Only Turkey should be present in the safe zone” that Ankara wants to establish in northern Syria, said its Defence Minister Hulusi Akar last Friday while in Germany for the Munich Security Conference. He insisted that the area had to be cleared of US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, although he had no objection to “logistical support from allies” after the US troops pull out of Syria. By “allies” he meant the US-led International Coalition in Syria.

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) allied with the US-led International Coalition are now closing in on the last strongholds of Islamic State (IS) group fighters in Syria, and IS has said that a large number of its foreign fighters have surrendered and been taken to unknown locations. There is also an ongoing debate about the readiness of European countries, where many of these fighters came from, to receive them. There have been discouraging views, including a suggestion not to prosecute these IS fighters for their actions since what they have done took place in Syria and not in their countries of origin.

The U.S. Department of Justice may announce as early as next week that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has given the attorney general his report on the federal Russia investigation, CNN said on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. After the expected announcement, U.S. Attorney General William Barr will review Mueller s findings and submit his own summary to Congress, CNN reported.

Three MPs quit the governing Conservative Party over Brexit on Wednesday, joining a mounting rebellion in parliament this week against the two major parties that is shaking the system in British politics. Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston said they planned to sit in parliament alongside eight former Labour MPs who, also citing their opposition to Brexit, have resigned from the main opposition party since Monday to form the new Independent Group.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday sacked a close aide who helped get him elected after a storm within his party over suspected improper campaign financing. The allegations are the latest scandal to hit the party of the far-right president, who comfortably won elections last October in large part by vowing to stamp out corruption.

A coalition of 16 U.S. states led by California sued President Donald Trump and top members of his administration on Monday to block his decision to declare a national emergency to obtain funds for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California came after Trump invoked emergency powers on Friday to help build the wall that was his signature 2016 campaign promise. Trump s order would allow him to spend on the wall money that Congress appropriated for other purposes. Congress declined to fulfill his request for $5.7 billion to help build the wall this year..

US Senator Bernie Sanders said he will seek the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 2020. The 77-year-old made the announcement in an email to supporters asking for 1 million people to sign up to start the effort. "Our campaign is about creating a government and economy that works for the many, not just the few," Sanders said.

LONDON (Reuters) – Seven Labour lawmakers quit Britain’s main opposition party on Monday over leader Jeremy Corbyn’s approach to Brexit and a row over anti-Semitism, saying Labour had been “hijacked by the machine politics of the hard left.” The departure of the small group of lawmakers underlines the mounting frustration with Corbyn’s reluctance to change his Brexit strategy and start campaigning for a second referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. Related Coverage

When Donald Trump visited Beto O’Rourke’s hometown to argue that walling off the southern border makes the US safer, the former Democratic congressman and possible 2020 presidential hopeful was ready. As the president filled an El Paso arena with supporters, O’Rourke helped lead thousands of his own on a protest march past the barrier of barbed-wire topped fencing and towering metal slats that separates El Paso from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday his government would not bargain over the country s constitution with the Turkey-backed opposition, lambasting a U.N. peace process that aims to rewrite its terms. A congress convened by Russia, Assad s key ally, last year tasked the U.N. envoy for Syria with forming a committee to draft a new constitution, after many rounds of talks to end the war had failed. The stalled process is meant to lead eventually to new elections.

Iran s state TV is reporting that the country s President Hassan Rouhani has unveiled the first Iranian made semi-heavy submarine. The Sunday report said the Fateh, "Conqueror in Persian, is capable of being fitted with cruise missiles. Since 1992, Iran has developed a homegrown defense industry that produces light and heavy weapons ranging from mortars and torpedoes to tanks and submarines.

Russia told Turkey on Thursday it had no right to create a “safe zone” inside Syria unless it sought and received the consent of President Bashar al-Assad, signaling tensions as a three-way summit on the Syrian conflict began. President Vladimir Putin, one of Assad s closest allies, was hosting the summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to discuss the future of Syria with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on Thursday for a new era of cooperation on the Middle East and said no country could afford to stay on the sidelines in tackling regional challenges such as Iran, Syria, Yemen and Israeli-Palestinian peace. Pompeo spoke amid tensions with the European Union over Washington s decision to pull out of world powers 2015 nuclear deal with Iran deal and its sudden announcement to withdraw American troops from Syria.

The Mideast conference in Poland starting Wednesday offers Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an opportunity to flaunt in public what he has long boasted about happening behind the scenes _ his country s improved relations with some Gulf Arab nations. Several Gulf dignitaries are expected to attend in a potential show of force against uninvited Iran. But the Palestinians are urging a boycott of the conference, and it remains to be seen whether Arab officials will make any public overtures to Netanyahu without a major concession to the Palestinian cause, which still animates the Arab public.

Foreign ministers and senior officials from 60 nations gather in the Polish capital Warsaw on Wednesday where the United States hopes to ratchet up pressure against Iran despite concerns among major European countries about heightened tensions with Tehran. The absence of foreign ministers from major European powers, Germany and France, highlights festering tensions with the European Union over U.S. President Donald Trump s decision last year to withdraw from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose sanctions.

The United States is seeking this week in Warsaw to rally the world behind a vision of the Middle East that includes maximum pressure on Iran and strong backing of Israel, but it is winning little fresh support. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month announced the two-day conference starting Wednesday, saying that foreign ministers from around the world would come to Poland to take up the "destabilising influence" of Iran in the Middle East.

Twelve Catalan secessionist leaders go on trial in Spain s Supreme Court on Tuesday, charged for their role in a failed independence bid 16 months ago that deeply divided the country and triggered the biggest political crisis in decades. The trial is due to start 10:00 am local time (0900 GMT). At around 0625 GMT a convoy of two vans and police cars left the Soto del Real prison outside Madrid, where the leaders have been detained, heading toward the capital.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Sunday offered the Taliban the possibility of opening an office in Afghanistan but the proposal was swiftly spurned by the group that is determined to keep his government out of accelerating peace talks. Ghani has expressed alarm at the Taliban shutting his administration out of negotiations with the United States as well as recent Moscow talks with Afghan opposition politicians, and repeated earlier offers to give the group a secure official address to aid any future diplomacy between the two sides.

Australia s prime minister and top colleagues campaigned over the weekend to block a bid to allow asylum seekers in offshore camps to come to Australia for medical treatment, saying tough rules on migrants should not be eased. Under Australia s immigration policy, asylum seekers intercepted at sea are sent to camps in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Nauru, and they cannot set foot in Australia, even if they are found to be refugees.

Tens of thousands of people waving Spanish flags joined a rally on Sunday in Madrid called by right-wing and far-right parties against Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez over his negotiations with Catalan separatists. Under the shadow of a huge Spanish flag that flies above the central Colon Square, the demonstrators waved their own smaller red and yellow versions of the same banner and held signs reading "Stop Sanchez. Elections now!".

As negotiations over a border security hit a snag, the White House on Sunday would not rule out another federal government shutdown even as it signaled a willingness to obtain funding for President Donald Trump’s proposed wall by other means. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, in appearances on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and “Fox News Sunday,” said “you absolutely cannot” eliminate the possibility of another shutdown on Friday if a deal is not reached over the wall.