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Huge earthquake hits southeastern Iran

Authorities say the epicenter of the quake is Laft. The earthquake hit at a depth of 18 kilometers. At least one person died in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas after an electric post fell down on him.

The Persian Gulf center of the IRIB described the quake as very long and powerful.

Meanwhile the governor of Hormozgan says he visited the vulnerable and suburban areas in the province, adding, “Fortunately, the damage is not severe”. Meanwhile, authorities have opened public spaces to people in the quake zone for their emergency accommodation.

 

Reports say it was also felt in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. A video has ricocheted around social media showing people in Dubai in the streets following the earthquake.

Iran is a quake-prone country with much of its territory being criss-crossed by fault lines.

The latest earthquake which caused huge casualties in Iran hit Kermanshah Province in 2017. The tremor killed 630 people and injured thousands more.

There are several dangerous fault lines in the Iranian capital Tehran as well and scientists have repeatedly called for measures to bolster buildings in the city against a possible massive quake.

Over 98 million doses of Covid vaccine administered in Iran

The number of people who have received the first dose of vaccine has reached 55,732,066. Meanwhile, 42,193,734 people have received the second dose. The number of people who have been given the third dose, also known as the booster shot, is 514,490.

The total number of doses administered in Iran is 98,440,590 doses. 

Also, 125 more people have lost their lives to Covid-19 over the past 24 hours. There were 6,143 new cases including 904 hospitalizations. Since the start of the pandemic, 6,037,718 people have contracted Covid in Iran. The majority of them, that is, 5,695,949 people have recovered from the disease while 128,167 have died. 

Currently, 26 cities in Iran are marked red, which means the risk of Covid is very high there. 87 cities are orange, 220 yellow and 100 are blue. Blue cities face the least level of risk from Covid. 

The high rate of vaccination has kept down the number of new infections, deaths and hospitalizations. But officials are urging all unvaccinated people to get their jabs. They also say no one should relax health protocols as laxity could increase the chances of a sixth wave of the outbreak. 

Meanwhile, 37,038,991 PCR tests have been conducted since the pandemic began. The Iranian government has ordered healthcare centers do the tests for citizens out of charge.

Iran claims first Sambo medal at World Championships

Saeedi-Madani, an Iranian athlete, won a bronze medal at the 2021 World Sambo Championships in Uzbekistan to become the first Iranian sambo medalist in the World Championships.

The World Sambo Championships kicked off in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on Friday (November 12th) and are currently underway.

In the continuation of these competitions, in the weight of minus 88 kg, Saeedi-Madani, the representative of Iran, started his work by defeating opponents from Cyprus, Latvia and Romania, and then lost to the representative of Russia.

In the classification match, Saeedi-Madani took the lead from his opponent to reach third place and the bronze medal.

This was Iran’s first Sambo medal in world competitions.

Sambo is a Soviet martial art, an internationally-practiced combat sport, and a recognized style of amateur wrestling included by UWW in the World Wrestling Championships along with Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling.

Iran exports to Afghanistan hits $1bn

According to the director of Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce, imports from Iran are continuing normally and that the value of the imports has hit a billion dollars from the beginning of the year.  

Younes Momand added that Afghanistan’s exports to Iran stand at 800 million dollars. Momand said imports from Iran are mainly electronic equipment, raw material, oil and foodstuff while exports to the country are gems, dried fruit, cotton, apricots and other fruits. 

Afghan Chamber of Commerce officials had previously said trade with Iran halted for one month following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan but it has returned to normal now. 

It also announced that Afghan exports via Iran’s Chabahar Port had stopped, calling for the resumption of exports.

Fantastic autumn in central Iranian city of Khansar

 

Khansar, which is known for its inverted tulips and its high-quality honey, is best to visit during autumn.

It is a town with a small population that is just a two-hour drive away from the city of Esfahan.

Kahnsar means a place where springs flow, and to suit the name, it is full of springs and boasts a lush nature. In fact, Khansar is among Iranian cities with nicest weather and has everything a nature lover would desire in place, ranging from tall lush trees and cool springs to lofty mountains covered with snow and warm sunlight, not to mention clean air and fantastic routes through groves. 

The pleasure from walking the streets of Khansar, especially among its groves, during autumn is a unique experience that prompts one to wish to do it again and again.

Russian exporter says to continue military cooperation with Iran

“Regarding the prospects of military-technical cooperation with Iran, it is vital to answer that under any circumstances, cooperation will be maintained given strict abidance by active legal norms of both countries, international commitments of the parties, and norms of international law,” the director general of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, told reporters at the Dubai Airshow 2021 exhibition in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday.

A UN arms embargo on Iran was lifted on 18 October 2020, as set out in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Before that, arms supplies could be allowed only by the UN Security Council.

In November 2015, Russia prolonged the contract with Iran for sales of four units of S-300 air defense systems, and in 2016, the equipment was shipped. A similar contract was signed in 2007, but was frozen in 2010, when the United Nation Security Council adopted Resolution 1929, prohibiting transfer of armament to Iran. However, Moscow and Tehran also signed some other agreements, which did not contradict the UN sanctions, such as Iran’s purchasing of Russian radio-monitoring and radio-technical intelligence equipment, according to the director of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev.

In late August, Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan told RIA Novosti that the countries are in talks on a range of military products, in light of the lifting of the UN arms embargo.

German embassy in Tehran says not to accept asylum applications by Afghans

“Have you fled Afghanistan recently? The German embassy has no special plan for the admission of Afghan nationals in Iran,” reads part of the banner.

“Asylum-seekers must be present inside Germany in order to be able to submit their applications for asylum,” reads the banner.

“The German embassy in Tehran can neither accept nor examine asylum applications,” according to the banner.

“If you have worked as a local employee for a German or international organization or institution in Afghanistan, or if you have worked as a civil activist, journalist or representative of the government and have been linked to Germany, too, you may contact the relevant individual or institution in Germany and inform them that you are in Iran,” explains the banner.

“If you meet the requirements for admission, Germany will contact you,” it reads.

“If you have recently fled from Afghanistan to Iran, you may visit the following website link for further information” https://help.unhcr.org/iran/en/arrival/ ,” reads the banner.

This comes as Iran has in the four decades hosted around four million Afghan refugees. Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul last August, thousands of Afghans have been flocking to Iran. Tehran, under US sanctions, is inoculating Afghan refugees against Coronavirus.

Report: US hushed up air raids that killed dozens of civilians in Syria

The bombings took place near the town of Baghouz in the eastern Syrian province of Dayr al-Zawr on March 18 that year, the daily said.

An Air Force lawyer present in the operations center at the time believed the strikes were possible “war crimes” and later alerted the US Defense Department’s inspector general and the Senate Armed Services Committee, the newspaper added.

No thorough investigation and no other serious action was, however, launched.

The Department, the paper wrote, sufficed to launching “an inquiry” into the incident, which led to a report that was ultimately “stripped” of any mention of the bombings.

The US Central Command that oversees the American forces in the West Asia region has tried to justify the bloodbath by calling it “legitimate self-defense,” claiming that it ordered the attacks in favor of Washington-backed Kurdish militants.

It also alleges that “appropriate steps were taken to rule out the presence of civilians.”

At the same time, however, the Central Command also alleges that the number of civilians among the 60 fatalities could not be determined because “multiple armed women and at least one armed child were observed” in footage of the events.

The US and its allies invaded Syria in 2014 under the pretext of fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group. The outfit had emerged as Washington was running out of excuses to extend its regional meddling or enlarge it in scale.

The military interference was surprisingly slow in confronting the terrorists, despite the sheer size of the coalition that had enlisted scores of Washington’s allied countries.

Numerous reports and regional officials would, meanwhile, point to the US’s role in transferring Daesh’s elements throughout the region and even airlifting supplies to the terror outfit.

In 2017 and in the height of the coalition’s military campaign in Syria, Russia drew a parallel between the destruction that was being caused by the US-led forces and the wholesale bombing campaign on the German city of Dresden during the World War II.

Russia says sharing stance with Iran on ‘good agreement’ in nuclear talks

Russia’s lead negotiator at the Vienna talks, Mikhail Ulyanov, made the remarks in a post on his Twitter account on Saturday after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian noted Tehran and the remaining parties to the landmark nuclear deal of 2015 – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – can reach a “good agreement in a short time” only in case of a “serious and positive” approach to the upcoming Vienna talks.

“The Islamic Republic has no intention to be locked in the stalemate remaining from the previous negotiations…I believe that if the opposite sides enter in the Vienna [talks] with a serious and positive approach, it will be possible to achieve a good agreement in a short time,” Amir-Abdollahian stated in a post on Instagram on Friday.

In response to the Iranian foreign minister’s post, Ulyanov said via Twitter that “Russia proceeds from the same understanding.”

In another tweet, the Russian diplomat reacted to earlier remarks made by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and chief negotiator Ali Baqeri-Kani on the significance of the removal of all sanctions against Tehran.

In a post on his Twitter account on Friday, Baqeri-Kani announced “effective removal of unlawful sanctions & importance of assurances on non-repetition was emphasized” during earlier visits to France, Germany, Britain and Spain.

In response to the Iranian chief negotiator, Ulyanov stressed, “It is natural that for Iran sanctions lifting comes first.”

The JCPOA was unilaterally abandoned by the US in 2018 despite Iran’s full compliance with its nuclear undertakings, as repeatedly certified by the UN nuclear agency. The US then unleashed a “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, which practically deprived the country of all of the deal’s economic benefits.

Iran fully honored its nuclear obligations for an entire year, after which it decided to ramp up its nuclear work as a legal “remedial measure” against the US violation of the deal and the abject failure on the part of the other signatories, the E3 in particular, to safeguard its benefits.

Envoys from Iran and the P4+1 are expected to hold the seventh round of discussions in Vienna on November 29. The negotiations were paused in June, when Iran held its presidential election. Since then, the new Iranian administration has been reviewing the details of the six rounds of discussions held under the previous administration.

The US administration of Joe Biden has announced it is willing to rejoin the deal, but it has shown an overriding propensity for maintaining some of the sanctions as a tool of pressure. Tehran insists that all sanctions should first be removed in a verifiable manner before it reverses its remedial measures.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov noted on Thursday that the United States needs to revise its policy of draconian sanctions against the Islamic Republic so as to help revive the JCPOA.

“The utmost must be done so that the negotiations ensure the restoration of what’s known as the ‘factory settings’ of the JCPOA,” Ryabkov added, according to TASS.

Iran releases video of testing of satellite carrier engine

The test was conducted back in July, 2010.

The engine had an excellent performance during the test.