Mahdi Mousavi told IRNA on Tuesday that based on the agreement, Arvand Free Zone with the cooperation of Abadan University of Medical Science, is to provide infrastructure and the necessary permits.
He added that a food and drug laboratory is to be built in Arvand Free Zone to decrease food and sanitary products import costs, adding that the laboratory equipment purchased for this project is of top medical quality.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric insisted on Tuesday June 7 that no final decision had been made, and that the coalition had been taken off the list pending a review that is expected to be completed before August.
“I don’t think it’s a reversal of policy,” Dujarric told reporters. “We will see what the review is and we will adjust the list as needed.”
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International blasted Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the decision, accusing him of caving in to Saudi pressure and damaging the world body’s credibility.
In its annual report on children in armed conflict published on Thursday, the United Nations added the coalition to its list of shame after concluding it was responsible for 60% of the 785 children killed in Yemen last year.
Saudi Arabia reacted angrily and demanded that the report be “corrected.”
Saudi Ambassador Abdullah al-Mouallimi said the number of child deaths blamed on the coalition was “wildly exaggerated,” and later proclaimed that the decision to be taken off the list was “irreversible.”
Dujarric said the United Nations stands by the content of the report, but was willing to review information that the coalition “insists is important for our analysis.”
“We stand by everything – every fact and figure that is in the report,” said the spokesman, AFP reported.
Human Rights Watch charged that Ban had capitulated to Saudi pressure after the United Nations itself had extensively documented the coalition’s airstrikes on schools and hospitals in Yemen.
“As this list gives way to political manipulation, it loses its credibility and taints the secretary-general’s legacy on human rights,” HRW’s deputy director Philippe Bolopion said.
Amnesty International slammed what it called “shameful pandering” to the Saudi-led coalition.
“It is unprecedented for the UN to bow to pressure to alter its own published report on children in armed conflict,” the head of Amnesty’s UN office, Richard Bennett, said in a statement.
“Blatant pandering such as this undermines all of the UN’s work to protect children caught up in war,” he said.
The coalition launched an air campaign to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former president Abd-Rabbuh Mansour Hadi in March 2015.
The war has left some 6,400 people dead, with more than 80% of the population in desperate need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
“Shekardasht” county lies some 20 km from the city of Talesh in the mountains of western Gilan Province. Its unique scenery is widely carpeted with wild poppies at the end of spring each year.
The show featured 20 emerging artists from the Netherlands, South Africa, China, Russia and Iran, working in a variety of media, Honaronline reported.
The exhibition was the ninth in a series of pop-up galleries that have opened around the world. Artists from all previous destinations converged in Tehran to exhibit their artworks along with Iranian artists at Tehran’s Ace Gallery and in an old building near Hafez Bridge.
According to the event’s website, NMAG’s exhibition concept aims “to offer an alternative route to the international art market by exhibiting art outside of the cultural, economic and political context in which it was created in an earlier stage of the artist’s career” and to showcase their works in multiple locales.
The artists who participated included Iranians Aria Tabandehpour, Majid Biglari, Mehrdad Jafari, Sam Samiei, Sepideh Zamani and Shirin Mohammad and Bertrand Peyrot (France), Merijn Kavelaars (the Netherlands) and Mia Chaplin (South Africa). Artists Emmelie Koster and Zahra Deldadeh were the curators of the show, which wrapped up on June 3. The artworks will be featured in Amsterdam soon.
No Man’s Art Gallery project provides an international platform for young artists by organizing pop-up galleries all over the world. At regular intervals it takes on a different city in a different country, where it identifies local young artists with talent. The artists encounter and enter into dialogue with audiences from different cultural backgrounds.
The project organizers exhibit their art in a city and take the local art with them to the next city. Previous exhibitions have been held in Cape Town, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Mumbai, Paris, Copenhagen and Shanghai.
The meeting held in Jakarta was attended by Indonesian Minister of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Marwan Ja’far and Iran’s Ambassador to Jakarta Valiollah Mohammadi Nasrabadi.
The Indonesian minister, in the meeting, referred to the increase in bilateral ties in the post-Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) era, and called for development of those ties in the area of energy.
Indonesia, he said, is planning to increase the current level of its power production, and is determined to make use of Iran’s capabilities and experiences to develop its power plants.
In terms of electricity production, Iran ranks 16th in the world. Indonesia stands at 21st, while its population is three times more than Iran.
Iran and Indonesia reached an agreement on energy cooperation last year. According to that agreement, Iranian companies will build 48 new small hydroelectric power plants in Indonesia.
Tehran Symphony Orchestra, as seen in this June 6 concert, were led by new conductor Shahrdad Rouhani. They performed Sergei Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto, Beethoven’s Arthur Egmont, Piotr Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Alexander Borodin’s Prince Igor.
To coincide with World Environment Day, a group of students from Payam-e-Noor University in Birjand, South Khorasan province, have made a gazebo with 3200 bottles inside the university grounds.
“This critically endangered species is undergoing the 10th round of the protection and monitoring program on the island,” said Maryam Mohammadi, head of the Environment Office at Kish Free Zone Organization.
“On the eve of World Environment Day (June 5), the first baby turtles emerged and the rest of the eggs are expected to hatch one after the other over the next few days,” the official was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The turtles’ protection and monitoring site is one of Kish’s top attractions, which draws nature lovers to the island each year to see the conservation process from up close. It is located on the southern coast of the island and enthusiasts can pay a visit after making arrangements with local park rangers.
Protecting the turtles from poachers, guarding their nests and eggs against thieves, protecting baby turtles after they hatch and guiding them toward the sea, and biometric scanning and tagging female turtles that come to the shore to lay eggs are but a few measures of the conservation plan.Since its launch in 2006, the Kish Sea Turtles Conservation and Monitoring Program has directed significant numbers of turtles to the sea each year, increasing their survival rate.
The hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) is a marine reptile that enters the Persian Gulf waters each year from the Indian Ocean between February and June to lay eggs. The eggs across a patch of land are then unearthed by conservationists and transferred to the protected zone.
This rare animal is easily distinguished from other sea turtles by its beak-like mouth (from which its common name is derived) which helps pull sea sponges, its principal food, out of the curves of corals. It has a key role in the operation of marine ecosystems and the life of corals.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies the hawksbill as critically endangered. The turtle has also been listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which outlaws the capture and trade of hawksbill sea turtles and products derived from them as well as Appendices I and II of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.
In separate messages to his counterparts in Islamic countries on Tuesday June 7, Jahangiri congratulated Muslim people and governments on the auspicious occasion.
He further expressed the hope that during the holy month, there will be closer brotherly ties among Muslim nations and peace and security will be established in the Islamic Ummah (community).
On Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also congratulated the heads of state and governments of Muslim countries on the advent of Ramadan.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and a time when Muslims across the world fast during the hours of daylight. Muslims’ holy book, the Quran, was first revealed to the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) during this month.
Led by Ayatollah Moqtadayi, the delegation met with Nasrallah in Beirut. Iran’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Fath Ali, also attended the meeting.
On behalf of the clerics at the Qom Seminary – a top religious school in Iran – the visiting delegation reaffirmed its support for Hezbollah and its strong leadership in the face of threats and acts of aggression.
The Iranian team also praised Hezbollah forces for their devotion to duty in combating Zionist [Israeli] and Takfiri plots.
For his part, Nasrallah thanked the Iranian delegation for the message of support, saying Hezbollah takes pride in the Qom Seminary’s stances, and its fatherly role and backing for the advocates of justice around the world.
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