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Expert: Removal of sanctions to help further expand Iran-Russia ties

Hassan Beheshtipour told the IRIB one prong concerns nuclear cooperation between Tehran and Moscow, which is completing the second and third phases of the Bushehr Power Plant in Iran.

The Russian and Caucasus affairs expert added that obstacles to the expansion of the Iranian nuclear program with Russia’s help, which are mainly financial, are being removed.

According to Beheshtipour, the second prong regarding the Russia-Iran ties is their military and defensive cooperation, for which the ground is paved after the arms embargo on Iran was terminated.

He added that the third prong is about the Iran-Russian cooperation in the southern Caucasus.

Beheshtipour said Tehran and Moscow are approaching the issue with a 3+3 format consisting of Azerbaijan Republic, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Iran and Turkey.

He also noted that Iran and Russia can play a significant role in Afghanistan and in restoring stability to the country after the withdrawal of the US forces.

The Iranian political expert added that Russia can also help decide the share of the Caspian Sea’s littoral states though the main stakeholders are Iran and Azerbaijan Republic and a couple of other ex-Soviet republics. Beheshtipour also spoke of Russia’s role in the Vienna talks. He said Russia is a positive player in this regard. He noted that removing anti-Iran sanctions will be highly conducive to expansion of ties between Tehran and Moscow.

Two Israeli soldiers injured in training explosion

According to the Israeli army, the incident occurred as “military ordnance” exploded during an exercise at a training range in the central West Bank.

The two soldiers have been taken to a Jerusalem hospital for treatment, the army says.

The soldiers were wounded moderately and lightly in the incident.

The military added it is investigating the blast.

Yemeni army says winged, ballistic missiles used to hit UAE targets

“Missiles used during the Yemen Storm operation were Quds-2 winged projectiles. The oil refinery in al-Mosfah area and Abu Dhabi Airport were hit with four missiles of this type,” Yahya Saree said in a tweet.

“A Zolfaghar ballistic missile was also used to hit Abu Dhabi Airport. Samad 3 drones were also deployed to hit important and sensitive targets.”

Al-Mosfah is a key industrial zone in the southwestern part of the Emirati capital and is one of the UAE’s most important economic zones.

The area hosts the country’s oldest port facility as well as major businesses.

An official of Yemen’s Ansarullah movement Mohammad Nasser al-Bukhaiti also warned the UAE that any escalation in tensions will not be in its interest.

He warned that other key Emirati sites including oil facilities and airports will be targeted if the country continues its aggression on Yemen.

That was also echoed by the commander of the armed forces of Yemen.

“If these series of aggressions and crimes and their attempt to occupy this country continue, this will, in the future, bring real threats against the economy of the UAE and investment there,” Mahdi al-Moshat said.

The UAE, which is fighting alongside Saudi Arabia, in the war on Yemen strongly condemned the Monday attacks on its territory as a “heinous crime”. It vowed punishment for the Yemenis.
The attacks killed three people and injured ten others.

Kremlin: Putin, Raisi to discuss JCPOA, joint economic projects

“It is planned to discuss the whole range of issues of bilateral cooperation, including the implementation of joint projects in the trade and economic sphere, as well as current international and regional issues,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

“In addition, it is planned to pay attention to the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program,” it added.

The meeting will be Raisi’s most important official visit abroad since he took office in August 2021, and the first visit by an Iranian president to Russia since 2017.

Raisi at the invitation of Putin will depart Tehran for Moscow on Wednesday.

Also, delivering a speech at Russia’s State Duma, meeting with Iranians residing in Russia, and holding a meeting with Russian businesspeople are among Raisi’s plans in Moscow.

Speaking during a telephone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed pleasure with the upcoming visit of Raisi to Moscow.

Lavrov and Amir Abdollahian described Raisi’s trip as an important development in the relations between the two countries and a good opportunity to expand and deepen bilateral ties.

Iran and Russia enjoy good economic and political relations.
Russia is a signatory to the P4+1 group of countries which are currently engaged in the Vienna talks over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran known as the JCPOA.

During the talks, Russia, along with China, has supported Iran’s stance and its push for the removal of US sanctions against Tehran.

Several injured in Pakistan train explosion

The incident happened a few minutes after the train left the provincial capital of Quetta, an official with the media cell of the Pakistan Railways told Xinhua on condition of anonymity as they were still gathering details of the blast to compile the initial report.

He said that four compartments and the engine of the train derailed as the result of the explosion.

“A bomb was fixed near the track and it went off as soon as the train passed by it,” he added.

According to local media reports, the incident left several people injured who have been shifted to a hospital in Quetta.

Military Sources: Iran, Russia, China to hold naval drills

Military Sources: Iran, Russia, China to hold naval drills

The Russian, Iranian and Chinese navies will hold joint naval maneuvers, Russia’s Pacific Fleet reported on Tuesday.

“The Pacific Fleet’s naval group made up of the Guards Order of Nakhimov missile cruiser Varyag, the large anti-submarine warfare ship Admiral Tributs and the large sea tanker Boris Butoma has anchored in the roadstead of the Chabahar port in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the port, the Russian Navy’s official delegation will take part in a planning conference on holding joint naval drills of combat ships of Russia, Iran and China,” the Pacific Fleet’s press office added.

The Russian naval ships will also replenish food, fresh water and fuel supplies at the port, the press office specified.

The Pacific Fleet’s naval task force departed from Vladivostok and embarked on its long-distance deployment several days before the new year 2022.

During their long-term deployment, the Russian naval ships are scheduled to call at the ports of several states, including the Republic of Seychelles. The port call will mark 105 years since the Imperial Russian Navy’s armored deck cruiser Varyag called at Port Victoria of the Seychelles Islands.

During its long-distance deployment, the Russian naval task force will hold scheduled drills, including international maneuvers as part of a group of combat ships in various parts of the Ocean.

Iran President Raisi to visit Russia on Wednesday

Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi

During the two-day trip, Raisi will be accompanied by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Oil Minister Javad Owji and Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ehsan Khanduzi.

Raisi will hold talks with Putin, address a session of the Russian parliament and attend a meeting with Iranians living in Russia.

Spokesman for the Iranian government says discussions and meetings between the two sides will focus on boosting Iranian exports to Russia and enhancing bilateral trade and economic and political relations.

The Kremlin has said that the two presidents will discuss the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and joint economic projects as well as international developments.

The Iranian president says his foreign policy priority is to expand ties with neighboring states and other regional countries.

Since taking office last August, this will be Raisi’s third foreign visit after trips to Tajikistan and Turkmenistan last year.

Covid deaths hit new low in Iran: 18 killed

So far, 132,113 people have died of the disease in Iran since the global pandemic reached the country two years ago.

The daily caseload from the disease was 3,653 on Monday including 306 hospitalizations. The new infections however indicate a surge compared to yesterday and a couple of days ago.

The surge could be attributed to the new variant of Covid dubbed Omicron. The disease is said to have reached Iran.

Some medically savvy people say a new wave driven by Omicron is around the corner in the country and this could happen as early as two weeks from now.

The strain has already hit most of Europe while the entire United States is marked red in terms of the impact by Omicron.

The vaccination campaign is going on in Iran at full speed. So far over 126 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the country with the number of boosters crossing the 13 million mark. But authorities are urging all people to get their third jabs to blunt the impact of Omicron, which is notoriously way more contagious than other strains though less deadly.

More than two dozen killed in Afghanistan earthquake

The victims died when roofs of their houses collapsed in Qadis district in the western province of Badghis, spokesman for the province Baz Mohammad Sarwary told AFP.

The shallow quake was magnitude 5.3, according to the US Geological Survey.

“Five women and four children are among the 26 people killed in the earthquake,” said Sarwary, adding that four more were injured.

The quake also inflicted damage on the residents of Muqr district in the province but details including of casualties were still unavailable, he continued.

Afghanistan is already in the grip of a humanitarian disaster, worsened by the Taliban takeover of the country in August when Western countries froze international aid and access to assets held abroad.

Qadis is one of the areas worst affected by a devastating drought, benefiting little from international aid in the past 20 years.

The country is frequently hit by earthquakes, especially in the Hindu Kush mountain range, which lies near the junction of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates.

Earthquakes can cause significant damage to poorly built homes and buildings in impoverished Afghanistan.

In 2015, nearly 280 people were killed when a powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake centred in the mountain range ripped across South Asia, with the bulk of the deaths in Pakistan.

In that disaster, 12 young Afghan girls were crushed to death in a stampede as they tried to flee their shaking school building.

Death toll from Saudi attack on Yemen rises to 23

The air raid targeted the Al-Libi district in the northwest of the city. According to the report, five residential buildings have been completely destroyed, and dozens of homes nearby were damaged. Some people are still trapped under the rubble.

The continuing strikes prevented ambulance vehicles from reaching the affected area, and forced rescuers to suspend the search effort.

Late on Monday, the Riyadh-led coalition announced it was resuming its strikes on Sana’a in the wake of a deadly attack on the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Yemeni army forces, backed by allied fighters from Popular Committees, carried out retaliatory airstrikes against strategic facilities deep inside the UAE on Monday, apparently using domestically-manufactured combat drones.

Abu Dhabi police, in a statement published on the official Emirates News Agency WAM, said three fuel tanker trucks had exploded in the industrial Musaffah area, near storage facilities of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and that a fire had also broken out at a construction site at Abu Dhabi International Airport. At least three people have been killed and six others wounded in the suspected drone attack, according to Emirati authorities.

The Al Mayadeen TV channel reported, citing Spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree, that the targets in the UAE were attacked by five ballistic and cruise missiles and a large number of drones.

The spokesman for Ansarullah movement, Mohammed Abdulsalam, warned Abu Dhabi against severe repercussions should it maintain its acts of sabotage in Yemen.

“A tiny state in the region, which goes to great lengths to serve the United States and Israel, has claimed that it had kept a fair distance from Yemen. The allegations, however, have proven otherwise,” he wrote on his Twitter page.

Abdulsalam added, “Abu Dhabi is recommended to give up its futile actions in Yemen; otherwise its hands and those of its mercenaries will be cut off from the country.”
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“The UAE condemns this terrorist attack by the Houthi militia on areas and civilian facilities on Emirati soil…(It) will not go unpunished,” its foreign ministry said, adding, “The UAE reserves the right to respond to these terrorist attacks and criminal escalation.”

A person familiar with government thinking claimed Monday the UAE will ask the US to put Yemen’s Houthis back on its list of terrorist organizations after the drone attacks, according to Bloomberg.

The UAE will work on building pressure through the United Nations Security Council over the strike and the capture of an Emirati vessel off the coast of Yemen earlier this month, the person added.
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A senior Emirati official told Axios Foreign Minister Abdullah Bin Zayed asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call Monday to re-designate the Houthi in Yemen as a “terrorist organization”.
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The White House on Monday condemned the attack by Yemeni forces, pledging to hold the group responsible.

“The United States strongly condemns today’s terrorist attack in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, which killed three innocent civilians,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement Monday afternoon.

“The Houthis have claimed responsibility for this attack, and we will work with the UAE and international partners to hold them accountable,” Sullivan continued, adding, “Our commitment to the security of the UAE is unwavering and we stand beside our Emirati partners against all threats to their territory.”
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Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a war against the Arab world’s most impoverished nation in March 2015. The war has been seeking to restore power in Yemen to Riyadh’s favorite officials.

The death toll of the war, now in its seventh year, will reach an estimated 377,000 by the end of 2021, according to a recent report from the UN’s Development Programme.

The fighting has seen some 80 percent of the population, or 24 million people, relying on aid and assistance, including 14.3 million who are in acute need.