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31 Jan 2023; MEMO: The United States, on Tuesday, added seven Iranian entities to its trade blacklist for producing drones that Russia has used to attack Ukraine, according a posting by the US Department of Commerce, Reuters reports.

Nearing a year since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, allies have scrambled to gather and deploy air defences to defeat cruise missiles and Iranian-built kamikaze drones that have attacked energy infrastructure targets this winter.

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: South Korea and Turkiye signed a deal for the engines to be used on Turkiye's domestic main battle tank (MBT) project, Altay, which was on hold after a deal with a German company collapsed, local Turkish media reports.

According to the report, South Korean firm, SNT Heavy Industries, will supply Altay producer BMC with a 1,500-horsepower automatic transmission.

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia will invest up to one trillion riyals ($266.40 billion) to generate "cleaner energy", Saudi state TV reported on Monday, citing the Kingdom's Energy Minister, Reuters report.

According to the report, Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said that the investments aim also to "add transport lines and distribution networks in order to eventually export the energy to the world and produce clean hydrogen".

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: Libya's Tripoli-based government has held talks with Ukraine to discuss the possibility of military cooperation between the two sides, particularly on safeguarding maritime and air borders, Anadolu News Agency reports.

This came in a meeting held late Monday in Tripoli between the head of the Defence Minister's office, Jibril Al-Shtiwi, and the Ukrainian military attaché in Tripoli, Andriy Payok.

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday, held separate phone talks with Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, and Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, the Kremlin said in a statement, Anadolu News Agency reports.

Putin and Tebboune "reaffirmed their readiness for further joint work on the global energy market, including within the OPEC plus and the Gas Exporting Countries Forum."

30 Jan 2023; MEMO: Iran and Russia have connected their inter-bank communication and transfer systems to help boost trade and financial transactions, a senior Iranian official said on Monday, as both Tehran and Moscow are chafing under Western sanctions, Reuters reports.

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman discussed ways to ensure stability of the global oil markets, within the framework of OPEC+.

The Kremlin said in a statement that the leaders also discussed developing bilateral cooperation in the political, trade, economic and energy fields.

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: Official Kuwaiti data revealed yesterday that the country's foreign reserves increased by eight per cent in 2022, amid improved oil revenues.

The Central Bank of Kuwait's monthly report indicated that the Gulf state's reserves rose to 14.779 billion dinars ($48.5 billion) at the end of December 2022, from 13.68 billion dinars ($44.9 billion) at the end of the corresponding month of 2021.

30 Jan 2023; MEMO: An OPEC+ panel is likely to recommend keeping the oil producer group's current output policy unchanged when it meets this week, five OPEC+ delegates told Reuters on Monday.

Ministers from OPEC+ countries – members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and others, including Russia – are due to hold a virtual meeting at 1100 GMT on 1 February, Reuters reports.

30 Jan 2023; MEMO: Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran that Qatar has relayed messages from other parties to the 2015 nuclear deal aimed at resuming the stalled talks, Anadolu news agency reported.

The diplomat made the remarks during a joint press conference held yesterday with his Qatari counterpart Mohammad Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jasim Al-Thani in Iran.