Azadi Tower hosted a light concert on October 3. The projection mapping light installation by German artist Philipp Geist had a number of guests, including the German ambassador to Iran and the engineers who contributed to the construction of the tower.
The event was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the German reunification, and Geist performed at the invitation of the German envoy in Tehran.
Images of the concert released online by different websites:
Warnings by President Rouhani and the IRGC commander to Saudi authorities over their behavior in the wake of the Mina tragedy dominated the front pages of Iranian newspapers on Sunday.
Ettela’at: “We won’t close our eyes to the bloodshed involving our loved ones; we will speak the language of force, whenever necessary,” President Rouhani said in a ceremony to welcome home the bodies of Iranian pilgrims killed in Mina.
The heads of the three branches of government were on hand for the ceremony at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.
Abrar: “Hajj cannot be stopped or banned,” said an MP.
Abrar: Foreign Minister Zarif and Secretary Kerry have had a second meeting in New York.
Afarinesh: “All the ambiguities surrounding the Mina tragedy should be cleared,” said Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Afarinesh: Iran has officially reached out to American oil giants.
Aftab-e Yazd: “The house of Mahmoud Khavari, a former managing director of Bank Melli [wanted by Iranian authorities for massive corruption], has been located in Canada,” said the commander of Interpol Iran.
Arman-e Emrooz: Babak Zanjani [a young billionaire on trial for corruption] faces corruption on earth charges.
It took the prosecutor 90 minutes to read out the indictment against the oil billionaire.
Asrar: “Gone are the times of middlemen,” said the first vice-president in reference to official business between Iran and the rest of the world.
Asrar: The health minister has said that all Iranian pilgrims killed in the Mina tragedy will have been flown home by the end of the week [Friday].
Etemad: “We want a parliament that symbolizes civility and patience,” said Mohammad Reza Aref, [a reformist leader].
Haft-e Sobh: A day full of incidents in the capital
The oil billionaire went on trial [for corruption]; there was a fire at the Interior Ministry building; and a sit-in strike by opponents of the nuclear deal came to an end.
Iran: Parliament should not hold up the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, said Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi.
Javan: The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps has said that his men are “ready for the revenge order”.
Jomhouri Islami: The president has called for the formation of a fact-finding mission to investigate the Mina tragedy.
Kayhan: “Corruption on earth” is the charge the underling of the [reformist] Executives of Construction Party [a reference to Babak Zanjani] is facing.
Mardomsalari: Iran has six demands from Saudi Arabia [in connection with the Mina tragedy], said the vice president for legal affairs.
Payam-e Zaman: “[Foreign Minister] Zarif and [Secretary of State] Kerry have not held talks on Syria,” said the spokeswoman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
Resalat: Obama raises his hands in defeat in front of gunslingers [a reference to NRA].
Roozan: An end to a six-day sit-strike by the Worriers
Law Enforcement has removed the tents of the opponents of the deal camping outside the parliament building.
Saheb Ghalam: Iran and the European Union have launched talks over exports of gas.
Sayeh: The private sector invests more than $54 million dollars in water and wastewater projects in Hormozgan.
♦ “We won’t close our eyes to the bloodshed involving our loved ones; we will speak the language of force, whenever necessary,” President Rouhani said in a ceremony to welcome home the bodies of Iranian pilgrims killed in Mina.
The heads of the three branches of government were on hand for the ceremony at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.
♦ The Supreme Leader has pardoned or commuted the sentences of a number of convicts.
♦ The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps has signaled the readiness of his men to react swiftly and harshly to the Saudi government.
In another development, the Revolutionary Guards unveiled a submersible torpedo-armed watercraftcalled Zolfaghar.
♦ [Prominent Shiite Cleric] Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has called on the world to take on IS.
“With their dark ideology, these terrorists are taking aim at humanity, culture and ethics,” the top cleric said.
♦ A government projection of the positive economic outlook
The first vice-president has said that Iran does have the potential to play a stabilizing role in the region.
♦ Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi has said that any hesitation in the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action will harm the country’s interest.
He said, “Factional interests should not be placed ahead of public interests.”
♦ WikiLeaks has said that Saudi Arabia is the biggest sponsor of terrorists.
♦ Abdolrahim Jafari, the founder of Amirkabir Publishing Company, has passed away.
Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhoundi announced on Saturday that seven international airports are to be built in the neighborhood of the capital city of Tehran during the next ten years to guarantee Iran’s pioneering role in tightening the security and development of the region.
“A new arena has started in our political relations with the world after the nuclear agreement with P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members – the US, Britain, France, Russia and China – plus Germany) last July and we will witness a novel chapter in various sectors, including transportation due to Iran’s strategic position in the region,” Akhoundi said at the ‘International Transportation and Development Summit; Investment Opportunities’, held at the IRIB International Conference Center on October 3-4.
He said that at present, some 92 percent of domestic transportation is conducted through roads and the government plans to decrease the figure to 78 percent in the future along with raising the share of air transportation from its current 0.1 to one percent.
“Seven international airports, with the capacity of receiving 400 long-distance flights each, will be constructed around Tehran to improve the country’s transit potential in the region,” the Iranian minister added.
Akhoundi underlined that the administration seeks to attract foreign investments to improve domestic infrastructure and transit projects, including the intended airports, and has eased the related regulations in this regard.
“We will put the projects out to tender in the future to attract the needed funds,” he said.
[He rejected efforts by foreigners to resort to middlemen and said that foreign investors are likely to be given proposals on the sidelines of this meeting, but we ask them to be in direct contact with us and turn down other proposals.]
On August 31, Iranian President’s Chief of Staff Mohammad Nahavandian announced that the Islamic Republic has turned into a hub of air transit in the region, especially following the Vienna agreement with the world six powers.
“Iran will renovate its domestic air fleet when the sanctions on the aviation industry fall away in the upcoming months,” Nahavandian said in a televised interview.
The official underlined that to experience a booming economy, Iran needs to exploit its transportation potential through developing its railways, roads, and ports.
“The incumbent government will take advantage of domestic and foreign investments to convert the country into a bridge that links West to East,” he said.
The foreign aviation companies have made a flood of offers to sell their airplanes to Iran following the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the six world powers (the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany) that ended boycott on the supply of passenger planes to Tehran.
Tehran has been conducting negotiations with creditable international aviation companies to purchase airplanes.
[…]
The second plane transporting the bodies of 114 Iranian pilgrims who lost their lives in the tragic human crush of September 24 in Mina, Saudi Arabia, has arrived in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
The Saudi aircraft landed at Mehrabad Airport Sunday morning after legal procedures.
The crush took place after two large masses of pilgrims collided at a crossroads in Mina, a few kilometers east of the holy city of Mecca, on their way to participate in the symbolic stoning of Satan in Jamarat.
Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the crush, but officials with Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 4,700 people, including 464 Iranians, lost their lives in the tragedy.
The first flight carrying the bodies of 104 killed pilgrims arrived in Tehran early Saturday.
Addressing a ceremony to pay tribute to the victims of the Mina disaster, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday, “If it is proven that a number of [Saudi] authorities are to blame for the incident, we will never forgive [those accountable for] the blood of our loved ones.”
Nationwide mourning ceremonies are scheduled to be held across Iran on Sunday.
The bodies of the remaining victims, some of whom have yet to be identified, are kept in a cold storage facility in Mecca. The bodies are set to be identified in Iran.
Vice-President for Legal Affairs Elham Aminzadeh said Saturday that the Saudi government should allow the screening of the films and photos of the September 24 Mina catastrophe in line with the International Customary Law.
Aminzadeh told a press conference that the Department for Legal Affairs at the Presidential Office had held several sessions since Friday and that on Saturday there was a meeting with representatives of international humanitarian organizations and international jurors.
She said first of all, the Saudi government should take responsibility and prove that it had taken all necessary measures to prevent the tragedy.
She said that the sizable death toll indicated that the Saudi government did not take preventive measures; secondly, negligence of standards for relief and rescue operations should be substantiated.
Thirdly, payment of damages, including blood money and other spiritual reparations to the victim families should be considered. What comes next is the punishment of those responsible for the tragedy. The Saudi government must apologize to the governments and nations who suffered casualties in the tragic event and finally, it should give guarantees that such incidents won’t repeat in the future.
Aminzadeh said that the six demands will be pursued in the Iranian and Saudi courts as well as international tribunals.
“In the fact-finding committee, the representatives of different countries and international entities like the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation should be present,” she added.
She said there is yet one more model for the formation of a fact-finding committee: The model is the one formed after the assassination of [former Lebanese Prime Minister] Rafik Hariri in Lebanon in which the UN was involved. The UN can also form the fact-finding committee.”
When asked about how the case can be internationally followed up when the Saudi government has not approved international conventions, Aminzadeh said that Saudi Arabia is a signatory to many international treaties as well as a tourism international treaty which considers a lot of rights for foreign nationals.
She said that a Hajj pilgrim, heading for the House of God, is an ordinary tourist as well, adding that the rights envisaged by the tourism treaty and responsibility of the governments for safety of foreign nationals guarantee safety of foreigners by the host government.
She said that according to the World Health Organization Charter, all countries have a duty to guarantee the health of their people and that of foreign nationals and if they fail to do so, the case will be brought to the international tribunals.
“We are not empty-handed about legal provisions to sue the Saudi government for failure to honor the international responsibility formulated by the International Law Commission in 2001. In addition, we have bilateral security agreements and documents, and the security pact signed by the two governments.”
Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Saturday called for a formal inquiry into the deaths of 465 Iranian Hajj pilgrims in the Mina tragedy.
Speaking at a council session, Rafsanjani said that two painful events took place in Mecca this year which left a lot of pilgrims from several Islamic countries dead and hurt sentiments of all Muslims.
He recalled sufferings of the bereaved families and said that respective officials must help the families go through the hard time.
Rafsanjani said that the funeral procession for the victims must be held formally so that people can pay their last respects to the pilgrims died in the tragedy.
He said that the government tapped into an effective foreign policy to promote international and regional interactions and hoped that such a policy will serve the national interests.
[…]
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has said that the Islamic Republic has sent a letter to the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (PUIC), urging it to follow up on the September 24 tragedy in Mina, Saudi Arabia, which led to the deaths of hundreds of pilgrims including many Iranians.
During a press conference with his Croatian counterpart Josip Leko in Tehran Larijani said Saturday he has written a letter to the PUIC, adding that the issue is currently being pursued there.
[…]
Larijani also urged immediate repatriation of the remaining bodies to Iran.
The parliament speaker also called for the adoption of necessary measures to prevent reoccurrence of such incidents.
The Croatian official, who is in Iran at the head of a delegation, also extended condolences to Iran over the tragic event.
Fact-finding mission
President Rouhani Saturday urged the formation of a fact-finding committee to shed light on the main causes of the incident.
Rouhani, who was speaking at the repatriation ceremony, said that the Iranian government would press ahead with its efforts to determine the cause of the Mina tragedy and would inform the nation on the results.
Saudi Arabia loath to raise Mina death toll
Saudi Arabia is defiantly refusing to raise its official overall death toll from the Mina crush despite the rise in the death tolls by nationalities.
Egyptian Minister of Health Ahmed Emad El-Din said Saturday that the number of Egyptian pilgrims killed in the incident has risen to 126. The Egyptian official also said that 110 Egyptian pilgrims still remain missing nine days after the tragedy.
This comes as Pakistan and Indonesia have also reported more deaths from the Saudi disaster.
Indonesia reported on Friday that 91 of its pilgrims died in the incident while saying that 38 of its citizens remain missing after the disaster in Mina. Pakistan also says that 57 of its pilgrims died in the crush and others remain missing.
Iran is to reclaim a satellite seized by Italy due to sanctions imposed on Tehran over its peaceful nuclear program.
Talks are underway with Rome on the returning of the Iranian Mesbah Satellite, Head of the Iranian Space Organization Mohsen Bahrami said.
“Because of sanctions, the Iranian Mesbah Satellite has been held under seizure by Italy for three years now, and [currently] we are engaged in talks to take the satellite back,” said the top space official.
He said the satellite was designed and developed over 10 years ago in cooperation with an Italian company. However, he added, the satellite, which was at the disposal of Italy for its final test, did not get the chance to be launched into space due to sanctions.
He said the satellite was originally supposed to be launched into space by Russians and then Indians, but “this did not happen because of sanctions, and Mesbah Satellite has not been launched [into space] yet.”
One cannot say when the negotiations with the Italian side might bear fruit, said Bahrami, adding If Iran can take back the satellite and it becomes ready for launch, Tehran will follow up on its previous talks with such countries as Russia and India which are capable of launching satellites.
He further noted that Iran has no plans to launch satellites during the current Iranian year (ending March 2016).
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif asked the Economic Cooperation Organization members to renew their commitment to supporting the national, regional and global efforts to achieve lasting peace, stability and prosperity in the ECO region.
The full text of the statement is as follows:
Statement by:
H.E. Dr. Javad Zarif
Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran
at the
Extraordinary Session of the Council of Ministers
of the Economic Cooperation Organization
New York, 2nd October 2015
In the name of God, the most Compassionate, the most Merciful
Mr. Secretary General,
Distinguished Fellow Ministers,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me at the outset to express my deep gratitude to all colleagues for participating in this Meeting despite their heavy schedules in New York. I wish to congratulate and welcome H.E. Mr. Halil Ibrahim Akcha, the new Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization and wish him every success.
Distinguished Colleagues,
Almost two years have passed since we last met in Tehran in November 2013, during the 21st Meeting of the ECO Council of Ministers. In this period, a number of developments have taken place within the Organization including the holding of RPC Meetings and Sectoral Ministerial Meetings, implementation of certain joint projects, formulation of the new vision for ECO during 2016-2025, and appointment of our new Secretary General and Deputy Secretaries General.
Since our last Ministerial Meeting, tangible progress has been made in the transport sector. The ECO new railway corridor connecting Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was officially inaugurated by the Presidents of the three member-states on 3rd December 2014 in Inche-Boroon, and is expected to be a convenient and cost-effective route for cargo transportation with a view to boosting and facilitating the regional and international trade and transit cooperation.
Moreover, strengthening regional cooperation in the field of energy through, inter alia, making efforts for the establishment of the ECO Regional Electricity Market, has been an important achievement within the Organization. In this context, the first trilateral meeting between Iran, Turkey and ECO secretariat was held in September 2014 in Ankara. We are of the view that there is a strong need for the establishment of the ECO Regional Electricity Market and invite Member States to take necessary steps to facilitate this process. We also believe that the idea of establishing a Trust Fund for financing high priority ECO regional energy projects, which was raised during the Third ECO Ministerial Meeting on Energy/Petroleum in March 2013 in Tehran, needs special attention.
Dear Friends,
More than two decades of collective attempts have resulted in varying degrees of maturity and success in different layers and areas of regional cooperation within ECO region. The Organization has been successful in forging a range of cooperation frameworks. However, we are still away from full realization of objectives of our Organization.
In the third decade of its expansion, cooperation within ECO can bring about meaningful benefits to all Member States. This requires the continued and enhanced support lent to ECO by all its Members.
Along the line of strengthening the ECO integrity through wider inclusiveness and enhanced ownership, there is a need to explore, and remain open to needed regulatory, institutional, budgetary and other changes within the Organization. The envisaged reform is a common responsibility of the Membership and the Secretariat alike, which entails mandates to be given by the Council of Ministers.
Allow me to conclude by recalling a number of relevant issues to the Organization which require greater attention by Member States:
– First, the Economic Cooperation Organization provides a unique opportunity for the Member States and the whole Region. However, ECO in the third decade of its expanded cooperation needs a series of reform measures. We need to explore the possibility and scope of the required reforms and make necessary decisions accordingly. Any reform process shall be built on the experience gained from the last two decades with a view to enabling ECO to respond to the needs and requirements of Member States and the Region as a whole.
– Secondly, based on the deliberations of Member States during the 25th RPC Meeting in Tehran, the Secretariat initiated formulation of a new ECO Vision for the period 2016-2025. We are currently in the process of considering the first draft and later finalizing recommendations for the ECO Vision 2016-2025. In view of the rapid socio-economic, political and scientific developments taking place at the regional and global levels, we need to define our Vision in a manner to enhance regional cooperation and economic development. To this end, we should develop and implement strategies in the next decade in such areas as energy, transport and transit, trade, management of region’s resources, human development, environment, and natural disaster risk management. In this context, the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” can be utilized as a roadmap. We shall opt for real measures to implement this ambitious agenda. We believe that the agreed principles of “country ownership” and “common but differentiated responsibilities”, with an emphasis on the development orientation of the three pillars, should remain the cornerstones of our common endeavors.
– Thirdly, there is a strong interdependence between peace and development; peace and stability are essential for realizing the genuine goals of sustainable development and welfare of our countries and peoples. We should recommit ourselves to continue supporting the national, regional and global efforts to achieve lasting peace, stability and prosperity in our region.
– Finally, we need to be mindful of the global efforts aimed at addressing the challenges facing the international community. In doing so, we should give priority to the immediate needs and concerns of our region and its people. To that end, benefiting from relevant international and regional organizations need to be taken into consideration and cooperation with those which have already established relations with ECO should be strengthened.
Dear Colleagues,
We have a full agenda that we need to cover this morning as scheduled and agreed. Our task has been facilitated by a special meeting of the Council of Permanent Representatives, acting as the Senior Officials Meeting, which was convened in Tehran on 20th September 2015, and reviewed comprehensively the agenda in front of us. I count on every delegation’s support and cooperation to enable us to conclude our work in a smooth and successful manner.
Thank you for your attention.
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