Domestic Politics

Armenia appears heading for snap parliamentary elections on 20 June, but hopes that the poll may resolve the current gridlock in the Armenian political arena may be premature. Benyamin Poghosyan argues in this op-ed that for Armenia things may get worse before they get better.

The EU facilitated talks between Georgian political parties were paused on Friday after a 10 hour meeting mediated by Christian Danielsson, the special envoy of the president of the European Council, ended in the early hours of the morning without agreement.

Leaders of the Somalia federal government will meet this Sunday (21 March) with the leaders of the federal member states to discuss the dispute in the electoral process, according to Garowe Online. Heads of federal states are already engaging in meetings with foreign ambassadors in Mogadishu.

Boris Johnson, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, has today (16 March) published an Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy outlining the UK’s post-Brexit direction of travel.

Libya’s first unity government in seven years was sworn in before the parliament in Tobruk on Monday – a step that received positive appraisal from regional and international parties alike. More than 100 parliamentarians and several Arab and foreign ambassadors attended the ceremony. Earlier on the same day, Dbeibah and his cabinet took the oath of office before the High Court in the capital Tripoli before heading to Tobruk. The government will officially start its duties as of today. 

Libya finally has a unified government after a decade of chaos, war and political divisions. On Wednesday (10 March) the Libyan Parliament - the House of Representatives (HoR) - finally approved the proposed cabinet by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. 

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian has issued an open invitation to prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and the leaders of the opposition to a meet amid a continuing political crisis and an impasse on the command of the armed forces. Pashinyan had a meeting with the army leadership this afternoon

Demonstrations escalated this week in Lebanon with hundreds of demonstrators blocking major roads in Beirut. The demonstrators condemned the ongoing economic crisis and record-low currency exchange rates.