Oil prices hit four year high: Latest news on the Middle East conflict on 9 March
Global oil prices reached a four year high on Monday (9 March), surpassing $...
On 10–11 December, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Masoud Pezeshkian will pay an official visit to Astana.
According to the Akorda, the programme includes high-level talks aimed at further strengthening Kazakh–Iranian cooperation across trade, economic policy, transport and logistics, as well as cultural and humanitarian spheres. A series of official meetings is scheduled, during which both sides will focus on priority areas of bilateral engagement, with particular attention to the consistently growing economic partnership.
Kazakhstan and Iran share a strategically important relationship shaped by complementary economic interests and advantageous geographic positions. Earlier this year, during an official visit to Tehran, the then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Murat Nurtleu, held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi. Nurtleu highlighted that bilateral trade grew by 12.3 % in 2024, exceeding $340 million, and expanded by a further 82 % in the first quarter of 2025, reaching $129 million. Both countries aim to sustain this upward trend and increase overall trade to $3 billion.
Iran plays a key role as a transit hub for Kazakh agricultural exports destined for the markets of the Persian Gulf and the Middle East. Kazakhstan plans to continue utilising Iran’s major ports Anzali, Amirabad and Bandar Abbas to expand export capacity and improve logistical efficiency. At the same time, alternative routes remain under active consideration, including the Trans Caspian International Transport Route through Georgia for European access, Chinese ports for Asian markets and transit corridors through Turkmenistan and other Central Asian states.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Kazakhstan’s exports to Iran increased 5.7 fold between January and April 2025, reaching $117 million. Iranian partners have shown interest in several new Kazakh export categories such as vegetable oil, cotton fibre, rice, poultry meat and live sheep and goats. In 2025, the two countries signed ten commercial agreements worth $92.8 million. Discussions are also underway on establishing a potato processing facility in Qonayev, expanding the record of previous Kazakh Iranian joint investments that resulted in the construction of a meat processing plant and an oilseed processing factory.
The forthcoming visit of Iran’s President to Astana represents an important milestone in the development of bilateral cooperation. The steady expansion of trade, the diversification of logistics routes and the intensification of investment projects are reinforcing the foundations of the partnership, further strengthening the strategic roles of Kazakhstan and Iran within the regional economic landscape.
Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is a hardline cleric with strong backing from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. His rise signals continuity in Tehran's anti-Western policies.
Global oil prices surpassed $119 a barrel on Monday (9 March, 2026), an almost four year high, as the Middle East conflict rumbled on.
Trump says the United States "don’t need people that join wars after we’ve already won," targeting his criticism at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Israel continues to fire missles at strategic sites in Iran and Gulf regions report more strikes from Iran.
China has urged Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve their dispute through dialogue after Chinese envoy Yue Xiaoyong met Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, as fighting between the two neighbours entered its eleventh day.
Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as supreme leader on Monday (9 March), signaling that hardliners remain firmly in charge, as the week-old U.S.-Israeli war with Iran pushed oil above $100 a barrel.
U.S. President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke by phone on Sunday as tensions between Washington and Westminster deepened over the conflict involving Iran. The call came less than a day after Trump criticised Britain’s response to U.S. strikes on Iranian targets.
Norwegian police are searching for a suspect after an explosion at the U.S. embassy in Oslo on 8 March caused minor damage but no injuries, in what authorities say may have been a deliberate attack linked to the Middle East crisis.
An explosion damaged a synagogue in the Belgian city of Liège early on Monday (9 March) in what authorities said was an antisemitic attack that caused damage but no injuries.
The Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers will meet on Monday to discuss a global rise in oil prices and a joint release of oil from emergency reserves coordinated by the International Energy Agency, the Financial Times reports.
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