By Helene Fung Turkey agreed to a five-day ceasefire in Syria to let Kurdish-led troops withdraw, a deal brokered at a meeting between a high-level US delegation and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara. The deal to suspend military operations for 120 hours essentially gave Turkey what they wanted in the first place –…
By Helene Fung, File Photo A rocket engine exploded during a test at a naval facility that tests intercontinental ballistic missiles for nuclear submarines in Nyonoksa in north-western Russia. Russia’s Defence Ministry said six servicemen and civilian engineers have been injured in the incident, and two of them later died of the injuries. The Ministry…
US President Donald Trump will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Paris next month, as disputes continue over a nuclear arms treaty. Mr Trump and Mr Putin will meet at World War One centenary commemorations amid growing tensions around the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), with both nations threatening to increase nuclear weapons if…
US special representative for Syria, Jim Jeffrey, declared that the US will impose sanctions to pursue “a strategy of isolation” with its allies if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad holds up the political process aiming to end the Syrian war. Mr Jeffrey warned that Washington would work with allies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East…
Russian warships held drills as part of one of the largest Russian military exercises in 40 years, since the height of the Soviet Union. The Vostok-2018 drills, held around the Bering Sea separating Russia and Alaska, have 300,000 troops, more than 1,000 military aircraft and two naval fleets involved. With tensions between Russian and the…
US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has accused Russia of undermining the international sanctions on North Korea. Mr Pompeo said the sanctions are necessary to maintain pressure on North Korea to convince Pyongyang to stop its nuclear program and give up its nuclear weapons. “Russia has actively attempted to undermine the U.N. Security Council resolutions,…
Photo: Special Counsel Robert Mueller US President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief Paul Manafort said he will cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into the 2016 election, after he pled guilty to federal crimes. Mr Trump’s lawyer in the Russia probe and former New York city mayor, Rudy Giuliani, claimed that Manafort “knows nothing…
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph Dunford said he and the White House maintain a “routine dialogue” about military options for a response to Syria using chemical weapons in an expected assault on Idlib. Mr Dunford said no final decision has been made about whether use of chemical weapons would trigger a US…
US President Donald Trump has denied knowledge that his son, Donald Trump Jr, had met with Russians during the 2016 election campaign. Mr Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was cited by CNN as saying that Mr Trump had known about the meeting in advance. The meeting was supposedly to try and get compromising information on…
Donald Trump has backtracked on comments over Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US presidential election, after facing bipartisan criticism over the remarks made during a news conference with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The US President said that he had “misspoken” during the joint conference on Monday (local time) and had meant to say that he…