Author: Rezvarmuj

(TPS) Hamas is tightening its terror coordination with Iran, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Lebanon, raising new challenges for Israel. Known as the “Jerusalem Axis,” this alliance of Iranian-backed terror groups is Iran’s counterweight to the Abraham Accords. This axis finds support in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. A barrage of rockets fired from Lebanon during the Passover holiday was part of Iran’s “dispersal of burdens” strategy. This emerging strategy is developing under the command of the Quds Force, an elite branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Force. The Quds Force is responsible for extraterritorial and clandestine operations. It oversees Iran’s…

Governments and institutions around the world are working around the clock to fight COVID-19. Some individuals, first of all, entrepreneurs, make their input too. Kenes Rakishev and Saby Fund spent more than 40 million USD to help his country and its people to keep COVID-19 numbers low. As soon as COVID-19 struck Kazakhstan or even somewhat earlier responsible local businessmen started to brace for impact. Those who participated in charity begun to accumulate funds and develop programmes to help Kazakhstani people drive through the pandemic. Kenes Rakishev supported people with the help of Saby fund. He also aided at least two other…

Has Dr. Rania Majeed, Prime Minister Barzani’s gatekeeper and close personal confidante, royally destroyed the Kurdish Regional Government’s (KRG) primary source of income – its lucrative oil contracts? Majeed, who is known inside of KRG and among government insiders as the “untouchable” and – according to the article KRG oil in control of three women – fiercely loyal right hand to Barzani reportedly manages relationships and highest priority objectives on Barzani’s political and personal agendas. Based on the importance of these contracts to the KRG’s financial stability, Majeed likely played an instrumental role in the recent negotiations between Baghdad and…

RIYADH: The UAE’s gross domestic product is expected to grow at 4.3 percent in 2024, driven by oil and non-oil exports, according to the latest forecast by the country’s central bank. In its 4th Quarterly Economic Review released on Monday, the Central Bank of the UAE has retained its forecast unchanged at 3.9 percent for this year. This comes as the apex bank noted that the country’s economy had a good run in the first three quarters of 2022, with the fourth quarter set to maintain a solid footing, helping the UAE GDP to close the year at an estimated 7.6 percent. While oil production is likely to slow by the OPEC+ agreements, the non-oil sector is expected to continue to support aggregate output, even if…

Tajikistan’s Failure to Address Minority Rights Sparks International Concerns London, Berlin (6/4 – 62.5) In a recent report submitted to the upcoming 109th session of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD), Tajikistan’s handling of minority rights has been called into question. The report by the Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial (ADC Memorial) of Brussels, and backed by reporting by Pamiri diaspora activists, shed light on the Tajikistan’s lack of progress in implementing the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) had previously…

Our State is defined by many things. But perhaps the most basic and most tangible is its monopoly on the lawful use of violence – which is vested in its armed forces. That’s why the report of the Independent Review Group (IRG) into the abuse of women in the Defence Forces is of such moment. It tells us, in the starkest of terms, that the State, in this, its rawest form, has been no less profoundly corrupted by the culture of misogyny than the Catholic Church has been. There is not one evil twin in the overly intimate pairing of…

The inaugural Cairo Food Summit will be held on 27 February, with the support of Egypt’s ministers of supply and internal trade, international cooperation, agriculture and land reclamation, and trade and industry. The event comes as a translation of the government’s commitment – under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi – to fostering the development of the agricultural and food industries, in order to fortify the country’s push for self-sufficiency and stimulate GDP growth. The private sector is actively engaging in this endeavor, devoting substantial effort toward actualizing the country’s Vision 2030 objectives. The summit’s opening session will include…

Azerbaijan’s crude oil exports through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline restarted after a six-day halt due to the devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey on February 6. Operations at the Ceyhan terminal, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, resumed on February 12, with the first tanker carrying Azerbaijani crude departing the following day. The BTC pipeline itself was found to be undamaged following the quakes but damage to the Ceyhan terminal’s control room meant it was unable to load the crude oil onto waiting tankers and the oil had to be pumped into storage tanks pending repairs. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Azerbaijani oil exports through…

As President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev continues his campaign to root out the crony capitalism that flourished during his predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev’s long rule, his investigators have turned their sights on a bank linked to the Nazarbayev family. Prosecutors have launched a court case to annul a deal under which control of First Heartland Jusan Bank, Kazakhstan’s sixth-largest by assets, passed into a foreign jurisdiction shortly after receiving a multi-billion-dollar government bailout. A banking sector probe had “revealed an untransparent scheme to change Jusan group’s ownership structure,” the Prosecutor-General’s Office said on February 16. “The implementation of this scheme led to the transfer without recompense of control…

ALMATY. KAZINFORM Il-76 plane carrying the first group of Kazakhstani rescuers and medical workers from the Turkish city of Gaziantep landed in Almaty last night, Kazinform correspondent reports. According to the municipal emergencies department, 33 employees of the Republican Operational Rescue Group of the MIA Emergencies Committee, three canine teams and five doctors of the Emergency Medicine Center returned home. They were welcomed by their families and relatives. According to Chief of the Republican Operational Rescue Group Vladimir Tsoy, the second group of rescuers will return Kazakhstan on February 19. Earlier, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the rescuers participating in liquidation of the…