National Security Council

Turkey’s top two political veterans will shortly sit down for a final consultation concerning the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate for the country’s first ever directly elected president in August.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Monday he supported the decision to dismiss a number of top police officials, adding that it should have happened a lot sooner, but that he had been unable to do it while serving as the interior minister, because there had been no political will to go through with it within the government at the time.

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said that chiefs of departments at the Interior Ministry (MUP) will be dismissed.

He also stated that General Police Director Milorad Veljovic will remain in office.

The prime minister of Iraq's Kurdistan regional government is in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials, media reported on June 16, amid efforts to thwart a Sunni insurgent offensive north of Baghdad.

Predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran will combat the "violence and terrorism" of Sunni extremists who have launched an anti-government offensive in neighbouring Iraq, President Hassan Rouhani warned on June 12.

High-level Turkish and American diplomats will hold meetings in Washington Monday and Tuesday to exchange views about bilateral, regional and global issues, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on June 7.

Biography of new Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić

BELGRADE -- Aleksandar Vučić served as first deputy PM in charge of defense, security and fight against corruption and crime in the previous cabinet since September 2013.

In the same period, he was secretary general of the National Security Council.

Ukraine is starting a probe into last weekend's shooting near the town of Slaviansk which left three pro-Russian activists dead and there others wounded.

The incident took place amid a declared Easter truce in Ukraine, following days of an "anti-terrorist" operation by Kiev forces against pro-Russian separatists.

The Ukrainian army has stormed Kramatorsk Airfield in Donetsk region, in a moved that has marked the beginning of a long-forewarned "anti-terrorist operation".

A series of shots and explosions could be heard in the area, according to reports by the local newspaper Novosti Kramatorska cited by Lenta.ru.