The 11 agreements cover areas of shared use of communications infrastructure, food security, intellectual property, disaster and emergency management, as well as cultural exchanges…reports Asian Lite News
Türkiye and Qatar signed 11 new agreements during the eighth meeting of their Supreme Strategic Committee in Istanbul on Friday, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and visiting Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani co-chaired the meeting, where high-level officials held talks on various issues.
The agreements cover areas of shared use of communications infrastructure, food security, intellectual property, disaster and emergency management, as well as cultural exchanges, according to the report.
Türkiye enjoys a deep historical friendship with Qatar. The two countries’ partnerships have also strengthened since the Supreme Strategic Committee was established in 2014, during which over 80 bilateral agreements were signed and high-level meetings were frequent.
Opec’s Production
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit voiced “full support” for Saudi Arabia’s decision to reduce oil production, the pan-Arab bloc said in a statement.
Aboul-Gheit condemned the harsh media campaign launched against Saudi Arabia following the announcement of the OPEC+ decision.
“Those statements aim at politicizing pure economic decisions that are necessary for the stability of the world economy in face of the ongoing dangerous challenges,” he said.
The Arab League’s leader also praised Saudi Arabia’s balanced strategy for stabilizing the oil markets and its position on global and regional political concerns.
Last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a 23-member group known as OPEC+, decided to cut daily production by 2 million barrels starting November. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said the OPEC+ decision was “purely economic.”
The United States, which is facing mounting pressure from high inflation, objected to the production cut. U.S. President Joe Biden said he would be reviewing the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia and there would be unspecified “consequences” for the kingdom.
Iraq’s Government
UN special envoy for Iraq, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and speaker of the Arab Parliament on Friday congratulated Iraq on its ongoing political process to form a new government.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for Iraq and head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq, congratulated the country’s new Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on being assigned to form a new government, official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported .
“We hope and expect the formation of the new government will pave the way for addressing Iraq’s long list of urgent and pending issues and meet the needs of the Iraqi people,” INA quoted the UN envoy’s congratulatory message to al-Sudani as saying.
Meanwhile, GCC secretary-general Nayef bin Falah Al-Hajraf congratulated newly-elected Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and prime minister-designate al-Sudani, said the GCC press release.
Al-Hajraf praised the strong relations between the GCC and Iraq, highlighting GCC countries’ willingness to strengthen cooperation with Iraq.
In his congratulation to Rashid and al-Sudani, Arab Parliament Speaker Adel Abdul-Rahman al-Asoumi called on all Iraqi political forces, at the delicate moments, to cooperate and provide support to the Iraqi president and prime minister-designate to maintain the stability of the country and achieve national consensus, according to the Arab Parliament press release.
Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday elected Rashid as the new president, marking a crucial step toward forming a new government for the country and ending a year of political deadlock.
After the parliament session, Rashid tasked al-Sudani with forming a new government as al-Sudani was nominated by the Coordination Framework (CF), the largest parliamentary alliance and an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties.
Rashid’s election as president came as political tensions have been rising in the past months between the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner in the parliamentary elections in 2021, and its rivals in the CF alliance.
Al-Sadr demanded to dissolve parliament and hold early elections, but it was rejected by the CF parties, which became the largest bloc after al-Sadr ordered his followers to withdraw from the parliament in June.