Displaying items by tag: border clashes

The Taliban exists in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the two forces are not compatible. Recent clashes between them caused the closure of a significant connecting thoroughfare between the two countries. Trucks carrying fruits, vegetables, and other commodities were stranded at the Michni checkpoint border crossing. The two groups were firing at one another, and authorities from both governments are trying to determine the cause and how to de-escalate the conflict. The border between the two countries is 1,675 miles long, and for decades it has seen many conflicts between the security forces. Pray for the negotiating parties of both countries to reach an agreement about this critical border crossing that will keep the border open and flowing for aid supplies (1 Corinthians 1:10).

On 6 July, Azerbaijan’s president said peace talks with Armenia to settle the long-standing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict had stalled. He called talks between the countries' foreign ministers ‘pointless’. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has long been trying to mediate a settlement of the conflict, which dates back to the 1990s. On 12 July clashes involving tanks and artillery erupted again on the border between the two ex-Soviet republics. On 14 July Azerbaijan's military reported four deaths, but said it had destroyed an Armenian fortification and artillery, while Armenia had not reported any deaths on its side in the clashes. Azerbaijan’s president said, ‘Armenia's political and military leadership will bear the entire responsibility for the provocation’, while Armenia accused its neighbour of ‘using artillery in an attack aimed at capturing Armenian positions’.