Bob Baer, a former CIA operative, believes the
situation in the Middle East is out of control and shaping up to look
like the beginning of World War III.
“This mosaic in the Middle East of conflict is getting out of control,” Baer told CNN.“It’s
not just Russia and Turkey, it’s Iran and Saudi Arabia. It is expanding
rather than contracting, and nobody has a strategic plan.”
Baer said Vladimir Putin is likely to react to the Turkish shoot down of a Russian warplane.
On Thursday Putin said the United States knew the flight path of the aircraft and may have fed this information to Turkey.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has announced expansive economic sanctions against Turkey andRussia’s
military shut down all communication channels with the Turkish
military, including a “hot line” to help avoid air incidents.
Turkey remains intransigent on the shoot down and has vowed to respond if Russia targets its planes violating Syrian airspace.
On
Thursday Moscow deployed its advanced S-400 air defense system in
Syria. The weapon will be used to protect the Russian Hmeimim airbase in
Latakia. The Russian defense ministry posted a video of the deployment
on its Facebook page.
Baer said we should expect Putin
to respond to provocations by Turkey. “I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s
not going to back down,” he said.
“That’s the way he
framed this conflict,” Baer said. “The chances of this escalating from
here without deconfliction of any sort are pretty good.”
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday voiced regret over Turkey's downing of a
Russian warplane, saying his country was "truly saddened" by the
incident and wished it hadn't occurred.
It was the first expression of
regret by the strongman leader since Tuesday's incident in which Turkish F-16
jets shot down the Russian jet on grounds that it had violated Turkey's
airspace despite repeated warnings to change course. It was the first time in
half a century that a NATO member shot down a Russian plane and drew a harsh
response from Moscow.
"We are truly saddened by this
incident," Erdogan said. "We wish it hadn't happened as such, but
unfortunately such a thing has happened. I hope that something like this
doesn't occur again."
Addressing supporters in the western
city of Balikesir, Erdogan said neither country should allow the incident to
escalate and take a destructive form that would lead to "saddening
consequences."
He renewed a call for a meeting with
President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a climate conference in Paris next
week, saying it would be an opportunity to overcome tensions.
Erdogan's friendly overture however,
came after he again vigorously defended Turkey's action and criticized Russia
for its operations in Syria.
"If we allow our sovereign
rights to be violated ... then the territory would no longer be our
territory," Erdogan said.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu also said he hoped a meeting between Erdogan and Putin would take
place in Paris.
"In such situations it is
important to keep the channels of communication open," he said.
Putin has denounced the Turkish
action as a "treacherous stab in the back," and has insisted that the
plane was downed over Syrian territory in violation of international law. He
has also refused to take telephone calls from Erdogan. Putin's foreign affairs
adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Friday that the Kremlin had received Erdogan's
request for a meeting, but wouldn't say whether such a meeting is possible.
Asked why Putin hasn't picked up the
phone to respond to Erdogan's two phone calls, he said that "we have seen
that the Turkish side hasn't been ready to offer an elementary apology over the
plane incident."
After the incident, Russia deployed
long-range S-400 air defense missile systems to a Russian air base in Syria
just 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the border with Turkey to help protect
Russian warplanes, and the Russian military warned it would shoot down any
aerial target that would pose a potential threat to its planes.
Russia has since also restricted
tourist travel to Turkey, left Turkish trucks stranded at the border,
confiscated large quantities of Turkish food imports and started preparing a
raft of broader economic sanctions.
On Saturday Turkey issued a travel
warning urging its nationals to delay non-urgent and unnecessary travel to
Russia, saying Turkish travelers were facing "problems" in the country.
It said Turks should delay travel plans until "the situation becomes
clear."
Russian
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Saturday to boost national
security and introduce economic measures against Turkey, the Kremlin
press service said.
"Russian
President V.V. Putin has signed a Decree ‘On Measures to Guarantee
National Security in the Russian Federation and Protect Russian Citizens
Against Criminal and Other Illegal Actions, and on Special Economic
Measures Against the Turkish Republic," the statement said.
Russian travel agencies will have to stop selling tours to Turkey after January 1, 2016, according to Kremlin.
Charter air transportation between Russia and Turkey will also be banned.
Moreover, Russia will restrict import of certain Turkish goods, the statement said.
PEC – Patriarch Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Church on Tuesday
urged all former residents of Kosovo-Metohija to return to their homes
in the province.
“We know that they live in difficult circumstances – the Lord will
give them the strength to endure – I call on all former residents of
Kosovo-Metohija to return to their homes, their temples and cemeteries
to protect and preserve what they had received from their ancestors,”
Patriarch Irinej said.
After a liturgy marking the day of the ktetor of the Visoki Decani
monastery, the patriarch said that “any message is weak compared to the
message of this sacred site and (its ktetor) the Holy King Stefan
Decanski.”
The Albanian national made the victim feel "intimated, scared and extremely uncomfortable" according to police
Link
A 21-year-old man will be deported back to Albania and placed on the
sex offenders register for seven years after he pleaded guilty to a
sexual assault.
Besnik Ferizolli, an Albanian national, appeared before Blackfriars Crown Court on Tuesday, November 18.
Ferizolli was arrested by British Transport Police after he sexually assaulted a woman at Northwood London Underground station on Wednesday, October 7.
According to British Transport Police
, Ferizolli approached a 19-year-old woman asking her to sit down near
him. He then proceeded to kiss her and put his arm around her before
boarding the train with the woman. He sat next to her and kissed her
again on her cheek.
He also demanded that the woman give him her number.
Throughout the journey Ferizolli continued to harass the woman and intimidated her until he left the train at Harrow-on-the-Hill London Underground station.
Investigating
officer DC Matt Nolan said: “Ferizolli made this woman feel intimated,
scared and extremely uncomfortable. She was simply going about her daily
commute home.
“Nobody should be made to feel this way and everyone has the right to travel without fear on the transport network.
“I
am pleased that the woman had the courage to come forward and report
this man and the crime that he committed so that he could be caught and
convicted. We are determined to give people the confidence to come
forward and report unwanted sexual behaviors."
Siwan Hayward,
TfL’s Deputy Director of Enforcement and On-Street Operations, said:
“'We care about our customers and the journeys they make; working
closely with our policing partners we are determined to rid the
transport network of this type of behaviour.
“Unwanted sexual behaviour is a crime and we are pleased this predatory sexual offender has been caught and convicted.
“We
encourage anyone who has experienced unwanted sexual behaviour to
always report it to the police by texting 61016 or calling 101. Your
report will always be taken seriously and thoroughly investigated.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned Russia not to "play with fire" after reports emerged that Turkish businessmen had been detained in Russia.
Moscow said it would suspend visa-free travel with Turkey, and its tourism agency head announced on Friday it will ask more than 9,000 Russians currently in Turkey to return home by the end of December.
Relations between the former Cold War antagonists are at their lowest in recent memory after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border on Tuesday. The pilot was machine-gunned dead by rebels on the ground in Syria as he parachuted down.
Russia has threatened economic retaliation - a response Erdogan has dismissed as emotional and indecorous.
"It is playing with fire to go as far as mistreating our citizens who have gone to Russia," Erdogan told supporters during a speech in Bayburt, in northeast Turkey, on Friday.
"We really attach a lot of importance to our relations with Russia... We don't want these relations to suffer harm in any way."
RELATED: Russia raids Turkish firms, sends imports back
Erdogan said he wants to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a climate summit in Paris that starts on Monday. Putin has so far refused to talk with Erdogan because Ankara has not yet apologised for the downing of the jet, a Putin aide said.
Erdogan has said Turkey deserves the apology because its air space was violated.
The nearly five-year-old Syrian civil war has been complicated by Russian air strikes in defence of President Bashar al-Assad. Turkey and regional powers have accused Russia of targetting moderate armed groups fighting Assad.
The frayed relations could also impact two major planned projects - a TurkStream gas pipeline and the Akkuyu nuclear power plant - between the two countries.
Turkey and Russia have also sparred over ISIL, with each side accusing the other of being soft on "terrorism".
Former
President George W. Bush awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to
former CIA Director George Tenet on December 14, 2004.Kevin Lamarque KL/ReutersGeorge
Tenet, the former CIA director, has been understandably reluctant about
giving interviews since he resigned from the spy agency 11 years ago.
After all, he was the nation’s top intelligence officer during three of
the nation’s most troubling espionage failures: the 1999 bombing of the
Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia; the September 11, 2001, attacks;
and George W. Bush’s disastrous invasion of Iraq, which the CIA enabled
with its false finding that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass
destruction.
So naturally, when he sat down for his first
on-the-record interview in more than eight years, Tenet tore into the
failure of others to act on his warnings, from 1999 through the late
summer of 2001, that Al-Qaeda was determined to strike targets in the
United States. He could “barely contain himself when talking about the
unheeded warnings he says he gave the White House,” says Chris Whipple,
executive producer and writer of The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs, a surprisingly riveting documentary premiering November 28 on Showtime.
Likewise,
Tenet’s former deputy Cofer Black is still livid about those White
House meetings more than 14 years ago. “You know what pisses me off?
When people call this an intelligence failure,” he says on the show,
nearly jumping out of his seat. “I mean, how is it that you could warn
senior people so many times and nothing actually happened?” It was like “The Twilight Zone,” he says.
Tenet
and company are full of excuses, however, when it comes to the CIA’s
own failures to prevent the 9/11 attacks. Years after the debacle, two
FBI agents who had been stationed in the CIA’s Osama bin Laden tracking
unit came forward to say that the CIA knew
two of the future hijackers were in the United States but—for reasons
that remain unclear—forbade them from alerting their headquarters, which
is responsible for preventing domestic attacks. Under questioning by
Whipple, Tenet blames “policies” that “were out of date.” Former Bush
White House counterterrorism adviser Richard A. Clarke has suggested
that the CIA didn’t want the FBI barging into an operation to try
to recruit one or both of the Al-Qaeda operatives as double agents.
This
is old ground, of course, as is Tenet’s rationalization for going along
with Bush’s case for invading Iraq because, as he put it to Whipple,
further resistance was futile. “The decision to go to war, the orders to
send troops, had already been decided,” he says.
But Whipple’s
questioning of Tenet makes for compelling television, not so much for
what’s on the screen as what we know happened after the original sin of
invading Iraq on false premises: the rise of the Islamic State militant
group (ISIS). As Robert Gates, another former CIA director as well as a
defense secretary, puts it, “an intelligence failure such as that that
took place in 2003 changes history.”
Does Tenet reserve any blame
for himself for 9/11 and the Iraq invasion? “Well, look,” he tells
Whipple, “there—I still look at the ceiling at night about a lot of
things. And I’ll keep them to myself forever. But we’re all human
beings."
Yes, he feels the pain. As well he should—and for so much
more that put the CIA in the crosshairs of the public, Congress and the
courts for the past decade or more. Much of it is all too familiar.
Spymasters—the title seems ironic, in retrospect—get the obligatory
rehashing of CIA renditions, secret prisons and harsh interrogations.
The deaths of two prisoners
in the CIA’s hands is “regrettable,” Tenet says. “Shit happens,” says
Jose Rodriguez, the head of CIA clandestine operations under Tenet’s
successor, Porter Goss. “And we were at war. The fog of war.”
One
thing that Rodriguez, who spent virtually his entire career in Latin
America before 9/11, says on the show rings absolutely true. “At the
beginning of 2002 when we started to take prisoners, we just did not
know what we were doing. We are not jailers and just didn’t have those
skills. And abuses were made.” He adds that “we have ’fessed up to
those.”
Not really. He and most other top CIA officials continue
to defend waterboarding and other harsh measures, saying they
were carefully monitored and effective. As for the Senate Intelligence
Committee’s dismissal
of the CIA’s proffered examples of 20 cases where harsh measures
worked, “it’s dead wrong on every count,” Tenet says. “Period, end of
paragraph.”
Rodriguez also heaps contempt on those who think drone
strikes are somehow morally superior to the kidnapping and “torture” of
“some folks,” as President Barack Obama put it. “This administration
prefers killing prisoners rather than holding them captive,” Rodriguez
says, “and the reason is, I think, it’s hard to capture [them]...and
many would consider it dirty business.” John Brennan, the current CIA
director, says that when he was working under Tenet he expressed his
“discomfort” that the harsh interrogations “would come back to haunt the
CIA.” Tenet says he has no memory of that.
You can’t get to the
bottom of everything in a single program. But Whipple and his team,
which includes veteran CBS News producer Susan Zirinsky, deserve credit
for getting Tenet and the other living former CIA directors on camera.
With previous hearings and other investigations a hazy memory, it’s
about as close as we’re ever going to get to a televised “truth and
reconciliation commission” on the spy agency’s key role in the most
profound intelligence disaster since Vietnam. While many have been
blamed over the past decade, few officials have publicly apologized,
much less been held responsible for their roles in creating today’s
unending, bloody chaos. All seem to enjoy robust Washington social
lives, book and consulting deals, and lucrative appointments to the
boards of government contractors.
The show’s two hours move
quickly. Too bad it isn’t a miniseries. There’s so much left out: the
CIA’s failure to grasp the Arab Spring or predict Russian interventions
in Crimea and Syria, not to mention its botched kidnappings of a
suspected Al-Qaeda operative in Italy and a Lebanese-German citizen in
Macedonia. The messy episode in which Senate Intelligence Committee
Chairman Dianne Feinstein accused
the CIA of “spying” on her staffers also gets a pass. Meanwhile,
another intelligence scandal has erupted, this one inside the U.S.
Central Command’s intelligence wing, where analysts say their reports
have been skewed to provide a rosy view of U.S. progress against ISIS.
Sounds familiar. There must be a big intelligence success in there somewhere, but, as they say, those must remain classified.
The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs, a joint
Showtime and CBS News production, premieres November 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT
on Showtime across all platforms. Executive producers are Jules and
Gédéon Naudet, Chris Whipple, Susan Zirinsky and David Hume Kennerly.
Denmark could be back in Euro 2016 if match-fixing claims by Armenia FA are found to be true.
Albanian fans celebrate beating Armenia.
Image: AP/Press Association Images
ALBANIA’S PLACE IN Euro 2016
could be in doubt, after the head of the Armenian FA suggested
a “betrayal” took place in his country’s match against the Balkan state
in October.
A 3-0 victory for Albania in Yerevan, looked to have sealed
their first appearance at a major tournament, but match-fixing
allegations have put a question mark over their participation in Euro
2016.
“Our national team players simply do not want to play. As for the
match against Albania, there was a betrayal during it. If even the best
coach had headed our team during the match against Albania, the result
would have been the same,” said Ruben Hayrapetian, who is in charge of
the Armenian Football Federation (FFA), reports World Soccer.
Denmark will keep a close eye on any possible UEFA investigation,
after they finished two points behind the Albanians in qualifying, and
lost to Scandinavian rivals Sweden in the play-offs.
The Danes famously won the European Championships in 1992, despite
failing to qualify, after Yugoslavia were expelled due to the on-going
conflict in the country.
Islamic State (IS, ISIS)
graffiti have been sprayed on Serb homes in ethnically mixed
neighborhoods in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, the police have confirmed.
Source: Beta
Regional Kosovo police chief Zeljko Bojic told Beta on
Friday that the graffiti spelling "ISIS" were found "in his area of
responsibility," and that about ten of them have been discovered over
the past week.
"The police investigated the scene and took photographs
of these inscriptions and locations. Investigative work is under way,"
Bojic said, adding that security situation in northern Kosovo was "under
control."
"Security measures have been undertaken, there are
more mobile and pedestrian patrols. A special unit has been included in
the ethnically mixed settlements of Bosnjacka Mahala, Tri Solitera and
Mikronaselje. They are controlling traffic, vehicles, and passers-by,"
he said.
MOSCOW
(Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan
had requested a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in
Paris on Nov. 30.
"A proposal from the Turkish side about a meeting at the level of
heads of state has been delivered to the president," Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov told journalists on a conference call on Friday. "That's
all I can say."
Putin and Erdogan will attend the global climate summit that begins in Paris on Nov. 30.
Peskov also said that Erdogan had telephoned Putin seven
or eight hours after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on Tuesday.
Erdogan told the France 24 television channel on Thursday that he had
called Putin after the jet downed but that the Russian leader had not
yet called him back.
"This request was also delivered to the president," Peskov said.
All
military contacts with Turkey have been cut following the downing of
Russia's Su-24 military jet, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
"Today,
in accordance with a previously made decision, all cooperation channels
have been cut between the Russian Defense Ministry and the Turkish
Armed Forces," ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov told
reporters.
"This concerns all ties, not just the so-called
hotline that was launched in order to avoid possible air incidents
during the destruction of terrorist infrastructure in Syria," he added.
The decision has been made after Turkish fighter jets on Tuesday had shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber, which had been taking part in Russia's anti-terror campaign in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a "stab in the back, carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists."
Deffencenet The Greek Frigate "Elli" is monitoring from Ionian (Sea Southern Albania), the modern Russian Submarine “Rostov-on-Don”
Sailing from the Salamis Naval Base one Greek frigate to watch reportedly Russian submarine that is now moving in the central Mediterranean or in Ionian Sea, area in an easterly direction, if it enters the Aegean directed towards the Black Sea or will instead be directed to the eastern Mediterranean and a port in Syria.
This is new modern, tactical submarine the name "Rostov-on-Don" of the Russian Navy Class "Kilo" in NATO classification or "Project 636", according to the Russian issue, which sailed from St. Petersburg final destination the great naval base of Novorossisk on the Black Sea.
The submarine sailed before this 15-day about shipbuilding Admiralteiskiye of St. Petersburg, there ie. Where it was built, and making the rounds of Europe entered a few days ago, via Gibraltar, the Mediterranean.
Immediately Russian submarine went into the discreet presence of the Spanish original and the Italian Navy. The Greek frigate "ELLI" will monitor the Ionian Islands and beyond.
The submarine "Rostov-on-Don" is the second of six overall heading of to be built on behalf of the Russian Navy and was already planned to join the strength of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which attempts to Mediterranean waters and the Middle East.
The ship's keel was placed in Admiralteiskiye shipyards of St. Petersburg in November 2011. Its construction was completed on December 30, 2014 and was incorporated in the power of the Russian Baltic Fleet initially on January 10, 2015.
Subsequently conducted extensive sea trials, making sailing 2500 nautical miles (3800 km) from then until the base of the Barents Sea round.
The displacement is 3100 tons, driven by a diesel engine / electric motors, has a crew of 52 men and can dive to a depth of 300 meters. The equipment included torpedoes of 533 mm, and number of missiles Kalibr 3M54 (NATO SS-N-27 Sizzler) against surface targets, land and other submarines.
German
Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has lashed out at Turkey for this week’s
downing of a Russian bomber over Syria close to the Turkish border,
German media reported on Wednesday.
“This
incident showed that, based on statements from other countries in the
region, there is a player in the region who is unpredictable and that is
Turkey and not Russia,” Gabriel told the weekly newsmagazine Der
Spiegel.
He added that “Turkey has played a difficult role' in the Syrian conflict.”
On Tuesday a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber crashed on Syrian territory four kilometers from the Turkish border.
President Vladimir Putin later said that the plane had been shot down by an air-to-air missile fired by a Turkish F-16.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the Su-24 had not violated the Turkish border.
Ankara, for its part, insists that the Russian plane had indeed strayed into the country’s airspace.
Many leading European politicians have criticized Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan over Tuesday’s incident with the Russian military
jet.
On Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged
Turkey and Russia to exercise restraint and act in a rational and
prudent manner in the wake of the incident which he labeled as
“serious.”
Russia is stepping up its efforts to destroy ISISPresident
Vladimir Putin, an ally of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, is said to be
considering sending extra cover for the 24 bombers already based in the
war-torn country after one of its jets was downed yesterday.
The
aircraft’s captain was shot dead by Turkmen rebels as he parachuted to
the ground – but his co-pilot was rescued after a 12-hour operation by
Russian special forces in Syria.
A Russian defence spokesman has
now announced that all Russian bombers operating in Syria will fly only
under the cover of fighter aircraft.
Their statement read: ”Now each of the 24 [Russian] bombers will be accompanied by a fighter.”
Turkey claimed it did not know the warplane it blew out of the sky for apparently entering its airspace was Russian.
EPA
A Russian jet was shot down by Turkey this week
Its
military claimed it was following the same protocol it would have for
any jet crossing into its airspace, but insisted it was unaware of the
nationality of the bomber jet.
The Russian military began conducting airstrikes against the jihadist terror group in September.
A
Kremlin defence spokesman announced yesterday that a staggering 472 key
ISIS holdings had been destroyed – including an oil refinery in the
terror group’s stronghold of Raqqa.
It is the latest escalation
in a campaign which was stepped up after ISIS blew up an airliner over
Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in October, killing all 224 people on board.
GETTY
Russian soldiers write on bombs destined for ISIS
GETTY
Putin inspects screens in his multi-million pound wardrobeSpeaking
at the time, Putin said: "Our military work in Syria must not only
continue. It must be strengthened in such a way so that the terrorists
will understand that retribution is inevitable."
Moscow further ramped up its bid to wipe out the twisted militants since last Friday's massacre in Paris.
Islamic
State terrorists brutally killed 130 people – including Briton Nick
Alexander – and left hundreds more injured across the French capital.
Russian ground crews last week inscribed the words "for Paris" on a bomb later dropped on ISIS targets.
Reports
earlier this week suggested the sick terror group is believed to have
just 34 bases left as bombers continue to blitz its jihadists.
The statement was made by representatives of the Albanian Secret Service SAS, during a meeting of the Parliamentary Security Commission
According to Panorama, during the annual budget report, by the representatives of SAS, it was stated concerned that in Albania, 89 mosques operate outside the jurisdiction of the Muslim community of Albania.
SAS together with the state police and other structures, are on the alert against any terrorist act that may come from Islamic Terrorism, statement which was demonstrated by the prime minister Rama, Panorama Newspaper reports today.
On
behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I
congratulate the people of Albania as you celebrate your 103rd
Independence Day on November 28.
Since President Woodrow Wilson’s support for Albanian independence at
the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, our two countries have worked together
productively to forge an enduring friendship based on shared values and
mutual respect. As a NATO member and mentor to Balkan countries
aspiring to membership, Albania plays a vital role in promoting peace
and stability in the region and around the world. The United States
greatly appreciates Albania’s contributions to global security, from
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine to countering violent extremism and the
Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.
The United States is committed to supporting Albania as it undertakes
the reforms necessary to achieve its Euro-Atlantic aspirations. I
commend your efforts to accede to the European Union and look forward to
continued progress on the path toward full Euro-Atlantic integration.
As you celebrate with family and friends, the United States wishes
you a joyous celebration. We look forward to continuing our close
partnership for progress, prosperity, and peace in years to come.
Nishani: "military presence in the region of anti-Atlantic countries, as disturbing as terrorism"
According to the "Newspaper 55", the President of the Republic, Bujar Nishani took part in the extraordinary summit of Heads of State of member countries of Process Brdo Brijuni, held in Zagreb, Croatia, where were present also other leaders including Vice / President of USA, Joe Biden .
During his speech, he compared ISIS as all military forces which are not affiliated to the Balkan region, the western alliance NATO,
The Head of State noted that Albania is clearly oriented towards the European Union and thanks to this orientation Euro-Atlantic, my country views with much concern, not only threats coming from groups of elements, terrorists and extremists with religious overtones, but also information and growing interest in military presence in our region from countries that have no connection with space, security and Euro-Atlantic vision.
Also, the Head of State stressed that, because of these developments and the vulnerability of the Western Balkans, the European Union and the United States should re-evaluate the presence, support and concrete actions in this region.
The
United States has invested close to $135 million to ensure the Western
Balkan states are fully engulfed by the EU-NATO umbrella, the White
House said in a press release on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON
(Sputnik) — US aid to the Western Balkans, according to the release, is
designed to expand trade with Europe, integrate the region
into European energy networks and support participation in NATO
peacekeeping operations, among other initiatives.
"In Fiscal Year 2015, the United States has allocated more than $134
million for assistance to support the reforms needed to advance the
Western Balkans’ integration with the European Union (EU) and NATO," the
release stated.
The
US aid package included assistance to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, the release added, along with
security assistance to EU members Croatia and Slovenia.
In September, the United States announced that it was prepared
to extend an invitation to Montenegro to join NATO in December. The
announcement triggered a wave of protests in the Balkan country
The Russian bomber is seen before crashing in Syria on Tuesday (Beta/AP, image made from Haberturk TV video)
The meeting between Melvut Cavusoglu and Sergei Lavrov
would come in the wake of Turkey's shooting down of a Russian warplane
on the Turkish-Russian border, said the report.
The two ministers are expected to meet "on December 3 or 4, during the OSCE ministerial conference in Belgrade."
Lavrov on Tuesday canceled his trip to Turkey that was scheduled to
take place today. On Wednesday, he said his country viewed the downing
of the bomber as "possibly a planned act" and that while Moscow "did not
want to go to war" its relations with Ankara would be "seriously
reconsidered."
Earlier in the day, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu
said that Russia was his country's "friend and neighbor" and that
relations "must not be sacrificed due to a mishap in communications."
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