German Ambassador to Tehran Michael Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg has underlined that his country deems cooperation with Iran, especially in economic and trade areas, as very significant.
“Iran is an important partner for Germany and it can play a crucial role in the region in future and also play a more important role in different international issues, especially in the Middle East,” the German envoy said, addressing a ceremony on the occasion of Germany’s National Day at Ungern-Sternberg’s residence in Tehran on Tuesday.
Ungern-Sternberg pointed to the ample potential existing in political, economic and cultural fields, and said, “The Tehran-Berlin relations have been expanded since last year and we hope these relations will be consolidated in the future.”
The German ambassador described Iran as an influential regional power, and said, “Iran can play a greater role in international issues, especially in regional developments.”
Meantime, he pointed to the ongoing Iran-P5+1 negotiations, and said, “As the German foreign minister said after his meetings with Iranian president and foreign minister we have never been so close to achieving a final agreement over past 10 years.”
Iran and Germany have tried to expand their bilateral relations in recent years through reciprocal visits by the two countries’ officials.
In July, Head of the Trade Development Organization of Iran Valiollah Afkhami Rad said implementation of the Geneva nuclear deal sealed by Iran and the sextet of the world powers late in November has provided very good opportunity for the presence of international investors, especially the Europeans, in Iran.
“Now a few months after the arrival of the first European delegation in Tehran, the attractions of trade with Iran have placed the European states in a marathon competition for trade partnership with Tehran,” Afkhami Rad said.
Many European countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, are planning to enhance their economic relations with Iran, a business powerhouse in the Middle-East region, as sanctions imposed against Tehran are partially suspended.
[…]
Envoy describes Iran as Germany’s major trade partner
A look at Iranian newspaper headlines across the country on October 2
Comments by four prominent state officials, namely the heads of the three branches of government and the chairman of the Expediency Council, dominated the front pages of the Iranian papers on Thursday. President Rouhani’s optimism about the eventual conclusiveness of nuclear talks with the world powers; Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani’s comments in opposition to blocking social networking sites; Ali Larijani’s praise for the prowess of the Iranian armed forces, and Ayatollah Rafsanjani’s swipe at hardliners for their obstructive tactics were splashed across the front pages of the dailies. Iran’s 15th gold medal in the Asian Games, underway in South Korea, also grabbed front-page headlines.
Afarinesh: “Ties between Iran and Britain are not formed based on a speech or an interview by an official on either side,” the Iranian government spokesman said.
Afarinesh: “The Judiciary is not interested in blocking social networking sites,” Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani said.
Aftab-e Yazd quotes principlists as denying reports that Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi will lead them in the upcoming elections. “The one who is at the center of division cannot be at the center of a united front.”
Aftab-e Yazd: “Blocking [websites] is not the right way to solve the problems,” the Iranian minister of communications and information technology said.
Arman-e Emrooz: “Hardliners are angry with the Iranian people [for their vote for moderation] and are today directing their anger at the government the public have chosen to represent them,” Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said.
Arman-e Emrooz: “Iran pursues positive, constructive interaction with all countries,” President Rouhani tells the Irish parliament speaker.
Asr-e Eghtesad: “Iran’s exports have registered a 22 percent increase.”
Asr-e Iranian: “Attacks on IS are an excuse to target Syrian infrastructure,” Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said.
Ebtekar: “[Nuclear] talks will be conclusive,” President Rouhani tells his Cabinet after travelling to New York where his nuclear negotiators held a seventh round of talks with P5+1.
Etemad: “What I said at the Council on Foreign Relations has been mistranslated,” the Iranian foreign minister said in response to the ballyhoo hardliners have raised at home about his comments at CFR.
Ettela’at: Tehran is to play host to an international conference dubbed “The World against Violence and Extremism”.
Ettela’at: “We formulate our relations with Britain based on our national interests,” Government Spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said.
Ettela’at: “The president stood up for the dignity of the Iranian people at the United Nations,” the Judiciary chief said.
Javan: “Ebola is the product of a top secret American project in Africa,” a Liberian newspaper has reported.
Jomhouri Islami: “A report on the violations of the ‘Targeted Subsidies Act’ under the previous government has been sent to the Judiciary.”
Jomhouri Islami: “Iran’s economy posted positive growth in the first quarter,” reports the Statistics Bureau.
Kaenat: “No country dares attack Iran; the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps is one of the mightiest militaries in the Middle East,” Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warned America’s allies.
Kar va Kargar: “Iran has proven that it’s ready to build trust,” Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani said as he urged the West not to seek excuse [about Iran’s nuclear activity].
Kayhan: “Establishment of nine permanent military bases in Afghanistan is the gift a newly-signed security deal with Kabul hands Washington.”
Kayhan: “The overall number of medals Iranian athletes has bagged in the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea has hit the 40 mark.”
Mardomsalari: “We are committed to continued talks [with P5+1],” said Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister who now serves as an adviser to the Supreme Leader.
Sharq: “We will not limit our practice [of promoting virtue and preventing vice] to verbal warnings,” says the secretary general of Ansar Hezbollah, a hard-line group whose now-stalled plan to enforce morality laws has sparked a row with the Interior Ministry of late.
Vatan-e Emrooz: “Reports that Iran’s economy has posted 4.6 percent growth in the first quarter [after being mired in negative territory last year] are more like a dream than reality,” Tehran MP Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam said.
Iraq FM lauds Iran’s support in fighting terrorism
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Ja’afari has expressed gratitude to Iran for supporting Baghdad in its fight against terrorism.
“Iran has provided assistance to Iraq, as have some other countries. This is not a secret and we have to thank them for it,” the top Iraqi diplomat said on Wednesday.
Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Major General Gholam-Ali Rashid said on September 27 that the Islamic Republic was offering military advice to the Iraqi army.
“Today, some of our commanders are giving [military] advisory assistance to Iraq and its army,” Sepahnews quoted the senior Iranian military official as saying.
The comments came days after a senior general with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said that Tehran played a pivotal role in defending Iraq’s Kurdistan Region against the ISIL terrorist group, noting that the territory could have fallen to ISIL militants without Iran’s support.
“The ISIL would have captured Iraq’s Kurdistan [Region] if it were not for Iran. General [Qasem] Soleimani [a commander of the IRGC] stopped the ISIL with 70 men and prevented them (militants) from entering [the Kurdish city of] Erbil,” Commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Division Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh said on September 23.
Separately, the Iraqi foreign minister referred to recent airstrikes by Western countries against the ISIL terrorist group, stressing that any foreign assistance to Iraq should respect the country’s sovereignty.
“We cannot accept that Iraq is becoming a land of conflict but we have to solve this problem in a way that preserves Iraqi sovereignty,” Ibrahim al-Jaafari said.
The UK’s Defense Ministry announced in a statement on Tuesday that British warplanes have conducted their first aerial strikes against ISIL terrorists in northwestern Iraq.
The official statement further added that the bombings by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) were “part of the international coalition’s operations” to purportedly support the Iraqi government in its battle against the terrorists.
The development comes as British authorities have repeatedly warned that UK nationals belonging to the ISIL terrorist group in Iraq and Syria are a major threat to the nation’s security.
Britain has been among the western countries that have actively backed the militants, including ISIL operatives, fighting the Syrian government since 2011.
Iran proven readiness to build trust on nuclear program
Chairman of the Expediency Council says the Islamic Republic has on many occasions demonstrated its readiness to build confidence over the peaceful nature of its nuclear energy activities.
“Iran has repeatedly proved that it is ready to build confidence as proof for the world, but the opposite sides [in nuclear talks with Iran] should also speak and act in line with law,” Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Wednesday.
Touching on Tehran’s nuclear negotiations with six world powers, Rafsanjani further stressed that the two sides should insist on the talks as a way to find a suitable solution to end the political dispute over Iran’s nuclear energy program.
“The Westerners have come to the conclusion that they should speak with the powerful and influential Iran on the basis of logic and reason, because history has proved that Iranians never surrender to pressure and bullying, and this country cannot be removed from the world’s political equations,” he pointed out.
Iran armed forces among most powerful in ME: Larijani
“Today, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is one of the most powerful military forces in the Middle East. Of course, [Iran’s] Army and Basij [volunteer forces] also have similar features,” and every effort should be made to further strengthen them, Larijani said on Wednesday.
Stressing that enemies do not dare attack Iran, he noted that the adversaries will not engage in a military confrontation with “armed forces that enjoy popular support.”
Touching on the deterrence role of the armed forces, the top Iranian parliamentarian further emphasized that weak armed forces are “tempting” for others while the strong ones have the deterrence quality.
The remarks came three days after the IRGC Ground Forces put to test new domestically designed and manufactured military hardware, including a high-explosive mine, a sniper rifle and a triple-barrel cannon.
In recent years, Iran has secured great accomplishments in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems.
Iran has repeatedly said its military might poses no threat to other countries, insisting that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.
Hardliners poisoned the atmosphere of talks
What has transpired in nuclear talks between Iran and P5+1 of late and the stance adopted by those who attended the negotiations show that Iran and P5+1 do not want things to return where they were in the past, Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told a host of entrepreneurs on Monday.
According to Ebtekar newspaper, Ayatollah Rafsanjani further said Iran’s conduct during the Iraqi-imposed war is proof that Tehran does not seek to develop nuclear weapons. “Islam does not allow Muslims to tap into scientific and technological advances to build weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms.”
That Iran is committed to international law is an established fact, Ayatollah Hashemi said, adding, “The Iranian nation views it as its inalienable right to use nuclear technology, just like other countries of the world, to develop and make progress.”
That hardliners interfere with the workings of the nation is regrettable, he stated, adding, “Just like in the past, radicals on both sides poisoned the atmosphere of the talks ahead of the most recent round of negotiations.”
The top councilor further said an economic boom is vital to Iranian efforts to reclaim its rightful place in the international community. “We should not allow the bright talent of Iranian youngsters and the rights of the Iranians to go to waste simply because a minority is not satisfied.”
In the speech, Ayatollah Hashemi stressed the need for the reformation of the culture of entrepreneurship in the country and said IRIB [Iran’s state broadcaster] plays an important role in this regard. “Reformation of the culture in question is not that difficult, because humans in different societies instinctively like endeavor and diligence.”
He went on to say, “If entrepreneurship, which is a source of pride in our society, had been taken more seriously, we wouldn’t have had to grapple with unemployment, rather we would have been a destination for migrants instead of witnessing a brain drain.”
Ayatollah Hashemi stated that allegations that some entrepreneurs are parasites amount to injustice to the establishment and the public and that entrepreneurship is sacred because by creating jobs entrepreneurs help protect human dignity.
He said failure of IRIB to pay attention to in-depth cultural and economic questions creates doubt among members of the public in general and the youth in particular, and added “[IRIB Officials] close their eyes to Koranic principles and place an unauthenticated handwritten statement which runs counter to public assumptions at the center of their arguments.
In response to complaints by some entrepreneurs, present at the meeting, about the country’s economic conditions, the former president recalled the early years after the end of the war and said, “We can join hands and generate reconstruction fervor in the country. After the end of the war a reconstruction wave swept across the nation, pushing unemployment from 16 percent into single digit.”
Ayatollah Rafsanjani further said, “If the previous government had not paralyzed the country’s foreign policy, exports of services would have brought in huge revenues today.”
As for a recent surge in terrorist activity in the region, he said IS is a product of the Taliban who were created by the West to first drive Soviet forces from Afghanistan and then create a headache for Iran. “It has now turned into a source of trouble for the West, which is trying to bomb the militant group into extinction. That is not the right approach because militants are hiding among people and the only way to take them out is through ground troops.”
Westerners have realized that Iran is a regional heavyweight, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani said, adding “The coalition to fight IS reached out to Iran because it knows that it cannot get rid of IS on its own.”
He expressed surprise at the unthinking comments by some aimed at Iran, and said ironically some consider support for resistance groups as promoting terrorism and support for terrorist entities such as hypocrites as defense of human rights.
A book ad in Hamshahri newspaper enraged environmentalists
Over the past few days, a book advertisement in Hamshahri – a mass-circulation daily – has brought cries of protest from environmentalists, the news website of Iran Environment and Wildlife Watch on September 23 reported.
The contentious ad, which pitched hunting and shooting, appeared on the front page of the newspaper’s special addendum in Golestan Province [in northeastern Iran with an unrivalled ecosystem and remarkable tourist attractions] on September 21, 2014.
Apart from dedicating some chapters to hunting, the book features photos of the writer posing by a dead Iranian leopard and Caspian pheasants.
The advertisement hails “Ecotourism, Hunting and Shooting” as an exquisite gift for those enthused about the environment and hunting. Among other things, the book offers readers a number of medical tips about how to survive in nature, and features information about mammals and birds in Iran and about driving four-wheel-drive cars in different conditions.
However, a significant part of the book is dedicated to a personal photo gallery of the author which depicts corpses of hunted leopards, boars, pheasants and so on.
What raised the ire of environmentalists is that the newspaper, known as a torchbearer for raising public awareness about the environment, dedicated its front page to an advertisement on hunting and its promotion.
Although there is no denying that advertisements are the bread and butter of dailies, the newspaper should not have carried the ad which laid it open to accusations of negligence by advocates of the environment.
A look at Iranian newspaper front pages on Oct. 1
Iranian newspapers on October 1st hailed the strong showing of Iranian athletes in the Asian Games which makes the likelihood of Iran claiming the fourth spot in the overall standings of the event all the more stronger. Remarks by President Hassan Rouhani that “Blind sanctions should be removed” were at the center of another story which dominated the front pages of a handful of newspapers. Also under the spotlight was the announcement by officials that [compulsory] military service in Iran will increase to 24 months.
Afkar: “The Chinese president is to make a trip to Iran,” is the daily’s top pick on its front page.
Arman-e Emrooz: “7,000-billion-toman rent-seeking in the previous government”, the daily wrote, quoting the head of parliament’s Economic Committee as saying that three foreign exchange brokers earned the staggering amount in collaboration with the Central Bank of Iran.
Arman-e Emrooz: “[Former President] Ahmadinejad should have been impeached,” is a headline in the daily quoting Sadegh Zibakalam, a university lecturer, as arguing that part of Ahmadinejad’s policies made Iran distance itself from the rest of the world, something which, as he put it, has caused huge economic and political losses for Iran.
Arman-e Emrooz features an exclusive interview with Jafar Towfighi, a former senior advisor to the science minister, citing him as saying that opponents of President Rouhani’s administration are resorting to the 2009 postelection developments to turn up the heat against Rouhani.
Asia: “Iran to stop car imports from South Korea, Germany and Japan,” reads a headline on the daily’s front page, bringing under focus such brands as Hyundai, KIA, Honda, Mitsubishi and Mercedes.
Asr-e Iranian: “Iran is not willing to take the place of Russia in exporting gas to Europe,” said President Rouhani in an interview with a Russian TV channel.
Asrar: “If the other party shows courage, a final nuclear agreement would be inked,” President Hassan Rouhani said.
Ebtekar reports that six Iranian filmmakers have formed a campaign to call for public support for a final [nuclear] agreement with the West, arguing that nothing is worse than ‘no agreement’ in the talks.
Ebtekar: “Mohammad Ali Najafi is to be named as the minister of science, research and technology.” He is currently serving as the acting minister.
Eghtesad-e Pooya: “I offer my [gold] medal to Dr. Rouhani,” said Ehsan Haddadi, the Iranian discus thrower who bagged Iran’s 12th gold medal in the Asian Games, underway in Incheon, South Korea.
Eghtesad-e Pooya: “The financial discipline which is in place in the Oil Ministry is the achievement that the Cabinet of Prudence and Hope has pulled off,” said the director of the National Iranian Gas Company.
Ettela’at: “Iran plans to send man to space in four years.”
Ettela’at quotes the economy minister as saying that the wheels of production are spinning.
Ettela’at: “Terror groups do not pose a threat to Iran,” said Commander of the Army’s ground forces, Brigadier General Ahmadreza Pourdastan.
Hamshahri runs a number of interviews with some MPs who have stressed that the government should pay enough attention to other sectors and not hinge the country’s fate only on the results of nuclear talks.
Hemayat reports on the facilitation of trade transactions between Iran and Russia and puts “Euro and dollar are to be replaced by ruble in Iran-Russia trade” on its front page.
Hemayat: “The world booed [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu [for his anti-Iran comments at the UN General Assembly]”.
Iran Daily: “Iran to continue supporting Syria against terrorism,” Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said.
Kar va Kargar: “The country’s main challenge down the line would be youth unemployment,” said Masoud Nili, the president’s economic advisor.
Rah-e Mardom: The health minister says fees patients are paying for admission to public hospitals will drop again as of October 5.
Tafahom:“Iran’s has climbed14 notches in the world as far as the tourism industry is concerned.”
Vatan-e Emrooz puts “New aspects of Zarif-Gate” on its front page, saying that the release of a video in which the foreign minister confides in members of the US Council on Foreign Relations has raised concerns over loyalty to Iran’s national interests in nuclear talks.
A ewe adopted two orphan wild lambs
According to the website of Iran Environment and Wildlife Watch (www.iew.ir) the environment police in Khvaf [a town in Khorasan Razavi Province] recently arrested two poachers who had seized two wild lambs immediately after they were born.
Since the lambs were still too young and needed to be breastfed, it was impossible to return them to the wild. That was why they were released in the Salami Center for Animal Reproduction and Breeding.
Nurturing wild lambs before they are able to feed on plants is of great importance when it comes to lambs in captivity. Wild lambs must be fed fresh milk at a specific temperature and feeding them with pasteurized cow’s milk usually results in digestive problems and death.
“Not long before the two wild lambs were transferred to the center, a ewe had given birth to a lamb there. Ewe do not normally tend to breastfeed other lambs except their own young, ” said the head of the Environment Protection Office of Khvaf Abbas Taherian.
He added, “To everyone’s surprise, the ewe adopted the two orphan lambs. Protecting and supporting them constantly, she even breastfed them. How the wild ewe treated the orphan lambs should be a lesson to us as human beings who let ourselves take young babies from their mother just out of selfishness and cruelty.”
Tehran environmental police saved two crocodiles from traffickers
A sting operation in Tehran has resulted in the arrest of a professional animal trafficker.
According to the website of Iran Environment and Wildlife Watch (www.iew.ir) in the operation two environmental police officers went undercover and passed themselves off as animal dealers to track down an animal trader.
They pretended to be interested in buying two crocodiles. To win the trust of the trafficker, they even made a down payment and wired money into his bank account.
One of the officers showed up incognito at the pre-arranged rendezvous and right after the trafficker turned up, the environmental forces took action and arrested him.
