A recent meeting of the Turkish and Qatari secret services in Doha sealed a common strategy for the African continent. The plan has three components: economic investment, security and political-military cooperation.
Strange as it may sound, ten years after the “Jasmine Revolution”, the millions stashed in Switzerland by former Tunisian dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his clan have still not made their way to Tunis.
The Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Industry has launched vast investigations into the sources of financing of associations and mosques which advocate a “separatist Islam”, notably within the Islamist movement linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
The new American President, Joe Biden, is fine-tuning his teams with a view to forming the next Administration, which will take office on 20 January.
The Turkish weapons program for the development of a main battle tank called Altay faces multiple obstacles, due to the blocking by Paris and Berlin of the delivery of components essential for its manufacture.
In a letter dated August 22, 2020, issued by its “Notices and Diffusions Task Force”, the General Secretariat of Interpol informed its National Central Bureaus (NCBs) in all member countries of the organization of its decision on the rejection of the Turkish request to issue an international arrest warrant (Interpol red notice) against the former head of Palestinian “Preventive Security”, Mohammed Dahlan.
According to a UN investigation, jihadist groups in Africa have set up a new means of financing their terrorist activities through the trafficking of fake medicines. Mali is designated as the main hub of this juicy traffic.
Paris and Beijing are intensifying contacts and initiatives aimed at defusing the effects of the diplomatic crisis that broke out between both countries in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, following “aggressive publications” issued by the Chinese embassy in Paris, denounced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as fake news.
According to a UN report, ISIS still has an estimated $30-45 million war chest. The report states that this is mainly cash, but notes that some of it has been converted into investments, via nominees, in Iraq, Syria and especially Turkey.
The former President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, was in constant contact with President Macron throughout the Covid-19 crisis. In March, at the height of the pandemic, the former President had advised the current President to form a “government of public salvation and solidarity” at the reopening of parliament, in order to face the post-Covidian political and economic challenges.