Raisi lauds general Soleimani’s efforts in soft war, armed conflict
In a meeting with general Soleimani’s family members, and officials in charge of preparations for the second anniversary of the U.S. assassination of the general, the Iranian president said on Monday that Soleimani was upset by the fact that certain people were influenced by destructive propaganda campaigns and sought to correct them.
“Hajj Qasem belongs to the Islamic Ummah and the character of that great martyr should be introduced to everyone as an influential figure in the Islamic world,” the Iranian president stated.
Raisi noted that general Soleimani was not just a person, but rather a school, and a messenger for all societies.
Iran is preparing to mark the second anniversary of the high profile assassination on January 3.
General Soleimani and Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who played a key role in the fight against the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq and elsewhere in the region, were killed in a U.S. drone strike which was directly ordered by former U.S. president Donald Trump.
The drone attack triggered Iran to launch missiles on an Iraqi military base hosting U.S. troops injuring scores of them.
Yaldā Night with Covid
In the past two years, the Covid pandemic has given a different feeling to the night because we have heard less about those gatherings.
Farzaneh Babaee, a first grade elementary school teacher, talks about her experience of trying to keep the passion for Yaldā alive in her students:
“Now I had to make Yaldā a happy occasion for the children far from the classroom, the kids, the blackboard and color chalks which all worked miracles. I first tried to distance myself from all the sorrow injected to my soul by the Coronavirus news and then think of colors, sounds, tastes and whatever that made this night meaningful for me over these years.
I returned to my memories, the red color that had been running through my mind since the morning of the last day of autumn and I wanted to bring it out of my heart, put it on the table and share the happiness with my family. Grated pomegranates, the bowl of nuts, and basloqs soaked in coconut powder, which I did not even think of eating at other times of the year, would sit down with a few other edibles that night to give a picture of the warmth and light that we wished for on those Yaldā nights.
When you give in yourself to dreams and get detached from what is going on in your surroundings, you can make a plan for those you love if you want to. By recalling the tastes and colors, I picked up the Divan of Ḥāfeẓ to get a fal (fortune telling) for myself and feel it with all my heart before Yaldā and make a memorable Yaldā night for my pupils from a distance. That was how we greeted the first Yaldā Night during the Covid-stricken year when its days were mingled with reports of death and infection.
Each student was supposed to recite a poem from Ḥāfeẓ and to memorize the couplet they liked and to send to their friends that night. Some mothers had been preparing Yaldā 
edibles since the morning of the last day of autumn: The red boiled beetroots that were cuddling; red jellies topped with pomegranate seeds were put in the fridge; and the kids were eager to experience being with their family for a few seconds longer at night, with a new understanding of the letters of the alphabet and a sense of belonging to a group called the class.
The sun disappeared from the sky on last day of autumn sooner than we thought. By now, the kids have had a lot of happy and fresh experiences. Now with the arrival of the darkness, they passionately saw the sky full of stars. Now all my boys were sitting in clean clothes and with combed hair at the table which was decorated with cashmere and velvet.
And one by one, they sent me videos of themselves reciting Ḥāfeẓ pomes and sending Yaldā congratulations and also a display of red, round, and sweet edibles that symbolize this ancient feast. Although we were apart, this was the first year that we were really together in the dark of Yaldā Night.”
Turkey says likely to operate 5 Afghanistan airports
Speaking in a joint news conference with Malaysian Counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah, Cavusoglu said a delegation consisting of experts will travel to Doha, first, then to Afghanistan to discuss operating Kabul airport.
He noted that the Turkish and Qatari delegations will make joint proposals to the interim Taliban-led government in Afghanistan and will discuss it on Wednesday. A Turkish and Qatari company signed a joint agreement to operate five airports in Afghanistan, and not just the Kabul airport.
“We will operate the airports jointly with Qatar if conditions are favorable,” Cavusoglu added.
On Sunday, the foreign minister discussed the operation and maintenance of Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport and other airports in a meeting with acting Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Cavusoglu and Muttaqi met on the sidelines of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Islamabad.
Following the meeting, Cavusoglu stated, “We once again reminded them of the issue of inclusiveness,” indicating that he urged the Taliban to be inclusive in terms of ethnicity and politics.
He added that he also discussed with Muttaqi his planned visit to Afghanistan.
After the Taliban seized control of the country, Turkey offered technical and security assistance to operationalize Kabul’s airport. Keeping the airport open after foreign forces handed over control is vital to keeping Afghanistan connected with the world and maintaining an uninterrupted supply of aid for distribution.
Turkey has been working with Qatar to reopen the airport in the Afghan capital for international travel. However, repairs are needed before commercial flights can resume.
The Turkish government has taken a pragmatic approach to the recent events in Afghanistan. Underlining that new realities have emerged in Afghanistan, Ankara said it would move forward accordingly while keeping communication with all relevant leaders open.
Iran Covid: 511,000 more vaccines administered
The Health Ministry said on Monday that a total of over 113,751,000 doses have been administered in Iran, with well over 50 million people fully vaccinated. Over four million people have also received their booster shots.
The latest figures also showed that 41 more people lost their lives to the respiratory disease and nearly 2,400 new cases have been registered over the past 24 hours.
Currently, 53 cities are declared as yellow zones (medium risk) and 395 are blue (very low risk), and no cities are red (very high risk) or orange (high risk).
On Sunday, Iran confirmed its first case of the Omicron COVID-19 variant with health officials urging people to get their booster shots to improve immunity against the new highly contagious strain.
Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Kamal Heidari said the Omicron infected person was a man who recently returned to the country from the United Arab Emirates.
The Health Ministry announced on Monday that over 18-year-olds, who had their second dose three to four months ago, can get their booster jab.
Iran has suffered five waves of the disease with over 131,000 fatalities. It has now managed to contain the outbreak thanks to an intensified vaccination campaign.
Iran has imported tens of millions of coronavirus jabs over the past months and has stepped up domestic production of Covid-19 shots.
IRGC launches joint drills in southern provinces
“The maneuvers pitch units from the IRGC’s ground, naval and aerospace forces as well as units from the popular force of Basif,” said the IRGC’s Deputy Chief for Operations and the drills spokesman Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan.
“The drills are aimed at increasing the combat readiness of the IRGC using the most advanced equipment and tactics to counter likely threats and hybrid warfare.”
Report: Ex-Mossad head had affair, shared secret info with flight attendant
According to a TV special, the full investigation of which is expected to be premiered on Tuesday in Hebrew, Cohen’s affair began in late 2018 and saw him boast to the pair about different sensitive facts from the spy agency’s operations around the world, as well as give them information on his foreign travels.
“He told lots of stories, including about Mossad,” Guy Shiker, the flight attendant’s husband told the outlet, per The Times of Israel’s translation.
“He’s a blabbermouth. He started telling me that Mossad was ‘sitting’ on a doctor of a well-known Arab leader,” he added.
The flight attendant’s husband claimed that Cohen also revealed insights about his management approach, in particular, that he allegedly fired six top agency officials in the first 10 days at his post, “because they weren’t loyal to the system.”
“They weren’t good. They thought I was their best friend when we were equals. The moment I was appointed [I fired them], without mercy,” Cohen reportedly told Shiker.
More to the story, the husband shared with the channel that Cohen would send his wife texts in which he referred to her as “my princess” and “my beauty.”
“You love my wife, she loves you, you’re destroying a family right now,” Shiker told the spy chief.
According to the Times of Israel, in response to the allegations, Cohen stated that he never divulged any classified material or security secrets.
The latest allegations are not exactly new, as the former spy was accused of divulging state secrets and communicating with a flight attendant back in the summer. And Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was reportedly considering a complaint lodged with the Justice Ministry at the time.
Back then, the former Mossad chief categorically refuted the claims, adding that there was no flight attendant with whom he was in a relationship at all.
After giving a rather outspoken interview upon leaving office, Cohen was slammed by many in his home country for the supposed secret revelations, which, apart from the Natanz facility explosion’s responsibility, included the purported 2018 operation in which the agency stole Iran’s nuclear archive from safes in a Tehran warehouse, and also a revelation that Iran’s assassinated top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh had been on the Mossad’s radar for years.
According to Israeli media, embattled Cohen reportedly helped his daughter get a position at a firm with ties to a senior Emirati official while still serving as Israel’s top spy.
His term as Mossad chief ended in June, and David Barnea took over. He was named the head of SoftBank’s Israeli branch by Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son a short time later. Cohen, who was appointed by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has stated that he would not rule out running for prime minister in the future, but he is not currently considering it.
‘Saudi cities hit by Yemeni missile, drone strikes’
Al-Alam television network cited Saudi sources as saying “several explosions rang out in the [southwestern] Saudi cities of Jizan and Khamis Mushait”.
Yemen’s own War Media outlet confirmed targeting several Saudi cities with missiles and drones.
The counterstrikes shut down Jizan’s airport, where many incoming aircraft were barred from landing.
News sources affiliated to the Saudi kingdom, meanwhile, alleged that the country’s air defense had intercepted and destroyed two drones that were flying towards the Abha International Airport in Asir, another southwestern Saudi Arabian region.
Enjoying complete arms, logistical, and political support from the United States, Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies started a war against Yemen in March 2015.
The military campaign has been seeking to restore power to Yemen’s former Washington and Riyadh-aligned officials.
The war has stopped way short of the goal, while killing tens of thousands of Yemenis in the process and pushing the entire Yemen close to the brink of outright famine.
The Yemeni armed forces and their allies have vowed, though, not to lay down their arms until Yemen’s complete liberation from the Saudi-led aggression.
Iran: No direct talks recently held with US
Khatibzadeh, speaking at his weekly presser on Monday, added some messages about the topics of the negotiations (and no more than that) were received from the EU’s Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Enrique Mora in writing and orally from the beginning of the talks and the responses were given at the same time.
Regarding reports about the Iranian ambassador to Yemen leaving the country, Khatibzadeh said Mr. Irlou needed immediate medical care and this issue was for several days on Iran’s agenda, adding that several countries in the region including Iraq helped Iran.
He said the ties between Iran and Yemen National Salvation Government are stronger and closer than ever before, adding that Iran remains committed to give both political and economic assistance to it.
Khatibzadeh noted that the only way of helping with the Yemen issue is to heed the demands and will of the Yemeni people.
Khatibzadeh also rejected US claim that Iran has harbored al-Qaeda leaders, saying such baseless allegations are made by Washington every now and then.
On Iran’s agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency over the installation of cameras at the Karaj site near Tehran, Khatibzadeh said there will be no problems in the Iran-IAEA ties as long as issues remain within the technical confines.
Elsewhere, Khatibzadeh touched on a claim that Iran is enriching uranium to 90 percent purity.
He said Tehran, as a member of the IAEA, has always lived up to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and the agency is fully aware of Iran’s activities. He added that the level of enrichment will be decided by Iran’s needs.
Also on the Vienna talks, Khatibzadeh noted the US has not presented any tangible text to the P4+1 while Iran has put forth two documents that embody previous texts. He added that if the other sides come to the negotiating table with tangible proposals, an agreement will be reached in the shortest possible time.
Khatibzadeh also spoke of Iran’s relations with Saudi Arabia. He said Tehran is awaiting a response from Riyadh and progress in talks with the Saudis is contingent upon the other side’s seriousness.
Khatibzadeh added that Iran invites Saudi Arabia to resort to diplomacy and non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations.
On Britain’s debt to Iran, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said London has not yet taken any practical measure in this regard and made paying the debt conditional on other issues.
Putin: Russia foils 32 terror attacks in 2021
“Over recent years, there are significant progress and positive dynamics in this challenging, extremely responsible area [the fight against terrorism]. There has been a dramatic decline in the terrorist threat,” the Russian head of state said in a video statement on the occasion of the Security Agency Worker Day.
According to Putin, “Over the past eleven years, more than 200 terrorist attacks have been foiled, the number of terrorist crimes has decreased dramatically over this period.”
“The vast majority of such crimes are nipped in the bud,” he added.
“Over an 11 month-period this year, 61 crimes have been prevented, including 32 terrorist attacks, thanks to your effectiveness and coordination. This is a good result, but there are still many issues,” the Russian president addressed the employees of the security agencies.
Putin added that the fight against terrorism should be tough and uncompromising.
“At present, there is a challenging international situation. The nature and scale of current challenges and risks make higher demands on the work of special services. First of all, a tough and uncompromising fight against terrorism is your main, priority task,” the president stressed.
Putin said that the fight against terrorism should be tough and uncompromising.
“At present, there is a challenging international situation. The nature and scale of current challenges and risks make higher demands on the work of special services,” he noted.
“First of all, a tough and uncompromising fight against terrorism is your main, priority task,” Putin added.
