In April 2023, many foreign observers found themselves startled when senior diplomats from Iran and Saudi Arabia met at a China-brokered summit in Beijing—the first high-level meeting between both inveterate foes in several years. Beijing appeared to demonstrate a new diplomatic prowess—an active willingness to mediate tensions in one of the most geopolitically challenging and conflict-ridden portions of the globe. […]

It was a shock to the system. Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was barred from formally running nominees under its own name, but PTI-aligned independent candidates nonetheless massively outperformed expectations in national elections on February 8, leading in a plurality, but not a majority, of seats in the National Assembly. Independent candidates representing PTI, the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister […]

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday rejected Pakistan’s election results saying they were “rigged”. The JUI-F, which suffered a huge defeat in the recent elections, has meanwhile called for nationwide protests against the alleged electoral manipulation by “anti-Islamic forces”. Fazl on Wednesday however called for Nawaz Sharif to join him on the opposition benches rather than form a government. […]

Acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi said Wednesday in a meeting with Russia’s ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov that if the Islamic Emirate’s conditions are not taken into consideration ahead of the Doha meeting, then the IEA would prefer to sit this out. In answer to a question by Zhirnov on whether the IEA would attend the Doha gathering of special […]

Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Afghanistan Ilham Mammadov paid a courtesy call to Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to present the official letter from Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry regarding the opening of their embassy in Kabul, the ministry said in a statement Thursday. IEA’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi said in a post on X that the meeting […]

Untill now foreign investors were encouraged or asked to shift from China. Japan launched incentives for Japanese investors to shift from China. The USA-China tiff discouraged American and European investors to stay in China. Now, western assemblers have encouraged Chinese supply chain companies to shift to India. Apple of USA is planning to increase its production in India, and it […]

The Malaysian economy has proved its resilience yet again, achieving a growth rate of 3.3 per cent in the third quarter of 2023. Though this was a reasonable rate given the rather tepid global environment, it was only marginally larger than the 2.9 per cent that was marked for the second quarter of 2023. Malaysia’s focus extends beyond the pace […]

As polls closed following Pakistan’s parliamentary election on February 8, major media networks began election-night coverage with prominent TV anchors and pundits discussing voter turnout and the timeline for expected results. When it came time to offer his analysis, one of Pakistan’s most popular TV hosts, Hamid Mir, launched an unexpected tirade against the entire electoral process. He refused to […]

Afghanistan Content Report Please note that all items this issue are concerning ISIS-K Table of contents Main points (Pro-ISIS online chatter) ISIS Al-Naba Newsletter Edition 429, Published February 8, 2024 There were no ISIS-K news items in this week’s al-Naba. Pro-ISIS Online Chatter February 3: Pro-ISIS post on Telegram claiming that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam has stated that it is permissible to […]

At the time of writing, Pakistan’s political landscape is full of chaos. The General Election 2024 results have not only thrown up a hung National Assembly, but have done so after a pre-election scenario ‘fixed’ to produce a ‘selected’ and not elected, government, and an electoral process riddled with irregularities. The meme currently doing the rounds in Pakistan is that […]