The National Festival of Salt Statues was held on Friday in a salt marsh near Nehbandan County in South Khorasan Province, eastern Iran.
The festival was attended by 30 groups from eleven Iranian provinces.
Here are IRNA’s photos of the statues:
Iran, P5+1 Hold 7th Joint Commission Meeting
Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi, along with the Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Helga Schmid, as well as senior diplomats from other P5+1 group of countries attended the meeting of the commission tasked with monitoring the implementation of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
One of the key issues that the participants were scheduled to discuss was Iran’s request to purchase 950 tonnes of concentrated uranium, also known as yellowcake, from Kazakhstan in a three-year period.
This is the first meeting of the commission since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on January 20. The commission’s sixth meeting was held in Vienna on January 10 to discuss Washington’s extension of an anti-Iran sanctions law.
Last December, the US Congress voted to extend Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for another 10 years. The law, which authorizes the US president to re-impose the bans, was first adopted in 1996 to punish investments in the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program and its support for anti-Israeli resistance groups.
ISA’s extension came despite numerous reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirming Iran’s commitment to the JCPOA.
Speaking after a meeting with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano in Vienna on Monday, Araqchi said the Islamic Republic had lived up to its commitments under the JCPOA.
“As the entire world knows and repeated reports by the agency have confirmed, Iran has always been committed to its obligations and carefully implemented the JCPOA,” Araqchi, who is the Iranian head of the Joint Commission, said.
He, however, emphasized that the other side had not fully complied with its obligations under the JCPOA.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday slammed the United States for violating both the spirit and the letter of the nuclear deal.
“We’ll see if US is prepared to live up to letter of the JCPOA let alone [its] spirit. So far, it has defied both,” Zarif said on his official Twitter account.
Iran’s foreign minister made the comments after Trump accused Iran of “not living up to the spirit” of the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.
Under the agreement, limits were put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.
The UN Security Council later unanimously endorsed a resolution that effectively turned the JCPOA into international law.
Iran to Continue Supporting Iraq’s Anti-Terror Campaign: New Envoy
In a meeting in Baghdad on Monday, Iraj Masjedi, who has recently arrived in Baghdad as Iran’s new ambassador, and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi exchanged views about a range of issues, including bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries and the latest developments of Iraq’s campaign against terrorism.
He hailed the Baghdad government’s success in the campaign as well as in economic and political areas and said Iran is resolved to support Iraq in various areas, including counter-terrorism, according to a statement issued by Abadi’s office.
Masjedi and the Iraqi premier, who highlighted his country’s efforts to combat terrorist groups, like Daesh (ISIS or ISIL), during the meeting discussed ways for boosting the bilateral ties between Tehran and Baghdad.
Iraq has been facing the growing threat of terrorism, mainly posed by the Daesh terrorist group.
Daesh militants made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing large swaths of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for the fight against the militants, blunted the edge of Daesh offensive and forced the terrorist group withdraw from much of the areas it had occupied.
Amid tensions in Iraq, Iran is known as the first country to help the Arab country and has always voiced support for Iraq’s solidarity and prosperity.
Iran Leader Advises Presidential Hopefuls against Relying on Foreign Help
In an address to a group of Iranian authorities and the ambassadors of Muslim nations on the anniversary of Islamic holiday Eid al-Mab’ath, Ayatollah Khamenei urged the Iranian presidential candidates to refrain from relying on foreign assistance in the advancement of the country’s affairs.
“They should pledge that they would look toward the [Iranian] nation itself, and not look beyond the borders, for the advancement of the country’s affairs, its economic development, and for removing obstacles,” the Leader said, while five of the six presidential candidates were attending the Tuesday gathering.
Ayatollah Khamenei also underlined the importance of the upcoming elections in Iran, saying the Iranian nation would massively participate in the polls and foil enemies’ plots to undermine the Islamic Establishment.
“The nation will disappoint the enemies of Islam and Iran by their (massive) presence in the forthcoming elections,” the Leader noted.
The Leader further highlighted various aspects of the elections, including the presidential vote, and said participation in the polls is a manifestation of the people’s “dignity, right and power” to select the head of the executive branch of the government, Tasnim reported.
Ayatollah Khamenei hailed the Iranian nation’s faith, unity and presence on the political scenes as factors behind the Islamic Republic’s bravery and resistance in the international arena and said high turnout in the upcoming elections would be a good example of the people’s presence.
Elsewhere, the Leader pointed to the enemies’ plots against Iran and Muslims and said the formation of terrorist groups under the name of Islam and attempts to sow discord in Islamic countries, like Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen are part of Washington and the Tel Aviv regime’s conspiracies against the religion.
“Of course, the global oppressors are more opposed to the Islamic Republic than other Muslim countries, but their main problem is Islam and all Muslims should recognize this fact,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.
The Leader said the United States and Zionists are directing belligerence against Iran because Islam is most prominent in the Islamic Republic, Press TV reported.
“Today, all these animosities [targeting Iran and Islam] are spearheaded by the US and Zionists,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
“Memoirs of IRGC Commander Shine in Syria”
The Arabic translation of the memoirs of martyred IRGC commander Brigadier General Hossein Hamadani, which was unveiled in Syria last winter, has received immense popularity among Syrian readers.
According to a Farsi report by Mehr, the book named “The Moonlight of Khayyen” includes General Hamadani’s memories of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
It contains Hossein Behzad’s interview with Hamadani as well as Behzad’s research and surveys about the operations in which Hamadani had taken part. The book includes 20 chapters.
Moreover, the eighth impression of the book “Water Never Dies” has recently hit the Syrian market. It contains the disabled war veteran Hamid Solgi’s memoirs of the Iraqi imposed war on Iran. It is compiled by Hamid Hessam, an Iran-Iraq war researcher. Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei had inscribed the book with a note of commendation.
During the eight years of Iran-Iraq war, Solgi was the commander of a key Iranian battalion.
The first impression of the book hit the shelves in 2014.
Nomadic Life in Western Iran
Here are Tasnim’s photos of the nomads living their nomadic life in Western province Ilam:
Tehran to Host French Film Week
In cooperation with the Embassy of France in Iran, the cinematheque of Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is to hold the “French Cinema Week” from April 26 to May 1.
According to a Farsi report by ANA, the event will take place in the presence of Jean-Michel Frodon, the former editor-in-chief of Cahier du Cinema who has selected the movies and will hold a review meeting for every film.
The first week of French cinema was held at the same place last year in late April, with Frodon being responsible for selecting and reviewing the movies, which was highly welcomed by the audience.
Some movies to be shown include Zero for Conduct by Jean Vigo, Naked Childhood by Maurice Pialat, and the 400 Blows by François Truffaut. They will be screened in the original language – French – with Persian subtitle. The viewers can watch the films for free.
Dialogue, Moderation Cure Many Ills of Modern World: Iran’s FM
Addressing the International Forum of Ancient Civilizations in the Greek capital of Athens, Zarif said that the world needs to recognize and respect such norms and principles as diversity, inclusion, tolerance, moderation, dialogue, justice, fairness, human rights, democracy, and good governance despite inevitable differences on applications and implementations.
“Our gathering here represents a genuine effort to synergize the cumulative contribution of all civilizations — which truly constitute the common heritage of humanity — to address the daunting challenges all of us face, individually in our respective environments and collectively on the global scale, in a complex world replete with crises of various kinds, and most certainly a future fraught with disquieting uncertainties of all sorts.”
Here is the full text of his Monday speech provided by the Foreign Ministry’s website:
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
It is a great pleasure for me to represent Iran in the Ancient Civilizations Forum. The very idea of establishing a forum for ‘ancient civilizations’ is a valuable enterprise; it signifies the recognition of the enduring role of civilizations in our intimately interconnected modern world. Let me take this opportunity to thank our friend and colleague, Nikos Kotzias for his wise and timely initiative and for the excellent arrangements, bringing diplomats and academics to Athens to share ideas and plan ahead. I would also like to express my gratitude to the people and government of Greece for their warm and gracious hospitality.
Our gathering here represents a genuine effort to synergize the cumulative contribution of all civilizations — which truly constitute the common heritage of humanity — to address the daunting challenges all of us face, individually in our respective environments and collectively on the global scale, in a complex world replete with crises of various kinds, and most certainly a future fraught with disquieting uncertainties of all sorts.
It also signifies that science, technology, progress, and material well-being – whose fruits, much to our chagrin, are unevenly distributed – have all simply failed to solve our common problems, nor do they appear to herald a better future. Our claim of recourse to and reliance on civilizational contribution is, therefore and by definition, a huge task, and undertaking.
My remarks today at this Forum are brief and targeted; they focus on what a forum of this kind, character, and composition means, first and foremost, for its participants, and in a general sense, for the bigger global community.
Let me underline that we are not here to engage in expansive, oratorical celebration of our respective civilizations and bask in glorifying them or describing their attributes, beauties, virtues, or accomplishments in the past – which we represent, of which we are proud, from which we inherit, and to which we owe. The existing rich reservoir of accumulated knowledge of our ancient civilizations is fully known to the experts in the field in academia as elsewhere, and continue to inspire scholarly research.
In this collective endeavor, we need to reflect on the factors that have shaped our past civilizations and have sustained them, as dynamic, living entities. We need to be able to draw general lessons from the past and learn from their ebbs and flows along the historical continuum.
A retrospective look at the overall contours of the several-thousand year-old human civilization informs us that mutual exchange and interaction between and among human communities, each with their own particular attributes, have brought to bear, in varying forms and to differing degrees and at various historical intervals, on the formation of common human civilization. This continuing exchange and interaction between and among a rich diversity of human groupings, from the very early times of recorded human civilization up to our very days, is anchored in dialogue and understanding, through the mediums of intellectual reflection, literature and art.
To emphasize the valuable contribution of the literature of our ancient civilizations to human empathy and realization of our common destiny, let me provide one beautiful, transcendental example from Sa’adi, the renowned Iranian poet of the 13th century:
All human beings are members of one frame
Since all, at first, from the same essence came.
When time afflicts a limb with pain
The other limbs cannot at rest remain.
If thou feel not for other’s misery
A human being is no name for thee.”
These mediums continue to function as the means to rely on, cherish, and utilize with the ultimate objective of ensuring civilizational continuity. The difference, between our world today and the past, however, lies in the degree of complexity we encounter nowadays, whether in terms of the number and variety of actors, the kinds of challenge in various arenas of human life on the planet, or the quite complex and ever-complicating web of relations. Yet, the truth of the masterpiece by Sa’adi 800 years ago cannot be more apparent than in today’s globalized world, reminding us that humanity is not merely a “global village”, but a “single human body”, where no part can rest, let alone gain and prosper, when other parts are suffering.
Of course, there are formidable common challenges that the human community is currently facing; ranging from the elusive goals of sustainable development, protection of the environment, and eradication of poverty for the larger part of the international community to effective combating of such rather new twin phenomena of extremism and terrorism as universal plagues. The globalized, interconnected nature of the state of affairs across the planet makes it imperative that common problems need common solutions. And as we are witnessing a renewed tendency for the tested – and failed – unilateral approaches, I should underline the need to seek multilateral solutions.
The objective reality on the ground has changed, so has the urgency of rising to the challenge and grandiosity of the needed common, collective response on the part of the global community. And it is right here that the special role of ancient civilizations comes into the picture. These civilizations have much more accumulated knowledge, intellectual depth, time-tested experience, and the hard-won historical discretion to draw on as compared with other much younger members of the human community.
Given the enormity of the challenges and the very existence and activity of so many formal and not-so-formal entities engaged in addressing them and claiming to offer remedies and solutions, and considering the inescapable imperative of being objective with a finger on the pulse and a foot on the ground, the task before this Forum calls for a focused approach, a well-defined, modest agenda, and a practical format to ensure active and effective pursuit of our common objectives. We can neither afford to be oblivious to the actual constraints in the world, nor fall in the familiar easy trap of setting lofty inaccessible ideals.
What we need to establish at this initial, and yet critical, stage of the work of the Forum is to arrive at a general collective understanding of the overarching, fundamental concepts and principles that will shape and guide our work in the future. We need to recognize and respect such norms and principles as diversity, inclusion, tolerance, moderation, dialogue, justice, fairness, human rights, democracy, and good governance –despite inevitable differences on application and implementation.
As the inheritors of ancient civilizations, with the necessary depth of understanding and historical reflection to appreciate that triumphs as well as trials and tribulation are but short moments in the millennial historical retrospect, we need to challenge the prevalent paradigm of “might makes right”, the paradigm of exclusion, which in its various forms has invariably brought bloodshed and devastation to human society throughout history and has given rise to violence, underdevelopment and extremism. This paradigm has governed the relations among communities and nations for far too long, resulting in wars, atrocities, occupation, oppression, discrimination and displacement. The rampant terrorism and extremism currently faced by countries and regions across the globe, including in West Asia, the cradle of many ancient civilizations, are heinous products of this outdated paradigm.
Human society today is in desperate need of embracing the enriching diversity within and between civilizations. The inheritors of ancient civilizations have a historic responsibility to be in the forefront of promoting dialogue and inclusion to usher in a new paradigm of global relations. In 1998, former Iranian President Khatami, in his capacity as Chairman of the Organization of Islamic Conference – now called Organization of Islamic Cooperation – bringing together the heritage of Iranian civilization and lofty Islamic values and teachings, presented the initiative of “Dialogue among Civilizations” which was overwhelmingly welcomed by the UN General Assembly, designating the year 2001 as the UN year of Dialogue among Civilizations. The envisaged dialogue originated from the assumption that sources of knowledge and wisdom are inherently diversified and that each civilization has much to offer and much to learn: making dialogue among civilizations mutually enriching and accumulating.
This signified a clear departure from “paradigm of exclusion” to “paradigm of dialogue and inclusion”. And in September 2013, President Rouhani presented a similar initiative to the UN General Assembly, premised on the same imperative, calling for a World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE), which was unanimously approved by the General Assembly.
Distinguished friends,
Let me conclude by emphasizing that as representatives of ancient civilizations, which have weathered many storms and seen many rise and demises of empires, we have the necessary historical depth to promote the twin remedies of many ills of our times: dialogue and moderation.
Iran’s Leader Pardons, Commutes Sentences of nearly 600 Convicts
On the anniversary of Eid al-Mab’ath, the day Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was chosen as God’s messenger, Ayatollah Khamenei granted clemency or eased the sentences of 593 convicts sentenced by various Iranian courts.
Article 110 of the Constitution grants the country’s Leader the right to pardon or reduce the sentences of convicts upon a recommendation from the head of the Judiciary.
The clemency, however, does not apply to all types of convicts, including those who have been sentenced for their role in armed struggle against the country, armed or organized drug trafficking, rape, armed robbery, arms smuggling, abduction, bribery and embezzlement.
The Leader granted the pardon on Monday on the occasion of Eid al-Mab’ath, which is a public holiday in Iran. On this day, Muslims gather at holy cities and sites to mark the occasion, which falls on the 27th of the month of Rajab on the lunar calendar.
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) often retreated to the Hira cave outside the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to pray to God, to reflect on life.
He was nearly 40 on August 10, 610 CE when the angel Gabriel descended and asked him for three times to read the holy Quran revealed to him. Muhammad, who did not know how to read and write, was then able to read in full and began to teach others the holy words of God.
Armenians in Iran Hold Protest Rally to Mark 1915 Genocide
Iranian-Armenians on Monday gathered in St. Sarkis Cathedral and then outside the Turkish embassy to commemorate the Armenians who were murdered by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
On the 102nd anniversary of the genocide, notable Armenians like well-known conductor Loris Tjeknavorian and top Armenian clergymen took part in the protest rallies to condemn the deadly incident.
A little girl in one of the photos is holding a placard that reads: “Turkey commits the crime, US supports it.”
Here are Tasnim’s photos of the gathering:
The Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust, was the Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly Ottoman citizens within the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey.
The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders from Constantinople to the region of Ankara, the majority of whom were eventually murdered.
Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide as an accurate term for the mass killings of Armenians that began under Ottoman rule in 1915. It has in recent years been faced with repeated calls to recognize them as genocide.
To date, 29 countries including Iran have officially recognized the mass killings as genocide, as have most genocide scholars and historians.
