
Vahagn Avedian
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Commentary
Commentary: The tangled tale of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations
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Commentary: The tangled tale of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations

10 June 2022
After the violence of the early 1990s the conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis settled down for nearly three decades of uneasy truce, tempered with low-intensity violence, and the occasional outburst of more serious fighting, and accompanied by a flawed peace process that failed to bring peace, and in the end could not prevent war. The 44-day Karabakh War in autumn 2020 changed the reality on the ground and yesterday’s winners became losers and vice versa. The Russians appeared to emerge from the 44-day war the sole arbiters to oversee the new situation, but since no one really wanted this – except the Russians themselves – an alternative has unexpectedly emerged, with the EU playing an increasingly important role as mediator and facilitator, working with the sides towards a comprehensive peace. Whilst the war decided some issues, many details remain unresolved, and as Armenia and Azerbaijan tiptoe into a peace process these issues are coming to the fore. Over the course of the last few days, commonspace.eu ran three op-eds dealing with some of these issues written by Benyamin Poghosyan who addressed the issue of peacekeeping, Kamal Makili-Aliyev who wrote about autonomy status as a way of resolving outstanding issues, and Vasif Husseynov who dealt with the geo-strategic context of the peace process. They touched very important issues at the heart of the current debates. Armenian-Azerbaijani relations are a tangled tale, burdened with the baggage of history, traumatised by the blood of thousands who died in the conflict over decades, and poisoned by toxic propaganda that keeps coming out from both sides despite the diplomatic moves towards peace. Unpacking all this will take time. Building enough trust and confidence to move forward will take longer. But the journey has started, and despite all the spoilers, even the end is now in sight.
commonspace.eu editorial team
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Opinion
Opinion: The Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process should be pursued "through compatible mediation between the EU and Russia"
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Opinion: The Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process should be pursued "through compatible mediation between the EU and Russia"

8 June 2022
Baku perceives certain recent actions by the Russian media and by prominent Russian politicians as a provocation, writes Vasif Huseynov in this op-ed for commonspace.eu. and this may be happening as a result of an increased EU engagement with resolving the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. One option is "to pursue the peace process in a mode of compatible mediation of the EU and Russia. The fact that the second meeting of the border delimitation and demarcation took place in Moscow before the upcoming one in Brussels indicates such an effort by the sides. This can make the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process a unique case where the West and Russia stand on the same page and encourage the two sides to find a common language in the conflicts elsewhere."
Vasif Huseynov
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Opinion
Opinion: Autonomy is one way in which some of the problems in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations can be resolved
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Opinion: Autonomy is one way in which some of the problems in Armenia-Azerbaijan relations can be resolved

7 June 2022
"As Armenians and Azerbaijanis are finally trying to build a lasting peace, autonomy can be a powerful tool that brings people together instead of dividing them. It is important to give it a chance", argues Kamal Makili-Aliyev in this op-ed.  "Autonomy is a viable compromise that can lead to a lasting peace when it is implemented carefully and properly, with the aim of bringing the two nations together." "One good example is the Aland Islands, a Swedish-speaking autonomous region within Finland. That arrangement celebrated its 101st birthday this year as a successful means of bringing Swedes and Finns together politically, culturally, in education and interpersonal relations. Its secret? Carefully thought-out structures for separating powers between the autonomy and the central government, respect for minority rights, and security guarantees in the form of demilitarization (including, no local conscription or military bases) and neutralization (the autonomy cannot participate in wars neither passively, nor actively) of the region.".
Kamal Makili Aliyev
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Opinion
Opinion: Peacekeeping in Karabakh can learn from the UNOMIG experience
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Opinion: Peacekeeping in Karabakh can learn from the UNOMIG experience

6 June 2022
As Armenia and Azerbaijan come closer to launching bilateral negotiations over the normalisation of relations, many issues are yet to be resolved. One of them is the future of the Russian force deployed to Karabakh after the 10 November 2020 trilateral declaration. In this op-ed for commonspace.eu, Benyamin Poghosyan says that "according to the Russian expert community, the Kremlin has no intention to withdraw them after November 2025", but others think a multinational force under an international mandate may be the solution. "All actors understand that a foreign military presence in Nagorno-Karabakh is necessary to prevent new hostilities. Russia will not remove its troops from the region but would like to have some international mandate. The US is not satisfied to see Russian troops in Nagorno Karabakh and would like to replace them with other forces under an international mandate. Azerbaijan would like to see Russian troops leaving Nagorno Karabakh but understands that this will not happen. Probably from the Azerbaijani point of view, supplementing Russian troops with forces of other countries under an international mandate could be a solution. In this context, the experience of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), deployed between 1993-2009, may be helpful."
Benyamin Poghosyan
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Opinion
Opinion: Safe passage for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea is a humanitarian necessity
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Opinion: Safe passage for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea is a humanitarian necessity

3 June 2022
Disruption of Ukrainian grain exports is causing a global humanitarian food crisis. Measures need to be taken to create a humanitarian task force to ensure safe passage for export of Ukrainian grain to the rest of the world through the Black Sea and the Turkish Straits, argues Maximiliaan van Lange in this op-ed for commonspace.eu. Russia's blackmailing of the world with global hunger and food shortages among the world's poorest people must also be severely condemned by the international community. The current circumstances, in many ways, resemble the Holodomor, the Stalin-created famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933, that killed millions. The fact that Moscow is using grain as a weapon again in the twenty-first century is despicable and abhorrent. Global cooperation is therefore necessary to resolve this crisis, beginning with an internationally agreed humanitarian escort mission in the Black Sea, otherwise the consequences will be unforeseen.
Maximiliaan van Lange
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Interview
Interview with Ukrainian politician and activist Hanna Hopko: "Russia will not break us"
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Interview with Ukrainian politician and activist Hanna Hopko: "Russia will not break us"

3 June 2022
One hundred days ago, on 24 February, Russia invaded Ukraine in an attempt to overthrow the country's democratic government and install a puppet regime. This objective failed, but the war goes on, especially in the Donbass region where heavy fighting is taking place. Commonspace.eu interviewed Hanna Hopko, a Ukrainian politician and activist, who previously served as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament and is today at the forefront of several important humanitarian initiatives. Hopko  speaks about Ukraine's frustration with Europe's long standing failure to appreciate Ukraine properly. She speaks about the heroism of young Ukrainians who are fighting off current Russian aggression, and recalls the loss of some of her own friends who have died in battle or have been imprisoned. Hopko however remains optimistic about the future, referring to the Ukraine Recovery Plan that is already being prepared. She speaks about the country's hopes to be granted EU candidate status later this month: "Ukraine will not except any plan B. Only candidate status.  Our aspiration to apply to EU membership is a result of the long fight of Ukrainians for the right to be part of a free European family. It is based on our achievements in transformations of the country despite Russian continues efforts to break us." Read the interview in full.
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