Friday, December 26, 2025
Home Blog Page 1884

Iranian judiciary urges freedom of Iranians held in Europe

Kazem Gharibabadi

Kazem Gharibabadi said jailed Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi has diplomatic immunity under international law and his detention in Germany and also holding him under dire conditions for 101 days are a violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention that governs consular rules.

He said that also holds true for the diplomat’s transfer to Belgium and the ruling against him at a court there under such circumstances.

Gharibabadi noted that Iran views the court in which Assadi was put on trial as illegal and unfair.

The Iranian Judiciary’s deputy chief said he wrote a letter to the UN high commissioner for human rights and demanded his intervention in Assadi’s case and push for his release.

On Hamid Nouri’s case, Gharibabadi said the Iranian nation’s rights have been violated and his detention is absolutely illegal.

He criticized the Swedish court for trying Nouri, saying it took over a year for the court to indict Nouri because they had no proof against him.

Gharibabadi added that Nouri has been mistreated in Sweden.

He said those who leveled accusations against Nouri are members of terrorist groups that have hatched a plot against him with the support of the Swedish government.

Assadollah Assadi is on trial for allegedly trying to orchestrate an attack on the anti-Iranian Mojahedin Khalq terrorist group’s members in Europe.

Hamid Nouri has been also accused of rights violations in the 1980s.

Land border between Iran and Iraq reopens for pilgrims vis free

Iranian pilgrims Iraq

Reports say following a pledge by Iraq’s Interior Minister Othman al-Qanemi in talks with Iranian officials, Iraqi security forces were deployed to the land border crossings and now Iranians may cross into the Arab country for pilgrimage without having to get visas.

Pilgrimage to holy sites in Iraq is now allowed after 27 months. During the period, the sites were closed mainly due to the Covid pandemic.

The director of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization says the religious visits to Iraq are starting this week though as per the Iraqi interior minister they were supposed to begin last week.

Seyyed Sadegh Hosseini added that 2,500 Iranian pilgrims travel to Iraq each day via the land border.

During his negotiations with Iranian officials, the Iraqi interior minister added that Iraq had already waived visa for Iranians who travel to the Arab country by air.

Covid kills 2 in Iran in 24 hours

COVID in Iran

The figures also showed that 74 people had tested positive for the virus in the last day.

The daily caseload was significantly low compared to previous days including yesterday when it was more than double that Saturday number, namely 160.

The daily fatalities in Iran have remained single-digit over the past couple of weeks. Iranian officials say this is a great achievement as the country managed to contain the Coronavirus pandemic while it was under harsh US sanctions.

The bans made it highly difficult for Iran to import vaccines and medicine to cure the disease and other illnesses.

The Iranian Health Ministry announced on Friday that there are no red zones in the country regarding the risk from the Coronavirus.

Iranian MP: Quitting NPT not on Parliament’s agenda for now

Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant

“For the time being, a withdrawal from the NPT has not been discussed at the Parliament and this issue should be decided as the general policies of the [Iranian] establishment,” said Hassan Hemmati, who sits on the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, on Saturday.

He was reacting to some media speculation in Iran that the country has the option of quitting the NPT, following the adoption of a resolution, drafted by the US and its European allies, against the Iranian nuclear program at a meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The legislator said the resolution, which was approved under pressure from the US and Israel, was “expectable.”

In nuclear talks with Iran, he added, the Europeans have practically no power and merely follow in the footsteps of the US, which has a final say on all the policies pursued by the Western side vis-à-vis Tehran.

Hemmati said no agreement will be reached on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal as long as the conditions set by Iran in the negotiations are not met.

Iran will never accept a one-sided agreement that the other side pushes to impose with bullying, the lawmaker said.

Iran develops agro-drones for crop dusting

drones for agriculture

The agro-drones are capable of crop-dusting quickly, at a low cost and with high accuracy, helping protect human’s health when it comes to spraying the fields with pesticides.

“The agro-drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which can be used for crop-dusting and planting at a low cost,” says a top official involved in the project.

“These drones are capable of carrying 10-and 21-liter containers of pesticides, liquid manure and different types of agricultural pesticides,” the official added.

“These drones enjoy high speed and power, so much so that they can evenly spray pesticides on the ground, using 10 liters of liquid for each hectare of land,” he added.

“Also, work can be done ten times faster than traditional methods,” the official explained.

“For example, in the traditional method, up to a maximum of 5 hectares of land can be sprayed with pesticides a day, but with these drones, the figure could increase up to 50 hectares per day,” he said.

“These drones greatly help economize on water and pesticides, so much so that the water consumption rate drops by 98% and that of pesticides by 30%,” said the official.

“These drones move automatically with the help of a satellite system and spread pesticides evenly across the ground, so that no spot is sprayed multiple times, nor is any spot left without being sprayed,” added the official.

Iran: IAEA aware of all moves at Natanz nuclear site despite media hype

Iran Natanz

In an interview with Nour News, which is affiliated with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Behrouz Kamalvandi reacted to a report by the New York Times on Friday that said a new underground Iranian nuclear facility was under construction deep into mountains south of the Natanz nuclear complex, citing US and Israeli sources.

Kamalvandi said although the country is not committed to providing the IAEA with data beyond the Safeguards Agreement, the Agency has, from the start, been informed of the construction activities related to the transfer of facilities from a site in the city of Karaj to Natanz.

The workshop for manufacturing centrifuge parts was moved to Natanz in the wake of a sabotage attack on the Karaj facility last year, which was widely attributed to Israel.

The transfer, Kamalvandi added, is meant to boost the security at the country’s nuclear facilities “given the continuation of acts of mischief” targeting Iran’s peaceful nuclear work.

“Given the full transparency of our country’s measures, it is certain that the hype in media related to the Zionist current, which is meant to cast doubt [on the Iranian nuclear program] and achieve political goals, will get nowhere,” Kamalvandi said.

“The IAEA has had shortcomings in fulfilling its duties to safeguard [countries’ nuclear work] to the extent that it has even failed to condemn the terror activities against our country’s nuclear sites,” he added.

Report: Turkey blocks Iranian passenger plane from refueling before takeoff

Turkey Airport

According to Hamshahrionline news outlet, flight 4808 of Meraj Airlines made an emergency landing for refueling at Shahid Madani Airport in Tabriz on Saturday.

Passengers said the plane was supposed to leave Istanbul at 09:00 a.m. local time, but it received permission for flight with an eight-hour delay.

The source also says, in a similar incident on Friday, Turkish airport authorities delayed an Iranian flight from Istanbul to the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad for nine hours.

Army’s F-14 fighter jet crashes in central Iran, causes no fatalities

Iran F-14

Rasoul Motamedi, an official with the Army’s PR department, said the aircraft went down during a mission at 10:00 a.m. local time on Saturday due to a technical glitch in the engine.

The pilot and the co-pilot ejected safely and were transferred to hospital for injuries sustained during the jump, the official added.

Iran’s capital hosting 29th edition of intl. agro-food exhibition

Agriculture

The exhibition opened at the Tehran International Permanent Fairground on Friday and will run until June 20. It is joined by 665 Iranian and foreign exhibitors from around the world.

At the event, the participants put on display food products, processing and related industries, equipment and technology of food industry, packaging equipment, agricultural machinery and related industries, among other things.

This year’s edition features active presence of Iran’s knowledge-based companies and startups.

The exhibition has been mainly designed to showcase Iran’s capabilities and progress in agriculture and food industry, set the stage for the promotion of the country’s non-oil exports and provide the participants with the opportunity to obtain information on the latest scientific and industrial achievements in agriculture and food industry.

Blast hits Kabul, at least 2 killed

Afghanistan Blast

Officials have confirmed that at least two people have been killed and seven others injured following an attack on a Sikh temple in the Afghan capital.

A Taliban interior ministry spokesman told Reuters news agency that attackers had laden a car with explosives but it had detonated before reaching its target.

Taliban authorities were securing the site, he continued.

A spokesman for the commander of Kabul’s security forces said soldiers have taken control of the area and cleared it of attackers. One Sikh worshipper and a Taliban fighter have been killed during the clearing operation, he added.

Members of the Sikh community stated they were been prevented from entering the building by the Taliban.

“There were around 30 people inside the temple. We don’t know how many of them are alive or how many dead. The Taliban are not allowing us to go inside, we don’t know what to do,” Gornam Singh told news agencies on Saturday.

“I heard gunshots and blasts coming from the gurdwara,” Singh added.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Friday, an explosion at a mosque in Afghanistan’s northern Kunduz province killed at least one worshipper and wounded seven others, a Taliban official said.

Dozens of people had gathered inside the mosque in the district of Imam Sahib for Friday prayers when an explosive device detonated, stated Obaidullah Abedi, the Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Kunduz police chief.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack and an investigation is under way.

After seizing power in Kabul and elsewhere in the country in August, the Taliban launched a sweeping crackdown against the IS headquarters in eastern Afghanistan.

The IS affiliate, which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2014, is seen as the greatest security challenge facing the country’s new Taliban rulers.