As Hazrat Zahra is regarded as the paragon of virtue in Islam, the occasion has been designated as Mother’s Day in Iran.
Hazrat Zahra enjoys a lofty and highly commendable status and serves as a role model for women with her praiseworthy demeanor.
Iranians go visit their mothers on this day and give them presents.
Or if their mothers have departed this life, they go visit their tombs and lay flowers on their mothers’ final resting places.
Hussein al-Ezzi said the coalition is trying to isolate Yemen by blocking its access to the internet and sever its links with the world.
He said this is a major criminal act the coalition has designed amid international silence.
Al-Ezzi also criticized as frustrating the United Nations Security Council’s approach to the war on Yemen.
He said the Security Council, in its statements, simply ignores certain crimes committed by the United Arab Emirates and other members of the coalition against Yemenis.
The official said the international bodies’ decisions prop up “killers”, stressing that these organizations go no further than condemnation of crimes against the people of Yemen, which amounts to ignoring the bloodshed against them.
He also called on the international community to express solidarity with the people of Yemen and expose the crimes committed by the US-backed Saudi-Emirati coalition.
Al-Ezzi’s comments came days after the coalition carried out deadly airstrikes on at least two locations in Yemen that killed over 80 people, including at least three children and wounded scores more. The coalition also conducted airstrikes on the telecommunications infrastructure in the Yemeni city of Hudaydah, which caused a nationwide internet blackout in Yemen.
“Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, a decision opposed by his Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, will go down as one of the dumbest, most dangerous foreign policy decisions of the last fifty years,” Murphy wrote on Twitter.
The White House has recently stepped up criticism of Trump and lambasted the former leader for pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal. The American officials stressed the United States is paying the wages of that catastrophic mistake. Several diplomats have stated the United States in some ways more isolated diplomatically than Iran because of the course that the previous administration had pursued.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called Trump’s move to pull Washington out of the Iran nuclear deal as ”one of the worst decisions made in recent American foreign policy”. Blinken had called Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 agreement “a terrible mistake”.
President Joe Biden has also stated the United States is “continuing to suffer” from Trump’s decision to pull Washington out of the Iran nuclear deal.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was inked by Iran and six world powers in 2015. Under the deal, Tehran agreed to put limits on certain aspects of its nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of draconian international sanctions imposed against the country.
In 2018, however, the US pulled out of the pact and reinstated sanctions under the so-called ‘maximum pressure campaign’ against Tehran, effectively depriving Iran of the deal’s benefits by forcing third parties to stop doing business with Iran.
Iran remained patient for an entire year, after which it began to take incremental steps away from its nuclear obligations, especially after Europeans failed to salvage the deal under the US pressure.
The Islamic Republic’s decision to ramp up its nuclear activities prompted other parties to revive talks earlier this year.
Iran and the five remaining parties to the JCPOA — Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China — began the talks in the Austrian capital in April with the aim of removing the sanctions after the US voiced its willingness to return to the agreement.
During the seventh round of the Vienna talks, the first under President Ebrahim Raeisi, Iran presented two draft texts which address, separately, the removal of US sanctions and Iran’s return to its nuclear commitments under the JCPOA. Tehran also said it was preparing a third draft text on the verification of the sanctions removal.
The eighth round of talks kicked off in Vienna in late December. The negotiations seek to restore the JCPOA in its original form and bring the US back into the agreement.
Iran insists that the talks must lead to the removal of all American sanctions that were imposed against Tehran following Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the landmark agreement in May 2018. Tehran has also demanded credible guarantees that Washington will not abandon the deal again.
Majid Takht Ravanchi said the payment would immediately restore the country’s voting power at the world body.
He said Iran, as an active member of the UN, has always remained committed to paying its dues on time.
“But unfortunately, we faced problems with our payment for the second year in a row due to the United States’ cruel and unilateral sanctions against Iran,” he explained.
“The US cruel sanctions have not only affected different domains such as the provision of medicines, humanitarian items, medical equipment, etc., but has also disrupted work at the UN,” said the top diplomat.
The payment was made Friday after Iran made an “emergency request” to Seoul to pay the dues.
Iran has more than $7 billion in funds for oil shipments frozen at two South Korean banks due to US sanctions.
Erdogan also added that he’s willing to visit Iran in the near future.
Referring to Raisi’s visit to Moscow and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Erdogan expressed hope that this trip will soon yield useful results and achievements in various fields.
The Turkish president reiterated that his country will stand by Iran for regional security.
In response to Erdogan’s remarks during the phone call, Raisi referred to the potentials for expansion of relations between the two sides.
The Iranian president said Tehran has a long-term and comprehensive view of relations and cooperation with Turkey. Raisi said, “We welcome planning for strategic cooperation with Turkey”.
Raisi also stressed the need for respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries as the only key to lasting stability and security in different parts of the region.
Earlier, Bagheri held talks with the chief negotiators of the European troika in bilateral or multilateral meetings. Observers say this could be construed as a sign that the negotiations are reaching a decisive point.
During the talks, expert sessions have also been held over various issues surrounding the revival of the Iran nuclear deal, JCPOA.
The 8th round of talks between Iran and the P4+1 began on December 27, 2021. Sanctions removal and verification thereof are among the most important issues on the agenda of talks. The negotiating teams in Vienna acknowledge that talks have made progress and a deal is contingent upon specific political decisions in Washington regarding remaining issues and the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions. Russia and China, both signatories to the JCPOA, support Iran’s logical demands. But word is that the Western sides in the Vienna talks are demanding a revision of the progress made in the talks.
The negotiations have reached a decisive point where the Western parties must make tough decisions.
The US and its Western allies complain that the talks move forward slowly and a final deal could end up being a nutshell. Iran rejects this and says it is in no hurry for an agreement.
Russian chief negotiator Mikhail Ulyanov has also said on his Twitter account that timing depends of participants in the Vienna talks.
Ulyanov added that under the current circumstances, timing is very important but it should not be the major factor defining the outcome of the talks on the future of the JCPOA.
He said If necessary, the negotiators must speed up their work. The Russian diplomat made the comment in response to the tweet of the Wall Street Journal’s reporter who had quoted a senior European official as saying that there is a concern talks in Vienna will not result in a good deal due to the fact that they are moving forward slowly.
The assault on the Ghwayran prison in the northern city of Hasakeh is one of ISIL’s most significant since its “caliphate” was declared defeated in Syria nearly three years ago.
“At least 28 members of the Kurdish security forces, five civilians and 45 members of IS have been killed,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
ISIL launched the attack on Thursday against the prison housing about 3,500 suspected members of the armed group, including some of its leaders, according to the Syrian Observatory.
The assailants “seized weapons they found” in the detention center and freed several fellow fighters, added the monitor, which relies on sources inside war-torn Syria for its information.
Hundreds of inmates were since recaptured, but dozens were still on the loose.
With the backing of US-led coalition aircraft, Kurdish security forces encircled the prison and were battling to retake full control of surrounding neighborhoods, which the armed group used as a launchpad for their attacks.
The Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Saturday said it was continuing “operations to keep security in Hasakeh city and the perimeter of the Ghwayran prison” with the help of coalition allies and Kurdish internal security forces.
Clashes centered mostly in neighborhoods north of Ghwayran, where it carried out raids and “killed a number of IS [ISIL] fighters that had attacked the jail”.
The armed group announced in a statement on Friday on its Amaq website its attack on the jail aimed to “free the prisoners”.
ISIL has carried out regular attacks against Kurdish and government targets in Syria since its once-sprawling proto-state was overrun in March 2019.
Most rebel attacks have been against military targets and oil installations in remote areas, but the Hasakeh prison break could mark a new phase in the group’s resurgence.
It was not immediately clear whether the prison assault was part of a coordinated operation timed to coincide with an attack on a military base in neighboring Iraq – or the action of a local ISIL cell.
Analyst Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute in Washington said the armed group targeted the prison to bolster its numbers.
“[ISIL] wants to move beyond being the terrorist and criminal network that it has devolved into, and to do that it needs more fighters,” he told the AFP news agency.
“Prison breaks represent the best opportunity for ISIS to regain its strength in arms, and Ghwayran prison is a nice fat target for ISIS because it’s overcrowded,” he added.
The prospect of a repeat of the attack remains real, stated Colin Clarke, research director at the New York-based Soufan Center think-tank.
“The SDF needs a comprehensive strategy to deal with this threat,” he noted.
The Kurdish authorities have long warned they do not have the capacity to hold, let alone put on trial, the thousands of ISIL fighters captured in years of operations.
According to Kurdish authorities, more than 50 nationalities are represented in a number of Kurdish-run prisons, where more than 12,000 ISIL suspects are now held.
Many of the ISIL prisoners’ countries of origin have been reluctant to repatriate them, fearing a public backlash at home.
Abdulkarim Omar, the semi-autonomous administration’s top foreign policy official, blamed the ISIL prison attack on the “international community’s failure to shoulder its responsibilities”.
The war in Syria broke out in 2011 and has since killed close to half a million people and displaced tens of millions.
Local elders say support for ISIL has grown with rising local resentment against the Kurdish-led administration that they accuse of discriminating against the majority Arab population it rules, many of whom reject its policy of ble conscription.
The Kurdish-led group denies any accusations of mistreatment of local Arabs and says it seeks to redress old grievances against them as a minority during decades of Arab nationalist rule.
“Instead of taking a pause and concentrating on a concrete response to the questions that were posed in the Russian documents, the White House and its Western allies launched an extremely toxic propaganda campaign, representing our country as an ‘aggressor’, ‘opponent of civilised Europe’, and ‘threat’ to international stability,” the foreign ministry said on its website.
Since 15 December 2021, when Russia handed the US a draft treaty on security guarantees, Moscow has seen obvious attempts to prolong discussion of the Russian initiatives, the foreign ministry added
The statement follows US-Russia and Russia-NATO talks earlier this month regarding the security guarantees that Moscow offered in order to stop an escalation with the alliance. The draft agreements stipulate limits to troop, aircraft, and warship deployments, restrict missile deployments for both sides, and also suggest that the bloc stop its expansion near Russian territory.
NATO, however, responded by stating it won’t abandon its “open-door” policy.
Amir Abbas Mohammadi Koushki, the head of the Iranian inventions team, said WIPO releases the indexes of intellectual property every year, adding the countries seek to gain higher positions by evaluating and upgrading their capabilities according to the indexes.
He said Iran ranked 21st in the world’s invention registrations in 2021, 23rd in the trademark registrations, and 12th in the registration of industrial plans, including applications.
According to Mohammadi Koushki, China, the United States, and Japan are the top three countries in the WIPO standings, respectively.
China is also on top of the world rankings for the registration of trademarks, he continued and added the United States and Iran are in the second and third places, respectively.
The European Union is in the fourth position, Koushki said.
He explained that the great number of start-ups in China has helped the Asian country achieve the success.
WIPO is the global forum for intellectual property (IP) services, policy, information and cooperation.
It is a self-funding agency of the United Nations, with 193 member states.
Its mission is to lead the development of a balanced and effective international IP system that enables innovation and creativity for the benefit of all its members.
The Health Ministry said 3,503 infections were logged, which are down over 20 percent compared to Friday when the daily caseload was 5,274.
Meanwhile, 30 people died of the Coronavirus in the past 24 hours. Friday’s death toll was 20. Officials say the new Covid variant known as Omicron is shooting up infections these days.
The strain has already overwhelmed many countries. Iran has so far been largely shielded from Omicron.
But officials urge people to remain vigilant as a new wave of Covid could be around the corner.
Meanwhile, the daily fatalities due to the Coronavirus these days are next to nothing compared to several months ago when the disease killed as many as 800 daily.
This has been attributed to the Iran’s nationwide vaccination campaign that has seen over 14 million people triple-vaxxed.
Over 128 million doses of Covid vaccine have been administered to people in Iran as the inoculation drive continues countrywide.
© All Content by IFP News ( Iran Front Page ) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
