The Israel Air Force attacked Syria

1 Syria

On the night of December 16, Israeli aircraft attacked targets in south of Syria. The aircraft carried out the air attack from the airspace of the Golan Heights. The Syrian air defenses tried to repel the air attack by launching anti-aircraft missiles. At the moment it is known about the death of one Syrian soldier. There was also some property damage — the SANA news reported.

2 Donbass

«The Ukrainian military fired at a settlement in the DPR — Veseloe» — the DPR office in the Joint Center for the Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire reported. “At 11:40 AM, the Ukrainian troops opened fire from the village of Peski at the village of Veseloe. They fired six 82mm mortar shells. The Ukrainian representatives in the Center ignore the ceasefire request by using a coordination mechanism» — the DPR office specified.

3 The USA — Iran

The UN called on Washington to lift the sanctions against Iran according to the nuclear deal with Iran from 2015. The UN also called on Iran to return to their obligations of the deal to limit their own nuclear program. “I call on the USA to lift the sanctions, as outlined in the plan, and extend the exemptions to the oil trade with Iran” — Rosemary Dicarlo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace and Politics, stated. Negotiations have resumed on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the nuclear deal, in Vienna. The UN Deputy Secretary General made a speech at the UN Security Council. “It is important to extend the exemptions for certain civilian nuclear-related activities” — she stated. According to her, the extension of the exemptions is necessary in order to exchange the Iranian enriched uranium for natural uranium. The Iranian Permanent Representative to the UN, Majid Takht Ravanchi, stated that Iran doesn’t impose any preconditions or new conditions in order to renew the Iranian obligations. All the measures that have been taken since Washington left the deal were reversible.

4 Belgium

The Belgian capital hosted the negotiations between the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and the President of the European Council — Charles Michel. According to a European official — the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan confirmed their adherence to the agreements on Nagorno-Karabakh, concluded with the mediation of Russia. A separate point of the negotiations in Brussels was the restoration of the railway communication between the two countries. Armenia thus gets a railway connection with Russia and Iran. Charles Michel stated that the parties agreed on this issue. An another point of the agreement, which Charles Michel outlined as the intention of the EU, is to create an economic advisory platform to build confidence, promote peaceful coexistence, and expand the economic interaction in the region.

5 Belgium

In the draft resolution on the situation on the border of Ukraine, the members of the European Parliament urge the EU, in case of an escalation of tensions, to prepare new sanctions against Russia as soon as possible, including economic, financial and political sanctions — the RIA NEWS reported. On Thursday, during the plenary session in Strasbourg, the MEPs intend to adopt a resolution on Ukraine, the final draft of the document was published on the EP website. The EU parliamentary resolutions are not mandatory, but the member states do listen to the parliamentarians. On Wednesday, while speaking at the plenary session of the EP, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated that the European Commission had prepared some proposals on possible measures against Russia. She will discuss them with the European leaders at the summit.

6 Russia

«Full-scale military actions are taking place in cyberspace. Negotiations with the USA on security in the cyber-sphere are progressing very slowly» — the special representative of the Russian President for the international cooperation in the information security matters, the director of the Department of International Information Security of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Andrei Krutskikh, stated on Thursday, during at the 9th Congress of the Russian political scientists at the MGIMO. «The war in cyberspace is going on, and very intensively. No matter how much we try to say that all of this is hidden, that it’s not actually a war — the military actions in cyberspace are really going on in full scale» — he explained and added that an important issue is the change in the balance of power in the international arena as a result of this war — the TASS reported. Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS