Araqchi, who is in the Swedish capital to attend the fourth round of Iran-Sweden political consultations, met with Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström, his opposite number Annika Soder, and Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee of Sweden’s Parliament Hans Wallmark.
In the meeting, Wallström underlined her country’s political determination to sustain and promote consultations, cooperation and interaction between Tehran and Stockholm on different fronts, including bilateral, regional and international issues.
She said the Iran nuclear deal (known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or the JCPOA) is an international agreement based on multilateralism, and that its implementation has benefited all countries. Therefore, she added, European countries, including Sweden, are set to implement the JCPOA despite the United States’ withdrawal from the agreement, and seek to make arrangements to maintain and enhance economic and trade activities with Iran.
The Swedish diplomacy chief thanked Iran for showing goodwill and backing intra-Yemeni talks held recently in Sweden, and highlighted the necessity of Tehran’s continued support and cooperation.
Araqchi, in turn, expressed gratitude for Sweden’s positive and constructive stances in a bid to further promote partnership and interactions with Iran and its active support for the JCPOA. He stressed the need for European countries to show further practical support for the Iran nuclear deal.
Araqchi touched upon the outcome of intra-Yemeni negotiations, saying the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regional policy has always been based on engagement aimed at boosting stability, security, development and political trends. He said Iran will continue to play a constructive role to help make intra-Yemeni talks bear fruit.
In five hours of political consultations, Araqchi and Soder also exchanged views on the latest developments in reciprocal ties, the JCPOA and regional issues. They underscored the need for interaction and dialogue in a bid to reach common understanding.
The Iranian official also had a meeting with Wallmark where the two sides stressed the need for the promotion of mutual cooperation in various areas, especially the parliamentary domain.
Araqchi also attended a meeting of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) where elaborated on Tehran’s position on the JCPOA. He also answered the questions raised by the participants.
During the Tuesday meeting, the spokesman underlined the need for expansion of media exchanges between Iran and Afghanistan.
The two sides also exchanged views on various issues of cooperation in radio and print media and called for developing new plans to establish continuous cooperation between the two sides’ media.
The Afghan media delegation, including media professionals and representatives of civil institutions active in the field of media, visited Iran to get more familiar with the latest developments in the country, to increase the two sides’ media cooperation, and to create appropriate grounds for signing new MoUs and agreements between the two sides in this field.
In addition to holding talks with some Iranian media officials and centres, the delegation also visited a number of cultural and historical sites in Iran.
“The positions of Turkey and Mr Erdogan in recent months on the US plots against the Islamic Republic have been firm and excellent,” he said.
Rouhani was speaking in Tehran on Wednesday, before departing for Ankara to attend the fifth high-level meeting of Iran-Turkey strategic cooperation council.
“[He] told Americans in a frank language that the time the US was dictating policies to others is over and this country can no more issue instructions for regional countries from the other side of the world,” he said.
Rouhani was referring to frequent announcements by Turkish officials protesting the return of US sanctions that had been suspended under the 2015 nuclear deal.
Last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned Washington against its new sanctions on Iran, saying “meaningful dialogue is much more useful” than sanctions.
Turkey has also objected to the Trump administration’s demand that it slash imports of Iranian petroleum products in six months, arguing that the time frame is too tight given his country’s demand for cheap energy supplies.
Rouhani said the two sides will discuss broadening cooperation in the banking, energy, transit and environment sector.
During the trip to Turkey, an economic meeting involving the two sides’ private sector companies will be held, he said.
They will also discuss the Syria conflict and the fight against terrorism, he said.
Amir-Ali Abolfath, in an interview with Khabar Online, said he believes the administration of Donald Trump hopes his policy of exerting maximum pressure on Iran would work, sooner or later.
What follows are excerpts, selected by IFP, from the lengthy interview, which addresses challenges facing the Trump administration and Iran-US relations:
How serious are speculations concerning Trump’s impeachment? Trump is under scrutiny for his connections with Russia and paying hush money to women. Moreover, US lawmakers are apparently at loggerheads with Trump over Saudi Arabia. Can such controversies push Trump out of the White House?
Amir-Ali Abolfath, an Iranian expert on the US politics
In the US, impeachment is in the first place a legal process, not a political one. So impeachment is impossible unless allegations are raised and lawsuits are created against the sitting president. Up to now, no evidence proving Trump has violated federal law has been publicized. However, last week we had two revelations about Trump from Michael Cohen, his former lawyer. Firstly, he confessed that Trump had ordered gifting a luxurious apartment worth up to $50 million in Moscow to Vladimir Putin in exchange for Russia’s support during the election time. Secondly, according to Cohen, Trump had ordered paying hush money to women with whom he had sexual relationship. If these allegations lead to a lawsuit and Trump is found guilty of breaching the federal law, its report will be given to the Congress and the political process will be started. But there is no sufficient proof against Trump as we speak.
Trump has problems with key people in his government, including Nikki Haley. Many people in his team have opted out in the past two years. Can these frequent replacements undermine his administration?
Haley was quite a neophyte when he started his job at the UN. She has said she knew nothing about the UN when she was offered the seat of the US representative at the organization. Before acquiring the post, Haley was just the governor of a US state. Trump’s management style leads powerful politicians to become unwilling to work with him. Trump wants people in his team to fully obey him. Trump said he dismissed Tillerson since he was not obedient. This is while a top diplomat is tasked with informing the president of realities of the diplomatic world. If the president do not listen to experts and insist on his words, there will be problems. The visible chaos in the US foreign policy and frequent disturbances in the US policy towards Iran, North Korea, China and even US allies shows Trump does not pay any heed to words of his advisors. That’s why many people don’t like to work with Trump.
What about bin Salman’s case? Following the CIA report blaming the Saudi regime for Khashoggi’s death, many senators adopted harsh positions against Saudi Arabia. Can Khashoggi’s case unite the Congress against Trump?
The negative attitude towards Saudi Arabia has existed in the US since many years ago. This is not about bin Salman or Khashoggi. The US elites fear Saudis have grown too powerful or at least like to show themselves too powerful. Americans do not like governments in the Middle East to gain much power, whether they are led by the former Shah of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, Erdogan or bin Salman. The US defines missions for governments. But they might move to hit them if they grow too powerful. This is not just the policy of Trump, but it was the policy of Obama and other US presidents. Americans are wary that Saudi Arabia is pursuing dangerous goals. So they are using Khashoggi’s death as a pretext to place pressure on Saudi Arabia. This is the only logical explanation for the wave of US attacks against Saudi Arabia over the murder of a journalist.
So what about the US strategy for the Middle East? Is the US using Saudi Arabia to counter Iran?
It’s true that Saudi Arabia plays a key role in the US strategy to contain Iran. The US has a role to play in the region, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. It is costly to run an empire in the region, but the US is not capable of paying that cost so they need to delegate their tasks to regional powers. This power vacuum enables the rise of regional powers. In West Asia, three governments are capable of becoming a regional power: Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Iran has been at loggerheads with the US for over 40 years, while the oil kingdom depends on the US for its security and Turkey is a NATO member. However, the US has found problems with its main allies in the region. For example, the US recently imposed sanctions on Turkish ministers over the detention of an American pastor. But was an American pastor that important? The US is worry Turkey could go out of control. The US is wary about the behavior of its allies, from Germany and France and Britain to Saudi Arabia.
The standoff between Iran and the US has become too complicated in recent years. Trump is increasingly hostile towards Iran, unlike the previous administration who adopted a softer line. Why the Obama administration signed the nuclear pact to settle problems with Iran but Trump withdrew from that agreement?
There are many factors at play. The Islamic Republic wants neither war nor peace in its relations with the US. Previous US administrations were okay with this attitude, willingly or unwillingly. It seems the current government does not prefer a continuation of such circumstances. It says we should either engage in war with Iran or make peace with that country. That’s why the US issues dire threats against Iran and withdraws the nuclear accord and attacks the Iranian government, while at the same time it says I’m ready for talks with Iranians. Americans want this conflict to end soon. But Iran seeks to keep the status quo. The Iranian Leader said there will be neither war nor negotiation. However, in Trump administration, nationalistic figures believes this is dangerous and the US needs to settle its Iran problem. They have frequently announced Iran should choose between being a normal state or a revolutionary one. If Iran becomes what they say is normal, many of their problems in the region will be settled.
Iran has been dealing with sanctions for over 40 years. The path Trump has taken on Iran has been tested before. Does Trump really think sanctions will work?
If you put yourself in their shoes, you may reach this conclusion. They believe sanctions prompted Iran to come to the negotiating table in 2013. We don’t accept this, but they think that way. Sanctions work sooner or later. Moreover, they have pressuring Iran with full force. They believe the liberal attitude in the former White House didn’t allow for maximum pressure on Iran. They say the Obama administration was concerned about its anti-Iran coalition and whether the interests of China, Europe and others are respected. They believe Obama had limits in Iran policy but Trump has no limits and this will force Iran to budge. The US administration is watching Iran. They believe Iran has changed tack in Syria in the past few months. US intelligence agencies believe Iran is not close to Israel’s border in Syria anymore. They believe their pressure caused this, even if Iran does not admit that. This pressure works in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. So Trump thinks pressure will certainly works. They even believe they can bully China, which is much stronger than Iran.
But Iranians believe there are no logical justifications for talks. Are there any guarantees the outcome of the new talks will be respected?
Americans are not after dialogue, they demand obedience. They don’t answer to Iran, Russia or the UN. You might remember that during the nuclear talks in 2015, a group of US senators sent a letter to the Iranian government saying the next US administration won’t abide by the nuclear pact. This is happening to Russia and China too. Trump easily walks out of the deals. How can we trust assurances from him? Who can stop the US from violating the deals?
Could Trump choose the military option regarding Iran?
I believe the age of 20th-century wars is over. Those wars started by the US-Spain war in 1898 and ended with the Iraq war in 2003. This wars were associated with heavy artillery fire, massive deployments and high casualties. Since 2003, the US has started a new era of war, the 21st-century wars. These wars include economic sanctions, cyber-attacks, proxy wars and indirect pressure on governments. The US is trying all of them regarding Iran. The US won’t engage in 20th-century wars with Iran, Syria or even Libya. The US is seeking to deal heavy blows to adversaries without shooting a single bullet. So Iran is in the middle of a full-scale war with the US. The only difference is the weapons used in this battle.
Demonstrators dressed as Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US President Donald Trump (C) protest outside the White House in Washington, DC, on October 19, 2018, demanding justice for the then-missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. / Photo by AFP
Joining the dots between the death of Jamal Khashoggi and a ceasefire in Yemen once seemed a stretch, but no longer.
The murder of the Washington Post columnist, which is widely believed to have happened at the order of the ambitious Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has visibly weakened the chief architect of the war in Yemen.
The 31-year-old prince, who launched the war in Yemen a few months after coming to power, had for four years insisted on continuing the invasion, which many believed was doomed in the first place.
But October 2 proved to be a tipping point, thanks to Recep Tayyip Erdogan who devised meticulous plans to use Khashoggi’s death to hit bin Salman, his biggest rival in the competition over leadership of the Sunni Muslim world.
Looking at the deal achieved four years into the Saudi-led war, one could be certain the Saudi prince would have never accepted such an outright defeat if he was not in such a weak position.
Perhaps the pressure from the US has been influential in the Saudis’ decision, considering the fact that the Saudi-backed operation in Yemen was impossible without relentless support for the Saudi war machine.
According to the UN-brokered deal clinched between the Ansarullah movement and representatives of the fugitive former president, an immediate ceasefire was implemented in Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hudaydah and its surrounding on Tuesday.
Under the deal achieved after week-long talks, the warring sides will also exchange over 15,000 prisoners.
Clashes have been reported near the city before and after the ceasefire, but the two sides seem unwilling to seek altering the status quo.
Residents in Hudaydah and the surrounding areas have reported fierce airstrikes in recent days, following fresh attempts by the Saudi-led coalition to advance into the city amid its aerial bombings.
AFP quoted people reporting artillery shelling and heavy machine-gun fire shook districts in the south and east of the strategic city late Monday in the final hour before the ceasefire took effect at midnight.
Poorest Arab Nation Defeats Wealthiest Arab Gov’t
The ceasefire, seen as the first significant breakthrough in Yemen’s peace process, could be counted a major win for the Yemeni people and a major setback for the Saudi government in many ways.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched their offensive against Hudaydah in June but they faced a strong resistance put up by Yemeni armed forces. The ceasefire means they have finally given up, with almost none of their objectives realized yet.
The two sides fought to a stalemate after weeks of ruinous street-to-street fight at the city’s outskirts, which is estimated to have left hundreds of Saudi-backed troops dead or injured.
A cessation of hostilities in Hudaydah would spare Yemen a significant spike in civilian casualties since Yemeni forces have shown battlefield resilience, frustrating much larger Saudi-backed forces who tried for months to retake the city to use it as a big bargaining chip in political talks.
Saudis who portrayed Ansarullah members as a bunch of villains orchestrating coups in Yemen were eventually forced to come to the negotiating table with the group and admit it represents a big portion of the Yemeni nation.
Moreover, the ceasefire will ease the economic blockade of Yemen, exacerbated during the war near Hudaydah.
The city is the entry point for about 70 percent of Yemen’s imports, mainly vital humanitarian aid for millions of Yemeni people.
The two sides of the Sweden talks have agreed to meet again in late January for talks to define the framework for peace negotiations.
United Nation Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Sunday that “much worse” could happen to the impoverished country in 2019 unless a comprehensive peace deal came about and the humanitarian crisis was tackled.
Will Khashoggi’s death be the beginning of the end for the devastating war which has claimed thousands of lives in Yemen and pushed the country close to the brink of outright famine? Time will tell.
The rustling sound of the fallen leaves on the one hand and the songs of the birds on the other hand along with the diverse colours of red, yellow, green and orange during Iran’s autumn unveils the greatness of the nature’s creator.
Halidasht is located in Lat Leyl rural district of Amlash County, Gilanprovince. The region has wonderful natural sights in autumn. According to the country divisions, it is located in Langerud County, north of Iran. Local officials, however, cite Halidasht as a forest park, 30 kilometres away from the centre of Amlash town.
What follows are ISNA’s photos of Iran’s autumn in the region:
During the ceremony, “A Home for You” (mid-length) was given six awards including the best picture. The film “Alicia” also won the jury’s special award in the international section.
The jury’s special award for short and medium length documentaries including the festival’s trophy, an honorary diploma and some $2,000 cash were given to the Tanzanian director Asimwe John Bibagamba.
The jury awarded an honorary diploma to “The Nine-Month War” (medium-length) by a Hungarian director.
An Iranian movie “Shouting at the Wind” won the best medium-length documentary award directed by a duo.
In the feature-length section, Bahman Kiarostami’s film “Exodus” won the best picture receiving an honorary diploma and $5,000 worth of cash.
This year, 56 documentaries from 33 countries made their way into the screening program of the festival.
With an impressive lineup and more than 14 workshops held on the sidelines that brought together hundreds of enthusiasts in the capital Tehran, Cinema Vérité came to an end while organizers are already planning for next year’s event.
Komeh is a kind of strained yogurt provided from nearby villages. This food which is popular among locals can be made easily. It contains vitamins A, B, C, E, K, D, carbohydrates, sodium, potassium, folic acid, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, iron, fibres, protein, calcium, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, selenium, sulfur, menthol, etc.
Ingredients
Eggs: 2 eggs
Water: as much as needed
Onions: 2 average-size onions
Kashk: 3 to 4 spoonfuls
Ground Walnut: 3 spoonfuls
Dry Mint: 2 spoonfuls
Komeh or strained yogurt: 500gr
Tomatoes: 3 to 4 average-size tomatoes
Chopped Chives: 4 to 5 spoonfuls
Salt, Red Pepper & Turmeric: as much as necessary
Butter or Oil: 3 spoonfuls
Recipe
Chop the onions and sauté them in a little oil or butter inside a casserole dish. Add mint and chives. Then add turmeric and ground walnuts and sauté them all. Dilute Komeh or yogurt with water and mix it with chopped tomatoes and eggs. Add them all to the ingredients inside the casserole and mix them until they begin to boil and become thick enough. At the end, add salt, red pepper and turmeric. In order for kashk to maintain its properties, add it at the end when the food is cooked through and the flame is turned off. The food is served with dried bread and herbs.
Komeh Joosh contains calcium, magnesium, manganese, selenium and vitamin D; so, it makes bones and teeth stronger and prevents osteoporosis and arthritis. As it helps solidify bones, this food is very useful for children and the elderly.
Komeh Joosh also contains vitamins A, E and C; hence, it has the same properties as antioxidants, improves the immune system and protects it against different kinds of diseases, especially cancer.
Also, the existence of iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 in this food increased the number of red blood cells. Therefore, it helps cure anemia and is useful for pregnant women and the embryo.
Eating Komeh Joosh will also improve the functioning of the nervous system. As a result, it improves memory and prevents Alzheimer’s disease. This food contains a lot of proteins, which improves the general resistance of the body, increases energy levels and minerals. It strengthens the skin and hair and makes them young and fresh.
The issue was discussed in a Tuesday meeting in Tehran, chaired by Special Representative of the Russian President for International Cooperation on Information Security Andrey Krutskikh, and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Gholam-Hossein Dehqani.
The two sides exchanged views on a wide range of issues in the field of international information security, and expressed their concerns about the challenges and threats of the destructive use of information and communications technologies.
They also discussed problems in fight against criminal and terrorist uses of such technologies.
The Russian and Iranian delegations underlined the importance of continued global cooperation in international information security, with the UN playing a leading role in this area.
They also emphasized the need to strengthen mutual cooperation between the two countries and agreed to continue their regular dialogue with the goal of institutionalizing the cooperation.
Karoon is Iran’s largest river. The first human civilizations emerged next to this river. Karoon is 950 kilometres long, making it Iran’s longest river. It is also the only river of Iran parts of which could be used for shipping.
Karoon is also the 117th natural site registered on Iran’s List of Natural Heritage by the country’s Cultural Heritage Organization.
Water levels in Karoon had dropped in recent years, but the river’s reservoirs have begun to fill up thanks to recent rainfall and are reaching a desirable state.
Every year, migratory birds choose a river or pond in a warm climate to spend the cold season there. This year, they have come to Karoon and will stay there until April, 2019.
The following are photos of migratory birds courtesy of Mehr News Agency:
