The delegation is visiting the Russian capital at an invitation of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for General Mohammad Bagheri, Chairman of Iran’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Iran’s high-ranking military delegation participated in the opening ceremony of the 2023 Russia International Military Conference and Exhibition in Moscow.
Iran and Russia have expanded their military ties in recent years amid threats against both countries by the West.
Amirabdollahian noted that Tehran has been going down the path of diplomacy and hopes to reach the finish line.
He also spoke about ties between Iran and Egypt and the message brought to Tehran by the Omani sultan.
The Iranian foreign minister said Tehran welcomes restoration of diplomatic relations with Egypt at the highest level and it’s Iran’s policy to pursue the matter.
Speaking about the Arash oil and gas field in the Persian Gulf, the top Iranian diplomat said that he held two rounds of talks with the Kuwaiti foreign minister about it and that the two sides agree this is a legal issue and nobody wants to create a controversy about it in the media.
Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia lay claim to the dield.
Amirabdollahian stressed that technical and legal measures are needed and the matter should be pursued through diplomacy and negotiations.
The top diplomat said Iran cannot afford to lose any of its resources.
On ties with Saudi Arabia, Amirabdollahian said the two countries’ ambassadors will soon be sent to the Iranian and Saudi capitals.
In a statement on Monday, the Istanbul Governor’s Office said the blast had occurred at a shipbuilding facility in Tuzla, a municipality in the Asian part of the city, at around 10:30am local time. It added that the incident had been caused by gas compression in the waste storage section of a ship while work was being carried out.
Officials stated the injured worker was receiving treatment, and that police have launched an investigation.
Tuzla is home to Türkiye’s largest shipyards, which offer a full range of vessel repairs, conversion, and dry-docking services.
The incident comes just days after a powerful explosion damaged several grain silos in the Turkish port of Derince, near Istanbul. The blast initially killed one person and injured 12 others, although on Monday a female worker succumbed to her injuries in hospital, taking the death toll to two.
The ruble also weakened to 110 against the euro, a 16-month low.
The ruble hit a record low of 120 against the greenback in March of last year, before recovering to a more than seven-year high a few months later. So far this year, the ruble has weakened by nearly 25% versus the dollar.
Last week, the Bank of Russia announced plans to stop buying foreign currency on the domestic market under a budgetary mechanism deployed to protect the economy from volatile commodity prices.
Despite the sharp depreciation, President Vladimir Putin’s economic adviser, Maksim Oreshkin, says he expects the ruble to stabilize.
“The current exchange rate has deviated significantly from fundamental levels, and its normalization is expected in the near future,” Oreshkin was quoted as saying by TASS.
“A weak ruble complicates the economy’s structural transformation and negatively affects the population’s real incomes,” he warned, adding, “It is in the interests of the Russian economy to have a strong ruble.”
The Bank of Russia and the Finance Ministry have previously blamed the ruble’s slide on changes in the trade balance.
According to Oreshkin, the drop has occurred due to the regulator’s monetary policy.
“The central bank has all the tools to normalize the situation in the near future and ensure that lending rates are reduced to sustainable levels,” he said.
In an update on the probe, Chief Justice of the Fars Province Kazem Mousavi said on Monday ten suspects involved in the tragic incident were arrested, adding all of the suspects were of foreign nationalities.
Mousavi also said the police discovered the safe house of the terrorists.
The main assailant opened fire at the pilgrims with an AK-47 rifle and made an attempt to enter a more crowded area of the shrine before being arrested.
During the initial investigation, the assailant identified himself as Rahmatollah Norouzov from Tajikistan.
The Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault.
The shrine came under a similar terrorist attack last year, when an armed assailant opened fire on people inside the shrine, killing 13 pilgrims, including women and children, and injured dozens more before he was shot and injured by security force and later succumbed to his injuries.
Speaking to reporters at a weekly press conference on Monday, Kanaani hailed the government’s successful efforts to secure the release of the financial resources of Iran that had been blocked under the US’ illegal sanctions.
He also highlighted Iran’s serious attention to the rights of its nationals who have been arrested illegally by the US.
Pointing to reports that Iran’s assets frozen in South Korea will be unblocked in exchange for the release of a number of US citizens, the spokesman said, “Iran has received the necessary guarantee of implementation of the contents of this agreement.”
Giving an assurance that the exchange of prisoners with the US will happen within the framework of the understanding and considering the judicial procedures, Kanaani described the process as part of Iran’s use of diplomatic capacities.
“We have made the deal within the framework of a bilateral understanding and the role played by our friends in the region. Two matters were important for us, the liberation of the Iranian citizens who had been held in custody on bogus charges and the unblocking of part of the Iranian nation’s assets that had been blocked under the US’ pressure,” he added.
“We held negotiations with the US government via an intermediary, and a definite period of time has been considered for the issue to take place,” he stated.
On Friday, the foreign ministry confirmed the ongoing process of releasing $6 billion worth of Iran’s funds, which have been unlawfully held in South Korea due to US sanctions.
The ministry emphasized that releasing the funds has consistently been on its agenda, noting that these funds were “illegally blocked” under the pretext of “overseas banks’ concerns about America’s oppressive sanctions.”
The terrorist attack in the Southern Iranian city on Sunday evening left one dead and several others injured.
In a statement on Sunday, al-Dailami said that Yemeni children are falling victim either directly or indirectly to the continuing Saudi-led aggression, whether as a result of mines, cluster bombs, explosive remnants of the war or the tight blockade.
He once again denounced the 2018 Saudi-led coalition airstrike in Yemen’s northwestern province of Sa’ada that killed at least 51 children and wounded at least 76 more near a school bus in the busy market of Dhahyan.
Dailami expressed deep regret over the decline in human values and the absence of fairness in the so-called international humanitarian institutions.
He condemned the attempts to whitewash crimes being perpetrated against Yemeni children, saying the bids come at the same time as hollow claims about measures to protect the children’s lives and rights.
“Such behavior is a major scandal for the international community, as it shows that deals have been concluded at the expense of the blood of Yemeni children,” he added.
Saudi Arabia initiated a brutal war of aggression against Yemen in March 2015, enlisting the assistance of some of its regional allies, including the United Arab Emirates, as well as massive shipments of advanced weaponry from the US and Western Europe.
The Western governments further extended their political and logistical support to Riyadh in their failed bid to restore power in Yemen to the country’s former Saudi-installed government.
The former Yemeni government’s president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, resigned from the presidency in late 2014 and later fled to Riyadh amid a political conflict with Ansarullah. The movement has been running Yemen’s affairs in the absence of a functioning administration.
The war further led to the killing of tens of thousands of Yemenis and turned the entire nation into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“Making Iran insecure and disrupting the peace the daily life of the people is a permanent project of Iran’s enemies, which has been thwarted by the intelligence of the security forces,” Qalibaf stated in his Pre-agenda speech.
“The believing people of Islamic Iran expect the judiciary system to bring the perpetrators of this horrible crime to the justice and those involved in it with urgency,” he stressed.
A terrorist opened fire on Sunday night at a holy shrine in southern Iran, killing one person and wounding eight others in an attack that followed another assault there months earlier.
Fars province governor, Mohammad Hadi Imanieh, told Iranian state television on Sunday that a single gunman had carried out the attack and later was detained by security forces.
Chief Justice of the Fars Province Kazem Mousavi said on Monday four suspects linked to the incident were arrested after investigations.
The attack on Sunday night comes after an October 2022 attack on the same shrine killed 15 people and wounded dozens of others.
Ambassador Nayef al-Sudairi, the kingdom’s current ambassador to Jordan, was named as non-resident envoy to Palestine and consul general in Jerusalem on Saturday at the Palestinian embassy in Amman.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM on Sunday that the new ambassador, Nayef al-Sudairi, could meet representatives of the PA but would have no fixed presence.
“Will there be an official physically sitting in Jerusalem? This we will not allow,” Cohen stated.
The file for the Palestinian territory has traditionally been handled by Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Amman.
The Saudi move appeared to be in line with the longstanding and so-far fruitless Palestinian goal of founding a state in territories occupied by Israel in a 1967 war, with East Jerusalem as the capital.
Israel deems Jerusalem its own capital, a status recognised by the United States under then-President Donald Trump in 2017 but not by other world powers. Israeli authorities bar Palestinian diplomatic activity in the city.
Saudi Arabia has championed the Palestinian cause and shunned official ties with Israel, but Washington is seeking to promote what could be a historic Middle East deal that would normalise Israeli-Saudi relations.
Israel’s hard-right government has played down any prospect of it giving significant ground to the Palestinians as part of a normalisation deal with Saudi Arabia.
Like most of the Arab League, Riyadh has previously conditioned recognition of Israel on the Palestinian statehood goal being addressed. Among the challenges to that goal is the schism between the internationally recognised PA and its rival Hamas.
Bassam al-Agha, the Palestinian ambassador to Riyadh, cast al-Sudairi’s appointment as Saudi affirmation of Palestinian statehood and “rejection of what had been announced by former US President Trump”.
“This means a continuation of Saudi Arabia’s positions,” al-Agha told Voice of Palestine radio.
While Cohen said al-Sudairi’s appointment had not been coordinated with Israel, he saw a possible link to the normalisation prospects.
“What is behind this development is that, against the backdrop of progress in the US talks with Saudi Arabia and Israel, the Saudis want to relay a message to the Palestinians that they have not forgotten them,” Cohen added.
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