Treasures from the museum’s collection were put on display, and the conference was addressed by the president of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), Hans-Martin Hinz.
For more on the conference, see here.
Iranian FM Meets US and British Counterparts in Vienna
The 17-nation ISSG convened in Vienna on Tuesday to discuss the latest developments in war-torn Syria and look for ways for a sustainable ceasefire in the Arab country.
On the sidelines of the gathering, the Iranian foreign minister had a meeting with his American counterpart to discuss the ways to effectually implement the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a lasting nuclear deal between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
In a separate meeting, Zarif and Hammond also met to talk about Tehran-London bilateral relations and about better ways of carrying out the JCPOA, particularly in the field of international banking ties with Iran after the termination of the sanctions.
In addition to the two meetings, the top Iranian diplomat also sat down with Oman’s Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi. They held consultations on bilateral ties and regional developments.
Elsewhere in Vienna, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi and EU’s Deputy Foreign Policy Chief Helga Maria Schmid held a meeting to discuss the recent decisions made at an April meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission.
During the meeting, Schmid gave a report on the European Union’s efforts to facilitate trade with Iran under the JCPOA.
Back in March, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Americans have yet to fulfill what they were supposed to do as per the nuclear deal.
Iran still has problems in its banking transactions or in restoring its frozen assets, because Western countries and those involved in such processes are afraid of Americans, Imam Khamenei said, criticizing the US for its moves to prevent Iran from taking advantage of the sanctions removal.
Maldives Severs Diplomatic Relations with Iran
“The Government of the Maldives has today decided to sever diplomatic relations with Iran. The Maldives believes that the policies that the Iranian Government pursues in the Middle East, and in particular, in the Arabian [Persian] Gulf region, is detrimental to peace and security in the region, which, in many ways, is also linked to the stability, peace and security of the Maldives,” the Maldives’ Foreign Ministry announced in a Tuesday May 17 statement, Sputnik reported.
Referring to the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Cooperation) summit held in Turkey last month, it further asserted, “The Maldives calls on Iran to show more commitment and tangible results in implementing the recommendations of the OIC,” the ministry said.
The decision came after Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran on January 3 following attacks on Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad by angry people protesting the kingdom’s execution of prominent Shiite cleric Ayatollah Baqer Nimr al-Nimr.
The Maldives is heavily under the influence of the Saudi regime.
Prince Salman, who is also Saudi Arabia’s defense minister, earlier was on an official business visit at the invitation of Maldives President Abdulla Yameen, who was elected in November after two years of political turmoil.
Riyadh has already promised the Maldives a five-year soft loan facility of $300m (£181m), pledged last year when the country’s previous president visited Riyadh.
It is just one example of the growing role of Saudi investment in the archipelago, a factor which may have made the Maldives’ government unwilling to ruffle the feathers of Saudi Arabia’s rulers.
Iranian Cars to Enter North African Market
The MoUs were penned in Tehran on Tuesday May 17 in the presence of the Iranian Minister of Industry, Trade and Mines, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh and Algerian Minister of Industry and Mines Abdeslam Bouchouareb.
The documents allow a number of Iranian automakers to gain a foothold in North Africa where they will manufacture cars, vans and trucks.
Iran’s second-largest carmaker SAIPA, along with other auto companies such as Zamyad Co. and Pars Khodro, won deals to introduce its products and transfer technology to Algeria.
On top of the auto MoUs, the two countries clinched other agreements on cooperation in areas of mining, exploration of natural resources as well as extraction and processing of raw materials.
Iran’s Industry Minister said that Tehran was also ready to pass on its energy expertise and petrochemical knowhow to Algeria as North African states enjoy considerable oil and gas resources.
On Monday, the Algerian Minister of Industry and Mines met with Iranian First Vice-President Es’haq Jahangiri where the two sides discussed a boost in bilateral relations.
Bouchouareb, who is in Iran at the head of 100 delegates from Algerian companies, said the trip has provided a good opportunity to get acquainted with Iranian capabilities and weigh plans for closer cooperation.
Last November, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal also traveled to Tehran to discuss closer relations and cooperation in the fight against terrorism as well as other regional issues.
The two countries have in the past had limited economic exchange, mostly in the food processing sector.
Last year, Iran formed a tripartite partnership with Algeria and Italy to establish a date processing plant in the North African country.
That contract envisaged the construction of the date processing plant in Algeria where the factory is expected to conduct all stages of processing, including the production of sugar from dates and date seed oil.
Saudi Arabia’s Iran Spying Trial ‘Mockery of Justice’: HRW
Saudi prosecutors are seeking death penalty against 25 of the 32 people the kingdom has detained since 2013.
The men are accused of spying for Iran but the charge sheet, which Human Rights Watch said it had reviewed, contains numerous allegations that do not resemble recognizable crimes.
According to the New York-based rights group, the defendants are accused of “supporting demonstrations,” “harming the reputation of the kingdom,” and attempting to “spread the Shiite confession.”
The kingdom began trying the men in February 2016 at the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh.
According to Human Rights Watch, Saudi authorities have not permitted the defendants to meet with lawyers or provided all of the court documents necessary to prepare a defence after more than three years of detention and investigation.
“This trial is shaping up as another stain on Saudi Arabia’s grossly unfair criminal justice system,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East director.
“Criminal trials should not be merely legal ‘window-dressing’ where the verdict has been decided beforehand,” she said.
According to the charge sheet, the defendants include 30 Saudis, one Iranian and one Afghan citizen.
An individual with direct knowledge of the case has told Human Rights Watch that all but one of the Saudi defendants are Shiite Muslims.
Local Saudi media outlets reported in March that some of the defence lawyers refused to participate in court proceedings.
Saudi Arabia’s Shiite citizens face systematic discrimination in public education, government employment, and permission to build houses of worship in the majority-Sunni country.
Riyadh has long been under fire at the international level for its grim human rights record.
Human Rights Watch said it had obtained and analysed seven Specialized Criminal Court judgments from 2013 and 2014 against men and children accused of protest-related crimes following demonstrations by members of the Shiite minority.
“In all seven trials, detainees alleged that confessions were extracted through torture, but judges quickly dismissed these allegations, admitted the confessions as evidence, and then convicted the detainees.”
Famous Artworks to Embellish Tehran for Second Year
Over 2,000 billboard ads will be replaced with images by Pablo Picasso, René Magritte and Henri Matisse and reproductions of traditional Persian miniatures, carpets, calligraphy and many more for ten days, turning the face of the city into a huge art gallery.
The images selected for the project, “A Gallery as Large as a City”, are paintings generally kept in world museums, director of Tehran Municipality’s Beautification Organization Issa Alizadeh said in a press release published on Monday May 16.
“There has been a slight change in the second edition of the project, making the notes on each image easier to read. We have also tried to avoid the repetition of one work on several billboards in the city,” he explained.
On displaying images selected from works by deceased artists, project manager Mojtaba Musavi said, “There needs to be more efforts to introduce works by deceased artists. Moreover, we have avoided showcasing works by living artists, since we need to observe the copyright law.”
Musavi also said that most of Tehran’s billboard spaces are run by private companies; however, they have agreed to dedicate their billboards to promoting culture across the city for a short period of time.
“Thankfully, people welcomed the idea last year, and we believe this project will help the citizens raise their knowledge of art and make them more familiar with artists and their works,” Musavi said.
“Our people are too busy to go to museums and galleries,” he said, adding, “So we decided to turn the entire city into a huge gallery.”
∗ Photo: A billboard displays “Garrowby Hill” by David Hockney during the project “A Gallery as Large as a City” in Tehran last year. (Mehr/Hossein Esmaeili)
Norwegian Envoy Calls for Developing Economic Ties with Iran
Norheim Aud Lise expressed the Norwegian private and state sectors’ interest in investing in Iran.
Describing the situation and investment potential in Iran, Khazaei emphasized developing bilateral economic ties in fields such as monetary funds, like the Oil Revenues Stabilization Fund of Norway with the National Development Fund of Iran, pension funds, financial cooperation and banking credit funds, water resource management, fisheries and aquaculture.
Products imported from Norway include electrical and electronic devices, refrigerating system equipment, drugs and medical devices, paper, ship engines and fish.
Iran exported oil, chemical products, semi-finished materials, steel products, dried fruit and carpets to Norway.
Oil CSR Conference Opens in Tehran
Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh, Minister of Health Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Deputy Petroluem Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh, and a number of other senior Iranian energy and government officials attended the opening ceremony of the event at the conference hall of the Research Center of Petroleum Industry (RIPI).
The conference is aimed at promoting social responsibility issues in petroleum projects, and will present the experiences of oil and gas companies in being socially responsible.
Informing energy managers and executives about CSR issues is another goal of the conference. The two-day event wraps up on Wednesday.
ISIS Bulldozes Another Ancient Assyrian Site in Mosul
The palace dates back to the 7th Century BCE and was built by the Assyrian King Sennacherib, as reported by Basnews and covered by Entekhab news website.
The extremist group recently released pictures of the palace being bulldozed by the militants.
After the fall of Mosul in the hands of ISIS in mid-2014, the militants started to flatten historical and religious sites. Ever since, they have destroyed and looted numerous ancient locations.
Hezbollah’s Mustafa Mughniyeh to Replace Badreddine
According to a report by Asharq Al-Awsat, as covered by ISNA, well-informed Lebanese sources said that Mughniyeh is the son of Badreddine’s sister who was married to Hezbollah’s previous military chief, Imad Mughniyeh.
The source said that Mustafa was given the same name as his uncle because he was born when Badreddine was serving a jail term in Kuwait.
Mustafa Mughniyeh is a mysterious personality who has never appeared in the media based on a decision by the party to give him high-ranking posts, the sources said.
Unlike his brother Jihad, who on many occasions had appeared behind Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Mustafa has stayed away from the media glare.
He even steered clear of the media when his brother Jihad was killed in an Israeli raid in the Syrian region of Quneitra last year.
Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon says that Mustafa Mughniyeh is not known to have any photos. His photo wasn’t even taken when he was born in Tehran in 1987.
Mustafa became close to his uncle after his father’s death in a 2008 car bombing in Damascus.
“He has participated in several missions with the security agencies that fall under Badreddine’s command and held several security posts for top party figures,” said Solomon.
