HOMA offered to carry books of international publishers to the upcoming Tehran International Book Fair with 70 per cent discount.
27th Tehran International Book Fair will be held in May at Imam Khomeini Great Prayer Hall (Mosalla), where national and international publishers present their latest publications.
Iranian negotiators left Tehran for Vienna Monday morning and the foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU’s Foreign Policy chief held a working dinner session Monday night.
Zarif and Ashton studied the technical report of the recent expert-level talks between Iran and sextet over Tehran nuclear program which were held in Vienna, April 3-5.
Zarif discussed the contents of this round of nuclear talks with Ashton and miantained that there is still difficult work ahead in talks between Iran and P5+1.
He added that Iran and Powers are scheduled to exchange views on all remaining issues related to the Tehran nuclear program and added that Iran and group P5+1 will start drafting the final agreement in May.
Iran and world major powers will resume a new round of political-level nuclear talks in the Austrian capital of Vienna, Tuesday morning.
“In our opinion, statements made by the European Parliament have no credibility, carry no political weight and will have no impact on nuclear negotiations,” Zarif, who is leading the Iranian negotiating team in talks with the six countries, told reporters in the Austrian capital of Vienna on Monday.
Last Thursday, the European Parliament passed a resolution on the EU strategy toward Iran, expressing concern over the alleged human rights violations in the country.
It also claimed that Iran’s presidential election in June 2013, which was marked by a high voter turnout and led to victory of President Hassan Rouhani, was “not held according to the democratic standards valued by the EU.”
The Iranian foreign minister further said “important decisions” must be made before drafting a final deal on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program can begin.
He expressed hope that Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany would reach a final agreement by the end of the six-month time frame set by the Geneva interim nuclear deal.
“In order to achieve this goal, we need hard work and important decisions to be made,” the Iranian minister said, adding, “We believe that our partners need to make important decisions which include accepting existing realities and respecting the rights of the Iranian nation.”
The Iranian negotiating team arrived in the Austrian capital on Monday to attend the next round of high-level talks with the six powers over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Namdar Zanganeh said that the majority of the units related to the prioritized phases of South Pars, including phases 12, 15, 16, 17 and 18, will start production this year (started March 21), through which the country’s gas production will be increased by 100 million cubic meters per day.
The oil minister emphasized that all the aforesaid units must start production before winter.
The South Pars gas field, divided into 28 phases, is located in the Persian Gulf on the common border between Iran and Qatar. The field is estimated to hold 14 trillion cubic meters of gas as well as 18 billion barrels of condensates.
The field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which lie in Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000 square kilometers, better known as the North Dome, are located in Qatar’s territorial waters.
Karbasyan said that Iranian Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh is slated to attend the event.
He further added that a 30-member delegation comprising high-ranking officials from industrial, mining and trade sectors led by Nematzadeh will take part in the upcoming conference.
Karbasyan added that IMIDRO will organize the one-day event in cooperation with Union of Germany and Middle East Economic Cooperation to attract investment from the German private sector and help promote mutual cooperation in the fields of industry, mining and trade.
He said that two deputies of the minister of Industry, Mines and Trade and managing director of Iran Industry and Mines Bank will also participate in the conference.
Some ten managers and owners of Iranian private sector industries will hold talks with their German counterparts involved in Middle East investments, he said.
Karbasyan is scheduled to deliver a lecture during the conference to explain the advantages of investment and capacities of the mining sector in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Germany is an important trade partner of Iran. Berlin has long been ignoring the US-led sanctions against Iran.
Iran and Germany have tried to expand their bilateral relations in recent years through reciprocal visits by the two countries’ officials.
In their meeting on Sunday, the two officials discussed the humanitarian situation in Syria and stressed the need to find a political solution to the crisis.
They both believed that Syrian people should be allowed to decide their own destiny through participation in the upcoming presidential election.
The conflict in Syria started in March 2011, when sporadic pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of western and regional states.
The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle-East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.
As the foreign-backed insurgency in Syria continues without an end in sight, the US government has boosted its political and military support to Takfiri extremists.
Washington has remained indifferent to warnings by Russia and other world powers about the consequences of arming militant groups.
“What the Europeans take into consideration are based on their own policies and serve their own interests,” Seyed Baqer Hosseini, member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, told the Tasnim News Agency on Saturday.
His remarks came in response to a recent anti-Iran resolution adopted by the European Parliament.
On Thursday, April 3, the EP passed a resolution expressing grave concern over the human rights situation in Iran and the “continued, systemic violation of fundamental rights” in the country, and called on the members of the European Union to “mainstream human rights in all of its relations with Iran.”
It has also urged the European External Action Service (EEAS) to “undertake all preparatory work for the opening of a Union delegation in Tehran by the end of 2014”.
Elsewhere in his comments, Hosseini condemned the European body’s meddling stances on Iran, stressing that the Iranian nation is the only side that decides for itself.
He further called on the country’s administration to reject outright the European Parliament’s idea on establishing an office in Tehran, and explained, “The presence of the European Union (in Iran), according to the thought presented in its resolution, pursues nothing but to sow sedition.”
Addressing a group of the Iranian parliamen’s staff here in Tehran on Saturday, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani slammed what he called a “disgraceful move” by the European Parliament (EP) to adopt a biased resolution on Iran.
On Thursday, April 3, the EP passed a resolution expressing grave concern over the human rights situation in Iran and the “continued, systemic violation of fundamental rights” in the country, and called on the members of the European Union to “mainstream human rights in all of its relations with Iran.”
The politically-tainted resolution has also claimed that the presidential elections in Iran in July 2013 “were not held according to the democratic standards valued by the EU.”
Blaming the European body for its short-sightedness, Larijani underlined that such behavior is a clear sign of the MEPs’ limited and flawed understanding of Iran’s internal affairs.
The speaker said those who have drafted the resolution might have been deceived by others, however, he criticized the Europeans for making such “wrong remarks” about the last year’s presidential elections, which he likened to a “political epic” by Iranians.
In relevant comments on Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham deplored the biased resolution as “baseless, invalid and unacceptable.”
She also blamed the recent move, which she said aimed at damaging the relations between Iran and Europe, on a certain stratum of extremist MEPs, under the influence of the Zionist lobbies and opponents of the Islamic Republic.
“The Iranian guards kidnapped border have been handed over to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s liaison in Pakistan, but they have not entered into the country yet,” Esmail Kowsari, member of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission told the Tasnim News Agency on Friday.
The lawmaker, however, made it clear that the released soldiers are 4, giving rise to speculations that one of the abductees has been killed by the notorious terrorist group.
On February 6, the so-called Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group kidnapped the five Iranian border guards in Jakigour region in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan and took them to Pakistan.
Ever since, Iran has made special diplomatic efforts to release the soldiers.
“These groundless accusations are occasionally raised, but the falseness of such claims quite clear to everyone,” Afkham told reporters at her weekly press briefing in Tehran on Tuesday.
She noted that such remarks are made despite the ongoing meddling and moves by some regional countries in Yemen contrary to the country’s interests and security.
The Iranian spokesperson pointed to relations between the two countries, and said, “The Islamic Republic has always supported unity, stability and integrity in Yemen.”
“We believe that the issues in Yemen can only be resolved through dialog and a political process in line with meeting the legitimate demands of the country’s people and with the cooperation and participation of all the country’s political groups, parties and currents without foreign interference,” she added.
In relevant remarks last year, a senior Iranian parliamentarian rejected enemies’ allegations about Iran’s espionage operations in some certain countries, particularly in Yemen, underlining that the country follows up transparent policies.
“Iran does not need to carry out espionage operations in any country in the region because the Islamic Republic pursues its policies clearly,” Rapporteur of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said.
Unlike the era of Cold War, when espionage was conducted by spies, nowadays there is no need for the physical presence of people in other countries due to technological advances in acquiring information Naqavi Hosseini added.
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