World Echo

Iran and the United States have differing views over sanctions relief in talks to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday, adding that new talks were planned in early March as fears of a military confrontation grow. Iran and the US renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme as the US builds up its military capability in the Middle East, fuelling fears of a wider war. Iran has threatened to strike US bases in the Middle East if it is attacked by US forces. "The last round of talks showed that US ideas regarding the scope and mechanism of sanctions relief differ from Iran’s demands. Both sides need to reach a logical timetable for lifting sanctions," the official said. "This roadmap must be reasonable and based on mutual interests." Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Friday that he expected to have a draft counterproposal ready within days...

The United Arab Emirates has thwarted organised cyber attacks targeting the country's digital infrastructure and vital sectors, the state-run WAM news agency said on Saturday. The attacks "included attempts to infiltrate networks, deploy ransomware and conduct systematic phishing campaigns targeting national platforms," and involved artificial intelligence technologies to develop offensive tools, it added. The report did not say who was to blame for the attacks. According to the local media, the exploitation of artificial intelligence technologies reflected a qualitative shift in the methods employed by terrorist groups and their ability to harness modern technologies”. The statement came days after the council's head, Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, said there are between 90,000 to 200,000 breach attempts focused on the UAE “every single day” – many of them “state-sponsored”. In a statement to WAM, Al Kuwaiti revealed that state-sponsored/APT accounted for 71.4 per cent of tr...

India moved to deepen trade ties with Brazil on Saturday, signing a pact to expand cooperation in mining and minerals as it seeks to meet rising domestic steel demand and support capacity expansion amid a global race for raw materials. The agreement was signed in the presence of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who arrived in New Delhi earlier this week for a three-day visit. Brazil is among the world's top producers of iron ore and holds large reserves of minerals critical to steelmaking. Closer cooperation is expected to improve India's access to raw materials and technologies needed to sustain long-term growth in its steel sector, an Indian government statement said. The cooperation will focus on attracting investment in exploration, mining and steel sector infrastructure, the statement said. India has a steelmaking capacity of 218 million metric tonnes, and companies are expanding output to meet rising domestic dema...

Cuban security advisers and doctors have been leaving Venezuela as Interim President Delcy Rodriguez's government faces intense pressure from Washington to unwind Latin America’s most consequential leftist alliance, according to 11 sources familiar with the matter. Venezuela’s Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has entrusted her protection to Venezuelan bodyguards, according to four of the sources, unlike deposed president Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor, the late president Hugo Chavez, who both relied on elite Cuban forces. Thirty-two Cubans were killed in the US military attack that captured Maduro on January 3, according to the Cuban government. These soldiers and bodyguards were part of a deep security agreement between Caracas and Havana that began in the late 2000s in which Cuban intelligence agents embedded throughout the military and Venezuela’s formidable DGCIM counterintelligence unit, which was fundamental to weeding out domestic opposition. “The Cuban influence w...

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that the US Supreme Court ruling on President Donald Trump's trade tariffs shows that it is good to have counterweights to power and the rule of law in democracies. "It is not bad to have a Supreme Court and, therefore, the rule of law," he said at the annual agricultural salon in Paris, in response to a question about Friday's ruling by the US Supreme Court that tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump under an economic emergency law were illegal. "It is good to have power and counterweights to power in democracies," Macron said. He added that France would consider the consequences of Trump's new 10% global tariff and adapt, and the country wants to continue to export its products, including agricultural, luxury, fashion and aeronautical goods. Read: France repatriates stolen colonial-era 'talking drum' to Ivory Coast He said that a calm mindset was needed and that the fairest rule was "rec...

Gulf countries pledged more than $4 billion in combined financial support to United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, as they signalled financial backing for efforts aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and advancing regional stability. The pledges were announced during the first meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington, where Qatar and Saudi Arabia each committed $1b. Kuwait also pledged $1b over the coming years, while the United Arab Emirates announced an additional $1.2b in support for Gaza through the board. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Doha “reaffirms its commitment to the Board of Peace as it was committed to the very first day of the mediation efforts”. “Our responsibility remains to achieve a just and lasting resolution,” he said, adding that the board, under the leadership of President Trump, “will advance the full implementation of the 20-point plan without delay, ensuring fairness and justice for bot...