TNT:
Tishwash: Russian agency: Iran has pulled the “flying rug” from under America’s feet in Iraq
The Russian news agency Pravada considered, today, Thursday, that the Iranian authorities, through cooperation with Russia, have succeeded in “pulling the flying rug” from under the feet of the United States in Iraq by taking a series of decisions recently.
And the agency stated in a report translated by (Baghdad Today), that “Iran, from this moment, has succeeded in becoming part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization after fifteen years of attempts.”
“Iran has also become a member of the BRICS plus group, which includes Russia, China and India, and is expected to replace the Group of Twenty by 2025,” she said.
The agency added that “Iran is close to entering the free trade agreement of the Eurasian Economic Union,” which, according to the agency, will provide it with the possibility of trade away from the sanctions currently imposed on it by the United States.
And the agency announced, quoting political analyst Pepe Escobar, that “the group of achievements that have been achieved during the past days have made the United States lose its influence on Iran, which it is exploiting Iraq to achieve,” referring to the exemption that Washington grants to Baghdad for trade with Iran away from sanctions.
The new changes, according to Escobar, will unleash Iran’s hand in Iraq and the region, and give it the ability to “challenge the United States” directly after obtaining “enough financial independence” from the trade area controlled by Washington, and depriving Tehran of being part of it, as he put it. link
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Tishwash:: Baghdad and Erbil agree to overthrow big heads accused of corruption
A member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Wafa Muhammad Karim, revealed the existence of a qualitative agreement between the governments of Baghdad and Erbil regarding the extradition of those accused of corruption to Baghdad to hold them accountable, indicating that Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani succeeded in his first steps, and the arrest of prominent leaders on charges of corruption will be announced.
In a press interview, Karim said, “Prime Minister Muhammad Shi’a al-Sudani succeeded practically in the fight against corruption, and continuing to recover money is very important, and prominent names will be overthrown in the coming days.”
He added, “Erbil fully agrees, through a qualitative agreement, to hand over any suspect to Baghdad on charges of corruption immediately, and a number of those wanted have been handed over during the last period.”
Karim pointed out that “the continuation of corruption harms the interests of the country and Erbil, since the oil file and the economic sector are the most affected by the corruption operations that exist in Kurdistan as well, but to a lesser extent than it is in Baghdad.” link
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Tishwash: Indonesia central bank launches white paper on planned digital currency
Indonesia’s central bank on Wednesday unveiled plans for a digital rupiah currency that will use blockchain technology, as the country sees a boom in digital transactions.
The move follows that of many central banks around the world that are developing so-called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), either in the form of retail tokens to be used directly by consumers or wholesale tokens to be used by banks within the financial system.
The digital rupiah will underline Bank Indonesia’s (BI) role as the sole authority to issue legal tender, including a digital currency, Governor Perry Warjiyo said at an event where he also laid out the central bank’s policy guidance for 2023.
Indonesia currently bans the use of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, but allows transactions of the digital assets in the commodity futures market for investment purposes.
“Digital rupiah will be implemented in stages, starting from wholesale CBDC for issuance, elimination and transfer between banks,” he said.
The next stage will be to develop the digital rupiah’s business model for monetary operations and money market, and eventually a retail CBDC will be developed for everyday use, Warijyo said, without elaborating on a timeline.
BI said in a statement on Wednesday that developing CBDC in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy still needs support from other stakeholders and the central bank has to conduct trial runs.
Indonesia has seen double-digit growth in digital banking transactions in the past few years with transactions in 2022 set to grow 30% to 53,144 trillion rupiah ($3.38 trillion), according to BI’s data.
There has also been an exponential rise in cryptocurrency investment during the pandemic.
($1 = 15,730.0000 rupiah) link
