Author: Steven Sahiounie

Hakan Fidan, Antony Blinken meet on sidelines of NATO summit in Brussels Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday met to discuss recent developments in Gaza ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on X. The talks come amid a humanitarian pause in the fighting in Gaza, just extended from four days to six, to enable prisoner exchanges and supplying much-needed aid to Palestinians in Gaza. The pause is in Israel’s massive military offensive in the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Oct.…

Gaza’s Health Ministry says the dialysis unit at al-Shifa Hospital has been reopened and is receiving patients. In a brief statement, the ministry invited patients back to the hospital to resume treatment. Israeli troops raided al-Shifa earlier this month, which led to the evacuation of hundreds of patients and thousands of displaced people who had been sheltering there. Israel argued that Hamas has been using the hospital as a command centre, which Hamas and the hospital staff have denied. The WHO says there are still 180 patients, including 22 on kidney dialysis, and seven healthcare workers at the hospital. Source: AlJazeera

Riyad Mansour is currently addressing a special session of the UN on the situation in Gaza. He has so far called on the UN to reaffirm its “permanent responsibility towards the question of Palestine”, and for the end of the “grave and historic injustice [Palestinians] have borne for over 75 years, since the start of the Nakba”. We will bring you more updates as his speech continues. Source: AlJazeera

In phone call, Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells Antonio Guterres that Israel continues to ‘recklessly’ violate international law, law of war, humanitarian law Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday discussed the role of the international community in helping to end Israel’s attacks on Gaza. In a phone call, Erdogan and Guterres also exchanged views on addressing the humanitarian crisis and efforts for a lasting peace, Türkiye’s Communications Directorate said on X. Erdogan told Guterres that Israel continues to violate international law, the law of war, and humanitarian law “recklessly,” in full view of the international…

Syria and Russia discussed on Tuesday developments in the region, aggression of Israeli occupation on the Palestinians, and its repeated attacks on Syrian and Lebanese territory. That came during a meeting that brought together Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Bassam Sabbagh, Special Representative of Russian President for Middle Eastern and African Affairs, Deputy Foreign Minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin in Moscow. The two sides exchanged views on developments in the region, in light of the brutal and unprecedented act of aggression by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people and crimes of genocide…

The foreign ministers of Iran and Switzerland weighed plans to provide humanitarian aid supplies for Palestinians and ensure a permanent truce in the Gaza Strip after weeks of relentless Israeli strikes. In a telephone conversation on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland Ignazio Cassis talked about the latest developments in Palestine and a ceasefire in Gaza after more than six weeks of Israeli onslaught on the besieged enclave. Pointing to a meeting that the UN Security Council is going to hold at the level of foreign ministers on Wednesday,…

The president accused Western elites of making Russophobia and neo-Nazism their official ideology Russian President Vladimir Putin said the West doesn’t need a large Russia. “In principle, the West does not need such a large and multinational country as Russia,” he said in a speech to the Worldwide Russian People’s Assembly via video link. “Our diversity and unity of cultures, traditions, languages, ethnicities simply does not fit into the logic of Western racists and colonizers, into their cruel scheme of total depersonalization, disunity, suppression and exploitation.” “So they are reusing the same old narrative again: Russia is a prison of…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians, the US President Joe Biden, and all the American allies repeated the same mantra on cue: ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’. Much later, the UN human rights expert pointed out that in this instance Israel does not enjoy that right, as the territory they are attacking is a territory they control and are responsible for. As the millions of people across the globe took to the streets in support of the Palestinian cause of freedom, an end…

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has secured a term loan of $5 billion from a group of nine international lenders, covered by the Korea Trade Insurance Corp. This agreement signifies PIF’s ongoing effort to diversify its funding sources in a strategic manner. This financing arrangement, with a tenor of 13 years, initially set at $3 billion and expandable to $5 billion, marks PIF’s first venture into funding covered by an export credit agency. Building on a memorandum of understanding signed in March 2022, PIF and K-SURE have translated their intentions into action, resulting in this significant K-SURE-covered term loan. …

The growth differential between Developed and Emerging Markets should reach a five-year high Global GDP growth is seen at 2.5% in 2024 and growth in developed markets (DM) will average 0.7% versus 3.6% in Emerging Markets (EM) amid the prospects of a slow and fragmented world economy. These are the predictions of Amundi, a leading European asset manager. Amundi expects global growth gradually weakening while inflation tempers but remains above central banks’ targets, until the end of the year. Assuming the Middle East crisis remains contained, this weaker global economic outlook will be mainly driven by a slowdown in Developed…