Monday 6 May

The high-profile trial in Germany of Beate Zschäpe, an alleged member of a group called the National Socialist Underground (NSU), is due to open on Monday in Munich. Zschäpe and four others face charges in connection with the deaths of ten people, eight of whom were Turkish.

In Europe, Spanish Prime Minister is scheduled to host his new Italian counterpart, Enrico Letta, who has already made trips to Germany, Paris and Brussels for talks with leaders.

Finally, in Moscow, there are opposition protests planned.

Tuesday 7 May

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister David Cameron is due to host an international conference on Somalia, co-hosted by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

Syria, meanwhile, will likely be top of the agenda when US Secretary of State John Kerry travels to Moscow on a two-day visit for talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Also in the US, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will be in Cleveland, Ohio, where he is due to give an address on the state of the US economy.

Wednesday 8 May

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is scheduled on Wednesday to brief the UN Security Council on Libya. Tensions between the ICC and Libya over where to prosecute Saif al Islam and former intelligence chief Abdullah al Senussi are likely to be discussed.

Finally Wednesday, the high-profile trial of former Greek Defence Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos on money-laundering charges is due to resume in Athens after it was adjourned on 22 April. Tsochatzopoulos has entered a plea of not guilty.

Thursday 9 May

In Spain, school teachers, students and parents are due to strike in protest at proposed cuts and reforms.

India’s Foreign Minister Salman Kurshid has said he plans to go ahead with a visit to Beijing on Thursday for talks with Chinese officials, that are likely to include recent tensions between Beijing and New Delhi over a Chinese incursion at the countries’ border in the Himalayas.

Finally, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is among attendees at a Global Investment Conference being held in London.

Friday 10 May

British Chancellor George Osborne and outgoing Bank of England Governor Mervyn King will on Friday host their G7 counterparts for a two-day meeting in Buckinghamshire.

In Cape Town, meanwhile, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will present an annual report on economic development in Africa.

Weekend

Also Saturday, the retrial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is due to begin in Cairo.

Finally, on Sunday Bulgarians head to the polls for parliamentary elections.

mikhail / rm / Mr Pics / Shutterstock.com

Monday 8 April

US Secretary of State John Kerry continues his visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories on Monday (and Tuesday) where he is holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, meanwhile, will meet on Monday with his Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy in Madrid.

In Chile, a team of investigators will exhume the body of Pablo Neruda to verify whether the poet did, in fact, die from cancer in 1973, or whether he was assassinated, as some claim.

Finally, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will be in Brussels for talks with key EU officials, at which the crisis in Cyprus and its potential impact on economic stability of Europe is likely to be discussed.

Tuesday 9 April

On Tuesday, Jacob Lew is scheduled to continue his travel in Europe, with stops in Berlin and Paris for talks with his counterparts Wolfgang Schauble and Pierre Moscovici.

In New York, the UN Security Council is scheduled to discuss the situation in the Central African Republic after the Seleka rebels took the capital Bangui, deposing President Francois Bozize.

Iran will celebrate its National Day of Nuclear Technology.

Wednesday 10 April

Meanwhile, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague will host his G8 counterparts for a two-day meeting in London.

Finally, back in New York, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is scheduled to deliver a major address in New York City.

Thursday 11 April

Capital controls imposed in Cyprus in the wake of the bailout agreement and designed to prevent a catastrophic bank run are scheduled to be lifted on Thursday, after they were extended by a week. Most analysts expect them to be extended again.

Italy, meanwhile, is scheduled to hold a sovereign debt auction, which will provide an opportunity to see whether the continuing political gridlock inside Italy and developments outside are rattling markets’ confidence in Europe’s fourth largest economy.

Separately, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey are testifying at Senate hearing on Thursday.

Friday 12 April

On Friday, the nine South African police officers charged in connection with the death of a Mozambican taxi driver who was filmed being dragged behind a police van are due back in court.

John Kerry will be in Seoul for talks with counterparts as he begins the Asian-leg of his seven-nation trip. Once again, North Korea will dominate.

Lastly, in Dublin, Eurogroup finance ministers are due to meet, with Cyprus and the Memorandum of Understanding on the bailout agreement top of the agenda. Finance Ministers from all 27 EU member-states will meet that afternoon and on Saturday.

Saturday 13 April

North Korea will again be on the agenda when John Kerry pays his first visit to Beijing since taking over from Hillary Clinton.

Sunday 14 April

Venezuelans will on Sunday return to the polls to elect their President in the wake of Hugo Chavez’s passing on March 5. His appointed successor, former bus driver Nicolas Maduro is expected to defeat opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

John Kerry will wrap up his Asia visit with a stop in Tokyo where he meets his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida

In Cameroon, for the first time there will be an election for 70 members of the country’s 100-member Senate, with the remainder selected by President Paul Biya.

On Sunday, Canada’s opposition Liberal Party is scheduled to appoint its new leader. There has been much excitement about the candidacy of Justin Trudeau.

Monday 11 March

On Monday, a two-day referendum on the political status of the Falklands Islands wraps-up, with the results due that evening. The referendum is largely symbolic, since the islanders overwhelmingly favour retaining their status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. The Argentine government, predictably, has already said it considers the poll a farce and it that it will continue to pursue its claim to sovereignty regardless of the outcome. Expect some chest-beating in Buenos Aires.

Also Monday, the US and South Korea are scheduled to begin an annual joint military exercise called Key Resolve. The exercise, which runs until 21 March and involves about 13,500 troops from the two nations, comes at a particularly tense time in the peninsula following the 12 February nuclear test in North Korea and the subsequent tightening of UN sanctions against the secretive communist state, which were approved on 7 March.

Monday is also a big day at the UN Human Rights Council session taking place in Geneva. Reports on North Korea, Syria, Myanmar (Burma) and Iran are all due to be considered on Monday. There is a press conference with the  Commission of Inquiry on Syria scheduled. It follows the announcement last week that the number of refugees from the conflict has surpassed the million-person mark.

EU Foreign Ministers are also due to meet Monday, with Syria a particular focus. Joint UN-Arab League Special Envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi will brief ministers at a lunch before the meeting.

Tuesday 12 March

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, will host the leader of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia for talks in Moscow. He is also due to meet today with the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan who is making his first visit abroad since securing re-election last month. This choice of location for the trip is a clear affirmation of the close – and geo-politically significant – ties between Yerevan and Moscow.

Finally Tuesday, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde is scheduled to arrive in Algeria where she will pay a three-day visit.

Wednesday 13 March

On Wednesday, British Foreign and Defence Secretaries William Hague and Philip Hammond will be hosting their Russian counterparts Sergey Lavrov and Sergei Shoigu for talks in London, the first talks in this ‘2+2’ format. Syria is likely to be high on the agenda, although cynics might suggest the UK has little influence over Russia in this, or any, regard. Another topic that may be discussed privately is the ongoing inquest into the murder of Alexander Litvinenko (a procedural hearing in that inquest takes place on Thursday).

Finally, in the United States the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold what is expected to be a highly emotive hearing on sexual assault in the military, with three of the witnesses giving testimony at the hearing being victims of abuse themselves.

Thursday 14 March

EU leaders will descend upon Brussels again on Thursday for their second meeting of the year, and the first since the Italian elections that failed to produce a clear victor and threaten to derail what was looking like a significantly more positive year for the region. It will also be UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s first opportunity to meet with counterparts since his Chancellor George Osborne failed to extract any significant concessions on the proposed cap on bankers’ bonuses that is scheduled to take effect in 2014.

Finally, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow. Russia currently holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council and has said it wants to make progress in the Middle East Peace Process a priority of its presidency.

Friday 15 March

The Italian parliament is scheduled to reconvene on Friday following the elections held at the end of February. Discussions on possible coalitions will begin in earnest the following week – likely on 21 March – hosted by outgoing Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Many fear further elections later in the year are inevitable.

Friday also marks two years since the start of the Syrian uprising which has since descended into a horrific bloodbath which the international community appears powerless to stop.

Weekend

Saturday also marks the deadline for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a coalition, after he was forced to seek a two-week extension on March 2. Although both Israeli and US officials have issued public declarations suggesting a failure to form a government would not imperil the visit the following week by Barack Obama, others are not so sure.

Finally, as noted earlier, the 12th National People’s Congress closes in Beijing, with votes on draft resolutions and a closing ceremony, marking the culmination of the once –in-a-decade leadership transition in China.

Some images courtesy of Vasily Smirnov / Shutterstock.com

Monday 25 February

In Seoul, South Korea’s first female president, Park Geun-hye, will be inaugurated following her victory over Moon Jae-in in last December’s election. Ms Park takes office amid heightened regional tensions, in particular given Pyongyang’s recent decision to test a third nuclear device, provoking widespread international condemnation. Ms Park has vowed to take a more conciliatory approach toward her country’s neighbour to the north than that of her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, will kick off his first international travel since taking up the post with a stop in London on Monday, where he will meet with his British counterpart William Hague. Kerry’s trip will see him visit a number of European and Middle Eastern capitals, though he will not travel to Israel this time around.

Finally, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will host Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Moscow for talks on Monday. Russia ‘s continued support for the Assad regime has frustrated many, particularly the United States.

Tuesday 26 February

Meanwhile, international talks on Iran’s nuclear programme will take place in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Political directors from France, Britain, Germany, the US, the EU, Russia and China will meet with representatives for the first time since last June. Indications about the prospects for progress during the talks are positive.

Finally, in New York City, a court will hear an appeal from Argentina’s government after a court there ruled in favour of billionaire Paul Singer’s hedge fund NML Capital, and others who are suing Argentina for $1.3bn in sovereign bonds owed to them since the country defaulted on its debt in 2001.

Wednesday 27 February

In the US, oral arguments are scheduled in the Supreme Court a case challenging a key element of the Voting Rights Act. Specifically, justices will hear a challenge to Section 5 of the act which which requires state and local governments in certain, mainly southern, US states to obtain federal permission before making changes that affect voting. Critics of the provision say it is outdated and unfairly singles out certain states, while supporters say it provides important protections.

Finally, delegations from rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah are expected in Cairo on Wednesday for further reconciliation talks.

Thursday 28 February

An international meeting on Syria will take place in Rome on Thursday, attended by the US Secretary of State John Kerry as well as representatives of the Syrian National Coalition, including its head Mouaz al Khatib.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin will host his French counterpart Francois Hollande for talks on a range of bilateral and multilateral international issues, likely to include Syria.

In India, Finance Minister P Chidambaram will present his budget for 2013/14 before the country’s parliament.

Friday 29 February

Assuming a last-minute deal is not reached during the week, drastic across-the-board cuts to federal spending – known as a sequester – are scheduled to take effect Friday. Last week, the US Department of Defense, which would be particularly hard-hit by the measure, announced plans to furlough 800,000 members of its civilian staff, should sequestration occur. Barack Obama has repeatedly warned that the cuts threaten the US economic recovery.

Lastly, former Italian Prime Minister is expected to appear in person on Friday in Milan’s court of appeal, where he is challenging his conviction last October on tax evasion charges. A verdict in the appeal is tentatively expected on 23 March.

Weekend

In Switzerland, on Sunday, a referendum is scheduled that includes a vote on whether to strengthen shareholders’ influence on the remuneration of directors and management of listed companies in order to prevent excessive pay. The outcome is likely to have international implications.

Finally, the annual policy conference of the powerful American Israeli Public Affairs Committtee (AIPAC) opens on Sunday. The three-day conference traditionally features addresses from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama, though these have yet to be confirmed this year. Obama, of course, is scheduled to visit Israel from 20 March.

Images courtesy of Katherine Welles / vipflash / Shutterstock.com

January

Beyond the ‘fiscal cliff’ in the United States, there is plenty of international news taking place in January.

On 10 January, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is due to commence his third term in office amid increased concerns about his health. Concerns are exacerbated by his decision to nominate his Vice President and Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro to succeed him should anything happen to the firebrand former army colonel.

Barack Obama, meanwhile, is due to commence his second and final term as US President on 21 January when he delivers his inaugural address. Although there is a ceremonial swearing-in on the big day, he will actually take the office a day earlier in a private ceremony.

In Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be hoping to emerge victorious from parliamentary elections, due 22 January. Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has returned to politics ahead of the poll, abandoning Kadima and founding a new party Hatnua.

Finally, in Addis Ababa, African leaders convene for the African Union’s leaders’ summit. They will have plenty to talk about, from Islamist militants in northern Mali, foreign backed militants in eastern DR Congo and ongoing tensions between Sudan and South Sudan, to name but a few.

February

Viewers worldwide will struggle to understand once again the rules of American Football when the Super Bowl takes place on 3 February. Expect much chat too about the adverts between the match’s interminable breaks.

On 10 February, it is the Chinese New Year, this year being the Year of Snake.

Ecuadorians will cast their votes in presidential and parliamentary elections on 17 February, with incumbent Rafael Correa seeking re-election.

Finally, the first part of the long-awaited civil trial over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010 is scheduled to begin 25 February.

March

Assuming he is re-elected, March will see Israeli Prime Minister travel to the United States to address the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference, the highlight of the influential lobby group’s calendar. Addresses by President Obama and his new Secretary of State are all but inevitable. The conference runs 3-5 March.

In the UK, the long-awaited Al-Sweady Inquiry is scheduled to open on 04 March. The inquiry relates to the detention of Iraqis on 14 May 2002 following a firefight at a vehicle checkpoint known as Danny Boy. Some 20 bodies were returned the following day but it is unclear how many were killed in the firefight.

Kenyans go to the polls to elect a new president on 04 March. Last time around, the election resulted in widespread violence as the then-incumbent Mwai Kibaki refused to concede to challenger Raila Odinga. The region will be hoping for a more peaceful process this time around.

Finally, back in the United States, Private First Class Bradley Manning’s court martial is scheduled to get underway over allegations that he was responsible for divulging vast swathes of confidential information to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

April

British Foreign Secretary William Hague will host his counterparts from the G8 on 10 April, with a summit following later in the year.

With global economic woes set to continue in 2013, the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings will see the world’s top financial experts convene in Washington DC from 19-21 April to discuss possible remedies. A slew of economic forecasts will come out in the days leading up to the formal meetings.

On 21 April, Paraguay holds presidential and legislative elections that follow the ousting of then-President Fernando Lugo in June 2012 over a botched operation to evict landless farmers from land they were occupying. The so-called ‘mini-coup’ was widely condemned by Paraguay’s regional neighbours.

May

An inquest opens 1 May into the death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died on 23 November 2006 in London after being poisoned with the now-infamous Polonium-210. Many suspect Russian governmental involvement.

On 8 May, Madagascans will elect a new President in delayed elections. Newsreaders will once again have to get their heads around such names as Marc Ravalomanana – the former President – and Antonanarivo – the island’s capital.

The Cannes Film Festival begins on 15 May, where Hollywood A-listers mix with unknown actors to compete for the prestigious Palm D’Or, which will be awarded on 26 May.

Finally, politics and entertainment collide on 18 May when the grand final of the Eurovision song contest takes place. The Swiss entry this year features a 94-year-old, yes, 94.

June

With Iran’s nuclear programme likely to feature prominently in 2013, amid talk of an impending Israeli attack, there will be intense interest in who will be elected to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president when vote opens on 14 June. In reality, the outcome is unlikely to make much difference since the country’s nuclear policy is widely thought to be controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

Three days later, on 17 June, the G8 summit takes place in Northern Ireland, hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron. It represents a historic moment for the once-troubled province.

Finally, Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, turns 31 on 21 June. Of course, this will be dwarfed by interest in the Duchess of Cambridge’s pregnancy, which will have reached hysterical levels by this point. Expect wall-to-wall coverage.

Images courtesy of Mark III Photonics / Shutterstock.com

Will 2013 see an escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran?  The Frontline Club in association with BBC Arabic brought together an expert panel to decipher the drumbeat of war and predict what 2013 may hold.

Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow began by telling an audience at LSE’s Sheikh Zayed Theatre on 12 December, that the consequences of military strikes would be “unbelievably catastrophic”.

From left: Meir Javedanfar, Azadeh Moaveni, Jon Snow, Abdel Bari Atwan, and Scott Peterson debate war and peace between Israel and Iran in the Sheikh Zayed Theatre at the London School of Economics.

Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in chief of the London-based Arabic newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi, opened the debate by stating he feels war is imminent.  Iran is tripping into the same fate that awaited Iraq during the last two decades, he said:

“When I say the comparison with Saddam Hussein and Iran, it is because the Israelis…want these weapons actually to be exclusive to the Israelis so they can scare the people from the Middle East and they can actually expand as they like…

The Israelis are preparing themselves…  The war against Gaza, which lasted about eight days, it was to test the Iranian missiles [from Hamas]…to test the Iron Domes, which [are] supposed to actually intercept all kinds of missiles…from Iran in particular.”

Toward this agenda, America supported Israel, Atwan said:

“[The U.S.] doesn’t want any regional superpower to possess nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in order to threaten [its] domination of the oil fields in the Gulf. That’s facts…  Saddam Hussein tried to do so, and he paid the price – his regime [was] deposed. The Iranians are repeating the same mistakes in the eyes of the Israelis and the Americas.”

Israeli-Iranian analyst Meir Javedanfar disagreed:

“It’s not because we don’t want the Iranians to have nuclear weapons. It’s because of this regime…  [It] has called for Israel to be eliminated, time and time again… [It] has put its hatred into action. We saw in the Second Intifada, 700 Israelis were killed by suicide bombings paid by Iranian money, half of it at least… You would not want that regime to have a nuclear weapon.”

Moreover, Javedanfar added:

“I don’t think there will be war…  We see that the sanctions and the diplomacy are [already] hurting the Iranian regime very badly…

[And] I don’t see Ayatollah Khomeini having the confidence to tell his officers that, ‘tomorrow we’re going to kick out all the IAEA inspectors, we’re going to take that enriched uranium…and we’re going to make a bomb with it,’ because the moment he does that, that’s the moment he’s going to risk an American attack.”

Other panelists Azadeh Moaveni, former Middle East correspondent for Time magazine and Scott Peterson, journalist and photographer, agreed with Javedanfar that war seems improbable.

Javedanfar thought injustice in Palestine, rather than nuclear saber-rattling in Tehran, was ultimately Israel’s greatest danger:

“Israel’s security? You know what? We can beat the Iranian regime. The Iranian regime doesn’t scare me. [But] if these guys, the Palestinian people, don’t have a state, that is an existential threat to the security of the state of Israel.”

The panel mostly agreed, with relief, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been particularly vocal in antagonizing Iran, seems somewhat isolated on this issue within Israel itself.

When the topic turned to sanctions against Iran, echoes of Iraq reemerged.  Moaveni argued that they destroy goodwill and are excessively cruel.

“It is becoming impossible to be middle class anymore in Iran,” she said. “This is the slow dying of the Iran middle class…  Do we want to impoverish another major Middle Eastern middle class the way we’ve done [in Iraq]?”

Snow ended the discussion by highlighting the need for the West to engage Iranians with the respect he thinks they crave.  And to resolve tensions, he offered his own alternative:

“When you spend time on the streets in Shiraz, in Tehran… you meet young people who look west.  This doesn’t happen anywhere else in the region.  These people look remorselessly west… And, you go around, and you ask people, and they want ipads!  That’s why I’ve always said:  if you want to bomb Iran, bomb it with ipads…  That’s what people want…  They want life. And they want joy…  It isn’t as if they crave a prayer-mat.”

Watch the full event here: