DUBAI: Oman plans to be the next Arab nation to join the space race with the launch of its first satellite in 2024, according to Said bin Hamoud Al-Mawali, the country’s minister of transport, communications and information technology.
“We have to address the role of the private sector to this effect, and establish a company to launch the first satellite in 2024,” Al-Mawali said in a report from daily Times of Oman.
“There are practical advantages here for our national space program, advanced technology, and artificial intelligence.”
The country will formally announce its space program next year, the minister said, although plans for Oman to join the world’s spacefaring countries began in 2006.
Aside from partnering with the private sector on space exploration, Al-Mawali said the government is also working to increasingly involve them in the country’s infrastructure projects.
“We have about 40,000km of paved roads in the country. The government has spent a lot on infrastructure, and the upcoming stage involving these completed projects will look at how their contribution to the economy can be improved, so that they continue more to the GDP of the country.”
Oman to launch country’s first satellite in 2024
https://arab.news/n29uw
Oman to launch country’s first satellite in 2024
- Plans for Oman to join the world’s spacefaring countries began in 2006
UN urges all sides to ‘see reason’ in Iran-US conflict
- “I deplore the military strikes across Iran this morning by Israel and the USA, and the subsequent retaliatory strikes by Iran,” Turk said
- “To avert these terrible consequences for civilians, I call for restraint and implore all parties to see reason, to de-escalate”
GENEVA: The United Nations’ rights chief deplored Saturday’s strikes in the Middle East and urged all parties to return to negotiations, saying attacks would only result in “death, destruction and human misery.”
“I deplore the military strikes across Iran this morning by Israel and the United States of America, and the subsequent retaliatory strikes by Iran,” Volker Turk said in a statement.
“As always, in any armed conflict, it is civilians who end up paying the ultimate price.
“Bombs and missiles are not the way to resolve differences but only result in death, destruction and human misery.
“To avert these terrible consequences for civilians, I call for restraint and implore all parties to see reason, to de-escalate, and for a return to the negotiating table where they had been actively seeking a solution only hours earlier,” he said.
“Failing to do so risks an even wider conflict, that will inevitably lead to further senseless civilian deaths and destruction on a potentially unimaginable scale, not just in Iran but across the Middle East region.”
On Thursday, US and Iranian negotiators held indirect talks in Geneva, through Omani mediators, on Tehran’s nuclear program — within sight of Turk’s offices in the Swiss city.
He reminded all parties that the protection of civilians was paramount in armed conflict, insisting that those who violated the rules of war must be held accountable.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, said the agency was concerned by the “grave risk to people’s health” from the expanding conflict.
“The threat of nuclear facilities being impacted is especially worrying,” he said.
“All must be done to reduce any nuclear safety risk, which may affect people in the region,” he added.
“We urge leaders to choose the challenging path of dialogue over the senseless route of destruction.”
