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US Making Instrumental Use of Iraq’s Ethnic Diversity: Deputy FM

September 27, 2016

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Jaberi Ansari said in a televised interview that the US has special ties with some ethnic and racial groups in Iraq and has always made instrumental use of them.

“Their use of Kurds and their ties with Kurdish groups in Iraq’s developments is one of their political instruments,” Jaberi Ansari said, according to a report by Khabar Online, as translated by IFP.

“On Mosul and the field developments in Iraq, the Americans are worried that the Iraqi army and popular forces would make major changes,” he said, adding that the US has been basically taking advantage of the fall of cities to the hands of terrorists.

“If Iraqi territories, Mosul in particular, are liberated by Iraqi army and popular forces, the Americans’ political outcomes would not be achieved, and people would have the upper hand.”

Therefore, he added, they use racial, religious, and political paradoxes, and one of these ways is to bring Kurdish groups into the field.

“It’s their policy to maintain their key role by managing these paradoxes,” he went on to say.

The Iraqi army is geared up to launch a large-scale offensive to liberate the northern city of Mosul, which the ISIS terrorist group has proclaimed its headquarters in Iraq. Mosul fell to ISIS terrorists in summer 2014.

A 2015 offensive to retake the city came to a halt after ISIS militants overran the city of Ramadi, which is the capital of the western province of Anbar and about 110 kilometers west of Baghdad. Ramadi was liberated in December 2015.

On June 18 this year, Iraqi forces launched another attack to retake the southern parts of Mosul, one day after they retook Fallujah.

Path to Syria Peace Not a Military One

Elsewhere in his remarks, Jaberi Ansari noted that since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, Iran has always believed that the Syrian nation must decide about the future of the country.

“The crisis in Syria has been going on for over five years, one of the reasons behind the sluggish peace process is that some countries believe that it has a military solution, but Iran has, since the beginning, believed that a military solution will reach nowhere and that there is no path but that chosen by the people of Syria,” he said, as reported by Press TV.

He said certain countries are responsible for turning the crisis in Syria into a multilateral problem, and they are still pursuing a military solution, adding that another obstacle to resolving the crisis is the number of players in the situation.

Jaberi Ansari went on to condemn a US attack the killed dozens of Syrian government troops in the country’s eastern province of Deir ez-Zor.

He stressed that the US’s explanation that it had mistakenly killed around 80 government troops battling ISIS was unacceptable.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Over the past few months, the Takfiri militants active in the Arab country have suffered major setbacks as the Syrian army has managed to liberate several areas.

Bahraini Gov’t Worried about People’s Reaction to Sheikh Qassim’s Trial

Jaberi Ansari further referred to the trial of prominent Shiite cleric of Bahrain, Sheikh Isa Qassim, which has been postponed for the fifth time.

“The trial was postponed once again because the government of Bahrain is worried about people’s protest at the [possible] verdict that would be given to Sheikh Qassim,” he said, adding that the Al Khalifa regime is going to pursue their harsh policies step by step.

“We have repeatedly announced that this type of policy-making is deficient. A major part of Bahrain’s society demand major reforms,” Khabar Online quoted him as saying, as translated by IFP.

“Continued oppression and prosecution of personalities and figures will lead to crisis, even if the proponents of Bahrain’s government would think such policies are successful in the short-term,” he added.

Iran Now Has the Edge in Fight over Oil Prices with Saudi Arabia: Report

IFP Editorial Staff

September 27, 2016

According to the Bloomberg’s report, which was covered by Khabar Online, Iran is the only member of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that has made economic reforms after the decrease of its oil price.

Here are excerpts selected by Khabar Online from the original article:

Suddenly the tables have been turned on Saudi Arabia.

The biggest oil exporter has swapped its traditional role as price dove with regional foe Iran, for years OPEC price hawk. The government in Riyadh is now offering a deal — including its first output cut in eight years — to boost prices; Tehran is dragging its feet. At the centre of the reversal is their contrasting thresholds for enduring economic pain.

“Both countries are coming from different positions,” said Jason Tuvey, Middle East economist at consulting firm Capital Economics. “Iran has been under sanctions until recently, so it’s getting an economic boost as investment returns and oil output rises. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is facing steep fiscal cuts.”

The contrast between the two countries is stark. Iran, never as dependent on oil revenue as its neighbour, has seen prospects boosted by rapprochement with the west. In Saudi Arabia, tentative moves toward economic reform haven’t prevented two years of weak prices causing financial havoc: it’s burning through foreign exchange reserves, government contractors have gone unpaid and civil servants will get no bonus this year.

Saudi Arabia will suffer a fiscal deficit equal to 13.5 per cent of gross domestic product this year, compared with one of less than 2.5 per cent of GDP for Iran, the International Monetary Fund estimates. The IMF says the Saudis need oil close to $67 a barrel to square the books. For Iran, it’s lower, at $61.50.

When it comes to economic growth, Saudi Arabia is slowing sharply to 1 per cent while Iran is accelerating toward 4 per cent. The current account — a broad measure of a country’s economic relationship with the world — tells the same story. Saudi Arabia faces a double-digit deficit this year; Iran’s is nearly balanced following economic reforms in 2012 and 2013 to weather the impact of international sanctions over its nuclear program.

While Iranian President Hassan Rouhani faces elections next May and is under pressure over the country’s economic performance since sanctions were lifted, it’s already been through the austerity that’s only starting in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has told other OPEC members it’s willing to reduce production to January levels. That effectively would mean a cut of 500,000 barrels a day. Iran, meanwhile, is refusing to freeze its production at the current level of 3.6 million barrels a day, aiming instead to lift output above 4 million barrels a day, the level before sanctions halved exports.

For the last two years, as oil prices plunged from more than $100 a barrel to a 12-year low of less than $30 a barrel in January, the Saudis have drawn on their huge currency reserves to cushion the impact. It spent $115 billion last year and between January and July this year it used up another $52 billion.

Subsidies, long a political taboo, are being cut, as are the salaries of government ministers by 20 per cent. Infrastructure projects have been delayed, and a value-added tax is mooted for 2018. If Saudis have continued spending as they did last year, the country would have gone “completely broke” by early 2017.

On the other side of the Persian Gulf, there isn’t the same sense of crisis.

“Tehran would love to have higher oil prices, but Iran is the OPEC country that had to do fewer budget sacrifices due to cheap oil,” said Olivier Jakob, an analyst at Petromatrix GmbH in Zug, Switzerland. “They feel they have a strong hand.”

Beauties of Iran: An Overview on World Tourism Day

IFP Editorial Staff

September 27, 2016

Each year, World Tourism Day is celebrated in different countries on September 27. To mark the international day, Tasnim has released photos that portray a small part of Iran’s beauties.

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