Bagheri was speaking to IRIB in Moscow on Tuesday.
He said Iran is awaiting practical steps by the West. Bagheri said he held talks with Russian officials over the Vienna talks.
He added that Tehran also held consultations with China in Vienna during the negotiations with the P4+1.
Iran’s chief negotiator reiterated that the draft documents the Iranian negotiating team presented to the P4+1 can advance the talks in a serious way.
He also confirmed earlier media reports that the Vienna talks between Iran and the P4+1 nalmely Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany will resume on Thursday.
Iran negotiator says proposals to 4+1 “fruitful, constructive”
Iran, Azerbaijan Republic to build border road bridge
“The bridge will be 97 meters long and 32 meters wide and will be built in four lanes, and its credit will be provided jointly by the governments of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan,” Deputy Iranian Minister of Road and Urban Development and CEO of Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Co. Kheyrollah Khademi said after a joint meeting of the officials of the two countries in Astara on Tuesday.
The over $40 million construction project will last for 15 months. The planned road bridge will be built along the railway bridge between Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Transport of Azerbaijan Rahman Hummatov said economic and political relations between Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan have always been based on brotherhood and neighborliness.
He added that the construction of Astara-Astara railway is a clear and successful example of this joint relationship and the two sides are now fully prepared to build a bridge over the Astarachay.
Asghar Farhadi’s ‘A Hero’ to contest in 2022 Oscars
The social drama thriller was accepted to represent Iran as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences published its lists of movies eligible for the Animated Feature Film, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film categories.
Iran’s two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi’s latest movie debuted at Cannes Film Festival in July and won a Grand Prix award.
The movie’s plot centers on Rahim, played by Amir Jadidi, who is behind bars because of a debt he failed to repay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint, but things don’t exactly go as planned.
Farhadi received two Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film for his “A Separation” in 2011 and “The Salesman” in 2016.
The 94th Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on March 27, 2022.
Iran Covid: Number of vaccines administered crosses 108 million mark
So far, 1,574,982 people have received the third shot, also known as the booster.
Meanwhile, Iranian Health Ministry figures released on Tuesday show 79 people have died from Covid-19 over the past 24 hours.
The total death toll from the disease in Iran since the start of the pandemic that engulfed the whole world is 130,356.
Two cities in Iran are marked red, which means the risk of Covid is very high there. 9 cities are orange, 153 yellow and 284 blue. Blue cities are where people face the lowest level of risk from Covid.
A range of factors helped maintain the downward trend in Covid deaths and infections in Iran including a fast vaccination drive across the country, unrelenting efforts by the government and people’s help with the inoculation process.
The vast majority of people in Iran have welcomed the vaccination campaign.
Iranian authorities have relaxed some curbs put in place to contain Covid. But they urge people to be cautious as a sixth wave of the outbreak is still a possibility.
Shahreza back to ancient tradition of cooking Samanu
Samanu has been cooked in Shahreza for 500 years with the same rituals of the past, including in a zinc cauldron, heated by firewood, and of course, with faith and as offering for the members of Prophet Mohammad’s household specially his daughter Fatemeh Zahra.
The nutritious paste is the only food solely prepared using water and flour, and has no other additive, including salt and sugar.
The sweet taste of Samanu is drawn from the golden grains of wheat, germinated and milled into flour with its germ and bran.
Samanu is cooked in a mud furnace and the master cook, who prepares it, adds certain amounts of flour and water to the zinc cauldron, which are determined by his experience.
The cook then patiently stirs the mix until it is reduced to a paste without any water. This is called “frying”, which leaves a brown product with a nice fragrance.
Then, the cook adds some water to dilute the mix and the process of reduction is repeated a few times.
After 18 hours, a white cloth is placed over the cauldron to steam the mix. A zinc tray is also put on top and a volume of the Holy Quran, a mirror, candles, a comb, chocolate and a pot of water are then put over the tray.
Samanu takes 7 more hours to steam, during which firewood is removed from underneath.
The traditional Samanu cooking method in Shahreza is unique and is a ritual performed every year when the cold seasons come around.
Report: Vienna talks to resume on Thursday
During the recent round of the Vienna talks, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister and chief negotiator Ali Bagheri and EU Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Enrique Mora finalized the date on which the talks aimed at removing the anti-Iran sanctions will restart.
Meanwhile, Ali Bagheri, who is Moscow for talks, has met with his Russian counterpart Sergi Ryabkov at Russia’s Foreign Ministry.
Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali was also present in the meeting.
Bagheri and Ryabkov reviewed the latest round of talks between Tehran and the P4+1 group, namely Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
The two officials underlined the need for continued consultations by Tehran and Moscow over international issues and the Vienna talks.
The latest talks between Iran and the P4+1 ended on Friday. During the negotiations, the Iranian delegation presented two documents to the other side which laid out Tehran’s proposals for the resolution of the deadlock in the Vienna talks.
Iran says one document outlines Iran’s proposals for the removal of sanctions on the country and the other one contains proposals on Tehran’s nuclear activities.
After the drafts were submitted, the P4+1 members went to their capitals for consultations.
Official daily: Iran negotiators to safeguard national interests with or without agreement
“In this regard, it should be noted that the principle of negotiation is not aimed at reaching an agreement, but designed to secure Iran’s national interests, and if a bad agreement is detrimental to national interests, it certainly should be avoided,” the daily wrote in an opinion piece.
It says now that all P4+1 members have acknowledged the accuracy of Iran’s proposed drafts and deem them as a good and appropriate basis for continuing consultations and negotiations, the media and even political strategy within the country should be focused on a good agreement to serve national interests.
In this context, victory means securing Iran’s national interests regardless of reaching an agreement or not, and defeat means harming the country’s national interests even if the two sides manage to hammer out a deal.
The opinion piece warns about attempts by the Western media and the Persian-language anti-Iran media and even some political spectrums inside Iran to describe reaching any agreement as success, and the continuation of negotiations as a failure.
The Iranian delegation entered the 7th round of negotiations in Vienna with clear and unequivocal demands that fully comply with the 2015 agreement and even the draft of the sixth round of the talks, and this has disrupted the West’s planning, it adds.
Yemeni forces say pounded many targets in Saudi Arabia
He also said other targets hit by Yemeni missiles and drones were in the city of Jeddah and in Jizan, Najran and Asir regions.
Saree added that the Yemeni forces used new ballistic missiles and 25 long-range assault drones in the operation.
The Yemeni Army’s spokesman noted that six Samad-3 UAVs and several Zulfaqar missiles hit the Saudi Defense Ministry and King Khaled Airport as well as other targets in Riyadh.
According to Saree, sux Samad-2 and Samad-3 drones were fired at King Fahd Airbase and the Aramco Oil Company in Jeddah.
He warned Saudi citizens to stay away from military sites because “they are legitimate targets for attacks”.
Saree said, “We will respond in kind to intensified attacks and will conduct many military operations as part of our legitimate defense against continued attacks and siege of Yemen.”
Meanwhile, the Saudi -led coalition continued their aerial bombing of Yemen. Warplanes did over 30 airstrikes against different Yemeni cities.
The Saudi war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis since its onset in March 2015. The UN has described the situation in Yemen the worst humanitarian crisis on earth.
Iran FM: Removing all sanctions only way to revive JCPOA
In his article published in Russia’s Kommersant newspaper, the Iranian foreign minister stressed that the United States and the three European signatories to the JCPOA must understand that the current window of negotiations will not remain open forever.
The Islamic Republic intends to keep up its active diplomatic efforts to lift the illegal U.S. sanctions, but at the same time has effective tools to neutralize the impact of these sanctions and protect the country’s sustainable economic development, Amir Abdollahian added.
The top diplomat stressed that Tehran is ready for fruitful negotiations to fully revive the JCPOA and is determined to achieve a positive outcome in Vienna.
“Despite the non-fulfillment of Western commitments under the nuclear deal, Iran is ready to demonstrate its goodwill in achieving the ultimate goal of lifting unilateral and illegal U.S. sanctions, and to pursue fruitful negotiations in Vienna,” he wrote.
The Iranian foreign minister said the current situation regarding the nuclear deal is due to Washington’s actions, which over the past four years has spared no effort to destroy the JCPOA, while Tehran has made every effort to keep the deal alive.
He noted that UN Security Council Resolution 2231 has explicitly called on all parties to the nuclear deal to support the deal and to refrain from any action that could harm the agreement.
Iran and the P4+1 group – China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany- resumed their talks last week to find a way to remove sanctions against Tehran and allow the U.S. to return to the 2015 deal.
Iran security chief: U.S. seeks to create new regional crises
“The United States is infuriated by the collapse of Daesh in Syria and Iraq, and the victory of the resistance front, which has increased the strategic power of this front, and (America) is seeking to create new crises,” Shamkhani told the Syrian top diplomat.
He said the plot to create a security crisis in Syria was jointly hatched by the U.S. and Israel, and warned of its dangerous consequences, which “could jeopardize the security of the entire region”.
The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council noted that foreign occupation in Syria will cause insecurity and the spread of violence, adding that aggression and occupation in history have resulted in nothing but retreat and humiliating defeat.
Shamkhani condemned Israel’s repeated attacks on Syria, saying they are in line with the regime’s brutal aggression against Palestine and Lebanon. He added that resistance and forceful fight are the only way to get rid of the “Zionist cancerous tumor” in the region.
Referring to the strategic relations between Iran and Syria in the political and security fields, Shamkhani emphasized that such close ties should be extended to other sectors, especially the economic field, and announced Iran’s full readiness in this regard.
Faisal Mekdad, for his part, thanked Tehran for its full support for the Syrian people and government.
“With the defeat of the united terrorism front and the establishment of relative stability in Syria, a new chapter in cooperation between the two countries has begun with the priority of economic relations,” the Syrian foreign minister stated.
He called the illegal U.S. military presence in Syria a violation of the principle of sovereignty and encroachment on the country’s territorial integrity, adding that the United States seeks to revive terrorist cells to prevent lasting stability in Syria.
Mekdad described the continuing Israeli atrocities in the region and the repeated military aggression against Syria as a clear example of state terrorism.
“Terrorism, military aggression and oppressive sanctions cannot undermine the Syrian people’s determination to resist coercion and excessive demands,” the Syrian foreign minister added.
Referring to the vast capacities for bilateral economic cooperation, Mekdad said Iranian quality goods are popular among the Syrian people, calling for increasing the presence of Iranian public and private companies in the Syrian market.
