In a Monday tweet, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani described Macron’s “Islamophobic” remarks as “unwise behaviour” and an indication of his “political immaturity”.
“Otherwise, he would not have taken such an offensive move against Islam in order to realize his dream of leading Europe,” Shamkhani noted.
“I advise him to read history more, and not pin his hopes on the support of the declining America and the decaying Zionism,” he added.
Shamkhani’s comments came after numerous Muslim states and peoples denounced Macron’s persisting support for blasphemy in his country against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
“We will not give in, ever,” Macron tweeted on Sunday. The tweet served to back up his earlier support for a French teacher’s displaying of cartoons insulting of the Prophet of Islam in his class under the pretext of “freedom of speech.”
“France will never renounce caricatures,” Macron had declared on Wednesday, defending the teacher for “promoting freedom.”
“Corona‘s proven deadly, vicious and brutal everywhere, but it’s worse in Iran as it has a cruel collaborator: US regime,” the Foreign Ministry said in a Monday tweet.
“US has elevated maximum pressure to Health Terrorism and targeted Iranian people with inhuman sanctions while they’re fighting the pandemic,” it added.
“We’ll overcome but NEVER forget,” the tweet read.
The trade of humanitarian goods, such as food, medicine and medical devices, is theoretically allowed by the US, but European companies refuse to do business with Iran, fearing secondary American sanctions.
The bans imposed on the Iranian banking system have dissuaded many pharmaceutical firms from doing business with Iran.
The United States in June activated a set of sanctions it had imposed on Iran’s shipping network six months ago, in a move expected to further hamper imports of food and medical supplies into Iran at a time when the country is fighting to contain a deadly coronavirus outbreak.
The foods of Yazd mostly have a hot nature compatible with the desert climate of this city.
People of Yazd pay due regard to traditional medicine. They pay attention to the cold or hot nature of foods when cooking them and, of course, they are more inclined to eat foods with hot nature.
Traditional bread is an integral part of Yazdis’ tables at breakfast time. In cold season, “ground sesame and syrup” and “sesame paste” are found in every home.
Watermelons and pomegranates are the most frequently used fruits.
“Lettuce and oxymel (or vinegar)” is a popular afternoon snack in Yazd. They serve lettuce and bowls of oxymel or vinegar on large trays. They rinse lettuce leaves in oxymel or vinegar and eat them.
This is a traditional type of stew cooked in Yazd and is on the menus of all traditional restaurants in the city. Instead of split peas, peas are used to make this type of stew. Its ingredients include red meat, chopped onions, cinnamon, cardamom and turmeric.
This food is known for its sweet-sour taste. It is not only easy to cook, but also very nutritious as it is made with quince and prunes. The ingredients of this stew include quince, meat, prunes, split peas, saffron, sugar and tomato paste.
Foods for Hot Season
Felleh
Felleh is the simplest Yazdi food made with the colostrum of sheep or cows in early spring. Locals boil colostrum and drink it after it gets cold when it takes on a pudding-like form. In the distant past, this kind of food used to be put on the Haft-Seen Table, the special table set by peoples celebrating Nowruz as part of customs marking the arrival of the New Year on the solar calendar, which begins in late March.
Curd with Cucumber
In kitchens in Yazd, they have replaced yoghurt with curd. Cucumber with curd is a food for hot days in Yazd. First, they wash dried curd, rinse it in water and then grind it to prepare one of the ingredients of this simple food. Then they add several grated cucumbers, crushed walnuts, mint and sultanas. Sometimes this food is served as an appetizer at mealtimes and sometimes it is served as the main course at noon in summer.
Onion and Vinegar Salad
The onion salad is a salad specifically served in hot season in Yazd in order to lower the body temperature. To make this salad, they shred the onions and put it into vinegar before adding a lot of mint.
Yazdi Broths
Different types of broth are cooked in Yazd. The most famous ones are “Shooli” and the pomegranate broth which is made with pomegranate juice. Moreover, the courgette broth, Jogav broth and mung beans are also popular among locals.
Shooli, the Most Popular Broth in Yazd
It completely depends on the season what ingredients are used in this kind of broth and different ingredients are used in winter and summer. Cooked mung beans, spinach, beet root, and sometimes turnips and goldmine zucchinis are used ad ingredients in winter. In summer, they cook this broth with some whole or half-mashed peas and lentils, chopped or half-mashed beet root, and leaves. Pomegranate vinegar or grape vinegar as well as pomegranate paste is sometimes used as seasoning.
Snacks and Desserts in Yazd
Moshtook
Crushed dried bread, which must be a type of traditional bread of Yazd, is mixed with grated onions and cheese as well as half-crushed walnuts and cumin. Then they add some water to shape the ingredients into a paste-like mixture and form it into ball-shaped pieces to be used.
Soorok Bread
The Soorok bread is a kind of tasty shortbread mostly cooked on Thursdays to be given away as Kheirat (food and other edibles distributed among people for free usually on Thursdays in return for them offering prayers to the souls of the distributor’s loved ones who have passed away.) The ingredients include flour, water, sugar, salt, coriander seeds, safflower, yeast and sesame oil.
Yazdi Paloodeh
Paloodeh (a sweet beverage containing starch jelly in the form of thin fibres) is one of delicious specialties found in whole Yazd. Paloodeh is made with starch, rosewater, water and sugar as main ingredients. The difference between Yazdi Paloodeh and Shirazi Faloodeh is that the former is rice-shaped and served with fennel flower seeds.
If this dessert is not served in rice-shaped pieces, then it is served as a whole piece in a bowl with almonds, pistachios and a special syrup.
Yazdi Coffee
The method of making Yazdi coffee was make on the cultural heritage list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) last year.
To make this coffee, they put Turkish coffee along with water, cardamom, rosewater and Yazdi rock candy onto a tray and heat them for at least 6 hours to get thick coffee. This type of coffee is of special importance in mourning ceremonies.
Ali-Akbar Velayati, the secretary general of the forum, denounced Paris authorities’ support for the use of the blasphemous cartoons in a French class room.
“Following international condemnations at a time when the publication insulting the Prophet Muhammad in France should have been banned, double-standard approaches led to this polytheistic and irreligious ideology finding its way into the educational system of this country and being promoted,” he said in a message.
Velayati said all these events bear witness to the ever-growing interest in Islam, which has led the major masterminds of this wicked move to enter the scene overtly and unmask their real and infamous face.
“Extremism and insulting Prophet Muhammad are two faces of the same coin promoted by international Zionism and global hegemony against pure Islam,” he added.
Velayati said such moves will sadden, and trigger a response by Muslims, freedom-seekers and justice-seekers around the world and further unite Muslims.
“As it has announced earlier, the World Forum for Islamic Awakening condemns this crime and big insult, asking all Muslims to remain vigilant and make the masterminds of these anti-Islam plots fail in their attempts,” he said.
His comments come as French President Emmanuel Macron is facing widespread criticism from Muslim leaders over his anti-Islam stances. The Pakistani premier earlier accused Macron of encouraging Islamophobia; the Turkish president said his French counterpart needs mental checks. Several Muslim states have also called for boycotting French goods.
In a press briefing on Sunday, Sima-Sadat Lari said the virus has killed 296 patients since Saturday noon, raising the overall death toll to 32,616.
So far, she added, 455,054 patients have recovered from the disease or been discharged from the hospital.
Lari said 4,969 patients are also in critical conditions caused by more severe infection.
The spokeswoman noted that 4,719,597 COVID-19 tests have been taken across the country so far.
She said the high-risk “red” zones include Tehran, Qom, Mazandaran, East Azarbaijan, Isfahan, Yazd, Ardabil, Khorasan Razavi, Khuzestan, Hamadan, West Azarbaijan, Bushehr, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Alborz, Lorestan, Markazi, Ilam, South Khorasan, Kermanshah, North Khorasan, Semnan, Gilan, Zanjan, Qazvin, Kurdistan, and Kerman provinces.
The “orange” and “yellow” zones also include Golestan, Hormozgan, Fars, and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces, she added.
Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour made the comment as the military conflict between the Azerbaijan Republic and Armenia goes on near Iranian borders.
“We would counteract any insecurity and threat along our borders which would inflict harm on our dear people’s security and mental calm, and basically, our people’s security and our country’s national interests are our red lines,” said General Pakpour, the commander of the Ground Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), while warning the two warring sides.
“The deployment of forces of the IRGC’s Ground Force will be in line with safeguarding our national interests as well as insuring the security and tranquility of people in the region,” said the top commander.
“We respect the territorial integrity of neighbouring countries, and any change in our border geopolitics will by the Islamic Republic of Iran’s red line,” he said.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran is opposed to, and condemns any occupation and aggression,” the senior commander underscored.
He said IRGC troops have been monitoring border developments in the north of the country since the military clashes began between the Azerbaijan Republic and Armenia.
“The necessary measures have been adopted and the necessary reinforcement has been done in accordance with the current situation,” he said.
In a Saturday message to the Bolivian president-elect, President Rouhani voiced support for the elected government of Luis Arce, and announced the readiness of the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to restore bilateral relations and expand cooperation with the Latin American country.
“I sincerely congratulate you on the successful holding of the Bolivian general elections and on your success in this election,” Rouhani said.
“The recent election, which resulted in the decisive victory of Your Excellency and Mr David Choquehuanca as Vice President, was not only a strengthening of the foundations of democracy, but also a glorious demonstration of the administration of justice by the great nation of Bolivia,” he added.
“In the new era of the return of power to the people’s representatives, I express support for the Your Excellency’s elected government, and express the readiness of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to revive bilateral relations and expand cooperation with the friendly country of Bolivia in all fields.”
Rouhani finally wished health and success for Arce, and prosperity and felicity for the Bolivian people.
Bolivia held general elections on 18 October for President, Vice-President, and all seats in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. Luis Arce of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party was elected president winning 55% of the vote and securing majorities in both chambers of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly.
In a statement on Saturday, Khatibzadeh appreciated the role of the United Nations and the Libyan negotiating parties in clinching the agreement, expressing hope that the ceasefire would be lasting and that all parties would live up to their commitments.
Emphasising the need to cut off foreign interference in the process of negotiations between the negotiating parties in Libya, Khatibzadeh reiterated Iran’s opposition to a military solution to the crisis and called for the political settlement of the Libyan crisis through dialogue.
Libya’s warring sides signed an agreement for a permanent ceasefire in all areas in what the UN called a “historic achievement”.
For months, the two sides were engaged in a tense standoff around Surt, in central Libya, where the country’s long-time dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi was born and died in 2011. Surt is the gateway to a region known as the oil crescent, where most of Libya’s oil production takes place.
