Prospect of a nuclear conflict in the Middle East is raised by senior diplomat and member of the Saudi ruling family. READ MORE

A "concrete" breakthrough is in the offing this weekend at EU-brokered Serbia-Kosovo talks to ease headaches caused by Belgrade's non-recognition of Pristina's independence, an EU source said Friday. READ MORE

U.S. President Barack Obama will give a speech on Afghanistan on June 22. Whatever he says, it is becoming apparent that the United States is exploring ways to accelerate the drawdown of its forces in the country. It is also clear that U.S. relations with Pakistan are deteriorating to a point where cooperation — whatever level there was — is breaking down. These are two intimately related issues. Any withdrawal from Afghanistan, particularly an accelerated one, will leave a power vacuum in Afghanistan that the Kabul government will not be able to fill. Afghanistan is Pakistan’s back door, and its evolution is a matter of fundamental interest to Pakistan. A U.S. withdrawal means an Afghanistan intertwined with and influenced by Pakistan. Therefore, the current dynamic with Pakistan challenges any withdrawal plan. READ MORE

Europe continues to be engulfed by economic crisis.   The global focus returns to Athens on June 28 as Greek parliamentarians debate austerity measures imposed on them by eurozone partners. If the Greeks vote down these measures, Athens will not receive its second bailout, which could create an even worse crisis in Europe and the world. READ MORE

Paving the way for an "ambitious" agreement on the 2014-2020 budget, energy security and the European Union's Eastern neighbourhood are all key priorities of the Polish EU Presidency during the second half of 2011. The Poles, for their part, have pulled all the stops to ensure that the Union remains committed to redistributive policies at a time of economic austerity. READ MORE

Last Monday, the Russian daily newspaper Kommersant published a document described as a Ukrainian government plan for developing relations with NATO. Ukraine has enjoyed a privileged “partnership” status with the alliance since the late 1990s.  Despite this, the general public attitude among Ukrainians toward NATO is ambiguous at best, with only around 30 percent of the population supporting the prospect of Ukraine's membership in the alliance. The document published by Kommersant describes plans by the government in Kiev that go a long way towards rapprochement with NATO. Indeed, the plans might even be interpreted as a road map towards starting to acquire the NATO Membership Action Plan – a step in relations considered as a tacit admission that a country aspiring to join the alliance is on track to eventually doing so. READ MORE

Analyst Marko Papic examines the upcoming parliamentary vote on Greek austerity measures and cautions that the real threat to the eurozone is likely to come from Italy and Spain. READ MORE

The Head of the state Nursultan Nazarbayev has authorized the security officials to adopt all measures for the extradition of Rakhat Aliyev: “Austria is our partner, with which we have great economic relations. Now Austrian government has no arguments not to deliver these criminals, for the justice to triumph. Rakhat Aliyev is in fear, that is why he initiates in order to distract the attention of public from this fact of murder of young men, which is irrefutably proven, and wants to purge himself from suspicion. And despite all these we should finish the case”. READ MORE

Could the plan to build the world’s most expensive natural gas pipeline turn out to be an elaborate bluff? READ MORE

The United States, the European Union and Russia don’t seem to agree on much these days. But in the volatile South Caucasus, they concur that Armenia and Azerbaijan need to sign an agreement on Friday if they are serious about finding a peaceful solution to the decades-old Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. READ MORE