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P5+1 changed nuclear demands, redlines: Iran negotiator

Iran-Sextet

A top Iranian nuclear negotiator says the Sextet of world powers has made some changes in their demands and redlines in the course of its nuclear talks with Iran.

Araghchi made the remarks at a Tuesday meeting with Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy members, said Seyyed Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, the spokesman for the parliamentary body.

Commenting on the extension of Iran’s nuclear talks until June 2015, Araghchi said the two sides have agreed to reach a general agreement in four months and work out the details in the next three months, Naghavi Hosseini added.

According to the lawmaker, Araghchi also warned that if the negotiations drag on for a longer period, the situation will become further complicated as the Western side will face further pressure from lobbyists.

During the session, Naghavi Hosseini said, Araghchi also noted that Israel and some of the regional countries opposed any nuclear agreement with Iran and they even sought to prompt the West to engage in a military conflict with Tehran.

Last month, Iran and P5+1 – Russia, China, Britain, France, the US and Germany – failed to meet the November 24 deadline to sign a permanent nuclear deal. They agreed to extend their discussions until June 2015, so that they could resolve their differences and clinch a permanent accord.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a Sunday address to the Brookings Institution in Washington that Iran and P5+1 could reach a final deal on Tehran’s nuclear issue months “sooner” than the new deadline.

Iran’s Cinéma Vérité Film Festival names 2014 winners

Cinema Verite-2014 winners

The 8th edition of the Iranian international festival for documentary films, Cinéma Vérité, has awarded top films.

This year’s winners were honored during the closing ceremony held at Tehran’s Andisheh Hall on December 7, 2014.

Atlan, directed by Moein Karimeddini, won the best documentary award of the international section of the festival, which kicked off on November 30.

The film narrates the life story of an Iranian Turkmen horse-riding instructor in the northeastern Iranian region of Turkmen Sahra.

The award for best medium-length documentary was given to Italian filmmaker Filippo Ticozzi’s Chasing the Wind.

The festival’s best short documentary award went to White Chimney by Finnish filmmaker, Jani Peltonen.

Producers, Mohammad Ali Farsi and Fathollah Amiri, were named the Grand Prix winners of the national section of the event for their films Clouds on the Way and Life in Cold Veins.

Best medium-length documentary award of the section was presented to Mr. Unemployed directed by Ali Hamraz, and the best short documentary award went to Spoon by Jalal Veisi.

The films competed in various categories including short documentaries, medium-length documentaries and full-length ones as well as the special international competitive and non-competitive sections.

Iran’s Cinéma Vérité Festival screens a wide range of productions such as political, historic, ritualistic, religious, social, environmental, scientific, ethnological, and war documentaries.

Organized by Iran’s Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC), the annual festival tries to express the relationship between reality and truth.

Iran firm wins compensation from EU in sanctions case

Europe-Iran-Sanctions

A European court has ordered that an Iranian firm be paid compensation for the inclusion of its name on the anti-Iran sanctions list.

The European General Court issued its verdict with regard to the legal case of the Iranian company, Safa Nicu Sepahan, on Tuesday, saying the firm should be paid 50,000 euros in compensation for being unwarrantedly included on the European Union’s anti-Iran sanctions list.

This is while the litigant firm had demanded seven million euros in indemnity.

Safa Nicu Sepahan was put on the sanctions list in 2011 for what was claimed to be providing equipment for Iran’s Fordow nuclear site.

The court dismissed the allegations against the Iranian company and ruled that there is no evidence to prove the charges.

This is the first time that a European court has ordered the payment of redress to an Iranian firm in a legal case related to Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

Iran has been hit by sanctions from the EU and the US over unsubstantiated allegation that its nuclear activities are geared to military purposes.

Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.

Macedonia hosts Iranian cultural program

Iran- Cultural Week-Macedonia
Iran- Cultural Week-Macedonia

Iran has mounted an exhibition of Persian arts in Macedonia to introduce the country’s traditions and artworks.

The event presents Iran’s cultural achievements along with Persian paintings, photographs, pottery, calligraphy and handicraft.

A photo exhibition of Iranian historical city of Isfahan has been also held at the one-week event in Macedonia’s capital, Skopje.

Taken by the Iranian photographer, Hamid Reza Malakouti-Khah, the exhibited photos, which include over forty 3D works, depict traditional architecture and tourism in Isfahan.

The program has been organized by Iran’s cultural office in Macedonia.

Iran regularly holds cultural events in Turkey, Venezuela, Tunisia, China, Japan and Serbia.

Street in Tehran named after Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela street-Tehran
Nelson Mandela street-Tehran

MandelaAfrica Street in northern Tehran has been renamed after Nelson Mandela during a ceremony in the presence of two members of Tehran City Council and South African ambassador to Iran.

Vice Chairman of Tehran City Council Morteza Talaei pointed to the similarities between Iran and South Africa in fighting against hegemony […] and highlighted the key role the two prominent leaders, the late Imam Khomeini and Nelson Mandela, played in helping humanity and virtues prevail in their societies.

“Nelson Mandela does not belong to a nation, he belongs to all humanity, all history and the whole world,” said Talaei, adding that Iran is proud of naming one of its best streets after deceased leader Mandela on the twentieth anniversary of the revolution in South Africa and the first anniversary of the death of Mandela.

Tehran City Council member Gholamreza Ansari said Mandela’s name shines in the history of mankind and due to Tehrani citizen’s spirit of freedom seeking, they would welcome the renaming of Africa Street after Mandela.

South African ambassador to Iran, for his part, expressed surprise at the event and said “South Africa was formed in 1994 and today we celebrate the twentieth anniversary, but it should be noted that our people owe their victory to the Islamic Revolution and the personality of Imam Khomeini.”

A letter from Eugene to Tehran: Let’s know each other better

Kitty Piercy, the mayor of Eugene in the US state of Oregon
Kitty Piercy, the mayor of Eugene in the US state of Oregon

A letter by Mayor Kitty Piercy of Eugene, in the US state of Oregon has been handed over to Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

The following is the translation of a report by the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) on the letter by the American mayor:

Kitty Piercy, the mayor of Eugene, in the US state of Oregon, has written a letter to Tehran mayor expressing satisfaction with the establishment of cultural ties between the Oregon-based Archeological Legacy Institute (ALI) and the Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) in Iran.

The letter was timed to coincide with the eighth edition of an international festival for documentary films “Cinema Vérité” (November 30 – December 7) in Iran.

The Public Relations Office of the Cinema Vérité International Documentary Film Festival has released the letter which was handed over to Ghalibaf by Richard Pettigrew, the ALI executive director and an honorary guest of the 2014 Cinema Vérité film festival. The letter partly read:

[…] I have heard that the ALI, an Oregon-based institute, has recently started to establish cultural ties with the Documentary and Experimental Film Center based in Tehran. These two institutes have had cooperation through exchanging cinematic works for The Archaeology Channel (TAC) International Film and Video Festival and The Cinema Vérité International Documentary Film Festival which is held in Tehran each year.

I am very pleased that these yearly events have caused our citizens in Eugene and Tehran to get familiar with each other through fruitful exchanges of cultural and artistic works, and to get engaged in a cultural dialogue. I very much hope this contact continues to grow constantly and can serve the interests of the residents of the two cities.

I strongly believe that cultural cooperation between organizers of film festivals in our cities are a positive step toward establishing brotherly ties between the two countries based on good intentions.

Despite the fact that our cities are far apart, geographically, I think we have many things to share with and learn from each other. Hereby, I express my willingness and readiness to have cooperation and consultation with you to explore ways of narrowing the gap between us.

[…]

Kitty Piercy

Mayor of Eugene, Oregon, US

No Uranium Stockpile Shipment out of Iran: Iran’s nuclear chief

Ali Akbar Salehi

Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi made it clear on Tuesday that the country will not transfer any shipment of uranium to any country for conversion into fuel for nuclear reactors.

“We will not give any fuel to anybody, and we have no plans to transfer any fuel out of the country,” Salehi told reporters in Tehran on Tuesday.

He made the comments in reaction to media speculations that Tehran would transfer part of its uranium stockpile to Russia as part of a final, comprehensive nuclear deal with world powers.

In November, The New York Times claimed that under a proposed agreement, Russia would convert the uranium into specialized fuel rods for Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Iran and P 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) wrapped up seven days of intensive nuclear talks in Vienna on November 24 without securing a long-awaited comprehensive deal.

They decided to extend talks on Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program for seven more months.

On November 24, 2013, Iran and P5+1 signed an interim nuclear deal in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The Geneva deal (the Joint Plan of Action) came into effect in January and expired in July, when the parties decided to extend negotiations until November 24 in the hope of clinching a final deal that would end a decade of impasse over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear energy program.

Eminent Christian leader urges an end to foreign support for terrorists in Syria

Bishop Yohanna Al-Asher Yazji
Bishop Yohanna Al-Asher Yazji

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) on December 7 reported a message by a distinguished Christian leader to foreign supporters of terrorists in Syria, asking them to end their backing.

The Orthodox Bishop of Halab, who is a distinguished figure among the Christians in the region, demanded that foreign supporters of terrorists in Syria end their action.

Bishop Yohanna Al-Asher Yazji appealed to those backing the terrorists in Syria to end their inhumane acts. He said, “Let the people of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine who are wounded from recent events return to their normal lives”.

The Bishop added, “Our children are killed with bombs sent by foreign countries; stop brainwashing our youth with extremist ideologies.”

Syria to emerge winner from war against ISIL

Rouhani-Muallem

President Hassan Rouhani says he is assured that the Syrian nation will emerge winner from the ongoing battle against ISIL terrorists.

“We are certain that the Syrian nation will be the ultimate winner of this battle,” President Rouhani said in a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in Tehran on Tuesday, referring to the ongoing battle between Syria and foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists.

“Today, it has become clear for the [Middle East] region and the world that the Syrian government and army are capable of countering terrorists and safeguarding the country,” Rouhani added.

He stated that foreign support for ISIL militants has merely stoked up violence and insecurity in the Middle East.

Muallem, for his part, expressed gratitude to the Islamic Republic for its support of Syria, saying Tehran and Damascus are fighting on the same front.

The Syrian foreign minister criticized the United States and its allies for supporting the terrorists fighting the Syrian government.

Referring to the latest Israeli airstrikes on Syria, Muallem said the Zionist regime and its supporters are set to destroy the economic infrastructure in Syria and strike a blow to the Syrian nation.

Israeli warplanes carried out two air assaults against an area of the Damascus International Airport and another airport in the town of Dimas on Sunday.

The Syrian army issued a statement later in the day, saying the air attacks by Tel Aviv were aimed at helping the ISIL militants operating in the Arab country.

Israel has carried out several airstrikes in Syria since the start of the conflict in the country in 2011.

Leave your shoes and preconceptions outside before coming in

Rockhampton Mosque in Queensland

A sign posted at the front door of the Rockhampton Mosque in Queensland, Australia urges visitors to leave “shoes and preconceptions” at the front door before entering the house of worship.

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Agency) on December 8 filed a report on a December 6 function at the mosque during which non-Muslim Australians were given a chance to get familiar with Islam. The following is the translation of the report:

In Rockhampton, a city and local government area in Queensland, Australia, a large crowd of citizens of all ages and beliefs read the sign and willingly obliged as they packed into the house of worship for an “Open Mosque Day”.

The event, organized by the Islamic Society of Central Queensland (ISCQ), was designed to dispel the myths and misconceptions surrounding Islam and Muslims.

The participants had a guided tour of the mosque, attended Q & A sessions, and put forward their questions on Islam and its followers.

The female participants were given a chance to try the hijab [the Islamic covering]. The guests were also entertained by traditional foods of different Islamic cultures.

The ISCQ’s president Riaz Ahmed said that the service was all about promoting understanding and tolerance based on mutual interest and respect.

We humans share values which are much bigger than our differences. We have to respect and cherish those values, he added.

Mike Ryan, a city official in Queensland was among the guests listening to the imam at the mosque who fielded questions by curious visitors.

“I think it is very important that we understand each other,” he said, adding, “Having listened to the imam today, I can see parallels through the teachings and experiences I’ve felt as a Christian. They [Muslims] have the same thoughts, feelings, love and dislikes as everybody else.”