WASHINGTON, 19 October 2021, (TON): Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani about Afghanistan.

Secretary Blinken thanked Qatar for its strong partnership on regional security issues and assistance to safely transit U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents, and Afghans at risk.

TRIPOLI, 19 October 2021, (TON): Fifty migrants were rescued on Sunday and Monday by the Sea-Watch 3 vessel in the waters off the coast of Libya.

More than 400 people are now on the boat, according to German humanitarian organization Sea-Watch. It is patrolling the central Mediterranean rescuing people trying to reach the small Italian island of Lampedusa in small, crowded boats.

Meanwhile landings continue non-stop on the island. Three vessels with 52 Tunisians on board reportedly landed on Monday morning, and four boats containing 140 foreigners arrived the previous night. One boat, with 13 Tunisians aboard, managed to reach the shore without being intercepted by coast guard vessels.

“On Sunday we had 152 Tunisians arriving here in six different landings,” Lampedusa Mayor Salvatore Martello told Arab News, giving his latest official figures. “There are now 329 migrants in our facility, which can accommodate a maximum of 250 people.

“The prefecture of Agrigento ordered for them to be transferred to the quarantine ship GNV Atlas, which is moored one mile from the coast. We cannot carry on like this. The entire population here is under stress. We are left alone but we have no intention not to help how we can those who arrive here. But this has been going on for too long.”

Meanwhile, more than 100 migrants from Tunisia arrived over the weekend on the southern shores of the Italian island of Sardinia. They were detained by the Italian coast guard and by police.

LONDON, 19 October 2021, (TON): UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss have pledged to develop areas of joint cooperation and enhance their development relations.

The ministers met in London, where the two sides discussed ways to enhancer joint cooperation in all fields, including economic, trade, investment and climate change.

Sheikh Abdullah’s visit comes after a recent visit by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed to the UK, where he met with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and announced the establishment of a new and ambitious partnership between the two countries for the future.

Sheikh Abdullah and Truss also discussed regional and international issues of common interest.

During his visit, the UAE foreign minister also held talks with the UK health secretary Sajid Javid, Nadhim Zahawi, secretary of state for education, and Alok Sharma and president of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).

BRUSSELS, 19 October 2021, (TON): EU leaders delivered a snub to Iran amid fears that Tehran is playing for time over talks to revive the collapsed 2015 deal to curb its nuclear program.

A day after Iran’s Foreign Ministry said “discussions with the EU would take place in Brussels on Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said no such meeting was planned or would happen.

Borrel made it clear that there would be no serious talks outside the framework of negotiations between world powers and Iran in Vienna, and said time was not on Iran’s side.

He said Iranian officials had requested bilateral meetings with him and other parties to the deal, although the wish was not “precise.”

“We made it clear to the Iranians that time is not on their side and it’s better to go back to the negotiating table quickly,”

Western diplomats are concerned that Tehran’s new hard-line negotiating team may make demands beyond the scope of what was already agreed before the Vienna talks stalled in June.

ABUJA, 19 October 2021, (TON): Gunmen from a suspected criminal gang attacked a village market in northwest Nigeria’s Sokoto’s state killing dozens of people, the state government said Monday.

Heavily armed gangs known locally as bandits have terrorized northwest and central Nigeria for years, raiding and looting villages, but attacks have become even more violent in recent months.

“We’re not sure of the (death toll) figure. But it is 30 something,” Sokoto’s government spokesman Muhammad Bello said in a statement, adding that the attack occurred on Sunday evening in Goronyo district.

Bello told that “it was a market day and there were many traders.”

Police spokesman Sanusi Abubakar also confirmed that bandits attacked Goronyo late.

Abubakar added, without giving details “our sercurity operatives are there to conduct investigations.”

Phone networks in the area have been suspended for weeks to disrupt the gangs’ operations, making information-gathering tricky.

A gang raided another village market on October 8, in Sabon Birni district near the border with Niger, killing 19 people.

Since last month, Nigerian troops have been conducting air and ground operations on bandit camps in neighboring Zamfara state.

Telecom services were also shut down in Zamfara, and parts of Kaduna and Katsina states.

Officials in Sokoto are worried that bandits are relocating to the state as a result of operations in Zamfara.

PARIS, 19 October 2021, (TON): French diplomat Nicolas de Lacoste confirmed that after his appointment as the republic’s ambassador to Belarus, he did not present his credentials to the country’s pr-esident, Alexander Lukash-enko.

This happened due to the fact that Paris did not recognize the results of last year’s presidential elections in the country.

The ambassador said in his farewell address, published on the website of the French embassy in Minsk “Unfortunately, my wife and I are forced to leave B-elarus. As you know, Fran-ce did not recognize the results of the elections on August 9, 2020, and I did not present my credentials.”

“We spent difficult but unforgettable days here. We made many interesting and important meetings and discoveries. We met many co-urageous and strong-minded people. My wife and I discovered the generosity and beauty of Belarus and Belarusians. You will always be in our hearts and thoughts”, – de Lacoste addressed the Belarusians.

The diplomat entered Belarus in November 2020 as the appointed ambassador of France and in December 2020 presented copies of his credentials only to Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei. However, he never presented his credentials to Lukashenka.

RIYADH, 19 October 2021, (TON): Saudi Arabia’s King Salman received a written message from Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, regarding the strong and solid relations between the two countries and peoples, and ways to support and enhance them in various fields and at all levels.

The message was received by Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan during a meeting with his Omani counterpart, Sayyed Badr Al-Busaidi, where he welcomed the Omani minister and his delegation accompanying to their second country, Saudi Arabia.

During the meeting, they discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing them in various fields, in addition to exchanging views on regional and international issues of common interest.

NEW YORK, 19 October 2021, (TON): UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has urged greater international support for the more than 13 million Syrians who’ve been displaced in the past 10 years.

Mr. Grandi said after a visit to the country “currently, around 6.7 million have been displaced inside the country and 5.5 million refugees are being hosted in five neighbouring countries.”

Over two days in the field, the High Commissioner met families who told him they’d endured “years of suffering” and are “exhausted.”

The UNHCR chief said “yet I also witnessed their strength and determination to rebuild their lives.”

Even as UNHCR and partners, “helped some of the families I met install doors and windows on their partially damaged homes, they still needed water and electricity. They still need schools and hospitals, and they need to make a living. This is a humanitarian imperative.”

BERLIN, 19 October 2021, (TON): Russia’s decision to close the NATO information bureau in Moscow complicates the already difficult relations, said German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas .

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced Russia’s retaliatory measures for the expulsion of diplomats to NATO: in addition to suspending the work of the NATO military liaison mission in Moscow, its information bureau is also shutting down.

The Russian permanent mission to NATO also suspends work from November 1 or a little later. For contacts with Russia, the alliance should now contact the Russian Ambassador to Belgium.

“This makes everything more difficult, and the situation is already difficult,” Maas told reporters following a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

He noted that Germany in NATO advocated a dialogue with Russia, he also recalled that the alliance confirmed its readiness for dialogue, calling for a Russia-NATO Council.

“We are ready for dialogue, but we must take more into account the fact that Russia, apparently, is not ready. This decision is more than regrettable,” Maas said.

WASHINGTON, 19 October 2021, (TON): US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said “Washington was closely watching China's development of advanced weapons systems, while declining to comment directly on a report that Beijing had tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile.”

The Chinese foreign ministry denied the report in the Financial Times newspaper, which said Beijing had launched a rocket in July carrying a hypersonic glide weapon. Beijing said it was a space vehicle, not a missile.

He United States and Russia have both tested hypersonic weapons, usually defined as missiles which fly more than five times the speed of sound, in a race for a new generation of weapons that are harder to detect and block.

Austin told reporters during a visit to the former Soviet republic of Georgia "we watch closely China's development of armament and advanced capabilities and systems that will only increase tensions in the region."

He said Washington would remain focused on the military challenge from Beijing.