Author: Steven Sahiounie

The foreign ministers of Iran and Sweden weighed plans to strengthen diplomatic consultations between the two countries. In a telephone conversation on Wednesday evening, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Sweden Tobias Billstrom talked about the course of relations between Tehran and Stockholm. Referring to the history of cooperation between Iran and Sweden, they stressed the need to strengthen diplomatic consultations and hold negotiations about issues of mutual interest. The two senior diplomats also discussed a series of consular affairs. In July 2023, Tehran suspended the exchange of ambassadors with Sweden on the Iranian president’s order following the desecration of the…

Polling for Pakistan ‘s general elections started across the country on Thursday morning, said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Pakistan Spokesperson of the ECP Syed Nadeem Haider told Xinhua that polling had started at 8:00 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) without a delay, adding that the voting process would continue uninterrupted till 5:00 p.m. local time (1200 GMT). People were seen rushing to the polling stations in the morning to cast their votes to elect members of the National Assembly, or the lower house of the country’s parliament, which will form a new government for the next five years.…

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday criticized the deployment of US troops in the Middle East, saying it “disrupts security.” “The presence of US forces in our region has no justification,” Raisi said in a Tehran ceremony ahead of the 45th anniversary of Iran’s revolution on Feb. 12. Referring to both past and present deployments, he said the US presence “in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and the region is in no way creating security. It disrupts the security in the region.” Raisi denounced what he called “Iranophobia” and “Islamophobia” and accused the US of creating it. Meanwhile, Japanese police raided a…

President Vladimir Putin told leaders of Russia’s Jewish community on Wednesday that Moscow had achieved “specific results” in diplomatic efforts to free hostages caught up in Israel’s conflict with Hamas, Russian news agencies reported. The agencies said Putin made the comments at a meeting with Russia’s chief rabbi, Berl Lazar, and the head of the Federation of Jewish Communities, Alexander Boroda. Putin said Russia had made use of its contacts with the political wing of Hamas.“You know, since the situation became more tense in the Middle East, Russia has been doing everything to help people who became hostages,” Putin was…

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the recent decision by some countries to suspend the funding they provide for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was wrong from both a humanitarian and security standpoint, and a morally flawed position to take. He warned that ending the agency’s role would endanger the entire region and said it would be a dangerous move that suits the long-running ambitions of the Israeli right wing to dismantle UNRWA and persuade the international community to step back from its responsibility to help address the issue of Palestinian…

President Mahmoud Abbas received today US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, where they tackled the latest developments in the Palestinian arena and the ongoing efforts to stop the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. During the meeting, President Abbas stressed the necessity of immediately stopping the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip, which is subjected to a war of genocide and unprecedented destruction by the Israeli war machine. The president affirmed the importance of accelerating the introduction of relief, medical and food supplies and providing water, electricity and…

RIYADH: Saudi family businesses, pivotal in driving the Kingdom’s economy with around 95 percent ownership, are set to secure additional funding and governance support through newly-inked agreements. 

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement to export products developed using advanced hydroponic farming techniques to the Netherlands and wider Europe. 

The EU is unlikely to introduce a complete ban on imports of aluminum from Russia as part of its upcoming sanctions package marking two years since the beginning of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, Politico reported on Monday, citing diplomats.

Germany’s inability to generate economic growth is making the country poorer, Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Monday while speaking at a Bloomberg event in Frankfurt.