Kazakhstan (already diplomatically linked to Israel) joins the “Abraham Accords”

Today's headlines: truce in Gaza and two-state solution at the Vatican meeting between Pope Leo and Abbas. Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile off the east coast. A hundred Indonesian activists protest against the granting of national hero status to former President Suharto. The area under opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan is reduced by a further 20%. In 2024, over 53,000 people killed by pollution in Iran.

KAZAKHSTAN - ISRAEL - USA

More than 33 years after establishing official diplomatic ties with Israel, Kazakhstan joins the so-called “Abraham Accords”, which formalise ties between the Jewish state and other Muslim nations (including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan). The announcement of an act that - in the presence of established diplomatic relations - has a more symbolic value at this time, came yesterday before the meeting in Washington between US President Donald Trump and the leaders of Central Asian countries.

VATICAN - PALESTINE

Pope Leo XIV received Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in private audience yesterday at the Vatican Apostolic Palace. The meeting focused on the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, with the steps necessary to preserve the fragile truce and aid to the population, together with the question of the two-state solution. The occasion also marked the tenth anniversary of the Global Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Palestine signed in June 2015.

KOREA

According to sources in Seoul and Tokyo, North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast this morning. This launch follows missile tests over the last two weeks, while the United States has renewed its call for dialogue with the Pyongyang regime. The South Korean military reports that the short-range missile was launched from an area in the north-west near the Chinese border and travelled a distance of about 700 km.

INDONESIA

Around a hundred activists gathered yesterday in Jakarta to call on the government to cancel its plan to grant national hero status to the late leader Suharto (along with 48 other candidates), as part of a broader process of historical revisionism. The honour is conferred annually on 10 November on those considered to have made a significant contribution to the country.

AFGHANISTAN

According to UN estimates, the total area under opium poppy cultivation has fallen by 20% this year, a further decline from 2023 when production collapsed following the Taliban ban. At the same time, despite the lower harvest, the price of dry opium has fallen by 27% to 0 per kilogram.

IRAN

Air pollution killed at least 53,470 people in 2024, accounting for about 15% of all deaths in the country. Abbas Shahsavani, of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, confirms that it is among the five leading causes of death and has a mortality rate of 86 per 100,000 people, which is higher than the global average. Children under the age of five account for 7% of deaths from air pollution.

RUSSIA - JAPAN

Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has reiterated the traditional objection to re-establishing relations with Russia “until territorial issues are resolved”, which have prevented the signing of a peace treaty since the end of the Second World War. In Moscow, her statements were distorted into “she proposed a peace treaty”, and it is also noted online that Takaichi is a black belt in karate, a sport in which Putin does not have sufficient experience.

ARMENIA - TURKEY

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed that he had invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the European Political Community summit to be held in Yerevan in May 2026, recalling the frequent meetings between the two in recent times. This confirms that “Armenia currently finds itself in a situation that has never occurred before, maintaining institutional relations with all countries in the region”.