PARIS, 15 November 2021, (TON): French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will inform his EU colleagues at a meeting in Brussels on November 15 about the talks that took place earlier in Paris with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in the “2 + 2” format.

This is stated in a statement by the French Foreign Ministry released.

In the statement “Jean-Yves Le Drian will inform his European colleagues about the exchanges that, together with the Minister of the Armed Forces of France [Florence Parley], he held with his Russian counterparts in Paris on November 12, and which, in addition to the Sahel, were focused on Belarus and Ukraine.”

The statement said “on the occasion of the holding of the EU Council [at the level of foreign ministers] Jean-Yves Le Drian and his German counterpart Heiko Maas will hold talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.”

On November 12, the French Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting of the Russian-French Security Cooperation Council.

Russia was represented by Foreign and Defense Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu, while France was represented by Minister for European and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian and Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly.

The meeting lasted more than two hours. The agenda of the meeting included issues of strategic stability, the state of relations between the EU and NATO with Russia and regional issues – the situation in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya.

TRIPOLI, 15 November 2021, (TON): An official from the electoral commission said “Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi, registered as a presidential candidate for the Dec. 24 election.”

Gaddafi is one of the most prominent figures expected to run for president - a list that also includes eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar, Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah and parliament speaker Aguila Saleh.

Photographs distributed on social media showed Gaddafi in traditional brown robe and turban, and with a grey beard and glasses, signing documents at the registration centre in the southern town of Sebha.

Despite the public backing of most Libyan factions and foreign powers for elections on Dec. 24, the vote is still in doubt as rival entities squabble over the rules and schedule.

A major conference in Paris on Friday agreed to sanction any who disrupt or prevent the vote, but there is still no agreement on rules to govern who should be able to run.

DUBAI, 15 November 2021, (TON): Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah accepted the resignation of the government, state news agency KUNA reported.

Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah submitted the resignation of his cabinet on Nov. 8.

WASHINGTON, 15 November 2021, (TON): The US military covered up 2019 airstrikes in Syria that killed up to 64 women and children, a possible war crime, during the battle against Daesh, the New York Times reported.

The two back-to-back airstrikes near the town of Baghuz were ordered by a classified American special operations unit tasked with ground operations in Syria, according to the report. The newspaper said that US Central Command, which oversaw US air operations in Syria, acknowledged the strikes for the first time this week and said they were justified.

In a statement, Central Command reiterated the account it gave the newspaper that 80 people were killed in the strikes including 16 Daesh fighters and four civilians. The military said it was unclear if the other 60 people were civilians, partly because women and children could have been combatants.

In Saturday’s statement, the military said the strikes were “legitimate self-defense,” proportional and that “appropriate steps were taken to rule out the presence of civilians.”

Central Command said “we abhor the loss of innocent life and take all possible measures to prevent them. In this case, we self-reported and investigated the strike according to our own evidence and take full responsibility for the unintended loss of life.”

LONDON, 15 November 2021, (TON): British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene in the crisis that has left thousands of migrants trapped on the Belarus-Poland border.

Truss wrote in the Sunday Telegraph “Russia has a clear responsibility here. It must press the Belarusian authorities to end the crisis and enter into dialogue.”

Putin on Saturday denied claims Moscow is helping to orchestrate the situation, blaming Western policies in the Middle East for creating the migrant crisis.

He told state television “I want everyone to know. We have nothing to do with it.”

The migrants, mainly Kurds, have been stuck for days on the border in near-freezing temperatures, setting up a tent camp and burning wood to keep warm.

Belarus says there are about 2,000 people in the camp, including pregnant women and children. Poland says there are between 3,000 and 4,000 migrants on the border, with more arriving every day.

Truss said that the stand-off marked the “latest step” by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko “to undermine regional security.”

She wrote “He is using desperate migrants as pawns in his bid to create instability and cling on to power, regardless of the human cost.”

RIYADH, 15 November 2021, (TON): Top Saudi diplomat said “Saudi Arabia will continue to hold talks with Iran and an additional round of negotiations between the regional rivals was expected soon.”

Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud told France 24 television that four previous rounds of talks were merely “exploratory” rather than substantial, but said both sides were committed to engagement.

But he expressed strong reservations about Iran's nuclear negotiations which are set to resume in a few weeks, citing Tehran's past "deception" about its nuclear activities.

The foreign minister also denied reports that Saudi Arabia was withdrawing troops from Yemen. The situation was deadlocked militarily and diplomatically, he said, lamenting that the Houthis had not agreed to a Saudi proposal for a ceasefire earlier this year.

'No purpose in engaging Lebanon at this time'

The foreign minister said that the kingdom does not plan to engage with the Lebanese government at this time.

Lebanon is facing its worst diplomatic crisis yet with Gulf states, spurred by a minister's critical comments about the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen that prompted Riyadh to expel Lebanon's ambassador, recall its own envoy and ban all imports from Lebanon.

MADRID, 15 November 2021, (TON): The Canary Islands government said “Spanish coastguards found the bodies of eight African migrants in a boat which was drifting in the sea off Spain's Gran Canaria island.”

Sixty-two migrants, all of them men except a 12-year-old boy, were rescued by coastguards.

Three people who were critically ill were flown by helicopter to a hospital in Gran Canaria. Nine others were treated by the Spanish coastguard as they were taken to the island.

The Canary Islands emergency services said “the boat carrying the migrants had been drifting in the Atlantic about 40 miles to the south of Gran Canaria for about a week.”

Coastguards also intercepted another migrant boat on Sunday carrying 35 men and one woman, a few miles off the Spanish island.

ISLAMABAD, 15 November 2021, (TON): Pakistan may invite the “wrath of the US and its allies” if it completely joins the China camp, according to the country’s policymakers, who shared their assessment with the members of parliament last week in a closed-door briefing on the national security issues.

The lawmakers were informed that Pakistan had to maintain a “balance” in ties with the US and China.

However, Islamabad’s efforts to seek that balance seem to have not worked so far as the parliament was told that the relationship with the US might further deteriorate in the wake of recent developments, particularly the chaotic exit of the US security forces from Afghanistan.

A member of the parliament said “the ties with the US at the moment are at the lowest ebb.”

Pakistan has longstanding ties with China and those close ties in the past helped Islamabad act as a bridge between Washington and Beijing. But at the time China was nowhere close to challenging the US as sole superpower. With China inching closer to matching the US on all fronts, there have been visible signs of what observers see as a new cold war.

Against this backdrop, Pakistan faces a daunting task to maintain a balance in its ties. On one hand, China, which stood by Pakistan in difficult times and has emerged as a major investor but on the other Islamabad has to take into account the US's huge leverage over the international financial and other institutions.

KABUL, 15 November 2021, (TON): Esmatullah Ergashev, special representative of Uzbekistan’s president, in a meeting with local officials in the northern Afghan province of Balkh said “his country will reconstruct Maulana Jalaluddin Mohammad Balkhi international airport in Mazar-e-Sharif.”

Ergashev met with Balkh local officials as well as officials from Afghanistan’s ministry of transport and aviation who were in the province to meet with the Uzbekistan officials.

Ergashev said “his country had sent a 30-member technical team to help the Afghans reconstruct the airport and repairing the technical damages and equipment.”

He said “we were urged to help in resumption of the airport and repair the damaged equipment. Hence, we have brought 30 technical staff from Uzbekistan, and they are repairing the equipment and reconstructing the airport and soon the airport will become operational.”

He said “Uzbekistan will try to help Afghanistan in different areas, especially in infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, Balkh local officials urged Uzbekistan to cooperate with Afghanistan in economic areas and in the expansion of trade relations between the two countries.

Qudratullah Hamza, Balkh’s governor said “the delegation from the transport ministry which has come to Balkh held talks with Uzbekistan officials on airport reconstruction and the railway. Talks were also held on Afghanistan’s electricity bill debt to Uzbekistan, and we said when the banking system problems are resolved we will pay the bill and Uzbekistan should not cut the imported electricity.”

KABUL, 15 November 2021, (TON): Taliban forces held a military parade in Kabul using captured American-made armoured vehicles and Russian helicopters in a display that showed their ongoing transformation from an insurgent force to a regular standing army.

The Taliban operated as insurgent fighters for two decades but have used the large stock of weapons and equipment left behind when the former Western-backed government collapsed in August to overhaul their forces.

Defence ministry spokesperson Enayatullah Khwarazmi said “the parade was linked to the graduation of 250 freshly trained soldiers.”

The exercise involved dozens of US-made M117 armoured security vehicles driving slowly up and down a major Kabul road with MI-17 helicopters patrolling overhead. Many soldiers carried American made-M4 assault rifles.

Most of the weapons and equipment the Taliban forces are now using are those supplied by Washington to the American-backed government in Kabul in a bid to construct an Afghan national force capable of fighting the Taliban.