Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters

European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in simultaneous statements on X, said they welcomed the news from Jeddah on the U.S.-Ukraine talks, including the proposal for a ceasefire agreement. “This is a positive development that can be a step towards a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine. The ball is now in Russia’s court,” they said on Tuesday. They added that the EU is ready to play its full part, together with its partners, in the upcoming peace negotiations.

Britain will not impose retaliatory trade tariffs in response to U.S. duties on all steel and aluminium imports which are due to come into force on Wednesday, a British government official said on Tuesday. While the European Union plans to hit back against the 25% US tariffs on imports of the metals, the official – who asked not to be identified – said Britain would continue to engage with the U.S. in an attempt to secure an exemption. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said on Monday that the UK and the US had a strong economic relationship which was…

Syria’s interim President Ahmed Sharaa said mass killings of members of ousted regime leader Bashar al-Assad’s minority sect were a threat to his mission to unite the country, and promised to punish those responsible, including his own allies if necessary. In his first interview to a global news agency, held after hundreds died in four days of clashes between Alawite Muslims and Syria’s new Sunni Muslim authorities, Sharaa blamed pro-Assad groups backed by foreigners for triggering the bloodshed but acknowledged that revenge killings had followed. “Syria is a state of law. The law will take its course on all,” he…

Israel’s suspension of goods entering Gaza has begun to take a toll on the Palestinian enclave, with some bakeries closing and officials warning of growing risks to the environment including possible discharges of raw sewage into the sea. The suspension, intended to pressure resistance group Hamas in ceasefire talks, applies to food, medicine and fuel imports. Hamas describes the measure as “collective punishment” and insists it will not be pushed into making concessions at the discussions. The U.N. Palestinian refugees agency UNRWA said the decision to halt humanitarian aid threatens the lives of civilians exhausted by 17 months of “brutal”…

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Monday that the alliance fully supports the territorial integrity of Bosnia and urged political leaders to resolve tensions fuelled after the state court sentenced to jail the president of Bosnian Serb region. “We will not allow hard-won peace to be jeopardised,” Rutte told reporters after meeting the country’s tripartite presidency. “This is not 1992 and we will not allow a security vacuum to emerge,” Rutte underlined while referring to the year Bosnia’s bloody inter-ethnic war began.

The Kremlin said on Monday that long-standing Western accusations that Russia commits sabotage in the U.S. and Europe are “empty and ephemeral” and have not been proven. It made the comments when asked to comment on reports that the U.S. had suspended certain measures to counter such alleged Russian sabotage campaigns. “No confirmation of the existence of sabotage campaigns has been established even in the course of special proceedings that have been attempted in the United States and in European capitals,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Peskov said that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump was merely trying to…

Ukraine’s air defences shot down 73 of 119 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on Sunday, the air force said. It said that 37 drones were “lost”, in reference to the military’s use of electronic warfare to redirect them. The military said damage was recorded in six Ukrainian regions but provided no immediate details.

German election winner Friedrich Merz’s conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) have concluded preliminary talks on forming a coalition government, Merz told reporters on Saturday in a joint announcement alongside other party leaders. In Germany, where coalitions are the norm, governments are typically formed in two phases, with parties first holding exploratory talks and then entering into formal coalition talks. The two parties were racing for a deal before next week when they hope to push a loosening of Germany’s borrowing limits through parliament to revive growth in Europe’s largest economy and boost military spending. Chancellor-in-waiting Merz wants to form…

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Tehran will not negotiate under pressure by a “bullying country”, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had sent a letter to the country’s top authority to negotiate a nuclear deal. In an interview with Fox Business, Trump said “there are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal” to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. In a meeting with senior Iranian officials, Khamenei said the aim of Washington’s offer for negotiations was to “impose their own expectations”, Iranian state media reported. “The insistence…

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine is “fully committed” to having a constructive dialogue with U.S. representatives in Saudi Arabia next week over ways to end the war with Russia. Since taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has paused U.S. military aid to Ukraine as well as intelligence-sharing with Kyiv. He has accused Zelenskiy of not being serious about reaching a peace agreement with Russia, which invaded Ukraine three years ago and has seized about 20% of its territory. “Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of this war. Realistic proposals are on…