Asia

Armenia’s prime minister denies media reports that the country has withdrawn forces from Syunik a province bordering Iran. Nikol Pashinian was responding to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s claim about the so-called Zangezur corridor before parliament.

Terrorists are scaling up their activities in the regions near the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin said on Wednesday at a ministerial meeting of Afghanistan's neighboring countries in Tehran.

The United States and other Western countries should lift sanctions on Afghanistan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said. He made the remarks in an online speech on Wednesday to the second meeting of foreign ministers of Afghanistan's neighboring countries in Tehran.

The American intelligence community has assessed that terrorists in Afghanistan could attack the United States in six months if left unchecked, a senior Pentagon official says. He adds they have the intention to carry out such an assault.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureishi has called on the international community to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan.

Iran's former ambassador to Kabul says the meeting of Afghanistan's neighbors in Tehran is a show of strength put on by regional countries against the United States.

Turkey’s parliament has extended the military’s mandate to conduct cross-border operations in Syria and Iraq by two more years. Both Damascus and Baghdad have in several occasions condemned Turkey’s incursions into their soil as flagrant violations of their territorial integrity.

Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Majid Takht Ravanchi has announced the country is hosting Afghans with “almost no new resources from the international community”, while Tehran is under US sanctions.

The Iranian president, in a meeting with the visiting Turkmen foreign minister in Tehran, said the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan will lead to the regional peace and stability.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has held a meeting with acting deputy prime minister of the Taliban government, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in the Qatari capital of Doha.

The Taliban might think about selling military hardware abandoned by the United States and its NATO allies in Afghanistan if humanitarian situation takes a serious turn for the worse, Russia warns.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian met with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday in Tehran.

North Korea has denounced France and Canada for sending patrol aircraft near the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang has called the move "military provocation" endangering the security situation in the region.

Sudan is facing a full military coup, the information ministry announced on Monday. Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and several other government officials have been arrested by the military. The premier has been taken to an unknown location.

Tens of millions of dirty and soiled medical gloves, some even blood-stained, have reached the United States from Thailand during the COVID pandemic, a CNN report reveals.

Former US special representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, believes Washington was losing the war to the Taliban and chose negotiations as an alternative. He says the United States “did not succeed” in building a democratic Afghanistan after two decades of war in the country.

Iran will host a meeting of Afghanistan’s neighbours on Wednesday without the participation of the Taliban. The new rulers of Afghanistan have not been invited to the summit, according to a Taliban spokesperson.

US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim has held a meeting with South Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk in Seoul.

Myanmar could be on the eve of a human rights catastrophe and loss of life, the United Nations (UN) has warned. The warning comes amid reports the military junta is deploying tens of thousands of forces and heavy weapons to northern Myanmar.

Kyrgyzstan will not host a US military base on its soil, President Sadyr Japarov says. Bishkek has announced such a move would place the central Asian country in a "cat and mouse" game with world powers. Earlier, Uzbekistan had opposed the US military deployment in the country.

Russian and Chinese warships have conducted the first ever joint patrol in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, Moscow and Beijing confirm.

NATO’s plans in Afghanistan resulted in a catastrophe that the international community must deal with its consequences, the Russian defense minister says.

Pakistan has denied a report on an agreement for the use of its airspace by the United States for military and intelligence operations in neighboring Afghanistan. Washington currently holds over-the-horizon operations from its bases in Middle Eastern countries.

Several US agencies have launched investigations into President Joe Biden administration’s handling of the US troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a report. Inspectors general from Homeland Security, Pentagon, departments of State, Health and Human Services, and USAID are involved in the probe.

Iran’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Bahador Aminian has held talks with the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Molavi Amir Khan Mottaqi in Kabul.