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42 1 1 12Total, NPC to continue talks on construction of petchem complex

Iranian military official urges firm answer to Kerry

The Iranian Messi raring to go

Shakespeare’s Globe performs “Hamlet” in Tehran

W W W . T E H R A N T I M E S . C O M I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

TEHRAN — A Spanish ver-sion of “Secrets of God’s Mys-

tical Oneness” (“Asrar al-Tawhid”), a biography of Persian mystic and poet Abu Sa‘id ibn Abul-Khayr (967-1049 CE) by Muhammad ibn Mu-navvar, was discussed during a session at the Madrid branch of Casa Asia on Thursday.

In a brief speech, the director of Casa Asia in Madrid, Teresa Gutiérrez del Álamo, expressed her thanks to the Iranian cultural attaché’s office over its collaboration on publishing the book in Spain.

She also said that the Spanish version of book, which was published in 2013, has helped to ease the shortage of Persian classical works in the country and added, “All scholars were in-fluenced by Abu Sa‘id ibn Abul-Khayr after the book was authored.”

Ibn Monavvar, one of Abul-Khayr’s grand-sons, wrote the book 130 years after his death.

Alfred G. Kavanagh, president of the Span-ish Society of Iranology (SEI) also delivered a speech, calling the book one of the most im-portant works of Persian prose literature.

“This book provides a close look at how a Sufi lives and how the Khorasan-born Sufis in-teract,” he said.

The Spanish version of the book was trans-lated by Spanish scholar Joaquin Rodriguez Vargas.

To date, Ibn Munavvar’s book has also been translated into Arabic, French, English, Russian and Bosnian.

An English translation of the book by John O’Kane was published by Mazda Peblishers, Inc. in 1992.

TEHRAN — MP Kamaladdin Pirmoazen has said the Rou-

hani government is determined to put an end to “monopoly” in manufacturing of “expensive” and yet “low quality” vehicles by paving the way for the entry of international and private auto-makers in the industry.

Among other goals set by the government are improving the quality and fuel efficiency of cars, ISNA quoted Pirmoazen as saying on Friday.

With the new investments, more job oppor-tunities will be created and more capital can be

attracted by persuading international brands to invest in the industry, said Pirmoazen who sits on the Majlis Mining and Industry Committee.

Trying to put an end to the monopoly, the government is also looking at regional coun-

tries as target markets for cars produced at home, he added.

The current condition of Iranian car industry is a result of years of sanctions on the country and lack of transparency, making it easy for abusers and brokers to stay on top of the industry and prevent it from developing, the MP added.

With the sanctions lifted and through transparent policies taken by the govern-ment, Iranians in the very near future will see better vehicles with lower prices in the mar-ket, he said.

Madrid center reviews book on Persian mystic Abu Sa‘id ibn Abul-Khayr

Iran questing stability in Middle East

Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Mo-hammad Javad Zarif has said in an interview that his country is seek-

ing stability in the Middle East amid the region’s beleaguered scene.

Minister Zarif has also noted that with the removal of sanctions, the country’s foreign policy will focus on stabilizing the region.

A practical indication of Iran’s at-tempts to restore peace and stability in the region has materialized itself in the form of tripartite gatherings with Turkey and Azerbaijan in Ramsar, north of Iran, and Azerbaijan and Russia in Baku.

During the sessions, participating sides, including Iran, exchanged ide-as on a range of regional issues and came up with agreements, as well.

This multilateral regional endeavor is an indication of Iran’s resolution to benefit from all countries’ capacities so as to quell regional tensions.

Moreover, Zarif’s formal visit to Turkey, Iraq, and Pakistan indicate the quest for stability sought by Tehran is a strong and serious stride amid at-tempts by regional and global rivals to thwart the initiative.

Unstopped by opponents’ prop-aganda and resolute in its will, Iran seems to implement its plan to restore regional peace via joint cooperation with neighboring nations to battle ter-rorism and flourish economy.

A prerequisite of fulfilling this, as already shown by Iran, is to avoid further tension. Contrary to this spir-it of goodwill pursued by Iran, some regional countries have left no stone unturned to derail Tehran, dragging it into detrimental games through false accusations.

In such a situation, Iran is attempting to boost ties and pick side with regional countries practically interested in bring-ing stability back to the Middle East.

Only through this, a long-term sta-ble perspective for the Middle East will be on the horizon.

Has Saudi Arabia achieved its goals in Yemen?

Saudi Arabia is an absolute mon-archy where no parliamentary elections are held and any de-

mands for democracy or freedom are met with imprisonment, torture or death. It is a country where wom-en can’t leave house without being accompanied by a male member or even open a bank account without their husband’s permission. It is a place where women can’t drive or even en-ter cemeteries. However, this country is elected as chair of a panel of inde-pendent experts on the UN Human Rights Council.

This same country wants to restore democracy in Yemen.

A Saudi-led coalition against Yemen includes the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qa-tar, Sudan, Egypt and logistical and in-telligence support provided by the U.S.

The ongoing aggression in Yemen is to ostensibly bring back Yemen’s for-mer fugitive president back to power but in reality its hatred for democracy and free speech.

What prompted the Saudi ag-gression in Yemen?

The ruling elite in Riyadh has time and again resorted to fear mongering and propaganda against Iran among other Persian Gulf Arab nations and drummed up support for all their mis-adventures in the Middle East. Not just Yemen but the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Iraq are also linked to Sau-di propaganda and anti-Iran policies. At the beginning of the conflict, the assumption was that it would crush the popular uprising within weeks of airstrikes and force the Ansarullah or Houthis into hiding and finally restore the corrupt Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. With just a few weeks or rather few months in mind, the Saudi mon-archs hired foreign pilots to bomb vital infrastructures like government offices, hospitals, power plants, docks, air-ports, dams, universities, schools and civilian homes. 9

Tehran, Ankara intent on developing

banking, tourism ties

TEHRAN — Iran is determined to de-

velop ties with Turkey in banking and tourism sectors, said Iranian Commu-nications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi in his meet-ing with Turkish Prime Minister Ah-met Davutoglu on Thursday.

Davutoglu, for his part, said that his country is keen to invest in Iran’s differ-ent sectors, including tourism, empha-sizing that the administrations of both countries should direct their private sectors toward the realization of shared economic aims. Vaezi left Tehran for Ankara to convene the 25th meeting of Iran-Turkey Joint Economic Committee, which is being held from April 7 to 9, the IRNA news agency reported on Friday.

During the meeting, Vaezi ex-pressed hope that Iran-Turkey Joint Economic Committee would help re-move the current obstacles in the way of Iran for exporting goods to Turkey.

The minister referred to the recent meeting of Davutoglu and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as opening a new chapter in Tehran-Ankara rela-tions, adding that the two countries could set up joint ventures for manu-facturing goods that are marketable in Iran, Turkey and other countries as well.

4

Azerbaijan-Armenia

dispute should be resolved peacefully:

ZarifTEHRAN — Ira-nian Foreign Min-

ister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday that the dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Na-gorno-Karabakh region should be re-solved “peacefully”.

Zarif who had visited Baku for a trilateral foreign ministerial summit between Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia expressed content over the ceasefire announced between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Exchange of fire between Azerbai-jan and Armenia broke out on April 2. Dozens of servicemen from both sides have been killed and some more in-jured.

On April 5, the two countries agreed to enact an immediate ceasefire.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been un-der the control of Armenian military and separatists since a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan ended in 1994. Years of negotiations have brought little progress in resolving the dispute.

Fighting on Saturday marked the worst clashes since 1994.

2

TEHRAN — President Has-

san Rouhani unveiled on Thursday new advances in nuclear technolo-

gy to mark National Nuclear Tech-nology Day, Tasnim news agency reported.

Among the advances were two

domestically-made zonal and ultra centrifuge machines.

Zonal centrifuges have medical applications, mainly used to pro-

duce vaccines for rabies, influenza, hepatitis B, and meningitis. One more use of the machines is in gene therapy.

Iran unveils new nuclear advances

See page 2

Kazakh president to visit Iran on Monday

Gov. is firm to end monopoly in auto industry: MP

12 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 37th year No.12523 Saturday APRIL 9, 2016 Farvardin 21, 1395 Rajab 1, 1437

TEHRAN — Securing uni-

ty among officials to implement resistance economy’s policies is more important than ever to re-solve economic problems and to be prepared for regional and in-ternational pressure, Interior Min-istry spokesman Hossein-Ali Amiri

has said.Amiri, who was making the

remarks in reference to the Supreme Leader ’s speech on Wednesday, said the ongoing conflicts in the countries around Iran should make any wise per-son grateful for the peace and security inside the country, the

Iran newspaper reported on Thursday.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Amiri also said that disagree-ment over issues is not bad and not in contradiction with unity but what officials need to pay serious attention to is taking advantage of such disagree-

ments for taking proper policies and planning.

The Interior Ministry official said any fair criticism is welcome but critics should bear in mind not to present a wrong and underde-veloped picture of Iran and under-mine achievements made by the government.

Unity among state bodies is key to success of resistance economy, official says

By Anthony Mathew JacobPolitical analyst

A R T I C L EBy Hassan Lasjerdi

Tehran Times editor-in-chief

EDITORIAL

Hamlet in Tehran

L Y Kazakh presito visit Iran oMonday 2

TEHRAN — The European Union Commis-

sioner for Climate Action and En-ergy Miguel Arias Canete will visit Iran on April 15 and 16 to discuss developments in the energy sec-tor with Iranian officials, Interfax reported on Friday.

According europa.eu, Canets will accompany Federica Mogher-ini, the EU foreign policy chief, dur-

ing the visit to Tehran.In addition, EU Environment,

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Com-missioner Karmenu Vella, EU Com-missioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylia-nides, EU Commissioner for Trans-port Violeta Bulc, EU Commission-er for Industry Elzbieta Bienkowska, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Tibor Navracsics, European Commission-

er for Research, Science and Innova-tion Carlos Moedas will accompany the chief EU diplomat.

The visit comes on the heels of the implementation of the nu-clear deal between Iran and great powers. The deal went into effect on January 16. Mogherini played a key role in clinching the nuclear accord between Iran and the U.S., Russia, France, Germany, China and Britain.

EU delegation to head to Iran for energy talks

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Miguel Arias Canete

By staff and agencyU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has asked Iran to help end the bloody conflicts in Syria and Yemen, while urg-ing Tehran to make peace with its Arab neighbors.At a press conference in Bahrain on Thursday, Kerry

urged Tehran to “help us end the war in Yemen... help us end the war in Syria, not intensify, and help us to be able to change the dynamics of this region,” RT reported.

Kerry was in Bahrain for a meeting with foreign ministers of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Coun-

cil (GCC), which consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The group is scheduled to hold a summit on April 21 in Saudi Arabia, with President Barack Obama in attendance.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the Tehran University, and Daniel Serwer, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University, to discuss the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, includ-ing the U.S.

Marandi says the United States “is vio-lating the spirit of the nuclear agreement” because American President Barack Oba-ma, in violation of articles of the nuclear deal, warned foreign investors against

doing any business with Iran during his speech in the 2016 Nuclear Industry Sum-mit in Washington.

American authorities also imposed visa-related restrictions on Iranians and anyone who has traveled to Iran for the past five years, the academic says, adding that these hostile actions are meant “to impede the Iranian economy from inte-grating into the international monetary system and international trade.”

He further says Iran was always pur-suing a peaceful nuclear program, so in

reality “there was no reason or no need for a nuclear deal;” however, he says, “The reason why we went on that road was because the United States and its Western allies were using Iran’s nuclear industry and its nuclear technology as an excuse to hurt the country.”

Pointing to the American policy against Iran’s conventional missile pro-gram, he says, “If the United States thinks that, step by step, it can take away Iran’s rights and turn Iran into a weak defense-less country, it is mistaken.”

Serwer, for his part, says, “The nucle-ar deal is a nuclear deal, and it’s a deal, it’s not a broad rapprochement on all is-sues, and the United States continues to have concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile program, about human rights and about terrorism.” He adds Iranians are going to hear more and more about these con-cerns during the presidential election campaign in the U.S. and they can raise their complaints through the available channels.

(Source: Press TV)

1 Ultra centrifuges, optimized for spinning a rotor at

very high speeds, have applications in biology and bio-chemistry such as separating cells organelles.

Among other advances were nuclear fuel assemblies equipped with testing devices for power reactors.

Also, the president put online the Pasmangoor nucle-ar waste facility in Isfahan via video-conference.

Radioactive waste from nuclear sites and research departments are to be managed and processed in the center.

It is the 10th year in a row that Iran is marking Nation-al Nuclear Technology Day.

This year’s version has the distinction of being held after Iran and the 5+1 countries reached a landmark agreement on Tehran’s nuclear program, dubbed as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Under the deal, Iran is committed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for international sanctions relief.

Although the country was under sanctions over the past years and risked seven UN resolutions before the deal was achieved, Iran has made remarkable progress.

From being a pure importer of nuclear commodi-ties, Iran has turned out to be an international exporter, with selling its produced heavy water to U.S. as a case in point.

Also, in the ceremony Ali Akbar Salehi, the vice-pres-ident and director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said nuclear advances make inroads into the agriculture sector through supplying water.

According to Salehi, high on the AEOI agenda is to construct desalination facilities as well as turn Iran into a radiopharmaceutical hub in the Middle East.

1 Zarif also highlighted the impor-

tance of expanding cooperation be-tween Iran, Russia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan in the areas of culture, economy, fight against terrorism, transportation and inter-religion dia-logue.

Putin has ordered removal of banking sanctions on Iran: Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lav-rov and Zarif also held bilateral talks on

the sidelines of the conference, discuss-ing bilateral relations and the latest de-velopments in Syria.

During the meeting Lavrov said that President Vladimir Putin has ordered re-moval of banking sanctions on Iran.

The Iranian foreign minister also held a meeting with Azeri President Ilham Ali-yev on Thursday.

Zarif and Aliyev expressed hope that the trilateral conference would open a new chapter in the relations.

He also underlined Iran’s firm policy of developing ties with the Republic of Azer-baijan and other neighbors and called for expansion of cooperation between Teh-ran and Baku in different fields, Tasnim reported.

For his part, Aliyev hailed Tehran-Baku ties as excellent, saying the good relations are based on numerous affinities and the resolve of the two countries’ leaders.

He also described the Iran-Russia-Azer-baijan trilateral meeting as important.

TEHRAN – Iran’s ambassador to Rus-sia, Mehdi Sanai, said on Thursday that

there will be good news on relations between Tehran and Moscow.

“Relations between Iran and Russia are close at var-ious levels and the two countries’ leaders have strong will to expand ties. We expect good news on the two countries’ relations in coming weeks and months,” he said during his speech at “Iran-Russia/Dialogue of Cul-tures” conference.

He sa id that the two countr ies should ex-pand cooperat ion in areas of sc ience and technology.

Alexander Zapisotsky, the president of Saint Pe-tersburg University, also praised Iran’s resistance against economic sanctions prior to the imple-mentation of the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which removes sanctions against Iran.

Iran developed its technologies in spite of the

sanctions, he said.Iran-Russia ties have seen both divergence and

convergence. While the two are cooperating in the war-ridden Syria, explicit and implicit voices in Iran have reacted strongly to Russia’s loose commitment to the S-300 deal.

According to a contract signed between the two sides in 2007, Russia had to deliver a surface-to-air mis-sile system. However, the country has failed to fulfill its commitment, citing UN limitations.

APRIL 9, 2016APRIL 9, 20162 I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a lN A T I O N

MEDIA MONITOR

TEHRAN — President Hassan Rouhani said

moderation is the basis of progress, nam-ing Iran “a nation of moderation,” IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.

Taking the middle course is a short cut to achieve goals and arrive at destination, Rouhani said to a gathering to mark the 10th National Day of Nuclear Technology.

“With moderation we can reach our goals faster ... Trusting or distrusting oth-ers cannot be 100 percent ... To progress, we need to have interaction with the world,” Rouhani said.

While there are mixed feelings to-wards the West among Iranians, moder-ation has become a buzzword in political circles of the country since soon after Rouhani’s presidential campaign.

Rouhani also noted that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Iran signed with world powers in July 2015, was the result of practicing the moderate thinking.

The president also emphasized that Iran poses no threat to any other country and history shows this.

“Over the past two centuries Iran has invaded no country and would not … Iran is not a threat to any country … Those neighboring countries which consider Iran a threat are wrong in their calculations.”

The remarks are a not-so-veiled reac-tion to the West and some neighboring Arab countries which called Iran’s recent missile tests provocative.

They have also accused Iran of med-dling in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria. However, senior officials of the two countries say Iran plays a key and positive role, citing Iran’s practical steps to battle terrorism.

As well as, Rouhani warned of extremism, say-ing it can pose the biggest threat for a society.

“Extremism would allow no coopera-tion with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations (UN). Nor would it allow for trust in any-

body, even in friends and neighbors.” However, he emphasized, Iran seeks

interaction with the world while it strives for self-reliance.

Hope is most important condition for resistance economy: Larijani

TEHRAN — Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani has called for inspiring hope in investors as one of the main tools for materialization of resistance economy.

“Creating an atmosphere full of hope and free from tensions is among the first prerequisites of materialization of resistance economy,” Larijani told Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani in the holy city of Qom on Thursday, the YJC reported.

He underlined that the issue of resistance econ-omy after the resolution of the nuclear dispute should be regarded an important national issue. “Resistance economy plays an important role in flourishing of the country.”

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Iranian military official urges firm answer to Kerry

TEHRAN — A top Iranian military official on Friday roundly rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s calls for missile negotiations with Tehran, urging the Foreign Ministry to respond “firmly to the impu-dence”, Press TV reported.

“We are stressing what has been said sever-al times: the missile power is non-negotiable and among the red lines of the Iranian nation and for developing its defense capabilities, Iran doesn’t get permission from anybody,” said Massoud Jazayeri, the deputy chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces.

Jazayeri said Iran pursues its defense program independent of the will and intent of arrogant powers.

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Emami Kashani: All should help govt. implement resistance economy

TEHRAN — An interim Friday prayer leader of Tehran has said people from all walks of life should help government successfully implement resistance economy.

Ayatollah Emami Kashani also said the outcome of the implementation of the econ-omy of resistance should be tangible, IRNA reported.

“Since the new Iranian year has been named by the Supreme Leader as the year of ‘Resistance Economy: Action and Implementation’, priori-ty should be given to this topic as our success in sound implementation of the economy of resist-ance will help meet cultural, political and social needs,” he said.

IRN

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Italy’s Renzi to lead big business team to Iran

TEHRAN — Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is scheduled to visit Iran on Tuesday at the head of a big business team, Iranian Ambassador to Rome Jahanbakhsh Mozafari has said.

Visiting Tehran and Isfahan along with an eco-nomic delegation of 120 in his 2-day trip, the Italian prime minister will meet President Hassan Rouhani, First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, and businessmen in the industrial, bank-ing, and insurance sectors, Fars reported on Friday.

The Italian prime minister is also accompanied by his sciences and industries ministers, Mozafari added.

FA

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Uranium mine has not been shut down: nuclear official

TEHRAN — There has been no problem in the Saqand uranium mine and the mining activities have not been halted, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran spokesman Behrooz Kamalvandi has said.

He dismissed the recent reports about a par-tial shutdown of the mine as exaggeration of minor changes, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting website reported on Friday.

“Now that a lot of ore has been extracted, the activities at the tunnels have to slow down a bit so that further steps could be taken. The open section of the mine, however, is working in full force,” the official underlined.

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Finnish parliamentarians in Iran

TEHRAN — A delegation from the Finnish parlia-ment’s foreign relations committee arrived in Teh-ran on Friday.

The parliamentary team was invited by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, ICANA reported.

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Azerbaijan and Iran may simplify the visa regime soon, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minis-ter Elmar Mammadyarov said on April 7.

He made the remarks during the press conference following the trilateral meeting with Russian and Iranian for-eign ministers.

“This issue was discussed in Baku during the bilateral talks with the Ira-nian side and currently we are close to reaching the result,” said the minister.

“We will introduce a simplified visa re-gime between Azerbaijan and Iran soon.”

(Source: Trend)

Azerbaijan, Iran may ease visa regime soonTEHRAN – Kazakh President Nursultan

Nazarbayev is scheduled to visit Iran on April 11.

The two-day visit will take place at the invitation of Iranian President Has-san Rouhani.

The Kazakh president plans to meet with senior Iranian officials to discuss bilateral relations and international de-velopments.

Nazarbayev will visit Uzbekistan and Turkey on April 13 and 14 after his trip to Iran.

Kazakh president to visit Iran on Monday

Iran poses no threat to any other country and history shows this: president says

Kerry calls on Iran to help end wars in Yemen, Syria

U.S. violating spirit of Iran nuclear deal: Iranian academic

Iran unveils new nuclear advances

Azerbaijan-Armenia dispute should be resolved peacefully: Zarif

We expect good news on Iran-Russia relations: envoy

“Those neighboring countries which consider Iran a threat are wrong in their calculations,”

Rouhani notes.

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Rouhani says moderation key to progress, warns of extremism

Jaysh al-Islam admits using banned weapons against Kurds in Syria

The Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam) terrorist group fighting government forces in Syria has admitted to using “forbid-den” weapons against Kurdish militia in Aleppo. The group’s statement comes after reports of chemical gas being used in shelling Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsood district.

The hard-line group did not specify what substances were used, but claimed that it will punish those responsible.

The group’s statement reads: “During the clashes one of the Jaysh al-Islam brigade leaders used [weapons] forbidden in this kind of confrontations.”

The group claims that the brigade commander in ques-tion was summoned to a military court, where it was decided he is to be held accountable. “This situation is contrary to the charter of Jaysh al-Islam,” says the group.

Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsood neighborhood was shelled with mortars containing chemical agents earlier on Thursday.

The Kurdish Red Crescent confirmed reports that chemicals had been used in the attack. “The symptoms of those affected by the attack such as choking made it possible to affirm that they were poisoned as a result of the use of banned toxic gases such as chlorine or other agents. All our patients have similar symptoms,” Doctor Wallat Mamu told RT.

The People’s Protection Units or People’s Defense Units(YPG/Yekîneyên Parastina Gel?) also confirmed that tox-ic agents had been used by the terrorists, according to RIA Novosti.

“We confirm the information concerning usage by ter-rorists, acting under patronage of Turkey, of the poisonous agent in the Maqsood neighborhood of Aleppo.

YPG intends to report the incident to the Jordan-based United States coordination center and the Russian Center for reconciliation of the opposing sides in Syria, which oversee the cessation of hostilities.

“We will report this fact to the ceasefire centers, to the Russian center in Latakia and to the American one in Jor-dan,” YPG said in a statement.

The hard-line group Jaysh al-Islam is formally a member of the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) that is represent-ing the Syrian opposition at the Geneva talks.

Both Russia and Syria have repeatedly demanded the exclusion of Mohammed Alloush, previously known as Jaysh al-Islam’s political leader, from the negotiations pro-cess.

Alloush was picked as the chief negotiator for the Syrian opposition in Geneva, which has drawn ire from Damascus and criticism from Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a press con-ference in January that Russia would not change its view of the “terrorist essence of Jaysh al-Islam,” which is “known to have shelled residential districts in Damascus, including the Russian Embassy.”

In March, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Ga-tilov reiterated Russia’s stance that Jaysh al-Islam is a terrorist organization.

“From the very beginning, Russia opposed inclusion of the representatives [of Jaysh al-Islam] in the opposition del-egation… They take part in the delegation only in a purely personal capacity… We will only welcome their exclusion from participation in the negotiations,” he told RIA Novosti.

44 civilians killed, 74 injured in Aleppo attacks in 2 weeks

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry has reported observing a rise in terrorist attacks in the Aleppo area over the past two weeks, which it said had killed and injured doz-ens of people.

“In [the] past two weeks, the number and the scale of terrorist provocations in Aleppo have grown sig-nificantly – 44 civilians have been killed and 74, in-cluding children, have been wounded as a result of these attacks,” said the ministr y’s spokesman, Igor Konashenkov.

Official YPG spokesman Redur Xelil told RT that Turkey has contributed greatly to the disruption of the ceasefire in Aleppo by backing militant groups fighting against the Kurds in Syria.

“Here in Sheikh Maqsood, and in Aleppo, there is no cessation of hostilities. The ceasefire has not brought any peace for the YPG and the Kurdish people. In fact it’s the opposite – the attacks on us have intensified. We are absolutely sure that it’s the Turkish government and the rebel groups they support that are responsible for these assaults,” said Xelil.

The ceasefire in Syria came into effect on February 27. The cessation of hostilities agreement, drawn up with the active involvement of U.S. and Russian diplomats, includes some 97 militant opposition groups operating in Syria. Terrorist organ-izations, such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) and al Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), were excluded from the deal.

Numerous violations of the ceasefire have been report-ed since its implementation. Last month, Sergey Kuralenko, head of the Russian Center for reconciliation of the oppos-ing sides in Syria, confirmed 250 cases of the ceasefire being breached.

(Source: RT)

United States Secretary of State John Kerry said in Bahrain that respect for human rights is “essential”, as the Per-sian Gulf tiny kingdom faces persistent accusations of discrimination against its Shia majority.

“Here, as in all nations, we believe that respect for human rights and an inclusive political system are essential,” Kerry told a joint press conference in Manama with his Bahraini counterpart Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa.

Kerry said he and Sheikh Khalid “had the chance to discuss the ongo-ing effort to address and to reduce sectarian divisions here in Bahrain and elsewhere.”

“We all welcome steps by sides to create conditions to provide for greater political involvement for the citizens of this great country,” he added.

In 2011, the tiny but strategic island state, which is dominated by a ruling family drawn from the Sunni minority, crushed an uprising calling for a full constitutional monarchy with an elect-ed prime minister.

Scores of Shias were rounded up and sentenced to lengthy jail terms, in-cluding opposition chiefs.

Asked about a Shia opposition ac-tivist who was taken into custody with her toddler last month after she was convicted in 2014 for tearing up a post-er of King Hamad, Sheikh Khalid said:

“This is a humanitarian issue and Zain-ab al-Khawaja will be released pending her case in the court.”

“She is in jail and she chose to keep her child with her,” said Sheikh Khalid.

“But of course she will be sent to her home,” he said, without specifying when, adding that “the case will con-tinue.”

The daughter of prominent rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja was sen-tenced to three years in prison in De-cember 2014 after being convicted of insulting the king by ripping up a pho-tograph of him.

An appeals court last October re-duced her term to one year behind bars, while upholding a fine of 3,000 dinars (about $8,000).

Khawaja had said she would keep her son, who is reportedly just over one year old, by her side if she was jailed, Amnesty International said in October.

Amnesty urged Bahraini authorities earlier this month to “immediately and unconditionally” release jailed opposi-tion figures.

“The alarming erosion of human rights in Bahrain in recent years means that anyone who dares to criticize the authorities or call for reform risks severe punishment,” said Amnesty’s regional deputy di-rector James Lynch.

(Source: AFP)

Skirmishes continued on Friday around Nagorno-Karabakh with Azerbai-jan and Armenia blaming each other for cease-fire violations, while Russia sought to stabilize the situation by playing a go-between.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Med-vedev met with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Baku a day after holding talks with the Armenian leadership.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said on Friday its troops returned fire after Armenian forces shelled Azerbaijani military positions and populated areas. The Armenian side accused Azerbaijan of shelling its positions, killing two Ar-menian soldiers overnight.

The gun battles threaten to de-rail the Russia-brokered truce de-clared at midday on Tuesday follow-ing several days of intense battles which marked the worst violence since a separatist war ended in 1994. The war left Nagorno-Karab-akh, officially a part of Azerbaijan, under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces and the Armenian military. Armenian forces also occu-py several areas outside the Karab-akh region.

Azerbaijan has said 31 of its sol-diers have been killed since Saturday while Armenia’s Defense Ministry has acknowledged the loss of 44 troops. Each party put enemy losses in the

hundreds, claims that couldn’t be in-dependently verified. Several civilians have also been killed on both sides.

The conflicting parties reached a tentative agreement to evacuate bod-ies from the frontline on Friday.

The fighting involving heavy artillery and rocket systems has raised fears of a possible regional escalation, with Turkey strongly backing Azerbaijan and Russia obliged by a mutual security pact to protect Armenia.

Russia, which has a military base in Armenia, also has sought to maintain friendly ties with energy-rich Azer-baijan and provided it weapons in a bid to shore up its influence in the Caucasus region, a conduit for ener-gy resources from the Caspian Sea to the West.

Along with the United States and France, Russia has also acted as a mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace talks which have dragged on since 1994 without any visible re-sults.

Medvedev said during Friday’s meeting with Aliyev that Russia val-ues its relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan and voiced hope that they could resume their nego-tiations under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

(Source: AP)

United States Secretary of State John Kerry visited Iraq on Friday to show support for its prime minister who is grappling with a political crisis, a collapsing economy and a fight to retake ground from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last week unsettled Iraq’s political elite with a proposed cabinet reshuffle that aims to curb entrenched corruption by replacing long-time politicians with technocrats and academics.

His aim is to free Iraqi ministries from the grip of a political class that has used the system of ethnic and sectarian quotas instituted after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to amass wealth and influence.

U.S. officials fear the political unrest may harm Iraq’s efforts to retake territory it has lost to the ISIL terrorists, notably its second city of Mosul, seized when parts of the Iraqi army collapsed in 2014.

“This is obviously a very critical time here in Iraq,” Kerry said as he began a meeting with Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari at his villa in Baghdad’s heavily pro-tected Green Zone which houses embassies and gov-ernment buildings.

He later met with Abadi, who ignored a U.S. report-er’s shouted question about whether he wanted Wash-ington to deploy more troops to Iraq. The United States,

which withdrew its forces from Iraq in 2011, has rede-ployed several thousand troops as part of a coalition it is leading against ISIL.

Announcing Kerry’s visit, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the trip “will underscore our strong support for the Iraqi government as it addresses significant security, economic and political challenges.”

In the past two weeks, Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes have retaken significant parts of Hit, a

town 130 km (80 miles) northwest of Baghdad.However, an offensive billed as the first phase of a

campaign to recapture the northern city of Mosul has been put on hold until reinforcements arrive to hold ground, the commander of the operation said on Wednesday.

“The political wrangling in Iraq - it’s certainly an is-sue that concerns us,” a senior U.S. official in Washington told reporters earlier this week before Kerry flew to Iraq aboard a U.S. military aircraft.

Kerry plans to “encourage the Iraqis, while they’re dealing with the cabinet reshuffle, not to lose sight of the need to stay focused on the fight against” ISIL, he said, stressing the need “to plan steadily and carefully” to retake Mosul.

Baghdad is also hamstrung by the plunge in global oil prices that has shriveled its main source of revenue.

On Thursday, officials from the International Monetary Fund and the government said the oil price forecast in the 2016 budget would be cut to about $32 a barrel from $45, widening Iraq’s fiscal deficit by several billion dollars.

Kerry also plans talks with the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani, the State De-partment said.

(Source: Reuters)

Turkey and Israel are on the brink of restoring their ties after a bitter falling-out five years ago, the Turkish foreign ministry announced early on Friday after talks in London.

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-tion) member Turkey was a key regional ally of Israel until the two countries cut ties in 2010 over the deadly storming by Israeli comman-dos of a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza, which left 10 Turkish aid activists dead.

After years of bitter accusations and inflammatory rhetoric the two sides held secret talks in December to seek a rap-prochement, with another round taking place in February in Geneva.

“The teams made progress towards finalizing the agreement and closing the gaps, and agreed that the deal will be fi-nalized in the next meeting which will be convened very soon,” the Turkish ministry said in a statement after the fresh round of talks on Thursday.

Israel’s foreign ministry, contacted by AFP, declined to comment.

Ankara said the latest talks in London brought together powerful Turkish foreign ministry official Feridun Sinirlioglu, Joseph Ciechanover, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli National Security Advisor Jacob Nagel.

In an interview with Turkish newspa-per Vatan on Friday, Prime Minister Ah-

met Davutoglu said “significant progress has been made”, adding that the two sides were hoping to reach “a final stage” in the talks soon.

Turkey had already said in February that the former allies were “close to con-cluding a deal”.

But they had yet to agree on all of Turkey’s conditions, with the main hur-dle appearing to be the lifting of Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Israel apologized to Turkey in 2013, in what many thought would trigger a warm-ing in ties, but tensions soared again the following year when Israel launched a mas-sive military offensive in Gaza.

Turkey’s other condition is that victims of the Mavi Marmara be compensated, and has said that talks have advanced in this regard.

The Mavi Marmara was one of six ships which headed to Gaza in May 2010 carry-ing humanitarian supplies in a bid to break the blockade of the Strip which has been in place since 2007, shortly after the Islamic group Hamas won elections there.

The blockade has been branded cruel and inhumane by rights groups, although Israel argues it is necessary to stop weapons smuggling.

Turkey is a key backer of Hamas, and Erdogan has accused Israel of being

“genocidal” in Gaza.Analysts have suggested that Turkey’s

desire for a rapprochement has been accel-erated by the drastic worsening in ties with Moscow since the shooting-down of a Rus-sian warplane wrecked several joint projects.

Ankara relies on Russia for more than half its natural gas imports and Turkey now has its eyes on Israeli gas reserves.

In a highly symbolic encounter, Erdogan last week met representatives of Jewish or-ganizations in the United States to discuss

the fight against terrorism and racism.“Unfortunately, anti-Semitic, Islamo-

phobic, xenophobic movements have been shifting from the periphery to the centre of politics. We have to struggle against them together,” he said.

Another sign of a thaw in relations came when Israeli President Reuven Rivlin phoned Erdogan to thank him for his com-passion after a suicide bombing in Istanbul last month left three Israelis dead.

(Source: AFP)

Kerry visits Iraq, showing support for embattled PM

Skirmishes continue in Nagorno-Karabakh despite cease-fire

U.S. tells Bahrain respect for human rights ‘essential’

APRIL 9, 2016APRIL 9, 2016 INTERNATIONALh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l 3I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Turkey, Israel near normal relations: Ankara

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E C O N O M Y h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / e c o n o m yAPRIL 9, APRIL 9, 20162016

Last week, PSA Peugeot Citroen, the French auto group, received its license authorizing the company to invest in Iran. The joint venture with Iran Khodro would start operation next summer, and the production would start in 2017.

PSA "got the license last week allowing us to invest in Iran, this is a major step," said Jean-Christophe Que-mard, PSA’s regional director of Middle East and African affairs. The next "big step will be the formation of the joint venture, in the summer of 2016".

PSA has also resumed deliveries of parts which

interrupted four years ago following the imposi-tion of international sanctions on Iran, Quemard said.

In the course of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s trip to Paris in January, the French automobile group signed an agreement to establish a 50-50 joint venture with Iran Khodro Industrial local.

At the end of 2017 small Peugeot 208, 2008 and four-door sedans 301 would come on stream. The vehi-cles will be manufactured in the factory of Iran Khodro, in suburb of Tehran which will be modernized and ex-

tended. The volumes are planned 100,000 cars in the first tranche and 200,000 in the second. The amount of Investment is also estimated at 400 million euros over five years.

PSA will also pay nearly 430 million euros in com-pensation to Iran for his sudden departure from the country in 2012, according to Iran Khodro. The bulk of these damages will not however be paid in cash but in the form of free parts, debt relief and free training of local staff.

(Source: challenges.fr)

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F A delay in appointing U.S. Export-Import Bank board members threatens to cost Boe-ing Co sales, the company’s chief executive said on Thursday, flagging an issue that also affects General Electric (GE.N) and other U.S. companies that depend on the agency’s export financing.

Boeing is on the verge of losing orders be-cause only two of five seats on the agency’s board are filled, not enough to approve deals over $10 million, Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said at EXIM’s annual conference in Washington.

Verizon Communications Inc is ready to make a bid for Yahoo’s web business, and hopes to make a merger more successful by also making an offer for a stake in Yahoo’s Japan subsidiary, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing a source familiar with the matter.

The telecom giant is planning to make a first-round bid for Yahoo’s web business next week, the news or-ganization said.

Alphabet Inc’s Google unit is also mulling a bid for Yahoo’s core business, Bloomberg reported, citing a source.

However, Bloomberg said many companies that had been seen as likely investors in Yahoo were not planning a bid, including AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp and Microsoft Corp.

Owners of Mercedes diesel cars filed a new class-action lawsuit in the United States saying the vehicles likely contained a “defeat device” used to cheat emis-sions testing, an accusation that Daimler, which owns the carmaker, denied.

U.S. law firm Hagens Berman, which had already filed a complaint in February, said new tests had shown that Mercedes BlueTEC cars produced ni-trogen oxide emissions in virtually all road tests that were far higher than in controlled lab tests.

“The fact that Mercedes passed the dynamom-eter test in all tests, but failed the real world test, is suggestive that like VW, Mercedes is implementing a ‘defeat device’,” it said in its complaint filed in the District Court of New Jersey.

Boeing CEO says sales at risk due to U.S. EXIM paralysis

Verizon plans bid for Yahoo and its Yahoo Japan stake: Bloomberg

Mercedes diesel owners file new lawsuit in United States

Tehran, Ankara intent on developing banking, tourism ties

Taiwan keen to boost oil imports from Iran by 27%

1In his visit to Iran at the head of a

160-strong delegation on March 5, Davutoglu said, “The geography and economic structures of Iran and Turkey are like the pieces of a puzzle which complete each other.”

“Iran and Turkey are friends and neighbors; if they cooperate with each other, they can turn to the strongest regional countries,” he added.

“Both our countries must think about a win-win outcome in order to compete with the world economy,” Da-vutoglu said.

Turkey was the fourth largest ex-porter of goods to Iran in the past Iranian calendar year which ended on March 19, 2016; meanwhile, in its pre-ceding year (March 2014-March 2015), Turkey was the 6th major importer of

Iranian non-oil goods. The two countries also maintain

close energy ties. Turkey is one of the major customers of Iranian gas and

imports 10 billion cubic meters of the product from Iran every year.

TEHRAN — Taiwan is keen to expand its

import of oil from Iran by 27 percent in 2016, said Jerry S. K. Yang, the director general of Commercial Office of the Re-public of China (Taiwan) to United Arab Emirates (UAE), in a letter to Masoud Khansari, the chairman of Tehran Cham-ber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (TCCIMA).

According to the letter, CPC Corpora-tion, a state-owned petroleum, natural gas, and gasoline company in Taiwan and Formosa Plastics Corporation have decided to increase their oil imports from Iran from 11 million barrels to 14 million barrels in 2016, the Shana news agency reported.

Yang also expressed hope that TTCI-MA would open an office in Taiwan in

near future, so that the trade between the two countries’ businessmen would be facilitated.

Last week, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said the country’s oil exports have surpassed 2 million barrels per day following the lifting of sanctions under its nuclear deal with world pow-ers.

Iran, an OPEC member, has the

world's fourth-largest oil reserves but its exports were long hampered by sanc-tions over its nuclear program.

Last month, Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Rokneddin Javadi said the rising trend of crude oil exports will continue in the cur-rent Iranian year which began on March 20, predicting the production to rise to 4 million bpd during the year.

TEHRAN — France’s oil giant Total would travel to Iran late April to con-

tinue its negotiations over constructing a petrochemi-cal complex in the country, said Amir-Hossein Fallah, the investment director at Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC).

During the trip, NPC and Total are expected to fi-nalize the agreement, the Shana news agency quoted Fallah as saying.

NPC and Total first signed an agreement in Febru-ary to collaborate in construction of a petrochemical facility in Iran.

Also in March, Total inked a confidentiality agree-

ment with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) on development of Iran’s South Azadegan oilfield.

The deal came after Total agreed to buy 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude for delivery in Europe.

South Azadegan is one of the five oilfields, dubbed the West Karoun oilfields, Iran shares with Iraq at the western part of Iran’s southwestern region of Karoun.

After the July 2015 agreement with world major powers which lifted the sanctions on Iran’s nuclear pro-gram, Total, as well as a number of French petrochemi-cal firms have expressed willingness to come back to the Iranian market.

Most Asian shares fell to three-week lows on Friday, but Japan bucked the trend af-ter its finance minister pledged to guard against strong moves in the yen in either direction.

While that led to a slight retreat in the yen from a 17-month high against the dol-lar, the Japanese currency is still headed for weekly gains against its major coun-terparts.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.2 percent, heading for a weekly drop of 1.5 percent.

European equities look set to fare bet-ter, with financial spread betters expecting

Britain’s FTSE to open about 0.4 percent higher, Germany’s DAX to rise 0.7 percent, and France’s CAC to gain 0.1 percent.

Japan’s Nikkei erased earlier losses after Finance Minister Taro Aso said the govern-ment would take steps to counter “one-sided” moves in the yen in either direction.

The yen’s strength is regarded as nega-tive for Japan’s big exporting firms, and af-ter earlier falling to near-two-month lows ion strong yen buying, the Nikkei rose 1.2 percent, leaving it with losses of 1.4 per-cent for the week.

“Not only is (the yen’s rise) bad for Japanese growth but it can also be seen

as a negative sign for the global economy to the extent that it may signal unwinding carry trades and hence less risk taking in capital flows,” Shane Oliver, head of invest-ment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney, wrote in a note.

On the other hand, “the higher the yen goes the greater the pressure on the Bank of Japan to undertake more monetary stimulus.”

The yen slipped to 108.83, leaving it set for a weekly gain of 2.5 percent, having strengthened to 107.67 to the dollar on Thursday, its highest since October 2014.

The dollar index, which tracks the

greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was up about 0.1 percent at 94.60, poised for a flat weekly perfor-mance.

The euro last fetched $1.1363, and was set to end the week up 0.2 percent, having hit a six-month high of $1.1454 on Thursday.

On the other hand, commodity-linked currencies and many emerging economy currencies stepped back from recent mul-ti-month highs as a risk-averse mood took hold on investors.

The Australian dollar traded at $0.7541, having fallen 1.3 percent on Thursday.

(Source: Reuters)

Tehran to host 72 national, intl. expos in current calendar year

TEHRAN — A sum of seven national and 65 international exhibitions are scheduled to

start operation in the Iranian capital by the end of the current calendar year (March 20, 2017), ISNA news agency reported on Friday.

According to the latest timetable published by the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO), private and state-run firms have expressed their readiness to hold up the announced marketing and commerce exhibitions, among which it can be referred to the 10th International Iran Plast Exhibition, the 3rd LABEXPO, the 21st Iran International Oil, Gas, Refining, and Pet-rochemical Exhibition, the 16th Iran International Environment Exhibition, and etc.

Also, some 28 countries will host exclusive Iranian exhibitions in the current year, the TPO announced on Wednesday.

Iran has set a target of $77.5 billion in non-oil exports for the current year, according to Mojtaba Khosrotaj, the Iranian deputy industry, mining, and trade minister.

Total, NPC to continue talks on construction of petchem complex

New border gate to improve commercial ties between Turkey, IranThe government is currently renovating the Kapikoy border gate in addition to other border gates between Turkey and Iran, according to Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci. "We will hopefully have laid the foundation for the Kapikoy border crossing by June," he said. Therefore, I think that we will be constructing an alternative gate when it is completed. Also, we care about information exchange in terms of speeding up the procedures in the field of customs."

Tufenkci held a meeting with Iran's information communi-cations and technology minister, Mahmoud Vaezi, and his ac-companying committee at the ministry's meeting hall in Teh-ran. Stressing that he examined the Gurbulak border gate last week, Tufenkci added: "I found some shortcomings. We will hopefully demolish the gate and rebuild it. We will take pre-cautions during the process."

Indicating Iran's importance for Turkey, Tufenkci said he has always seen the people of the two countries as partners. "Peace in this region means peace for our countries and the world. This pushes us to move faster and take solid steps in every field," Tufenkci said. Emphasizing that trade between Turkey and Iran needs to be increased, Tufenkci said he believes in the strong will of the two countries, but what the countries need to do is lift the obstacles to bilateral trade and solve inter country transportation problems. "When we look at the potential of the two countries, I do not think we have achieved satisfactory commercial engagement.

In this context, the preferential trade agreement that we signed last year offers great opportunities; however, some shortcomings need to be removed during the implementation process. I hope these problems will be solved during the Joint Economic Commission (KEK) meetings, which will be held in Ankara and Konya," Tufenkci said, adding that they wanted to improve the trade volume between the two countries as well as friendly commercial relations in terms of natural resources and tourism. Adding that Iran and Turkey could evaluate the commercial opportunities among Islamic countries together, Tufenkci stressed that works need to be conducted regarding this matter, also addressing some of the problems Turkish busi-nesspeople and transporters have encountered in Iran, noting that Iran should work on solving these problems on its own.

(Source: dailysabah.com)

India raises Iran credit line to $450 mIndia's cabinet on Wednesday raised a credit line to Iran to $450 million as New Delhi aims to boost trade ties with Tehran after the lifting of international sanctions.

The credit line, to be extended by the country's lending arm for the export of good and services, will help in supplying steel rails to Tehran.

State-run Steel Authority of India Ltd and private firm Jindal Steel and Power Ltd have signed a deal with Iran to supply 250,000 tons of steel rails worth 17 billion Indian rupees ($255 million) in 2015.

But supplies have not begun pending New Delhi's finalizing of the credit line.

India's Exim Bank and a consortium of Iranian banks led by the Central Bank of Iran struck a deal in 2014 for financing exports from India worth 9 billion rupees.

The increased credit line will help Indian companies gain a foothold in Iran, the government said in a statement.

(Source: thehindubusinessline.com)

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, sitting at the head of the table, in his meeting with Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi (second left) in Ankara on April 7

ECONOMYd e s k

ECONOMYd e s k

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PSA receives license to start investment in Iran

Asian shares fall, while Japan’s gain as brakes applied to strong yenIndonesia plans to import 3 LPG cargoes from IranThe state-owned oil and gas giant Pertamina’s VP for Integrated Supply Chain, Daniel Purba, said the company plans to import three cargoes of LPG from Iran.

But, there are several issues getting in the way. The main problem is with the payment system. “Not all banks can facilitate this kind of deal,” Daniel mentioned.

That international sanctions against Iran have just been lifted is not helping, either.

LPG from Iran is important to fulfill Indonesia’s domestic needs be-cause Indonesia does not produce enough LPG to meet its domestic demand. Pertamina still has to import almost 60 percent of the LPG used in Indonesia, and imports are expected to rise annually in line with increased consumption. (Source: katadata.co.id)

HISTORY & HERITAGEh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m APRIL 9, 2016APRIL 9, 2016 5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

TEHRAN — Tour-ism management

students of Allameh Tabatabai Univer-sity of Tehran will welcome tourists with white roses at Tehran’s Golestan Palace to celebrate the International Day for Monuments and Sites on April 17.

Imitated by International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in 1982, the day is annually celebrated on April 18 around the world.

The students will welcome visitors with the motto of “Each Tourist, an Am-bassador of Peace”, the university’s dean of Tourism Management Faculty Hamid Zargham announced in a press release.

During the ceremony, white pi-geons will be released in the Golestan Palace. Meanwhile, the visitors will be provided with English brochures intro-ducing Iran’s 19 historical sites which have been registered on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, he added.

The venue will be also decorated with a white banner, on which visitors will write comments against vandalism in historical places.

The event is organized by the Cultural

Heritage, Tourism and Handicraft Organi-zation’s office in Tehran, the Golestan Pal-ace, and the Tehran Municipality.

Located in the heart and historic core of Tehran, the Golestan Palace was originally built during the Safa-

vid dynasty in the historic walled city. However, it received its most charac-teristic features in the 19th century, when the palace complex was select-ed as the royal residence and seat of power by the Qajar ruling family.

The use of private capital contributed significantly to the open-ing of Iran’s first-ever aquarium tunnel in the city of Isfahan, which has in turn contributed to Iran’s tourism sector, according to architect Hassan Shafeie, who created the aquarium project.

In an interview with Sputnik’s Persian edition, Hassan Shafeie, the architect and creator of the aquarium project praised efforts to attract private funds to the construction of Iran’s first-ever aquarium tunnel in Isfahan, the country’s third-largest city.

According to him, private capital injections in the imple-mentation of social projects in Iraq contribute considerably to the country’s tourism sector.

The interview came a few weeks after the unveiling of the Isfahan aquarium, which is not only the largest aquarium in Iran but also the largest of its kind in the Middle East.

“Local authorities know full well that Isfahan is one of the most attractive tourist destinations in Iran, something that prompts them to work hard to improve conditions for tourists.

In the past few years, one of the most important steps in this direction has been private capital investments in the imple-mentation of major social projects,” he said.

He added that “the organizers of the project did their best to fill the aquarium with inhabitants of the sea and ocean depths from all around the world.”

“Our special pride is the recreated climatic conditions of the Amazon basin, which allows various types of fauna to coexist in the aquarium. In total, our collection numbers about 6,000 fish species; 400 of them are on the Endangered Species List,” Shafeie said.

During a visit to the 3,500 square meter aquarium, which contains at least 1,080 cubic meters of water, tourists and Isfa-hani residents can view the rarest types of fish, both from the side and from below, experiencing the conditions that scuba divers experience 35 meters below the surface of the ocean, according to the website Real Iran.

(Source: Sputnik)

Golestan Palace located in the heart and historic core of Tehran.

T O U R I S Md e s k

Tourism students to mark Intl. Day for Monuments and Sites

Sputnik interviews creator of Iran’s largest aquarium

Ministry of Industry, Mine, and TradeIndustrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO)

Cotton spinning production lineInvitation to Bid

Tender No.: 95/526Subject: Request for Proposal for Turnkey Basis of Engineering and Procurement

(EP) Works of Cotton spinning yarn Manufacturing Plant

Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) of IRAN intended to award the contract for Turnkey Basis of Engineering and Procurement (EP) Works of cotton spinning production line through a tender bid. In this regard and in accordance with Iranian tender law and its bylaws, IDRO solicits Bids from internationally reputed organizations of both foreign and local origin for ENGINEERING and PROCUREMENT (EP) works of cotton spinning production line on a turnkey basis.

1- Employer/Client: Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO)2- Project: Turnkey Basis of Works Engineering, Procurement (EP) of spinning

production line for cotton, polyester and viscose and blended off.3- Location: Ghostaresh sanaye Baloch CO, 5th km Bampor- Iranshahr road, Iranshahr,

Sistan & Baluchestan Province, Islamic Republic of Iran.4- Contract: Design and Engineering, Technology Transfer, Supply and Procurement

of Equipment and Machinery, Installation, Commissioning, Supervision, Training and Operation of the Project. With respect to Laws and Regulations of the I.R. of Iran, the maximum potentials of local contractors and suppliers shall be exploited

and used by the selected Bidder.

5- Plant Capacity: 15 TON yarn per day (10 ton Ne 20 and 5ton Ne 30) .

6- Submission of Bids: From 9/April/2016 TO 30/ April/2016 . Filled RFP Documents

Shall be posted to the blew address.

7- Contact Information: 5th Floor, No. 2, IDRO Building, Jame- e- Jam St.,

Vali-e-Asr Ave, Tehran, Iran.

Tel: +98(21) 22044067 or +98(21)23862202, Fax: +98(21) 22044035

Email: Ghorbani-sa@idro.orgPerson in charge: Mr. Saeid Ghorbani

First A

nnouncem

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For The First Time in Iran: Knowledge Based City Discourse Plans to Commence In Isfahan

In a press conference held during the first working days of current Iranian cal-endar year (started on March 20), Me-hdi Jamalinejad announced the imple-mentation of the first knowledge-based discourse plan in Isfahan municipality.The official believed that nowadays mu-nicipality has transformed from a mere services organization to a socio-cultural one.

Isfahan Municipality to Move toward a Knowledge-Based Organization

“This is the first time in Iran that a new discourse plan is being implemented in a municipality” Dr. Jamalinejad claimed. “A knowledge-based city appreciates its artists, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, a city in which the prevailing atmosphere would be creativity and innovation” he explained.

The New Discourse Will Turn Isfahan into a Creative and Knowledge-Based City

Dr. Jamalinejad believed that the new

discourse will turn Isfahan into a creative, knowledge-based city.

Academic and Scientific Promoting Have Been Started In Isfahan

The mayor said that the change and development start with theorizing, so Is-fahan municipality has put the discourse making before any actions. He also men-tioned the anticipation of 160 theorizing programs in Isfahan.

Jamalinejad also pointed to the joining of Isfahan to the Creative Cities Network and noted, “Isfahan is a noble city which by joining this network can use other city’s experiences and transfer its own experiences to them.”

I Don’t See the Municipality as a Political Club

Isfahan mayor does not believe in the municipality to be a political club and he refuses promoting any political actions in the future. The mayor also underlined that Isfahan municipality does not need idle managers and said those who do not adapt to the new pace will be excluded.

Municipality is Facing Excess Staff Dilemma

Mentioning the excess staff in munici-pality, Dr. Jamalnejad noted, “Unfortu-nately we are facing this problem not just in Isfahan municipality but in so many other executive organs and municipali-ties in the country and no government succeeded in solving this problem so far.”

The Sisters City Activity Grounds Should Expand

Isfahan mayor stated that in the mu-nicipality’s recent programs, promoting national, regional and international posi-tion of Isfahan has been emphasized and in this regard some plans are defined and they will try for Isfahan to have a more outstanding presence among her sister cities.

This Year’s International Children Film Festival to Be Held in Isfahan

Dr. Jamlinejad also had some good news for the citizens of Isfahan: “this year’s international children film festival will be held in Isfahan” he said. “Cultural programs and events will not be limited to this film festival” he added.

Multiple Inaugurations Each Week: More Than Two Birds with One Stone!

The mayor went on mentioning the “Multiple openings every week” plan and noted, “by implementing this plan Isfahan municipality aims at three tar-gets, first face to face interaction with the citizens in different city zones, second, mainstreaming, that is teaching people to be active participants in the city affairs, and the third target is to create a com-petitive atmosphere among different city zones and the municipality itself”.

He also named some of the important projects in Isfahan city and said, “Isfahan hall summit, Imam Ali square and Isfahan international exhibitions’ center are among outstanding projects in the country.”

The Subway: First Priority of Isfahan Municipality

Dr. Jamalinejad named the Isfahan subway as the first to fifth priority of the Isfahan municipality and noted, “We have considered very significant budget for this project because we believe it is of vital projects for the city.” He went on explaining that the third line of the sub-way will be starting simultaneously with the second line.

We Need New Ideas from CitizensThe mayor claimed Isfahan to be the

first city in the country which has signed an agreement with the vice president of tech-nology to provide the city with waste incin-erator devices. He noted that municipality needs citizens’ new ideas in this regard.

Faster Execution of Development Projects by Three Work Shifts

Regarding the suspension of the devel-opment projects during Nourouz holidays, the mayor explained, “The suspensions have been and after the holidays the con-structions continue in three working shifts”.

Opening The First Phase of Isfahan’s

International Fair Ground by the End of the Current Iranian calendar Year

Asked about Isfahan’s international fairground project, Dr. Jamalinejad said, “The first phase of the project will be ready at the end of the current year or mostly at the beginning of the next year.”

Urban Development Requires Citizens’ Participation

Dr. Jamalinejad believes that being friend with the people is his biggest de-sire, because the citizens’ participation would help the city’s development and prosperity”.

Utilization of Touristic Capacity of Historical Houses in Isfahan

Talking about the historical houses’ condition in Isfahan, Dr. Jamalinejad explained, “considering the problems that CHHTO is facing, we accept that they cannot buy and mend all the houses in a short period of time, for this, the municipality is helping the organization in this regard and has done a lot which is exceptional in the country.

A New Movement in Isfahan Municipality: Isfahan Mayor Announces

APRIL 9, APRIL 9, 201620166I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

INTERNATIONAL h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l

With much fanfare, the Azer-baijani and Armenian presi-dents seemed pleased by

the welcome as participants in U.S. President Barack Obama’s Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. Join-ing more than 50 world leaders at the opening of the summit on March 31, both leaders met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice-President Joseph Biden.

Yet for these two rivals, their own dispute and divide over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict followed them to Washington. And that was also evi-dent by the fact that their meetings with U.S. officials were delicately cho-reographed as “separate but equal” events.

Further frustrating diplomatic proto-col, recent attempts by the U.S. side to facilitate a direct meeting of the Azerbai-jani and Armenian presidents failed.

And that failure was especially pain-ful, particularly as the U.S. is a co-chair

of the mediating Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OCSE) “Minsk Group”, the sole diplo-matic body responsible for the Kara-bakh peace process.

At the same time, the success of Obama’s summit was much more harshly tarnished by the behavior of other leaders.

First, Russian President Vladimir Putin belatedly announced that he was boycotting the summit, leaving no chance for salvaging cooperation between the U.S. and Russia over pro-liferation and nuclear security issues.

For the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, the summit was an impor-tant opportunity to demonstrate and display the strategic significance of their respective countries, while also garner-ing a greater degree of legitimacy.

For Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian, the Washington summit was an opportune chance to deepen his country’s ties with the U.S. It was also a chance to meet and greet the sizable and politically well-organized Armeni-

an-American community. But most importantly, in the face of

a Russian boycott of the event, Sarki-sian was able to demonstrably defend Armenia’s independence and sover-eignty despite its close security ties to Moscow.

But for the Azerbaijani president, Il-ham Aliyev, the summit was even more significant. It was seen as a chance to reaffirm the strategic importance of Azerbaijan, especially crucial in the wake of a serious crackdown on civil society and an economic downturn driven by the slump in oil prices.

At the time, it was perceived as a way for Aliyev to improve his image and, after a recent release of political prisoners, a way to rebuild ties with the West.

Demise of diplomacyThe launch of the Azerbaijani military

offensive in the pre-dawn hours of April 2 means that the president’s decision to proceed was made either in Washington or on the flight back to Baku.

That timing only suggests that the

Washington visit was in many ways a last chance, or an ultimatum, by the Azerbaijani leader to the U.S. to move more forcefully on the Karabakh con-flict.

And perhaps, although it was not clear to the Americans at the time, the Azerbaijanis’ sense of frustration over the lack of progress in the peace pro-cess may have reached a dangerous tipping point.

Such frustration and willingness to use force to change the calculus over Karabakh has also been mount-ing, and was evident in the deeper trend of escalation over the past sev-eral years.

But it may also hold much wider, more dangerous implications. It may actually present a fresh opportunity for Russian involvement. Although Russia is more directly engaged in Armenia, who hosts the sole Russian base in the region, Moscow has emerged in re-cent years as Azerbaijan’s main weap-ons provider.

9

Nagorno-Karabakh: The death of diplomacyBy Richard Giragosian

A house which was damaged during clashes between Armenian and Azeri forces is seen in Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Although Russia is more directly engaged in Armenia, who hosts the sole Russian base in the region, Moscow has emerged in recent

years as Azerbaijan’s main weapons provider.

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INTERNATIONALh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l APRIL 9, APRIL 9, 20162016 7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

The nearly five-year civil war in Syria has exposed some of the difficulties that military forces have conducting

intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance against ter-rorists and insurgents in crowded urban environments. These challenges, while not insurmountable, will continue to plague even the most advanced military forces, includ-ing the United States, as migration out of rural areas and into cities continues unabated.

For the foreseeable future, deterring and counter-ing near-peer adversaries such as Russia and China will undoubtedly remain at the forefront of American grand strategy. But in addition to meeting the challenges associ-ated with traditional and well-known state-based threats, the U.S. military will be expected to combat an array of violent non-state actors — a blanket term that includes well-established groups like Islamic State, al Qaeda and the transnational criminal gang MS-13 but also countless other and less well-known militias, insurgent groups and terrorist organizations.

Countering violent non-state actors will almost assur-edly force the U.S. military to engage in operations in or on the edge of densely populated “megacities,” urban ar-eas that seep into one another and have more than 10 million inhabitants.

This is problematic. Military missions even in relative-ly small built-up areas are inherently complex endeavors. Buildings and masses of people can provide cover and concealment to hostile actors and their operations. These features can also reduce the effectiveness of the intelli-gence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms the military needs to successfully conduct operations. The larger and more complex the city, the more pronounced these challenges become.

Dystopian storiesPopular conceptions of megacities are drawn from the

futuristic and dystopian stories often presented in science fiction.

The urban sprawl and enormous concentration of people was depicted in the 1995 film “Judge Dredd,” where a megacity is the locus of crime and armed gangs, and a host of social ills run rampant. While a single me-tropolis extending from Boston to Washington, D.C., or from San Francisco to San Diego might seem far-fetched, megacities do exist and are only expected to become more common.

In 2015, 27 regions worldwide fit the definition of meg-acity but projections by the National Intelligence Coun-cil suggest that over the next decade and a half, urban growth will result in more than a dozen more, with many of them in Africa and Asia.

Because of the sheer size of megacities and the chal-lenges associated with their governance, some of these urban redoubts will likely be characterized by areas of lawlessness and sizable “no-go zones,” making them ripe targets for violent non-state actor recruitment and fund-ing activities.

In such areas, these actors will be able to create and/or take advantage of black markets, shadow governance, illicit economies and dark networks to generate revenue and recruit new members over long periods.

As has been demonstrated in places like Russia’s Grozny and Iraq’s Sadr City, countering violent non-state actors in dense urban environments can prove enor-mously difficult even for highly capable military forces. Grozny’s population is in the hundreds of thousands and Sadr City’s is around 3.5 million.

When illicit actors become firmly entrenched in an ur-ban environment and garner widespread support from among the population (like they were in Grozny in the 1990s and Sadr City during the Iraq War), successfully countering their activities requires a significant application

of time and military resources.An ongoing example of how violent non-state ac-

tors might operate in megacities can be seen in Islam-ic State-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria, where the terror group maintains disparate and lucrative income sources, including bakeries, oil refineries, and utilities and simultaneously recruits new members not only from with-in areas they control, but also from throughout the world.

Consider the case of Raqqa, the IS-stronghold and the group’s current center of gravity. Raqqa is not a megaci-ty since it has only about 250,000 residents. But because members of IS live alongside and operate among Raqqa’s population, military forces operating in Syria have had dif-ficulty reconnoitering, targeting and striking the group from the air.

Even when targeted successfully, concerns over caus-ing collateral damage have led the U.S. military to call off certain tactical strikes, which in turn have limited the scope and effectiveness of the overall military operation.

Ground incursionsIn an effort to prevent or deter ground incursions, IS

also has likely booby trapped and ringed the city with im-provised explosive devices. Now, imagine a city similar to Raqqa that is 40 times larger, much more densely pop-ulated and fiercely loyal to the violent non-state actors conducting operations there.

The challenges associated with successfully countering such a foe in a city of this size are difficult to overstate.

Undoubtedly, military overmatch — especially in re-spect to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ca-

pabilities — is a concern for irregular forces and one of the reasons why they choose to operate in densely popu-lated urban environments.

These capabilities are a crucial element of urban op-erations: They enable modern militaries to see the bat-tlespace, track adversary movements and, ultimately, conduct air and ground operations to their fullest effect, while reducing the likelihood of friendly and civilian casu-alties.

But the sheer volume of people, vehicles and buildings present complicates the equation, causing these chal-lenges to grow not only in magnitude but also in kind.

The electronic and cyber fog formed by the pervasive use of cheap and encrypted mobile communications de-vices has the potential to overwhelm the U.S. military’s optical-electrical surveillance platforms and limit its ca-pacity for effectively targeting and tracking the activities of hostile sub-state actors.

The relative ease associated with surreptitiously con-structing and emplacing IEDs and the continued prolif-eration of unmanned aerial systems — including smaller, commercially available drones — for counter-surveillance purposes will provide an added layer of complexity to an already complicated problem set.

To counter violent non-state actors operating in the future in megacities, the U.S. military will have to be able to effectively piece together a comprehensive and ac-tionable intelligence picture, and under enormously chal-lenging circumstances. This will require, at a minimum, an ability to persistently monitor, collect and interpret — in near real-time — the millions of bits of data associated with cellphone communications, social media postings, financial transactions and the operational movements of these actors.

The challenges associated with doing so — exposed in Grozny, Sadr City and now Raqqa — will likely require the U.S. military to increase the number of intelligence platforms it employs and to develop the ability to manage and interpret in a timely fashion the unending stream of data.

Failure to do so will exacerbate the difficulties associat-ed with operating in megacities, prolong conflicts therein, and create circumstances where hostile groups can ex-ploit physical and virtual sanctuaries largely unobserved by U.S. forces.

(Source: Reuters)

By Chad Serena and Colin Clarke

The (un)Democratic Party

There are two prominent features of the Democratic Par-ty’s presidential selection process that are thoroughly

undemocratic and undermine faith in the party: superdel-egates (which favor Hillary Clinton) and caucuses (which favor Bernie Sanders).

As the New York Times editorial board explained: “Super-delegates are party bigwigs — 712 Democratic leaders, leg-islators, governors and the like. They can vote for any can-didate at the nominating convention, regardless of whether that candidate won the popular vote. These unpledged del-egates make up 30 percent of the 2,382 delegates whose votes are needed to win the nomination, and could thus make all the difference.”

Let’s start there. Superdelegates, whose votes are not bound by the millions of individual voters, make up nearly a third of the delegates that would be required to win the nomination. That, on its face, is outrageous.

It’s no surprise that superdelegates were created by es-tablishment elites to increase their own power. Superdel-egates were invented by a Democratic rule change in the early 1980s after the nomination of George McGovern in 1972 and the devastating loss of Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan in 1980, precisely to help the establishment prevent the nomination of insurgent candidates of whom the estab-lishment disapproved. (Sanders is nothing if not an insur-gent candidate.)

As The New York Times reported in 1981: “Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. of North Carolina, who heads the latest Democratic rule-changing group, an unwieldy, 29-member agglomera-tion of the innocent and the experienced,

describes its task as one of writing ‘rules that will help us choose a nominee who can win and who, having won, can govern effectively.’”

Future nominationsThe article continued: “Much of this year ’s deliberations

have seemed infused with a desire to deny future nomina-tions to political reincarnations of the Jimmy Carter of 1976.”

So today we have an es-tablishment structure that equates a single establish-ment vote with thousands of citizen votes.

As Tom Foreman wrote for CNN.com in 2008 when the role of superdelegates was also being hotly de-bated: “A few decades ago, Democratic leaders felt that sometimes, Democratic voters were choosing poor presidential candidates: campaigners who couldn’t win elections, or even if they could, they didn’t please Democratic king-

makers.”This system is unjust, in part because those superdele-

gates are not prohibited from declaring their loyalty before voting has ended. At the very least, they should be barred from committing before voting is completed in their own states.

Without this prohibition, the establishment puts its thumb on the scale and signals its approval and disapproval ahead of Democratic voters. How can this be defended?

This cycle, nearly three months before a single vote was cast, The Associated Press found that at least half of all those superdelegates (359) had already committed to supporting Clinton. Only eight had committed to supporting Sanders. Clinton’s popularity among superdelegates has only contin-ued to rise. This is not to say that superdelegates can’t switch allegiances, but the initial, premature declarations are the real problem.

As Zachary Roth wrote for MSNBC ahead of the Iowa caucuses: “The tightly limited hours are perhaps the most glaring problem — especially at a time when Democrats are emphasizing the importance of expanding access to voting, and are responding to the needs of working people.”

Economic trendsHe continued: “The restricted hours are increasingly out

of step not only with the direction of the Democratic Party, but also with broader economic trends. Many of those who will be shut out are likely to be low-wage workers, who typ-ically have little control over their schedules.”

This says nothing of the burden caucuses put on families without child care, students and senior citizens.

It’s the height of irony that the caucuses have favored Sanders, the candidate promising to decrease income ine-quality and fight for higher wages.

So far, the Democrats have held 21 primaries, including Democrats abroad, and 14 caucuses in the states and the ter-ritories. Clinton won 16 primaries but just four caucuses, while Sanders won 10 caucuses but just five primaries. For context, Democrats will have a total of 19 caucuses in the states and the territories, while the Republicans have only 13. (North Da-kota doesn’t hold a caucus or a primary, while Colorado and Wyoming hold only informal caucuses, where constituents vote for delegates, not candidates.)

Furthermore, caucuses dispense with the privacy and an-onymity of the voting booth and have the potential to inject an element of peer pressure into the democratic process. People should be free to vote with their conscience — and in private! — and feel no pressure whatsoever to bend to the consensus of the community.

Indeed, the Boston Globe editorial page argued for the elimination of caucuses last month, saying: “In a caucus, vot-ers who aren’t physically able to sit in a school gymnasium and debate the merits of their candidate with their neighbors get shut out. And obscure rules that vary from state to state governing delegate allotment and proxy balloting make for confusing inconsistencies when tallying results.”

For a Democratic Party that prides itself on the grand ideals of inclusion and fairness, the nominating process is an-ything but. (Source: The NYT)

By Charles M. Blow

Undoubtedly, military overmatch — especially

in respect to intelligence, surveillance and

reconnaissance capabilities — is a concern for

irregular forces and one of the reasons why they

choose to operate in densely populated urban

environments.

What these latest revelations do more than anything is to feed into the low-level anger that most people feel about the apparatus

of the establishment, whether that be government or business.

Superdelegates, whose votes are not bound by the millions of individual voters, make up nearly a third of the delegates that would be required to win the nomination. That, on its face, is outrageous.

A new kind of battlefield awaits the U.S. military - megacities

Why can’t we be more like Iceland? That’s a sentence I never im-

agined I would write, but when I see the pictures of thousands of indignant Icelanders taking to the streets to pro-test over their prime minister ’s tax ar-rangements, it does make me wish that we Britons had the same zero- toler-ance attitude towards the tax affairs of rich and well-connected members of society.

Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who became Iceland’s PM in 2013, is accused of using a company he set up in the British Virgin Isles in 2007 to shelter millions of pounds from the tax man (and not declaring this in his register of interests), and this is seen as particularly egregious when set against the collapse of his country’s banking system and the widespread pain that caused. And today he was forced to resign.

Secrecy and complexity have been built into the global network of tax havens as a necessary shield against prying eyes, but the massive leak of documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca, and the dogged investigative work of a consortium of journalists from 80 countries, have

brought this international scandal into the public domain, with the inevitable consequences.

Political leaderThe good people of Reykjavik were

not across the finer detail of what their political leader has been up to, but they know it was wrong. That’s because they see paying tax as a moral duty rather than just a legal commitment. I’m not sure the same attitude pertains here in Britain, or in America either.

Our reaction is more to shrug our shoulders than to demand to change in a very direct and compelling way.

We find ourselves sucked in to a le-galistic argument that becomes about semantics.

Avoidance or evasion? Legitimate financial planning or unlawful activity?

I would rather the question was framed in a different way. Do you think it is morally defensible not to pay your full whack of taxes?

How can it be right that you deprive the Exchequer of millions of pounds that should go to teaching our children or nursing our sick? It may be legal – and, until there is a consistent public outcry, it will continue to be so – but

does that make it right? Of course not. We should celebrate those who

pay their taxes – I’ve always thought the publication of a list of Britain’s top taxpayers would be a sensible step – and we should name, but particularly shame, those who don’t.

Low-level angerWhat these latest revelations do

more than anything is to feed into the low-level anger that most people feel about the apparatus of the establish-ment, whether that be government or business.

We still haven’t had a proper reckon-ing from the financial crash of 2007-08, and here comes more exposure of the rich and privileged playing the system forto their own advantage. This will inevitably have a damaging effect on society.

As people in mature, liberal democ-racies lose faith in established struc-tures, so they will turn to extreme solu-tions. This, to some extent, explains the rise of Donald Trump, the increasing popularity of far-right parties in Europe, and the ascent of Jeremy Corbyn.

We need answers, and it’s only the people of Iceland who have found a peaceful – and, I hope, effective – ex-pression of their anger.

(Source: independent.co.uk)

Iceland has forced out its prime minister. Why aren’t we protesting like them?Avoidance or evasion? Who cares, they’re both wrong

By Simon Kelner

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y8 I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

N E W S I N B R I E F

M E D & S C I h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o mAPRIL 9, APRIL 9, 20162016

Newly discovered planet could destroy Earth any day nowA mysterious planet that wiped out life on Earth millions of years ago could do it again, according to a top space scientist.

And some believe the apocalyptic event could happen as early as this month.

Planet Nine — a new planet discovered at the edge of the Solar System in January — has triggered comet showers that bomb the Earth’s surface, kill-ing all life, says Daniel Whitmire, of the University of Louisiana.

The astrophysicist says the planet has a 20,000-year orbit around the sun and, at its clos-est to us, it knocks asteroids and comets toward Earth.

Fossil evidence has sug-gested most life on Earth is mysteriously wiped out every

26 million to 27 million years.Whitmire claims Planet Nine’s passage through a rock-laden

area called the Kuiper Belt is responsible for the “extinction events.”Conspiracy theorists in the ’80s and ’90s previously claimed a

red dwarf planet called Nibiru or Nemesis, which orbits too close to Earth every 36,000 years, was behind the events.

Now some are convinced there will be a collision or a near miss before the end of April.

Nemesis or Nibiru was widely dismissed as crackpot pseudo-science — until Planet Nine was identified in January by the Cali-fornia Institute of Technology. (Source: The New York Post)

Climate change projections have vastly underestimated the role that clouds play, meaning future warming could be far worse than is currently projected, according to new research.

Researchers said that a doubling of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmos-phere compared with pre-industrial times could result in a global tempera-ture increase of up to 5.3C – far warmer than the 4.6C older models predict.

The analysis of satellite data, led by Yale University, found that clouds have much more liquid in them, rather than ice, than has been assumed until now. Clouds with ice crystals reflect more solar light than those with liquid in them, stopping it reaching and heating the Earth’s surface.

The underestimation of the current level of liquid droplets in clouds means that models showing future warming are misguided, says the paper, pub-lished in Science. It also found that fewer clouds will change to a heat-re-flecting state in the future – due to CO2

increases – than previously thought, meaning that warming estimates will have to be raised.

Warming levelsSuch higher levels of warming would

make it much more difficult for coun-tries to keep the global temperature rise to below 2C, as they agreed to do at the landmark Paris climate summit last year, to avoid dangerous extreme

weather and negative effects on food security. The world has already warmed by 1C since the advent of heavy indus-try, driven by CO2 concentrations soar-ing by more than 40%.

A lack of data and continuing un-certainty over the role of clouds is to blame for the confusion about warm-ing estimates, said Ivy Tan, a gradu-ate student at Yale who worked on the research with academics from Yale and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“Models have been systematically underestimating the amount of liquid in clouds, meaning that we aren’t fully appreciating the feedback,” she said. “It could mean our higher limit of warm-ing is now even higher, depending on the model, which means serious con-sequences for us in terms of climate change.

“This is one of the largest uncertain-ties left in climate change. We need to understand these feedbacks a lot bet-ter.” (Source: The Guardian)

The number of adults estimated to be living with dia-betes has nearly quadrupled over 35 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said while calling for huge efforts to change eating habits and increase physical activity.

The disease directly caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012 - the latest available global figures - but elevated blood glucose levels linked to diabetes were respon-sible for an additional 2.2 million deaths that year, the report said.

"Globally, an estimated 422 million adults were liv-ing with diabetes in 2014, compared to 108 million in 1980," the UN health agency said in its first-ever report on the disease on Wednesday, warning that the condi-tion had spread because of worldwide changes "in the way people eat, move and live".

The region worst affected, with 131 million estimated

cases in 2014, was the WHO's Western Pacific region, which includes China and Japan.

The Southeast Asia region, which includes heavily populated India and Indonesia, was the next most af-fected, with 96 million cases.

Europe and the Americas were third and fourth on the list, with 64 million and 62 million cases respec-tively.

"There is a critical window for intervention to miti-gate the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes later in life," the report said.

Key factors of diabetesThe WHO report noted that spreading consump-

tion of sugary drinks and other fattening foods was a key factor, but drew particular attention to high rates of physical inactivity.

According to worldwide 2010 figures, nearly a quar-

ter of people over 18 did not do the minimum rec-ommended amount of physical activity per week, with women recorded as less active than men.

The WHO recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity, including things like walking, jogging and gardening, per week.

"Physical inactivity is alarmingly common among adolescents," the report added, noting that the exces-sively sedentary lifestyles were more acute in high-in-come countries than in low-income countries.

The WHO estimated that the annual global cost of diabetes, including healthcare needs, exceeds $827b.

Like with obesity, WHO has stressed that putting excessive blame on individuals for eating too much or not exercising enough ignored several key factors, including the obstacles to eating healthily in several societies. (Source: Aljazeera)

WHO reports alarming rise in diabetes affliction

Global warming may be far worse than thought, cloud analysis suggests

Therapeutic stem cells can be made with-out introducing genetic changes that could later lead to cancer, a study in PLOS Genet-ics has found.

The discovery, made by researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a boost for scientists working on ways to make regenerative medicines from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells; a type of stem cell made by reprogramming healthy body cells.

It is the first time scientists have tracked the genetic mutations gathered by iPS cells as they are grown in the laboratory.

The idea behind the research was to follow the whole journey iPS cells will take when used in clinical therapy. The Sanger Institute team, led by Professor Allan Brad-ley and Dr. Kosuke Yusa, started with blood cells donated by a 57-year-old man.

As a person grows from embryo, to child, to adult, and as they age, the cells in their body generate a mosaic of tiny genetic changes. Most of these mutations have no effect but some can lead to can-cer. The Sanger Institute team traced the history of genetic changes in both the do-nated blood cell and the iPS cells created from it.

The results reveal that mutations arise 10 times less often in iPS cells than they do in lab-grown blood cells and that none of the iPS cell mutations are in genes known to cause cancer.

Pluripotent stem cells

Lead researcher Dr. Foad Rouhani said: "None of the mutations we found in induced pluripotent stem cells were cancer-driver mutations or mutations in cancer-causing genes. We didn't find anything that would preclude the use of iPS cells in therapeutic medicine."

In addition, the team used the iPS cells, reprogrammed from the donated blood cell, to trace the history of every mutation that one cell had developed from the time it was a fertilized egg all the way up to the moment it was taken out of the body.

Professor Allan Bradley said: "Until now the question of whether generating iPS cells and growing them in cell culture creates mu-tations has not been addressed in detail. If human cells are really to be reprogrammed on a large scale for use in regenerative medi-cine then understanding the mutations the donor cells carry will be a crucial step. We now have the tools to do this."

(Source: Medical Xpress)

Astronomers have uncovered a near-record breaking supermassive black hole, weighing 17 billion suns, in an un-likely place: in the center of a galaxy in a sparsely populated area of the universe.

The observations, made by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Gemi-ni Telescope in Hawaii, may indicate that these monster objects may be more common than once thought.

Until now, the biggest supermassive black holes – those roughly 10 billion times the mass of our sun – have been found at the cores of very large galaxies in regions of the universe packed with other large galaxies.

In fact, the current record holder tips the scale at 21 billion suns and resides in the crowded Coma galaxy cluster that consists of over 1,000 galaxies.

New black holeThe “newly discovered supersized

black hole resides in the center of a massive elliptical galaxy, NGC 1600, located in a cosmic backwater, a small grouping of 20 or so galaxies,” said lead discoverer Chung-Pei Ma, a Uni-versity of California-Berkeley astrono-mer and head of the MASSIVE Survey, a study of the most massive galaxies and supermassive black holes in the local universe.

While finding a gigantic black hole in a massive galaxy in a crowded area of the universe is to be expected – like

running across a skyscraper in Man-hattan – it seemed less likely they could be found in the universe’s small towns.

“There are quite a few galaxies the size of NGC 1600 that reside in aver-age-size galaxy groups,” Ma said.

“We estimate that these smaller groups are about 50 times more abundant than spectacular galaxy clusters like the Coma cluster. So the question now is, ‘Is this the tip of an iceberg?’”

“Maybe there are more monster black holes out there that don’t live in a skyscraper in Manhattan, but in a tall building somewhere in the Midwest-ern plains,” said Ma.

The researchers also were surprised to discover that the black hole is 10 times more massive than they had predicted for a galaxy of this mass.

(Source: spacecoastdaily.com)

NASA’s Hubble Telescope finds behemoth black hole, weighing 17b suns

Test run finds no cancer risk from stem cell therapy

Japan's speedy bullet trains already move so fast that you almost can't see them coming. The new train being designed for the Seibu Railway Co. by Japanese archi-tect Kazuyo Sejima of Sanaa will be hard to see, even standing still. It's a chameleon-like train that has been designed to blend into the countryside that it is streak-ing through.

Scheduled to hit tracks in 2018, the new Seibu flag-ship train cars have an organic shape that is much differ-ent from the boxy New Red Arrow trains that currently run limited express services in the Tokyo area. Coupled with a semi-reflective skin designed to mirror the sur-rounding scenery, Sejima's train was designed with the stated goal to be as fun to watch blend into its surround-ings as it is to ride.

The Seibu train will be the first train ever designed by Sejima, a recipient of the Pritzker, often called the No-bel Prize of architecture. It's the latest example of Japan's

railways and train services turning to unconventional de-signers to reimagine the way trains look in the country.

Sejima says that what appealed to her about the project was the difference between designing a build-ing, which is rooted in a single spot, and designing an object that needs to travel through many different en-

vironments. Different scenarios

The "limited express travels in a variety of different sceneries, from the mountains of Chichibu to the mid-dle of Tokyo, and I thought it would be good if the train could gently co-exist with this variety of scenery," Sejima is quoted as saying in Seibu's official press release. "I also would like it to be a limited express where large numbers of people can all relax in comfort, in their own way, like a living room, so that they think to themselves 'I look forward to riding that train again."

Of course, in a way, a train's appearance probably makes less impact on its environment than anything else about it. Emissions, sound pollution, and the disruption of laying down miles of track are all going to be big-ger problems than the sight of a train quickly passing through a given area.

(Source: fastcodesign.com)

Japan's newest train design will be practically invisible

The science on Zika is changing rapidlyDisease outbreaks are terrible for people but great for our scien-tific understanding of viruses. That's especially true for the Zika virus, which seemingly burst out of nowhere to become a top health research priority in the past year.

Prior to the massive, ongoing outbreak in the Americas, there had only been about 25 published research papers on the dis-ease since 1952. Researchers long thought Zika was a fairly be-nign virus, spread mainly by mosquitoes and endemic to Africa. It wasn't on the radar as any sort of threat. It wasn't even a dis-ease health officials in the U.S. bothered to track.

Since Zika was identified in Brazil in March 2015, however, the virus has infected more than a million people there. It has spi-raled outward to become the world's largest Zika outbreak ever, reaching more than 30 countries and territories in the Americas and most recently popping up in Vietnam.

Along with the epidemic, there's been a rush of new knowl-edge generated about the disease. There are now 313 Zika ar-ticles on PubMed — and 225 of them were published in 2016 alone, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. Here are some of the most important nuggets of what researchers have recently learned.

Researchers have long known that Zika is a flavivirus, in the same family as dengue, yellow fever, and West Nile. But they didn't know exactly what Zika's structure looked like. For the first time this year, researchers at Purdue University mapped it out (and shared the results in the journal Science). Using a technique called cryo-electron microscopy, the researchers could image the virus much more quickly and in much higher resolution than they could have with traditional X-ray crystallography.

(Source: Vox)

3D-printed hydraulic robot 'can practically walk right out of the printer' Researchers from MIT have used a new 3D-printing method that works with both solids and liquids to create a six-legged, hydrauli-cally-powered robot. The team from MIT's Computer Science and

Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) created the bot using a commercially-available 3D printer. Several sets of tiny bel-lows power the robot's legs, and are filled with liquid depos-ited during the 22-hour printing process.

The bot's creation shows how 3D printing can advance from making individual compo-nents to whole active systems. CSAIL director Daniela Rus said in a press release that the re-search was a step towards the "rapid fabrication of functional

machines." She added: "All you have to do is stick in a battery and motor, and you have a robot that can practically walk right out of the printer." The resulting bots weighs about 1.5 pounds and is just under six inches long. Future applications for such cheap robots could include exploring disaster sites where humans cannot easily go.

The process used to create the robot has been dubbed "printa-ble hydraulics," and researchers say it's one of the trickiest 3D-print-ing methods to harness. The CSAIL researchers' solution is to use an inkjet printer to deposit small droplets of liquid material, then use high-intensity UV light to solidify the required parts. These droplets of material are tiny — just 20 to 30 microns in diameter, or less than half the width of a human hair. And then, like regular 3D printing, the end creation is built up layer by layer. As well as the hexapod robot, the researchers also made a fluid-filled robotic hand that can pick up delicate objects without breaking them.

(Source: The Verge)

WORLD IN FOCUSh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / i n t e r n a t i o n a l 9I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

N E W S

By staff & agencies

The Panama Papers, which illustrate how a small class of global elites find elaborate ways to shield their wealth from tax collectors, bank regulators and police, also offer a glimpse into what’s driving the populist outrage that has marked this year’s United States presi-dential campaign.

The trove of 11.5 million leaked doc-uments have thus far shed light mostly on foreign figures such as the prime minister of Iceland, who resigned on Tuesday after the public learned that he used a shell company to shelter large sums of money while his country’s economy foundered.

The reaction in the U.S., meanwhile, has been relatively muted. But voters and experts say the documents validate the frustration felt by Bernie Sanders supporters on the left, who feel hard work is no longer enough to get ahead in America and the anger of Donald Trump partisans on the right who say it will take someone who knows the insid-er system to dismantle it.

The passports of at least 200 Amer-icans are included in the documents, according to news organizations that have access to them, though none are thought to be as famous as celebrities and politicians from other countries, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi.

In all, 12 current or former heads of state are included in the legal records from Panama’s Mossack Fonseca law firm. They were first leaked to the Sued-deutsche Zeitung newspaper based in Munich, Germany, and published on Sunday by a consortium of news organ-izations around the world.

Panama Papers: UK PM under pressure over father’s offshore fund

Elsewhere, British Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron said he had no personal offshore funds as he faced growing pressure over the so-called Panama Pa-pers, which raised questions about his family’s financial affairs.

A massive leak of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonse-ca revealed how an investment fund co-founded by the premier’s late father, Ian Cameron, avoided paying taxes in Britain for 30 years by basing itself in the Bahamas.

Faced with calls by the opposition Labor Party for an investigation into all those implicated in the leak, including his family, Cameron said his wealth con-sisted of his salary, some savings and a house.

“I own no shares, no offshore trusts, no offshore funds, nothing like that,” Cameron said.

Downing Street had previously in-sisted that any offshore holdings by members of his family were a “private matter”.

However, it issued a statement stat-ing: “To be clear, the prime minister, his wife and their children do not benefit from any offshore funds.”

The revelations about his father are embarrassing for Cameron, who has sought to lead international efforts to improve financial transparency and whose government hosts an anti-cor-ruption summit next month.

He insisted that “no prime minister has done more” to tackle tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance, and said British authorities would look into the Panama leaks.

However, campaigners called for more action to tackle secretive compa-ny ownership in British overseas territo-ries such as the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

Labor Leader Jeremy Corbyn raised

the prospect of Britain taking full control of the territories if they did not act.

Pursuing tax evaders Ian Cameron helped found Blair-

more Holdings Inc in the Bahamas in the early 1980s and was report-edly one of five Britain-based direc-tors until shortly before his death in 2010.

His offshore activities were already in the public domain but the leaked documents revealed that the invest-ment fund hired local residents -- in-cluding a part-time bishop -- to sign its paperwork to avoid paying tax in Britain.

“In 30 years, Blairmore has never paid a penny of tax in the UK on its profits,” said The Guardian newspaper, which has seen the leaked documents, along with the BBC.

There is no suggestion that the fund acted illegally or that the fami-ly did not pay tax on any repatriated assets.

But Corbyn called for an independ-ent investigation and said: “I think the prime minister, in his own interest, ought to tell us exactly what’s been go-ing on.”

He demanded the government “stop pussyfooting around on tax dodging”, saying: “There cannot be one set of tax rules for the wealthy elite and another for the rest of us.”

Cameron’s government has recov-ered 2.49 billion euros ($2.83 billion) from offshore tax evaders since 2010 and introduced a range of measures to clamp down on evasion, officials said.

The prime minister also said Brit-ain had “led the world” by introducing legislation forcing its companies to disclose who owns and benefits from their activities, which comes into ef-fect in June.

Cameron said Britain had made “huge progress” in pressing its overseas territories and crown dependencies to share tax information and make it hard-er for companies and individuals to hide their financial affairs.

But it has yet to persuade them to sign up to the company ownership law, and Corbyn said the government should consider imposing direct rule on overseas territories to resolve the issue.

Panama Papers: Mossack Fonseca says leak came from hack

Meantime, one of the founders of Mossack Fonseca, the law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers revelations on offshore holdings, said his company was hacked.

Ramon Fonseca said the leak was not caused by an insider but that the company was hacked by servers abroad.

The leaked documents from Mos-sack Fonseca showed how the world’s rich and powerful are able to stash their wealth and avoid taxes.

The law firm is based in Panama and has more than 40 offices worldwide.

“We rule out an inside job. This is not a leak. This is a hack,” Fonseca, 63, told Reuters news agency at the company’s headquarters in Panama City’s business district.

Fonseca said that the firm had lodged a criminal complaint with Pan-amanian prosecutors on Monday over the alleged server breach.

Scrutiny on officials worldwide increases in offshore leaks

The development follows as Iceland’s prime minister became the first major figure brought down by the leak of mil-lions of records on offshore accounts as the scrutiny intensified around of-ficials from other countries, including Ukraine’s president.

Icelandic Leader Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped aside on Tuesday amid outrage over revelations he had used a shell company to shelter large sums while Iceland’s economy was in cri-sis.

Officials in several other countries also are facing questions about pos-sibly dubious offshore tax-avoidance schemes, following the publication of the names of rich and powerful people linked to the leaks, dubbed the Panama Papers.

They include Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko who, the leaks show, set up an offshore holding company to move his candy business offshore, possibly depriving Ukraine of millions of dollars in tax revenue.

Poroshenko insists he has done nothing wrong and hasn’t managed his assets since being elected. Still, some adversaries are calling for his removal from office.

China and Russia, meanwhile, sup-pressed news of the leaks and rejected any allegations of impropriety by gov-ernment officials named in the release of more than 11 million financial docu-ments from a Panamanian law firm.

China, dismissed as “groundless” re-ports that the Panamanian law firm had arranged offshore companies for rel-atives of at least eight present or past members of the Communist Party’s Po-litburo Standing Committee, the apex of power in China.

Among those named in the leaked documents was the brother-in-law of President Xi Jinping. State media have ignored the reports and search-es of websites and social media for the words “Panama documents” were blocked.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he would not discuss the reports further and declined to say whether the individuals named would be investigated.

Shell companies aren’t in themselves illegal. People or companies might use them to reduce their tax bill legal-ly, by benefiting from low tax rates in countries like Panama, the Cayman Is-lands and Bermuda. But the practice is frowned upon, particularly when used by politicians, who then face criticism for not contributing to their own coun-tries’ economies.

Because offshore accounts and companies also hide the names of the ultimate owners of investments, they can be used to illegally evade taxes or launder money.

Members of the Group of 20 — which includes China — have agreed on paper to tighten laws relating to shell companies and make sure author-ities can find out who the real owners are. Actual legislation at the national level has lagged behind the promises, however.

The appearance of offshore ac-counts in political scandals is far from new. Shell companies played a role in the corruption scandal involving the Petrobras oil company in Brazil. The U.S. Justice Department said in an indictment last year that offshore ac-counts were used to mask the transfer of bribes to officials at FIFA, the global soccer federation.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung, working with Germany’s NDR and WDR pub-lic television stations, reported on Monday that 14 German banks had used Mossack Fonseca’s services to set up 1,200 letterbox companies for clients.

The report said use of offshore com-pany registrations had spiked after the European Union introduced regulations in 2005 requiring countries to exchange tax information on individual people, but not for companies. Many of the accounts, however, have since been closed.

The EU has since tightened its rules on offshore companies under its Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which is being phased in as national governments pass local laws to com-ply by June 26, 2017. The new rules tighten requirements for companies to keep accurate information on their real owners and to make that available to authorities.

Saudi Arabia passes Russia as world’s third biggest military spenderThe House of Saud regime overtook Russia to become the third-largest spender, mainly due to the fall in the value of the ruble, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The two most dramatic dips in military expenditure were in Venezuela, where it decreased by 64 percent, and Angola, whose spending dropped by more than 40 percent. Both countries’ economies are dependent on oil exports.

Global military spending reached almost $1.7 trillion in 2015, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time since 2011, according to the SIPRI, which tracks arms expenditure around the world.

The United States remained far and away the top spender, which despite a dip from 2014, accounted for more than a third of total global spending. It was followed by China and then, perhaps surprisingly, Saudi Arabia, which supplanted Russia in third place.

Meanwhile, Asia’s militarization proceeded apace — spending in the region rose 5.4 percent in 2015, large-ly as a consequence of China’s ongoing build-up and the increased wariness of neighbors, such as Vietnam and the Philippines.

“Military spending in 2015 presents contrasting trends,” said Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of SIPRI’s military expenditure project, in a statement. “On the one hand, spending trends reflect the escalating conflict and tension in many parts of the world; on the other hand, they show a clear break from the oil-fueled surge in military spending of the past decade. This volatile economic and political situation creates an uncertain picture for the years to come.”

(Source: The Washington Post)

Nagorno-Karabakh: The death of diplomacy

6 Fragile ceasefire agreement

And as this recent surge in hostilities has intensified, the inherently fragile ceasefire agreement, first brokered in May 1994, is now dubious at best. Even the announcement of a “truce” by Azerbaijan late in the fighting on April 3 was not followed on the ground.

Azerbaijani artillery units remained engaged and even expanded their firing, expanding a new front. This only reaffirmed the challenge of returning to a seem-ing sense of normality in abiding by the terms of the ceasefire.

For Moscow, however, which has long relied on the Karabakh conflict as an instrument for power and influ-ence, the fragility of the ceasefire may become the key re-entry point. Moscow may now argue that the collapsing ceasefire may be only be remedied by a deployment of Russian peacekeepers.

Such a scenario is clearly a threat to all parties in the Kara-bakh conflict and may add a new, ever more destructive el-ement to the difficult and challenging equation of resolving this conflict.

It may also mean that no matter what the outcome of mili-tary operations on the ground will be, the death of diplomacy may also become the demise of the West as Russia returns as the ultimate determinant of security and stability. And that is a strategic threat ironically shared by Armenia, Azerbaijani and Nagorno-Karabakh itself. (Source: Aljazeera)

Scrutiny on officials worldwide increases in offshore

Panama Papers leaks

APRIL 9, 2016

1 Targets were deliberately and carefully cho-sen to cripple the already impoverished nation and push them into further poverty.

Saudi destruction in YemenIn the ongoing aggression, the kingdom has success-

fully destroyed Yemen and continue to do so on an al-most daily basis, thanks to the support of the coalition backed by the five gulf states, along with Jordan, Mo-rocco, and Sudan. Equally important in this aggression is the weapons, logistics, intelligence and target precision provided by their Western puppet masters. According to a report released by Yemen’s Human Rights Centre in February, more than 800 schools, 240 medical centers, hundreds of fuel depots and power plants have been completely destroyed. The report also stated that air-ports, docks, harbors, bridges and hundreds of roads across the nation have been razed to the ground. The kingdom’s airstrikes have killed more than 8,400 people including 2,236 children and have left more than 16,000 injured.

Show original messageNot only has Saudi Arabia failed to achieve its targets

but has ended up in a jigsaw puzzle unable to find a

way out. The Saudi rulers find themselves in the worst quagmire of the decade; they have miserably failed in their attempts towards a regime change in Syria, despite the millions of dollars they have poured in over the last five years. And now they are fighting an inconclusive war in Yemen with no victory at sight. Moreover the dip in oil prices has severely battered the oil-based economy. With low oil revenues, rising costs and the need to sus-tain an unwinnable war in Yemen coupled with millions of dollars of aid to terrorist groups in Syria, the kingdom is walking right into a bleak future both economically and politically.

Apart from their economic predicament, Sau-di has faced major losses in its misadventures in Yemen. The Ansarulllah movement has inflicted heavy losses on the Saudi regime. According to reports around 2000 Saudis have lost their lives in the war and around 4,850 have sustained in-juries. As per estimates around $53 billion has been spent so far in the campaign against Yemen. Around 450 tanks, armored vehicles, four Apache jets and an F-15 aircraft have so far been de-stroyed or disabled by the Ansarulllah and their

allies. Even the recent prisoner swap between Riyadh and Sana’a has exposed the kingdom’s desperation and vulnerability; Riyadh agreed to exchange 9 of its soldiers for 109 Yemeni soldiers and members of Ansarullah group. Moreover, the war that Riyadh took to Sana’a has now come to haunt them within their own territory. Apart from chasing the Saudi soldiers out of Yemen, the Yemeni Army backed by popular mobilization forces and the Ansarulllah movement have estab-lished full control over the Saudi border town of Al-Raboah, in the southwestern Asir province and forced the Saudi soldiers to take to their heels.

Today, Saudis and their allies are looking for a dignified way out of this unwinnable war. Neither can they acknowledge that they have lost badly in Yemen, nor can they turn the tables in their favor for all their attempts have only met with failure so far.

The Saudi rulers are walking towards an oasis in search of water. The sooner they realize this, the bet-ter it will be, not just for the innocent Yemenis but for themselves too.

Has Saudi Arabia achieved its goals in Yemen?

Syria civil war: ISIL kidnaps ‘300 factory workers’ More than 300 staff at a cement factory east of Damascus have been kidnapped after an attack earlier this week by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh), Syrian state TV said on Thursday.

Hundreds of employees at the Al Badia Cement Company were taken by ISIL terrorists from a factory in the town of Dumayr, 50km east of the Syrian capital, the report quoted the industry ministry as saying.

It added the workers’ employer had lost all contact with them.

However, there were conflicting reports on Thurs-day about the number of people missing, with local sources telling Al Jazeera that the number was far less than 300.

Residents in the nearby area of Giraud, however, said they saw ISIL vehicles carrying nearly 125 workers and heading to the town of Tel Dkoh that is controlled by the group, local official Nadeem Krizan told Syria’s official news agency SANA. He did not account for the other workers reportedly seized.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “dozens” of staff had disappeared, while a plant administrator put the figure at 250.

The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria for information, added the ISIL attack on Dumayr killed at least 20 Syrian soldiers and allied paramili-tary fighters.

The cement factory lies outside Dumayr, which has seen fierce battles between government forces and ISIL terrorists inside the town.

A Syrian security source told AFP that ISIL also tried to seize a nearby airbase and power plant from the govern-ment, without succeeding.

ISIL’s latest attacks near Damascus are seen as retaliation for military setbacks suffered by the group elsewhere in Syria.

(Source: agencies)

A massive leak of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed how an

investment fund co-founded by the premier’s late father, Ian Cameron, avoided paying taxes

in Britain for 30 years by basing itself in the Bahamas.

S O C I E T Yd e s k

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

S O C I E T Y h t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / s o c i e t yAPRIL 9, 2016APRIL 9, 201610

TEHRAN — The Health Ministry is plan-

ning on stopping HIV from spreading by promoting its prevention schemes in col-laboration with other organizations, said the director of the AIDS Department and Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

The plan is mostly revolving around teenagers, the youth, and socially vulner-able and disadvantaged women, Parvin Afsar-Kazerouni told ISNA.

From 1988 to September 2015 about 30,183 HIV positive cases were recog-nized, of which 67 percent were IV drug users who shared same needle or syringe, and 18 percent were infected through risky sexual behaviors, Afsar-Kazerouni explained.

In 2014, she said, 41 percent of the whole HIV positive patients were IV drug users and 36 percent were those who caught the virus through having high-risk sexual behaviors.

From 1988 to 2015, 15 percent of the whole number of HIV positive patients was women, she said.

“Transmission of HIV through high-risk sexual behaviors is increasing in the country, so teaching prevention methods is of the top priority plans of the Health Ministry,” she highlighted.

Iran joined “Ending the AIDS epidem-ic by 2030” international program to halt spread of the disease by 2030 and com-mitted to “Target 90-90-90” which aims at HIV treatment and prevention for 2020, she said.

Ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is a fast-track strategy of the United Nations which proposes rapid and massive accel-eration of HIV prevention and treatment programs for ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Target 90-90-90 would enable

90 percent of people living with HIV to know their HIV status, 90 percent of peo-ple who know their status to access HIV treatment and 90 percent of people on HIV treatment to achieve viral suppres-sion.

Fourth strategic plan of HIV prevention and control

The Fourth strategic plan of HIV pre-vention and control, starting from March 2015 to March 2019, has five purposes which serve as means to minimize HIV transmission in all age groups, she said.

“According to this plan we are sup-posed to decrease HIV virus prevalence to less than 0.15 percent among the pub-lic, less than 13 percent among IV drug users and to less than 5 percent among those with high-risk sexual behaviors,” she added.

“Moreover, we are determined to de-crease the death rate of infants being born from women infected with HIV virus by 90 percent,” she said adding, “and we would also want to decrease the number of deaths caused by HIV by 20 percent.”

This plan has been approved in Irani-an calendar month of Esfand (February 20-March 19) in attendance of President Hassan Rouhani, she explained.

Teaching methods of HIV prevention to start at schools

In order to educate the youth and teenagers about HIV, some programs in association with Education Ministry are at hand, Afsar-Kazerouni said adding, these programs will be implemented at schools and even out of schools.

Plans to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child

To strengthen schemes which aim at preventing HIV to transmit from moth-er to child during pregnancy, pilot plans

are being carried out in 16 universities of medical sciences throughout the country particularly in the outskirts of the cities, she said.

She went on to say that in health centers situated in pilot plan areas all the pregnant women will be educated and examined and in case of getting diag-nosed with HIV they will undergo treat-ment.

“Such measures will decrease the pos-sibility of HIV transmission to the fetus from 30 to 40 percent to less than two percent,” she added.

Five consultation centers to open in 4 provinces

Afsar-Kazerouni further referred to five HIV consultation centers which are going to be set up in the high-risk areas of 4 provinces of Tehran, Kermanshah, Fars, and Ahwaz as a part of a pilot plan.

“Using short video clips and films and showing them to our targeted groups, most specifically teenagers and the youth, over the social networks in univer-sities and even garrisons is what we are focusing on,” she suggested.

Promoting plans to look after socially vulnerable women

Mentioning women who are most likely to get the virus due to their social status she said that “one of our primary measures which have been put into effect formerly is to look after, educate, consult and socially enable vulnerable and disad-vantage women.”

HIV is not just a disease rather a social, economic, cultural and health problem and in order to successfully address such a predicament different organizations need to collaborate, she stated.

Health Ministry announces plans to fight HIV

IN FOCUS IRNA/ Marzieh Mousavi

A Tehrani citizen has planted 30,000 tulips on the pavement area of Zarafshan Street in Shahrak-e Gharb neigh-borhood for the third year to commemorate his late mother who was deeply in love with flowers.

LEARN ENGLISHDropping Out of College Aaron: Mom, I have something to tell you and you’re not going to like it.

Margo: What is it? Aaron: I’m dropping out of college. I want to get out

into the real world and get a job. I’m wasting time in school. Margo: You’ll get a better job if you stay in school

and graduate with a degree. You’ll have more earning power and better long-term prospects.

Aaron: I’m sick of school. All of my friends are earning money, buying cars, and living life. I feel like life is passing me by.

Margo: Your friends didn’t go to college and got a job right out of high school.

Aaron: That’s right. There’s nothing wrong with that. Margo: No, there isn’t. And right now, they seem to be

living the high life. They don’t have any responsibilities and can blow their paychecks on having fun. Once they have a family, their paychecks won’t stretch very far. With a de-gree, you’ll out-earn them right out of the gate when you graduate in two years.

Aaron: I don’t want to wait. Margo: This is all about delayed gratification. A lit-

tle suffering now will pay off in the long run. Trust me. Two more years and you’ll be done

Aaron: Yeah, maybe I can stick it out for two more years and then no more school – ever!

Margo: Unless you decide to go to graduate school... Aaron: Mom, don’t push it.

(Source: eslpod.com) Words & phrases

drop out: to leave a school or university before your course has finished

earning power: the ability to earn money, buy things etc.prospects: chances of future successlife is passing me by: It means that the person is missing

something important in his or her life, not experiencing the things that he or she wants to

high life: the enjoyable life that rich and fashionable peo-ple have

blow: to spend a lot of money in a careless way, especially on one thing

won’t stretch very far: won’t be enough to buy or pay for something

out-earn: earn moreright out of the gate: right from the beginningdelayed gratification: the ability to resist the temptation

for an immediate reward and wait for a later reward; gener-ally, delayed gratification is associated with resisting a smaller but more immediate reward in order to receive a larger or more enduring reward later

pay off: if something you do pays off, it is successful or has a good result

long run: a relatively long period of timegraduate school: a college or university where you can

study for a master’s degree or a doctorate after receiving your first degree

don’t push it: to not expect so much out of one act

South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. (E&C), Posco Daewoo Corp. and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Korea Eximbank) will sign an agreement to build a 1,000-bed hospital for Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Iran, according to the investment banking industry Thursday.

Posco CEO Kwon Oh-joon, Posco Daewoo CEO Kim Young-sang, Hyundai E&C CEO Jung Soo-hyun and the Eximbank Chairman Lee Duk-hoon next month will ink a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Ministry of Health in Iran to build the university hospital in the southern ancient city of Shiraz that had been the capital

of Old Persian and now home to Iran’s burgeoning elec-tronics and new energy businesses.

The Posco Daewoo and Hyundai E&C consortium had won the procurement bid by the Iranian govern-ment. Eximbank would arrange most of the funding for the construction.

Hospitals have been a part of renewed infrastructure and rebuilding projects in Iran following the lifting of international sanctions in January. Samsung C&T Corp. would take part in the building of a new 1,200-bed hos-pital for Shahid Rajaie Cardiovascular, Medical and Re-search Center in Tehran.

Shiraz is the capital of Fars Province - one of the most important cities in ancient Persia - which is located 672 kilometers away in the south of Tehran, Iran’s capital. Shiraz University of Medical Sciences is a prestigious medical school founded in 1949 running 11 hospitals.

Hyundai E&C is in charge of the construction that costs a total of $500 million, of which 85 percent will be financed by the Korea Eximbank.

Posco Daewoo will supply medical equipment for the newly built hospital. It is also working on to take part in the Iranian state project of building a Mahdieh Clinic Hospital in Tehran.

(Source: pulsenews.co.kr)

PARLIER, Calif. (AP) — It started with a few kittens. But nearly a quarter cen-tury later, a California woman has trans-formed her 4,000-square-foot home into what’s believed to be the largest no-cage cat sanctuary and adoption center in the U.S.An estimated 24,000 cats have been saved by the sanctuary, which houses up to 1,000 felines at any given time. Lynea Lattanzio set up Cat House on the Kings after finding out that many nearby shel-ters euthanize cats who aren’t adopted.As more feral and abandoned cats took up residence in her home, she moved out into a trailer on her 12-acre property.Lattanzio spent her entire retirement fund on her pet project, which also relies on donations.

“If I didn’t have to deal with humans and all their drama in life, I would be perfectly

content just taking care of cats,” she said.She now has staff and a team of vol-

unteers to keep the house clean and the cats fed. The sanctuary also em-ploys veterinarians who keep the cats healthy and spayed or neutered. The cats lap up about 1,000 cans of cat food a week.People looking for a furry companion are allowed kitty cuddle time on adop-tion days.A cat-proof fence keeps predators out and cat doors allow them free reign of the home.“They’ve got this house. They’ve got 12 acres. They can climb a tree. They can go sit in the sun outside,” Lattan-zio said. “It just gives these animals a reason to live as opposed to just living in a cage just because no one wants them.”

Hyundai E&C and Posco Daewoo to establish a university hospital in Iran

California woman gives up home to care for thousands of cats

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

John C. Maxwell- American

Quality Assessment Announcement forConstruction, Shipment and Delivery of Port & Marine Machineries & Equipment

for Shahid Beheshti Port (Chabahar)

This is hereby to announce that TANA Energy Co., on behalf of Port & Maritime Organization (PMO) of I.R.IRAN intends

to proceed with Construction, Shipment and Delivery of Port and Marine Machineries & Equipment for Shahid Beheshti

Port (Chabahar) based on the quality assessment procedure and through a public international tender.

Consequently, in order to carry out the quality assessment, all local and foreigner manufacturer companies are invited to refer to

the Project/Commercial department of TANA Energy Co., at below mentioned address while presenting an introduction letter

and the original bank receipt of 500,000 Iranian Rials paid to account No. 2908100107360571 of TANA Energy Co., by Bank

Pasargad Iran, to receive a CD containing the Quality Assessment Forms and Tender Documents latest by 11.04.2016.

Place and deadline for submitting the documents, proposals and completed forms:

Project/Commercial Dept. at 2nd floor of TANA Energy building and to last working hour on 20.04.2016.

TANA Energy Co.,

# 40, Abbasi Anari, North Motahari, Darya Blvd., Paknejad, Saadat Abad, Tehran, IRAN, tel: 021-88698946-7

This is to emphasize again that the relevant receipt against submitting of the said documents and forms must be kept for further steps.

1. Ship to Shore Container Gantry Crane (Super Post Panamax) Qty. 6 Sets2. Rubber Tyred Gantry Container Crane (RTG) Qty. 12 Sets3. Rubber Tyred Pneuma�c Ship Unloader 600T Qty. 6 Sets 4. SAR Boat Qty. 2 Sets 5. Tugboat 4400 HP ASD Qty. 2 Sets6. Trailing Hopper Suc�on Dredger 8000CM Qty. 2 Sets7. Non-Propelled Cu�er Suc�on Dredger Qty. 1 Set

Address to submit the documents, proposals and PQ forms:TANA Energy Co. as mentioned above.

S P O R T Sh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / s p o r t s APRIL 9, 2016APRIL 9, 2016 11I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

F O O T B A L LThe Iranian Messi raring to goFor the Iranian faithful, it has been quite some years since Team Melli has enjoyed the services of a truly reliable goal-getter following the retirement of international leading scorer Ali Daei. It is a fact borne out by Iran’s performances during Asia’s qualifying final round for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™, with Carlos Queiroz’s side progressing as the lowest scorers among the continent’s qualified quartet, with just eight goals from as many games. Their campaign at Brazil 2014 proved disappointing in that sense, too, with just one goal scored.

Now though, with the me-teoric rise of Sardar Azmoun, the void left by the world’s in-ternational goal-king is seem-ingly set to be filled. Seven goals from five matches is the impressive goal-scoring rate as the Rostov forward, who turned 21 in January, finished Asia’s second qualifying round for Russia 2018 as the team’s top-scorer. Notably, Azmoun completed his first interna-tional brace in their 6-0 rout of Guam, before striking twice as his side beat Oman 2-0 in the group concluder to progress.

Azmoun’s free-scoring form has seen him hailed as a goal-king in the making. But while fans are hoping he will assume Daei’s mantle, the lanky forward opted to downplay growing expectations.

“I will try (to be a great striker like Daei),” he told FIFA.com in an exclusive interview. “But honestly speaking, I don’t want to be occupied with goals like this. What I want is to help Iran and I am proud of scoring goals for my team. I am still young and I should concentrate on improving my skills.”

Queiroz trust Just a year back, few knew who Azmoun was when he be-

came a surprise inclusion in Queiroz’s 2015 AFC Asian Cup squad. Of course, those following Iran’s game closely are aware what he is capable of after his exploits with Rubin Kazan, the Russian side he joined as a teenager in 2013. He was on target eight times across 32 appearances for Kazan in all competitions, including breaking his duck by scoring in a 3-0 UEFA Europa League win against Molde.

“The coach (Queiroz) gave me the call-up (to the last Asian Cup team),” he recalled. “He placed plenty of trust in me. But for me, it was no surprise. I had anticipated that he would call me up and he did.”

It did not take Azmoun long to prove Queiroz right on the con-tinental stage. After playing briefly as a substitute in Iran’s opening win against Bahrain, he was handed a surprise start against Qatar. Azmoun did not let the chance slip, repaying the coach’s faith by scoring the match-winning goal. He went on to open the scoring in the quarter-final clash against Iraq as the two sides were locked at 3-3 after regular and additional periods, only to see the opponents prevail with a penalty shoot-out victory. Despite the loss, Azmoun emerged as one of the tournament’s biggest revelations, alongside the likes of Massimo Luongo and Omar Abdulrahman.

“I was enormously happy to play for the national team in such an important tournament,” he continued, reflecting on his first ma-jor competition representing Iran. “For me, it was just like a dream come true. It provided me with confidence as well as motivation.”

Messi or Ibrahimovic Azmoun’s club form has been similarly impressive. Since

moving to play for Rostov on loan at the start of last year, he has dazzled spectators through his forward forays and goals. His fine displays have seen him among the most sought-after Asian youth stars, with rumours that he has attracted interest by the likes of Everton, Stoke City and even Barcelona. His growing popularity is such that he has been dubbed as “Irani-an Messi” by fans and media alike.

Azmoun, though, thinks differently. “Zlatan Ibrahimovic is my idol player,” he stated. “And Real Madrid is my favourite club.”

With an athletic 182cm frame, Azmoun boasts exceptional aerial ability, consummate control of the ball and is known for his bursts of acceleration, creativity and adept finishing. “Azmoun has all the qualities to be a top-class striker,” remarked his former Rubin Kazan manager Rinat Bilyaletdinov.

With so many promises to live up to, Azmoun is all too aware what tasks are facing him. “Every player wants to show his best with the national team and I am no exception,” he said. “My chief goal is to help Iran (to the World Cup) and make our supporters happy. In order to achieve this, I must keep in mind that I have a lot of hard work ahead of me.”

(Source: FIFA)

Raul to play for Madrid again against Ajax in JuneThe legendary number seven will return to the Bernabeu three years after his last appearance in a charity match against Ajax in homage to Cruyff.

Raul Gonzalez will pull on the white shirt of Real Madrid with which he is synonymous again in the seventh edition of the Corazσn Classic charity match at the Bernabeu on June 5, when Ajax will be the guest opposition.

Raul’s agent, Gines Carvajal, confirmed to AS that the pres-ence of the legendary number seven is 95 percent assured. Raul has a couple of entries in his diary to attend to in the US in his role as LaLiga ambassador but, all being well, he will line up for Madrid again three years after his last appearance at the Berna-beu during the Trofeo Bernabeu, when Al-Saad were the invited team. During that game Raul, who was at the Qatari club at the time, played for both sides.

The match on June 5 will serve as homage to Johan Cruyff, who passed away on March 24. Among the other players lining up will be Roberto Carlos, Fernando Hierro, Luis Figo, Patrick Kluivert, Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids.

(Source: AS)

Iranian mountain climber Azim Ghey-

chisaz traveled to Nepal on Friday to climb Mt Lhotse.

By 2014, he has successfully completed ascent to 13 peaks out of 14 peaks over 8’000. He has done all of his ascents with-out supplementary oxygen, except Everest.

The eight-thousanders are the 14 in-

dependent mountains on Earth that are more than 8,000 meters (26,247 ft) high above sea level.

All eight-thousanders are located in the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Asia. They are the mountains whose summits are in the death zone.

Lhotse, the fourth highest mountain in the world, means “South Peak” in Tibetan.

Iran’s Gheychisaz to climb Mt Lhotse

Esteghlal Khuzestan emerged victorious

in Ahvaz derby beating struggling Es-teghlal Ahvaz 1-0 on Friday.

The win saw Esteghlal Khuzestan moves top of IPL with 46 points.

Hassan Beyt Saeed scored the only goal of the match in the 69th minute.

Esteghlal is second with 44 points

with one game in hand.Elsewhere, Foolad edged past Siah

Jamegan 1-0 in Mashhad, Gostaresh Foolad beat Rah Ahan 3-2, and Saba defeated Saipa 4-0.

On Saturday, Persepolis will play Malavan in Bandar Anzali and Esteg-hlal will host Sepahan in Tehran on Sunday.

Iran Professional League: Esteghlal Khuzestan moves top

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Algeria Football Federation denies Queiroz approach

Algerian Football Federation has denied any attempt to hire

Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz on Friday.During the last week there were reports in Al-

gerian media who has linked Iran coach Carlos Queiroz with a move to Algiers.

Algeria French head coach Christian Gourcuff has quit his job with mutual consent more than two years before the end of his contract. After three wins and a draw, Algeria is top of their qualifying group for the 2017 Cup of Nations.

This is not the first time which former Real Madrid coach links with African jobs. He has pre-viously linked with Egypt and South Africa job.

Queiroz who is under contract with Iran Football Federation until after the 2018 World Cup has recently stated that he will no longer continue due to disagreement with the Iranian officials.

The 62-year-old Portuguese coach criticized Iranian sports officials over their lack of support for Iran men’s national football team.

Iran has qualified to the third round of World Cup qualifying round in Asia. The draw for the third round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification in Asia, where the 12 teams will be split into two groups and the top two from each advance to Russia 2018, will take place on April 12th.

Persepolis head coach Branko Ivank-ovic has extended his contract with

the Reds for two more years on Thursday.Ivankovic took charge of Persepolis in April 2015 on

an 18-month deal. Former Team Melli coach, who be-lieves Iran is one of the safest countries in the world, stated that he wants to continue with Persepolis.

“Without a doubt, Persepolis is the biggest club in Asia. It has more than 30 million fans while more than 60,000 fans come to the stadium on normal match. On

the other hand, I’m very happy to live in Iran as it is one of the safest countries in the world so I decided to extend my contract,” Branko said.

Persepolis has been on top form in this season under Branko as it has not been beaten in the last 18 weeks.

Persepolis, who is one of title contenders this sea-son, is currently in third place two points adrift of league leader and arch rival Esteghlal. The Reds will take on Esteghlal next Friday in a title decider derby.

Branko Ivankovic extends a two-year contract with Persepolis

Iran remain Asia’s top team in the FIFA world rankings as they moved into 42nd spot after the list for April was pub-lished on Thursday.

Last month’s victories over India and Oman were enough to see them improve on their ranking by two plac-es, while Australia – following comprehensive wins over Tajikistan and Jordan – climbed 17 spots into 50th.

The Socceroos, who were the biggest movers inside the top 50, are now ranked second in Asia, a position which will see them enter next Tuesday’s draw for the final round of the continent’s 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers as one of the two top seeds.

The qualifiers will see the 12 teams separated into Pots 1 to 6, with the teams then being drawn to form two groups of six nations.

Korea Republic and Japan both swapped places in the rankings, with the Taegeuk Warriors now one spot above their neighbours in 56th.

Uzbekistan and China PR were also notable climbers

as they moved up eight and 15 places respectively, while United Arab Emirates dropped out of Asia’s top five after falling four spots.

DPR Korea had the third-biggest fall in the world as they dropped 18 spots and are now 112th, while Philippines have reached their new highest position ever just four places be-hind – with their rise of 19 places the best of all AFC nations.

On the other hand, Malaysia and Indonesia both plum-meted to all-time lows in 174th and 185th spots respectively.

Seedings for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers final round drawPot 1: Iran (42nd), Australia (50th)Pot 2: Korea Republic (56th), Japan (57th)Pot 3: Saudi Arabia (60th), Uzbekistan (66th)Pot 4: United Arab Emirates (68th), China PR (81st)Pot 5: Qatar (83rd), Iraq (105th)Pot 6: Syria (110th), Thailand (119th)The third round draw will be held at the Mandarin Ori-

ental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on April 12, where these 12 teams divided in to two groups of six.The six teams in each

group will play each other on a home and away basis with top two sides from each group booking their place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals.

The two third-placed teams will face each other over two legs, with the winner taking on the side that finishes fourth in the fifth round of the CONCACAF qualifiers in a two-legged inter-confederation playoff.

(Source: AFC)

FIFA rankings: Iran remain No. 1 in Asia

Iran’s Mehdi Mostafaei has been nom-inated for Best Futsal Goalkeeper of the World.

Mostafaei will compete with nine other goalies to win one of the most traditional prizes of futsal, organized by futsalplanet.

He was a member of Iran national team in the 2016 AFC Futsal Champion-ship where Team Melli won the title.

Nominees are as follow:Miodrag Aksentijevic (SRB)MFK Tulpar (KAZ) – MFK Tyumen (RUS)

– SERBIA N.T.Giancarlo Ramos Rodolpho (BRA)Carlos Barbosa (BRA) – BRAZIL N.T.Leonardo De Melo Vieira Leite “Higui-

ta” (BRA)Kairat Almaty (KAZ) – KAZAKHSTAN

N.T.Jesϊs Herrero Parrσn (ESP)Movistar Inter (ESP) – SPAIN N.T.Gustavo Lobo Paradeda “Juruna” (RUS)Dinamo Moscow (RUS) – RUSSIA N.T.Juan Bosco Molina Salinero (ESP)Aspil Vidal Ribera Navarra (ESP)Nicolαs Sarmiento (ARG)River Plate (ARG) – Palma Futsal (ESP)

– ARGENTINA N.T.Stefano Mammarella (ITA)Acqua & Sapone Emmegross (ITA) –

ITALY N.T.Mehdi Mostafaei (IRN)Tasisat Daryaei (IRN) – IRAN N.T.Francisco “Paco Sedano” Antolνn (ESP)Barcelona Lassa (ESP) – SPAIN N.T.

(Source: Tasnim)

Iran’s Mostafaei nominated for world’s best futsal goalkeeper

b

No. 18, Bimeh Lane, Nejatollahi St., Tehran, IranP.o. Box: 14155-4843

Zip Code: 1599814713

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Yh t t p : / / w w w . t e h r a n t i m e s . c o m / c u l t u r e

SLEEP on thine eyes, bright as narcissus flowers,Falls not in vainAnd not in vain thy hair's soft radiance showersAh, not in vain! Hafez

Poem of the day

SINCE 1979Prayer Times

TEHRAN — Shakespeare’s Globe, a London-based theater troupe,

performed a fresh version of Shakespeare’s clas-sic tragedy “Hamlet” at Tehran’s Iranshahr Theater Complex on Thursday.

The performance is the Globe’s two-year tour, which will help introduce and endear millions of people to Shakespeare, to classical literature and the performing arts in general, and notably to Hamlet.

Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi, Di-rector and Representative of the UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office Esther Kuisch Laroche and several foreign ambassadors, as well as eminent theatrical figures including Ali Nasirian, Pari Saberi, Marzieh Borumand, Siamak Ehsai, Behzad Farahani and Dariush Modabian watched the performance.

Shakespeare’s Globe is a charity and continues to operate under the leadership of Artistic Direc-tor Dominic Dromgoole. The Globe Theatre sea-son plays in repertory from April to October an-nually, and has gained an international reputation for performance excellence, welcoming more than one million visitors annually.

Ali Rahbari returns to Tehran Symphony Orchestra

Ramanujan biopic “The Man Who Knew Infinity” tells mathematician’s journeyNEW YORK (Reuters) — British ac-tor Dev Patel tackles numbers and for-mulas in “The Man Who Knew Infinity”, a biopic looking at the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

The drama follows the journey of the Indian accounting clerk, who was brought to England before World War One by Cambridge University pro-fessor Godfrey Harold Hardy (Jeremy Irons), as he seeks to prove himself and his theorems.

Patel, who admits he is “terrible” at maths, said in an interview the role was both challenging and emotional.

“It’s daunting but actually when you read the script, it was a very emotion-al read ... It was actually a very trium-phant story for me, a very enlightening film and I wanted more people to know about it, because I didn’t know about this incredible man,” he said.

“If I could help breathe life into his legacy, then I was happy to do so and

that’s what we did”.In the movie, which also stars British

actor Toby Jones and writer and come-dian Stephen Fry, Patel’s character fac-es challenges such as racism, rejection and serious illness.

The 25-year old said he was able to base his portrayal on photographs of the mathematician and his notebooks.

“There was no real physical mate-rial that we could mimic, there was no found footage or anything of how he spoke. You know, the cliché is a picture says a thousand words, but it really is true,” he said.

“We tried to capture the essence of this man and his resilience that you could see in the pictures, you could read in the book. He’s fiercely passion-ate and that’s something I could really dial into”.

“The Man Who Knew Infinity” hits UK cinemas on Friday and U.S. theaters from April 29.

TEHRAN — Maes-tro Ali Rahbari who

resigned as the conductor and music director of the Tehran Symphony Or-chestra over some differences in March, has returned to his job after reaching an agreement with Iranian cultural officials.

Rahbari will resume his work with the orchestra soon, the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced in a press release on Thursday.

However, no details were provided clarifying whether Rahbari would con-tinue both of his previous posts as per-manent conductor and music director of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra or just of the two.

Rahbari officially announced his resignation in a letter sent to the Persian media on March 6.

In his letter of resignation, Rahbari had pointed to his opinion that the su-pervision of the Tehran Symphony Or-chestra by Iran’s Rudaki Foundation is a

big mistake.“After all these months I have arrived

at this point where I cannot continue my cooperation with this unprofession-al foundation and I cannot tolerate the irresponsibility of the foundation. They want me to collaborate as a guest con-ductor so that I would not disturb their unprofessional and cruel behaviors, but I will not accept this,” reads part of the letter.

The conductor in his letter also had pointed to several individuals who are members of the policymaking council of the foundation, and called them the main reason for his resignation.

The Rudaki Foundation is under the management of Bahram Jamali, and his lack of management skills, his lack of knowledge of classical music, and his unprofessional experts have caused several good musicians to decide to leave the orchestra, Rahbari had men-tioned in his first letter of resignation.

TEHRAN — Persian mystic and poet Jalal

al-Din Rumi’s 22nd niece Esin Celebi has wished a good state of health for Mohammadreza Shajarian and Abbas Kiarostami, top Iranian artists who are suffering from severe diseases.

Celebi, who is the deputy direc-tor of Turkey’s International Mevlana Foundation, has dispatched her mes-sage from Mecca, the Persian service of ISNA reported on Friday.

“I send my greetings of Noruz to

all dear Iranians and good friends. I am on a pilgrimage in Mecca and was informed that two innovative art-ists, one that sings the history and the other who showcases life, are ill,” reads part of the message.

“I wholeheartedly wish health for the two beloved artists. These two prominent artists have caused the world to admire them and millions of people in Iran and around the world have kept their fingers crossed for their health, and I, here in the most

sacred part of the world, am praying for them.

“I hereby invite these two dears to Konya to spend their recovery days inside the house of Rumi’s household,” the message concludes.

The message has been translated into Persian by an Iranian member of the foundation, Foruzandeh Arbabi.

Vocalist Shajarian is battling kidney cancer, and filmmaker Kiarostami is currently hospitalized with a severe gastrointestinal problem in Tehran.

Noon:13:06 Evening: 19:51 Dawn: 5:11 (tomorrow) Sunrise: 6:38 (tomorrow)

PICTURE OF THE DAY Honaronline/Alireza Farahani

Managing Director: Ali Asgari Editor-in-Chief: Hassan Lasjerdi Editorial Dept.: Fax: (+98(21) 88808214 editor@tehrantimes.com Switchboard Operator: Tel: (+98 21) 43051000 Advertisements Dept.: Telefax: (+98 21) 43051450 ads@tehrantimes.com Public Relations Office: Tel: (+98 21) 88805807 Subscription & Distribution Dept.: Tel: (+98 21) 43051603 www.eshterak.ir Distributor: Padideh Novin Co. Tel: 88911433 Webmaster: webmaster@tehrantimes.comPrinted at: Kayhan - ISSN: 1017-94

Shakespeare’s Globe performs “Hamlet” in Tehran

Maria Lind, the director of Tensta Konsthall, delivers a speech about the center for contemporary art in the Stockholm suburb of Tensta, at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art on April 7, 2016.

Actors perform a scene from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet for members of the media during a photo call to present Hamlet at Shakespeare’s Globe theater in London on April 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Six Iranian films to compete

in Fajr festivalTEHRAN — Six Irani-an movies will be com-

peting in the 34th Fajr International Film Festival.

Reza Mirkarimi chose Iranian films of Cinema Salvation (International Compe-tition), and Eastern Vista (Competition of Asian and Islamic Countries).

“Arvand” directed by Puria Azarbaija-ni, “A House on Street 41” by Hamidreza Qorbani and “Breath” by Narges Abyar will be screened in Cinema Salvation, the official competition section, which will also present 12 films from around the world.

“A157” directed by Behruz Nuranipur, “My Brother, Khosro” by Ehsan Biglaripur and “Rabidity” directed by Amir-Ahmad Ansari will compete in Eastern Vista, a section for films from Asian and Islam-ic countries. Twelve movies from film-makers from around the world will be screened in this section.

The festival will be held in Tehran from April 20 to 25.

N E W S I N B R I E FIranian troupe to perform “Bleach” in Canada

French theater experts to speak at Tehran festival

TEHRAN — Iranian troupe led by director and playwright Me-

hdi Kushki is scheduled to stage “Bleach” at the Richmond Hill Center for the Performing Arts (RH-CPA) in Toronto on April 23.

Navid Mohammadzadeh, Mahnaz Afshar, Sa-har Dolatshahi and Leili Rashidi are the members of the cast for the play, which is based on a true story from Iran.

TEHRAN — French theater ex-perts Christian Biet and Victor

Thimonier from the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense will speak at a festival of Iranian per-formance, which opens today at Tehran’s Molavi Hall.

The experts will also hold master classes and workshops during the event that will be running until Tuesday.

Iranian scholars Yasaman Khajei, Rahmat Amini and Mansur Barahini are scheduled to deliver speeches during the program, which has been organized by the Tehran-based Fanous Art and Culture Institute.

Six plays are scheduled to be staged during the event.

IRIB, ZDF officials meet in Tehran

Yerevan to host intl. conference on Oriental studies, Persian literature

Fajr market to offer over 30 new films

TEHRAN — A German media delegation led by ZDF public-ser-

vice television director Thomas Gruber met with Islamic Republic of Iranian Broadcasting Managing Director Mohammad Sarafraz in Tehran on Wednes-day.

Plans to collaborate on joint film projects, to exchange movies, cutting-edge technologies and technicians, and additional subjects were discussed during the meeting.

ZDF director general Thomas Bellut praised IRIB’s achievements in the production and technical areas, and also voiced his satisfaction over working condi-tions for ZDF correspondents in Iran.

Based in Mainz, Germany, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) covers broadcast areas in Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Slove-nia, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark and Kosovo.

TEHRAN — Yerevan State Uni-versity in collaboration with the

Tehran-based Sadi Foundation that promotes Per-sian language overseas will host an international conference on Oriental studies and Persian liter-ature on May 26.

The cultural event will be organized with the help of the Iranology Foundation, the Academy of Persian Language and Literature, Dehkhoda Lex-icon Institute, and the University of Tehran from Iran.

The conference will mainly focus on the prom-inent 13th-century Iranian poet Sadi who is glob-ally recognized for his Bustan (The Orchard) and Gulistan (The Rose Garden).

TEHRAN — Over 30 films from the latest Iranian productions

will be offered at the Iranian Film Market, which will be held on the sidelines of the 34th Fajr Inter-national Film Festival.

Among the films are “Life+1 Day” directed by Saeid Rustai, “Standing in the Dust” by Moham-mad-Hossein Mahdavian, “Fury and Furor” by Hooman Seyyedi and “Muhammad (S), the Mes-senger of God” by Majid Majidi.

Over 150 international distributers, directors, actors and critics from around the globe have been invited to attend the festival, which will be held at Tehran’s Charsu Cinema Complex from April 20 to 25.

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Esin Celebi wishes health for Shajarian and Kiarostami

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Esin Celebi in an undated photo

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