Author: Sanamr

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan bickered over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region on Saturday, highlighting their disparate positions and offering scant evidence that lasting peace was on the cards as they met in Munich. Tensions between the two ex-Soviet neighbours have escalated over a two-month blockade of the Lachin corridor, the only land route giving Armenia direct access to Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev’s first face-to-face encounter since October began with talks hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, following which both sides said progress…

At least two Ismaili home owners in Mountainous Badakhshan were fined one month’s average wage each for hosting prayers in their homes. The regime banned such meetings in late 2022. Officials told elders on 14 January in Khorugh not to allow prayers in homes, that local people must remove portraits of Ismaili spiritual leader the Aga Khan, and that study at the London-based Institute of Ismaili Studies is no longer allowed. The authorities banned voluntary lessons for children based on a course from the Aga Khan Foundation. Local administrations in the Mountainous Badakhshan Region in south-eastern Tajikistan have issued at…

As of Wednesday, black market traders in Lebanon are selling the US Dollar for 46,100 LBP and buying it for 46,200 LBP. The current official rate still stands at $1 = 1,500 L.L. and the bank rate at $1 = 8,000 L.L. Lebanon is currently experiencing hyperinflation as a result of an ongoing economic crisis since the end of 2019. The Lebanese lira has been drastically falling against the previously fixed US dollar rate of $1 = 1,500 L.L. This has caused banks to create an unofficial capital control – basically freezing accounts and only releasing a limited amount of…

WASHINGTON (JTA) — With a new right-wing government in Israel raising alarm bells among many in the United States, the timing seemed ripe for a gathering by AIPAC, which regularly convenes bigwigs to talk about the US-Israel relationship. But the group’s conference this week in Washington is focusing not on that relationship but on American electoral politics. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s “Political Leadership Forum” on Monday and Tuesday was closed to press. But it offers the latest signal of how the group’s activities have evolved from the days when its policy conferences were feel-good affairs that sought to…

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said his company is now close to having 100 active Starlink devices in Iran offering the firm’s satellite internet service. Musk has previously claimed the satellite-based broadband service is being provided to help Iranians circumvent the government’s restrictions on accessing parts of the internet, which have been restricted following protests in the country over the last three months. “Approaching 100 Starlinks active in Iran,” Musk tweeted on Monday evening, under a video showing street life in Iran, where some women were seen without a hijab. The women-led Iranian protest movement broke out in September after a young woman was arrested for allegedly…