The region is the coldest part of the country, making it a hot destination for winter tourists.
Ardabil and Tabriz, capitals of Ardabil and East Azarbaijan provinces, are among major cities in the region gripped by freezing weather.
The following are photos of the two cities blanketed with snow, published by various Iranian outlets:
Adnan Mahmoud said his country has prioritized the Iranian government and economic players to take part in economic projects in Syria to contribute to the country’s reconstruction.
“There is an ideal opportunity for economic players and businessmen to make investment in Syria,” he was quoted by Tasnim News Agency as saying at a joint meeting of Iranian and Syrian economic players.
He said all doors are open to Iranian companies, and state loans will be offered to Iranian firms to run projects in different production and agricultural domains.
Also present at the meeting was Iranian Ambassador to Syria Javad Torkabadi, who welcomed the top Syrian diplomat’s comments.
“I am confident that Syrian people and statesmen will welcome Iranian economic players,” said the Iranian ambassador.
“The Iranian embassy in Syria is also always open to our country’s economic players,” he added.
Iran and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding on economic cooperation on December 30, 2018. Economic players of both countries regard transportation and the transfer of money as the major impediments to mutual cooperation.
Brigadier General Hossein Salami made the statement in a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday, which marked the anniversary of the pro-government rallies in 2009 that put an end to months of political turmoil and street protests over allegations of electoral fraud in presidential votes earlier that year.
General Salam said the 2009 unrest was designed to make Iranians disappointed with the 1979 revolution, and thus was more dangerous than the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
However, the IRGC commander said, the Iranian people managed to overcome the big challenge, frustrating world powers with their biggest attempt to retake their control over Iran.
“[In 2009], the satanic coalition was determined to topple the system. But the Iranian nation buried the dream of the coalition comprising world powers, reactionary [regimes] in the region and their domestic allies,” he said.
Following the 2009 unrest, General Salami said, the US turned to sanctions to stop Iran, imposing harsh punitive measures under the pretext of nuclear allegations.
However, the IRGC commander said, the Iranian people would foil the new US plot as well, dismissing deceptive calls by the US for negotiations.
“The Iranian nation knows that negotiation means accepting the views of the enemies, so they won’t favour that,” he said.
“The Revolution kept progressing after the [2009] sedition. Although the sedition led to the imposition of sanctions, the Iranian nation will win this battle too,” he said.
The US has reimposed anti-Iran sanctions suspended under the nuclear deal in recent months, and it is working to push the world to cut trade with Iran and stop purchasing the country’s oil.
The US, which pulled out of the nuclear deal in May, has provided Iran with a list of 12 demands that must be capitulated for the sanctions to be removed.
On Sunday, People in various Iranian cities attended rallies to mark what described as “Dey 9” epic, which refers to mass rallies held on the ninth day of the Persian calendar month of Dey.
The 2009 election saw the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by an 11-million lead over his nearest rivals.
The poll was followed by sporadic street protests in Tehran, after those defeated in the poll, including some reformists, made allegations of widespread fraud in the vote.
The Dey 9 rallies came several days after a group of protesters allegedly insulted Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein, the third Shiite Imam.
The top story in most papers today was a controversial interview by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in which he said the US’ presence is the source of tensions in region and the country would drag the world into chaos if it tries to carry out its threat of preventing Iran’s oil exports.
A protest gathering demanding the resignation of top Azad University officials over a deadly bus crash was another hot topic in Iranian newspapers.
Several papers also covered the anniversary of Dey 9 demonstrations, the mass rallies held on the tenth month of the Persian calendar year in 2009, which ended street protests over allegations of electoral fraud in presidential elections earlier that year.
The above issues, as well as many more, are highlighted in the following headlines and top stories:
Abrar:
1- 40 Terrorists Eliminated in Egypt Army Operation in Giza, Northern Sinai
2- US State Department Supports Zionist Regime’s Stance against Iran
3- Zarif: We Won’t Negotiate with Americans in Emergency Cases
Aftab-e Yazd:
1- Zarif Told Chinese Media: US Changes Its Analysis of Iran Six Months Later
2- Iranian Saffron Sold by Spanish Brands: When Iranian Product Not Known as Iranian!
Arman-e Emrooz:
1- Iran Fourth in Global Brain Drain Ranking
Donyay-e Eghtesad:
1- Zarif: Americans Unlikely to Decide to Escalate Tensions with Iran
Ebtekar:
1- Zarif Tells Phoenix: We’re Not Waiting for Europeans
Ettela’at:
1- FM: Americans in No Position to Threaten Iran
2- Zarif Meets Palestinian Islamic Jihad Secretary-General
3- Economist: US Hegemony in Decline
Javan:
1- Sixty Percent of Americans Support Moves against Trump
2- Turkish Dream Didn’t Come True in Manbij, Syrian Army Controlling Northern City
Jomhouri Eslami:
1- Islamic Azad University Students Demand Resignation of IAU Officials [Over Deadly Bus Crash]
2- Anti-Government Protests Continue in France for Seventh Week
3- Saudi Arabia Sacks Key Ministers to Restore Credit of bin Salman
Kayhan:
1- 9 Dey; The Day When People Blinded Eyes of [2009] Israeli-American Sedition
2- Zarif: If We Go Back to [Beginning of Talks], We Would Take Harder Line in Nuclear Negotiations
3- Syrian Parliament’s Deputy Speaker: US Withdrawal from Syria Divided Trump, CIA and Pentagon
Sazandegi:
1- Commander of the ‘Deceptive Operation’ [controversy over Karbala 4]
Shahrvand:
1- Tears Flood IAU: Student Gathering Protesting Deadly [Bus] Incident Leads to Statement and Resignation Request
Shargh:
1- Zarif Tells Phoenix: Iran-US Relations to Remain Challenging
Sobh-e Nou:
1- Saudi Arabia Unable to Take Hudaydah
The system was successfully tested on Friday in Yadegar-e Emam Stadium in the north-western city of Tabriz, supervised by the representatives of Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran.
The system, named Paldi, is an advanced version of VAR invented by Sirous Paldi, a report by Khabaronline said.
The invention has been awarded some global medals in 2016 and 2017. The system could accurately spot the areas in which fouls have happened by laser.
VAR is a football assistant referee that allows for reviewing the decisions made by the head referee with the help of the recorded video footage and a headset for communication.
As the first Chinese researcher working on Iranian music, Zhao Zhuchan says she decided to study Iranian music to deal with a lack of understanding of the music among Chinese musicians.
“I decided to help Chinese musicians get familiar with Iranian music. To [get a deep understanding], I didn’t limit my studies to the European and American resources,” she was quoted as saying in an interview with IRNA.
Zhuchan said most of the literature on Iranian music have been created by researchers from other countries, adding that she has fell in love with the wonderful world of Iranian music.
“I’ve conducted extensive research on the Iranian music and realized that Iranian musicians have full command over their works,” she noted.
Elsewhere, the Chinese researcher said she began to know Iran through Beijing Book Fair, in which Iranian publishers attended as special guests.
“In this fair, I got to know Lian music group. The type of music and their songs appealed to me and I decided to travel to Iran to get a deeper understanding of Iranian music,” he said.
She underlined that during her latest visit to Iran last year, she got in touch with the Iranian people and their music.
“During my stay in Iran, I found Iranians very kind, hospitable and peace-lover. I also saw Iran a secure country, [unlike] the western media who has been seeking to tarnish its image in the world,” she said.
Zhuchan recalled one of her memories during her visit to the southern city of Bushehr, saying that “the warm welcome I received from the ordinary people in Bushehr as well as my observations from across the country has convinced me to miss no opportunity to promote Iran in the world and invite all culture-lovers in the world to visit Iran closely and get more familiar with the hospitality of the Iranian nation.”
Zhuchan’s findings on Iran’s music and other cultural aspects have been published in an academic journal in China. This is the first academic research on Iranian music published in a prestigious journal.
Dating back to 600 years ago, the bath has been built on a 1000 square meters area. Today, the bath has turned into an ethnography museum.
Pahneh Bath enjoys some unique tiling. Its entrance is decorated with a stone inscription made up of 8 ultramarine tiles with a Persian calligraphy of poem by Iran’s legendary poet, Hafiz.
The ancient bath includes various sections including the entrance (an area for waiting to enter the bath), the locker room and cold and hot bathtubs. Like any other bath, Pahneh Bath has two separate entrances for men and women.
Some scholars including Mohammad Hassan Khan Sani’oddoleh, a leading historian from the Qajar era, believe the inscription above the entrance of the bath has been made during the Teymourian era. The bath was active in the Safavid era. According to studies, even some Qajari kings have used the bath. Notably, Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar has issued an official order to repair the bath.
Over the past century, the bath has been repaired and reconstructed several times. It was registered as Iran’s national heritage in 1976.
The bath was turned into an ethnography museum after major reconstruction efforts from 1986 to 1994.
Below, you can watch a series of photos of the historical site published by Fars News Agency:
Iraj Masjedi underlined that all Iranian military advisors left Iraq as soon as the defeat of ISIS was announced, meaning the terror threat was over.
“All of them (Iranian military advisors) have returned to Iran,” Masjedi was quoted by Entekhab news website as saying in an address to a host of university students and media personnel in Iraq.
“Unlike the Islamic Republic of Iran, the US is maintaining its troops in the region despite the end of ISIS [rule] and it is reinforcing its bases and military garrisons and setting up new positions in some areas,” said the diplomat.
He also touched upon the reasons behind Washington’s withdrawal from Syria.
“US forces’ pullout from Syria should be evaluated within the framework of Washington’s strategic policy in the region, which is to create instability and crisis there, and that is why it obstructs any efforts that would lead to peace and tranquility,” he said.
The Iranian diplomat noted that the Americans do not want ISIS and terrorism to be rooted out in from region, but it likes to manage terrorism in order to keep the Middle East in a state of tension and crisis.
“The United States’ military presence in Syria has been too costly and destructive for Washington,” he said.
“The foreign forces [in Syria] lack any popular base, a fact that has extremely worried Americans,” the ambassador said.
“It particularly became evident for Muslims that the United States does not care about the interests of the people in the region and views the region through the eyes of the Zionist regime [of Israel],” Masjedi added.
He said the United States’ relocation of its embassy from Tel Aviv to al-Quds and Israel’s support for ISIS shed light on the hidden objectives of Washington and Tel Aviv.
“These concerns were the reason behind the pullout of US troops from Syria, and that’s why the US ordered the withdrawal of its forces from Syria,” the Iranian ambassador noted.
He then lashed out at the US military presence in the region.
“The US military presence in the region is not justifiable because the regional countries enjoy the power to protect themselves thanks to their domestic military troops, and there is no need for foreign forces,” he said.
According to the Iranian ambassador, the Americans reserve the right to interfere in regional affairs and that is why they do not even get permission from regional countries when relocating troops and establishing bases.
He said the United States’ bullying behavior reminds one of the law of the jungle.
“The Americans talk as if the world belongs to them, and this has created hatred towards them,” he said.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Masjedi underlined that the public and media should keep criticizing Washington’s policy of interfering in regional countries’ internal affairs and pressuring countries to restrict their relations with Iran.
“Those working in the media should inform the public of realities and do not allow the Zionists to take the initiative and create divisions among nations and ethnic groups under different pretexts,” he said.
In the meeting, Iraqi media personnel thanked Iran for supporting and assisting Iraq, especially in the war against ISIS terrorists. They emphasized that the Iraqi nation appreciates Iran’s efforts to establish peace and stability in the region.
They also called for the enhancement of Tehran-Baghdad scientific and economic relations and asked Iran to share with Iraq its experience in the field of development.
Abdel Bari Atwan said in a weekly video release that 2019 will be littered with victories.
“The year 2019 will be a year of victories, and it will be a year when US conspiracies and schemes in the region will fail, and dignity will return,” said the commentator as quoted by Fars News Agency.
According to Atwan, US President Donald Trump has confessed that the United States spent more than $7 trillion in the Middle East, but to no avail, whatsoever. The analyst said Trump swept into a US base in Iraq “like a mouse” while he was extremely terrified.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the analyst said Syria emerged victorious because it resisted. He said now Arab countries are moving swiftly to open their embassies in Damascus.
Interestingly, Arab countries justify their return to the Arab country by claiming they want to pull Syria away from Iran, says Atwan.
According to the analyst, these Arab countries offered to pay tens of billions of dollars to Syria so push the country away from Iran, but Damascus turned down the request and reiterated it would remain a close ally of Iran.
He said that “we are now at a new stage”, marked by the victory of the resistance front.
The commentator said Israel is also in a state of panic and fear, and the countries that have begun to normalize relations with Tel Aviv and have hosted Israeli sports delegations will rue the day.
“Hezbollah is the progressive power in the region now and has more than 150,000 missiles with high accuracy,” he added.
The analyst noted that Arab countries should confess to their mistakes and join the resistance front to confront Israel.
© All Content by IFP News ( Iran Front Page ) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
