DOHA -- The United States and Qatar on Tuesday urged the Afghan Taliban to live up to its commitment to facilitate the evacuations from Afghanistan.

This appeal came during a joint press conference held in Doha by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Minister of State for Defense Affairs Khalid Al-Attiyah. (Qatar-US-Taliban)

- - - -

UNITED NATIONS -- The United Nations will assist the fledgling Taliban government on paving the way for international aid delivery in war-torn Afghanistan and the rights of women and girls, the UN relief coordinator said on Tuesday.

"The movement we face here today, as many, many other people have told me, is not the movement that we saw (in 1998)," said UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths on his meeting with Mullah Baradar and the Taliban leadership. "It certainly has links in ideology but it's different to the one then." (UN-Afghanistan)

- - - -

ANKARA -- Turkey and Egypt started the second round of normalization talks on Tuesday in the Turkish capital of Ankara, in a bid to end years of strained ties.

"If we reach a consensus after the meetings, we will take the necessary mutual steps to appoint an ambassador," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. (Turkey-Egypt-Normalization Talks)

- - - -

ROME -- Italy is inching closer to achieving herd immunity against the coronavirus, according to Italy's pandemic commissioner.

Army Corps General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, also Italy's Extraordinary Commissioner for the Coronavirus Emergency, said that more than 80 percent of eligible residents in Italy had received at least one vaccine dose, and he predicted the same percentage of eligible residents would be fully vaccinated by the end of September. (Italy-Vaccination-Immunity) Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)