Gulf States in Tehran: ‘neutral’ in the clash between Israel and Iran

Today's news: Delhi approves 1.2 billion programme to double table oil production; One in five Hong Kong residents live in poverty; Ankara and Baghdad sign MoU on voluntary return of Iraqi migrants; Cambodian citizen in Malaysia deported for criticising the Phnom Penh government on social media.

GULF - IRAN - ISRAEL
In meetings in Doha this week, the Gulf Arab states reassured Iran of their neutrality in the conflict between Tehran and Israel. The shared fear is that a wider extension of the conflict could threaten oil facilities. A source present at the meetings revealed that high on the agenda in all discussions was the urgency of regional de-escalation. In the morning, an Israeli air raid near the Lebanese border crossing of Masnaa with Syria disrupted a road used by hundreds of thousands of people to flee. Heavy bombing has been going on in Beirut for hours, even the international airport was hit.

INDIA
Delhi yesterday approved a USD 1.2 billion programme to double table oil production in seven years and reduce dependence on exports. The target is to increase from the current 12.7 million metric tonnes to 25.45 by 2030-31, or about 72 per cent of domestic requirements. India meets almost two-thirds of its demand with purchases of palm, soya and sunflower oil from Indonesia, Malaysia and Russia.

HONG KONG
One in five Hong Kong residents live in poverty, also affected by the weaknesses of the Chinese economy. A report by Oxfam reveals that one million people are below the minimum threshold. The rate exceeded 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 42.9 per cent over the same period in 2019. The number of poor households increased by 22.7%.

TURKEY - IRAQ
Ankara and Baghdad signed a memorandum of understanding on the voluntary return of Iraqis to their country to resolve the migration issue after decades of instability. The aim is to strengthen cooperation in managing migration in a more sustainable and secure way. The history of Iraqi migration to Turkey dates back to the 1980s, the last wave in 2014 with the rise of Isis.

MALAYSIA - CAMBODIA
Nuon Toeun, a 36-year-old Cambodian woman who had been working for years as a waitress in Malaysia, was deported to her homeland for comments posted on social media critical of leaders in Phnom Penh. Activists and experts point out that the affair is just the latest example of how a South East Asian government manoeuvres to help a neighbouring country in its repression of dissent.

KAZAKHSTAN - MONGOLIA - RUSSIA
The Ministry of Transport in Astana has announced that Kazakhstan and Mongolia have started the process of building a new highway between the two countries. The route will cross the territory of Russia, to which they have requested approval, starting from the existing 189-kilometre section between the Kazakh town of Ust-Kamenogorsk and the Russian border, for a further 837 km.

ASIA
The third summit of the ‘Dialogue for Cooperation in Asia’ is currently being held in Qatar. This is an initiative first proposed in 2002 by Thailand to ‘create new tools for interregional cooperation’ and brings together representatives of 31 Asian nations including China, Russia, Iran, India, Japan and the Central Asian countries.

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