Russia and the European Union believe the Palestinians and Israelis should open direct peace negotiations without any preconditions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, December 22, according to RIA Novosti.

• December 22, 2012

The deployment of NATO's advanced surface-to-air Patriot missiles along the Turkish border with Syria would be detrimental to Turkey, PressTV reported with the reference to Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi.

• December 22, 2012

The Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) will help to integrate the economies of the Caucasus with those of Europe and the West generally, Investor's Business Daily (IBD) reported.

• December 21, 2012

The U.S. Department of State hosted meetings of the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Commission (SPC) working groups on Economic, Energy, and Trade on December 17, and People-to-People and Cultural Exchanges on December 18, to review progress on goals set at the plenary session of the SPC in June in Batumi, U.S. State Department's website reported.

• December 21, 2012

The Azerbaijan and Lithuania are to enhance cooperation. Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Lithuania Hasan Mammadzade and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Lithuanian Seimas Benediktas Juodka discussed prospects of cooperation, Azerbaijani Embassy in Lithuania said on Friday.

• December 21, 2012

The U.S. has recognized that the third EU energy package designed to open up the European market for energy resources subsidized from the federal budget. At yesterday’s meeting with members of the Caspian-European Integration Business Club (CEIBC) U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar stated that the U.S. believes that the third energy package aims to ensure energy security of Europe, and is not against Gazprom, KazMunaiGas and other oil companies.

• December 20, 2012

Belarus and Azerbaijan have agreed to intensify cooperation in investment.

To this end, on 19 December in Minsk, cooperation memorandums were signed at the Belarusian-Azerbaijani business forum, BELTA reports.

• December 20, 2012

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin signed a joint actions plan for 2013-2015, the Kazakh presidential press-service reported.

• December 20, 2012