Trump's Return To White House, Iran's Nuclear File Among Key '24 Events

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) KUWAIT, Dec 31 (KUNA) -- The year 2024 witnessed many events which saw Donald Trump's return to the White House in the November 5 elections, Russia's non-stop military operations against Ukraine and resurface of Iran's nuclear file, and death of former US President Jimmy Carter.
The events that took place throughout 2024 left impacts on the economic, Political and security affairs of the world.
The International Atomic energy Agency adopted a resolution -- co-sponsored by US, France, Germnay and Britain -- demanding Iran to fully disclose its nuclear activities.
The resolution voiced concern over "lack of transparency" over Iran's nuclear program after spotting traces of uranium in three sites, which were never declared by Tehran. The Iranian government retaliated by operating new and upgraded centrifuges and increased uranium enrichment.
Britain, Germany and France threatened to use the 2015 Iranian nuclear agreement mechanism, which triggered reinstating of sanctions against Tehran after the Islamic Republic increased its highly-enriched uranium to unprecedented levels.
The IAEA estimated Iran's stocks of enriched uranium at 32 times higher than quantities allowed, and expressed concern over the high level of stocks and level of enrichment.
The world also witnessed military confrontation between Iran and the Israeli occupation, hostilities in the Red Sea, tension between South and North Korea, and rising tension between China and Taiwan.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine expanded after the US allowed Kyiv to use long-range missiles to hit targets deep inside Russian territories, prompting Moscow to boost its nuclear deterrence and the firing of hypersonic rocket against Ukraine. This was added to North Korean forces' deployment alongside Russian troops.
The global scene has been changing amidst growing challenges and building of new alliances.
Sweden joined NATO to be the 32nd member in the military alliance, while military agreements were sealed between India and France, Germany and Britain, Turkiye and Iraq, and Australia and Indonesia.
The US, Japan, Australia and Philippines held military maneuvers in the South China Sea, while Iran and Russia held war games in the Caspian Sea.
Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation stood trial before the International Court of Justice, while the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
Slovenia, Spain, Ireland and Norway recognized the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders.
Major summit took place, like the one between leaders of Japan, the US and Philippines in April, while the GCC held its first summit with the European Union (EU).
There have been strains on global economy following fragile recovery from the Covid-19, like in the supply chain, drop in tourism levels, low economic growth projections in the Middle East region, and increasing pressure on food security.
China, the world's second largest economy, suffered setbacks in its economy, and economic and financial resources of the US and the West continued to decline because they were involved in military conflicts.
Oil prices fluctuated due to geopolitical tension in the Middle East while gold prices surged to historic levels.
Elections were held in tens of countries whose population is over four billion people combined, almost half of the earth's population, including the US where Donald Trump returned to the White House after defeating Democrat Kamala Harris.
Former US President Jimmy Carter passed away at the age of 100. The 39th President, Carter was longest-lived US president, served only one presidential term for 1977-1981, as he was famous for defending human rights issues and focused on international relations. For these efforts, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
The Conservatives in Britain suffered successive defeats which ended with the victory of the Labor party in parliamentary elections and the control of the House of Commons, while the South African national congress lost legislative elections for the first time in 30 years.
The French parliament voted, for the first time since 1962, to withdraw confidence of Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who was opposed by 331 MPs.
South Korea saw rising political tension after President Yoon Suk Yeol imposed martial law, which was revoked by the parliament. The move was followed by attempts to impeach the president.
Claudia Sheinbaum became the first woman to become the president of Mexico and Rachel Reeves was the first woman to be appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, or finance minister, in the British government. Thailand Parliament elected Paetongtarn Shinawatra to be the youngest Prime Minister of the Asian nation.
Conflicts happened in many parts of the world which forced people to leave their homes for safe havens. Germany registered the highest number of asylum requests since 2016 and Britain registered unprecedented number of illegal immigrants, while the European Parliament approved amendments on the immigration and asylum law in a bid to prevent flow of immigrants.
In addition to political, economic and military turmoils, the world witnessed natural disasters claiming hundreds of people and destroying many properties, like in Pakistan, China, the US, Afghanistan, Turkiye, Indonesia and India.
Countries around the globel spent billions of US dollars in humanitarian assistance for people in need, while Microsoft suffered a major glitch affecting many nations, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution on the safe use of artificial intelligence for sustainable development, whereas the European Parliament approved a law regulating and restricting AI.
Meanwhile, an Azeri passenger plane with 62 people on board crashed in western Kazakhstan, while 176 people died when a South Korean's Jeju airplane erupted in flames as it went off the runway and hit a wall at an airport in South Korean southweatern country of Muan.
On the other hand, NASA sent a space mission to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years, Iran launched three satellites into orbit and China's probe return to earth carrying samples from the far side of the Moon.
Medically, Russian virus center invented a vaccine for monkey-pox, while Britain's pharmaceutical agency approved a drug against Alzheimer and a medicine for the APSD. (end)
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