The Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs (Interior Ministers), from all EU member states, gathered for an informal Council of the EU meeting in Amsterdam. During the meeting they discussed the monitoring of implementing measures that were earlier agreed on by the European Council and the Council of the EU. Attention was given to the current refugee developments in the Western Balkans as well, and measures were prepared in case of possible humanitarian consequences if unilaterally border measures would be adopted. Apart from that the Council established its negotiation position towards the European Parliament with regards to the proposed regulation for reinforcing checks at external borders, for which the Schengen Border Code has to be amended.
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The European Parliament adopted a resolution for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia on 25 February due to alleged breaches of international law in Yemen. The vote was passed by 359 votes to 212, with 31 MEPs abstaining, as a diverse coalition of Socialists, Liberals, Greens, Leftists and Eurosceptics overcame opposition from the leadership of the two main centre-right groups. Saudi Arabia leads a coalition of nine Arab countries that began a military campaign in March 2015 to prevent Houthi rebels, whom it sees as a proxy for Iran, from taking complete control of Yemen after they seized control of the capital Sana'a and forced President Hadi into exile. The Saudi-led coalition has faced increasing criticism over its conduct in Yemen where more 6,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since the intervention began. Saudi Arabia has responded by stating it answered the call from the West to take a greater role in combating terrorist instability throughout the Middle East and the consequences of not intervening in Yemen’s conflict would have been far worse.
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Following the earlier announcement by the White House that a State Visit to Cuba would he held on 21 and 22 March, the government in Cuba announced it would ease restrictions of 7 dissidents in Cuba, making it possible for them to travel to the US. The dissidents were arrested during an event called the ''Cuban Black Spring'' in 2003, a crackdown by the government at the time. Already last year 53 so called political prisons were released from jail in Cuba. While the move is considered as a symbolic gesture to the US, it is criticised as being arbitrary as well since on a regular basis people are still being detained in Cuba for political reasons.
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The United States and China have agreed on a draft resolution that would expand U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea over its latest nuclear test and hope to put it to a vote in the coming days. Beijing and Washington reached a deal on the draft, which could go to the full 15-member council soon. The two veto powers had been negotiating on a draft resolution for the past seven weeks following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test on January 6.
On 24 February 2016, the Electoral Board of Peru (JNE) approved the candidacy of Julio Guzman, cancelling an earlier decision in January by the JNE to block its bid due to technical irregularities and not respecting internal party protocols. The negative decision was criticised before, yet at the same time only boosted the popularity of the self-declared outsider, a technocrat that has worked before as an economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. He has managed to conquer the second place in the polls, slowly becoming a serious challenger for Keiko Fujimori who has been the most likely winner so far for the elections that are to take place on 10 April 2016. In any case the upcoming Presidential Elections would close another chapter of the so called ''Pink Tide'' as the current leftist president will be replaced by either a centre-right or centrist candidate. This would follow earlier political earthquakes following earlier Presidential elections in Argentina and Parliamentary elections in Venezuela, where there has been a shift to the right already.
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Following earlier wins during Republican primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, Donald Trump has managed to secure his third victory in Nevada, beating his opponents by far with 46% of the votes, followed by Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz with 24% and 21% of the votes respectively. It further paves the way of the billionaire to the Republican nomination for the Presidential Elections in November 2016.
Syria’s government agreed to a ceasefire deal on 22 February announced by the US and Russia with the conditional acceptance of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC), the leading opposition group. The deal does not apply to terrorist groups such as IS and al-Nusra Front. The deal calls for a ‘cessation of hostilities’ and will take effect at midnight on 27 February Damascus time. In a change to earlier ceasefire statements, Russia and the US have agreed to act as direct monitors of the cessation of hostilities. Violations of the ceasefire will be reported on a co-chaired US-Russia hotline which will have power to block warring parties from the agreement, opening it to military attack. The US continues to insist that Assad stands down at the end of the process, but Iran and Russia have spoken instead of decentralisation, and Assad being left with a more titular role. Additionally, Assad called a parliamentary election for 13 April. Elections are held every four years in Syria with the last one held in 2012.
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After having introduced influx caps of 80 refugees per day on the 17th of February, Austria has held a conference on refugee blockades (Managing Migration Together). The Interior and Foreign Ministers of Austria and the countries of the Western Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, FYROM Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) issued a declaration, which sets certain requirements. Among those are the establishment of a "joint operational center in the fight against smuggling", formulating the conditions on allowing refugees and migrants to enter and the agreement on the mutual support. The measures are to be further discussed at the summit of Interior Ministers on 25 February. The criticism comes from Greece for not being invited to the conference.
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Bolivians went to the polls on 21 February to vote in a referendum on whether current President Evo Morales, who secured a 3th term in 2014, to run for a 4th term in 2019. The proposed changes in the referendum to make a 4th term possible for Morales were voted down by a narrow majority of about 51%. It is a setback for the President that has been able until now to secure victories during general elections of over 60%. The popularity of the President and his party has gone down recently however due to corruption scandals and a personal scandal of the President himself. The socialist Evo Morales is already in office since 2006 and has been praised for improving the life standards and status of the citizens in his country, mostly that of the indigenous populations. On the other hand he has been controversial as well for authoritarian policies. It remains to be seen whether his legacy will endure after 2019, as other countries in the region such as Argentina and Venezuela are shifting away from the left of the political spectrum.
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Niger’s first round of the presidential elections on the 21st of February hosted 15 candidates. It resulted in incumbent president Issoufou from the PNDS-Tarraya party taking the lead with 48,4% of the votes. Issoufou is running for his second term, promising to crush Islamist militants of Boko Haram and to reduce the country's deep poverty. One of the contenders heading the opposition is former premier and parliament speaker Amadou, who is campaigning from behind bars due to his alleged role in a baby-trafficking scandal but nevertheless came in second with 17,8% of the votes. Third runner up was former Prime Minster Oumarou who received around 12%. Niger closed its land borders and ramped up security during the elections in case of unrest or militant attacks. Although the atmosphere surround the elections was claimed to be ‘tense’, there was only one reported attack.
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