THE WORLD

Photo: A Simorgh launch vehicle launched the Payam-e Amirkabir Satellite from the Imam Khomeini Space Center, Iran, on 15 January 2019. The satellite was not placed into orbit due to an issue with the rocket’s third stage.

New U.S. Report Focuses On Possible Future Iranian ICBM

By Arms Control Association

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN-INPS) – On January 17, the Trump administration unveiled its Missile Defense Review, which outlines the administration’s strategy to counter missile threats, focusing on those posed by "rogue states" defined as Iran and North Korea.

The review cites Iranian missile development as a primary challenge, repeatedly referencing the possibility of the development of an Iranian ICBM and the U.S. missile defense response.

The report also describes Iran’s transfer of missiles to terrorist organizations which then target U.S. and allied forces in the Middle East as a missile threat, noting that “one of Iran’s primary tools of coercion and force projection is its missile arsenal, which is characterized by increasing numbers, as well as increases in accuracy, range, and lethality.”

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 24 January 2019

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, at the Department of State in Washington, DC on May 21, 2018. Credit: State Department.

EU, Iran Not Amused By U.S. Middle East Summit In Poland

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Nearly four months after the U.S. Department of State released on the eve of the Islamic Revolution's 40th anniversary a 48-page report 'Outlaw Regime: A Chronicle of Iran's Destructive Activities', Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made a much frowned upon announcement that an international summit on the security and stability of the Middle East will be held on February 13 and 14 in Poland's capital city Warsaw.

Since that announcement on January 11, few details about the agenda of the event have been revealed. Pompeo said the gathering would “focus on Middle East stability and peace and freedom and security,” including “an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence.”

: Robert Johnson; THE WORLD; Middle East & North Africa; 24 January 2019

Photo: Refugee students in a classroom in Uganda. UN Photo/Mark Garten

Uganda Hosts Africa's Largest Refugee Population

By Sulaiman Momodu

The writer is a public information officer with the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR. This article first appeared on Africa Renewal, December 2018-March 2019 issue.

KAMPALA (IDN-INPS) – As thousands of desperate men, women and children flee conflicts and natural disasters in search of a place of refuge, some countries are debating whether to accept or reject asylum seekers. But Uganda has opened its doors to refugees in record numbers.

Thirteen-year-old Robert Yatta was living with his aunt and going to school in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, when fighting broke out in early 2017.

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 23 January 2019

Photo credit: India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

India To Host UN Conference On Land Degradation

By Jutta Wolf

BONN (IDN) – India will host the global Conference on desertification, land degradation and drought from October 7 to 18, 2019 in New Delhi. Participants from 197 Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) will have access, for the first time, to a wealth of vital new scientific data, says the Convention secretariat.

Desertification, along with climate change and the loss of biodiversity were identified as the greatest challenges to sustainable development during the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, which also endorsed the climate change (UNFCCC) and biodiversity (CBD) conventions.

: Jutta Wolf; SUSTAINABILITY; Forests, desertification, land degradation & biodiversity; 23 January 2019

Photo: A group of demobilized child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2000-2007). Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

DR Congo Is Rotting From Within

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The Algerian philosopher and revolutionary writer, Frantz Fanon, wrote: “Africa is shaped like a gun, and Congo is its trigger. If that explosive trigger bursts, the whole of Africa will explode.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s largest country, is now caught up in the aftermath of its first proper election since independence from Belgium in 1960. Towards the end of last year one could say, after years of non-stop wars and massive carnage, the country was 90 percent bereft of fighting.

The authoritarian regime of President Joseph Kabila was still in power but at last it had been pressured to call an election by the African Union, the Western aid-givers, some of the big Western businesses that mine in the mineral-rich country and, not least, the Catholic Church.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 22 January 2019

Photo: Voters look for their names in the lists during Presidential and Legislative elections in in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (30 December 2018). Credit: MONUSCO/Alain Likota

Congo's Constitutional Court Declares Tshisekedi Presidential Election Winner

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Democratic Republic of Congo finally has a president. Opposition figure Felix Tshisekedi was declared winner of the presidential race by the DR Congo’s top court on January 20.

The Constitutional Court said Tshisekedi had won by a simple majority, paving the way for him to take over from the current president, Joseph Kabila.

The outcome was challenged by runner-up Martin Fayulu who claimed that the election had been stolen and called on the international community to reject the results.

Election data leaked to some news organizations suggested that he won the vote.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 January 2019

Photo: IOM transit centres in Niger. Credit: IOM | Amanda Nero 2016

Cooperation Key To Confronting Migration Challenges In West And Central Africa

Viewpoint by Richard Danzinger

The writer is regional director for West and Central Africa of International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN migration agency. This article first appeared on Africa Renewal, December 2018-March 2019 issue.

DAKAR (IDN-INPS) – Without a doubt, migration is a defining issue of this century. One billion people, one-seventh of the world’s population, are migrants. Some 244 million people are international migrants, 40 million are internally displaced and 24 million are refugees or asylum seekers. In 2018, there is no longer a single state that can claim to be untouched by human mobility.

About 423 million people are living in the Economic Community of West African States, a 15-member grouping whose aim is to promote economic integration in a region where the unemployment rate is sometimes 20 percent – inevitably leading to migration.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 21 January 2019

Photo: ISRO's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F11) successfully launched the communication satellite GSAT-7A on December 19, 2018. Credit: ISRO

UN Lauds India For Training Foreign Diplomats On Disarmament

By Devinder Kumar

NEW DELHI (IDN) – India is the first member country of the United Nations to have launched a fellowship programme on disarmament and international security for foreign diplomats. “This is a demonstration of India’s commitment to nuclear issues and disarmament,” a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said.

With its focus on junior diplomats from a geographically diverse range of countries, the programme has a close parallel with the UN Programme of Fellowships on Disarmament, which was established in 1978 by the first special session of the General Assembly devoted to disarmament.

: Devinder Kumar; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 21 January 2019

Photo: Commenting the latest, fourth meeting between President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in October 2018, Abu Dhabi newspaper commented: "Egypt sees in Russia a reliable and consistent ally…" Source: Egypt Today.

Trump Jeopardising Vital U.S. Interests In The Middle East

Viewpoint by Manish Rai

The writer is a columnist for Middle-East and Af-Pak region and Editor ViewsAround, A Geo-Political News Publication. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

NEW DELHI (IDN) – American forces have started withdrawing their equipment from Syria as part of President Donald Trump’s order in December to pull out from Northwest Syria. President Trump announced that they are withdrawing because, in his view, the Islamic State has been defeated.

Though, even the United States closet allies like the United Kingdom didn't share this view. Tobias Ellwood, a Minister in the British Ministry of Defence, said in a tweet that he “strongly” disagrees with Trump’s comment that ISIS had been defeated.

: IDN-INPS Middle East & Africa Editor; OPINION; 20 January 2019

Photo: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (left) receives U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad on January 18. Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

A Crumbling 'Pax Americana' in Afghanistan

Viewpoint by Chayanika Saxena

This article is the first in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is President's Graduate Fellow & PhD Candidate (Political Geography), Dep. of Geography, National University of Singapore. This article first appeared on the New Delhi based South Asia Terrorism Portal on 19 January 2019. – The Editor

SINGAPORE (IDN-INPS) – Amongst the diverse on-going negotiations on Afghanistan, the one led by the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been making the most noise. Reflecting both the urgency and the desperation with which the United States, if not the entire coalition, wants its 'boys back home', the intensity and extensity of talks that are being conducted are telling in their own ways.