Author: Steven Sahiounie

TOKYO: Saudi Arabia and the UAE provided 85 percent of Japan’s total crude oil needs in March, according to the Agency of Natural Resources and Energy of the nation’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

RIYADH: Customer service offerings at 16 Saudi airports have been recognized with a prestigious global award.

RIYADH: Almost 74,000 Saudi nationals received help securing private sector jobs in the first quarter of 2024 by the Kingdom’s Human Resources Development Fund.   

RIYADH: As many as 85 agreements worth over $8 billion were signed across diverse sectors during the recently concluded annual meetings of the Islamic Development Bank Group. 

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s real gross domestic product saw a 1.3 percent rise in the first three months of this year compared to the previous quarter, official data showed. 

RIYADH: Saudi Arabian Mining Co., also known as Ma’aden, has announced that it has completed the 10 percent acquisition of Brazil’s Vale Base Metals. Ma’aden, which is majority-owned by the Public Investment Fund, said that its joint venture, Manara Minerals Investment Co., finalized the purchase, according to a Tadawul statement. This move will boost the growth of the Kingdom’s mining sector in line with the objectives of the Vision 2030 initiative to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil. It follows Ma’aden’s announcement in July 2023 that its joint venture had signed a binding agreement to acquire the stake for…

Iran tells the United Nations it reserves the right to respond to any act of aggression by Israel, amid tensions following an unprecedented retaliatory military strike by the country that hit targets deep inside the Israeli-occupied territories last month. Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani made the announcement in a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and to the President of the UN Security Council Vanessa Frazier. The letter came in response to correspondences submitted by the Israeli regime to the two UN authorities before and after Iran’s attacks against the regime on April 13. The operation,…

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed upon meeting in occupied al-Quds on Wednesday efforts to avoid further escalation in Gaza. In this context, the top US diplomat reaffirmed a “clear position of the United States” about “Israel’s” potential invasion of Rafah, the Department of State said. “He also discussed the need to avoid further expansion of the conflict and updated the Prime Minister on ongoing efforts to ensure a lasting, sustainable peace in the region. The Secretary reiterated the United States’ clear position on Rafah,” the statement said. The two sides focused on efforts to…

Jordan’s foreign ministry said some Israeli settlers attacked two of its humanitarian aid convoys as they made their way toward the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.Both convoys continued on their way and managed to reach their destination in Israeli-besieged Gaza, the ministry said in a statement.“Two Jordanian aid convoys carrying food, flour and other humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip were attacked by settlers,” the ministry said, without giving details of the incident.Honenu, an Israeli legal aid agency, said in a statement that four men who “blocked aid trucks (going) to Gaza” near the large West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim…

Türkiye strongly criticized the use of the veto power at the UN Security Council on Wednesday as a hindrance to Palestine’s rightful place among nations. “Türkiye firmly believes that the use of the veto power in the UN Security Council should not obstruct the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people. It should not be a barrier to an immediate ceasefire either,” Ahmet Yildiz, Türkiye’s permanent representative to the UN, told the General Assembly. Highlighting the significance of addressing a veto by a permanent member of the Security Council on the draft resolution for Palestine’s admission to the UN, Yildiz affirmed…