Flynn, who was known as an Islamophobe, resigned following mounting scrutiny over his conflicting accounts of contacts with a Russian diplomat and reports that they were part of a federal investigation.
Flynn’s departure marked another embarrassing setback for an administration just over three weeks old, on a subject that has for months given pause to both Democrats and Republicans — connections between Trump and Russia.
Retired General Keith Kellogg, who has been the chief of staff at the National Security Council, has been named acting national security adviser, Reuters reported.
American wrestlers were the first ones to arrive in Kermanshah for Iran Wrestling World Cup.
1 of 12
They arrived in Tehran on Monday morning after the Iranian Foreign Ministry decided to grant them visa in spite of the US President’s visa ban for Iranian nationals.
“Following the court ruling suspending Muslim Ban and [based on] the requests from Iranian Wrestling Federation and FILA, US Wrestlers’ visa will be granted,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had noted in a post in his Twitter account.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi also said that the decision [to give the Americans Iran’s visa] was taken after the “biased” restrictions on Iranian citizens’ entry to the US were lifted.
Back on February 3, Iran had declared it would bar the US wrestling team from the Freestyle World Cup competition in retaliation for an executive order by US President Donald Trump banning visas for Iranians.
The Freestyle World Cup, one of the sport’s most prestigious events, is scheduled for Feb. 16-17 and USA Wrestling had previously said it would send a team to the competition.
With only three weeks since taking office as the US President, Donald Trump has caused such a turmoil in his country and the world through his decisions [such as the travel ban order] that has thrown the entire US ruling system into disorder.
On January 27, Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning citizens and immigrants of seven Muslim countries, including Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Iran, and Iraq from entering the US.
The order, however, was later annulled by a US federal judge, and Trump’s appeal was also rejected in the US Court of Appeals.
Currently, the Supreme Court of the United States is the only remaining judicial body in the country to settle out the legal dispute between the Trump administration and the country’s courts of appeals, according to a report by IFP.
Hossein Naqavi Hosseini
Commenting on Trump’s policies and the current tumult they have thrown the US and world into, Seyyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, the spokesman for the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran’s Parliament, said Trump’s undignified, unwise and racist moves and measures have overshadowed the American people’s lives and the US society.
“The outrage expressed by giant technology companies and factories as well as the riots started by American and non-American people over the past few days are all violent reactions provoked by Trump’s policies.”
The US economic system has been set up on the basis of immigrants who constitute the country’s cheap workforce, he said, adding it was quite predictable that Trump’s decisions and behaviour would spark off social riots and the US judicial system’s reaction.
“Interesting among the issues pertaining to the US courts of appeals is that although the country’s judicial system [itself] is accused of passing racist verdicts, it has decided to oppose Trump in the wake and face of his decisions.”
Pointing to the recent remarks made by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Iranian lawmaker said Trump has honestly displayed the US violent and racist face.
He stressed that Trump is a reflection of the US identity crisis, whose coming to power has been accompanied by the exposure of the country’s social crises.
However, Naqavi Hossein added, by rescinding his order, the US judicial system seeks to cover up the severity of these crises.
“What we witness today in Trump’s behaviour — which involves humiliating other nationalities — has roots in the US history and the way America, as a sovereign state, was formed.
“Trump is a fruit of the slavery system used in the US in the 19th century which forced coloured people into compulsory labour and led to the genocide of indigenous Americans [Indians].”
In case Trump continues to display his current behaviour, the US will be caught in a dilemma which would prove quite costly for the country and will definitely cripple its ruling system, he went on to say.
Several Iranian media outlets criticized the signing of MoUs between Iran and Sweden in a ceremony held in Swedish Ambassador’s place of residence in Tehran.
The ceremony was attended by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven and several Iranian officials including Trade Minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian, and Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi.
Conservative newspaper Kayhan referred to the ceremony as a questionable and unexpected move, and said it humiliates the Iranian nation.
“The photos of the ceremony show the female members of the Swedish delegation are not wearing Islamic hijab, and it is said the Swedish PM and ambassador had insisted that the ceremony is held in the ambassador’s house so that they could appear without hijab,” Kayhan added.
However, Swedish Ambassador to Tehran Helena Sangeland told IFP that the “MoUs [were] signed there [in the envoy’s place of residence] in the interest of time and where our PM could officiate. Other MoUs [were] signed at Saadabad [Palace].”
She also stressed in her tweet “that this was at the Official Residence, it is not “my house”.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi also dismissed the reports and said, “No official deal or document was signed between Iran and Sweden in the Ambassador’s residence. They were just some deals between the two countries’ private sectors.”
Plasco shopping centre, one of Tehran’s oldest high-rise buildings, collapsed after a huge fire in January. Having served as an important commercial centre, the disaster caused extensive financial damages to the shop owners.
A few weeks later, the Mostazafan Foundation of Iran, which has been the owner of Plasco since the Islamic Revolution, decided to resettle these shop owners, the majority of whom were shirt producers and sellers, in another shopping centre.
According to a Farsi report by Khabar Online, Javad Doroudian Noqousian, the head of Iran shirt tailors and traders’ syndicate, announced that the Noor Shopping Center in the junction of Tehran’s Taleqani and Vali-e Asr streets has been finally chosen as the new work place of Plasco shopkeepers.
“There are more than 1,000 available shops in this complex,” he said. “So the Plasco tradesmen can easily take their places there, as they have already been resettled in 200 units.”
He then referred to the problems of settlement, and said, “Some units are located in the less frequented areas of Noor Shopping Centre, which led to Plasco shop keepers’ protest. We are trying to solve this problem.”
The damaged tradesmen who rent the units of Noor Shopping Centre, owned by several Iranian banks, will work in it for free until May.
“Until May, the Mostazafan Foundation will pay the rent,” Doroudian added. “Then the monthly rent of each unit will be $11.7 a square metre. That said, about $390 should be paid for a 30-square-metre shop.”
Supported by partisan fans outnumbering their counterparts in the stands, the red-clad Persepolis celebrated its opener just five minutes after the kickoff.
Mohsen Mosalman hot-footed it in the left wing to spot the newly-hired Soroush Rafiei in the box with a defense-splitting cross, assisting the striker to beat Esteghlal goalie Seyyed Mehdi Rahmati with an angled curling drive kissing the far corner of the net.
But the early goal failed to dampen the spirits of the blue-shirted players who saw off Qatar’s Al Sadd 4-3 on penalties last week to book a place in the Group Stage of the AFC Champions League.
Capitalizing on the Reds’ defensive blunder behind the penalty area in the 18th minute, Farshid Esmaeili chested down the ball before unleashing an unstoppable goal-bound shot, with goalkeeper Alireza Beyranvand just looking on.
Two minutes later, Esteghlal proved the equalizer was not a bit of a fluke. Esmaeili turned to a provider this time as his delightful left-footed cross was headed home by Ali Qorbani from close range.
The stunned Reds heaped pressure on the Esteghlal woodwork and almost secured the parity on 31 minutes when striker Mehdi Taremi’s header narrowly missed the target.
Midfielder Ramin Rezaeian cupped his face in the 40th minute after his inswinging free kick went inches above the bar.
Against the run of the play, it was Esteghlal that celebrated the third one minute before the break. Striker Kaveh Rezaei dribbled past his marker Mohammad Ansari on the edge of the box to beat Beyranvand with a left-footed low drive.
Under former Esteghlal midfielder, Alireza Mansourian, the Blues took a defensive tactic and pinned their hopes on counterattacks in the second half to secure the lead.
Considering the league top-scorer Taremi’s squandering the gilt-edged opportunities on 52 and 57 minutes, the Esteghlal strategy worked.
With the strikers failing to find the net, Persepolis skipper Seyyed Jalal Hosseini advanced and rattled the bar with a header three minutes before normal time. Hosseini and Rahmati exchanged rants in the dying moments after the Iran full-back was convinced that the goalkeeper was feigning injury to kill time. Ref Alireza Faghani booked both to prevent the verbal attacks’ escalation into a brawl on the pitch.
Rahmati finally received his marching orders for a second bookable offense in the injury time when he apparently pushed Hosseini, who rushed to take the ball out of the net after making it 3-2 with a header.
The game ended seconds later, leaving Persepolis at the top, with 47 points out of 21 games, and Esteghlal in third place, with 10 points less.
Collecting 41 points, Tractorsazi of Tabriz sticks to the heels of Persepolis.
The Navy’s 44th flotilla of warships, which patrols the Gulf of Aden waters in an overseas mission, saved the trade vessel when Somalian pirates tried to hijack it.
The pirates, equipped with modern and expensive vessels such as refueling ships, launched the attack on the Iranian trade vessel on board 11 speed boats.
The timely presence of the naval flotilla forced the pirates to flee the zone.
The 44th flotilla, comprising Alvand destroyer and Bushehr logistic warship, set sail for the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in mid-October to protect the Iranian trade vessels against piracy in the unsafe zone.
Delivering a keynote speech at the Power of Film and Moving Image conference in London on February 9, Weinstein said, “If that ban sticks, it will be terrible. We’ve already seen [the effect with] this wonderful movie ‘The Salesman’ (nominated for best foreign language film). The director at this point can probably come in now before the appeals court rules, but he couldn’t come in before.”
The co-chairman of Weinstein Company was speaking before a US federal appeals court rejected Trump’s attempt to reinstate his travel ban on nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries, screendaily.com reported.
“So you start to lose talent, especially the director of an academy award-nominated movie and a man who’s won the academy award (for ‘A Separation’ in 2012). Iranian movies like ‘The Salesman’ go a long way – better than ballistic missile tests – in uniting our two peoples,” Weinstein added.
Farhadi told The New York Times he will not attend the 89th Academy Awards in Hollywood on February 26 in protest over “unjust conditions forced upon some of my compatriots and the citizens of the other six countries” by Trump’s executive orders on immigration.”
“We can point to that film and say ‘this was made by an Iranian filmmaker, starring Iranian actors, look what the people are doing, look what this amazing director has done’. As a world community, we should support that,” Weinstein said regarding Trump’s controversial travel ban.
Co-founder of the entertainment company Miramax, Weinstein, 64, has produced famous films including ‘Gangs of New York’ (2002), ‘Shakespeare in Love’ (1998) and ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994) among many others.
“Congratulations on Parisa Rouhaniyan’s gold medal and the other three medals collected by our young and honorable archers at the Las Vegas 2017 Archery World Cup,” Rouhani wrote in a message published on his official Twitter page on Sunday evening.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi, in a separate message, congratulated the Iranian nation and sports community on the remarkable achievement of Iranian archers, saying they hoisted the country’s national flag and won several medals at the US World Cup through tireless efforts and perseverance.
Iranian Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Masoud Soltanifar also felicitated the archers on victories at the Las Vegas 2017 Archery World Cup Stage 4.
Iranian archers managed to pocket one gold, one bronze and two silver medals at the Las Vegas 2017 Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 4.
Female Iranian junior athlete Parisa Rouhaniyan took part in recurve event of the high-status tournament on Sunday morning, and claimed the world title. An American archer landed second and Rouhanian’s compatriot Mobina Fallah stood on the bronze podium.
Reza Sha’bani of Iran got a silver medal in the boys’ division, while a representative from the host country was awarded the gold. The bronze medal went to a Japanese contestant.
Also in the girls’ cadet section, Iran’s Sogand Rahmani won a silver medal. An American participant stood on top of the podium.
The Las Vegas 2017 Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 4 started in the United States on February 10, and finished on February 12.
A total of ten junior and cadet archers in addition to one senior athlete represented the Islamic Republic of Iran in the tournament.
An Iranian teenage criminal was arrested for carrying 10 grams of heroin in Shiraz, southern Iran, and he was expecting to receive a prison term, but the judge of Shiraz Criminal Court Number 2 decided to give him a noncustodial sentence
According to a Farsi report by Khabar Online, the boy was condemned to learn the religious rules of Islam for 5 years instead of being imprisoned.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi also dismissed the reports and said, “No official deal or document was signed between Iran and Sweden in the Ambassador’s residence. They were just some deals between the two countries’ private sectors.”
