Author: Steven Sahiounie

The UAE has achieved “a historic first” as its robust national economy reached milestone in its diversification drive with the non-oil sector accounting for 73 per cent of the country’s total GDP.

The potential for increased trade, business opportunities, employment, and GDP growth across Arab nations: official

Currently, 90% of the country’s growth comes from non-resource-based industries, according to the president

Nearly 30% of total income went to 10% of the population last year, according to Rosstat Income disparity among the Russian population increased in 2023, according to the latest report on the social and economic situation in the country by Rosstat, the official statistics agency. Rosstat uses the Gini index, a measure of income distribution across a population, which assesses inequality on a scale from 0 to 1, where higher values indicate higher inequality. The index reading rose to 0.403 last year, up from 0.395 in 2022, meaning that the income gap among the population had increased, according to Rosstat.…

Argentina is in talks with the IMF over a new aid program designed to accelerate the process of exiting from capital controls, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing a senior government official. 

General elections kick off in Iran as voters elect members of the Shura Council and the Assembly of Experts for the Leadership for the 6th term. Iranians are participating in the voting process for the country’s Parliament (Majlis) and Assembly of Experts. Polls commenced nationwide at 8 a.m local time on Friday, with over 61 million eligible voters. Iranian leader Sayyed Ali Khamenei exercised his voting right at a Tehran polling station within the initial minutes of the voting period. Following the voting, he said, “We ask the Almighty God to make today a happy day for the Iranian nation and that the results…

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov has signed a program of Ukrainian-NATO cooperation for 2024, which involves the continued reconfiguring of the country’s armed forces in compliance with the military bloc’s standards as well as the bolstering of the Kiev regime’s cooperation with the alliance, the website of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. The program consists of implementing 50 steps in order to achieve 17 goals which include completing the transformation of the command and management system in accordance with NATO standards, setting up a joint Ukraine-NATO center for analysis, training and education, developing national documents in the field of defense…

South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor will participate in the Third Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF) in Türkiye from March 1-3 as a panelist and also hold a bilateral meeting with her Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan. “Minister Pandor is scheduled to participate as a panelist on the topic, “Understanding the Global South,” on Saturday,’’ the foreign ministry said in a statement. Pandor will also attend the High-Level Session on Women, Peace, and Security on the sidelines of the forum hosted by Turkish first lady Emine Erdogan. Pandor also visited Türkiye for the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in 2022. The Antalya Diplomacy Forum,…

Reacting to the Israeli bombardment of Palestinian people, French President Emmanuel Macron called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. “Deep indignation at the images coming from Gaza where civilians have been targeted by Israeli soldiers,” Macron said in a post on his X account on Friday. “I express my strongest condemnation of these shootings and call for truth, justice, and respect for international law,” the French leader added. At least 112 Palestinian people were killed and about 750 wounded on Thursday after the Israeli regime opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, as…

France does not intend to send its troops to Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said on the radio station France Inter. “The French will not die for Ukraine. We will not send troops,” he said. On February 26, French President Emmanuel Macron said that at a meeting in Paris, where representatives of about 20 Western countries discussed further support for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia, the issue of the possible dispatch of Western ground forces to Ukraine was raised. According to him, the participants did not reach a consensus on this issue, but such a scenario cannot be…