Category: Azer News

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly pressured the Palestinian Authority to remove references to ‘Palestine’ from school curricula and replace them with the biblical term ‘Samaria,’ according to former UK Ambassador to the United Nations Jeremy Greenstock.

Speaking to Middle East Eye, Greenstock said Blair, who has been involved with US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, traveled to Ramallah and conveyed the demand to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Greenstock said a ministerial-level source told him that Blair presented the removal of the term ‘Palestine’ from Palestinian textbooks as a condition for the Board of Peace to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a viable negotiating partner.

According to Greenstock, Abbas rejected the demand outright, saying he would not agree to such a change.

Greenstock criticized the reported request, saying it raised questions about the principles guiding the Board of Peace.

The claim has been disputed by Blair’s Institute for Global Change, which denied that such a request was made.

The reported episode comes amid wider disputes over how Palestinian history, identity and terminology are represented in educational and cultural institutions. Palestinian and Israeli authorities have repeatedly clashed over the portrayal of history and national identity in textbooks, museums and public institutions.

The controversy also comes as international efforts surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continue to focus on the future political status of the Palestinian territories and the possibility of renewed negotiations.

Azerbaijan’s experience in integrating mine action with post-conflict reconstruction and population return could provide a model for other countries facing large-scale mine contamination, Erfan Ali, Director of the Regional Office for East Europe and Central Asia at UN-Habitat, told AzerNEWS.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 4th International Mine Action Conference in Baku, Ali said Azerbaijan’s nearly three decades of experience in demining, combined with its development and reconstruction efforts, offers lessons that could be shared with other post-conflict contexts.

‘Definitely. The experience that we saw here in Azerbaijan, after almost 28-29 years of experience in demining and integrating these efforts, also in a very important development vision for the recovery and reconstruction, this gives a very important example to be shared with other contexts,’ he said.

According to the UN-Habitat official, Azerbaijan has introduced advanced technologies and approaches into its demining activities while also developing policies aimed at integrating mine action into broader development efforts.

Ali particularly highlighted Azerbaijan’s initiative to establish a National Sustainable Development Goal No. 18 dedicated to mine action, describing it as a ‘unique effort’ that treats mine action as an accelerator for achieving the other 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the UN 2030 Agenda.

‘This is indeed very informative, very important and could lead the efforts in other contexts related to post-conflict and post-war, where we have large contamination of mines like in Ukraine or in Syria or in Lebanon or elsewhere,’ Ali said.

However, he stressed that the scale of the challenge in Azerbaijan remains considerable.

‘I should here be very honest with you. The volume of the contamination is massive in Azerbaijan, the mine contamination. So the efforts are extremely important and extremely advanced and nationally led,’ he said.

Ali noted that Azerbaijan is leading most demining efforts in the contaminated areas, while large areas still require clearance. At the same time, regional development visions for Garabagh and East Zangezur are being implemented alongside reconstruction and return efforts.

‘The UN is aligned around this objective to support the efforts, support the national efforts,’ he said.

He added that further progress would require stronger international engagement and partnerships to accelerate clearance and facilitate the ‘safe and dignified return’ of displaced people to their places of origin.

Ali said this would require cooperation not only at the level of mine-action policy and legislation, but also in financing and investment.

‘The role also of development banks, investors, private sector would be also very important to join the government, to join also the UN in facilitating and advancing the safe and dignified return of the population to these areas,’ he said.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys held a phone call.

The ministers discussed the current state of Azerbaijan-Lithuania relations and prospects for further cooperation. They stressed the importance of maintaining political dialogue and expanding cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

The sides also highlighted the need to strengthen cooperation through multilateral platforms. Kestutis Budrys briefed Bayramov on Lithuania’s preparations to assume the presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2027. Against the backdrop of Azerbaijan-EU relations, the ministers exchanged views on possible areas of cooperation during Lithuania’s upcoming EU presidency.

They also discussed regional security, the situation in the South Caucasus and ongoing efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability in the region, along with other international issues of mutual interest.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has warned the United Kingdom that Israel will take retaliatory measures if London takes action against the country.

“If the United Kingdom takes action against the State of Israel, Israel will respond to the United Kingdom. The era when actions could be taken against Israel without fear of a response is over. We are preparing. If they make a mistake, there will be a response,” Sa’ar noted.

The warning comes after UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said that Britain would introduce a comprehensive package of measures against Israel in the coming weeks over its plans to expand settlements in the West Bank.

“We will act, and I will present a comprehensive set of measures in the coming weeks,” Miliband told lawmakers.

Earlier, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that his government is considering measures to ban trade in goods produced by Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

A source with knowledge of the matter told The Times of Israel last week that Sa’ar warned Miliband that Israel would respond to British sanctions with punitive measures of its own.

Those could include the expulsion of British officials from the International Gaza Support Center, as well as more extreme steps, the source said.

Attention has turned to when Unit 1 of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, Trkiye’s first nuclear power plant, will begin operating. Following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement that ‘we have entered the completion phase at Akkuyu,’ the process leading to the plant’s first electricity generation has once again come into focus. However, the loading of nuclear fuel into the reactor will not mean that electricity will immediately be supplied to the grid.

First, the plant will undergo a series of tests at different stages to verify that it can operate safely. Its power will then be increased gradually. One of the most critical steps remaining before the first electricity is generated at Akkuyu Unit 1 will be the loading of actual nuclear fuel into the reactor.

In June, 163 test fuel assemblies were loaded into the reactor at the plant. The operation was regarded as an important stage in checking the systems and preparing the facility for operation. On August 6, another operation lasting approximately six hours was carried out to determine whether the systems in the electricity generation section could operate together properly.

The next critical step on the way to first electricity will be the loading of actual nuclear fuel into the reactor. Following fuel loading, the plant will not immediately be operated at full power. Instead, different systems will first be tested individually and in combination.

Various tests will be conducted to ensure that the plant is operating safely. The objective will not simply be to ‘generate electricity.’ The plant will also have to demonstrate, step by step, that the energy it produces can be transferred outside the facility safely and under controlled conditions.

The process from the loading of actual nuclear fuel to the generation of first electricity is expected to take approximately three months. Therefore, if fuel loading takes place at the end of September or the beginning of October, it appears possible that Akkuyu could generate its first electricity in the final days of 2026.

However, this should not be regarded as a firm timetable. The inspections and tests to be conducted, any deficiencies that may emerge, and the official approvals required could extend the process.

If fuel loading is postponed until November, first electricity could be pushed into early 2027. If the fuel is loaded in December, the first electricity generation could be delayed until as late as March.

The generation of first electricity at Akkuyu will not mean that the plant immediately begins operating at full capacity. On the contrary, a new and longer phase will begin after the first electricity is produced.

The plant’s power output will be increased step by step. At each stage, the performance of the systems will be monitored and checked. Once it has been confirmed that the plant is operating safely and reliably, it will move to the next power level.

First electricity will demonstrate that the plant has begun generating power. Commercial operation, however, will only begin after the plant has completed the necessary inspections and reached the specified operating conditions.

At similar types of nuclear power plants in the past, the period between the loading of actual nuclear fuel and the start of commercial operation lasted approximately eight to 10 months.

If Akkuyu follows a similar process, 2027 emerges as the stronger possibility for Unit 1 to begin commercial electricity generation.

The Netherlands has moved 86 tonnes of its gold reserves from the United States and Canada to London, citing increasing geopolitical unrest and the need to ensure its holdings can be deployed more quickly in a crisis.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central bank, said on Wednesday that gold stored in London could be traded more easily than reserves held in New York and Ottawa, making it the quickest location from which to mobilize the metal if necessary.

‘This makes it the quickest for DNB to deploy in a crisis situation,’ the central bank said.

DNB President Olaf Sleijpen said the transfer had strengthened the bank’s preparedness and resilience.

‘We assume that we will never need to deploy the gold, but it is nevertheless necessary to strengthen our resilience and preparedness,’ Sleijpen said.

The Netherlands held a total of 612.4 tonnes of gold worth pound 72.2 billion ($83.7 billion) at the end of 2025, according to DNB.

Before the operation, 31.3% of the country’s gold reserves were held in New York and 19.7% in Ottawa. Following the transfer, the share held in each location fell to 18.5%, while London’s share increased from 18.1% to 32.1%. The Netherlands continues to hold 30.8% of its reserves domestically.

The operation, which took place between March and August, combined gold purchases and sales with physical transfers. DNB said more than 27 tonnes of physical gold were moved from the US and Canada to its facility in Zeist, while an equivalent quantity was transferred from Zeist to London.

The arrangement allowed the bank to avoid melting down and recasting existing gold bars while reducing the risks associated with physically transporting a larger quantity of gold.

The move comes amid growing attention among central banks to the location and accessibility of their gold reserves as geopolitical tensions rise.

Laurent Schwartz, president of the Paris-based National Gold Council, said central banks had been repositioning their reserves for roughly a decade, adding that the current political environment in the United States could encourage some institutions to favor alternative storage locations.

London, he said, remains the world’s deepest and most liquid gold market, allowing central banks to deploy their holdings more easily during a crisis and lend gold to other financial institutions.

John Plassard, an analyst at Cite Gestion Private Bank, similarly described the Dutch transfer as a measure aimed at ensuring more immediate access to gold during a crisis.

He said the move was currently a relatively isolated case but warned that broader moves by other central banks could eventually affect confidence in the US as a major gold-storage location.

Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley are set to share the screen again, nearly a decade after The Vampire Diaries came to an end.

The actors, who became television favorites as Elena Gilbert and Stefan Salvatore in the hit supernatural drama, are reuniting for Hulu’s upcoming series You Deserve to Know. The project is an adaptation of Aggie Blum Thompson’s 2025 novel of the same name.

This time, however, Dobrev and Wesley will leave Mystic Falls behind. They will portray Gwen and Scott, respectively, in the new mystery drama. The two are also set to serve as executive producers on the series.

You Deserve to Know centers on three couples living in a suburban neighborhood whose seemingly close relationships begin to unravel after a murder. Secrets emerge, and suspicion falls on those who appear to know one another best.

The reunion marks a major change of pace for the former Vampire Diaries co-stars. Instead of supernatural romance, their new project will explore secrets, relationships and a murder mystery.

The series is being written by Brian Tanen, with Alex Cooper’s Unwell Productions and Kapital Entertainment among the production companies involved. Dobrev and Wesley are currently the only announced cast members.

For fans of The Vampire Diaries, the reunion carries plenty of nostalgia. Dobrev and Wesley appeared together throughout the series’ run, with their characters’ relationship becoming one of the show’s most memorable storylines.

Wesley has previously acknowledged that the new project will have a different dynamic from The Vampire Diaries. He said the pair are not trying to recreate the relationship between Stefan and Elena, instead approaching their new characters as something entirely separate.

The original series ended in 2017 after eight seasons, but its cast continues to attract attention from longtime viewers. Dobrev and Wesley’s return to the screen together now gives those fans a chance to see the actors in a completely different story.

An attack has been reported at the Munich headquarters of German technology and defense company Rohde and Schwarz.

According to the German newspaper Bild, incendiary devices made from improvised materials were thrown into the company’s construction site during the night. A witness who alerted police said they had seen unknown individuals throwing the incendiary devices from a vehicle.

One fire broke out in an area containing construction containers in front of the company’s headquarters. The blaze was quickly extinguished. A second incendiary device was neutralized before it could start a fire.

Police have arrested a 28-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man suspected of being involved in the incident. Both are reportedly Bulgarian citizens. Law enforcement authorities are treating the incident as a possible terrorist attack.

Rohde and Schwarz is an international technology group specializing in electronic test and measurement equipment, broadcast and media technology, cybersecurity, radio monitoring and radar systems.

Headquartered in Munich, the company also develops and manufactures secure radio and communications systems for the German armed forces.

German authorities are on high alert for attacks on infrastructure after an attempted drone attack on a cargo ?plane at Leipzig/Halle airport last month.

Azerbaijan has called for greater international support for mine action, arguing that demining should be treated not only as a humanitarian responsibility but also as an essential component of peacebuilding and the long-term normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Addressing the second day of the 4th International Mine Action Conference in Baku on Thursday, Elchin Amirbayov, Representative of the President of Azerbaijan on special assignments, said peace could not be considered complete while landmines continued to threaten lives, obstruct the return of internally displaced persons and hinder economic recovery.

‘The shooting has stopped. But the mines have not,’ Amirbayov said.

He stressed that the physical consequences of war continue to affect the prospects for sustainable peace.

‘Peace cannot be considered complete while the physical consequences of war continue to threaten lives, block movement, limit economic activity, slow down return of IDPs and stand in the way of normalization of inter-state relations,’ Amirbayov said.

According to him, humanitarian demining has therefore become ‘much more than a humanitarian task’ and should increasingly be viewed as a peacebuilding effort.

‘You cannot build peace on unsafe ground,’ he said, noting that the UN Peacebuilding Commission had also recognized mine action as an enabler of peacebuilding, reconciliation and recovery.

Amirbayov recalled the August 8, 2025 Washington process between Azerbaijan and Armenia, when the text of the peace agreement was initialled and the two countries’ leaders signed a joint declaration outlining a vision for relations beyond their decades-long conflict.

He said that since the Washington meeting, Azerbaijan and Armenia had experienced de facto peace, with no military escalation between the two countries, while government and civil-society dialogue, trade, economic interaction and connectivity initiatives had continued.

‘We hope that very soon the remaining obstacle will be removed to enable the parties to sign the peace agreement and to codify peace,’ Amirbayov said.

However, he argued that political agreements alone were insufficient to make peace tangible for communities.

‘Peace has to be made visible on the ground,’ he said, pointing to landmines as one of the major obstacles to this process in Azerbaijan.

Since the end of the 2020 war, 437 people in Azerbaijan have been killed or injured by landmines, according to Amirbayov. He said each new casualty not only represents a humanitarian tragedy but also affects public confidence in the normalization process.

‘Every mine explosion today has consequences far beyond the immediate victim. It hampers the atmosphere in which peace is being built,’ he said.

Amirbayov also highlighted the scale of the contamination, saying more than 13 percent of Azerbaijan’s territory had been affected by mines and unexploded ordnance, while 75 percent of mine-contaminated territory remained affected by the threat.

The issue has become particularly significant as Azerbaijan continues its large-scale reconstruction and Great Return process in the territories previously affected by the conflict.

Former internally displaced persons are returning, while residential areas, roads, schools, hospitals and economic infrastructure are being reconstructed.

‘You cannot rebuild a community before you can safely clear the ground beneath it,’ Amirbayov said.

Against this backdrop, he called for a stronger and more predictable international role in Azerbaijan’s mine-action efforts.

According to Amirbayov, approximately 95 percent of financing for mine action in Azerbaijan currently comes from the country’s own state resources, while only around 5 percent comes from international sources.

‘We believe that this imbalance can and needs to change,’ he said.

Amirbayov proposed the creation of a long-term international funding mechanism for Azerbaijan’s mine action, emphasizing the need for predictable, multi-year financing rather than relying primarily on emergency contributions and individual projects.

Such funding, he said, would allow Azerbaijan to plan operations, recruit and train personnel, invest in equipment and accelerate the clearance of contaminated areas.

‘We need to finance the solution, not simply manage the problem,’ Amirbayov said.

He also called for stronger international cooperation on mine-action technologies, including artificial intelligence, drones, satellite imagery, advanced surveying, mechanical demining and data technologies.

‘Azerbaijan has the ambition to become a regional centre of excellence in mine action and is open to such cooperation,’ he said.

Amirbayov further proposed making mine action part of confidence-building efforts in the South Caucasus, arguing that humanitarian issues can create opportunities for practical cooperation even when political questions remain sensitive.

He described mine clearance as the opposite of the purpose of mines, which he said are designed to stop movement, prevent people from returning, keep land unproductive and preserve fear.

‘Demining does exactly the opposite. It opens roads, reconnects communities, restores livelihoods and enables return. It also creates confidence in the future,’ Amirbayov said.

He urged the international community to view each cleared area as part of the infrastructure of peace.

‘Perhaps we should begin to think of every mine clearance not simply as a humanitarian operation, but as a small part of peace infrastructure,’ he said.

Concluding his remarks, Amirbayov said Azerbaijan and Armenia had a ‘unique opportunity to turn a page’ and build a South Caucasus based on peace, connectivity, economic cooperation and good-neighbourly relations.

‘If we want peace to be sustainable, durable and irreversible, we must remove the remnants of war both from the ground and from existing political and legal framework,’ he said.

‘Let us make peace something people can walk on, live on, build on – and pass on to their children.’

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that “serious momentum” is expected in peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow in the coming days.

“I’m not revealing any details for now, but stay tuned to the news – in the coming days, you will witness serious momentum in the peace negotiations,” he said.

According to the minister, diplomacy should play an increasingly active role in efforts to end the conflict. Sybiha stressed that it would be impossible to make progress in the negotiations without U.S. involvement, adding that Washington maintains regular contacts with Kyiv, RBC-Ukraine reported.

On September 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia and Ukraine must first reach an agreement with each other to resolve the conflict. He also noted that there is still a chance for a settlement.

In addition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has held phone calls in recent days with representatives of the U.S. administration, including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Meanwhile, CIA Director John Ratcliffe visited Moscow. Western media linked his visit to efforts to revive the peace talks over Ukraine.