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By Amir Mohammad Esmaeili

Abir BassamAnalyst

A R T I C L E

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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

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Exports of dried fruits, nuts up 52% in 4 months yr/yr

U.S. is aware it cannot trigger snapback mechanism

Iran, Syria friendly match called off 11

Writer Mojabi says new novel recounts most awful human relations of modern world 12

Iran warns UAE against an Israeli foothold on its doorstep

U.S. protests: Right-wing groups clash with counter protesters in several U.S. statesRight wing demonstrators fought with leftist counter protestors in Georgia, Michigan and Oregon on Saturday drawing in riot police and SWAT teams.

Groups ranging from an anti-government patriot group in Portland, Oregon to alt-right Proud Boys in Kalamazoo, Michigan battled anti-fascists and Black Lives Matter activists as months of anti-racism protests increasingly pitted Americans against one another, Rutgers reported.

Several dozen demonstrators, many armed and carrying Confederate battle flags, staged a rally in the Atlanta suburb of Stone Mountain next to a park famed for its giant monument to leaders of the breakaway slave-holding states.

A mix of militia members, Confederate followers and supporters of President Donald Trump faced off against more than a hundred

left-wing protesters, some armed, many carry-ing signs or wearing T-shirts supporting Black Lives Matter.

After hours of shouting, and the burning of a Confederate flag, the protest devolved into scuffles and fist fights, drawing in police backed by a SWAT team.

In Kalamazoo, the all-male Proud Boys group staged a rally in support of police, clash-ing with members of the anti-fascist Michigan People’s Defense League and other counter protesters, leading to several arrests, accord-ing to a statement by the city’s Department of Public Safety.

Several dozen right-wing demonstrators, some of them armed, also gathered in Portland on Saturday to oppose anti-fascists and back police after 80 days of protests against racism and police violence in the Oregon capital, local television station Koin 6 News reported. 1 0

TEHRAN — Iran has strongly criticized the United Arab Emirates for deciding to sign an agreement with Israel to normalize ties with Tel Aviv. However, a West Asia expert tells the Tehran Times that the Emiratis have sought to relieve Iran’s concerns over possible cooperation between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv against Tehran.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on August 13 that he brokered a “historic deal” between the UAE and Israel to normalize their relations, the first such deal between Israel and an Arab country since 1994. The last time an Arab country signed a deal with Israel to normalize relations was on October 26, 1994, when Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel.

Under the deal, which is under negotiation, Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv have committed to the exchange of embassies and ambassadors, and to begin cooperation in a broad range of fields including education, healthcare, trade, and se-

curity, according to a statement issued by the White House on Thursday.

Iran condemned the decision by the rulers of the UAE to normalize relations with Israel, calling it a “big mistake.”

“They thought that if they approach the Zionist regime, their security and economy would be ensured, while this is wrong and 100% condemned, and it is a clear betrayal to the Palestinian people, the cause of al-Quds and Muslims,” the presidential website quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying on Satur-day. “The rulers of the United Arab Emirates should know that they have gone in the wrong direction if they think that they can buy security for themselves by getting closer to the enemies of Islam and Iran,” the president said, warning that “unfortunately, the United Arab Emirates has made a big mistake and we hope it would change its wrong tack. We warn them against giving Israel a foothold in the region, then they will be treated differently.” 3

Abraham Accord: Another historical betrayal

Yes, it is historical foolish-ness what the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has done

by signing Abraham’s Accord on the 13th of August 2020 and sup-porting politically dying leaders. The first is Donald Trump, and the second is Benjamin Netanyahu. However, what the UAE did was expected. Military cooperation be-tween the Emirates and Israel is at its peak for years now.

On the practical level, the” Accord” does not mean anything because the military coordination between the UAE and Israel is well known in Bab-el-Mandeb. The UAE owns sixty large firms around the world that control trade on waterways, even in Egypt on the Red Sea. It would not have been possible without the support of the United States and Israel’s approval and coordination for them.

Accordingly, the “Accord” is actually an American-Israeli need. Its significance came at a desperate time to boost two dying leaders, Trump and Netanyahu. Trump needs it to win the elections and gain back the trust of the IPAC the WASPs voters in the U.S.

White Anglo Saxons Protestant [WASP] voters in the U.S. are of great significance; they are considered to be the privileged, dominant, and most influential people in the country.

Besides, those people are mostly the audience and the partisans of the Chris-tian Zionist groups that call for rebuild-ing Solomon’s Temple in Palestine and securing Israel’s safety in preparation for the return of Christ.

Netanyahu needs it to prove himself as an accomplished politician who can handle the demonstrations, which is at its peak in Israel and filling the streets of Tel Aviv. It is an attempt to save Netanyahu from his ordeal. Add to that, Netanyahu is facing charges of corruption, which he can escape if he was again re-elected as the prime minister of Israel.

The same applies to Trump, who failed as his partner, Netanyahu, facing the epidemic: COVID 19. Hence, the tim-ing was most appropriate for Trump and Netanyahu. 7

‘Diplomacy Package’ to help Iran recover virus-hit tourismTEHRAN – Iran is formulating a new initiative called “Tourism Diplomacy Package” to help the tourism sector recover from the coronavirus impact through using diplomacy to accelerate development projects and increase incoming tourists.

Being developed in close collaboration with the ministries of tourism, culture, and foreign affairs, the scheme is aimed to buttress the travel industry particularly to amend international arrivals in both COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 eras.

“Laying the necessary preparations for re-entering the global tourism market is of high importance for us both in coronavirus era and post-COVID-19,” ISNA quoted deputy tourism minister Vali Teymouri as saying on Saturday.

“In this regard, we have determined the dimensions, content, and geographical scope for each cross-sectoral tourism program in order to build trust and attract [more] international tourists,” the official noted.

Teymouri also briefed new agreements made in a joint meeting with representatives of the Minis-try of Foreign Affairs, and the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (which is affiliated with the ministry of culture), as agencies related to tourism abroad, saying that the tourism ministry’s program during the coronavirus crisis focuses on resolving current problems, developing relations, and boosting infrastructure in the international scale.

“To broaden bilateral and multilateral interna-tional cooperation, we are have been holding virtual webinars with travel experts of target market coun-tries to amend the current trend of international tourism step by step… on the other hand, gradual preparation for the post-corona period is mandated to (Iran’s) tourism-related agencies abroad.” 8

TEHRAN - Heinz Gartner, an Austrian pro-fessor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna, tells the Tehran Times that the rejection of the U.S. resolution in the United Nations Security Council proved that the international community cannot accept “certain policies of the U.S. anymore”.

The United Nations Security Council on Fri-day resoundingly rejected a bid by the United States to extend a global arms embargo on Iran.

Washington got support only from the Dominican Republic for its resolution to extend the embargo indefinitely. Eleven members on the 15-member body, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, abstained. Russia and China strongly opposed extending the 13-year ban.

The ban is due to expire on October 18 under a 2015 nuclear deal signed between Iran and 5+1 group (Russia, China, the U.S., Britain and France plus Germany). However, the U.S. officially quit the deal in May 2018.

To explore various dimensions of the UN Se-curity Council decision, the Tehran Times had an interview with Prof. Heinz Gartner, who chairs the Strategy and Security Advisory Board of the Austrian Armed Forces and the Advisory Board of the International Institute for Peace (IIP) in Vienna.

The text of the interview is as follows: The United Nations Security Council has

rejected a U.S. resolution to extend an arms em-bargo on Iran that is due to expire in October. What is your take on it? 7

World unhappy with certain U.S. policies: Austrian professor

Iranian military chief urges UAE to revise ties with Israel

Iran, Uzbekistan ready to hold joint economic committee meeting next week

TEHRAN — Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Bagheri on Sunday urged the United Arab Emirates to revise its ties with the Zionist regime of Israel as the two sides has reached an agreement to normalize relations.

“In a situation in which all the free-dom-seeking people in the world express disgust over relationship with the Zionist regime, it is regrettable that a neighbor

of the Islamic Republic announces nor-malization of ties with this child-killing regime,” Bagheri said.

He noted that as a Muslim country, such relationship is not acceptable for the UAE.

“We advise the United Arab Emirates to revise its decision before it is too late and avoid continuing a path which is harmful to regional security,” the top general noted. 2

TEHRAN — Iran’s Trade Promotion Or-ganization (TPO)’s Head Hamid Zadboum said that Iran and Uzbekistan are ready to hold the next meeting of their joint economic committee next week, TPO website published on Saturday after an online meeting between Zadboum and an Uzbek official.

As reported, Zadboum and Uzbekistan’s deputy minister of investment and foreign trade explored the ways for bolstering trade relations between the two countries

during the online meeting and agreed to set up a committee to start negotiations on finalizing preferential trade agreement between Iran and Uzbekistan.

They also agreed to hold a meeting with the transport ministers of the two countries on strengthening bilateral transport ties.

As announced last month by Iranian Vice President for Economic Affairs Mo-hammad Nahavandian, the volume of trade between Iran and Uzbekistan increased 40 percent in 2019. 4

Vocalist Salar Aqili sings “Sun of the Orient” in memory of health workers died of COVID-19

TEHRAN — Vocalist Salar Aqili has paid tribute to the health workers who died of COVID-19 by a single named “The Sun of the Orient”.

Composer Mehran Mehran-nia was commissioned by the Art and Cultural Organization of the Tehran Municipality to put a poem by Mohammad Abdolhosseini to music in this project.

Aqili is one of the few prolific Iranian

musicians during the pandemic. He along with his ensemble went on stage at Teh-ran’s Vahdat Hall in July, performing to an empty auditorium during the pandemic.

“It is very difficult for me to give a concert without an audience. This is the first time I am doing this but I should say that the audience is always in my heart,” Aqili had said before his performance. 1 2

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Freed POWs praise

medical staff battling

COVID-19TEHRAN – A number of freed prisoners of war (POWs) went to the Khatam al-Anbia specialized hospital in Tehran on Saturday, appreciating medical staff for their efforts in fight against the coronavirus.

The move was concurrent with the an-niversary of the proud return of the freed POWs to their homeland after the end of the 8-year war (known as the Sacred Defense) with the Ba’athist regime in Iraq. 9

AUGUST 17, 2020

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

P O L I T I C S

TEHRAN – Iranian Foreign Minister Mo-

hammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that the United States is aware that it cannot trigger the snapback mechanism which returns international sanctions against Iran at the United Nations.

“The United States’ snapback (claim) is illegal and unacceptable. They know that they cannot use the snapback,” Zarif said as he introduced the new Foreign Ministry spokesman.

He added, “We should not assume that they are right if they say something out loud and repeat it.”

Zarif said former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton “was so overjoyed to have ruined the JCPOA” that he trium-phantly boasted during a press conference at the White House that “we are no longer a member of JCPOA to use the snapback mechanism.”

Shortly before Trump announced plans to withdraw from the pact, Bolton sug-gested to reporters that the U.S. would

not turn to the UN Security Council to remake the nuclear accord because “we’re out of the deal,” Foreign Policy reported in May 2018.

“At this time, there’s no plan to go up to New York” to push for a snapback of sanctions, a senior State Department of-ficial explains. “The United States is out of the deal … so we’re not going to use a provision as if we were still a participant in the deal to invoke the snapback.”

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday that he intends to move next week to trigger the snapback mechanism. Trump made such a promise one day after the UN Security Council re-soundingly rejected a draft resolution by the U.S. to extend arms embargo against Iran. Out of 15 countries sitting on the Council, only the Dominican Republic backed the U.S. resolution.

The U.S. has repeatedly claimed it will invoke the “snapback” mechanism with-in the Security Council should its draft resolution on arms embargo fail to pass.

By staff and agencyZhao Lijian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on Saturday that his country welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal on holding an online summit over the Iranian nuclear program.

Putin proposed on Friday holding an urgent online meeting of the heads of the five states that are permanent members of the UN Security Council with the participation of the leaders of Germany and Iran to discuss Iran and the Persian Gulf situation.

China has always firmly supported the Joint Comprehen-sive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and is devoted to safeguarding

peace and stability in West Asia, said Zhao.“China is willing to work with parties concerned to keep

close communication and coordination, and jointly promote the process of political resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue,” he said.

Putin had stressed that the purpose of the summit was to “identify steps that will allow for avoiding confrontation and an aggravation of the situation in the UN Security Council and for furnishing collective support for the further uninter-rupted implementation of UN Security Council’s Resolution 2231, which provided an international legal basis for JCPOA implementation,” Press TV reported.

TEHRAN – Iranian Dep-uty Foreign Minister for

International and Legal Affairs Mohsen Ba-harvand has said that Washington cannot trigger snapback mechanism and return United Nations sanctions on Iran.

“In my opinion, the United States does not understand that it cannot trigger the snapback mechanism unilaterally and without other sides to the JCPOA [the 2015 nuclear deal]. The United States must take action within the framework of the comprehensive deal of the JCPOA while the United States withdrew from the JCPOA,” ISNA quoted Baharvand as saying on Sunday in an interview with the London-based Al Araby TV network.

He noted that the international community will not support the U.S. move.

The United States’ efforts to extend an arms embargo on Iran ended in a humiliating defeat at the UN Security Council on Friday.

13 out of 15 members of the Council did not support Washington’s anti-Iran resolution.

Only two of the Council’s 15 members voted in favor, highlighting the division between Washington and its European allies since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear accord in May 2018.

The United States has repeatedly claimed it will invoke the “snapback” mechanism within the Security Council should its draft resolution fail to pass.

Trump said on Saturday that snapback sanctions against Iran could happen as soon as next week.

“Well we knew what the vote was going to be but we’ll be doing a snapback, you’ll be

watching it next week,” CNN quoted him as saying at a news conference at his Bedminster resort in New Jersey.

Diplomats have said the U.S. would face a tough, messy battle in any such move.

In a social media post, Jarrett Blanc, a former U.S. Department of State official who had been involved with the Iran nuclear deal, warned about the consequences of Trump’s intentions.

“The cost will be a devastating loss of UNSC authority that will damage the U.S. role in the world for the foreseeable future - but the Trump Administration manifestly is not too worried about damage done to the country rather than to its own ambition,” he wrote.

TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that the freed Iranian

prisoners of war, known as Azadegan in Farsi, have shown through patience and resistance the victory of humanity and dignity over torture.

Zarif made the remarks in a message on the occasion of the anniversary of the return of POWs to the country.

The first group of Iranian soldiers captured by Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran returned to the country

two years after the end of the war. Iraq launched war on Iran in 1980 which lasted until

the summer of 1988.Also, President Hassan Rouhani said in a message that

the Iranian people are proud of the Azadegan.“The grateful Iranian nation is proud of the steadfast-

ness and strength of its respectful war veterans and pays tribute to the patience and endurance of these models of resilience,” he wrote in the message to the National Congress

of Shining Diamonds.Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh, the commander of

the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF), also said on Sunday that the freed POWs are valuable assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

During a meeting with a group of IRIAF staff who were among the freed POWs, Nasirzadeh said that Azadegan are role model for resistance and patience who went through sufferings to protect the revolution and the country.

TEHRAN — Defense Minister Amir Hatami

said on Sunday that Iran will unveil new defense equipment on the National Defense Industry Day, which falls on August 21.

“There are also achievements in mis-sile, drone, marine and aerial areas which will be unveiled with the presence of the president by the end of the year,” he said during a press conference.

The current Iranian calendar year ends

on March 20, 2021.The defense minister also said that the

country will send satellites into space by its two indigenized carriers named Simorq (Phoenix) and Zol Janah.

He noted, “The Islamic Republic of Iran’s space program is a permanent program which has passed several phases and has several other phases ahead.”

“The country needs heavier cargos over 100 kilogram to be carried into space and

we plan to carry heavier cargos to the higher altitude orbits which will be done by the Simorq and Zol Janah satellite carriers,” Hatami explained.

“We have the Sarir satellite carrier for cargos weighing between 300 kilogram to 1,000 kilogram and we will, of course, have Soroush-1 and Soroush-2 satellite carriers for higher altitude orbits at 36,000 kilometer,” the Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

TEHRAN — U.S. Presi-dent Donald Trump vowed

Saturday to use a controversial technique to unilaterally reinstate UN sanctions on Tehran.

His declaration came a day after the UN Security Council overwhelmingly rejected a U.S. resolution to extend an Iranian arms embargo.

“We’ll be doing a snapback,” Trump said during a news conference at his New Jersey golf club, AFP reported.

“You’ll be watching it next week,” he added.Trump was referring to the contested argu-

ment that the U.S. remains a “participant” in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal -- despite Trump’s withdrawal from it -- and therefore can force a return to sanctions if it sees Iran as being in violation of its terms.

However, Iranian Foreign Minister Mo-hammad Javad Zarif said the U.S. itself is well aware that it cannot do it as Washington is no longer a party to the agreement.

“The U.S. knows that it cannot use snap-back,” Zarif said as he introduced Iran’s new

Foreign Ministry spokesman. “The U.S. snapback (claim) is so illegal

that it is not acceptable and the Americans themselves known it,” noted Zarif, a professor international law.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the U.S. had failed to kill off the “half alive”.

“The United States failed in this conspiracy with humiliation,” said Rouhani.

“This day will go down in the history of our Iran and in the history of fighting global arrogance.”

Only two of the Council’s 15 members voted in favor of the U.S. resolution seeking to extend the embargo, highlighting the divi-sion between Washington and its European allies since Trump withdrew from the nuclear accord in 2018.

The Europeans on the Council all abstained.“In the 75 years of United Nations history,

America has never been so isolated,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi tweeted.

European allies have been skeptical on whether Washington can force sanctions,

with experts saying a “snapback” threatens to plunge the Council into one of its worst-ever diplomatic crises.

Trump also said Saturday he would “prob-ably not” take part in a summit proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on addressing the situation.

“I think we’ll wait until after the election,” he said, with the U.S. set to hold its presidential poll in November.

Putin had appealed to China, France, Brit-ain, the U.S., Germany and Iran to convene an emergency video summit to avoid an escalation of tensions in the Persian Gulf.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a visit to Poland on Saturday, made it clear the United States would press on.

“It is unfortunate that the French and the United Kingdom... didn’t support what the (Persian) Gulf states have demanded, what the Israelis have demanded... I regret that deeply,” Pompeo told reporters.

“The United States is determined to make sure that the Iranians and this regime, this

theocratic regime does not have the capacity to inflict even more harm on the world.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced a “scandalous” UN vote.

“Iranian terrorism and aggression threaten the peace of the region and the entire world. Instead of opposing weapons sales, the Se-curity Council is encouraging them,” he said.

The embargo on conventional arms is due to expire on October 18 under the terms of a resolution that blessed the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Since Trump pulled out of the JCPOA and slapped unilateral sanctions on Iran, Tehran has taken small but escalatory steps away from compliance with the accord as it presses for sanctions relief.

European allies of the United States -- who, along with Russia and China, signed the deal with Iran -- have voiced support for extending the 13-year-long conventional arms embargo, claiming an expiry threatens stability in the Middle East.

Zarif says former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton “was so overjoyed

to have ruined the JCPOA” that he triumphantly boasted during a press

conference at the White House that “we are no longer a member of JCPOA to use the

snapback mechanism.”

U.S. is aware it cannot trigger snapback mechanism: Zarif

Beirut blast ‘100 percent Israeli job’: advisor to Iran’s Leader(Press TV) — Iran’s former defense minister and current military advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatol-lah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the recent deadly explosion in Beirut was “100 percent Israeli job” meant to pit the Lebanese nation against Hezbollah and disarm the resistance movement.

In an interview with China’s Phoenix Television broadcast on Sunday, Hossein Dehqan stressed that nothing is expected from the Tel Aviv regime other than crime.

Asked about the August 4 blast in Beirut, Dehghan re-plied, “I think what happened is 100 percent Israeli job” as it targeted food stocks.

“What is the message when you destroy the lifeline of a crisis-hit country that already has problems in this regard, except to put pressure on the people to create room for an-other purpose? In my opinion, this is 100 percent an Israeli job,” he added.

Dehqan also said that when the Israelis do something, they quickly make up a story to divert attention from it.

“For example, it is said that Hezbollah and the resistance are the cause of all problems of the Lebanese nation and that these explosives belonged to them. This is while the Lebanese nation considers Hezbollah as part of themselves and Hez-bollah serves their security interests. Hezbollah has never acted against the Lebanese people,” he noted.

He further said Israel’s goal is “to rally the Lebanese nation against Hezbollah and eventually disarm it.”

Almost 180 people are so far confirmed to have lost their lives, while more than 6,000 others were wounded in the powerful explosion that ripped through the Beirut port.

The blast took place in Beirut port warehouses storing highly explosive material, specifically ammonium nitrate, commonly used in both fertilizer and bombs.

The blast — one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions the world has ever seen — flattened much of the strategic port and left buildings in ruin.

Fears grow about West’s meddling in blast probeOn Saturday, France sent a helicopter carrier and forensic

police to Beirut to investigate the incident.Additionally, a senior U.S. official said a team of FBI in-

vestigators is due to arrive in Lebanon this weekend to take part at the investigation into the explosion.

“We really need to make sure that there is a thorough, a transparent and credible investigation. I know that is what everyone is demanding,” David Hale, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, said after visiting the site of the blast.

This is while top Lebanese officials, including President Michel Aoun, have rejected calls for outside interference, describing it as “a waste of time” that would be politicized.

On Friday, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah emphasized that he did not trust any foreign in-vestigation, in a clear reference to the FBI plan.

The cause of the explosion is still unclear and that any international probe would also have to clear Israel of any responsibility in the port explosion, he said.

President Aoun has said the blast might have been trig-gered by a foreign attack.

“The cause has not been determined yet. There is a pos-sibility of external interference through a rocket or bomb or other act,” he said after the incident.

Aoun said he had asked French President Emmanuel Ma-cron “to secure aerial images to determine what happened and if the French do not have them, we will request them from another source.”

Iranian military chief urges UAE to revise ties with Israel

1 The decision was announced after a phone call be-tween United States President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, according to Aljazeera.

Trump hailed the deal as a “huge breakthrough” and a “historic peace agreement between” its “two great friends”.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday con-demning the agreement and called it a “strategic stupidity” by the UAE and Israel.

The statement said the move will definitely result in boosting the axis of resistance.

Putin proposal for summit with Iran on table even without Trump, Moscow says

TEHRAN – Moscow announced on Sunday that a proposal by the Russian president to

hold an online conference between leaders of the countries which are permanent members of the UN Security Council as well as Germany and Iran remains on the table even as the U.S. president has refused to join, Sputnik reported.

On Friday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin proposed the summit to discuss security in the Persian Gulf and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

“Of course, yes,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov affirmed when asked whether the initiative is still on the table after Trump’s statement.

Trump said on Saturday that he would not likely support the initiative, saying he would wait until the November election.

Putin urged Washington to assess the advantages of the implementation of the initiative in order to avoid further es-calation of the situation in the Persian Gulf.

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China welcomes Putin’s proposal for holding Iran summit

Washington can’t trigger snapback mechanism, says deputy FM for legal affairs

Freed POWs show victory of humanity over torture: Zarif

Trump vows ‘snapback’ sanctions on Iran

Iran to unveil new defense equipment

3I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

I R A N I N F O C U SAUGUST 17, 2020

Iran warns UAE against an Israeli foothold on its doorstep 1 In a separate warning to the UAE, Chief of Staff of the Ira-

nian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri announced on Sunday that the UAE bears the responsibility for any harms to the national interest of Iran. He also said that Iran will fundamentally change its approach toward the UAE.

“Definitely, the Iranian nation’s approach towards this neigh-boring state [the UAE] will change fundamentally, and the Islamic Republic’s Armed Forces will also deal with that country according to different calculations,” the top general warned.

Iran’s warnings center around the possibility that the UAE gives Israel a stronghold on Iran’s doorstep, a move that could further ratchet up tensions between Iran and the UAE. However, analysts told the Tehran Times that the UAE may not be willing to hurt its relations with Iran by doubling down on its efforts to strengthen intelligence or military ties with Israel.

“In the last few days, the Emirates has sought to send mes-sages to Iran through third parties that their deal with Israel isn’t aimed at undermining their relations with Iran,” Mosayeb Naeimi, a West Asia expert, told the Tehran Times. Naeimi said the UAE’s fragile economic and military situation doesn’t allow it to embark on a confrontational policy toward Iran.

According to Naeimi, the UAE economy is heavily dependent on foreign investment and Iranian businessmen play a significant role in the Emirati economy, and that it’s not in the interests of the UAE to antagonize Iran.

The expert also downplayed the implications of the normalization of ties between the UAE and Israel for Iran, underlining that the ties between the two sides have begun more than a decade ago and Iran has been “closely watching” the development of their ties.

“The Emirati move is nothing new, although it was only re-cently announced. Abu Dhabi has had long-standing ties with Tel Aviv for more than a decade. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited Abu Dhabi twice. Iran was aware of these ties. Therefore, what has happened now is just an announcement of what was going on in secret,” Naeimi noted.

Samad Qaempanah, a professor of international relations at the Islamic Azad University, agrees with Naeimi that the normal-ization of ties between Israel and the UAE is not new.

Qaempanah pointed out that the normalization of ties between Israel and Arab countries is part of a process that began after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 when the idea of what came to be known as “the New Middle East” began to take hold.

He said that Iran is not worried about a potential intelligence or security cooperation between Israel and the UAE because the cooperation has already taken place and that it is not new from Iran’s point of view.

“Israel has already established influence in Iran’s neighbors and in the region. There has been a sort of overt or covert secu-rity and intelligence cooperation between these countries and Israel,” the professor said, adding that the Rouhani government criticized the UAE-Israel deal from a security point of view to convey a message that Iran has the upper hand in the region and thus countries like the UAE should accept Iran’s upper hand in the region if they want to avoid problems arising from normalizing their relations with Israel.

Qaempanah also said Iran’s opposition to the normalization deal is grounded in Tehran’s political and ideological agenda, which introduces Iran as a country that seeks to establish the “global government of Islam” as a way to unify “the Islamic Ummah”.

“Therefore, Iran believes that the Emirati move is intend-ed to deliver a blow to the Islamic unity,” Qaempanah told the Tehran Times.

New Foreign Ministry spokesman appointed

TEHRAN — Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday officially introduced

Saeed Khatibzadeh as the new spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, replacing Abbas Mousavi.

Khatibzadeh was deputy director for research studies at the Foreign Ministry Institute for Political and International Stud-ies. He had also served in some other positions at the ministry including as diplomat in Canada and Germany.

Mousavi, the previous spokesman, has been appointed as Iran’s ambassador to the Republic Azerbaijan. He and five other new ambassadors met with President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday.

UAE summons Iranian charge d’affairs

TEHRAN — Foreign Ministry of the United Arab Emirates has summoned the Iranian

charge d’affairs over remarks made by President Hassan Rou-hani about normalization of relations between the UAE and the Zionist regime of Israel.

According to ISNA, Al Mayadeen has reported that the UAE Foreign Ministry has claimed that Rouhani’s remarks were “pro-vocative which endangers regional security and stability.”

It was announced on Thursday that the UAE and Israel plan to normalize ties and establish full diplomatic relationship.

Rouhani said on Saturday that the UAE has done a “great mistake and treasonous act”.

“We warn the Emirates that lest it (the agreement) help find a foothold for the Zionist regime in the region… then it (the situation) will be different and they (the UAE) will be treated differently,” Rouhani said while speaking at a meeting of the National Task Force for Fighting Coronavirus.

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TEHRAN (Tasnim) — A group of Iranian lawmakers hailed the country’s advances in the defense industry, voicing support for the promotion of the missile power.

In a statement in commemoration of the National Day of the Defense Industry, the Iranian parliamentarians lauded the do-mestic defense industry for making steady

progress under the pressure of sanctions, ensuring Iran’s security and power, and sending the message of peace and stability to the region and the world.

The MPs also called on defense indus-try activists and elites, knowledge-based companies, and academic and research centers to work in collaboration with each

other to boost the country’s capabilities.The statement noted that self-sufficien-

cy in production of weapons and defense gear would thwart the cruel sanctions and result in successive defeats for the U.S. and the Zionist regime.

The United States suffered an embar-rassing diplomatic defeat on Friday when

the United Nations Security Council re-jected a proposal to indefinitely extend an arms embargo on Iran.

The U.S. has become increasingly isolat-ed over Iran at the Security Council since President Donald Trump pulled it out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers in May 2018.

TEHRAN — Presidential chief of staff Mahmoud

Vaezi says the United States will again face defeat if it triggers the snapback mechanism under the 2015 nuclear deal which the U.S. abandoned in 2019.

“In the [UN] Security Council vote, the international community once again op-posed the U.S.’s unilateralism by protecting Barjam (nuclear deal),” Vaezi wrote in a tweet on Sunday.

“The U.S., continuing its mistakes, is seeking to trigger the snapback mechanism,” he wrote, adding, “With the same process that the recent resolution was rejected but even with a stronger political and legal ar-gument, it will face defeat again.”

Vaezi also said U.S. President Donald Trump should have learned that politics is

completely different from trade and “if he won’t change his past policies, he should await consecutive defeats.”

The remarks came after the United States’ efforts to extend an arms embargo on the Islamic Republic of Iran ended in a humil-iating defeat at the UN Security Council, as 13 out of 15 members of the Council did not

support its anti-Iran resolution.Only two of the Council’s 15 members

voted in favor, highlighting the division between Washington and its European allies since Trump withdrew from the nuclear accord in May 2018.

Besides the United States, only the Dominican Republic voted in favor of the draft. China and Russia voted against the text, and the remaining 11 Security Council members, including the European allies of the United States, abstained.

President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that the UN Security Council session and the act of rejecting the U.S. draft resolution was a “political victory” for Iran and a “political and legal failure” for Washington.

Following Washington’s failure at the UN

Security Council, Trump announced that he intends to trigger the snapback mechanism, which would reimpose international sanc-tions against Iran at the United Nations.

The U.S. president made the announce-ment as he dismissed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call for a summit of world leaders to decrease Iran tensions, saying he probably would not participate.

“We’ll be doing a snapback,” he told re-porters on Saturday. “You’ll be watching it next week.”

The U.S. has for months threatened to trigger a return of all UN sanctions on Iran using a provision in the nuclear deal, even though Trump abandoned the accord in 2018.

Observers have predicted that the U.S. would face a tough, messy battle in any such move.

MPs pledge support for Iran’s defense industry

Trump should await consecutive defeats: Vaezi

EU says Washington cannot trigger snapback mechanism

TEHRAN – The Europe-an Union announced on

Sunday that the U.S. is not entitled to force the reimposition of international sanctions on Iran through the snapback mechanism envisioned in the 2015 nuclear deal.

According to a spokeswoman of the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, given that the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018 and has not partici-pated in any JCPOA structures or activities subsequently, the U.S. cannot be considered as a JCPOA participant.

“We therefore consider that the U.S. is not in a position to resort to mechanisms reserved for JCPOA participants (such as the so-called snapback),” German news agency DPA quoted the spokeswoman as saying.

The United States stepped up calls for the extension of UN arms embargo on Iran since April, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration threatening that it may seek to trigger a snapback of all sanctions on Iran if attempts to extend the arms embargo fail.

However, the resolution calling for the extension of the embargo failed to attract enough votes at the UN Security Council on Friday, in what President Hassan Rouhani described as a humiliating defeat for the United States.

Following the UN Security Council de-feat, Trump vowed to trigger the snapback mechanism to unilaterally reinstate UN sanctions on Tehran.

“We’ll be doing a snapback. You’ll be watching it next week,” he said at a news conference at his New Jersey golf club on Saturday.

Britain, France and Germany, three Eu-ropean countries party to the nuclear deal, have said they would not back U.S. efforts to unilaterally trigger the reimposition of the UN sanctions.

Snapback option not available to non-participants: Biden adviser

The United States is also divided over

the triggering of the snapback mechanism.The Joe Biden campaign’s chief foreign

policy adviser has said the U.S. cannot push for the restoration of the UN sanctions because it is not a participant in the JCPOA anymore.

“The remedies in the resolution are avail-able to ‘participant’ countries,” Tony Blinken wrote in a tweet on Sunday. “In pulling out of the agreement the WH literally titled its statement ‘Ending US Participation in the JCPOA.’”

“It would have been wise to stick with an agreement that was working and has teeth,” Blinken added.

He made the comment in response to a tweet by Richard Goldberg, an aide to the U.S. National Security Advisor in the Donald Trump administration, who said via Twitter that “a legally independent snapback is in the plain text of UNSCR 2231 as is the US’ eligibility to trigger it (with no provision for ever changing that eligibility).”

On Saturday, Wendy Sherman, the former undersecretary of state for political affairs who led the U.S. negotiating team that concluded the Iran nuclear agreement, said the missile and arms embargo are part of the UN Security Council resolution 2231 but not the JCPOA.

“The JCPOA was endorsed by 2231 but the snap back provision is within the JCPOA itself,” she tweeted.

TEHRAN — Foreign Minister Moham-mad Javad Zarif telephoned his Palestinian

Authority counterpart Riyad al-Maliki late on Saturday to reaffirm Iran’s commitment to backing the Palestinians in their struggle against the Zionist regime.

The two foreign ministers also discussed the latest regional developments.

Zarif emphasized that the Islamic Republic will keep supporting the great Palestinian nation’s struggle for the restoration of their rights, and underlined the need for unity among Palestinians.

Maliki also lauded Iran’s support for the people of Palestine, saying the Palestinian leaders and nation are determined to defend their rights.

The Palestinian people and officials have joined hands and are determined to liberate the Palestinian territories from the Zionist regime’s occupation, he said.

The talks followed two days after Israel and the UAE reached a deal that will lead to a full normalization of dip-lomatic relations between the two sides.

The deal was declared after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, according to Al Jazeera.

Trump hailed the deal as a “huge breakthrough” and a “historic peace agreement between” its “two great friends”.

The White House says the agreement will see Israel suspend its plans to annex Palestinian areas of the occupied West Bank.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has called the UAE move “shameful” and a “dagger in the back of the Palestinians and all Muslims”.

On Saturday, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) condemned the move, saying it was “historic idiocy” and a “poisonous dagger” thrust into the body

of the Islamic community.On Friday, Zarif deplored the deal, saying such a “treacher-

ous” move would by no means affect the Palestinian resistance.Zarif made the remarks in a phone conversation with

secretary general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad move-ment, Ziad al-Nakhala.

“This behavior will increase the hatred of the people of the region and Palestine against these policies,” said Zarif.

“We are confident that this treacherous move will not affect the resistance of the Palestinian people and the resist-ance movement, and will certainly increase the hatred of the people of the region and Palestine for these policies against the Palestinian cause,” he added, according to Iran Press.

Nakhala also praised Iran’s ongoing support for the Pal-estinian cause and railed against the UAE-Israel agreement.

“This vicious act will not affect the resistance of the Pal-estinian people,” he said.

Zarif reaffirms support for Palestine amid UAE-Israel treacherous rapprochement

TEHRAN — Ali Akbar Velayati, a top advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Rev-

olution, has condemned the recent normalization of ties between the UAE and Israel, saying such a move will only hasten the termination of the Zionist regime.

In a note released on Saturday, Velayati described the UAE-Israel agreement as “deplorable”, predicting that it would result in Abu Dhabi’s isolation and alienation from the rest of the Muslim world, Mehr reported.

He said the UAE’s decision to normalize relations with Israel was done as an obedient act in favor of U.S. President Donald Trump, who is seeking re-election, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to Velayati, the U.S. suffered a terrible defeat in imposing its pro-Tel Aviv “deal of the century” scheme earlier this year.

And Washington and its allies failed to break down the axis of resistance in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, he added.

Israel and the UAE reached a deal on Thursday that will lead to full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two sides.

The deal was announced after a phone call between Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu

Dhabi, according to Aljazeera.President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday warned Abu

Dhabi that the agreement must never prepare the ground for the presence of the Zionist regime in the Persian Gulf.

A member of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said the UAE should know that it is the main loser in the agreement, which will bring no positive outcome for the Arab country.

Speaking with Mehr on Sunday, Vahid Jalalzadeh said

the people of the Arab world must be considered separately from their rulers, who have been once again blackmailed by the Zionists.

Jalalzadeh said the move was the result of efforts made by the United States, which has always sought to mend Arab countries’ ties with Israel.

“Saudi Arabia is also the fourth side of the United States, the Zionist regime and the UAE, but for some reason, it does not want to make this issue public and announce that it has crossed the red lines, but everyone knows Saudi Arabia is also behind this,” he added.

Iranian Ambassador to Islamabad Seyyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini also described the move as a betrayal to Palestinians.

“The disappointing and condemnable decision of normal-izing relations with the Extravagant Occupier #israil will cost Islamic world dearly,” Hosseini said in a tweet on Sunday.

“Regional equation is not a bargaining chip,” Hosseini added.

In another tweet, Hosseini wrote that Palestinians were harmed by hypocritical behaviors more than anything else.

“The Broker of such derogatory deal added fuel to the fire of cruelty to futile the resistance and erase the cause of #Palestine,” the envoy said.

“History will record such betrayal,” he added.

UAE-Israel agreement to hasten Israel’s termination: advisor

TEHRAN – In a decree on Saturday, President

Hassan Rouhani appointed Jafar Sarqeini as the new acting minister of industry, mining and trade after the parliament did not endorse Hossein Modares Khiabani as minister, IRNA reported.

Sarqeini who was previously a deputy in the mentioned ministry replaced Modarres Khiabani who had been named the acting minister in May as President Rouhani fired

Reza Rahmani.“Due to Article 135 of the Constitution,

and with regard to your valuable commitment and managerial background in the field of industry and trade, I hereby appoint you as acting minister of industry, mining and trade,” Rouhani said in his decree.

Earlier this month, Iranian MPs rejected Modares Khiabani who was nominated by the government to be the new industry, mining and trade minister.

After the voting, Parliament Speaker Mo-hammad Bagher Qhalibaf had asked Rouhani

to name a new candidate as soon as possible in view of the “current economic condition”.

TEHRAN — Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) is ready to provide

bank facilities to the buyers of Roll on-Roll off (Ro-Ro) vessels as well as passenger ferries to improve activities in the country’s northern ports, IRNA reported, quoting a senior official with the organization.

Speaking in a video conference meeting of PMO deputies on Saturday, the Deputy Head for Ports and Economic Affairs Farhad Montaser Kouhsari said the organization is ready to provide bank facilities equal to 80 percent of the total price of Ro-Ro vessels and also equal to the full price for touristic ferries.

Referring to the organization’s measures for reducing the pile-up of goods in the country’s ports, Montaser Kouhsari said” “In collaboration with other bodies and agencies such as customs, quarantine and standard in-stitution, etc., we are witnessing the clearance of more than 1.2 million tons of basic goods from the country’s ports.”

He also announced special incentive packages includ-ing discounts of more than 50 percent for the export, transit and transship container sections, and added:

“A 50-percent discount is considered for vessels with under 1,000-ton capacity, to support them during these difficult conditions of sanctions and the outbreak of the coronavirus.”

The official also underlined the important role of the private sector in developing the country’s maritime

industries and noted that the shipping lines and mari-time bodies should utilize the capacities of the private sector to reduce the negative impacts of the pandemic and also the U.S. sanctions on this sector.

Montaser Kouhsari had earlier said that in the past few years, PMO has changed its approach and strategies from authority and ownership to supervision and support and that has had a great impact on the involvement of the private sector in the port projects and has increased the level of investments.

“This change in approach has had a positive effect on the private sector performance and has encouraged investors to engage in economic activities in the coun-try’s ports,” the official said.

Preparation and updating of various packages for attracting domestic and foreign investment, and de-velopment and updating of appropriate regulations to allocate a percentage of government revenues from maritime trade activities to the development of coastal areas and protection of the marine environment were mentioned by the official as factors that could contribute to the development of the country’s maritime sector.

1 The official made the remarks in a meeting via video conference with Uzbekistan’s Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Sardar Omar Zagov.

Referring to the impact of the corona-virus outbreak on reducing the volume of economic exchanges between the two countries in recent months, Nahavandian said that there are various ways to overcome the existing obstacles.

He pointed to Iranian experts’ capabil-ities and experiences in the technical and engineering fields, saying that Tehran is ready to share its experiences with Tash-kent in all fields.

Zaqov, for his part, underscored that Iran is a major trade partner of his country, saying, “We are determined to promote cooperation between the two countries in various fields, particularly in the fields of economy and trade.”

“We believe that geographical proximity and spiritual commonalities are a good opportunity that can be used to increase the level of economic relations between the two countries,” he underlined.

Expressing pleasure over Iranian com-panies’ activities in Uzbekistan, the official said that Tashkent welcomes the presence of Iranian investors and technical engi-neering companies in the economic and development projects and is interested in the expansion of scientific and technical

cooperation between the two countries.Iran and Uzbekistan also held a meeting

of Joint Road Transportation Committee via video conference last month, during which the two sides’ officials emphasized the significance of boosting bilateral ties in the transportation sector.

As reported, the meeting was attended by Iran’s Deputy Transport Minister Ab-dolhashem Hassan-Nia and Uzbekistan’s Deputy Minister of Transport Davron Dekh-kanov, as well as Uzbekistan’s ambassador to Iran, and the representative of Iran’s Embassy in Uzbekistan.

Addressing the virtual meeting, the Ira-nian deputy transport minister said that expansion of economic relations between Iran and Uzbekistan has been always em-phasized by the two sides’ senior officials, and in this due, boosting transport ties between the two countries is seriously pursued by the Iranian Transport Ministry.

Hassan-Nia further announced his coun-try’s readiness to transfer knowledge and experience in the field of transportation to Uzbekistan.

The Uzbek official for his part empha-sized the significance of holding such meet-ings in removing the problems in terms of transport cooperation between the two countries and expressed hope that such meetings will lead to laying a better ground for the expansion of bilateral ties.

Iran and Uzbekistan emphasized the expansion of relations in all economic ar-eas during the two countries’ 13th Joint Economic Committee meeting in Tashkent in mid-December last year.

The meeting was chaired by the for-mer Iranian Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani and Uzbekistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Elyor Ganiyevand, and representatives of several renowned companies from both sides attended the event.

Speaking in the meeting, the Iranian minister pointed to the presence of 50 Ira-nian companies in the meeting and holding mutual trade conferences as well as Iran’s exclusive exhibition in Tashkent as indica-tions of the importance that Iran puts on mutual trade and economic collaboration with Uzbekistan.

“Over the past few years, major docu-ments have been signed by the two coun-tries in a variety of areas including trade, transportation, and joint investment, some of which have been already operational-ized”, he said.

Rahmani further expressed hope that holding such committee meetings would help the two sides to take major steps for boosting collaboration between the two countries’ private sectors.

Later that month, the board chairman of Iran’s Chabahar Free Trade–Industrial

Zone Organization announced that Uzbek-istan has reached an agreement with Iran for transiting agricultural products and minerals to India through Iran’s Chaba-har Port.

According to Abdolrahim Kordi, the agreement was made during the Iran-Uz-bekistan’s 13th Joint Economic Committee meeting in Tashkent.

“We reached an agreement with Uzbek-istan’s Navoi Free Trade Zone for cooper-ation in transiting agricultural products and minerals,” he said.

“In the Iran-Uzbekistan Cooperation Document [which was signed at the end of the 13th committee meeting] three specific clauses were dedicated to cooperation be-tween free zones, development of logistic hubs and joint ventures,” Kordi added.

TEHRAN – The value of the Iranian exports of dried fruits, nuts and seeds

in the first four months of the current Iranian calen-dar year (March 20-July 21) increased by 52 percent compared to the same period last year, a senior official at Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) said.

According to Mahmoud Bazari, director-general of TPO’s Export Coordination Office for agro crops and processing industry products, despite the limi-tations created by the coronavirus pandemic and the U.S. sanctions, the exports of the mentioned products also increased by 42 percent in terms of weight in the said four months.

“The export of these products was equal to 21 percent of the total value of exports of agricultural products and foodstuff in this period,” ILNA quoted Bazari as saying.

The official has said that if the challenges and obsta-

cles in the way of exports are removed and the sea and land cargo transportation is facilitated, the exports of the mentioned products will experience a significant jump this year considering the production forecasts.

According to Bazari, Iran’s dried fruits and nuts are currently exported to more than 60 target countries, which is an indication of the country’s export capabil-ities in the face of the U.S. sanctions.

Based on the TPO data, the export of pistachios and pistachio kernels increased by 71 percent in terms of value and 110 percent in terms of weight in the said period, while the exports of raisins rose 35 percent in terms of value and 42 percent in terms of weight.

The exports of dates also increased by 22 percent in value and 16 percent in weight during the first four months of this year, compared to the same period last year.

TEHRAN— Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) in

an announcement stated that offering crude oil via standard parallel salaf bonds in this exchange, which was due to be on Sunday, has been postponed, Shana reported.

National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) had planned to offer 20 trillion rials (about $476.1 million) worth of heavy crude oil in IRENEX through standard parallel salaf contracts (some kind of Islamic contract) on Sunday, and IRENEX Managing Di-rector Seyed Ali Hosseini had elaborated on the details of the offering on Saturday.

According to Seyed Ali Hosseini, the

fund raised through this offering is going to be used to finance the oil industry’s development projects.

“National Iranian Oil Company is the issuer of the salaf bonds and the purpose of this offering is to finance the compa-ny’s development projects and its current expenses; the offering will be conducted under two separate indices,” Hosseini explained.

A standard parallel salaf is an Islamic contract similar to futures, with the differ-ence being that the contract’s total price must be paid in advance.

Hosseini noted that each salaf contract

has an equivalent value of one barrel of heavy crude oil which is priced at 9.446 million rials (about $224) in Iran.

Mentioning the difference between the initial public offering of parallel Salaf con-tracts and a plan proposed by President Hassan Rouhani called oil pre-sale (or economic evolvement), the official said the president’s plan is currently going through the expert assessment processes and is not yet finalized.

This plan will also be implemented and the shares will be offered at the energy exchange as soon as it is approved by the relative assessing bodies, he added.

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ICCIMA to establish Iran-Thailand joint commerce committee

TEHRAN – Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA)

has it on the agenda to set up an Iran-Thailand joint commerce committee in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), ICCIMA portal announced on Sunday.

As reported, the ICCIMA deputy for international affairs is in charge of the establishment of the mentioned committee.

The Iranian government has it on the agenda for the current Iranian calendar year to expand its trade with new partners and in this regard, it has been encouraging the private sector to take the necessary measures.

In late July, Iran exported aquatic products to Thailand from its southeastern Chabahar port for the first time.

Behrouz Aqaei, the director-general of Ports and Maritime Department of Sistan-Baluchestan Province, where the strategic port is located, said this was Iran’s first cargo ship of non-edible fishes which left Chabahar for the Indian commercial port of Mundra to trans-ship its goods to Bangkok port, Thailand as its final destination.

10th national productivity seminar held online

TEHRAN — Iran Productivity Association (IRPA) held the 10th National Productivity

Seminar through video conference on Sunday, IRIB reported.Speaking in the seminar, the IRPA Managing Director Hamid

Kalantari noted that the growth of productivity in the country has been neglected, saying: “It is possible to reduce a major part of the government expenditures by increasing and improving pro-ductivity in the country.”

Emphasizing that the average productivity growth in the coun-try over the past 40 years has been zero, he added: “This is while according to the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) statistics, between the Iranian calendar years of 1389 (started in March 2010) and 1396 (ended in March 2018), the average productivity growth of 24 Asian countries was 35 percent.”

Productivity in the fields of society and culture, economy and business, production, and management of structures as well as productivity and production were some of the main axes of the 10th National Productivity Seminar, According to Kalantari.

The IRPA head also stated that one of the purposes of holding this seminar was to create a platform and a space for exchanging ideas in order to achieve strategies to increase and improve productivity.

“This conference is available online for those interested in this area,” he said.

4-month banana imports stand at $113.6m

TEHRAN — Iran has imported 173,062 tons of banana worth $113.68 million during the first

four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-July 21), the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Ad-ministration (IRICA) announced.

Ruhollah Latifi named Ecuador, India, Philippines, Turkey, Russia, Vietnam and the UAE, as the main exporters of banana

to Iran during the four-month period, Mehr news agency re-ported.

Zahra Jalili-Moqaddam, director general of Agriculture Ministry’s Tropical and Subtrop-ical Fruit Bureau, said an average of 450,000 tons of bananas are imported into Iran every year while domestic production of the fruit stands at around 120,000 tons per annum.

According to the official, the domestic production capacity of bananas as well as other tropical fruits are higher than the current levels.

“The Agriculture Ministry is prepared to grant incentives, bank facilities and subsidies to help farmers produce these fruits,” she said.

As previously reported, Iran has imported 11.793 million tons of non-oil products worth $10.922 billion during the first four months of the current year.

The country’s top five sources of imports during this period were China with $2.806 billion, the UAE with $2.479 billion, Turkey with $1.178 billion, India with $757 million, and Germany with $493 million worth of imports.

China accounted for over 25 percent of Iran’s total imports, followed by UAE, Turkey, India, and Germany with 23 percent, 11 percent, seven percent, and five percent, respectively.

TEDPIX drops 88,000 points on Sunday

TEHRAN — TEDPIX, the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), which is Iran’s major

stock exchange, fell 88,000 points on Sunday.As reported by Mehr news agency, the index closed at 1.815

million points at the end of the Sunday trades.TEDPIX, which experienced a two-percent drop in the past

Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday), has been on a decreas-ing trend also in this week, as it fell 72,447 points on Saturday.

The index had hit the record high of two million points on August 2, but closed at 1.975 million points in the previous week.

As reported, the indices of Iran Khodro Investment Devel-opment Company, National Iranian Copper Industry Company, Ghadir Investment Company, Bank Saderat, Mobarakeh Steel Company, and Bandar Abbas Oil Refining Company were the major contributors to the index’s rise in the past week.

TEDPIX, which had been experiencing an unprecedented trend of rising over the recent months, experienced several days of drop in the past week, and it has started the present week with a sharp decline as well.

The index had surpassed two million points on August 2 and through gaining 45,672 points it stood at 2.007 million, notching up another outstanding record in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20).

It had hit the record high of 1.5 million points on June 30, and then it climbed half a million points in just one month to hit the record high of two million.

PMO ready to provide facilities to buyers of vessels

Offering oil via salaf bonds in IRENEX postponed

Iran, Uzbekistan ready to hold joint economic committee meeting next week

Exports of dried fruits, nuts up 52% in 4 months yr/yr

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TEHRAN — Managing Director of South Pars Gas

Company (SPGC) Hadi Hashemzadeh Farhang has said the SPGC’s gas output increased by 155 percent since the Iranian calendar year 1392 (started on March 21, 2013) up to the end of the previous calendar year (ended on March 19).

The complex’s gas output is going to increase even more in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), Farhang told IRNA.

According to the official, six years ago only five refineries were operational in the complex, while the number of active refineries reached 12 by the end of the past Iranian calendar year 1398.

Farhang noted that SPGC accounts for nearly 74 percent of the country’s natural gas supply.

He further pointed to the significant increase in the giant South Pars gas field’s production capacity over the past six years and said the field’s output was about 280 million cubic meters (mcm) in the Iranian calendar year 1391 (ended in March 2013), while the figure is going to reach 750 mcm by the end of the current calendar year.

Gas supply to the rural areas has also im-

proved with the development of South Pars, he said, adding: “The rural population enjoying the natural gas supply in the Iranian calendar

year 1392 was 14,000 villages and now the figure has exceeded 30,000 villages and by the end of the current year national gas network

will cover more than 32,000 villages.”Gas exports have also increased by 90

percent with the increase of South Pars gas production, Iran currently exports an average of about 80 mcm of gas per day, the official stressed.

South Pars Gas Company is operating 14 gas refineries in Southern Iran that are cur-rently processing the gas extracted from the country’s giant South Pars gas field which Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

The mentioned gas field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilom-eters of which, called South Pars, are in Iran’s territorial waters. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, called North Dome, are situated in Qatar’s territorial waters.

The field, currently divided into 24 stand-ard phases in the Iranian side, is estimated to contain a significant amount of natural gas, accounting for about eight percent of the world’s reserves, and approximately 18 billion barrels of condensate.

All the offshore operations of the develop-ment project of the field, except for phase 11, were completed in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).

TEHRAN (Shana) — For the first time in the Iranian oil industry, construction of 42-inch gate valves compatible with sour fluids is on the agenda of domestic companies, and now the process of manufacturing these valves to be used in the pipeline to transfer crude oil from Goreh to Jask is underway.

According to Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (PEDEC), Touraj Dehghani, the Managing Di-rector of the company, said on Tuesday, 83 42-inch gate valves of gate, control and emergency shut-off valves types worth about 9 million euros are used in the Goreh-Jask national project and efforts are being made to procure the items domestically.

The official made the remarks during a visit to the con-struction process of 42-inch gate valves (Metro Conduit) in the Goreh-Jask project in Arak Machinery Complex.

Referring to the Oil Minister’s emphasis on localiza-

tion and increasing the production capacity of items in the country, he continued: “The Petroleum Engineering and Development Company have informed all its consultants and contractors the ban on foreign purchases of goods that can be manufactured in the country.”

The PEDEC CEO said for the first time in the country, 42-inch sour fluid compatible gate valves (NACE) have man-ufactured domestically by domestic companies while many of the types procured domestically were previously imported.

The project to transfer crude oil from Goreh to Jask includes the construction of a pipeline of approximately 1,000 km length. In the implementation and construction of this project, 6 pipelines, five pump houses, three stations for receiving and sending pigs and the final terminal, 10 power stations, 400 km of transmission lines, three sing point moorings, submarine pipelines, a stilling basin and 20 crude oil storage tanks have been considered.

Fossil fuels have suffered over the past year as a Covid-induced fall in energy demand compounded longer-term pressures on the industry. At the same time, however, many people have decided a car offers a safety bubble in the pandemic, supporting a resurgence in sales — most of them still petrol-powered.

Oil markets are caught between these two notions: one bearish, the other bullish. In the year ahead, bulls should win out. When that happens, look for inflation expectations to rise, sending bond prices lower and yields higher.

Crude prices have swung wildly over the past six months. A collapse in oil consump-tion sent the market into a deep slump before the world’s largest producers agreed to slash output to adjust to the new reality. Supply and demand have this summer again found an equilibrium.

OPEC and Russia in April agreed to an output cut of 9.7m barrels a day, about a tenth of global output. Add to that a 2m bpd drop in production from U.S. oil explorers in the second quarter of this year and the conditions were in place for the supply overhang to evaporate.

That rebalancing kicked in from June, according to estimates by Rystad Energy. Traders, anticipating this, sent Brent prices to around $45 per barrel, more than double the April low.

But the world’s biggest producers will take their time before fully opening the taps. Con-sumption is still down a tenth from the end of 2019, although that should change as the economic effects of the crisis diminish in the coming year.

Most OPEC watchers have focused on the relationship between Saudi Arabia and Russia, but the behavior of the U.S. private producers also warrants monitoring. As of the end of July, American onshore and offshore production had yet to rebound from two-year lows.

The country’s onshore shale drillers can reverse direction reasonably quickly, unlike those in offshore areas such as the Gulf of Mexico. But there are no obvious signs of a resurgence in drilling activity in key shale areas such as the Permian formation, which covers parts of Texas and New Mexico. That region provides about 40 percent of total U.S. output.

The number of drilling rigs used there has fallen to a four-year low, according to the En-ergy Information Administration. The army of workers in U.S. oilfield services has fallen back to 2010 levels, notes Rystad. All this suggests supply will not snap back swiftly.

U.S. exploration and production compa-nies also have more debt than ever on their balance sheets. Total borrowing, secured and unsecured, totaled about $170bn by the end of July, according to Texas law firm Haynes and Boone.

That is much more than double the amount from four years ago, when oil traded at a similar level. It seems unlikely that these drillers can support so much extra debt given that their cash flow — in most cases — has not risen accordingly.

This all comes at a time when some of the world’s largest oil companies have promised to cut capital spending or production, or both, threatening to crimp supply. Saudi Aramco this week said capex will fall about a third this year to save cash. BP not only forecasts less spending but said its upstream production would fall for the next five years, at least.

The world’s oil supermajors including Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron have slashed the value of the oil and natural gas assets on their balance sheets, leading to significant accounting losses.

But quite a few still expect crude prices to

rise over the next couple of years towards $60 per barrel. If oil hits that level, the accompa-nying rise in inflation should cause bonds to sell off — fixed-coupon bond prices usually fall when inflation rises — and yields to rise.

A similar oil rebound in 2016 preceded a two-year bear market for bonds. Ten-year U.S. Treasury yields as well as those of German Bunds have already picked up this month.

Oil can also affect inflation disproportion-ately. Energy has an 8 percent weighting in the U.S. consumer price index basket and the sector’s prices have much greater volatility than most other CPI inputs. This tends to give oil an outsized impact on that measure of inflation.

A 10 percent jump in the crude price raises inflation indices by between 0.5 to 1 percent, depending on the country, according to a recent paper from the International Association for Energy Economics.

If bond markets do crumble because of a resetting of the oil price, it might be better to own oil-related exchange traded funds and stocks rather than those tied to gold, a re-cent favorite. The precious metal’s price has moved inversely with real U.S. bond yields, which turned negative this year. If real yields started to move higher, gold’s glittering run would end.

The price of oil offers a barometer on eco-nomic activity. Right now, it is rising.

Venezuela’s long-suffering oil industry is ramping up ex-ports even as production continues its inexorable slide, Bloomberg reported.

Exports of crude oil are set to reach a four-month high of at least 325,000 barrels a day in August, largely because of diesel-for-crude swaps that up until now have been exempt from U.S. sanctions.

At the same time, output slumped to about 101,000 bar-rels a day in the week ending Aug. 5, according to a report seen by Bloomberg. That’s a far cry from just three years ago when Venezuela was churning out 2 million barrels on a daily basis.

Caracas can boost exports even when output is falling thanks to oil kept in storage. Tanks at the main port of Jose and oil-processing facilities known as upgraders are holding an average of 15.6 million barrels this month, the equivalent of 48 days of exports. That’s up by almost half compared

with levels seen in January, according to PDVSA internal reports compiled by Bloomberg.

Inventories have risen because of a pandemic-induced drop in demand for fuels. The bankruptcy and subsequent sanctions imposed on Mexican trading oil companies Libre Abordo SA de CV and its subsidiary Schlager Business Group, which helped the regime place 32 million barrels of crude oil in Asia, have also played a part.

The bulk of Venezuelan exports this month, as estimated by shipping reports and ship-tracking data, are going to meet diesel swaps with refiners including Mumbai-based Reliance Industries Ltd., Spain’s Repsol SA and Eni SpA of Italy.

China, which used to be the biggest buyer of oil from the Latin American nation, is expected to receive 54,800 barrels a day, the lowest in around three years.

Lower supplies from Venezuela and Iran, both hit by U.S. sanctions, together with restrained output from the Organi-zation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners are helping to keep the differentials of heavy and light oil tight.

For the second time in three years, Saudi Arabia is slashing the volume of crude it’s sending to America in an attempt to force down stockpiles in the world’s most visible oil market and thereby hasten the rebalancing of supply and demand.

Weekly U.S. oil inventory data is routinely pored over by oil analysts and traders alike. Despite their shortcomings, the figures give

the most up-to-date picture of changes in the oil balance and influence trading decisions and crude prices around the world, Bloomb-erg reported.

Shifts in the flow of crude into and out of American ports can have a big impact on the level of U.S. inventories. Riyadh has clearly decided it’s time to do its bit to bring them down from heights reached in May and June,

when the coronavirus pandemic and the king-dom’s own output hike combined to drive the fastest-ever surge in U.S. commercial crude stockpiles.

Excess stockpiles act as a drag on oil prices and the most visible stockpiles are in the U.S. because the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration reports levels weekly. That’s in stark contrast to other places

around the world where the data are much less timely, if they are published at all. China, for example, stopped divulging official data on inventory levels in 2017.

It’s no wonder then that Saudi Arabia should focus on the U.S. This is precisely the same policy that it adopted three years ago, shortly after the wider OPEC+ alliance was formed and its first output deal was running into trouble.

By Alan Livsey

E N E R G Yd e s k

POGC completes 2nd condensate export pipeline of South Pars site 2 TEHRAN (Shana) — The deputy director of South Pars Phase 19 Development Project announced the completion of the first part of the second gas condensate export pipeline of phases of South Pars Site 2.

According to Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC), Seyed Hos-sein Azimi, referring to the gas condensate export plant of South Pars Site 2 by using two sing point mooring (SPM) systems, said, currently, SPM 1 has been commissioned and due to the arrival the second SPM to Iran in May, construction of the pipeline and installation of this system is under way.

He stated that the capacity of loading gas condensate with the SPM 2 system is 7,000 cubic meters per hour, and added this system will be installed in the south of the Asia Aram jetty.

Azimi stated that in this project, a new method (shore pulling) will be used to pull the sea pipeline from the shore.

Japanese ship involved in Mauritius oil spill breaks apartA Japanese bulk carrier that ran aground on a reef in Mauritius last month threatening a marine ecological disaster around the Indian Ocean Island has broken apart, Reuters quoted authorities as saying on Saturday.

The condition of the MV Wakashio was worsening early on Saturday and it split by the afternoon, the Mauritius National Crisis Committee said.

“At around 4.30pm, a major detachment of the vessel’s forward section was observed,” it said in a statement. “On the basis of the experts’ advice, the towing plan is being implemented.”

The vessel struck a coral reef on July 25, spilling about 1,000 tons of fuel oil and endangering corals, fish and other marine life in what some scientists have called the country’s worst ecological disaster.

On Friday, some residual oil from the ship leaked into the ocean, Mauritius Marine Conservation Society President Jac-queline Sauzier told Reuters on Saturday morning.

Authorities deployed booms on Saturday to help with oil ab-sorption around the vessel.

The Crisis Committee said special attention was being given to sensitive sites such as the Blue Bay Marine Park, Ile aux Aigrettes and the Pointe D’Esny National Ramsar Site.

The weather is expected to deteriorate over the next few days with waves of up to 4.5 meters (15 feet), authorities said.

Most of the oil from the vessels have been pumped out, the Mauritian government said on Thursday, but there was still 166 tons of fuel oil inside and authorities were working to remove it.

Japanese Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said on Sat-urday Tokyo planned to send a team of officials from the ministry and other specialists to assess the damage. The MV Wakashio is owned by Japan’s Nagashiki Shipping and chartered by Mitsui OSK Lines.

Scientists say the full impact of the spill is still unfolding, but the damage could affect Mauritius and its tourism-dependent economy for decades.

Removing the ship is likely to take months. Former colonial power France has said it will assist with the cleanup.

U.S. sanctions on Nord Stream 2 upset European lawmakersThe hostile U.S. position on the Gazprom-led Nord Stream 2 pipeline project is a breach of international law, according to the majority of EU members, German daily Die Welt reported today.

According to the report, the European Union communicated a sharp note of protest against U.S. interference in the construction of the pipeline to Washington. The note was supported by 24 of the EU’s 27 members, Reuters reported, citing Die Welt.

Reuters also quoted a statement it received from the U.S. embassy in Germany, which said, “The United States must act to address the threat to our national security and foreign policy interests,” noting, however, that Washington would like to con-tinue cooperating with the EU rather than resort to sanctions to enforce these interests.

However, the EU’s communication to Washington stated that “We are highly concerned about the increasing use of sanctions by the U.S. against European companies and interests,” and that “The EU considers the extraterritorial use of sanctions as a breach of international law.”

The United States last month warned the companies helping Russia to complete the Nord Stream 2 and the TurkStream 2 natural gas pipelines that they should ‘get out now’ or face the consequences, as the Trump Administration steps up efforts to stop the construction of the controversial Russia-led pipelines in Europe.

The U.S. Department of State is updating its sanctions guidance under the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act, CAATSA, to include Nord Stream 2 and the second line of TurkStream 2, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in mid-July.

Five European companies are working on Nord Stream 2 with Gazprom, including Shell, OMV, Engie, Wintershall DEA, and Uniper. Each of these is funding the project by some $1.12 billion, the total equal to half its cost estimated at $11.2 billion.

The twin pipe of Nord Stream will carry an additional 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Europe and, more specifically, Germany, whose gas hunger is growing as it shuts down coal and nuclear power plants.

SPGC sweet gas output rises 155% in 6 years

Gate valves for Goreh-Jask pipeline built in Iran

Oil outlook suggests the only way is up for bond yields

Venezuela is boosting oil exports even as production plummets

Saudi Arabia focuses its output cuts on the U.S.

AUGUST 17, 20206I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

ANALYSIS/INTERVIEWAUGUST 17, 2020

By J. Michael Springmann

“Hook was forced out. He can be made the scapegoat for the failure of the

administration’s “maximum pressure” policy on Iran.”

Abraham Accord: Another historical betrayal

1 However, there is a theory that suggests that the UAE

was obliged to submit to this date. It is a kind of blackmail. There were fifteen Saudis and two UAE terrorists that are accused on the 11th of September’s 2001 attacks, and the two countries are facing difficult charges.

It seems that the rest of the Arab world is involved in its own dilemmas; terrorists are still killing people in Syria and Libya. The Americans and the Turks are still occupying and stealing Syria’s natural resources. Yemen is striving with the Saudi and UAE siege and war. Iraq and Egypt are completely occupied with the Turkish threats and water shortage.

Egypt is threatened by building al-Nahdda Damp in Ethiopia. Lebanon is fighting to get rid of the ruins caused by the explosion of the 4th of August. It is also trying to resolve the differences caused by the foreign interference that manifested in violent protests call-ing for disarming Hezbollah and the government’s resignation.

The Accord was orchestrated by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, who is trying to prove himself as a worthy consultant, after the Great failure he and his father in law faced in implementing the “Deal of Century.” Trump openly complimented him by saying: “You did a great job! People do not understand the things that they can do … I don’t think anyone can do what he did.”

In this atmosphere, meetings had been activated. Grammy Wood revealed in “the Atlantic” that secret meetings have been going for years. The U.S. departments were leading the talks through private and personal channels. The discussions were personally held between Kushner from one side and the Prince Muhammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Shiekh Muhammad bin Zayed of the UAE on the other.

The main purpose behind leading such agreements is to guar-antee the safety of Israel; diplomacy is led under the slogan George Bush Junior established, which states that “the road to Jerusalem begins in Baghdad”. In the meaning: if you want peace in Israel, you need to have friendship with the surrounding Arab states.

Of course, influential Israeli figures and business people were involved in the persuasion of Muhammad bin Zayed, such as Hay-eem Saban, a close friend of Bin Zayed and an Israeli-American businessman, the Mossad’s chief Yossi Cohen, and the UAE and the Israeli ambassadors in Washington. It is clear that under media restrictions, it was impossible for the people to figure out what has been going on behind the scenes.

The Accord has inflamed the Palestinian streets. Demonstra-tions and angry signs are filling the roads. However, we need to understand that the (Persian) Gulf people are not necessarily in favor of the agreement. UAE and Saudi Arabia lead hard restric-tions on their citizens. Everything they watch or read is moni-tored, including social media. Even though, great numbers of the (Persian) Gulf citizens have spoken about their disappointments and shamefulness in the agreement. They expressed their total support to the Palestinians.

In the midst of the World War on Syrian, a hardworking man in Beirut said to me: “Do you see all this immigration from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine towards Europe in particular? Large numbers of Europeans are coming to live in our countries. It seems that they are fed up with their cold weather. I believe that they want to replace us.” Unfortunately, metaphorically, it is true. The colonial occupation was enforced on our Arab countries. Palestine is not the only country that was submitted to colonialism. The same thing happened in Algeria. Until today the French have a disgraceful museum for the skulls of the great Algerian revolutionary men.

The Accord of shame is going to harden the lives of the Pales-tinians even more. They were assured that no peace agreements would be signed before accomplishing their own peace; it is a betrayal. We live a series of historical betrayals since the Arab revolution in 1916. The British betrayal brought the Saudi clan into power. Compromises brought the other monarchies in the (Persian) Gulf countries. Even more, betrayals were enforced on the Arabs by their own leaders in Camp David, Oslo, Wadi Arabah, and today in Abrahams Accord.

World unhappy with certain U.S. policies: Austrian professor

1 A: It was no surprise that the resolution was re-jected. Surprising was that only one state voted together with the U.S. in favor of it. All European states – Britain and France as permanent members, and Germany, Belgium, and Estonia – abstained. This means that they want to keep the JCPOA alive. For the EU, there is still a separate Arms Embargo until 2023 in place.

Do you think the rejec-tion demonstrated the U.S. he-gemonic power in the world is declining?

A: This presumption is too far-reaching, although the U.S. has lost its international repu-tation because of its failure in handling the COVID-19 crisis. However, the rejection shows that certain U.S. policies are not acceptable for a large part of the international community anymore. When U.S. Secretary of Defense Mike Pompeo yes-terday (Friday) visited Vienna, other differences between the EU and the U.S. became visible. These are U.S. sanctions against the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Europe and the 5G network, and the U.S. withdrawal of the Paris climate accord.

How do you analyze the role of other powers, specifically China and Russia, in this story?

A: It was expected that China and Russia would not let the U.S. get its way easily. The new thing is that other big states are becoming more and more skeptical, as well. This does not mean, however, that these states automatically side with Iran. In many ways, they are critical of Iran’s policies as well. Especially the Europeans do not want that Iran reduces its commitments to the JCPOA.

How do you assess Trump’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran?

A: From the U.S. perspective, the “maximum pressure” was insofar effective because it contributed to the deterioration of Iran’s economy. It was not “successful” because it did not lead to “regime change” in Iran what the hawks in the U.S. adminis-tration hoped for, and it did not even bring a substantial change of Iran’s behavior what the U.S. wanted to achieve. In history, pressure and sanctions in many cases lead to authoritarian developments and even war. This means that the U.S. should change its behavior towards Iran.

TEHRAN — Professor Paul R. Pillar, who was CIA intelligence analyst for 28 years, tells the Tehran Times that the Trump adminis-tration will never acknowledge the failure of it maximum pressure policy toward Iran.

“The administration will never acknowl-edge the failure, beyond tacitly doing so with Hooke’s ouster,” Pillar says.

Pillar believes that the official adminis-tration posture will continue to be that the “maximum pressure” policy is succeeding in weakening Iran.

Following is the text of the interview: From your point of view, what are the

main reasons for Brian Hook’s resignation?A: Hook was forced out. He can be made

the scapegoat for the failure of the admin-istration’s “maximum pressure” policy on Iran. The failure is on every front: since the policy was implemented, Iran has been enriching more uranium than before, has conducted more forceful attacks in the re-gion than before, and has seen the political influence of hardliners increase in Tehran.

Hook was one of the pioneers of the policy of “maximum pressure” against Iran led by Secretary Pompeo. Is his resignation a sign of acknowledgment that the Iran policy has failed?

A: The administration will never acknowl-edge the failure, beyond tacitly doing so with Hooke’s ouster. The official administration posture will continue to be that the policy is

succeeding in weakening Iran. If the “max-imum pressure” is sustained long enough, Iran will eventually change its policies and make concessions at the negotiating table.

Elliott Abrams, the Trump adminis-tration’s special envoy to Venezuela, is set to replace Brian Hook. Abrams is more radical

than Hook, and he also planned coup against Maduro’s government in Venezuela. What does this choice mean?

A: The appointment of Abrams means the pressure campaign will continue. It does not signal any redirection of administration policy on Iran. Abrams will continue to have

his responsibilities regarding Venezuela, which suggests there is not some new ini-tiative underway regarding Iran. Abrams exemplifies a simple approach of pressuring regimes the administration doesn’t like even if -as with Venezuela so far - no positive results have been obtained.

Trump seems to have made such a decision to strengthen his chance to win the votes of those who want to increase pressure on Iran. What is your assessment?

A: Certainly, Trump and his political ad-visers consider a hard line toward Iran to be something his base wants to hear. And more generally, in American politics, a soft line toward Iran does not win votes. However, most voters will pay little or no attention to whether Hooke or Abrams or someone else is the official with this portfolio.

In your opinion, what is Trump’s policy against Iran in the remaining two months? Will it take provocative action against Iran?

A: Most likely, we will see just more of the same. However, there is a chance that Trump, fearing an election loss, will wel-come some kind of armed confrontation with Iran as the type of crisis that generally leads citizens to “rally round the flag” and support whoever is their national leader despite political differences. We know the idea has occurred to Trump because he suggested that President Obama might do the same thing when Obama was running for re-election.

The U.S., Israel, and the UAE doing Satan’s work? Ac-cording to the Washington Post, Binyamin Netanyahu has produced a minor miracle. As the paper noted on August 14, “...it unites Israel with a powerful Persian Gulf ally of Washington that shares the view of Iran as an enemy.” The newspaper, notably anti-Trump, nevertheless, quoted him as saying “By uniting two of America’s closest and most capable partners in the region--something which [was] said could not be done--this deal is a significant step towards building a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous Middle East (West Asia)...”

But, buried farther on in the story, all was not sweetness and light. The Palestinian Authority (PA), nominally governing the Occupied West Bank, “con-demned the accord as a betrayal.” Furthermore, it termed the agreement as “aggression against the Palestinian people.” Speaking the naked truth, the PA said that neither the UAE nor any other party had a right to speak on behalf of Palestine. It then withdrew its ambassador to the UAE in protest. (The Post did not mention Hamas’ sharply negative reaction until farther on, even though it governs all Gaza.)

The journal went on to quote UAE officials as say-ing, rather improbably, that they established relations with Israel to forestall Netanyahu’s plans to annex the West Bank [in reality, what was left of it] to give the Palestinians a homeland. (They had had a homeland; the Zionists took it away from them in 1948.) Sur-prisingly, the paper noted that UAE Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash believed the two-state “solution” had been threatened and had to act.

Notably, the paper quoted Netanyahu as saying, “The deal was struck. Without Israel having to give up territory, it has effectively controlled for more than 50 years of conflict with the Palestinians.” Turning to Jared Kushner, Trump’s Zionist son-in-law and leader of his Middle East (West Asia) peace effort, the Post wrote that “the larger aim of Kushner’s plan[s]was always for Israel to forge new economic partnerships with many of its neighbors, especially Sunni Arab states that share the U.S. and Israeli view of Iran as an enemy.” (Does this mean Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf statelets, some of the most authoritarian, repressive, medieval monarchies in the world?)

In the article, Kushner opined on the Palestinian outrage (without any opposing comment or background on the matter) that “they (the Palestinians) have a fairly predictable response that we’ve seen time and time again to all types of things that help make their peoples’ lives better...”

The paper’s columnist David Ignatius, ever the supporter of the American intelligence services, con-cludes his August 14 column with “Trump’s surprise announcement...[is] welcome news for Israel, the Arabs, and the United States.”

Welcome news? Hussein Ibish, Ph.D., once the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s spokesman and now flak for an institute in Washington, DC subtitled one of his many articles for Bloomberg News that the agreement meant “Joy in Cairo, relief in Amman, anger in Ankara and alarm in Tehran.” In it, he writes:

Riyadh has also clearly been interested in strength-ening relations with Israel as a counter to Iran and will pay close attention to how the UAE fares in the coming months.

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s point-man on the Middle East (West Asia), has suggested that another Arab country will follow the UAE’s lead. There’s speculation that Bahrain and Oman will make announcements soon. Manama generally defers to Riyadh on defense and foreign policy issues, so any Bahraini normalization with Israel would serve as a trial balloon for Saudi Arabia as well. But such a Saudi move may only come after the end of the rule of King Salman, who

seems committed to the API. [Arab Peace Initiative.]Formal diplomatic ties with Israel would embellish

Oman’s credentials as a regional mediator and friend. Muscat maintains close relations with Iran but also welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya-hu on an official visit in 2018. Oman has, in typically understated fashion, welcomed the announcement.

All three of these (Persian) Gulf Arab countries have quietly been increasing relations with Israel anyway, so normalization is merely a matter of formalizing what already exists.

Turkey has trade relations with Israel and the UAE but is at cross purposes with them on most issues. Er-dogan routinely lambasts Israel over Palestine, and will not take kindly to recent Israeli moves in the Eastern Mediterranean.

...[B]ehind Tehran’s bluster will be a grave concern that two of its more active and potent adversaries in the region have come together under Trump’s offic-es. Increased military and intelligence cooperation between the U.S., Israel, and the UAE would indeed be dangerous for the Islamic Republic.

More riders on the train to nowhere. Ibish asserts that Egypt likes the agreement because “it potentially strengthens the Egyptian-Emirati hand in Libya against Turkish-supported forces for control of the country.” (Cf. ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/4349-turkey-changing-the-middle-east.html). Continuing, he claims that Morocco might be anoth-er country looking for an opening with Israel. Dr. Ibish goes on to say, “The biggest winner outside of the three parties directly involved in the agreement is surely Jordan because it allows at least the hope of a Palestinian state in the future. (Yes, he still believes in the long-dead “two-state solution”.

Let’s throw some cold water on the celebratory candles and let the ants eat the cake. The whole af-fair is not anything like Richard Nixon’s diplomatic recognition of China. The Middle Kingdom occupied and still occupies a good portion of the earth’s surface and has a huge chunk of its population. Israel is an illegitimate and artificial construct built on the theft of Palestinian land and existing only because of the United States. The American taxpayer gives, without likely knowing it, $10 million a day to Apartheid Is-rael. Then, there are U.S. military sales. In the fiscal year 2019, the U.S. provided $3.8 billion in foreign military aid to Israel. Israel also benefits from about $8 billion of loan guarantees. From illegal outposts to academic research, from legal aid for Jewish terrorists to yeshivas, the tens of millions of dollars that U.S. non-profits send each year to the colonies support all sorts of activities in Jewish enclaves across the West Bank. (U.S. donors to these charities can claim tax deductions.)

Then there are Israeli products like Sabra and Tribe hummus. They occupy prominent positions on the shelves of American grocery stores. Sabra, half-owned by the Strauss Company, an Israeli firm, and Pepsi Cola, donates food packages to the Israeli army’s infa-mous Golani Brigade, noted for its war crimes against Palestinians. The company has more than 60% of the American market and sells more than $1 billion a year. (It’s a repatriation of profits to Israel is unknown.) Tribe hummus is owned by an Israeli firm, Orem, a key supporter, and partner of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The Fund continues its work of appropriating land for Jews and evacuating Palestinians. Tribe’s U.S. sales are much smaller than Sabra’s.

The real goal. Yes, the agreement might be good, in the short term, for the UAE economy and for Israel’s. It might even help the other riders on the train. How-ever, the agreement’s aim, as has been clear from the Washington Post and Hussein Ibish, and others who parrot the party line, is the destruction of Iran--its government, its foreign policy, and its people.

The idea is to split the Arab and Muslim worlds, to the advantage of Zionist Israel and the United States.

Look at what has been done to date. The UAE, with its military aid to war-torn Libya and its invasion of Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, is not a peace-loving state. And it is hostile to Iran, as are the other Persian Gulf statelets, notably Bahrain, head-quarters of the American 5th Fleet. Saudi Arabia, which believes itself to be the real leader of the region, the real leader of the Arab nations, and the real leader of Islam, has been holding not-so-secret talks with Israel and is considering joining the agreement. Other countries are as well.

The U.S. has nuclear weapons. Israel does. Saudi Arabia is interested in them--and has the means to deliver them using its Chinese-made Silkworm Inter-mediate Range Ballistic Missiles. The UAE has one nuclear reactor in operation and plans to build four more. How long would it take to produce enough fis-sionable material to make a bomb? And which country might be their target?

In the past, Iran has made numerous statements that the countries of the region should cooperate in maintaining peace and order and security--not out-siders. Yet, what do we have? The United States, from halfway around the world, working with Israel, a land of European immigrants, against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the stability of the entire Middle East (West Asia). The guide might be trade and diplomatic rela-tions, but, in reality, what we have is a Trojan Horse designed to unleash major trouble in the area.

And the Palestinians? As usual, they get absolutely nothing out of any agreement in which Israel, the United States, and any Arab country are involved. There is always the smear that they are ungrateful for any “help” given them. They should accept the “two-state solu-tion”, settling on whatever bit of land outsiders might want to give them. They should give up on the right of return for the nearly 7 million exiled Palestinians. Since 1967, the UN has been trying to get Apartheid Israel out of lands it seized in the 6-Day War. Since the 1978 Camp David Agreements, the U.S. has been “trying” to get the Israelis to withdraw from land it’s taken over the years. And since 1948, no one, absolutely no one, other than the people involved and Iran, has recognized the invasion and occupation of Palestine.

Arabs have told this writer that their people only cooperate if they see an advantage in doing so. To date, what little collaboration there is has only worked to their detriment--if they could but see it. The Israeli Yinon Plan, to make the Apartheid Entity strong by dividing and weakening the Arab neighbors, seems to have been forgotten. This wretched agreement among Israel, the UAE, and the United States is simply a diplomatic and economic elaboration of that concept. And, so far, it seems to be working.

J. Michael Springmann is a former American diplo-mat and political commentator based in Washington, DC. He had formerly worked at the U.S. Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration and as a diplomat with the U.S. Department of State. He had been assigned to Germany, India, Saudi Arabia, and the Bureau of Intelligence and Research in Washington, DC.

(Source: Press TV)

U.S. will never admit ‘maximum pressure’ failure: Paul Pillar

The Israel and UAE deal: What hath Netanyahu wrought?

By Javad Heirannia

Former CIA analyst says Brian Hook ‘was forced out’

8I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

HERITAGE & TOURISM AUGUST 17, 2020

TEHRAN – Preliminary studies on the potteries found at four newly discovered

caves in Amlash, northern Gilan province, shows that Ne-anderthals used the caves as shelters.

The ancient caves, which are located in a forest, near a river, seem suitable places to be used by prehistoric humans as shelters, deputy provincial tourism chief Vali Jahani an-nounced on Sunday, CHTN reported.

Amlash is home to some historical and archaeological sites such as Liar-Sang-Bon, filled with ancient and prehistoric settlements and cemeteries.

Liar-Sang-Bon was initially identified in [the Iranian cal-endar year] 1391 (March 2012-March 2013) while its related mapping and demarcating projects were completed in [the calendar year] 1393 and its first season of excavation com-menced in [the calendar year] 1395.

The excavations yielded helpful cultural information in

archaeology anthropology and ancient botanist arenas. A field research in 2016 led to the discovery of funerary and stone architectural objects and that estimated to date from

the Parthian and Sassanid eras.A 2019 study published in the Journal of Human Evolution,

suggests that Neanderthals were roaming at the Iranian Zagros Mountain sometimes between 40 to 70 thousand years ago.

Until the late 20th century, Neanderthals were regarded as genetically, morphologically, and behaviorally distinct from living humans. However, more recent discoveries about this well-preserved fossil Eurasian population have revealed an overlap between living and archaic humans.

Neanderthals lived before and during the last ice age of the Pleistocene in some of the most unforgiving envi-ronments ever inhabited by humans. They developed a successful culture, with a complex stone tool technology, that was based on hunting, with some scavenging and local plant collection. Their survival during tens of thousands of years of the last glaciation is a remarkable testament to human adaptation.

TEHRAN – A team of cultural heritage experts

and restorers has commenced work on a Safavid-era (1501-1736) caravanserai, which is located in Lasjerd, north-central Semnan province.

The restoration project entails wooden elements of the caravanserai as well as the replacement of carpet floors with the same traditional bricks, a local tourism official said on Saturday, CHTN reported.

Some 160 km from Tehran, Lasjerd cara-

vanserai is close to the main Tehran-Mash-had highway. It has two verandas and 24 chambers, built with mortar and bricks. The courtyard is 36 meters long and five meters wide. Lasjerd caravanserai was reported-ly restored for the last time by the famous merchant Haj Ali Naqi Kashani.

For many travelers to Iran, staying in or even visiting a centuries-old caravanserai can be a unique experience, because they have an opportunity to feel the past, a time travel back into a forgotten age!

Such roadside inns were originally built in various epochs along ancient caravan routes in the Muslim world to shelter people, their goods, and animals. The former Silk Roads may be the most famous example dotted by caravanserais.

Iran’s earliest caravanserais were built during the Achaemenid era (550 -330 BC). Centuries later, when Shah Abbas I assumed power form 1588 – to 1629, he ordered the construction of network caravanserais across the country.

Though a solid majority of the Iranian people are so emo-tionally attached to pets, as a traveling pet owner you need to make sure that pets, your best friends, don’t get deported or confiscated at the country’s airports!

That’s because traveling and pets don’t precisely mix well all the time! Animals have been transported by air since the early 1930s. In today’s modern world, carriage of live animals by air is closely dependent on the role of governments and the way the rules concerning the trans-portation of live animals are set and enforced.

Here are some questions to ask before deciding whether or not your pet will also be your roaming companion.

From a religious perspectiveIran is a Muslim-majority country and the religion

of Islam has always viewed animals as a special part of God’s creation; the holy Quran, the Hadith (the record of the traditions or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)) and the history of Islamic civilization offer many examples of kindness, mercy, and compassion for animals.

No pets allowed!However, the rules of the Iranian railway companies

do not allow passengers to carry animals, even pets. It is also forbidden to carry a pet when traveling by bus across the country. So it is better to travel by air or car while with your pet.

Morover, nearly all Iranian hotels does not you to accommodate with your pet maybe due to allergy they could trigger because of their hair, faeces, urine, saliva, all airborne. Even some, which have small petting zoo of their own, do not allow you to bring pets due to current rules and regulations in that regard.

Is it safe?As with most things, safety should be top in your mind.

Always consult your veterinarian before arranging your trip, as certain breeds and dogs are at an elevated risk.

Pet microchipIran does not require that your dog or cat be identi-

fied with a microchip, however, according to Pet Travel Transport, it is recommended that you microchip your pet and register your contact information before traveling as a means of identification should your cat be lost or separated from you. A pet microchip—the size of a grain of rice—goes beneath your pet’s skin and such a permanent ID can never be removed or become impossible to read.

Do I have the right paperwork?While you’re asking your vet about health issues, you

also need to fill out the necessary paperwork for your trip. You don’t want your pup to be detained at customs, do you?

Do I have dealt with the right carrier?At the time of booking, reserve a spot for your dog as

early as possible. Most airlines will only allow a certain number of pets in the cabin per flight. So it is necessary to realize what is the airline’s animal carry-on rules for your specific itinerary as well as its probable extra fees associated with a pet.

Is that a pet-friendly airport?Another recommendation concerns to consider how

your airport is a pet-friendly one. Large airports are only obliged by law to provide pet relief areas for service an-imals — so unless you do your research. However, some airports make the traveling easier for pet owners as well, so traveling a bit further beyond your usual airport might be worth it sometimes.

What do I bring?Some pet owners believe when traveling with your

animal, treat them like a newborn, and come prepared. You will also need room for its items to keep your pet happy and healthy.

VaccinationsYour pet must be vaccinated for rabies virus and other

diseases between 30 days and 12 months before entering the country. All domestic dogs and cats must be free of evidence of disease communicable to humans when inspected at the entry airport. If your pet does not seem in good health, further examination by a licensed veter-inarian may be required at your expense.

Be updated for the latest AVIH regulationsContact your airport services department for updated

information. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), however, has set the Live Animals Regulations to ensure that live animals are handled and transported in safe, healthy, and humane conditions, which all IATA members, including Iran, are expected to adhere to.

Regular procedures practiced by two big Iranian air-lines are given below:

Mahan Air, the Tehran-based carrier, established in 1992 as Iran’s first private airline, declares that handling of pets (dogs & cats) is only applicable in cargo compartment as checked baggage only accompanied by a passenger in the aircraft hold.

“For domestic animals such as dogs, cats, birds, etc., the passenger should declare AVIH [Live Animals Ac-ceptance] carriage in booking time to add SSR code…. Passenger shall refer to check-in counter 02 hours prior

departure time. Pet ID card, birth certificate, vaccina-tion certificate, Rabi test (if required by destination), Veterinary Quarantine confirmation are required,” part of Mahan Air’s regulations on AVIH reads.

“When passengers do not have any free checked baggage, the payment shall be done. AVIH carriage is prohibited in BAe/RJ Aircraft. Only rigid containers with a secure door are acceptable. Only one animal per container is acceptable.”

IranAir, the flag carrier airline based in Tehran, also welcomes pets to travel on some of their flights. According to IranAir Pet Travel Policy, they can travel as checked baggage on some flights with IranAir. Passengers trans-porting their pets as checked baggage are charged an excess baggage fee.

“For pets traveling on board, carriers must be ventilated on three sides. Animals should be able to stand up, turn around, and lie down comfortably inside. Pet owners should also provide them with food and water in their carrier to sustain them during the journey.”

Moreover, you can closely consult with several inter-national organizations such as the Air Transport Animal, to acquire all the needed information (administrative, shipping, veterinary, sanitary) for easier travel with your pet to the Islamic Republic. For instance, the size and the departure airport are two main factors that affect the relocation cost of your animal to Iran.

1 “The representatives of these bodies expressed their readiness to take full advantage of the capacities of the af-filiated ministries abroad especially in introducing and updating the country’s tourism capabilities. An initiative called Tourism Diplomacy Package was also ap-proved during the meeting to clearly define tasks for relevant international tourism institutions.”

“In this package, Iran seeks to intro-duce its true face at the international lev-el, correcting the tarnished image (often depicted by certain media outlets of the West)… it also seeks to eliminate Iran-ophobia to strengthen the motivation to travel to Iran and increase the number of incoming tourists, which will be achieved through cross-sectoral cooperation under the provisions of a national strategic plan for tourism development.”

Over the past couple of years, the Islamic Republic has been taking major efforts to guarantee the safety of foreign travelers and reflect a true image of the country and its capacities in the tourism sector.

“Given that the biggest challenge in foreign arrivals is the lack of a true [in-ternational] image of Iran and building

trust that the country is practicing health protocols to overcome the coronavirus cri-

sis,” Teymouri said in July.Last November, the official noted “I,

as an expert, who has been working in the field of tourism for the past twenty years, believe that the main challenge of our travel industry is that Iran is internationally un-known. Moreover, over the past years, our enemies have orchestrated an anti-Iranian sentiment or Iranophobia project.”

While the U.S. State Department has long issued strong advisories against traveling to Iran and despite tensions between the two countries. However, almost all foreign nationals or tour operators previously been in the country believe that Iran has proven to be a safe and remarkably hospitable place for travelers, including Americans.

Iran has imposed travel restrictions to help curb the coronavirus spread. In this line, incoming and outgoing flights have been suspended, and road travels restricted to a great extent. Some experts expect Iran to achieve a tourism boom after coronavirus contained, believing its impact would be temporary and short-lived for a country that ranked the third fastest-growing tourism destination in 2019. The latest available data show eight million tourists visited the Islamic Republic during the first ten months of the past Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2019).

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‘Diplomacy Package’ to help Iran recover virus-hit tourism

By Afshin Majlesi

Sassanid-era fortress in northwest Iran to regain former glory

TEHRAN – The ruined Sassanid-era (224 CE–651) fortress of Qaleh Kohneh (Old For-

tress) in Meshkinshahr county, northwestern Ardebil province, will be revived, CHTN reported.

The fortress is planned to be recreated identical to its original structure by the cultural heritage experts, archeologists, and restorers, provincial tourism chief Nader Fallahi said on Sunday.

Preserving the originality of the historical structure is the most important priority of the project, the official added.

He also noted that a tourism park is also planned to be con-structed near the fortress to make the complex a tourism hub in the region.

The fortress bears a sole inscription inscribed in the Sassanid Pahlavi script, which shows the importance of this fort and its strategic location.

The ancient fortress was inscribed on the National Heritage list in 1966.

From ancient to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest.

Fortresses were designed primarily to defend territories in warfare and were also used to solidify rule in a region during peacetime.

Many of the fortifications of the ancient world were built with mud brick, often leaving them no more than mounds of dirt for today’s archaeologists.

The Sassanid era is of very high importance in the history of Iran. Under Sassanids, Persian art and architecture experienced a general renaissance.

In 2018, UNESCO added an ensemble of Sassanian historical cities in southern Iran -- titled “Sassanid Archaeological Land-scape of Fars Region”-- to its World Heritage list.

Historical Seb Castle in southeastern Iran undergoes restoration

TEHRAN – The historical Seb Castle, a tour-ist attraction in the southeastern province of

Sistan-Baluchestan, has undergone some rehabilitation works, a provincial tourism chief has said.

Located in a village of the same name, the castle was used during the Qajar era (1789–1925) as a borderline surveillance base. However, narratives say that its heyday dates back to the time of the Safavids (1501–1736).

A budget of one billion rials (about $24,000) has been allocated to the restoration project, which aims at renovation and beautification of the castle that was damaged by recent heavy rains, said Abdolsalam Mohammadi, CHTN reported on Sunday.

The castle is planned to be ceded to the private sector after being fully restored, the official added.

Seb Castle is constructed of clay and mortar blend with loads of sticky plant seeds. In some parts wooden slabs cut from palm trees have been used to strengthen the overall layout, enabling it to withstand the natural disasters in particular mellow seismic vibrations.

Sistan-Baluchestan is home to several distinctive archae-ological sites and natural attractions, including two UNESCO World Heritage sites, namely Shahr-e-Soukhteh (Burnt City) and Lut desert. Seb castle; mud fountains; Darak beach; Darren Negaran; Chabahar beach; and Martian mountains are some of the most notable historical and natural tourist attractions of the province.

Tourism projects worth $190m underway in Alborz

TEHRAN – Some 8 trillion rials (about $190 million at the official rate of 42,000

rials) has been invested in several tourism-related projects in Alborz province.

Ten projects worth 4 trillion rials (about $114 million) will come on stream in the near future, CHTN quoted provincial tourism chief, Fereydun Mohammadi, as saying on Sunday.

The mentioned projects will generate job opportunities for 660 people, the official added.

Alborz province is surrounded by Mazandaran, Tehran, Markazi, and Qazvin provinces. Its name is driven by the Alborz Mountains. The significant part of the mountains is located in the north part of the province.

Historical resources and documents as well as archeological studies indicate that Alborz has a rich culture dating back to prehistoric times.

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Want to take your pet on your next journey to Iran? Here is what you need to know

Caves in northern Iran show evidence of Neanderthals

Deputy tourism minister Vali Teymouri (C) speaks to representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization (which is affiliated with the ministry of culture) in Tehran meeting on August 15, 2020.

Safavid-era caravanserai in Semnan being restored

9I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

By Faranak Bakhtiari

AUGUST 17, 2020

1 On August 1988 ,20, the war came to an end with the UN ceasefire. By mid-1988, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had registered 50,182 Iraqi prisoners-of-war (POWs) held in Iran and 19,284 Iranian POWs held in Iraq.

On August 1990 ,17, the Iranian nation witnessed the beginning of the glorious freedmen return to their homeland after

years of imprisonment of the Ba’athist regime in Iraq.

COVID19- pandemic has taken the lives of 138 healthcare workers so far in Iran, Hossein Kermanpour, the director of public relations of Medical Council, has announced in late July.

The healthcare workers who lost their lives in the fight against coronavirus are called martyrs of health in Iran.

Most martyrs were among the physicians amounting to 60 percent, and 20 percent of whom were nurses and the rest were other hospital staff.

Maryam Hazrati, deputy health minister for nursing said in May that some 65 percent of 200,000 nurses in the country was at the forefront of coronavirus fight.

The number of people diagnosed with

coronavirus in Iran reached 343,203 on Sunday, of whom 19,639 have died and 297,486 recovered so far. Over the past 24 hours, 2,133 new cases of people having the virus have been identified, and 147 died, Sima Sadat Lari ministry of health’s spokesman said.

Currently, 3,881 patients with coronavirus are in critical condition, she added.

TEHRAN — The family, as the smallest social insti-tution, is the most vulnerable group to social harms, so that most problems first occur in families and, if not prevented and treated correctly, penetrate into society and in these difficult circumstances can no longer be easily controlled.

Iran has designated August 15 as National Family Day and honoring retirees.

Masoumeh Ebtekar, the vice president for women’s and family affairs, referring to the measures taken to improve the social and economic well-being of families, said that in 2017, the national headquarters for women and family upgraded the quality of pre-marriage, mar-riage and post-marriage education.

The adoption of gender justice indicators in 2018, the compilation of 31 documents to improve the status of women and the family, which have made each province a local program to improve the situation of families, as well as the development and approval of family indicators in 2019, are among other measures taken, she explained.

In addition to these policies and plans, the govern-ment’s practical measures include increasing and pro-viding marriage loans for youth and prioritizing young couples for home mortgages, she highlighted.

Ebtekar went on to say that also, paying attention to the communication skills of family members in the framework of the national family dialogue plan, which has been modeled and implemented in 68 parts of the country so far.

Economic empowerment of women heads of households across the country has also been one of the important measures, she also added.

In the field of legislation, finalizing the bill to ensure the security of women against violence, which can play an important role in combating domestic violence, the implementation of the plan granting Iranian citizenship on children born to Iranian women and non-Iranian men, and the bill banning the marriage of girls under 13, has been among the government’s efforts, she concluded.

Family planning policiesIn recent years, several socioeconomic factors, including

urbanization, education, financial issues, first marriage age, as well as increased access to family planning services

along with increased time gap between the first born and marriage, have led to fertility rate decrease in the country.

Iran has achieved a demographic window of oppor-tunity which must be seized now before its working-age population starts to shrink and get older in 2050s.

Fourteen policies to support childbearing and the family were announced by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in [the Iranian calendar year] 1389 (March 2014-March 2015) when he stressed that social, cultural and economic development should be done in accordance with these general policies to sup-port families.

Policies like providing inexpensive houses for the youth, increasing monthly subsidies, fund provision for reducing infertility, promotion of childbearing culture through media, and granting incentives and supportive plans all remained incomplete, Kimia Mohammadza-deh, a member of the working group for women’s and family at the independent association of the University of Tehran said.

“Over the past two years, the marriage rate has been declining by 8 percent annually. With this trend, we will be one of the oldest countries in the world in the next 30 years, and this is dangerous in all scientific, social, cultural and economic fields,” Seyed Hamed Barakati, deputy health minister for family and school population told IRNA.

International Day of Families and sustain-able development

Families around the world are changing, many becom-

ing smaller, as the number of single-parent households grows. Currently, 65% of all families are made up of either couples living with children of any age, or couples living with both children and extended family members, such as grandparents. The diminishing number of extended families and the increasing number of single-parent fam-ilies put into sharp focus the issue of social protection.

In 1993, the General Assembly decided in a resolution (A/RES/47/237) that May 15 of every year should be observed as The International Day of Families. This day provides an opportunity to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase the knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes affecting families.

On 25 September 2015, the 193 member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 goals aiming to eliminate poverty, discrimination, abuse and preventable deaths, address environmental destruction, and usher in an era of development for all people, everywhere. Families and family-oriented policies and programs are vital for the achievement of many of these goals.

This year’s 25th anniversary of Copenhagen Declaration and Beijing Platform for Action came at a time of one of the most challenging global health and social crises. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the importance of investing in social policies protecting the most vulnerable individuals and families. It is the families who bear the brunt of the crisis, sheltering their members from harm, caring for out-of-school children and, at the same time, continuing their work responsibilities.

Worldwide, women are increasingly taking part in the formal and informal labor force, while continuing to assume a disproportionate burden of the household work in comparison with men, and work-family balance is more difficult to achieve. The imperative of ensuring gender equality in the family is, therefore, gaining more attention.

As the world struggles to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, there is a real opportunity to rethink and trans-form the way our economies and societies function to foster greater equality for all. In doing so, it is clear that gender equality will not be achievable without greater equality in families.

Iranian companies to send anti-corona equipment to 14 countries

Lebanese health minister lauds Iran for humanitarian aid

TEHRAN — Lebanese Minister of Health Hamad Hassan hailed humanitarian aid

provided by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) after the recent explosion in Beirut.

The IRCS set up a field hospital in the Dahieh, south of the Lebanese capital, providing medical services to victims of the blast, IRNA reported.

During the visit to the field hospital and the Red Crescent care unit at the Lebanese Uni-versity Campus Hadath, the Lebanese official praised the IRCS efforts in establishing the hospital which offers health and emergency services to the injured people in Beirut.

He further noted that Iran was the first country to send full aid to Lebanon such as medical teams, biological and medical supplies to help the affected people.

Iran delivered the first con-signment of humanitarian aid consisting of 95 tons of food and medicine to Lebanon on August 6. A 37-member medical team was dispatched to Beirut by the IRCS.

Since the establishment of the rapid deployment hospital, medical services are provided to around 1,650 people who were injured, according to the IRCS.

The hospital offers various services including orthopedics, anes-thesiology, surgery, pediatrics, neurology, emergency, and nursing Services including bandaging, injections, sutures, removal of objects from the eyes, hands, and feet in different wards, he explained.

So far, 10 emergency surgeries have been performed, including nerve graft, tumor removal, orthopedics, bone fractures, and removal of objects caused by the explosion.

At least 200 people were killed and more than 7,000 were wounded after four massive explosions at the port sent shock waves across the Lebanese capital.

Traditional, herbal medicine to help fight COVID-19

TEHRAN — There are currently 30 projects underway nationwide in the field of traditional

medicine, herbal medicine and supplements to fight the corona-virus pandemic, said the head of the scientific committee of the National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control.

Many herbal remedies for cough have been licensed, but with the spread of the infection, these herbal medicines are recom-mended for relieving cough in COVID-19 patients to use at home, Mostafa Ghanei said, implying that these sprays are not part of the treatment protocol, but physicians can prescribe them, IRNA reported.

There are many herbal remedies in the country to relieve COVID-19, but have so far been used in populations of less than 100 people; therefore, announcing their effectiveness still needs time and testing to be confirmed, he explained.

Some of these drugs have been accepted as palliative treatment for the infected patients, he further added, IRNA reported on Sunday.

Inhalers, which have recently been marketed as herbal medicine by the Food and Drug Administration for COVID-19, have been tested to a limited extent on patients, but to show its effective-ness, a clinical test is being performed on a larger population, Ghanei also explained.

None of these herbal medicines have yet presented clinical evidence that has been able to either reduce mortality or length of hospital stay in patients with coronavirus, he highlighted.

Neither Iran nor the world has any medicine to prevent the virus, currently, 30 projects of traditional and herbal medicine are being implemented in the country, but none of them has reached the point of being approved as a national protocol, he concluded.

The number of people diagnosed with coronavirus in Iran reached 343,203 on Sunday, of whom 19,639 have died and 297,486 recovered so far. Over the past 24 hours, 2,133 new cases of people having the virus have been identified, and 147 died, Sima Sadat Lari ministry of health’s spokesman said.

Currently, 3,881 patients with coronavirus are in critical condition, she added.

TEHRAN — Irani-an Knowledge-based

companies have so far sent medical and self-protective equipment to four countries for fighting COVID-19 and plan to send the items to ten more countries.

“We started sending consignments to 14 selected countries one month ago,” Mehdi Ghalehnouei, an official with the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology said, adding, that Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Kyrgyzstan have received the con-signments and other target countries will soon receive it, ISNA reported on Sunday.

One of these countries was Kyrgyzstan that received the second consignment of humanitarian aid, which included 2,500 IGG and 2,500 IGM diagnostic kits, venti-lator, 25 pulse oximeters, 25 thermometers, 2,000 disinfectants, and other products, he explained.

Pointing out that the purpose of send-ing this consignment is to help countries with good economic and political rela-

tions, he said that this will provide an opportunity for further contacts between

knowledge-based companies of the se-lected countries.

In May, a plane carrying medical aid provided by Iranian people and the pri-vate sector landed at Kabul airport, which consisted of masks, disinfectants, medical gloves, and hospital supplies and 2,000 coronavirus test kits.

In July, Iran delivered a consignment of medical equipment weighing one ton to Iraq to help the neighboring country in the coronavirus battle.

Moreover, Iran sent three million face masks to China and expressed readiness for providing more medical aid earlier in February.

The number of people diagnosed with coronavirus in Iran reached 343,203 on Sunday, of whom 19,639 have died and 297,486 recovered so far. Over the past 24 hours, 2,133 new cases of people having the virus have been identified, and 147 died, Sima Sadat Lari ministry of health’s spokesman said.

Currently, 3,881 patients with corona-virus are in critical condition, she added.

Freed POWs praise medical staff battling COVID-19

National Family Day: in hope for a better future

S O C I E T Y

LET’S LEARN PERSIAN(Part 3) (Source: saadifoundation.ir)

ENGLISH IN USE

2 billion tons of soil erodesannually in Iran: expertIran loses 2 billion tons of soil per year as a result of land use changes, rainfed agriculture, and overgrazing, Hossein Akhani, environmental and botanical expert has announced.“Sometimes, to support agriculture, land use changes permits are issued, while being unaware of its dire consequences on the soil,” he lamented, YJC reported on Saturday.“Iran is responsible for the loss of 10 percent of the world’s total soil erosion per year due to unsustainable agriculture, overgrazing, destruction of natural reservoirs (interconnected sources of water supply such as rivers crossing the mountains),” he said, regretting, humans with uncontrolled interference, such as damping numerous wells have led to the collapse of these connections and prevented water from reaching some regions of the country.

فرسایش ساالنه ۲ میلیارد تن خاک در ایرانکارشــناس محیــط زیســت و گیاه شــناس گفت: ســاالنه ۲ میلیارد تــن خــاک در ایران

بــه دلیــل تغییــر کاربــری زمین، کشــت دیــم و چرای بــی رویه فرســایش می شــود.ــگاران ــی باشــگاه خبرن ــط زیســت گروه اجتماع ــه گزارش خبرنگار حــوزه محی بجــوان، حســین آخانی اظهــار کــرد: : برخــی زمان هــا بــرای حمایــت از کشــاورزی اجــازه تغییرکاربــری بــه زمیــن داده می شــود، امــا غافــل از ایــن هســتیم کــه بــه

دلیــل ناپایــداری خاک ده هــا برابرخســارت ناشــی از آن را بایــد تحمــل کنیــم.وی بیــان کــرد: ایــران ده درصــد کل فرســایش خــاک جهــان را دارد و ایــن به دلیل کشــاورزی ناپایــدار، چــرای بــی ریــه، از بیــن بــردن شــبکه هیدرولوژیــک )منابــع تامیــن کننــده آب از طریــق شــبکه رودخانــه و زیــر زمینــی کــه هــردو بــا هــم در ارتبــاط هســتند(، انســان بــا دخالت هــای بــی رویــه از جمله ســد ســازی و حفــر چــاه منجــر بــه بــر هــم خــوردن ایــن ارتباط هــا شــده اســت وباعــث نرســیدن آب

بــه مناطــق مختلــف ایران شــود.

LEARN NEWS TRANSLATION

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10I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

I N T E R N A T I O N A L AUGUST 17, 2020

Anger is boiling in the West Asia and else-where over a recent agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to normalize diplomatic relations, with Pal-estinian leaders describing it as a “stab in the back” by an Arab country.

Dozens of people raided the UAE em-bassy in the Libyan capital city of Tripoli on Saturday to express their outrage over the normalization pact between the Persian Gulf country and Tel Aviv.

A number of protesters threw petrol bombs at the diplomatic mission, denounc-ing Abu Dhabi’s deal as “shameful.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian ambassador to the UAE is returning home, Secretary General of the Central Committee of Fatah movement Jibril Rajoub said.

According to Press TV, Essam Masalha has departed Abu Dhabi and will never go back to the Persian Gulf Arab country, he said.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs and Expatriates said on Thursday it had recalled its ambassador to the UAE.

Rajoub said former member of Fa-tah central committee Mohammed Dahlan had helped broker the normalization pact, without providing any details.

Various Palestinian factions in the oc-cupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip have roundly condemned the nor-malization deal between the UAE and the Tel Aviv regime.

Across the world, Luxembourg’s For-eign Minister Jean Asselborn criticized the deal, suggesting Abu Dhabi was selling out the Palestinian cause and abandoning its Palestinian brethren.

“I think you can’t just let your own broth-ers down in order to pursue economic inter-ests and perhaps also have more security for yourself,” Asselborn told German-language Deutschlandfunk radio station.

“The Palestinians, the Palestinian people, who are Arabs, are really caught between the ropes,” he added.

The veteran statesman said there had been indications for a long time that sol-idarity with Palestinians was no longer a priority in the Arab world, especially in

the Persian Gulf region.The diplomat also dismissed the UAE’s

initial declaration that Israel would suspend its annexation of Palestinian lands in the occupied West Bank as part of the deal.

Kuwait to be the last to normal-ize relations with Israel

Kuwait emphasized on Saturday that the Persian Gulf kingdom will continue to uphold its firm stance against normalizing relations with Israel.

The Arabic-language al-Qabas daily newspaper, citing informed government sources, reported that Kuwait would be the last to normalize relations with Israel, after a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue was realized.

“Kuwait’s position is consistent with its foreign policy approach established for decades in support of the Palestinian cause. It is the Arab world’s issue, and accepts its resolution once the Palestinians do. This official stance is in line with the popular discourse rejecting normalization with the usurping Zionist regime, based on the de-cree of the late Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Salim al-Sabah,” the sources noted.

According to the officials, the rejection of normalization with Israel is enshrined in Kuwait’s constitution, which was signed into law in 1962.

Major political parties in Kuwait have

strongly denounced the agreement, terming it as an “act of treason” and “a crime against the Palestinian cause, its nation as well as Arab and Muslim peoples.”

The parties said in a joint statement that the pact comes at the time when “the Zionist regime persists in its criminal prac-tices against the Palestinian nation, either through direct or indirect acts of aggression, arrests and humiliates Palestinians, steals their lands, desecrates the al-Aqsa Mosque, and constructs settlements and displaces local residents amid utter silence of Arabs except for a number of muffled voices.”

The Kuwaiti parties also called the agree-ment “unjustified and useless to the Emirati nation besides Arab and Muslim peoples.”

In Turkey, the ruling Justice and De-velopment Party (AKP) criticized the deal as “political suicide”.

“Putting ‘normalization’ on the agenda without considering Israel’s aggression in Eastern al-Quds and the occupied West Bank and mentioning the Palestine state with East al-Quds as its capital means ac-cepting Israeli aggression,” party spokes-man Omer Celik tweeted.

Celik said the UAE move should be viewed along with its policies in Yemen and Libya, emphasizing that Abu Dhabi is sowing the seeds of hatred within com-munities in the West Asia.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Fri-day Turkey was considering suspending diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emir-ates and withdrawing its ambassador.

But many observers viewed the threat as another instance of Ankara’s typical grandstanding. They believe Turkey’s harsh rhetoric has more to do with its dispute with the UAE over Qatar, the Muslim Brother-hood and other issues than with Palestine.

Despite periodic hiccups in relations, Turkey and Israel have traditionally been close allies so much so that the Israeli air force used to train in Turkish air space until recently.

Former Turkish defense minister Vecdi Gonul said in 2010 that Turkey and Israel would remain allies as long as their inter-ests align. In fact, there are many areas where their interests converge, including on both sides’ push to topple the Syrian government.

PLO: Arab League chief should condemn deal or resign

Meanwhile, Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liber-ation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat called for Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit to either denounce the UAE-Israel nor-malization deal or step down.

“If he is not able to issue a statement condemning the UAE-Israeli normalization pact, he should resign then,” Arabic-lan-guage Quds Press International News Agen-cy quoted Erekat as saying.

The senior Palestinian official under-lined that Palestinians can decide the fate of their own homeland, saying the normal-ization agreement was a “stab in the back of Palestinians.”

Erekat went on to say that Abu Dhabi broke off its relations with Palestine back in 2014, adding he was not “surprised with its deal with the Israeli regime.”

The veteran Palestinian negotiator de-nounced the UAE’s agreement as “accession to the Zionist scheme.”

“If you are a sovereign state, you should clarify your interest in the normalization deal with Israel,” Erekat challenged the UAE.

Anger boils over deal with Israel; UAE embassy torched in Libya

S. Korea, U.S. delay military drills over COVID-19 concerns

South Korea and the United States will start their annual joint mili-tary drills on Tuesday, in what local media said was a two-day delay after a South Korean officer tested positive for the new coronavirus.

The drills will start on Tuesday, “considering the COVID-19 situation,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday.

The training, which had been scheduled to begin on Sunday, was pushed back after the positive test on Friday of the Army officer, who was to have taken part, Yonhap News Agency said.

The combined drills are closely monitored by North Korea, which calls them a “rehearsal for war.” They have been reduced in recent years to facilitate U.S. negotiations aimed at dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear programmes.

This year’s exercises will be scaled down, not mobilizing U.S.-based troops amid COVID-19 restrictions on the travel of U.S. personnel to South Korea.

France asks Afghans not to free Taliban who killed its citizens

France has objected to the release of three men jailed for the murders of French nationals in Afghanistan as part of Kabul’s decision to release 400 Taliban prisoners as the last phase of fulfilling a condition set out in a deal between the Taliban and the U.S. government.

The group of prisoners, whose release has begun, include two men who murdered Bettina Goislard, an employee of the UN refugee agency, in November 2003, and a former Afghan soldier who killed five French soldiers and injured 13 others in Kapisa province eight years ago.

“France is particularly concerned by the presence, among the individuals liable to be released, of several terrorists convicted of killing French citizens in Afghanistan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The Afghan government and the Taliban are set to meet to launch an intra-Afghan peace process within days of the prisoner release being completed, a move that has drawn widespread condemnation after it emerged that many of the inmates were involved in attacks that killed tens of Afghans and foreigners.

“It firmly opposes the liberation of individuals convicted of crimes against French nationals, in particular soldiers and hu-manitarian workers,” it said.

“As a result, we have immediately asked the Afghan authorities not to proceed with the release of these terrorists.”

Goislard’s family has also strongly denounced the move.The release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners in return for 1,000

captive Afghan security personnel was agreed in a landmark deal between the U.S. and the Taliban in February as a condition for intra-Afghan peace talks.

Disagreement over the release of the prisoners, who include indi-viduals accused in connection with some of Afghanistan’s bloodiest attacks, has already delayed peace negotiations for months.

The Afghan government had released almost all the Taliban prisoners on the list, but authorities baulked at freeing the final 400.

Many of the inmates are accused of serious offences, with more than 150 of them on death row.

The list also includes a group of 44 fighters of particular concern to the U.S. and other countries for their role in “high-profile” attacks.

Last week, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani agreed to release those 400 Taliban prisoners after an Afghan grand assembly, known as the Loya Jirga, passed a resolution to approve the move.

African leaders and activists condemn UAE-Israeli deal

TEHRAN— Activists and political leaders from across Africa have condemned Thurs-

day’s announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have reached a deal that will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The deal was brokered by United States President, Donald Trump. The agree-ment will see Israel temporarily delay its plans to annex large swathes of the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have called the deal a “treacherous stab in the back” with activists and political leaders in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Zimbabwe echoing those sentiments.

The South African government said it was “regrettable” that yet another agreement related to the fate of the Palestinian peo-ple was reached without engaging the Palestinians. According to spokesperson, Clayson Monyela, Israel’s suspension of its annexation plans should not be celebrated as a diplomatic break-through. “Most of the world’s countries have called for a stop to the threats of annexation of the West Bank, as it would have been an act in contravention of international law. The agreement, however, does not commit Israel to halting of plans to further extend Israeli sovereignty over Palestinian territories and its people. The agreement also does not commit the government of Israel to negotiations guided by the internationally agreed parameters,” Monyela said in a statement released on Friday.

South Africa’s BDS Coalition, which represents several dozen civil society groups working in solidarity with Palestinians to end the Israeli occupation, called the deal “the height of treachery.” “This is extremely dangerous for the Palestinians and the region. We urge the international community to reject this pact and to stand with the Palestinian people in their struggle for justice and a meaningful peace.”

On Friday, the Africa for Palestine group protested the deal outside the Israeli embassy in Pretoria.

Activists and political leaders from across Africa have con-demned Thursday’s announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have reached a deal that will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The deal was brokered by United States President, Donald Trump. The agreement will see Israel temporarily delay its plans to an-nex large swathes of the occupied West Bank. Palestinians have called the deal a “treacherous stab in the back” with activists and political leaders in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Zimbabwe echoing those sentiments.

The South African government said it was “regrettable” that yet another agreement related to the fate of the Palestinian peo-ple was reached without engaging the Palestinians. According to spokesperson, Clayson Monyela, Israel’s suspension of its annexation plans should not be celebrated as a diplomatic break-through. “Most of the world’s countries have called for a stop to the threats of annexation of the West Bank, as it would have been an act in contravention of international law.

INTERNATIONALd e s k

Resistance News

Turkey has slammed as “interventionist” remarks made by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden late last year when he advocated a new American approach towards what he referred to as “autocrat” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as U.S. backing for the country’s opposition parties.

The former U.S. vice president had made the comments in December 16, 2019 while addressing editors of the New York Times daily in a video that resurfaced recently in Turkey, making him the most popular subject on Twitter in the country, Reuters reported Saturday.

Biden states in the video that he is “very concerned” about Erdogan’s policy towards the Kurds in Turkey, his military cooperation with Russia, as well as access to U.S. airfields in the country, which has long served as a close American ally an fellow member of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.

“What I think we should be doing is taking a very differ-ent approach to him now, making it clear that we support opposition leadership,” Biden emphasized in the video and verified by a transcript released in January by the

prominent daily.“He has to pay a price,” the U.S. presidential contender

further said at the time, insisting that Washington should bolster Turkish opposition leaders “to be able to take on and defeat Erdogan. Not by a coup, not by a coup, but by the electoral process.”

Reacting to Biden’s video remarks about his foreign policy positions, the Turkish president’s communications director Fahrettin Altun said the comments “reflect games and an interventionist approach towards Turkey” which are inconsistent with current diplomatic relations.

“Nobody can attack our nation’s will and democracy or question the legitimacy of our President, who was elected by popular vote,” Altun wrote in a Twitter post.

“We believe that these unbecoming statements which have no place in diplomacy by a presidential candidate from our NATO ally, the United States, are unacceptable to the current administration too,” he further underlined.

The Biden campaign is yet to respond to Turkey’s strong reaction to his foreign policy statements.

The re-election campaign of U.S. President Donald Trump has not reacted to the emerging controversy about his rival. This is while diplomatic ties between the Trump administration and Ankara have been strained over Tur-key’s purchase of Russian air defense systems, its policy in Syria and over U.S. charges against a Turkish state bank for allegedly helping Iran evade sanctions.

Director of Israel’s spy agency Mos-sad Yossi Cohen has held a telephone conversation with Bahraini Prime Minis-ter Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifah, trig-gering speculation that Manama will be the next to normalize relations with Tel Aviv after Abu Dhabi.

Israel’s Channel 12 news reported on Saturday that the phone call took place in recent days, without elaborating on its details.

The news of the telephone conversa-tion between Cohen and the Bahraini premier was cleared for publication by

the Israeli military censor.The report cited unspecified “signs”

that Bahrain was seeking to be next in line after the UAE to establish full diplomatic ties with the Israeli regime and that a declaration to this effect was expected soon.

It further highlighted a report by Bah-rain’s official news agency that the Bah-raini prime minister had left the Persian Gulf country for a “private visit” abroad, speculating that this could be linked to the normalization bid.

In a joint statement issued by the White

House on Thursday, Israel and the UAE announced that they had “agreed to the full normalization of relations.”

Delegations from Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi will meet in the coming weeks to sign bilateral agreements regarding investment, tourism, direct flights, secu-rity and the establishment of reciprocal embassies, the statement read.

The UAE-Israel deal marks the third such agreement the occupying regime has struck with an Arab country after Egypt (1979) and Jordan (1994).

Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah spoke with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed on Satur-day, expressing Manama’s support for the UAE-Israel normalization.

“This historic step will contribute to strengthening stability and peace in the region,” the Bahraini government claimed.

Meanwhile, Rabbi Mark Schneier, spe-cial advisor to the Bahraini king, said that he expected “one or two” other Persian Gulf states to follow in the footsteps of the UAE by 2021.

“I think Bahrain will be next,” he told the Israeli Kan public broadcaster.

Besides Bahrain, Oman, Morocco and Sudan are other likely candidates to reach an agreement with Tel Aviv, reports say.

Israeli intelligence minister Eli Cohen told Channel 13 news on Saturday that he believed Sudan would be the next to forge ties with Israel.

Morocco wants U.S. recogni-tion of West Sahara in return for Israeli normalization

Quoting unnamed U.S. officials, Kan

reported that Morocco was seen as a likely candidate to establish formal diplomat-ic contacts with Israel as it already has tourism and trade ties with the regime, Press TV reported.

In exchange, the report noted, Rabat was seeking American recognition of its sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara territory.

A report in February by Israeli Channel 13 news said prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to arrange a three-way agreement between Tel Aviv, Rabat and Washington, but the administration of U.S. President Donald had yet to clear it.

Mossad head due in UAE next week

Another Channel 12 report said the Mossad director will lead an official del-egation in a visit to the UAE early next week to discuss the details of a normal-ization deal.

Cohen is expected to meet with senior Emirati officials during the trip.

The Trump-brokered normalization agreement will be signed there, ahead of a formal meeting between Emirati and Israeli leaders in upcoming weeks.

Turkey condemns Biden’s criticism of ‘autocrat’ Erdogan

Mossad chief talks to Bahraini PM amid reports of possible normalization

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PLDC — Iranian winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh will soon start training with Brighton & Hove Albion for the next Premier League season while some teams in the Neth-erlands and Germany have made their bids to sign him.

The winger, who celebrated his 27th birthday some days ago, held a live video interview with an Iran-based TV program on Thursday night, talking about various issues.

“It was important for our team to remain in the Pre-mier League and gain a good rank and we achieved these aims,” he said.

There have been numerous reports and speculations about Jahanbakhsh’s next team but he says all of his focus is on Brighton. “I have said I am Brighton’s player and have contract with the team for the next three years. All my focus and thoughts are currently on Brighton and I want to return to training with power and get ready for the next season that will kick off in September.”

“The important issue is that I have always sought to fight and change the conditions.”

Talking about the tough conditions that he faced in England, he said that there was high pressure and ex-pectations on him, as he was the most expensive player of Brighton. “I didn’t let these issues affect me.”

Alireza scored one of the best goals of this season in

front of Chelsea with a stunning bicycle kick on Janu-ary 1, 2020. Many believed that the goal would win the 2019/20 Goal of the Season award but the prize went to Tottenham Hotspur winger Son Heung-min.

“Two weeks ago, it was announced that my goal has been selected as Brighton’s goal of the season and I assumed that it would also win the League’s best goal award,” said Jahanbakhsh, adding that he had even prepared

his speech for the award ceremony in which he would praise the Son’s great goal.

“I should once again highlight that Son’s goal was so good,” he added, referring to incredible individual effort of the South Korean winger against Burnley when he picked the ball up on the edge of his own penalty area, surged away from a few Burnley players and skipped past two challenges before slotting beyond Nick Pope.

Elsewhere, asked about Brighton’s coach decision to not give him enough chance to play for the team, Ja-hanbahsh said he ‘respects’ the coach’s opinions. “I had meetings with the coach that was not so kindly but these issues are part of the professional football; I am trying to do my best.”

“If I had gone back and conditions were the same, I would have again chosen Brighton but with introducing changes in some issues,” Jahanbaksh said.

“I didn’t experience a good season in the first year at AZ Alkmaar but my conditions improved in next seasons. If I had played for the Brighton this season, I would have achieved better results,” he added.

Jahanbakhsh also confirmed that he has some teams in the Netherlands and a team in Germany are ‘serious’ about signing a contract with him.

Jahanbakhsh focused on Brighton despite offers from Germany, Netherlands

Iran unveils Wushu World Day stamp

TEHRAN – Iran Wushu Federation has un-veiled a new postage stamp commemorating

the 30th anniversary of the World Wushu-Kungfu Day.

In the ceremony held in Khaneye Wushu in Tehran, the Iran’s Wushu League winners also received their cups and medals.

Mehdi Alinejad, the Iranian Deputy Minister of Sport and Youth, Keykavous Saeidi, secretary general of Iran’s National Olympic Committee (NOC), head of the wushu federation Amir Sedighi, and wushu coaches along with their practitioners attended the event.

Talou and Tai Chi practitioners also performed the Chinese ancient martial arts in the event in commemoration of the World Wushu-Kungfu Day.

Shahin relegated from Iran Professional League

TEHRAN – Shahin football team were rel-egated from Iran Professional League (IPL)

on the penultimate day of the seasonShahin lost to Sanat Naft 3-1 in Abadan on Saturday. The

Hawks had won promotion to IPL in the penultimate match of the last season.

Next week, Pars Jonoubi, Machine Sazi, Paykan and Saipa will try to escape from relegation.

Persepolis have already won the title and Esteghlal, Tractor, Sepahan and Foolad will have a chance to qualify for the next season’s AFC Champions League.

Saman Ghddos linked with Brentford Iranian international attacking midfielder Saman Ghoddos has been linked with a move to English football team Brentford.

The Swedish-born Iranian international joined the French Ligue 1 Amiens from Ostersunds FK in August 2018.

Amiens paid 4€ million to sign Ghoddos.Now, Expressen has reported that the -27year-old player will

leave the French team to join Brentford. Brentford are a professional football club in Brentford, Greater

London, England, which compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football.

The club were founded in 1889 and played home matches at Griffin Park from 1904 until moving to Brentford Community Stadium in 2020.

(Source: Expressen)

Esteghlal show the door to Daneshgar

Tasnim – Esteghlal football team head coach Farhad Maji-di showed the exit door to the team’s defender Mohammad Daneshgar.

The 26-year-old player joined Esteghlal from Saipa in 2018 but has had some problems with the club’s officials since joining the team.

Saturday night, he angered Esteghlal coach Majidi after crit-icizing the club’s officials on his Instagram account

Daneshgar was removed from the team due to disciplinary problems.

Ali Ghorbani joins Azerbaijan’s Sumgayit

Tasnim – Azerbaijani football club Sumgayit has completed the signing of Sepahan striker Ali Ghorbani.

The -29year-old forward, who has also played in Spartak Trnava and Esteghlal, has penned a one-year deal with a one-year option.

Iranian players Peyman Babaei and Mehdi Sharifi have already played in Sumgayit.

Sumgayit FK are an Azerbaijani football club based in Sumgayit that play in the Azerbaijan Premier League.

Mehdi Traemi on Fenerbahce’s radar

Rio Ave forward Mehdi Taremi has reportedly caught the eye of Turkey’s giant Fenerbahce.

Turkish website site fotospor has reported that Fenerbahce have also showed interest in signing Portimonense winger Bruno Tabata.

Portuguese newspaper A Bola has recently reported that Taremi has reached an agreement with Porto.

Taremi had been previously linked with a move to French teams Nantes and Marseille.

The Rio Ave striker scored 18 goals in the 2019-20 season and helped the team book a place at the 2020-21 Europa League play-off round.

(Source: Fotospor)

TEHRAN — Syria national football team

head coach Nabil Maaloul has called off the friendly match with Iran.

Iran football federation had already announced that they will host Syria in Tehran on Sept. 3 but the match has been called off.

“An apology has been made since we cannot play Iran but we will meet Iraq in a friendly match as it planned,” Maaloul told Kooora.com.

The 2022 World Cup scheduled this year were postponed to 2021 on Wednes-day due to the coronavirus pandemic.

FIFA and the Asian Football Confeder-ation issued a joint statement saying the delay is to protect the health and safety of all participants from COVID-19.

Iran national football team are sched-uled to meet Uzbekistan in Tashkent on Sept. 7 and according to Iran football federation spokesman Amir Mehdi Alavi the match will be held as it planned.

“The Iran national football team training camp will start on Aug. 27 as it planned,” Iran football federation spokes-

man Amir Mehdi Alavi said. “The Asian qualifying matches of the 2022 World Cup have been postponed but our plans go ahead as scheduled.”

Iran, who sit third in Group C behind Iraq and Bahrain, have four must-win matches ahead in the competition.

Deagan Skocic’s team were due to host Hong Kong and Cambodia on Oct. 8 and 13 in Tehran and Phnom Penh, respectively.

Iran also had two matches against Bahrain and Iraq on Nov. 12 and 17 in Tehran but the games will be held in 2021.

The eight group winners of the World Cup qualification’s group stage and four best runners-up will advance to the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 Finals and the final round of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The next best 24 teams from the second round of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining 12 slots in the 24-team AFC Asian Cup China 2023.

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar will run from November 21 to December 18, 2022.

Iran, Syria friendly match called off

The majority of Barcelona fans blame the club’s board for their failings in recent times.

Blaugrana supporters want to call snap elections to replace president Josep Maria Bartomeu with immediate effect.

This is according to a survey run by MARCA, in which Barcelona fans were able to vote on a number of categories to do with their club.

In terms of the blame game, 62 percent of those who entered the survey think the responsibility lies with the board, while 32 percent voted for the players and six percent for Quique Setien.

Furthermore, 77 percent of voters think that Setien has to leave his role as head coach this summer.

As his replacement, Xavi was the pre-ferred choice with 36 percent of the vote ahead of Mauricio Pochettino (15 percent), Ronald Koeman and Roberto Martinez (both 12 percent).

When it came to grading Barcelona’s season in 2019/20, an overwhelming 90 percent of voters put ‘fail’, while just four percent put ‘overachievement’.

After a campaign that produced no tro-

phies and a humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, 85 per-cent of voters called for snap elections to be held to replace Bartomeu with immediate effect, while the other 15 percent were happy to wait until next year.

Barcelona supporters were also asked whether they thought it would be best to keep each player in the first team squad or let them go.

Voters thought that only Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Ansu Fati, Riqui Puig, Lionel Messi, Clement Lenglet and Ronald Araujo should stay, while they preferred that the rest left this summer.

(Source: Marca)

Barcelona fans want Xavi as next coachManchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne was named the Premier League Player of the Season on Sunday after equaling the divi-sion’s assist record of 20 during the 2019-20 campaign.

De Bruyne, 29, helped City finish second in the Premier League, but they were a dis-tant 18 points behind champions Liverpool.

The Belgium international matched Thierry Henry’s assists record (set dur-ing the 2002-03 campaign) when he set up Raheem Sterling to put City 3-0 ahead against Norwich on the final day of the sea-son in a game that City eventually won 5-0.

He also hit double figures for goals, finish-ing with 13, and claimed his second Premier League Playmaker of the Season award in three years after winning the inaugural prize in 2017-18 for the most assists in the league.

Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Ar-nold was named Young Player of the Season on Friday, with Jurgen Klopp picking up the managerial award on Saturday.

Son Heung-Min won Goal of the Season for his solo strike during Tottenham’s 5-0 win against Burnley in December.

De Bruyne saw off plenty of competition

from Liverpool to win the award, beating Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson and Sadio Mane as well as Southampton striker Danny Ings, Leicester striker Jamie Vardy and Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope.

City were eliminated from the Cham-pions League at the quarterfinal stage for a third season in a row on Saturday night, suffering a shock 3-1 defeat against Lyon.

That means they finish the season with only the Carabao Cup to show.

De Bruyne finished second to Liverpool captain Henderson in the voting for the Foot-ball Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year.

(Source: ESPN)

De Bruyne named Prem Player of the Season

TEHRAN – Dragan Skocic will remain as

head coach of the Iranian national foot-ball team, the spokesman of the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) Amir Mehdi Alavi said, ending days of speculation about the Croatian coach future.

In an interview with Iran’s state-run TV on Friday, Alavi announced that both parties are confident about continuing the cooperation.

“Mr. Skocic has a contract with the Ira-nian football federation and he will stay on as the head coach of the national team,” Alavi said, however, he did not disclose the duration of Skocic’s contract.

The 2022 World Cup scheduled this year was postponed to 2021 by the joint decision made FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) due to the corona-virus pandemic.

Local media reported that the FFIRI is going to part way with Skocic and his staff due to the lack of official matches for a long time.

“Skocic and his technical staff have

attended many matches in Iran Profes-sional League (IPL) and Hazfi Cup and also followed all the other matches through video analysis,” Alavi added.

The spokesman of the football feder-ation also explained about the complaint that had been lodged by Sanat Naft club against Skocic, regarding his departure from the Abadan based club before joining the national team.

“FIFA has announced a verdict on the matter, and the FFIRI is trying to resolve the issue so that Skocic can continue to work with ease. The head coach of the national team is definitely supported by the football federation,” Alavi concluded.

Dragan Skocic will remain Iran head coach: Spox

TEHRAN – Esteghlal football team were held

to a 1-1 draw by Paykan on Saturday in the penultimate match of the Iran Pro-fessional League (IPL).

In the match held in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium, Paykan midfielder Faraz Emamali found the back of the net with a header in the 23rd minute and Ali Karimi leveled the score in the 37th minute.

In Sirjan, Gol Gohar drew 3-3 with 10-man Persepolis.

Persepolis midfielder Kamal Kamya-binia received a straight red card in the 15th minute for a high tackle.

Alireza Ebrahimi and Ahmad Mousavi scored for the hosts in the first half. Ali Alipour halved the deficit in the 49th min-ute and Ahmad Nourollahi equalized the match in the 71st with a header.

Mehdi Torabi scored Persepolis third goal from the penalty spot in the injury time but Ebrahimi leveled the score in the dying moments of the match.

Tractor defeated Machine Sazi 2-1 in Tabriz derby.

Reza Asadi was on target for Tractor in

the 71st minute but Fardin Abedini equalized the match in the 85th minute.

With two minutes remaining, Moham-madreza Azadi scored the winning goal for Tractor.

In Mashhad, Sepahan defeated Shahr Khodro 2-0 thanks to second half’s goals from Shahyan Mosleh and Soroush Rafiei.

Foolad were held to a goalless draw by Pars Jonoubi in a must-win match, Saipa drew 0-0 with Naft Masjed Soleyman and Nassaji played out a goalless draw against Zob Ahan.

And Shahin Bushehr were relegated from IPL after suffering a 3-2 loss to Sanat Naft.

Esteghlal held by Peykan in IPL

By Manijeh Rezapoor

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GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

There are people who worship Allah out of desire [for reward], and this is the worship of traders, and there are people worship Allah out of fear [of punishment], and this is the worship of slaves. Whereas certain people worship Allah out of gratitude, and this is the worship of the free, and this is the best of the worships.

Imam Hussein (AS)

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A R Td e s k

A R Td e s k

TEHRAN — Iranian writer and critic Javad Mojabi has said that in his latest

novel “Nowhere States” he has turned his spotlight on the most awful human relations in the contemporary world.

The book has recently been published by Qoqnus in Tehran.

“The story of the book that is set in an invisible or perhaps imaginary environment is more real than any other things in the world,” Mojabi told the Persian service of Honaronline on Sunday.

“It focuses on the marauding capitalist world and those governments whose behavior are different in public and private and their real behavior is what is running in secret, for example, what the French and U.S. governments do in

their countries,” he added.“The armament manufacturers and the need for war

in the world are the engines of capitalism… and the novel intends to convey that all citizens should not only regard the apparent and exterior layers of issues but also they should delve deeply into the issues,” he noted.

He said that he has tried to avoid biased attitudes and noted, “I have tried to describe a global issue without any prejudice or an intention of giving a solution. Judgment and giving a solution are for the majority of people, and a writer should carefully describe an issue as it really is.”

The 81-year old writer, who is also the author of several bestselling novels including “The Undated Notes”, succeeded last month in battling COVID-19.

TEHRAN — Iranian director Qorban

Mohammadpur plans to make a sequel to his 2015 love story “Salam Mumbai”.

The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance announced on Sunday that the project “Salam Mumbai 2” has obtained a production license, however, it gave no detail about the film’s plot.

Bollywood actors Gulshan Grover and Dia Mirza co-starred with Iranian actor Mohammadreza Golzar in “Salam Mumbai”, which was almost totally shot in India.

“Salam Mumbai” was about Ali, an exchange student from Iran who is studying medicine as a cardiology resident in Mumbai. By chance, he saves the life of one of his

classmates Karishma, who has attempted suicide. Little by little, he tries to talk to Karishma and give her hope and happiness, which eventually leads to the two of them falling in love.

Mohammadpur also directed “The Devil’s Daughter” with a cast of Iranian and Bollywood actors in India.

The story of the film is about Satan’s daughter who intends to repent. She is first asked to find an innocent man to bow down to until her repentance is accepted. Satan’s daughter then descends to search for a man.

In March, another of Mohammadpur’s love stories, “Falling in Love in Hanoi”, a project between Iran and Vietnam, come to a halt as members of the Iranian crew failed

to get visas to Vietnam due to the COVID-19 outbreak in the world.

However, Mohammadpur announced his plan in June to make a comedy named “The World of Silence”.

In the movie, a new viral disease named “COVID-20” is detected. The virus, which has been transferred from snakes to man, does not kill its victims; rather, they lose their hearing instead as a result. The virus spreads from New York during the General Assembly of the United Nations. Members of an Iranian delegation attending the meeting test positive for the virus and are no longer able to hear people. Finally, Ahmad Aslani, a top Iranian microbiologist, is assigned the task of researching the virus to make a vaccine for the disease.

TEHRAN — Spanish author, illustrator and

art therapist Anna Llenas’ book “The Color Monster: A Story about Emotions” has been published in Persian.

Fatemi is the publisher of the international bestseller translated into Persian by Sahar Tarhandeh.

The book helps young children between 4 and 8 identify emotions and feel more in control.

In this story, Color Monster wakes up one day feeling very confused. His emotions are all over the place; he feels angry, happy,

calm, sad and scared all at once! To help him, a little girl shows him what

each feeling means through color. As this adorable monster learns to sort and define his mixed-up emotions, he gains self-awareness and peace as a result.

Caregivers will enjoy sharing this concept book that taps into both socio-emotional growth and color concepts in a simple, friendly way.

Before creating her worldwide favorite “The Color Monster”, Llenas was a graphic designer and creative director working with top brands in Spain. She is the creator of

Products Anna Llenas, a brand of home goods, and also the author of a number of picture books.

Llenas was born in Barcelona. She graduated in advertising and public relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with a diploma in graphic design by The Escola de la Llotya and has a postgraduate degree in creative illustration from Escola Eina.

She has developed graphic projects for clients as diverse as La Vanguardia (the Spanish daily newspaper), Nestle and the Government of Catalonia. She has collaborated with other authors as an illustrator.

Writer Javad Mojabi says new novel recounts most awful human relations of modern world

Qorban Mohammadpur to make sequel to “Salam Mumbai”

Spanish writer Anna Llenas’ book “Color Monster” published in Persian

TEHRAN — The acclaimed drama “The Warden” by director Nima Javidi was selected as best film at the 20th edition of the Hafez Awards as it was honored in several other categories including best director and best actor.

The film tells the story of an Iranian prison warden who is assigned to transfer prisoners to a new building during the 1960s.

Due to the pandemic, only winners were invited to the awards ceremony that took place on Saturday night in a garden in Garmdarreh, a suburb of Karaj.

The Hafez Awards, Iran’s first and only private awards event in the film industry and TV productions, is organized every year by the Persian cinematic monthly Donya-ye Tasvir (Picture World).

“I wish my dear Iranian citizens health. Receiving this award is a big honor for me. It is an award which bears the beautiful name of Hafez and I hereby give my best thanks to the cast and crew of the film,” Javidi said in his acceptance speech.

“The pandemic has made the situation hard to make any movie. We will wait to see what happens,” he added.

Two winners were announced for each of the categories best actor and best actress.

Navid Mohammadzadeh won one of the awards for best actor for the portrayal of the warden in “The Warden”, and Hutan Shakiba received the other award for his role in “When

the Moon Was Full” by director Narges Abyar.“I am happy to receive this award. I thank the family

of Mo’allem for organizing the ceremony. Although the ceremony is not crowded, it keeps the light of the cinema on. This award pushes me to make my steps much stronger,” Mohammadzadeh said after receiving his award.

In his acceptance speech, Shakiba also thanked Abyar for her trust in him and giving him the difficult role to play.

The award for best screenplay went to “When the Moon Was Full” co-written by Abyar and Mortza Esfahani.

The film tells the story of a woman from Tehran who marries a man from an Iranian province near the border of Pakistan. Soon afterwards, she discovers that her new brother-in-law is a religious extremist trying to recruit her husband for his bloody cause.

Actor Faramarz Qaribian was next honored for his lifetime achievements, however, he was not present at the ceremony.

Qaribian has left memorable images in Iranian cinema by his portrayal of various characters in dozens of acclaimed movies such as “Tall Shadows of the Wind” and “Dancing in the Dust”.

The awards for best actress were presented to Elnaz Shakerdoost and Jaleh Sameti for their roles in “When the Moon Was Full” and “Darkhongah” respectively.

The Abbas Kiarostami Award was handed to Siavash Afshar for directing the film “Cook Book”. The award was established in memory of the world-renowned filmmaker to honor the best experimental film of the year.

Merila Zarei who was named best actress for her role in the TV drama “Mannequin” expressed her special thanks to the healthcare staff in her speech.

“We have been living with this disease and have shared our fears and hopes. I need to say a special thanks to the health workers. They are really tired. They are the dear individuals who have cured our dear ones in these hard days. They have no more energy,” she said.

“This virus is living with us now and will still be living with us, and we must learn to take care of ourselves. I ask people to have mercy on each other and observe the health protocols. This is the only way we can go through these hard days. We shouldn’t be indifferent,” she stressed.

“The Warden” named best film at Hafez Awards Vocalist Salar Aqili sings “Sun of the Orient” in memory of health workers died of COVID-19

1 “Leave Me Free” was the first song he and his pianist wife Harir Shariatzadeh performed at the beginning of the concert, but they were later accompanied by other members of the ensemble in the next performances.

Wearing face masks, the musicians included Monika Loran, Ali Jafari-Puyan, Sohrab Barahmandi, Ehsan Shami and Fardin Lahurpur.

“My Homeland”, “What Can I Say”, “Find Me”, “I Stay Alone” and “Iran” were among the other songs performed at the concert.

Aqili also performed the song “Mother” and said, “I was supposed to perform this song at the Espinas Palace Hotel in Tehran in February, but the concert was halted due to the spread of coronavirus, and I hereby dedicate this song to all the mothers.”

He also paid tribute to veteran actor Ali Nasirian for his role in the TV series “Dear Brother”, while he was singing “I Stay Alone”, the ending credit song of the TV series.

Vocalists Alireza Qorbani and Homayun Shajarian gave separate online concerts at Vahdat Hall in May.

Vahid Taj, Ali Zandevakili and Parvaz Homay, pianist Saman Ehteshami and tar virtuoso Keivan Saket were among other musicians who gave online concerts at Vahdat Hall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle” published in Persian

TEHRAN — A Persian translation of American writer Leslie Connor’s novel “The Truth as Told

by Mason Buttle” has been published by Ofoq Publications in Tehran.

The book has been rendered into Persian by Bita Ebrahimi.

The novel is a deeply poignant and beautifully crafted story about self-reliance, redemption and hope.

This middle-grade novel is an excellent choice for young readers in grades 5 to 6, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep children entertained and engaged while not in the classroom.

This book centers on Mason Buttle who is the biggest, sweatiest kid in his grade, and everyone knows he can barely read or write. Mason’s learning disabilities are compounded by

grief. Fifteen months ago, Mason’s best friend, Benny Kilmartin, turned up dead in the Buttle family’s orchard.

An investigation drags on, and Mason, honest as the day is long, can’t understand why Lieutenant Baird won’t believe the story Mason has told about that day.

Both Mason and his new friend, tiny Calvin Chumsky, are relentlessly bullied by the other boys in their neighborhood, so they create an underground haven for themselves. When Calvin goes missing, Mason finds himself in trouble again. He’s desperate to figure out what happened to Calvin and, eventually, Benny. But will anyone believe him?

“Waiting for Normal”, “All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook”, “The Things You Kiss Goodbye” and “Crunch” are among other books by the critically acclaimed author.

Front cover of the English version of “The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle” written by Leslie Connor.

Vocalist Salar Aqili gives a performance in an undated photo.

National Festival of Youth Music receives over 2400 submissions

TEHRAN — The 14th National Festival of Youth

Music has received over 2400 submissions in the three sections of classics, regional and dastgahi, director of the festival Hooman Asadi has said.

The word dastgah in the Persian language means “system”, as well as “equipment”. The suffix “-gah” signifies a place of doing something. Here, dastgah is used in two different senses: First, dastgah signifies the totality of melodies of a certain musical system, e.g. dastgah-e Shur consists of Shur, Abuata, Bayat-e Tork, Afshari, Dashti and their related gushehs. Second, the word refers to the frets on a stringed instrument. Dast means “hand”, hence dastgah literally denotes “the place of the hand”.

860 musicians and singers have been selected for the final performances of the festival, Asadi said in a press conference held at Vahdat Hall in Tehran on Sunday.

“Despite the issue of the battle with coronavirus, which has halted many music festivals over the world, we are trying to hold an online festival,” Asadi said.

“Over the past months we were thinking of holding a real festival with the participants in attendance at Rudaki Hall, however, the situation has changed and the festival will

be held online,” he noted. Iran Music Association director Ali

Sabetnia also attending the conference said

that the festival covers 140 different branches of music, and the judges have so far assessed numerous performances submitted by the

young musicians from different cities. Jury member Azin Movahhednia also

said that despite the pandemic, many performances of high quality have been sent to the festival.

“These young musicians have made their best efforts to have more concentration on their works during the pandemic, something that can be considered a good achievement for the festival,” she added.

Veteran tar virtuoso Hossein Alizadeh, who is also a jury member, said that Iranian music has not experienced good growth compared with the classics.

“In Iran there is still a lack of good cooperation between academies and universities in the field of Iranian music. We need to make better use of Iranian music with good education,” Alizadeh said.

“We must know what we have to offer to teach the music students. I invite all the musicians to have active participation. I believe the elderly should not run the field of music. This music has been created out of the recent social changes and should suit itself with the current situations. This music is full of love, which can lead to the best of events,” he said.

The festival is due to be held online in September.

Mohammadreza Golzar and Dia Mirza act in a scene from Iranian director Qorban Mohammadpur’s 2015 love story “Salam Mumbai”.

Nima Javidi holds the best director award he won for “The Warden” at the 20th Hafez Awards in a garden in Garmdarreh on August 15, 2020. (Nassim Yusefi)

Front cover of Iranian writer Javad Mojabi’s novel “Nowhere States”.

Organizers and jury members pose with a poster for the 14th National Festival of Youth Music at Vahdat Hall on August 16, 2020.

Front cover of the Persian version of Spanish author Anna Llenas’ book “The Color Monster: A Story about Emotions”.