In an interview with the Persian-language Kayhan daily, Ibrahim Mohammed Mohammed al-Dailami said the spoils of war taken during battles with Saudi-led coalition forces are a major source of arms for Ansarullah.
He said although the people of Yemen have been under a severe blockade for the past 59 days, the gains made by resistance forces in the battlefield have helped Yemenis maintain good morale.
He said part of the munitions used by Ansarullah fighters are developed domestically as Yemenis have made inventions and military discoveries amid sanctions.
The envoy said Yemenis try to get arms in any way they can, so that they will be able to stand up to aggressors.
He further noted that the Yemen war is basically an American-Zionist conflict, and that Saudi Arabia just executes Washington’s plans.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Yemeni diplomat referred to US President Donald Trump’s so-called “Deal of the Century” plan. He said the plan is doomed to fail, adding Trump is a wicked politician who shows the true face of the US.
He also referred to Washington’s assassination of top Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani. He said general Soleimani not only fought terrorists in the region, but countered US-engineered schemes.
The Yemeni envoy’s comments about the way they procure their weapons prove wrong the Saudi and Western governments’ claim that Iran is supplying arms to the Houthi Ansarullah movement. Tehran has denied the charge, saying it is impossible to transfer any weapons to the country which is under the Saudi siege.
What follows is a recent footage of the Yemeni fighters’ battle against Saudi mercenaries, in which the deployment, equipment, and uniforms of the Houthi fighters seem much more sophisticated and upgraded compared with the past.
The Danish Security and Intelligence Service announced on Monday the arrest of three members of the Saudi-backed anti-Iran al-Ahvaziya terrorist group, and charged them with suspicion of spying for Saudi Arabia in Denmark. Another terrorist was also arrested in the Netherlands.
Speaking at a press conference in Copenhagen, Danish Security Service (PET) Director Finn Borch Andersen said the three members of the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz are facing charges of involvement in intelligence activities for the Saudi intelligence service from 2012 to 2018.
The Danish Security Service stated that the three elements were collecting information about individuals in Denmark and abroad, and were sending it to a Saudi intelligence service.
The three, whose identities have not been revealed, live in Denmark and have been under surveillance for several months.
The Danish police has accused the three of supporting a terrorist attack in Iran in September 2018, which killed 25 people including a four-year-old child.
The Danish foreign minister, on his Twitter account, confirmed that the Saudi ambassador to Copenhagen had been summoned.
Jeppe Kofod called the case “deeply serious and completely unacceptable.” Kofod said he had summoned the Saudi ambassador for talks earlier Monday, and instructed the Danish ambassador in Riyadh to deliver his objections to Saudi authorities.
Dutch Foreign Minister Steve Block also summoned the Saudi ambassador to his country on suspicion of an al-Ahvaziya terrorist element’s link to Saudi Arabia.
That came after the Dutch authorities in the city of Delft arrested another al-Ahvaziya element accused of planning to launch an attack in Iran and of belonging to a terrorist organization.
Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the Foreign Minister wanted to inform the Saudi ambassador that such unwanted activities as those accused by the movement in Denmark were unacceptable.
Al-Ahvaziya group is comprised of communists, nationalists, socialists and Salafi members who, despite ideological and nominal differences, are united around one goal and one strategy, which is toppling the Iranian government and separating Khuzestan from the rest of Iran through armed conflict.
The group was born in 1980; soon after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. It was inspired by the ruling Ba’ath regime in neighboring Iraq at the time. It had already carried out a series of attacks in the southwestern province even before Saddam unleashed war against Iran.
The group has committed numerous crimes against Iranian targets over the past decades. Among them bomb attacks in public places, abductions, assassinations, kidnapping for ransom, shooting at tourists and blowing up oil pipelines.
Thousands of people have been killed or injured as a result of their actions. The group calls itself a movement but it lacks any popular backing inside Iran.
In September 2018, four members of the Saudi-backed terrorist group opened fire on soldiers and civilians during a military parade in Iran’s southern city of Ahvaz, claiming the lives of 25 people, including a four-year-old child.
The attack in that year came after a US-backed campaign to stir up unrest in Iranian cities fell flat. The effort, known as the Hot Summer Project, sought to whip up public anger over water and electricity shortages in the face of a protracted drought.
He underlined that members of the human community are all parts of the same body.
“As Iranians have said, descendants of Adam are brothers, which means they are brothers and sisters,” he wrote.
Accordingly, he added, “if one member of the body is contaminated, the whole body will be contaminated,” added Zarif.
In another tweet, the top Iranian diplomat touched upon his phone conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
“In a telephone conversation with my good friend, Wang Yi, the prime minister and foreign minister of China, I expressed my appreciation for China’s successful measures to fight the contagious disease (the coronavirus),” Zarif tweeted.
“China not only stopped the outbreak of this contagious disease from getting worse in the country (China), but contained its spread at the international level as well,” he added.
“We condemn the United States’ profiteering with regards to the danger posed by the outbreak of the virus,” he said.
“It is clear that China was more responsible and more successful than the US in containing the H1N1 flu virus back in 2009,” he said.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said recently that the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China could be positive for the American economy.
“I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America,” he said in a TV interview.
In a message to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, President Rouhani expressed hope mutual relations will further expand.
“Given the political will of both countries’ leaders, I hope cordial relations and cooperation between the two sides will expand on all fronts in order to serve the interests of both nations’ mutual interests,” read the message.
“I wish your Excellency health and success, and the people of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka prosperity and progress,” the message also read.
The Sri Lankan independence movement was a peaceful political movement which was aimed at achieving independence and self-rule for the country of Sri Lanka, then British Ceylon, from the British Empire. It was initiated around the turn of the 20th century and led mostly by the educated middle class. It succeeded when, on 4 February 1948, Ceylon was granted independence as the Dominion of Ceylon. Dominion status within the British Commonwealth was retained for the next 24 years until 22 May 1972 when it became a republic and was renamed the Republic of Sri Lanka.
According to the Head of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Department of the city of Tabas in central Iran, the award is given by Studienkreis fur Tourismus und Entwicklung, after a call for proposals from all over the world.
Rasoul Behbehani noted the awards ceremony will take place in one of the biggest tourism fairs in the world in early March in Berlin, and the village will also have the opportunity to present its project in the event.
“Unfortunately, Iranian students have not been allowed to step on the US soil recently,” Bahram Salavati said.
Although the exclusion of Iranian students, professionals and nationals with residence permits from entering the US, especially after tensions between the two countries, may have political reasons, the purpose of this piece is to analyse the issue from another perspective.
“Perhaps to some people, Washington’s restrictions on entry into the US should be analysed in the context of the Trump administration’s overall anti-immigration policy. In particular, the most significant effect of this executive order was the significant reduction in F1 student visas and J1 visas for Iranian professors, scholars and specialists, which has dramatically decreased over the past three years,” continued Salavati.
The Financial Times refers, in a report, to the special visa restrictions on Chinese students since 2017 when Donald Trump began his term in office. Interestingly, these restrictions have tightened for Chinese students as tensions between the US and China, especially in the economic field known as the “trade war” intensified.
“The reason for such decision can be traced in the results of the return of Chinese students to their home country after graduation. In fact, they have been the main sources of science and technology transfer from US advanced universities and research centres to China over the past two decades,” added Salavati.
“US understands the importance of returning Chinese experts as the country’s moving engine for science and technology development, so it has pushed its trade war with China into a kind of visa-based one to counter the influx of Chinese students and professionals into its science and technology market,” he underlined.
“With the decline in the number of visas issued, the growth rate of international students in the US has been negative for two consecutive years and the economic value of the higher education market in the country has dropped to $ 5 billion.”
However, the Trump administration continues to insist on visa-restrictive policies for some countries, such as China and Iran, despite fundamental concerns about maintaining US economic prosperity and job creation.
Indeed, in addition to the US government’s political tension with countries such as China (on a global scale) and Iran (on a regional scale), it is in some ways concerned about transfer of its knowledge and technology from its science and innovation centres (particularly in the fields of sensitive industries).
The United States has adopted a “visa-confrontation” approach to prevent some students and professionals from entering the US with high probability of returning to their home country, which may be referred to as “brain warfare”.
According to the Iran’s Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, over the past four years more than 1,400 Iranian specialists and graduates abroad have returned home from universities and research centers, especially from the world’s top universities and those in the United States.
Most of these people are either teaching or researching at universities or forming start-ups and knowledge-based businesses. Some of them have also simulated successful examples of technology and global businesses in Iran, and on an industrial and industrial scale.
In fact, the United States is afraid of the access of Iranian and Chinese students to its academic and research centres, as well as the possibility of transferring world-class knowledge and technology by professionals and graduates, maintained Salavati.
In a meeting with the European Union’s new foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Hassan Rouhani said Tehran stands ready to work with Europe to settle issues surrounding the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Rouhani touched upon the trend of efforts made over 12 years that resulted in the conclusion of the JCPOA.
“Unfortunately, the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the agreement created innumerable hurdles and problems for other parties in the way of full implementation of the deal,” said Rouhani.
He added Iran’s scaling down of its obligations under the JCPOA has been within the framework of the agreement and aimed at preserving it.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran remains prepared for interaction and cooperation with the European Union to resolve issues, and Iran will return to its commitments whenever the other side fully delivers on its obligations,” the president said.
Rouhani said joint efforts and cooperation by Iran and Europe can be instrumental in settling many of the regional and international issues.
Rouhani also condemned Washington’s policies vis-à-vis countries in the region.
“So far, they have made numerous strategic mistakes with regards to regional countries, including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan, and its recent move whereby they proposed the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’ in collusion with the Zionist regime [of Israel] was in line with the very same mistakes and is doomed to fail,” he noted.
The EU foreign policy chief, in turn, noted that the European countries are seeking to preserve the JCPOA and settle issues. He said he would try his utmost to bring about strong interaction in line with preserving the JCPOA.
Borrell also touched upon Iran’s key role in regional issues and the promotion of peace, stability and security in the region.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also took a swipe at Europe for its “weak behaviour” in dealing with the US as far as the JCPOA concerned.
In a meeting with the EU foreign policy chief, Larijani also criticized Europe for failing to fully live up to its commitments under the nuclear deal. Borrell, in turn, said Larijani was right to be critical of Europe’s behaviour.
Larijani also expressed Iran’s readiness to help settle regional issues.
The top parliamentarian also dismissed the U-Israeli “Deal of the Century” plan as despicable.
In comments on Monday, Abdolnaser Hemmati said the value of the medical imports financed by the Central Bank of Iran during the first 10 months of the current Iranian year has exceeded $4 billion, which is 2,000 times greater than those of the shipments that have been received through a Swiss financial channel.
He also played down the flashy display of the medical shipments provided by the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, stressing that Iran would never rely on the decisions and measures of others to fulfill its needs in such critical sectors.
Hemmati then lashed out at the US government for its attempts over the past year and a half to prevent and hamper the export of pharmaceutical products to Iran, saying the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian organizations have been combatting the US sanctions and have managed to ensure an uninterrupted import of the necessary medicines.
On Thursday, a Swiss humanitarian channel to bring food and medicine to Iran kicked off trial operations. The Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA) seeks to ensure that Swiss-based exporters and trading companies in the food, pharmaceutical and medical sectors can sell their products to Iran without fear of the US sanctions.
According to the Swiss government, SHTA gives firms that sell humanitarian goods a secure channel with a Swiss bank through which payments for their exports to Iran are guaranteed.
In a telephone conversation on Monday evening, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi discussed the latest developments in the Islamic world.
The two ministers also rejected the deal of the century and stressed the need for the Muslim world’s unity and solidarity in support of Palestine.
In a telephone conversation on Monday evening, Foreign Minister Zarif and Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China Wang Yi talked about the latest developments concerning the outbreak of coronavirus in China and other issues of mutual interest.
In the phone call, Foreign Minister Zarif lauded the Chinese government for its responsibility and efforts to control the crisis and prevent the spread of the virus, and expressed his opposition to politicization of such issues.
