LONDON, 14 February 2022, (TON): A government minister said “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not be distracted from focusing on tensions between Ukraine and Russia by receipt of a police questionnaire about lockdown parties at his Downing Street office.”

The Metropolitan Police are contacting more than 50 people believed to have attended the parties to explain their involvement.

On Friday, Johnson’s spokesperson confirmed he had received a questionnaire and would respond as required.

junior defence minister James Heappey told media “I’ve every confidence that the prime minister will fill out this questionnaire and return it to the Metropolitan Police service as he must.”

Heappey said “but I don’t think for a second it will distract him from leading the international response at a time of acute geopolitical crisis.”

He said “he will be reading some really very eye-opening intelligence briefs all day, every day. He and the government are in now a very regular routine of National Security Council meetings and COBRA meetings.”

RIYADH, 14 February 2022, (TON): The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said “it has destroyed a Houthi communications system in Sanaa that was being used to control drones for hostile operations.”

In a series of tweets, the Coalition said the communications system was located at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Yemeni capital.

It said "the Houthis are militarily using Yemeni state institutions and ministries to launch hostile operations.”

It added that the site had been linked to the February 10 drone attack on Saudi Arabia's Abha International Airport.

Twelve civilians were injured in the attack on the airport, located in the Kingdom's southwestern border with Yemen.

TRIPOLI, 14 February 2022, (TON): A convoy of fighters moved into Tripoli from the Libyan city of Misrata to shore up the interim prime minister amid a push by the parliament to oust him in favour of its own candidate.

Interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah has sworn he will hand over power only after an election and has rejected the move by parliament this week to appoint former interior minister Fathi Bashagha to head a new government.

The convoy’s arrival underscored the danger of renewed fighting in Libya as the crisis plays out, following mobilisations in recent weeks by armed factions backing different political sides.

Saturday’s convoy, comprising more than 100 vehicles according to a witness, arrived after Dbeibah earlier on Saturday accused the parliament of being “responsible for all this bloodshed and chaos” in Libya over recent years.

The parliament speaker, Aguila Saleh, has accused Dbeibah of corruption and of seeking to use his position for his own ends rather than to effect a meaningful transition.

DUBAI, 14 February 2022, (TON): US F-22 fighter jets arrived in the United Arab Emirates, part of an American defence response to recent missile attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels targeting the country.

The Raptors landed at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, which hosts some 2,000 US troops. American soldiers there launched Patriot interceptor missiles in response to the Houthi attacks last month, the first time US troops have fired the system in combat since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

American officials declined to say how many F-22s deployed or the number of airmen supporting the aircraft, citing operational security.

However, they identified the unit involved as the 1st Fighter Wing, located at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia. A photo later released by the Air Force showed six F-22s in a line on a taxiway at Al-Dhafra.

The Raptors presence will bolster already strong partner nation defences and puts destabilising forces on notice that the US and our partners are committed to enabling peace and stability in the region,” Lt. Gen. Greg Guillot, the commander of the US Air Force’s Mideast command, said in a statement.

CAIRO, 14 February 2022, (TON): Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said that Cairo is keen to strengthen relations with Germany following a meeting with the country’s foreign minister.

He said that Egypt attaches particular importance to its close relations with Germany, and in strengthening cooperation and mutual interests between the two countries.

During his meeting with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, El-Sisi said that Egypt considers partnership relations with Germany as an essential hub for Egyptian relations with Europe, given Germany’s position and weight as a major European country.

Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency Bassam Rady said that El-Sisi expressed his aspiration to continue existing cooperation with the new German government on the basis of mutual respect and a balanced partnership, based on the standing of both Egypt and Germany and their great weight and pivotal role both regionally and internationally.

The spokesman said that the German foreign minister affirmed her country’s pride in its strong and distinguished relations with Egypt as a “center of stability and balance” in the Middle East and Africa.

MOSCOW, 14 February 2022, (TON): With the risk of war looming larger, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden held a high-stakes telephone call as a tense world watched and worried that an invasion of Ukraine could begin within days.

Before talking to Biden, Putin had a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, who met him in Moscow earlier in the week to try to resolve the biggest security crisis between Russia and the West since the Cold War.

A Kremlin summary of the call suggested that little progress was made towards cooling down the tensions.

The closely watched call between Biden and Putin lasted just over an hour, according to the White House. Biden conducted the call from Camp David. The White House insisted that Russia faces “swift and severe costs” if its troops carry out an invasion. No more details of the discussion were available.

In a sign that American officials were getting ready for a worst-case scenario, the United States announced plans to evacuate its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, and Britain joined other European nations in urging its citizens to leave Ukraine.

LONDON, 14 February 2022, (TON): The diplomatic advisor to the UAE President said “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to the UAE will turn a page in bilateral relations between the two countries.”

Erdogan will visit the UAE on Feb. 14-15 and will attend the Expo 2020 in Dubai on Tuesday.

His visit comes after the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan visited Ankara in November last year.

The president’s visit will turn a “new positive page in bilateral relations between the two countries,” and is in line with the UAE's aim to strengthen bridges of communication and cooperation in order to achieve stability and prosperity in the region, Anwar Gargash tweeted.

Gargash said “the UAE continues to strengthen channels of communication with various countries in order to support the stability and prosperity of the region and the well-being of its people.”

RIYADH, 14 February 2022, (TON): The EU delegation to Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain held today a high-level training for 35 diplomats from the three countries in EU affairs at the Prince Saud Al-Faisal Institute of Diplomatic Studies in Riyadh.

EU Ambassador Patrick Simonnet said “our aim is to enhance mutual understanding with our partners in the Gulf region, and we believe enhancing understanding of the workings of the EU will contribute to this objective.”

The EU Delegation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman aims to increase engagement with the Gulf region by fostering EU knowledge, understanding and cooperation.

During the opening ceremony, speeches were made by Simmonet, H.H. Sayyid Faisal bin Turki Al-Said, Ambassador of Oman to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Dr. Adel Alomrani, acting director general of the IDS; and Dr. Turki Al-Turki, head of International Cooperation at the IDS.

Al-Turki said “this program is designed to advance participants’ knowledge and skills in the EU. I am confident that this training will have a lasting impact on participants to further deepen relationships with the members of the EU.”

ISTANBUL, 14 February 2022, (TON): The leaders of six opposition parties in Turkey have met to strategize about the future of the country’s governing system, a move that aims to unseat the country’s longtime ruler.

In a statement following the dinner Saturday night, the party leaders said “Turkey was experiencing the deepest political and economic crisis of its history and blamed it on the executive presidential system. They said their joint goal was to transform Turkey’s governance to a “strengthened parliamentary system.”

They did not mention President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by name, but their clear aim is to find a way to work together to unseat him.

After more than 11 years as Turkey’s prime minister, Erdogan was elected president in 2014. At the time, the position was primarily ceremonial. But in 2017, Turkish voters approved an executive presidential system, greatly expanding Erdogan’s powers at the expense of those of the prime minister and parliament.”

Erdogan was re-elected the following year. Critics call the system one-man rule.

KYIV, 14 February 2022, (TON): Ukraine sees no point closing its airspace amid the tensions with Moscow, a senior Ukrainian official said on Sunday, after the United States warned that Russia could invade the eastern European nation at any time.

Dutch carrier KLM said it would stop flying to Ukraine and Germany's Lufthansa said "it was considering suspending flights."

Ukraine's SkyUp said that it had to divert one flight after the owner of the leased aircraft barred it from entering Ukrainian airspace.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian president's chief of staff said “the most important point is that Ukraine itself sees no point in closing the sky. This is nonsense. And, in my opinion, it somewhat resembles a kind of partial blockade.”

He told “if particular air carriers decide to reconfigure the flight schedule, this certainly has nothing to do with the decisions or policies of our state.”

The United States, its Western allies and other nations have been scaling back or evacuating embassy staff and have advised their citizens not to travel to Ukraine amid the standoff.