Iran Restarts Production of Mothballed Unsinkable Boat

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April 3, 2017

Veteran fishermen on southern Iranian Qeshm Island have begun building the home-made boat known as “Shaashak,” which is regarded as one of the island’s ancient handicrafts, according to a senior local official.

According to a Farsi report by IRNA, the boat will never go down in rough seas, said Seyyed Mohammad Amin Ja’fari, the head of the Toursim, Handicrafts and Tourism Department of the Qeshm Free Zone Organization.

The unsinkable boat had been out of production for several decades, he said, adding the first Shaashak will be put on public display once it is built.

“Shaashak is a kind of boat which was made out of palm tree branches in the distant past and would not sink in the sea under any circumstances. The residents of Qeshm, especially those living in the Dayrestan village, would use it for fishing in shallow waters,” the official explained.

The Iranian-made boat used to be used by people on Qeshm Island as well as in the provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan and Bushehr, according to Ja’fari.

However, he said, the boat is now showcased in the museums of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and erroneously introduced as a UAE-made product.

Residents of Qeshm Island enjoy a vast knowledge of maritime science, he said.

According to the top official, numerous types of boats were innovated on the island in ancient times.

Local artefacts and their real creators will be introduced once the island’s anthropology museum is inaugurated, added Ja’fari.

Qeshm is measured at 500 sq kilometres, making it the largest island in the Persian Gulf.

Qeshm is located to the south of southern Iranian Hormozgan province

Iran Condoles with Columbia, Indonesia over Fatal Landslides

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IFP Media Wire

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April 3, 2017

Iran Sympathizes with Colombia, Indonesia over Fatal Landslides

In his message, Bahram Qassemi offered Iran’s sympathy for the loss of hundreds of Colombian and Indonesian people in the natural disasters.

In Colombia, families and rescuers are searching through mud-plastered rubble for victims of flooding and landslides that have killed 254 people, injured hundreds and devastated entire neighborhoods.

Several rivers burst their banks near Colombia’s southwestern city of Mocoa in the early hours of Saturday, sending water, mud and debris crashing down streets and into houses as people slept.

Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Indonesian rescuers have found one body and continued to look for 28 other people feared to be buried after a landslide triggered by heavy rain on Java island.

Iranians Celebrate Nature Day in Outdoor Picnics

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IFP Media Wire

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April 2, 2017

Iranians Celebrate Nature Day in Outdoor Picnics

Iranians uphold the time-honored tradition on the thirteenth day of Nowruz by spending the day outdoors.

‘Sizdah’ means thirteen, and ‘bedar’ means to get rid of, bearing the meaning of ‘getting rid of thirteen’. Sizdah-bedar also marks the end of Nowruz celebrations, which begin on the first day of spring.

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A ritual performed at the end of the picnic day is to throw away the “sabzeh” from the Nowruz’s “Haftsin table”. The sabzeh is supposed to have collected all the sickness, pain and ill fate hiding on the path of the family throughout the coming year.

Preserving the environment is also an integral part of what Iranians do on Sizdah-bedar.

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US Lying about Roots of Terrorism: Iran

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IFP Media Wire

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April 1, 2017

On Saturday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi rejected the anti-Iran comments by US Defense Secretary James Mattis as another episode in a series of baseless accusations.

Mattis said in London on Friday that Iran is continuing to behave as an exporter of terrorism.

US Lying about Roots of Terrorism: Iran

In response, Qassemi said that such American attempts to mislead the world’s public opinion about the origins as well as the financial and ideological sources of terrorism and the politically motivated and biased moves to draw the international community’s attention away from the real sponsors of terrorism have been the main causes of failure of the international anti-terror efforts.

“As long as certain countries, mainly the US, are determined to ignore the actual sources of terrorism and Takfiri-Wahhabi extremism and accuse the countries like Iran, which itself has been a victim of terrorism in different shapes over the past 4 decades,… one cannot and should not expect to see the dirty and developing tumor of terrorism removed,” he added.

Qassemi finally called on American officials to stop resorting to the previous failed policy of political employment of terrorism and accusing Iran, saying the US had better make some of its Middle East friends, which support the terrorist groups brazenly, cut off financial, military and spiritual supports for Takfiri terrorists.

Iranian People Mark Islamic Republic Day

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IFP Media Wire

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April 1, 2017

Iranian People Mark Islamic Republic Day — A picture taken on February 11, 1979 at the Iranian capital of Tehran’s Azadi Square shows the public rejoicing over the Islamic Revolution’s victory.

Farvardin 12, 1358, according to the Persian calendar, (April 1, 1979) is seen as the most important day to follow the victory of the country’s Islamic Revolution three months earlier, when, under the leadership of Imam Khomeini, the nation overthrew the US-backed monarchical Pahlavi regime.

The historic day fell on Saturday this year.

After the voting results were in, the country broke into a state of jubilation, and Imam Khomeini, declared the Republic’s inception.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, who took on the country’s leadership after Imam Khomeini’s decease in 1989, has famously shed light on the significance of the day in an interview, which has been republished on the occasion of the anniversary.

“Briefly, the Islamic Republic Day is an unparalleled juncture in our country’s history as it ushered in a both popular and divine establishment for the first time since the early days of Islam and since the short interregnum of the early years of Iran’s conquest by Muslims,” the Leader noted. “Essentially, this memory is not comparable with any other in our country’s history. It was complementary to the Revolution.”

Iran Condemns Pakistan Terrorist Attack

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IFP Editorial Staff

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March 31, 2017

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Friday terrorism would be eradicated in the region and across the world only through steely determination to stop financial and spiritual support for terrorism and extremism.

He added that a successful campaign against the scourges also requires the engagement of all countries in a mechanism based on “collective and honest” cooperation.

“So long as some individuals deploy the rhetoric of bullying, carnage and massacre instead of logic and dialog as a means to achieve their own ominous goals and a few countries in the region [also] see their interests in the spread of insecurity, terrorism and extremism, there is no hope for uprooting this cancerous tumor,” he added.

He expressed confidence that those who are spreading violence and terror would pay a heavy price for their criminal acts.

The Iranian spokesman expressed his sympathy with the Pakistani government, nation and the bereaved families of the victims.

At least 22 people were killed after a powerful bomb attack targeted a mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Parachinar on Friday.

The explosion took place as Muslims gathered for Friday prayers near the women’s entrance of the Shia mosque in the busy Noor market of Parachinar, the capital city of Kurram Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. The spokesman for the militant group, Asad Mansoor, said in a statement that it was carried out by one of its members, Abul Durda.

Parachinar has been racked by violence in the past. An explosion in Parachinar in January left 25 people dead and dozens more injured.

The tribal area is considered to be one of the most dangerous regions in Pakistan.

Kurram Agency borders three Afghan provinces and was once a Taliban stronghold and the main route for cross-border militant activity.

22 Killed in Blast near Shiite Mosque in Pakistan

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IFP Editorial Staff

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March 31, 2017

The explosion in a remote area bordering Afghanistan came as people gathered for Friday prayers near the women’s entrance of a Shiite mosque in the central bazaar, the latest in a series of attacks across Pakistan this year.
The local political agent, Ikramullah Khan, said the death toll had reached 22, with 70 wounded.
Sajid Hussain, a parliamentarian from Parachinar, said gunfire preceded the blast, which he described as a suicide attack. The city is located in an area with a large Shiite population, Reuters reported.
The terrorist group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), often referred to as the Pakistani Taliban, said the blast was part of its operation Ghazi, named after a radical leader killed by Pakistani security forces in 2007.

Iranian DM Urges US to Leave Persian Gulf

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IFP Media Wire

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March 30, 2017

Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan made the remarks on Thursday in response to recent hostile comments by US officials against the Islamic Republic.

“What is the US doing in the Persian Gulf? They better leave this region and not harass the regional countries,” Dehqan said, adding, “Is it acceptable that an ignorant armed robber breaks into someone’s house and expects to get red carpet treatment? This is an instance of modern, 21st century barbarism.”

The remarks come at a time of increased belligerence shown against Iran by the administration of President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, US Army General Joseph Votel, who heads the US Central Command (CENTCOM), said Washington should consider using “military means” against Iran.

Votel described Tehran as “the greatest long-term threat to stability” in the Middle East and accused Iran of “destabilizing” the region through “lethal aid facilitation,” using “surrogate forces” and cyber operations.

Earlier this month, the US Navy claimed that its aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush bad been “harassed” and “threatened” by Iranian vessels while passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran’s chief Armed Forces spokesman, Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, dismissed the claim, saying Washington had better look at the movements of its own naval forces in the region.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Navy has on several occasions forced US Navy vessels to change course before wandering into Iranian territorial waters.

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly warned that any act of transgression into its territorial waters would be met with an immediate and befitting response.

Spokesman Rejects Arab League’s Anti-Iran Claims

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IFP Media Wire

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March 30, 2017

In comments on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi dismissed the anti-Iran allegations raised in a final statement of the Arab League summit, held in Jordan on Wednesday.

He also slammed as “futile and bogus” the accusations that Iran interferes in the internal affairs of the regional countries and the claims that question Iran’s sovereignty over the three Persian Gulf islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly announced that it does not basically feel any need to interfere in the internal affairs of the other countries, and that it is committed to good neighborliness, respect for the sovereignty of states, and non-intervention in the internal affairs of the other countries as the plain principles in accordance with the country’s Constitution and the international norms,” the spokesman underlined.

Qassemi then expressed “deep regret” about the move by leaders of certain Arab and Muslim nations to mistake friends for enemies, either unintentionally or deliberately.

Those Arab leaders are following the wrong path despite all previous experiences and lessons, he added, urging the Arab League to start dealing with the major problems in the region and the Islamic world and counter the common threats to all Muslim nations.

“It’s a pity that some (countries) change the realities and seek to replace the Zionist regime (of Israel) with Islamic Iran as a dummy and fabricated enemy,” the Iranian diplomat deplored.

He finally noted that Iran strongly condemns the attempts to change the facts about Iran’s sovereignty over the three islands in the Persian Gulf, stressing that repetition of such “lies and claims” could not alter the historical realities.

Iran’s Beauties in Photos: Kerman Province

By

Fatemeh Askarieh

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March 29, 2017

Iran’s Beauties in Photos: Kerman Province-5744193

Kerman is the second largest province of Iran that encompasses nearly 11 percent of the country’s land area. Thanks to its special diversity, Kerman province can meet the needs of tourists with different tastes.

Natural attractions include thermal and mineral springs, recreational areas, verdant spaces, altitudes and peaks, lakes, pools, protected areas and the special desert features for adventure seekers.

Here are IRNA’s photos of Kerman’s beauties:

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