Motorcyclists who are interested in popping a wheelie and riding their expensive motorbikes at high speed go to the suburbs of Lamerd in the southern province of Fars to perform acrobatic feats. The area also attracts drivers who are crazy about racing.
What appears below is a number of photos that Mehr News Agency released online on April 12:
Comments by President Rouhani at a gathering to honor the memory of the late wife of the founder of the Islamic Republic dominated the front pages of Iranian newspapers on Monday. In his comments, the president took a swipe at those who limit the principle of preventing vice to women on the streets.
Afarinesh: The Supreme Leader has met with sources of emulation in Qom.
Afarinesh: The Iranian oil minister has held talks with officials of three Chinese oil and energy giants.
Asrar: “The Worriers got under the skin of the late Imam too,” said the chairman of the Expediency Council.
[Ayatollah Rafsanjani was referring to those who keep opposing President Rouhani’s domestic and foreign policy].
Emtiaz: Sixty-two petrochemical projects are set to absorb foreign investment.
Emtiaz: As part of efforts to streamline banking, interest rates are likely to decrease.
Etemad: “The late Imam’s wife urged me to run for president [in 2005],” said Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Ettela’at: “Women should have equal rights with men,” said President Rouhani.
Ettela’at: The return of flamingos suggests that efforts to revive the Orumiyeh Lake are on track.
Farhikhtegan: “We can’t lock up 50 percent of the population at home,” said President Rouhani.
The president made the comment at a gathering entitled “The Lady of the Islamic Revolution”.
Hemayat: An Iranian tank that rolls on wheels will be unveiled later in April.
The announcement was made by the commander of the ground troops of the Iranian Army.
Hemayat: “Release the Iranian fact sheet of the Lausanne statement,” some 212 MPs have asked the Iranian negotiating team.
Jomhouri Islami: Those who attacked Tehran MP Ali Motahari have yet to be hauled before court.
Jomhouri Islami: “All primary schools are to come under dental care coverage,” said the Iranian health minister.
Kayhan: “IS Takfiri [terrorists] are too weak a force to pose a threat to Iran,” said a senior Iranian Army commander.
Mardomsalari: “Those who disrupt the security of parties will be seriously dealt with.”
The warning was made by the deputy interior minister for security affairs.
Mardomsalari: Some 25,000 Iranians are on an organ transplant waiting list.
Qods: “The two Saudi officers who have sexually abused two Iranian teens should be executed,” said Alaeddin Boroujerdi, a senior MP.
Sharq: “Non-oil exports are poised to make a 20 percent jump this year,” said a deputy trade minister.
Iran beat the United States to win the 2015 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup. Iranian wrestlers defeated the US squad competing on home soil to win the tourney.
Iran’s wrestling team beat the Americans 5-3 on Sunday in Los Angeles to win the prestigious international title for a fourth time in a row.
Behnam Ehsanpour and Meysam Mostafa Jowkar played a major part in Iran’s victory against host America while US Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs once again remained an untouchable target for Iranian wrestlers at 74 kilogram.
The victory came as a cheering Iranian crowd filled the venue to applaud the world-class Persian wrestlers.
Iranian wrestler Komeil Qassemi waved the Iranian flag after beating one of his opponents in the 2015 Freestyle Wrestling World Cup in the United States.
Before the final, the consolation match to determine the third-place team was held in which Azerbaijan and Russia leveled on points in the consolation match, but Azerbaijan pushed its way through by technical points with 34 to 28.
Iran beat Belarus and Turkey 8-0 and 7-1, respectively before topping Azerbaijan 7-1 in the pre-final match.
Iran has won five editions of the international competition, including the three last rounds. The tournament, which has been held annually since 1973, features the top teams in the global ranking from the previous year of the competition, Press TV reported.
Meanwhile, in a message, the Supreme Leader has congratulated the team on their stellar performance and championship in the event.
In a joint meeting of his administration and parliament on Sunday, Rouhani said that Iran regards the recent agreement as only the beginning of a long and complicated road to a comprehensive deal.
“In these negotiations, we agreed on solutions and we have a very tough road ahead before reaching the final outcome,” Rouhani said.
The Iranian president further warned the Western powers that they must stick to their commitments in case a permanent agreement is achieved.
“The assumption that the US and EU are big powers and therefore can do anything is wrong. And their reputation and prestige would be jeopardized in case they violate their commitments,” Rouhani said, adding “Our diplomats, legal experts, and politicians are formidable and the other side could not overpower us.”
Rouhani said the world has come to realize that the Iranian nation and government would in no way yield to pressure in nuclear negotiations, adding “the other side clearly knows that this government and nation are not used to submissiveness.”
The president further vowed that his administration would do its best to safeguard all the Iranian nations’ rights including the right to nuclear technology.
[…]
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has praised the nuclear negotiators’ hard work during the talks between Iran and P5+1.
“One of the nuclear talks’ achievements is resolving a fabricated negative atmosphere against Iran,” said Larijani during a joint meeting of the government and parliament on Sunday.
He further warned of the stumbling blocks in the talks, which he said are created by a number of states trying to hamper the finalization of an agreement.
“Iran is independent in all regional and international issues and despite disagreements from some governments, nations have constantly supported us thanks to the essence of the Revolution,” Larijani said.
[…]
Iranian feature film Melbourne will attend two international film festivals in Portugal and Belgium.
Iranian director Nima Javidi’s debut feature movie Melbourne will participate at the competition section of IndieLisboa and Belgium International Film Festivals held in Portugal and Belgium.
Melbourne is the only representative of Iran which will attend the festivals on May, 2015. The movie will be also screened at this time at the Iranian Film Festival held in the University of California, Los Angeles.
So far, Melbourne has bagged two awards at the Stockholm International Film Festival. The film has received critical acclaim at the 71st Venice International Film Festival in Italy.
The work also attended the 10th edition of Zurich international Film Festival and the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival. It also participated at the competition section of the 15th International Film Festival Bratislava and the Cairo International Film Festival.
The 8th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) has nominated Javidi for the Best Screenplay, to be held in Australia’s Brisbane on 11 December.
The film recounts the story of a young couple on their way to Melbourne to continue their studies. However, just a few hours before the departure of their flight, they are unintentionally involved in a tragic event.
Director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said Sunday that the Security Council will terminate total sanctions on the same day a nuclear deal is reached between Iran and the six world powers.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with al-Alam news network, Salehi made it clear that the context of the nuclear deal will be binding for the two parties when it was signed by June 30.
“There will be some obligations that we have to undertake and some others that they will undertake to do as well,” Salehi said.
However, he noted that measures that Iran is expected to take are facts and tangible while the other party has to honor a series of legal provisions to be envisaged by the comprehensive deal.
Salehi noted that Iran has to be cautious that the two measures have to be taken at the same time.
“A sentence can be omitted or added by means of a pen, but, when a pipe is cut it cannot be easily turned to its first shape.”
When asked about the timetable for the two sides to honor their commitments, the time when Iran is expected to introduce some changes to its nuclear program and the other party to terminate sanctions in its entirety, Salehi said that every effort will be made for it not to take more than a month.
Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in Kazakhstan on Sunday, the Iranian minister said consultation with Kazakh officials about regional issues, particularly Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military campaign in Yemen, is among the objectives of his visit.
“The fight against extremism, the issue of the Caspian Sea, and other issues and crises that have befallen the Persian Gulf region are among topics of mutual negotiations with the Kazakh side,” Zarif added.
He pointed to very broad relations between Tehran and Astana and said mutual ties need more attention in view of their high importance.
The Iranian minister, who is visiting Astana at the invitation of his Kazakh counterpart, Yerlan Idrisov, is scheduled to sit with the country’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev and foreign minister.
In September 2014, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, leading a high-ranking economic and diplomatic delegation, made a five-day tour of the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. During the trip, Iran signed separate agreements with the two states on the expansion of ties in various fields.
The ancestral home of the founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini in Khomein, his hometown in Markazi Province, has become a tourist attraction which is visited by a lot of Iranian and foreign tourists, in particular during Nowruz holidays.
What comes next is a group of photos that Jamaran, a website, has placed online of the historical building which dates back to the Qajar era:
Mohammad Javad Zarif, the number one figure in Iran’s diplomacy machine, flaunted – to the world and the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf – his high diplomatic dexterity over the past few weeks and tipped the balance in the region – which was heading toward a tipping point – in favor of Iran and peace in the Middle East by helping craft the Lausanne agreement and convincing Pakistan not to join the [Saudi-led] war [against Yemen].
This is the opening sentence of an analytical report entekhab.ir, a news website, released on April 12 on the professional performance, foreign policy achievements and diplomatic agility of Iran’s top diplomat. The following is the translation of the report:
After days of waiting, on April 2 the world saw Zarif and Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, announce that they have worked out joint solutions in nuclear talks to close Iran’s 12-year-old atomic case. The [Lausanne] framework agreement surprised the most seasoned of observers, with some saying what Zarif did was among the key measures Iran has taken since the [1979] Islamic Revolution.
Zarif is so busy these days that he does not have time to catch his breath. He has his hands full with the nuclear talks (which have a long way to go [before they are declared closed]) as well as critical regional questions which matter greatly to Iran.
A man who has been lifted to the level of a national hero in the court of the public opinion was heavily involved – up until two weeks ago – in the talks over Iran’s nuclear program in Lausanne, Switzerland and managed to arrive at an agreement which could [ultimately] pave the way for a final nuclear deal.
If conclusion of an agreement had a 50-50 chance prior to what unfolded in Lausanne, thanks to marathon talks and all-nighters by Zarif and his team as well as the Supreme Leader’s guidance and the president’s serious efforts to follow the case, it has now gotten closer than ever to settlement of the dispute sparked by the West, the US in particular.
Reporters based in Lausanne say that Zarif’s indefatigability shocked everybody; eventually eight and a half hours of non-stop talks with the US secretary of state and European and Asian ministers helped Iran’s top diplomat set a new world record as far as international talks were concerned.
Despite the spontaneous, rousing welcome Zarif and his team received upon arrival in Tehran from Lausanne, certain people – who were expected to shout their opposition loud and clear, irrespective of results – found fault with the achievements of the Lausanne talks and went so far to claim, “We have exchanged a saddled horse for a broken bridle”.
To the disbelief of the few contrarians, the country’s ranking officials – including the chief of staff of the Armed Forces and the IRGC commander – praised the achievements of Lausanne agreement. The Supreme Leader too voiced his support for “the revolution’s sons”, underlining his concerns about the talks and – drawing on almost four decades of experience since the revolution – warning about the deceitfulness on the part of the US and certain European countries.
What happened in Lausanne was not the whole story, however. One week after the breakthrough [Iran and P5+1] made in the Swiss talks, the Yemeni crisis entered a new stage, something which was very much likely to degenerate into a catastrophe in the region.
Saudi Arabia, which has rained bombs down on Yemen for almost a month, asked Pakistan to join the military operation against the Houthis. In case of Pakistan’s positive answer, the current Saudi-led coalition which is more of an Arab alliance would have turned into a Sunni alliance and would have rekindled the memory of a Shiite-Sunni war in the minds of people.
In the meantime, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, who had adopted unprecedented inflammatory rhetoric against Iran, arrived in Tehran on a daylong trip, entered talks with Iranian officials and reached an agreement with Tehran over the Yemeni crisis.
One day after Erdogan’s Tehran visit, Zarif paid a surprise, short visit to Oman with the question of Yemen top on his agenda, and was welcomed by Muscat and Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi.
Iran’s foreign minister took a proposed package to Oman on settling the Yemeni crisis and shared it with Omani officials and later with authorities in Islamabad.
The day Zarif arrived in the Pakistani capital coincided with the third day of that country’s parliament debating a request by Riyadh to join the Saudi-led military alliance against Yemen.
Following two days of intensive talks over Tehran’s proposed package on the Yemeni crisis and meetings between the head of Iran’s diplomacy machine and Pakistan’s senior officials – among them the army commander who plays a decisive role in the country and is believed to hold more sway than the prime minister and other officials – Zarif came back home in the final hours of Thursday [April 9].
One day after the departure of the Iranian foreign minister, on Friday, the Pakistani parliament gave a big “No” to [the country joining] Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf Arab states in their fight in Yemen. The Pakistani parliament also announced, “(Parliament) desires that Pakistan should maintain neutrality in the Yemen conflict so as to be able to play a proactive diplomatic role to end the crisis”. This [Islamabad neutrality] exactly matches the Islamic Republic of Iran’s line of reasoning.
Islamabad’s decision gave Iran an edge; Tehran’s diplomacy caused Pakistan – which was believed to be the skeleton key which can help shift the scales in the Yemeni war in Saudi’s favor – to loosen the grip of Riyadh.
The uneasy reaction of this group of Arabs – who follow the lead of Zionists – was sparked off by the Supreme Leader’s significant remarks on reprimanding the wickedness of the Saudi conduct and that of its “new rulers” after the death of King Abdullah.
After the Islamic Republic’s diplomatic breakthrough [in Pakistan] and the bewilderment on the part of the Persian Gulf Arabs at the rejection by Pakistan – which has been beset by economic woes – of their tantalizing [financial] promises, the United Arab Emirates addressed Islamabad acrimoniously, “Tehran seems to be more important to Islamabad and Ankara than the [Persian] Gulf countries”.
[…]
What has played out in recent weeks conjures up remarks by a prominent Iranian diplomat who said, “Zarif is a religious diplomat who is determined to serve the country’s national interests; the Iranian history does not remember anybody like him over the past one hundred years.”
What has transpired thanks to the efforts of Zarif and the Leader’s trust in and guidance for him and other members of the Iranian team will play an undeniable role in the future of the Middle East.
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