Alasht, meaning ‘Eagle Sanctuary’, is a small city in the highlands of Savadkuh County, Mazandaran province. The city, which is the birthplace of Reza Shah, founder of the Pahlavi dynasty, enjoys cool weather, historical architecture and natural resources.
Zarif made the remarks while attending a Majlis (parliament) open session to give a report on the Economy of Resistance and foreign investment.
Zarif reiterated that the anti-Iran sanctions would have been increased, if the JCPOA had not been reached. He added that a new sanction had been imposed almost monthly against Tehran over the past years.
“If anti-Iran sanctions had continued, Iran’s oil sales would have been dropped below 200,000 bpd, and later almost zero,” he said.
Zarif reiterated that thanks to the Iranian people’s resistance and the great efforts of the Petroleum Ministry, Iran’s oil exports have currently reached 2,000,000 bpd.
Today, the new Majlis is holding its seventh session since it started work after the February 26 Parliamentary elections nationwide.
The Executive Director for International Affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Seyyed Mohsen Ghamsari, said negotiations are underway with various European firms over sealing long-term accords; “So far, agreements worth 600,000 to 700,000 barrels have been signed and 80% of the deals have become operational.”
The official underlined that long-term deals for exporting Iran’s crude have been signed with Saras SpA and Eni of Italy, Spain’s Repsol, Hellenic Petroleum SA of Greece, France’s Total, Switzerland’s Vitol Group as well as Lukoil of Russia.
Ghamsari went on to assert that “All the companies with a signed agreement have received their oil shipments, while a portion of the deals are long-term, in which case oil delivery is being carried out.”
The NIOC official previously highlighted that talks with Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell are still going on, though no long-term agreement has been reached yet; “Only one oil shipment has been delivered to the Anglo-Dutch company.”
At the present time, the volume of Iran’s oil exports has reached more than 2.1m barrels per day and the figure is planned to hit a total of 2.5m barrels per day by the end of summer.
The call by Iraq’s Foreign Ministry came after Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki said earlier this week that Iraq’s current offensive against Daesh had sparked a flurry of new fundraising campaigns in Saudi Arabia.
“You cannot control the sympathies of people,” Turki said, before acknowledging that those were potentially fake campaigns to raise money in the name of the “Children of Fallujah” which actually fund terrorism.
“They are focusing on any event which results in a humanitarian crisis, like the one going on in Fallujah now in Iraq,” he said.
“This is now heavily being used by many to encourage people to give money for the children of Fallujah,” Turki added during a conference call with reporters on terrorist financing.
In a statement on Saturday June 11, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry denounced the case as “An obvious violation of the Security Council’s decisions.”
“We are waiting for a clarification from the Saudi Government regarding its spokesman’s press statements on the collection of financial donations for ISIS (Daesh) within the kingdom,” the statement said.
“The real efforts being exercised to fight terrorist organizations must eliminate their funding sources,” the ministry said, in an apparent jab at Turki touting Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism efforts.
On May 23, the Iraqi military started a large-scale push to drive out the militants from Fallujah, located nearly 70km west of the capital, Baghdad.
According to the United Nations, up to 90,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in the city, which has been under siege for about six months, with no supplies getting in.
Daesh militants have been carrying out horrific acts of violence, such as public decapitations and crucifixions, against all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians, in areas they have overrun.
Iran has been a major force at the Freestyle World Cup recently, winning the team title in each of the last four years.
The two-day Freestyle World Cup began on Saturday at 3pm PT at the Forum in Los Angeles, where Iran managed to overcome Azerbaijan 5-3.
Later, Iranian wrestlers showed an even better performance in the competition against India’s national team by thrashing their opponents in all weight categories in order to gain an 8-0 victory.
Iranians are led by Hassan Rahimi (57kg), a four-time world medalist and 2013 World Champion, and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Komeil Ghasemi (125kg). Rahimi is ranked No.2 in the world, while Ghasemi is No. 6.
Other world medalists competing for Iran include Masoud Esmaeilpoor (61kg) and Sayed Ahmad Mohammadi (65kg), both two-time world medalists, along with Hassan Yazdani (74kg) and Alireza Karimi (86kg).
The top eight nations from last year’s World Championships are competing in one of two groups, A or B. Group A is comprised of Russia, Georgia, Turkey and Mongolia while group B includes Iran, the United States, Azerbaijan and India.
Iran’s freestyle wrestlers are scheduled to face the host USA on Sunday evening Tehran local time.
A court in Canada has issued a verdict giving $13m of Iran’s non-diplomatic assets to the families of Americans who died in several attacks blamed on Iran.
This is while Canadian Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion confirmed on Friday that Ottawa has started “official” talks with Tehran in an attempt to renew ties with the Islamic Republic following a lasting nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said that the court’s move is against Canada’s claims on the normalization of bilateral ties.
“The move by the Canadian government contradicts claims about the normalization of relations between the two countries and compensation for the extremist policies of the country’s former government,” he added.
He further noted that the move is “A political ruling based on groundless allegations”.
The spokesman further said Iran regards the move as “A new step in the direction of the hostile policies of the former extremist government of Canada….”
Jaberi Ansari once again reiterated that any normalization of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Ottawa requires a fundamental revision of the previous extremist and incorrect policies of the Canadian government, such as the violation of the judicial immunity of the Iranian government.
The Islamic Republic reiterates to the Canadian government its international responsibility to protect Iranian assets in that country, he concluded.
Here are excerpts from the interview, as covered by IRNA:
ISIS is now concentrating on the Middle East, but things may happen in Indonesia, with a big Muslim population, the southern Philippines, and of course in Malaysia, because there are a lot of young Malay Muslims, particularly young Malay men, going to the Middle East. Do you worry that ISIS can be planted in Malaysia?
The problem with the West is they don’t go to the root cause of the terrorism in the Middle East. Before there was no terrorism, but they created Israel, and then they defended Israel against all kinds of things Israel does. Even when the Israelis commit crimes, the West supports [them]. And every time the Palestinians and their supporters try to act against Israel, they get no support — they have no means. So they resort to what they can do, and what they can do is what we call terrorism.
Now we have ISIS. I believe that the degree of terrorism will increase over time, not because of religion, but because of a sense of frustration over the wrongdoings of the West against Muslim communities. The West only talks about how you can militarily defeat the terrorists, but terrorists are very difficult to defeat, because they can appear anywhere.
But what about the bigger, wealthier Arab nations? Don’t they have a responsibility to moderate Muslim youth? Don’t they have a responsibility to promote development?
They are obviously not doing enough in Saudi Arabia and places around it, with [their] Wahhabism, which is a problem for other countries. At the same time, when you go against terrorists, you become the target; you don’t say anything against them, because then you become a target. So these people, they say, “OK, you are doing these things, but don’t come to our country.” That’s all they do. They have a lot of money, and if you have too much money, you become spoiled. It’s easy to build buildings and develop the physical appearance of development, but to take on the terrorists requires a lot of skill and sacrifice. If you look at these countries, all the work is being done by foreigners. They only spend the money. [Their] culture is not compatible with the modern world.
What do you think is the biggest challenge East Asia faces?
The resurgence and power of China. We have to live with China. But the Western idea is that if you see somebody coming up, you must stop him. You must block him. The US is preaching the idea of confrontation. The Chinese will strengthen their military capability; that is what they are doing. I was in Japan recently. I told the Japanese, If you have an overlapping claim, try negotiation, don’t try to fight. It’s not worthwhile. You may win a war, you may lose a war, but the cost of war is horrendous.
The agreement was made at a meeting attended by Masoud Karbasian, the head of IRICA, Ebrahim Pourfaraj, the head of the Iranian Tour Operators Association, and Vali Teymouri, director of the Monitoring and Assessment Office at Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicraft and Tourism Organization. Jamshid Hamzezadeh, president of Iran Hoteliers’ Society, also attended the meeting that discussed the tourism industry’s issues with regard to customs duties, ISNA reported.
“Based on the agreement, hoteliers and other parties that import hotel equipment will present a bank guarantee instead of paying an “exorbitant customs fee” until moderate tariffs are defined and agreed upon by relevant bodies,” he said.
Referring to the agreement as “a dramatic change and a positive measure” by ICHHTO in support of the county’s hospitality industry, Hamzezadeh said the temporary measure will help revise import tariffs by giving everyone breathing room to discuss the matter.
As agreed at the meeting, a list of imported hotel equipment and their new tariffs will be prepared by experts. The plan will be then submitted to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance as well as the Industries, Mining and Trade Ministry for approval before being presented to the Cabinet for final approval.
“If everything goes well, hoteliers will hopefully benefit from tax exemptions, too,” said Hamzezadeh.
Categorized as luxury items, hotel equipment is taxed at the highest possible rate, which has impacted the industry and contributed to rising room rates. Many hotels, which cannot afford the high customs fees, have resorted to purchasing substandard products, leading to a drastic drop in their quality of services.
According to Hamzezadeh, the approval of the scheme will solve a major obstacle facing the hotel industry as many hotels had been unable to standardize their services in recent years due to high taxes. Aging four- and five-star hotels are also interested in upgrading their equipment and the new scheme, if approved, will provide them that opportunity.
The society has repeatedly called on the Majlis [Parliament] to remove the value-added tax from rooms and grant hotels permanent exemption from income tax.
According to a report carried by Reuters on Friday June 10, traders believe that the expected June shipments from Iran of at least 6m barrels, or 200,000 barrels a day, would be a record level.
Two South Korean buyers, refiners SK Energy and Hanwha Total Petrochemical Co, are set to lift at least 6m barrels of Iranian South Pars condensate in June, up from about 3-4m barrels in April and May, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
A Hanwha spokesman said the refiner planned to import about 2m barrels of Iranian condensate in June, as it was cheaper than oil from Qatar and the company wanted to diversify its sources of supply. SK Energy officials declined to comment.
The report added that Iranian condensate imports could witness a further rise, if Iran clinches a deal with Hyundai Chemical to supply the company’s new splitter. Talks between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Hyundai Chemical on a term supply deal are underway.
Iran’s crude exports are now close to pre-sanctions levels of around 2.5m barrels per day.
The plan, which has long been on ICHHTO’s agenda, has so far been implemented in a few museums in Tehran. Mohammad Reza Kargar, the head of museums at ICHHTO, told Mehr that implementing the plan across the country will take time, but no new tickets will be printed until the old ones are sold out.
“A limited number of tickets will be printed in Tehran to be used in case old ones run out or e-tickets face technical problems,” he said.
This is while Tehran’s palace complexes, such as Niavaran and Sa’dabad, which were supposed to implement the e-ticket pilot scheme, still do not offer internet reservation services, and visitors have to visit the palace complex in person to receive an A4 printout of the e-ticket at the gate, which defeats the purpose of the scheme.
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