Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the United States mediating an Armenia-Azerbaijan peace declaration, Russian territorial demands to end the war in Ukraine, and Germany’s growing criticism of Israel.
The Power of Rebranding
Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a deal at the White House on Friday to settle a longtime dispute over the so-called Zangezur corridor, a sliver of land that became a flash point in the two rivals’ decadeslong conflict.
This is a “great opportunity but also a big responsibility,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said while sitting beside U.S. President Donald Trump, who mediated the agreement, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Under the joint peace declaration, Washington will have leasing rights to develop the transit corridor, which would connect Azerbaijan with its exclave, Nakhchivan, and rebrand it to the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity (TRIPP). The project will operate under Armenian legal jurisdiction, but the United States will lease the land to a private U.S. company to oversee construction and management. Negotiations to decide who will operate the corridor will begin next week.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a deadly conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region for years, killing thousands of people on both sides and displacing more than 100,000 others. In 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin brokered a cease-fire deal between the two sides, but the talks only offered a brief reprieve, as Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive in 2023 to secure total control of the ethnically Armenian breakaway region.
Since then, the United States has taken the lead in mediating the crisis. Earlier this year, Yerevan and Baku agreed to language for a future deal, marking a major breakthrough in peace talks. But several sticking points remained, namely Armenia expressing concerns over an Azerbaijani demand for a corridor to access its Nakhchivan exclave.
Friday’s deal addresses that obstacle by creating a U.S.-overseen “multimodal transit area” that will allow “unimpeded connectivity” between Azerbaijan and the exclave while also respecting Armenia’s sovereignty. “By locking in this path to peace, we are unlocking the great potential of the South Caucasus region in trade, transit, and energy flows,” White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said on Friday.
Experts predict that such a system will boost trade links with Central Asia and China, as well as pave the way for neighboring Turkey to reopen its border with Armenia, which it closed in 1993. The deal is also likely to bolster the United States’ influence in the region while further dwindling the authority of Russia and Iran.
“Many Leaders have tried to end the War, with no success, until now, thanks to ‘TRUMP,’” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday, as part of an ongoing and thinly veiled argument for why he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The joint peace declaration will also endorse a formal request to disband the Minsk Group, which was established in 1992 to mediate the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, it remains unclear if the new deal will address the status of more than 100,000 people who were displaced during Azerbaijan’s 2023 offensive, if it will force Azerbaijan to release Armenian prisoners of war, or if it will protect Armenian cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh.
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What We’re Following
Sidelining Kyiv. Russia and the United States are seeking a deal to end the war in Ukraine in a bid to avoid further U.S. sanctions on Moscow, which Washington vowed to impose if the Kremlin failed to make progress toward a peace agreement by Friday. According to people familiar with the talks, the two countries are discussing a framework that would grant Russia control of Ukrainian territory that it has seized since its full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Putin is also demanding that Kyiv cede authority over its Donbas and Crimea regions.
In return, the deal would dictate that Russia halts its offensive in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along current battlelines. It is unclear if Moscow would be forced to give up any territory that it currently controls, including Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Such an outcome would be a decisive win for Moscow, which has repeatedly demanded that it be allowed to keep its territorial gains as a condition of a peace deal. It would also further Russian efforts to sideline Ukraine and its European allies from the negotiating table. On Wednesday, White House envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow for “useful and constructive” talks. And on Thursday, Trump said he would meet with Putin even if the Russian leader refuses to hold a trilateral summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; Trump and Putin are expected to meet as early as next week.
Drastic policy change. Berlin will not authorize any military equipment exports to Israel that could be used in Gaza “until further notice,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced on Friday. The decision marks a major policy shift for Merz, who campaigned on a pro-Israel platform, as well as for Germany at large, which has made Israel’s security a pillar of its own foreign policy given its history with the Holocaust.
Merz said his decision is in response to Israel’s security cabinet approving plans on Friday to take control of Gaza City, escalating the country’s military campaign in the territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also suggested that he intends for Israel to take total control of Gaza after the war, arguing that doing so is vital to defeat Hamas, rescue the remaining hostages, and ensure Israel’s long-term security, though he maintains that Israel will eventually transfer civilian governance to “Arab forces.”
However, Western powers, the United Nations, and human rights groups maintain that taking control of Gaza City will only exacerbate mass starvation in the territory. “Of course, in some ways, it’s not surprising because it’s completely in line with the policy of ethnic cleansing that we’ve witnessed with our own eyes for the last 22 months,” Caroline Willemen, a project coordinator at the Doctors Without Borders clinic in Gaza City, told FP’s John Haltiwanger. “At the same time, it somehow still does come as a surprise that we have to consider the reality of what this will mean if it does indeed get implemented. We’re talking for Gaza City about over a million people who would be forced to go south.”
New man in charge. Haitian authorities appointed a wealthy businessperson on Thursday to lead the country’s transitional presidential council. Laurent Saint-Cyr is tasked with overseeing the final phase of Haiti’s transition back to democratically elected governance.
“Our country is going through one of the greatest crises in all its history,” Saint-Cyr said during his inauguration ceremony. “It’s not the time for beautiful speeches. It’s time to act.” He called on international partners to deploy more troops to Haiti to bolster U.N.-backed operations aimed at tackling rampant gang violence. Armed groups control roughly 90 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Saint-Cyr will serve until either a newly elected president is inaugurated or the council’s mandate expires in February 2026. The council’s previous president promised elections would happen this upcoming November, but it is unclear if they will actually take place. On Thursday, Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, who leads the Viv Ansanm coalition of gangs, vowed to disrupt the transition of power. And public trust in the council remains low, as locals have accused it of failing to adequately address the crisis.
What in the World?
South African authorities said on Monday that U.S. tariffs had put roughly how many South African jobs at risk?
A. 15,000
B. 30,000
C. 45,000
D. 60,000
Odds and Ends
It may not be Formula 1 levels of speedy, but one driver on Germany’s Autobahn highway was certainly close. Last Monday, local authorities caught a motorist going more than 199 mph in a zone with a 74.5 mph speed limit. (Although parts of the Autobahn famously have no speed limits, the section that this driver was spotted on had one.) The individual was fined 900 euros (or $1,043), had two points stripped from his license, and was banned from driving for three months.
And the Answer Is…
B. 30,000
African nations such as South Africa and Nigeria are resisting Washington’s economic pressure tactics. This resistance should be a wake-up call to U.S. leaders to pursue true collaboration, Olajumoke Ayandele writes.
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