Situation Reports

Russia has offered to pay Belarus $300 million to compensate for the cost of duties it introduced in 2019, Reuters reported Feb. 21.

Thailand's Constitutional Court dissolved top opposition party Future Forward on Feb. 21 and banned its executive leadership from politics for a decade, the Bangkok Post reported.

The Financial Action Task Force voted Feb. 21 to continue to blacklist Iran for failing to take measures against money laundering and terrorist financing, The New York Times reported.

The United States and the Taliban will sign a temporary peace agreement in Doha, Qatar, on Feb. 29, AP reported.

An International Monetary Fund delegation is advising the Lebanese government on a plan to solve the country's economic crisis, The New York Times reported Feb. 20.

In response to a request by Boeing Co., the state senate in Washington, home of its aircraft assembly operations, will consider a bill to eliminate tax breaks for the aerospace giant in an attempt to head off potential EU tariffs on its planes, The New York Times reported Feb. 20.

Upon declaring an "energy emergency," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced the creation of a new commission to shake up and revamp the country's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Bloomberg reported Feb. 19. 

Turkish forces have begun supporting limited offensives toward Saraqib, the strategic town along the M5 highway recently captured by the Syrian government, the Daily Sabah reported Feb. 20.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Ankara could prepare a military operation against the Syrian government in Idlib province if ongoing talks with Russia do not produce results, the Hurriyet Daily News reported Feb. 19.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has imposed sanctions on a subsidiary of Russian energy company Rosneft over its role in trading Venezuelan oil, Bloomberg reported Feb. 18.