Pakistan-India conflict
THe Pakistani and Indian armies began using heavy weapons against each other on the border in Kashmir. After an intense exchange of fire that lasted more than 3 hours, India reported that it had had not suffered losses.
Tensions between the two states escalated after a police convoy was attacked on February 14 in the Kashmir-controlled area of India, killing 44 people. New Delhi authorities blamed Pakistan for organizing the terrorist attack, charges which Islamabad rejects.
On February 26, India announced that it had launched air strikes against terrorist facilities near the border in Kashmir in territory controlled by Pakistan. Pakistan later said it shot down two Indian fighter-jets which violated its airspace. In addition, a Pakistani aircraft entered Indian airspace and New Delhi claims to have shot it down in turn.
Trump – Kim summit in Vietnam
US President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un conducted negotiations in Hanoi. The White House confirmed that no decisions were reached at the meeting aimed at nuclear disarmament, but the parties hope that agreements can still be reached in future meetings. No date has been set for the next meeting as of yet.
The talks were inconclusive in part due to a congressional hearing involving the president’s former lawyer Michael Cohen.
For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the “walk.” Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2019
Assad in Iran
Syrian President Bashar Assad visited Tehran on Monday. This visit to Iran was his first since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011.
Assad met with the spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei. The parties confirmed that the partnership of the two countries is what makes it possible to successfully resist “hostile conspiracies” of those trying to “destabilize the situation and sow anarchy throughout the region”.
During the visit, the Syrian leader also held talks with his colleague Hassan Rouhani. The Iranian President stressed that Syria’s victory in the war against terrorism is “the wealth of the entire Islamic nation,” and promised that his country will continue to provide the Syrians everything they need to completely defeat the terrorists and recover from the war.
Rouhani also told Assad about the efforts being made by Russia, Iran and Turkey to end the conflict in Syria through the framework of the Astana process. He stressed that at the last trilateral summit in Sochi, “the coincidence of the positions of Moscow, Tehran and Ankara regarding ways of achieving progress in the Syrian settlement” had been recorded.