On his way to address American people in Indiana, Trump was sporting his signature red power tie. But a gust of wind as he was disembarking a plane with Vice President-elect Mike Pence revealed the truth: Trump’s tie was being held together by tape!
According to a report by IFP, the photos of his scotch-taped red tie have been widely circulated in social media and criticized by American citizens ashamed of having such a president.
According to a Farsi report published by Vaghaye Ettefaqiyeh newspaper, Hamid Baeidinejad, a member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, says the US Congress’ recent extension of the anti-Iran legislation does not necessarily mean that the US government has reneged on the promises not to level new sanctions on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The diplomat, who has been recently appointed as Iran’s Ambassador to London, posted a note on his Instagram page about the recent speculations by some Iranian media outlets that new sanctions are going to be imposed on Iran in what would be a violation of JCPOA text if the US president signs off the extension of ISA.
“It is right that the ISA, due to be signed off by US president, will be extended for another 10 years, but snapping back the sanctions stipulated in JCPOA and suspended thereof will need a separate decision the by US administration, in which case, it would be an outright violation of JCPOA. The reason is that the nuclear deal has suspended articles of the ISA under its Article VI and in the Appendices 9, 10 and 12,” he said in his post.
Violation of JCPOA can only take place when the sanctions stipulated by the ISA are implemented, he added.
The US Congress voted recently in favour of extending the US president’s authority to potentially impose sanctions on US entities that do business with Iran.
Baeidinejad further said the US House of Representative and the Senate’s move to extend the ISA did in fact raise sensitivities inside Iran, especially after the White House announced that Obama would sign off the extension.
According to a report by IFP, the Russian president’s special envoy to the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov, arrived in Tehran on Monday and met Iran’s Deputy FM Hossein Jaberi Ansari.
During the meeting, Jaberi Ansari highlighted the significance of continued consultations between the two countries on regional developments, saying that Tehran attaches great importance to its ‘strategic’ ties with Moscow.
“The two countries are standing by each other in the battle against terrorism and extremism, and should have mutual cooperation in highest levels on political issues as well,” he noted, according to a Farsi report by ILNA.
“We are faced with a wide variety of paradoxes in the Middle East, and should endeavour to devise a comprehensive plan [to resolve regional issues],” Jaberi Ansari noted, adding that promotion of cooperation with regional states is a prerequisite for such efforts.
He further referred to the developments in Yemen, and stressed that the formation of a National Salvation Government in the Arab country is not in contradiction to Yemen peace talks.
“The success of UN’s roadmap [for Yemen] hinges on adoption of proper policies by Saudi Arabia,” he went on to say.
“Future of Yemen is decided by its own people, and regional players should help the two sides of the conflict hold serious intra-Yemeni talks,” the Iranian official added.
Jaberi Ansari also pointed to the recent developments in Lebanon and the election of its president and prime minister after months of power vacuum.
“The developments in Lebanon showed that a deal between opposing sides with the aim of maintaining national interests is the solution to problems and paradoxes currently gripping the Middle East.”
Iran’s deputy FM finally voiced the Islamic Republic’s preparedness to facilitate regional deals and help regional nations realize their demands.
Bogdanov, for his part, criticized the West for imposing sanctions on Syria and at the same time claiming to advocate residents of Aleppo.
The visiting Russian diplomat took a swipe at the West for its paradoxical stances on Syria, blaming the economic woes and harsh living conditions in Syria on the Western sanctions and an ongoing crisis, now in its sixth year.
As regards the developments in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo and Russia’s military help for the Syrian government in the fight against terrorism, Bogdanov underlined that “all terrorist elements must be evicted from Aleppo.”
Putin Sends Two Envoys to Tehran in Three Days
Bogdanov’s visit to Iran came a couple of days after Russia’s special envoy on Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, carried a message from President Putin to “Iranian political leaders.”
Lavrentiev met with President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Saturday and delivered the message in the form of a letter, as confirmed by the Kremlin.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian President Putin’s point man on Syria delivered a “confidential” letter penned by the Russian head of state to Iranian President Rouhani.
“I can confirm the submission of the Russian president’s letter to his Iranian counterpart but cannot reveal its details,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
According to a report by IFP, President Hassan Rouhani said in a post on his Twitter account that “ISA implementation is a clear violation of JCPOA [nuclear deal] and will receive our firm reaction.”
“Even if the US President signs and then suspends them, it will not remain unanswered,” he added.
Almost all newspapers covered the reports about the Student Day [marked on Tuesday] and the conferences and speeches held across the country on this occasion.
Today’s papers also covered a meeting between the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the families of Iranian martyrs killed in the fight against terrorism.
The US Senate’s extension of anti-Iran sanctions (known as ISA) and its consequences also remained a top story today.
The above issues, as well as many more, are highlighted in the following headlines:
19 Dey:
1- Netanyahu: I’m Opposed to JCPOA; Nuclear Deal Paves Iran’s Way to Nuclear Program
2- Government Spokesman Predicts 7.7% Economic Growth Rate
Abrar:
1- We’re Happy to See Rouhani Announced US Extension of Sanctions Is Violation of JCPOA: Kayhan’s Editor-in-Chief
2- Netanyahu: I’d Like to Discuss Nuclear Deal with Trump
3- Kerry: JCPOA Is a Permanent Deal
Aftab-e Yazd:
1- Iran, Britain, and the US Competing with Each Other in Fining Driving Offences: 900% Increase in Fines over Past Decade
Arman-e Emrooz:
1- Imam Khomeini’s Grandson: Freedom of Choice Is a Pillar of Lifestyle
2- The Day When Tribunes Belong to Students [Student Day in Iran]
Asrar:
1- Iran and China Underline Full Implementation of Nuclear Deal
2- Moniz: US Won’t Violate JCPOA
3- Larijani: We Should Have 5 or 6 Strong Parties in Iran
Ebtekar:
1- Babak Zanjani Can Save Himself by Returning the Country’s Money: Prosecutor
2- Year of Economic Downturn and Growth: Government Spokesman
Emtiaz:
1- Indiscriminate Use of Cosmetics in Iran
2- Increase in Budget of Internet Access for Villages in Next Year: ICT Minister
Etemad:
1- Kayhan Editor-in-Chief Shariatmadari in Sharif University of Technology: JCPOA Should Be Taught in Schools as a Disaster
2- Motahari in Kerman University: 20 Minutes Long Enough for Approval of JCPOA in Iran’s Parliament
3- Painters Are Happy People: Ebrahim Haqiqi
4- Neither Conservatives, nor Reformists Have Any Other Candidate than Rouhani
Ettela’at:
1- Culture Cannot Be Restricted by Establishment: Parliament Speaker
2- Pentagon: Mosul Will Be Liberated before Trump’s Inauguration
3- Kerry: Assad Will Be Part of Power Transition in Syria
Haft-e Sobh:
1- Fever of Online Taxi Services in Iran: Mobile Apps: Iranian Entrepreneur, the Developer of Mobile Taxi Service Apps and Murderer of Tehran’s Traditional Taxi Services
2- $3 Million for Iranian Physicist and His Colleagues: Kamran Vafa Receives Top Physics Award
Iran:
1- Hot Day of Universities: Fight against Corruption and Fate of JCPOA Were Key Topics of Student Gatherings in Different Cities
2- China and EU’s Support for JCPOA Implementation: US Left Alone in P5+1
Jame Jam:
1- Consensus for Responding to US Violation of Its Commitments
2- Those Who Received Astronomical Salaries Are Being Summoned
Javan:
1- Today, Our Forces Are over the Heads of Zionist Regime [Israel]: A Report on Ayatollah Khamenei’s Meeting with Families of Those Killed in Fight against Terrorism
2- Kerry: Nuclear Deal Is the Document of Our Friendship with Israel
Jomhouri Eslami:
1- Power Ministry Warns of Water Crisis in Iran
2- Chinese FM: JCPOA Shouldn’t Be Influenced by Countries’ Domestic Affairs
Ka’enat:
1- Three Drops of Blood: A Report about Students’ Demands
Kayhan:
1- Judiciary Starts Taking Action against Executives Who Received Astronomical Salaries
2- Power Minister: Iran’s Water Use Has Crossed Global Red Line
3- Last Breaths of Terrorists in Eastern Aleppo
4- Aboriginals’ Resistance Worked: US Administration Backs Off
Khorasan:
1- Smiles and Cries in Fatherly Meeting: A Report on Meeting of Martyrs’ Families with Ayatollah Khamenei
2- One Iranian Is Killed in Car Accident Every 31 Minutes!
Resalat:
1- Enemy Should Be Suppressed inside Its Borders: Leader
2- Young People from around the Country Frequently Write Letters to Me, Asking for Permission to Go Fight in Syria; Their Passion Is Very Important: Leader
3- The Question Is What Benefits JCPOA Has for Iran: Judiciary Chief
Shahrvand:
1- Complaints of University Students
2- 25 People Who Received Illegal Discounts from Tehran Municipality for Buying Houses Are Summoned: Prosecutor
Shargh:
1- Universities’ Semi-Open Doors: Political Mobility on Student Day
2- Iran Will Have More Conflicts than Ever with US Republicans
Manouchehr Manteqi, a top official from the Science and Technology Directorate of Iran’s Presidential Office, was quoted by the domestic media as saying that talks with Airbus over the scheme had already been concluded.
“Production of spare parts may be the most important component of the aviation industry,” Manteqi, who is the secretary of the Knowledge-Based Aviation Industries Development Center of the Directorate, was quoted as saying.
“Iran has already started producing spare parts for planes,” he said, indicating that the cooperation scheme with Airbus will help further boost Iran’s capabilities in that sector.
Iran in January signed a basic agreement with Airbus over the purchase of scores of planes. The deal is yet to be finalized but it has already received the go-ahead from the US Treasury Department.
The Department’s seal for Iran-Airbus agreement was necessary given that at least 10 percent of Airbus’ components are made in the US which has imposed a series of economic sanctions against Iran for years now.
Iran has also signed another basic agreement with US aviation giant Boeing over the purchase of planes. The agreement, however, hit a bumpy road last month after US lawmakers approved a bill that banned the export, or re-export, of commercial aircraft to Iran by American financial institutions.
Every autumn, an artist is commissioned to paint murals on the wall of transportation building of Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, US. This year, Mahdi Qadyanloo, a young Iranian artist, had the opportunity to exhibit his art on this wall. His mural titled “Spaces of Hope” has drown a lot of attention.
According to a Persian article by Honar Online, Qadyanloo has created many artworks in Iranian and European cities and tends to paint abstract themes using simple, geometrical shapes.
His Boston mural shows a closed setting with people waiting, where a balloon finds a hole in the framework’s ceiling to go out. This artwork, not as irrelevant to “American Dream”, pictures modern man’s imagination and dreams about a better life.
Qadyanloo, known for his surrealist paintings in Tehran, has created more than 100 paintings on the walls of different Iranian cities. His fame made its way to London in winter 2015, where he painted a mural titled “We didn’t start the play” on a wall in Shoreditch neighbourhood.
Then he held an exhibition of his artworks in London’s Howard Griffin gallery, a collaboration that offered him with artwork orders from US, Norway and India.
Qadyanloo was born in 1981 and graduated from Faculty of Fine Arts, Tehran University, with a degree in painting. In his biography, Qadyanloo refers to Iran-Iraq war as his most prominent memory of childhood, and admits that he turned to painting and beautification of urban spaces in an attempt to escape the eerie, grey space of his childhood memories.
Though it was merely an endeavour to beautify his surroundings at first, Qadyanloo persisted enough to make his artwork’s signature out of it, and made his way to Tehran and different world cities’ walls.
The helicopter, belonging to Iran Helicopter Support and Renewal Company, crashed in Lake Chitgar at 11:40 a.m. local time on Tuesday, according to a statement by the company.
All of the 8 people on board the chopper were rescued from the lake after the crash and have been admitted to hospital, it added.
Mizan later reported that two of the crew members have lost their lives in the hospital.
The cause of the incident is under investigation, the statement noted, as reported by Tasnim.
The artificial lake of Chitgar was made next to a large forest park of the same name a few years ago.
Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks on Monday published a 57,934-email archive of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak, who is also the country’s energy minister.
According to a report covered by Khabar Online in Farsi, Albayrak’s emails seem to confirm the not-so-recent accusations, since the energy minister is appealing to be the “unofficial” owner of the oil company Powertrance which is importing oil from the ISIS-held territories in Northern Iraq to Turkey.
In late September 2015, a Turkish Marxist hacking organization, Red Hack, claimed that it has access to almost 20 gigabyte of data from Albayrak’s personal email accounts.
Information and articles regarding the email’s content began to go online; however, the Turkish justice system decided against the publication and reproduction of the emails, thus implying their authenticity.
The newest accusations that the Turkish government – and, specifically, members of Erdogan’s family – has an active role in the oil smuggling from areas that are controlled by the ISIS, were between the most important subjects that were temporarily released. The leaking of all the emails from the Turkish energy minister by WikiLeaks seem to confirm these allegations.
Here is the searchable archive of Albayrak’s emails
Speaking at the Peking University in the Chinese capital on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Minister outlined Iran’s stances on world issues.
According to a report by IFP, the top Iranian diplomat said the military approach is not the perfect means of fighting terrorism.
“The military approach is not the ultimate approach to resolving extremism, and toward that end, cultural and university programs must be tapped to degrade and destroy this phenomenon,” Zarif said.
Zarif said the main cause of extremism and terrorism is “feelings of hate, desperation, and dissatisfaction that occupation has brought to nations.”
He said hegemonic powers harboured wrong perceptions of world politics, including that a country can achieve something only at the expense of other states.
The pursuance of zero-sum games, Zarif said, manifested itself in the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq by US-led military forces.
“Can we now say that America is safer because of the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq?” he asked. “That is not the case, and this is a wrong perception.”
He said Iran practiced the notion of “win-win” solutions for global issues by engaging in negotiations with six countries over its nuclear program, Press TV reported
Turning to Syria, he said, “If there is an insistence on a particular person’s departure from the country’s presidency, well, he has his own supporters, and that is true of the opposition, too.”
“We must have a global network with shared interests and mutual cooperation, [a network of countries] that would acknowledge the reality that we are all on the same boat and have to endeavour together to solve problems,” the Iranian foreign minister said.
On the crisis that has gripped the Arab country for six years, the Iranian minister noted that settlement of the crisis should entail “inclusion, not exclusion”, stressing that insistence on the overthrow of a president will get nowhere, because both the Syrian president and the opposition have their own proponents.
According to Tasnim’s report, he also made it clear that Iran and China share views on the modern world realities and conform to the ‘inclusion not exclusion’ game.
Zarif further highlighted the constructive results of academic and cultural collaboration between Iran and China in the fight against extremism, reiterating that military approaches could by no means tackle extremism.
The Iranian minister finally hailed China for playing a positive role in addressing the conflicts, as in Syria, not pursuing the role of a superpower.
Heading a mainly trade delegation, Zarif was in China as the second leg of an Asian tour that took him earlier to India for the 6th conference of the ‘Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process’.
He has now left Beijing for Tokyo for an official visit to Japan.
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