Business

15 Sep 2022; MEMO: China said, on Thursday, that the US-blocked Afghan foreign reserves should be returned immediately so that Afghanistan could utilise them independently, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"The frozen assets are life-saving money of Afghan people, which should be returned immediately, disposed of by Afghanistan independently, and used for the improvement of the livelihood and peaceful reconstruction," Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said.

15 Sep 2022; MEMO: Turkish florists are resorting to cargo planes instead of trucks as they rush to send as many flowers as they can to the United Kingdom to meet a deluge of orders after the death of Queen Elizabeth, Reuters reports.

Orders for cut flowers have soared by 90 per cent since the Queen died, said Selcuk Celebi, a member of the Antalya Commodity Exchange, adding that Turkish florists were only able to meet about 40 per cent of the demand.

15 Sep 2022; MEMO: The Qatari Government has bought a stake in the Eurasia Tunnel Company in Istanbul from the South Korean partner in the venture, SK Group, a statement by the Turkish Competition Board showed, Reuters reports.

According to the report, the Qatar Investment Authority has bought the shares of Turkiye's tunnel via its unit, QH Oil Investment LLC, from SK HoldCo Pte.

15 Sep 2022; MEMO: The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that a staff mission will visit Lebanon next week to discuss ways to "speed up" implementation of agreed reforms required for an IMF loan program amid deteriorating living conditions in the country, Reuters reports.

16 Sep 2022; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, hailed growing ties with Tehran as he met his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Thursday, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Putin said Iran will soon join the SCO, a security group formed by Beijing and Moscow, as a full-fledged member. Iran signed a Memorandum of Commitment Wednesday for its permanent membership in the regional organisation.

14 Sep 2022; MEMO: Palestinians in the Gaza Strip organised a protest on Tuesday to demand their rights to the natural gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the besieged territory, as well as the establishment of a sea passage to connect them with the outside world, Anadolu has reported.

14 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has handed a 50-year prison term and a 50-year travel ban to two members of the Huwaitat, a large nomadic Bedouin tribe which lives on both sides of the Saudi-Jordanian border. The men have refused to be displaced from their ancestral homeland to make way for the $500 billion NEOM megacity.

14 Sep 2022; MEMO: The new Swedish government should now address security concerns that Turkiye has raised in return for lifting its veto on Sweden and Finland's membership of NATO, Turkey's Foreign Minister said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

The two countries applied to join the security alliance in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but faced opposition from Turkiye which accuses them of imposing arms embargoes on Ankara and supporting groups it deems terrorists.

14 Sep 2022; MEMO: The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday on individuals and entities it linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard for what it called Tehran's "malicious" cyber and ransom ware activity, Reuters reports.

The sanctions were part of a joint response by several US agencies, including the departments of Justice and State, the US Treasury said in a statement.

15 Sep 2022; MEMO: Prime Minister Aymen Benabderrahmane said yesterday that Algeria will share its vast gas experience with Mauritania as part of the two countries' bilateral cooperation.

This came in a speech that Benabderrahmane gave to mark the conclusion of the 19th session of the Great Algerian-Mauritanian Joint Higher Committee for Cooperation.