In comments on the sidelines of a Sunday visit to an exhibition of high-tech products for the fight against the novel coronavirus, President Rouhani said his administration has been making efforts to strengthen and promote the knowledge-based companies over the past couple of years.
The plans to strengthen the infrastructures of domestic knowledge-based companies have boosted businesses, promoted technologies and elevated the country’s position in scientific rankings, the president added.
He also noted that development of the knowledge-based companies has made Iran self-sufficient in the production of many goods which were being imported in the past.
The domestic production of commodities by the knowledge-based businesses has reduced the expenditure on imports and has created a large market for the Iranian products, he added.
The president also said investment in strengthening the infrastructures in the health system has now helped the country at the time of crisis, noting that advanced medical equipment are currently at the disposal of the medical society for the battle with COVID-19.
While the outbreak of coronavirus has forced people to stay home and has restricted the travels, the robust infrastructures in the cyber sector and electronic services have helped the country resume its activities via the virtual space, the president noted.
He finally stated that the achievements of the local industries displayed in the exhibition signify the ability to manufacture the necessary equipment for the treatment of coronavirus and carry out rapid laboratory tests to detect the virus.
The Shah Cheragh Shrine houses the tombs of the brothers Ahmad and Muhammad, sons of Imam Musa al-Kadhim (AS) and brothers of Imam Reza (AS).
The holy shrine has remained closed since the beginning of nationwide lockdown policies aimed at containing the spread of coronavirus.
Despite earlier controversies sparked by a group of fanatics who insisted on visiting the holy shrines of Qom and Mashhad and showed unacceptable and dangerous behaviours there, the following photos released by Fars News Agency show the benevolentwomen believers sewing masks for their compatriots in the wake of the pandemic in Shah Cheragh Shrine:
It contains 3,500 volumes of books along with a collection of fabulous antiquities.
The Dar-ul-Khalafeh book café is one of the most interesting and attractive ones in Tehran whose numbers has been growing in recent years. The Dar-ul-Khalafeh building used to be the home of Mahin-ul-Molk Vazinani, the brother-in-law of Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, the fifth Qajar king of Persia. In the 1950s or 60s, its owner donates the building to be turned into a clinic.
The house measures 260 square metres and boasts the ancient Persian-style interior design as well as architecture dating back to the Pahlavi era.
Its yard was dramatically refurbished during the time the house was under restoration work. As a case in point, a pond buried under soil was dug out and restored. Moreover, the yard and rooms used to be covered in tiles, which were replaced by tile bricks during renovation work.
The antique items at the building are, in fact, its owner’s personal collection. The owner had begun collecting the items when he was just 14 years old.
There are as many as 3,500 volumes of books, magazines and offset-printed newspapers. Visitors can borrow the books for free and read them in the yard or in one of the five rooms at the building while sipping at their drinks.
Dar-ul-Khalafeh has been restored today at the owner’s cost without any contribution from any authority or government institution. The building has now turned into a cultural place.
What follows are Tehran Picture Agency’s photos of the café:
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Century-Old Café in Tehran, Popular Hangout for Book Readers
In a joint statement on Saturday, Hashd al-Sha’abi groups said from now on the US troops in the Arab country will be dealt with as “occupation forces”.
The statement cited the US refusal to withdraw its forces from Iraq and its “continued aggression” against the country as the reasons for their decision.
“You have proven to everyone that you are occupation forces and that you only respect the language of force; on these bases you will be dealt with as occupiers,” the statement reads.
It also said that the Iraqi resistance forces’ military operations are a basic response to the US aggression.
“Be aware that all operations which have been carried out against you so far were only a minor response to your aggressions as the decision to carry out operations [against US forces] had not been taken back then,” it added.
They stressed that the recent US threats to target the resistance forces are aimed at covering up their own failures.
The statement was signed by Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, Kata’ib al-Imam Ali, Harakat al-Awfiy’a, Saraya Ashura, Harakat Jund al-Imam, and Saraya al-Khurasani.
In late March, the other PMU group Kata’ib Hezbollah blew the lid off a plot by the US military to carry out massive aerial operations — backed by ground troops – against bases of the elite anti-terror force, which is currently busy helping the government in the fight against a new coronavirus pandemic.
The PMU statement was concluded with a message to the Iraqi people, in which the resistance groups vowed that they will not let the US occupy the country and rob its resources.
The statement comes in line with earlier calls by the Iraqi Parliament and military for all foreign troops to leave the Arab country as soon as possible.
Iraqi lawmakers unanimously approved a bill on January 5, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the United States from the country following the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the PMU, and their companions in a US airstrike authorized by President Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport two days earlier.
Since then, the US-led coalition has handed over to the Iraqi army a number of bases it had occupied in the Arab country. However, it has also deployed further military equipment, including C-RAM systems and Patriot missile defense systems, to protect its remaining forces in the country.
In their Saturday statement, the PMU also declared their opposition to the designation of Adnan al-Zurfi as Iraq’s prime minister, saying that Zurfi is a corrupt politician, a CIA puppet, and a threat to Iraq’s domestic peace and security.
Iraqi President Barham Salih appointed Zurfi as the new prime minister in mid-March.
The achievements and products displayed at the exhibition have been developed by the experts of Industry Ministry, Defence Ministry, and the Vice-Presidency for Science and Technology.
What follows are photos of the visit retrieved from the president’s official website:
The incident happened in “Posht-e Bam” region of Saravan in Sistan and Baluchestan province near the border with Pakistan.
Local Basij member Esmail Qalandarzehi was shot dead in the gun battle, said the Public Relations Department of Ground Forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
The armed terrorists, who were confronted by the heavy fire of the Quds base of the IRGC’s ground forces and were unable to resist, fled into the neighbouring country in the dark.
Iran has repeatedly called on Pakistan to tighten control along the common border and fight off the terrorist groups, reminding the Islamabad government that the burden of ensuring security along the 900-km joint border has always fallen on Tehran alone.
In a tweet on Sunday, Shamkhani said that the US sanctions are unlawful, and US president Donald Trump is more dangerous than the Coronavirus.
“The US opposition to the International Monetary Fund’s granting of a loan to Iran for the purchase of the items needed to deal with the Coronavirus is a real example of crime against humanity,” reads Shamkhani’s tweet.
The sanction of health items is an illegal & inhumane act & a symbol of #Trump‘s open hostility to the Iranian people.
US opposition to granting #Iran‘s requested facilities from @IMF to provide items needed to deal with #CoronaVirus is a real case of crimes against humanity.
Iran has repeatedly stated that the US economic sanctions are taking the Iranian people’s lives, as the country is battling against the novel coronavirus.
Tehran’s call for the United States to lift the sanctions on humanitarian grounds has been echoed by Russia, China, the European Union, and the United Nations.
Earlier, Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Washington of hampering health efforts through economic and medical terrorism.
“We had always said the sanctions are unjust, but coronavirus revealed this injustice to the world,” said Zarif in a video.
Months before the coronavirus pandemic, the Human Rights Watch said “the sanctions have largely deterred international banks and firms from participating in commercial or financial transactions with Iran, including for exempted humanitarian transactions, due to the fear of triggering US secondary sanctions on themselves.”
That came in a ceremony attended by Sorena Sattari, the vice president for science and technology, and Alireza Zali, the head of the of the Tehran coronavirus headquarters.
Developed by a team of researchers at Sharif University of Technology for the first time in Iran, the system uses the artificial intelligence algorithm to take a CT scan of the chest.
The COVID-19 pneumonia diagnosis system is capable of detecting abnormalities which cannot be spotted in CT scan images in the early stages and can calculate the volume of the infected zone.
During the ceremony, Sattari described the unveiling of the apparatus as a good development in the domain of ecosystem technology and innovation.
“It has been two months that the country has been gripped by the disease (coronavirus), and we have been able to manage it well,” he said.
“All these good developments are the result of investments in the ecosystem,” he noted.
“As we made progress in the production of diagnosis kits, now, with this new technology, we developed a new method using artificial intelligence, a mehod which is even more precise than the kit in certain stages of the disease,” said Sattari.
“This another accomplishment coupled with innovative solutions offered by knowledge-based companies.
A prominent professor at Sharif University of Technology also weighed in on the achievement.
“At the moment, there are numerous methods in the world to diagnose the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, but what is proven and has been confirmed by the American Board of Radiology is that the best way to diagnose infection with the virus is to take a CT scan image of the chest,” said Hamidreza Rabiei, the head of the Advanced Information Technology and Communications Research Center of the Sharif University of Technology.
“Currently, there are two systems similar to this in the world: one in China and another at Stanford in the United States,” he said.
“On the back of efforts by young researchers in the country, we have been able to design and launch this system in order to diagnose COVID-19,” he noted.
Rabiei, who is in charge of the newly developed system, said the system is highly accurate.
“The systems which exist in the world are susceptible to error, and what we did with the team of researchers was that we designed a system which is among the top ones in terms of accuracy,” he said.
“This system has been designed with 97% accuracy and will be made available to hospitals and medical centres via the Internet by next week,” he noted.
Iraj Harirchi said the two objectives are hard to be achieved at the same time.
“We have two issues at hand; one is to control the disease and bring down the fatality and infection rate; the other goal is to mitigate the economic and social fallout from the virus,” he said.
“The key point is that these two objectives are mutually exclusive, and it is not possible to achieve both goals at the same time,” he noted.
“What is important is that our objective is to enforce social distancing, which means reducing contact among people; however, we should see to what extent our economy can bear it because Iran is fighting not only coronavirus, but also sanctions,” the deputy health minister said.
He also thanked people for their cooperation while implementing the social distancing plan.
“People’s ongoing cooperation with regards to the social distancing program has been exceptional,” urging them to keep maximum social distance.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the official noted that the infection rate in most provinces across the country has been on the decline, but “this does not mean the disease has been controlled and contained.”
“We are still concerned about coronavirus. Traffic levels in Tehran today worried us, and these people can carry the virus home or to their workplace,” the deputy health minister underlined.
He specifically voiced concern about the situation in Tehran.
“In provinces where the disease began to spread sooner [than in other provinces] and are regarded as high-danger provinces, the infection rate is dropping, and this trend is seen in most provinces,” he said.
He said the fatality and infection rate is relatively rising in certain other provinces.
“We are concerned about Tehran. Because it is a key province, the existence of virus even at a medium level can contribute to its spread,” he said.
The house measures 260 square metres and boasts the ancient Persian-style interior design as well as architecture dating back to the 
