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Iran

Opec's Haitham Al Ghais told Adipec that the oil industry needs $600bn of investment a year

Opec ‘would welcome’ Iran once sanctions lifted

Iran has the capacity to add “significant production volumes within a short period of time” and would be welcomed back to Opec when sanctions are lifted, its secretary general said on Monday.  Iran is a member of Opec – the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries – but its oil exports are subject to US […]

Indonesia and Iran sign preferential trade pact

The leaders of Indonesia and Iran have signed a preferential trade agreement to expand economic relations during an official visit by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. Indonesian President Joko Widodo, speaking after a signing ceremony that was streamed online by his cabinet secretariat, hoped the agreement “would increase trade between Indonesia and Iran” but did not […]

Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Iran growth forecasts cut but Gulf trade could rally

Growth forecasts for Iran’s economy have been cut as analysts see US sanctions remaining in place “for the foreseeable future”, but expanding trade with the UAE and improved relations with Saudi Arabia may help to cushion the blow. Fitch sees growth slowing to 2.3 percent in 2023-24 from a previous forecast of 5.8 percent because […]

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz has been invited to visit Iran

Iran invites Saudi king to visit Tehran

Iran has invited Saudi Arabia’s king to visit the country after the regional rivals agreed to end years of hostility following a China-brokered agreement in March. King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was officially invited to Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a TV news conference, Reuters reported. The talks in Beijing followed by […]

humans, male

Iranian and Saudi envoys meet in China as ties resume

The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing  on Thursday for the first formal gathering of their top diplomats in more than seven years. The meeting was ahead of moves to resume travel, official and economic ties between the Middle East’s top powers. China brokered a deal last month to restore relations […]

People, Person, Man

Iran-Saudi deal offers hope for increased Middle East stability

The immediate economic impact of renewed relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran is expected to be minimal, but the agreement brokered by China is likely to have far reaching ramifications for the wider Middle East region, according to economists. The two countries agreed to re-establish ties after four days of talks last week in Beijing. […]

Iran’s rial climbs 6% after accord to restore ties with Saudi Arabia

The Iranian rial recouped some of its recent losses on Saturday, gaining more than six percent amid prospects of diminished regional tensions after Iran and regional rival Saudi Arabia agreed to resume diplomatic ties. Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on Friday to re-establish relations after years of hostility that had threatened stability and security in […]

Iran’s currency falls to record low as sanctions to continue

Iran’s troubled currency broke below the psychologically key level of 500,000 rial per US dollar on Monday, as market participants saw no end in sight to sanctions. The Iranian rial plummeted to a new record low of 501,300 against the US dollar, according to Bonbast.com which gathers live data from Iranian exchanges. Facing an inflation […]

Flare, Light, Factory

Iran seeks global investors for $200bn worth of projects

Iran is undertaking projects worth $200 billion and seeking the participation of global investors, Ahmad Asadzadeh, Iran’s deputy minister for international affairs, said at the India Energy Week conference on Wednesday. He said many of the projects were related to climate change issues, such as gas flaring, as well as improving oil recovery and security […]

Iran to start revamp at Venezuela’s largest refining complex shortly

State firms from Iran and Venezuela will start in the coming weeks a 100-day revamp of the South American nation’s largest refining complex to restore its crude distillation capacity, four sources close to the plan said. The effort by state oil firm Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and the state-owned National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution […]

Iranian oil exports hit new high in 2022 despite US sanctions

Iranian oil exports hit new highs in the last two months of 2022 and are making a strong start to 2023 despite US sanctions, according to companies that track the flows, on higher shipments to China and Venezuela. Tehran’s oil exports have been limited since former US President Donald Trump in 2018 exited a 2015 […]

German exports to Iran rise despite diplomatic tensions

German exports to Iran rose last year, according to data seen by Reuters, despite Western condemnation of Tehran’s months-long crackdown against protests. German exports to Iran climbed 12.7 percent year-on-year from January to November 2022 to around €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion), data from the federal statistics office showed. That exceeded the full-year volume for 2021 […]

Elon Musk says around 100 Starlinks now active in Iran

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk said on Monday that the company is now close to having 100 active Starlinks, the firm’s satellite internet service, in Iran, three months after he tweeted he would activate the service there amid protests around the Islamic country. Musk said, “approaching 100 starlinks active in Iran”, in a tweet on […]

Dozens of merchant ships stuck off Iran as payment snags bite

Dozens of merchant ships with grains and sugar are stuck outside Iranian ports after weeks of delays as payments snags disrupt flows of goods into the country, according to trade sources and shipping data. Food is exempt from the West’s sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, but the impact of the sanctions on Iran’s […]

An Iran fan in the Khalifa stadium, Doha, ahead of her team's opening World Cup match against England on November 21. A marine link from Bushehr, southern Iran, to Qatar has opened for the tournament

Qatar scores, with vital assists from Iran, Turkey and the UAE

Alongside the massive investment and the 12 years of preparation, Qatar has called in more than a few favours to aid the smooth running of the World Cup. While its allies have proved keen to help, Doha has had to tiptoe carefully around the geopolitical faultlines that run through the Gulf. Turkey has sent more […]

Binance helped Iranian firms trade $8bn despite sanctions

Crypto giant Binance has processed Iranian transactions with a value of $8 billion since 2018 despite US sanctions intended to cut Iran off from the global financial system, blockchain data show. Almost all the funds, some $7.8 billion, flowed between Binance and Iran’s largest crypto exchange, Nobitex, according to a review of data from leading […]

Logo, Trademark, Symbol

White House in talks with Elon Musk to set up Starlink in Iran

The White House is in talks with billionaire Elon Musk about setting up SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink in Iran, CNN reported on Friday, citing officials familiar with the matter. The satellite-based broadband service could help Iranians circumvent the regime’s restrictions on accessing the internet and certain social media platforms. The Islamic Republic has been […]

Paris-based Eutelsat accuses Iran of jamming its satellites

Eutelsat alleged on Thursday that Iran had jammed two of its satellites since Sept 26, adding that it had asked the relevant authorities to stop the interference immediately. Paris-based Eutelsat also said in a statement that it had reminded the Iranian authorities that intentional jamming is “explicitly prohibited” by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Radio […]

Iran’s petrochemical capacity to double in next decade: Official

National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC) expects petrochemical production in the country will double in the next decade, IRNA, state-owned news agency, reported. Petrochemical production capacity in the country will reach 200 million tons in a year in the next decade, said NIPC managing director Morteza Shah-Mirzaei. Despite sanctions imposeed on the country, the petrochemical industry is […]

Fears mount over Iran’s inaction on climate change

In just over a year, Iran has endured deadly flash floods, crop-ruining drought, punishing dust storms and heatwaves that have pushed temperatures as high as 48 degrees Celsius – all crises likely fuelled by climate change. But for the people affected, finding help is proving very difficult. Iran is one of just four countries that have […]