In an article dedicated to the path to economic progress and improvement, Javan argues that for many years, Iran's economic policy has focused on external sanctions and strategies to counteract them. He emphasizes that to lessen the negative impact of external restrictions, the government must combine economic diplomacy with internal structural transformations.
Eliminating internal obstacles hindering production and investment will not only strengthen Iran's economy against external pressure but also create conditions for sustainable growth, increased employment, higher productivity, and improved public welfare. The author insists that Iran's economy needs structural reforms more than ever—reforms aimed at eliminating internal 'sanctions,' optimizing economic activity, and enhancing the country's long-term capacity to sustainably neutralize the consequences of foreign restrictions.
The newspaper Arman-e-Melli analyzed the regional situation, paying particular attention to the issue between Iran and the United States. According to the publication, an analysis of reports published by regional and international media indicates a possible approach to a resolution in negotiations between Oman and Iran regarding the Strait of Hormuz. The actions of Iran, the United States, and mediators suggest that the Hormuz issue should be viewed as the primary channel for any negotiations or agreements with Washington.
Iran, believing that the US is obstructing the implementation of agreements in Isfahan, continues to maintain that the Hormuz issue must remain an available lever of pressure against Washington and its regional allies. Tehran intends to engage in bilateral negotiations with the United States only after this issue is resolved. If both sides can settle the issue of passage through the Strait of Hormuz, it could lay the foundation for resolving a larger problem—ending the war—and potentially open the way for further negotiations between Iran and the US.
In an interview with political analyst Dr. Jadollah Javani, the publication Jam-e-Jam discussed America's 'humiliating defeat.' According to Javani, Americans and their allies now clearly realize that Iran's military potential is at peak readiness, following the losses sustained in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Jordan by Iranian armed forces. He asserts that any mistake by the adversary—especially a careless ground invasion by US troops into Iranian territory—will result in entry points becoming graves for the misled mercenaries.
In Javani's view, Iran's advantage lies in its realistic assessment of the enemy, whereas America's Achilles' heel is its inability to understand the Iranian people. Today, he says, the United States is forced to acknowledge an inevitable strategic defeat because it entered a war with a people it never understood.
Sazandegi highlighted the possibility that Iran and the United States are approaching a point of mutual understanding. Experts believe that a new agreement regarding the Strait of Hormuz could serve the interests of both countries. If the naval blockade is lifted, Iran can resume oil exports, and the United States can find a way out of the current deadlock. As reported by The New York Times, such an agreement would provide Iran with a strategic leverage it previously lacked.
However, Trump opponents view any deals with Iran as a sign of US retreat. Failed negotiations or sabotage by the United States or Israel could push the region into a new phase of mutual attacks between Iran and America. Even with an agreement on Hormuz, disputes between Tehran and Washington will not end; the parties will move into a more complex phase—nuclear negotiations. This issue is significantly more complex than regulating shipping in Hormuz and may provide a clearer picture of the future of Iran-US relations and regional development.
Resalat analyzed what it sees as a shift in US strategy. Military events and shelling in Iran's southern skies and strategic sea lanes demonstrate a key phase of change in the confrontation with Washington and Tel Aviv. Months after the start of this conflict round, the military and strategic stalemate of the United States and Israel in containing Iran's deterrence network is becoming increasingly evident. This failure, the publication claims, has pushed the Western axis toward conducting intelligence warfare, special operations, and activating infiltration networks and coup attempts inside Iran.
The main battlefield is no longer just the sea or military bases; it has moved inside Iran's security structures and into efforts to maintain internal stability. The most dangerous aspect of this strategic shift, according to Resalat, is the West's dependence on internal proxies.
DeepSeek has built a reputation based on its pricing policy. In OpenRouter catalogs, the company's V4 Flash model is available for $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per output token. However, third-party services such as DeepInfra, GMICloud, and Baidu Qianfan offer lower rates than the official API. Compression here is noticeable: DeepInfra's rate is approximately 64 percent of DeepSeek's stated price.
However, a more interesting question is not whether third parties can bypass DeepSeek today, but what will happen if DeepSeek increases its base price thirtyfold.
An engineer from the OpenCode platform recently presented a method to replicate DeepSeek's current pricing policy even when using rented GPUs. He suggested that the upcoming price hike is more of a load balancing tool than a measure driven by costs. Server load since the release of V4 Flash has been at peak capacity. The community consensus is clear: in a global, 24/7 market, peak and off-peak periods compensate for each other, leaving no gaps. Demand exceeds capacity, and pricing is a lever that DeepSeek is ready to use.
The key engineering reason allowing DeepSeek to set a higher price without losing customers lies in its cache architecture. When a long-term Coding Agent runs, it reprocesses huge amounts of previous context at every step. If the prefix matches, these tokens are billed at the cache hit rate. If there is no match, the same tokens are paid for at full cost. Research conducted by community researcher Su Chi Dan Dao, involving 20,000 requests, showed that DeepSeek maintained a 100 percent cache hit rate over 12-hour intervals, whereas GLM dropped to 25 percent in just 5 minutes. Kimi and GPT models showed results between these two values.
This has structural significance. The base price does not reflect what most DeepSeek users actually pay. A user who maintains stable queries effectively pays almost nothing for input data. A user who frequently rewrites context pays almost the full price. Thus, the same API serves both a hobbyist with a five-dollar monthly budget and a large corporate project with a five-figure workload, all without explicit tiered pricing. A 30-fold increase in the base price will only matter to the second group, as the effective cost for the first group is already largely determined by cache hits.
This also explains why the advertised OpenCode subscription for $10 does not always outperform the official DeepSeek API. Real-world load tests show that OpenCode Go operates 2–10 times more expensively than the direct DeepSeek API during long sessions, and this is precisely due to the accumulation of cache misses. Lower prices on third-party platforms can be misleading: the official API proves more advantageous when prefix stability can be maintained. DeepSeek is the cheapest not because its base price is low, but because its cache causes the actual price to approach zero.
The model of attracting fractional executives—senior specialists who work with companies not on a full-time basis but on a part-time or project basis—is gaining significant popularity in the UAE market. This trend is particularly noticeable among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), fast-growing companies, family businesses, and venture capital-backed startups that require top management expertise without the full financial burden and long-term commitments.
Reis Holding, co-founder of Fractional | Dubai, reported that the number of requests for fractional executives at the firm has increased by approximately 200 percent in the last three months. He noted that SMEs are actively seeking access to leadership experienced in Fortune 500 level companies while avoiding the obligations of a full-time employee, and experienced executives are increasingly preferring project-based employment over permanent roles.
This demand is supported by the extensive base of SMEs in the UAE. The country has over 1.4 million registered companies, with 250,000 new ones added in 2025. A study conducted by the Mohammed bin Rashid School of Government shows that SMEs account for about 94 percent of all businesses in the UAE.
Mayank Patel, Vice President of Adecco and Head of EEMEA, stated that companies are increasingly willing to utilize leadership in a 'service' format in areas such as technology, finance, marketing, and operations. According to him, the growth in registered SMEs in the UAE expands the market for fractional executive solutions.
Both Adecco and Fractional | Dubai have identified the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as the most sought-after fractional role. This is driven by the introduction of corporate tax in the UAE and growing business pressure to strengthen financial control and corporate governance. Patel emphasized that companies are focusing on financial discipline, cash flow management, compliance with corporate tax requirements, budgeting, forecasting, and business planning.
Furthermore, there is an increasing need for fractional Chief Operating Officers (COOs) to support scaling, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) for growth and customer acquisition, Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) for digital transformation, and Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) for talent strategy. The Holding specified that demand is widespread: CFOs are engaged before funding rounds or for structuring loans; CTOs are hired for product and team scaling; COOs are brought in to stabilize operations; and CMOs are utilized for go-to-market execution.
Both leaders highlighted significant cost savings. According to the Holding, fractional executive roles cost 30–60 percent less than hiring a full-time top manager when considering salary, housing, transportation, bonuses, benefits, visa expenses, and severance pay. Data from Cooper Fitch for 2025 indicates that a full-time CFO in an UAE SME earns a base salary of AED 61,000 to AED 92,000 per month, plus additional benefits and severance pay up to 8.33 percent of the base salary for each year of service. Since fractional agreements are B2B based, SMEs also completely avoid visa, insurance, and severance obligations.
For senior executives, this model also offers an opportunity to diversify income. Patel noted that by not being tied to one organization, a senior leader can work with multiple companies simultaneously, benefiting from greater flexibility, broader industry experience, and specialized expertise across different clients. The Holding reported that most fractional executives at the firm handle two or three parallel projects, with rates increasing as their portfolio grows.
The appeal of fractional work for experienced executives lies in the variety—the ability to work across adjacent industries and constantly solve new challenges. Both experts believe that the UAE market is in its early stages compared to the US and the UK, where this model is well-established. According to Axios, the number of professionals listing 'fractional' in their LinkedIn profiles globally grew from approximately 2,000 in 2022 to over 142,000 by early 2025, indicating the pace of international adoption.
Patel expressed confidence that as SMEs place greater emphasis on flexibility, cost control, and specialized expertise, fractional executive leadership will become the primary talent acquisition solution, rather than just a niche alternative. Sam Lloyd, co-founder of Fractional | Dubai, added that the model has proven successful in mature markets, and all conditions are in place for its adoption in the UAE, with growing demand from SMEs for a smarter and more flexible approach to top management. Fractional | Dubai focuses on companies with 10 to 200 employees that are undergoing funding rounds, entering new markets, experiencing leadership changes, or restructuring, with executives typically being sourced and integrated within two to three weeks of the initial briefing.
