The Saudi FM met his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a foreign ministry official told AFP.
Another government official said it was the first visit to Baghdad by a Saudi foreign minister since 2003, marking a key step in efforts to mend frosty bilateral relations.
“This visit is to reestablish relations in a more stable way than previously,” a senior government official said. “It’s the first visit of its kind.”
The remarks made by Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with a number of poets were widely covered by Iranian newspapers. Ayatollah Khamenei’s comments about the West’s effort to change the lifestyle of non-Western countries were the top story in many front pages today.
Another top story was President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Iran’s southwestern province Khuzestan and his promise to resolve the crisis-hit province’s problems.
Newspaper also covered the ongoing Environment Exhibition in Tehran and the remarks made by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at its opening ceremony about the incorrect policies of Middle Eastern countries that have led to current pollution crisis and water shortage.
The above issues, as well as many more, are highlighted in the following headlines and top stories:
19 Dey:
1- President Rouhani Underlines National Resolve to Settle Dust Pollution Issue
2- Zarif: Environment Is National and Regional Security Issue
3- Iran’s Nuclear Chief Warns against Penetration of Trumpism into Iran’s Domestic Politics
Abrar:
1- Ayatollah Khamenei: There Are Centres in West to Change Lifestyle in Iran
2- Mosul Airport Liberated: Iraqi Forces Enter First District in Western Mosul
3- Deputy FM: JCPOA Legitimised Iran’s Nuclear Energy Program
Abrar-e Eqtesadi:
1- Expansion of Iran-Malaysia Trade Ties Using Local Currencies
2- Goodbye to Oil-for-Goods Deals: No More Use of Barter System in Iran’s Oil Sale
3- Russia Offers to Manufacture Plane in Iran
Aftab-e Yazd:
1- Hopes Returns to Khuzestan: Iranian president and cabinet members visited southwestern crisis-hit province
2- Saudi Minister: Iranian Pilgrims to Attend Upcoming Hajj Pilgrimage
Arman-e Emrooz:
1- Sword Not Only Weapon Used in Struggles: Iran’s Leader highlights role of propaganda in today’s world
Ebtekar:
1- $324m Injected to Ahvaz’s Air: How Much Can AMAK Plan Help Khuzestan?
Etemad:
1- Living Where Oil Is Smelled: President vows to counter environmental problems in Khuzestan
2- Iran’s Ambassador to Kuwait: Formation of Regional Coalition against Iran Unlikely
Ettela’at:
1- Iran’s Leader: Europe, US Trying to Change Non-Western Countries’ Lifestyles
2- Islamic Jihad Appreciates Iran’s Leader for Supporting Resistance Cause
Haft-e Sobh:
1- Hollywood-Style Robbery in Tehran: Armoured cash transport car carrying over $250,000 in cash was stolen in daylight
Iran:
1- First Female Space Tourist and NASA Executive to Represent Iran at Oscars
2- Seven Planets Similar to Earth Discovered by NASA: One of them might be warm enough to be liveable
Javan:
1- 82% Dissatisfaction with Shutdown of Aerospace Projects
2- One More Step towards Confrontation with Moscow
Jomhouri Eslami:
1- Iran’s President: Government Standing by People of Khuzestan
2- Deputy FM: In JCPOA, Some Parties Preferred Partisan Interests to National Ones
3- ISIS Gives City of Al-Bab to Turkey-Backed Armed Forces!
Kayhan:
1- Iran’s Leader Urges Poets to Explain Islamic Lifestyle in Reaction to West’s Cultural Plots
2- Mosul Airport Liberated: ISIS’ Key Communications Line Cut
3- Amano: Iran’s Uranium Reserves Much Lower than What Agreed
Khorasan:
1- Hot Electoral Weekend: Conservatives gather votes of 3,000 figures to name final 10 candidates; 4 reformist parties making plans for May elections
Shahrvand:
1- World to Get Thirsty: A Report on Global Water Crisis
2- Zarif: Security Means Nothing without Water
3- Tension: Iran’s Water Resources beyond Critical Conditions
Shargh:
1- IAEA Once Again Confirms Iran’s Commitment to JCPOA
2- Trade Minister: I’m Accountable for Secret Deals
Vaghaye Ettefaghieh:
1- Reformist and conservative parties holding their national congress ahead of May presidential votes
2- ‘Lobatak’, Symbol of Fighting Deprivation
Girls in several villages in Iran’s deprived province Sistan and Baluchestan make handmade cloth dolls in protest at being deprived of education
3- We Just Have One Earth Planet
All-out efforts to realise green economy were emphasised in this year’s Environment Exhibition in Tehran
Farhadi applauded the unity shown by the cinema community in his address at UTA’s “United Voices” rally on Friday afternoon.
The Iranian director, whose movie The Salesman is nominated for best foreign-language film, spoke via video message from Tehran to the rally crowd of more than 1,500 who gathered outside the agency’s Beverly Hills offices.
“It is comforting to know that at a time when some politicians are trying to promote hate by creating divisions between cultures, religions and nationalities, the cinema community has joined the people in a common show of unity to show its opposition,” said Farhadi, according to a report by Hollywood Reporter.
“I hope this unity will continue and spread to fight other injustices. Filmmakers can break stereotypes around the world by turning their cameras to capture shared human qualities.”
UTA’s decision to forego its annual agency Oscars party for a protest was prompted partially by Farhadi, a UTA client, saying in January that he would boycott the Oscars ceremony in light of President Donald Trump’s travel ban for citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries, including Iran.
Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari (known as the first Iranian in space) and former director of Solar Systems Exploration at NASA Firouz Naderi will attend Sunday’s ceremony in Farhadi’s place.
The “United Voices” rally also featured speeches from Jodie Foster, Keegan Michael-Key, Michael J. Fox, UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, among many others.
Karim Ansarifard helped Olympiacos progress to the Last 16 of the UEFA Europa League by scoring two goals in Olympiacos’ 0-3 victory away to Osmanlispor on Thursday.
UEFA awarded the Iranian’s stellar showing against the Turkish club by naming him as the Europa League’s “Player of the Week”, Agona Sport reported.
In addition, the Europa League’s “Team of the Week” included Alberto Botia (Olympiacos), Giannis Gianniotas (APOEL), Alvarez (Celta), Cabral (Celta), Viergrever (Ajax), Pogba (Manchester United), Pozuelo (Genk), Giuliano (Zenit), Fekir (Lyon), Aboubakar (Besiktas), and Stindl (B. Monchengladbach).
Ansarifard’s team will face Besiktas in the Round of 16.
“Hand-woven carpets account for $224 million and machine-made for $276 million of the exports,” Hossein Abouei was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official noted that Iran produces 125 million square meters of machine-made carpets every year and that Kashan, a city in Isfahan Province, is the biggest hub producing 70 million square meters per year.
The main export destinations of Iranian machine-made carpets are Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkmenistan and Pakistan.
Last week, Hamid Kargar, the head of Iran’s National Carpet Center, put the export of hand-woven Iranian carpets during the 10-month period at 4,400 tons worth $275 million. He said the figure registered a 19% rise compared with the corresponding period of last year.
“Direct exports to the US accounted for $69 million of the total sum. This is while last year we had no exports to that country,” he said.
In a speech at the 53rd Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 19, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticized what he called an Iranian “sectarian policy” in the region. Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had accused Iran of promoting “Persian nationalism.”
Reacting on Friday, Foreign Minister Zarif of Iran told Fars news agency that Turkish officials had been entangled in the consequences of their “past mistakes” and were now attempting to play a blame game by making accusations against Iran.
“Unfortunately, the wrong policies of the Turkish government in the past have created a situation that they (Turkish officials) have to project the blame; it is a regret that they do so,” Zarif said.
Turkey has been involved in unauthorized military operations in Syria and is accused of having supported militants fighting the elected Syrian government.
“We hope that regional countries would fully comprehend the need for cooperation… and that such cooperation would turn into the topic of the day instead of such improper remarks,” the Iranian foreign minister said dismissively, referring to the anti-Iran comments by the Turkish officials.
Iran had earlier summoned the Turkish ambassador to Tehran for a diplomatic rebuke over the remarks by Cavusoglu and Erdogan. The Iranian Foreign Ministry had also warned that there was a certain ceiling to Tehran’s patience with the Turkish government.
‘Ungrateful, and with a weak memory’
On Thursday, in an interview with the daily Iran, Foreign Minister Zarif had recalled Iran’s supportive stance vis-à-vis the Turkish government following a failed coup attempt that sought to topple officials in Ankara in July last year and said the Islamic Republic did not expect the behavior that the Turks later displayed.
Following the coup, Iran voiced full support for the Ankara government, and Zarif soon traveled to Ankara to carry a message of support for the legitimate Turkish government. He even visited the damaged parliament building in the Turkish capital, shelled by rogue soldiers.
“[Our] friends [in Turkey] apparently have a weak memory…,” he said in the Thursday interview. “They both have a poor memory and are ungrateful toward those who have been kind to them and supportive of them.”
Also speaking at the Munich conference, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and Israel seemed to echo one another — and Cavusoglu — by making anti-Iran remarks of their own.
‘The coalition of the defeated’
In his Thursday interview, Zarif called Saudi Arabia and the other regimes working in tandem against Iran “the coalition of the defeated.”
“Once… I said that the international anti-Daesh coalition is ‘the coalition of the repentant;’ now I say it is ‘the coalition of the defeated.’ All the parties that have failed in our region have formed a coalition and are saying things. I think one shouldn’t take them very serious,” Zarif said in that interview.
‘The powerful side doesn’t taunt’
The Iranian foreign minister that while Iran has been speaking — including in the Munich Security Conference where Zarif himself represented Iran — of cooperation and dialog, the anti-Iran regimes have been “throwing wrenches in the works, which is often not what the powerful side does.”
“The powerful side should lay out its plans and speak of what the future should look like, not call others names,” Zarif said.
Addressing the opening ceremony of the 16th Iran International Environment Exhibition in Tehran on Friday, Zarif invited all neighboring countries to engage in close environmental cooperation with Iran.
“I invite all neighbors of the Islamic Republic to launch a joint project to counter the environmental threats caused by former tyrant regimes in the region, particularly [Iraq’s executed dictator] Saddam [Hussein] and some extremist groups, especially Daesh,” the Iranian minister said.
Some of the areas in Iraq where sandstorms originate are under the control of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and have turned into battlefields, hindering a response to environmental issues in those territories. Analysts also believe that Saddam’s environmental policies during his tenure have played a major role in the drying up of Iraq’s wetlands and current environmental issues.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran extends its hand of cooperation to all its neighbors in order to provide a better life for our children through a joint project and to counter the threats that the present generation and future generations face,” he added.
He described such cooperation as a “political and security imperative and not just an environmental necessity” and expressed hope that the leaders of regional countries would succeed in solving the issues.
Environmental cooperation can help build confidence among regional countries, he said, adding that all states in the region regardless of their policies need to strengthen their cooperation in this sector.
Zarif further expressed hope that all countries would also boost their cooperation to solve common challenges in all other fields, including economy and poverty alleviation and the campaign against terrorism and extremism.
“Green Economy, Resilience Economy” was the motto of the four-day exhibition which was kicked off in Tehran in the presence of 300 domestic firms and 20 foreign companies.
The exhibition is underway in Tehran as the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan is reeling from heavy floods and dust storms, a situation which has led to disruption to the distribution of water and electricity supply in the province.
Speaking upon his arrival in the provincial capital city of Ahvaz on Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic Republic is currently implementing plans to resolve the root causes of dust storms inside the country, but there is a need for regional and international cooperation to eliminate the other origins of such storms in Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Heavy rains have washed filaments of dust and sand into power transmission equipment, leading to long outages. Water supplies have not been unscathed, hindering everyday life in the provincial capital Ahvaz and other cities.
On Monday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called on Iranian officials to immediately address the problems facing residents of Khuzestan Province.
During the Thursday visit, Rouhani was briefed by the engineers and managers of the plan, which is part of the country’s no flaring policies and one of the most important projects to prevent environmental pollution.
The plan will also contribute to preventing burning of 241m cubic feet of sour gas per day in an area including Ahvaz, Ramhormoz and Shadegan in southwestern Iran, President’s official website reported.
The first phase of AMAK project, named after the initials of the related oil fields, was launched 10 years ago in order to prevent flaring associated gases in the region.
The associate gases of the Bangestan layer contain nearly 2.5 percent of sulphide hydrogen, whose flaring releases harmful substances in the air and causes environmental pollution, Shana reported.
AMAK as the first mechanized no-flare project is being implemented by domestic experts in the area covered by the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC), according to its production manager Ramin Hatami.
The country’s largest environmental project in oil and gas sector gathers associated gases in Bangestan layer and a number of oil fields including Abtimour, Mansouri, Maroun, Ahvaz and Kopal.
Farhadi, whose “The Salesman” is nominated for the foreign-language film Oscar, had announced several weeks ago that he would boycott the Oscars ceremony to protest US President Trump’s travel ban, even if exceptions were made to allow him entry to the US.
The film’s French producer, Alexandre Mallet-Guy, said in an email two days ago that he had decided not to attend the ceremony in solidarity with the director, and that nobody from the film would attend. He also said Farhadi would not be doing interviews if the film won.
The decision to ask two prominent Iranian Americans with no ties to the film world to represent him during Sunday’s ceremony suggests that Farhadi intends to maintain a close rapport with the US, where “The Salesman” is currently on release via Cohen Media Group, Variety reported.
Farhadi’s publicist did not comment on the possibility that Mrs. Anousheh Ansari and Dr. Firouz Naderi would relay a statement from Mr. Farhadi, or whether a Skype link-up with Mr. Farhadi in Iran was a conceivable option in the event of an Oscar victory.
Years after King Abdullah II of Jordan coined the term “The Shiite Crescent” in 2004, now we are witnessing a new “labelling” campaign against Iran, this time launched by Turkey.
The campaign, however, comes at a time when resistance fronts are experiencing landmark turning points.
According to a Farsi report by Tasnim, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke of the “Persianism” concept in a speech at the International Peace Institute in mid-February.
Referring to regional developments, Erdoğan expressed misgivings over Iran’s actions. He claimed that some people want both Syria and Iraq disintegrated.
He said there are those who are working toward the disintegration of Iraq where religious rifts and ethnic conflicts exist at the same time.
He said “Persian Nationalism” also exists there. In addition, he said, there exists secessionism which should be stopped.
A short time later, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking at the Munich security conference, rehashed Erdoğan’s anti-Iran remarks with a different language. He said Iran is promoting Shiism in Syria and Iraq, and has created instability in the region with its actions
Since then, media affiliated with the Turkish government have used similar language and are promoting such language under different pretexts.
Yeniakit and Evrensel are among major state-run publications which promote “Pers milliyetçiliği” (Persian Nationalism). To people overseas, the concept means Iran is seeking to promote and rebuild the Persian Empire.
Objectives of King Abdullah II’s “Shiite Crescent” and Erdoğan’s “Persianism”
After Jordan’s King Abdulla II coined the term “The Shiite Crescent” in the region, we have been witnessing a new “labelling” campaign, this time on the “Iranophobia” front. However, the two anti-Iran stigmas have emerged at a time when the country has much more influence and power in the region than the past.
King Abdullah II coined the term in 2004 when the United States invaded Iraq and overthrew former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, Iran’s main enemy. Ever since, the governments which have taken power in Baghdad have been very close to Tehran.
Former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak also used the same term again in 2006 when the Lebanese Hezbollah movement defeated Israel during the 33-day war. And it goes without saying that Hezbollah is Iran’s arm in the region.
Why are they creating the impression that “Persianism” is being promoted?
It is clear that “Shiaphobia” can no longer help promote “Iranophobia” because Shiites make up part of the populations in the region, including in Afghanistan, Turkey, the Azerbaijan Republic, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Bahrain, and people in the Middle East are not afraid of the term “Shiaphobia”.
Therefore, another word needed to be used which would not only encompass Iran, but frighten all regional nations. So, a term was cleverly used targeting a certain geographical area (where Iran is located) and a given ethnic group in the same region.
By taking a look at regional developments, one can find out why the Turkish president has coined a new term to promote Iranophobia at both regional and international levels. Once it was thought that developments in Syria coupled with the dream of getting Syrian President Bashar Assad toppled would benefit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. But now the very same developments are unfolding in favour of the Damascus government and regional resistance fronts, given the liberation of Aleppo, Syrian troops’ gains and the international community’s efforts to counter Takfiri terrorism and settle the Syria crisis.
This could be seen as yet another triumph for Iran and resistance forces following the 33-day war and the ouster of Saddam Hussein as well as the installation of an Iraqi government closely aligned with resistance forces in the country. It could also be regarded as a watershed in the history of resistance in the region.
Maybe that is why Erdoğan, who dreams of leading the Muslim world and the region, coined a term, as King Abdullah II did, when he realized his dream had shattered. This way, Erdoğan was able to express part of his concern over the situation in the region changing in favour of Iran.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi had responded to that: “Those who cherish the pious hope of returning to an empire, commit interventionist, illegal and illegitimate acts, support terrorist groups, trigger bloodshed and fuel tension and instability in the region, cannot dodge responsibility for these actions by playing a blame game.”
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