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Composer of revolutionary songs Ahmad-Ali Ragheb dies at 76

Maduro says alerted to assassination attempt by neighboring Colombia on election dayThere has been a fresh assassination attempt against Venezuela’s president. Nicolas Maduro has unveiled there was an attempt against his life on the day of the parliamentary elections, which his ruling socialist party won by a landslide.

Maduro told reporters on Tuesday that he had to change his voting venue to the main military base in the capital Caracas after being informed of a plot to assassinate him.

The Venezuelan president implicated the leader of neighboring Colombia in the scheme, accusing President Ivan Duque of playing “a role in the plans to organize my assassination.”

“We received information from very relia-ble Colombian intelligence sources, that they were preparing an attack to assassinate me on election day,” he said.

The Venezuelan leader has on multiple oc-casions held to task Colombia and its ally, the

United States, for having plotted to eliminate him and his senior military officials since a long time ago.

Earlier this year, he was alerted to “a decision in the north and in Colombia by the oligarchy to assassinate” him.

He said both countries were governed by extremists, recalling how Washington had orchestrated a coup to topple his government last year.

Colombia and the US recognized Venezuela’s opposition figure Juan Guaido as the legitimate leader of the county after he proclaimed himself president in January last year.

Maduro gave assurances that he would con-tinue to show courage in the face of adversity, despite tens of hundreds of schemes hatched by the imperialists and all their attempts to eliminate him.

Continued on page 5

TEHRAN – Composer Ahmad-Ali Ragheb, who was known as “one thousand music man” and wrote music for numerous revo-lutionary songs, died at his home in Tehran on Tuesday evening after suffering from cancer for five years. He was 76.

The epic piece “Congratulations on This Victory” was one of his most fa-mous works composed with a poem by Hamid Sabzevari on May 24, 1982 hours after the liberation of the southwestern Iranian city of Khorramshahr during the Iran-Iraq war.

The song was recorded with singer Mo-hammad Golriz who also collaborated with Ragheb on another revolutionary piece “This Is the Call of Freedom from the Orient” composed by poet Sabzevari.

He also wrote music for Sabzevari’s “USA, USA, Shame on Your Deceits!”, which was

performed by a chorus and solo tenor Es-fandiar Qarabaghi after the occupation of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979.

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting holds over 1,400 compositions by Ragheb in its archives.

Born in the northern Iranian city of Ban-dar Anzali, Ragheb began his career in music in his childhood by performing harmonica. He later shifted to playing santur, and his performances were highly acclaimed and immensely popular.

His serious education in music, however, commenced with courses on playing tar with maestro Yahya Niknavz.

He also pursued a teaching career in some schools in his hometown and at the same time began collaborating with an orchestra at Gilan Province’s radio.

Continued on page 8

This underground city repetitively sheltered women, children, and the elderly from invaders

BY SAMANEH ABOUTALEBI

With a long history, under-ground cities are the fas-cinating foundations that

are considered as some luring tour-ist attractions nowadays.

While many of these subterranean worlds have become obsolete, others are fully functional urban spaces scattered around the world, from Asia to Africa and from Europe to Oceania.

Hidden passageways, ancient tun-nels, stone-made spaces, and activities few people ever heard about, have made these cities mysterious yet astonishing settlements beneath the Earth’s surface.

Located in the central district of Aran-Bidgol county, the Iranian prov-ince of Isfahan, the underground city of Nushabad is one of the oldest in the world.

The labyrinthine city is comprised of three stories of tunnels, chambers, air ducts, stair-cases, and canals. It is widely considered a marvel of ancient architecture and engineering.

Despite its impressive scale as the biggest underground city in Iran, the 1,500-year-old city was completely un-known until a decade ago, when a resident of a village nearby stumbled upon a tunnel while digging a well in his home.

What was discovered was a sprawling underground city set between three to 18 meters deep. Construction of this man-made subterranean city, called Ouee (or Ouyi), dates back to the Sassanid era (224 CE–651).

Inhabitants would dig underground chambers as hideout spots for women, children, and the elderly in frequent at-tacks by foreign invaders.

Over the years, the individual chambers were amalgamated, and air ducts, water pipes, storage spaces, and toilets were all built—creating a sustainable under-ground city, in which ancient Persians took refuge in times of war. Each family had their room of sorts, with a tunnel running down the length of these rooms, similar to a hotel hallway.

The city could also be used as a shelter for the desert’s summer heat as the remark-able complex of tunnels originally grew up around a freshwater spring, credited with supplying delicious, crystal-clear water. Only part of the tunnel system is open to visitors today, and those parts are often subject to flooding.

Continued on page 6

Iranian researchers win international water conservation awardTEHRAN – The University of Tehran researchers won the WatSave Annual Award of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) for the Young Professionals category.

Hamed Ebrahimian Associate Professor, and Mohammad Sadegh Keshavarz, Ph.D. Student, of College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, won the Young Professionals Award for “Reducing Effect of Micro-dams on Infiltration and Uni-formity of Water Distribution along the Furrow.”

Established in 1950, the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage is a leading scientific, tech-nical, international not-for-profit, non-governmental organization. ICID is a network of experts from across the world in the field of irrigation, drainage, and flood management. ICID’s mission is to promote ‘Sustainable agriculture water management’ to achieve a ‘Water secure world free of poverty and hunger through sus-tainable rural development’.

ICID constituted WatSave Annual Award(s) in 1997 to identify and promote exceptional water conservation/saving practices in agriculture. They are presented every year to individuals or a team of individuals after evaluat-ing actual realized savings; and not promising research results, plans, or good ideas/intentions to save water.

The award consists of an honorarium of $2000 and a citation plaque. The WatSave Awards are presented during the Annual ICID Executive Council Meeting (IEC). An autonomous international panel of judges adjudges the winners every year.

WatSave Award has been categorized in four cate-gories, including, Technology Award, Innovative Water Management Award, Farmer Award, and Young Profes-sionals Award (recognizing young professionals (below 40 years) contributing to original research and innovative water-saving techniques leading towards sustainability).

TEHRAN – The Department of Environment (DOE) has launched a campaign to protect mi-gratory birds in the Hour al-Azim international wetland, southwestern Khuzestan province.

Initiated about a week ago, the campaign was launched to create a safe area for migratory birds in the wetland; through the first phase of the campaign, the environmental activists issued a call for cash assistance to feed the birds.

“Based on this, we collected public donations to buy wheat, which according to the welcome

of environmentalists from all over the country, in the first 48 hours, 140 million rials (about $3,300) and so far about 160 million rials have been collected, and we bought a ton of quality wheat for the first week.”

So far, environmental enthusiasts donated 160 million rials to provide wheat for the birds, Reza Nik Falak an environmentalist said.

Migratory birds are not safe in natural wetlands due to habitat degradation. According to the DOE, more than 70 percent of the country’s wetlands

have dried up and the rest are affected by various types of pollution, so the rest of the wetlands do not have the capacity to host this number of birds due to lack of security and adequate food.

Pointing to Hour al-Azim characteristics as the reason for choosing it, he stated that Hour al-Azim is the largest wetland in the country and one of the most important habitats for migratory birds, which hosts the largest number of birds every year.

Continued on page 7

Campaign starts to protect migratory birds in Hour al-Azim wetland

8 Pages Price 50,000 Rials 1.00 EURO 4.00 AED 42nd year No.13830 Thursday DECEMBER 10, 2020 Azar 20, 1399 Rabi’ Al thani 24, 1442

Esteghlal face high expectations

It was impossible for Israel to assassinate Fakhrizadeh alone: advisor

Astara Port becomes new shipping hub in Caspian region

Over $666m invested for completion of Khaf-Herat railway

Persepolis bring happiness to millions of Iranians: Nasser Al Khater

Russian envoy: Israel-Arab issues, not Iran, is main problem in West Asia

TEHRAN - Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami said the government has invested over 28 trillion rials (over $666.6 million) for the completion of the Khaf-Herat railway project which is due to be officially inau-gurated today.

The 222-kilometers-long Khaf-Herat is part of the Iran-Afghanistan

rail corridor. The project started in the fiscal year of 2007-2008, connects Iran’s eastern city of Khaf to Afghanistan’s western city of Ghoryan.

According to Eslami the inauguration ceremony will be attended by the presi-dents of the two countries as well as the two sides’ transport ministers.

Continued on page 4

BY MASOUD HOSSEINTEHRAN - Nasser Al Khater, CEO of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, believes that the prestigious tournament is not just for his country and is an event for the entire Asian continent.

In an exclusive interview with Tehran Times, Al Khater also praised Iranian

giants Persepolis after they could book a berth in the 2020 AFC Champions League and brought happiness to their millions of fans.

Persepolis will meet the champions of East Zone in the 2020 ACL Final slated for Dec. 19 at the Al Janoub Stadium.

Continued on page 5

Russian Ambassador Anatoly Viktorov on Tuesday blamed Israel for destabilizing West Asia.

“The problem in the region is not Iranian activities,” Viktorov said at the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv.

In an interview with The Jerusa-lem Post, Viktorov said, “It’s a lack of understanding between countries and noncompliance with UN resolutions in the Israel-Arab and Israel-Palestinian conflict.”

The ambassador said it is Israel which

is attacking Lebanese Hezbollah.“Israel is attacking Hezbollah; Hez-

bollah is not attacking Israel,” he added.Viktorov said he has seen the tunnels

from Lebanon into Israel but there is “no proof Hezbollah created the tunnels.”

The ambassador said Israel must “not attack the territories of sovereign UN members.”

He added, “There is no way that we are approving any Israeli strikes on Syria, never in the past and never in the future.”

Continued on page 2

Alireza Qorbani, Alim Qasimov sing duet “Rababi” Page 8Page 4Page 3Page 2

See page 3

Ayatollah Yazdi passes awayTEHRAN – Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Assembly of Experts and chief of the Association of Qom Seminary Teachers, passed away on Wednesday.

Yazdi, 89, also headed the Judiciary from 1989-1999.He was elected as chief of the Assembly of Expert in

March 2014 for a year. Yazdi was competing with Akbar Hashemi Raf-

sanjani for the post. He garnered 47 votes out of 73.Born in July 1931 in Isfahan, Ayatollah Yazdi served in

different positions. He represented Tehran province in the Assembly of Experts in the second, third and fourth terms.

Assembly of Experts is held every eight years.Ayatollah Yazdi also served as a legislator in the first

and second parliaments.Continued on page 2

DECEMBER 10, 2020

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

P O L I T I C S

TEHRAN — Hossein Amir Abdollahian, a

senior foreign advisor to the parliament speaker, says the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh by the Zionist regime was impossible without cooperation by spy services of other countries.

“With regard to architects and elements of the terror there are different pieces of evidence that the Zionists had a role in this issue, but whether the Zionists alone were able to do this act without cooperation by other (spy) services such as those of the U.S. or other services, they were definitely were not able to do that,” Amir Abdollahian told the Al-Alam news network.

He said that the enemies have been seeking every opportunity to kill Iranian scientists, especially those involved in de-veloping Iran’s defense capabilities and basic sciences.

Fakhrizadeh was assassinated on Novem-ber 27 on a roadway in Absard city about 40 kilometers northeast of Tehran.

“They are always monitoring our scientists and try to make use of every opportunity and intelligence gap to deal a blow to the unique area of science and technology in Iran.”

If the assassination of Fakhrizadeh took place now it does not mean that they had no intention to do such acts over the past few years.

The point is that they were not able to do it, he added.

Over the past years Israel has assassi-nated five other Iranian scientists. It killed Masoud Alimohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad, and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. Israel also attempted to assassinate Fereydon Abbassi, former head of the Atom-ic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and now the chairman of the Parliament Energy Committee, but it failed.

“But, unfortunately, this time they used a security loophole and committed such act, which of course was a complicated plot.”

From the first hour of the terrorist act, Iran pointed the finger at Israel.

“If you ask me who was behind this act, I shall say that some intelligence officials of the fake regime of Israel claimed that we were behind this even. Netanyahu tried to deny (because) he is actually a coward person. While he makes some claims he does not dare to accept its responsibility because he knows he cannot tolerate its repercussions.”

He added, “What now I can say is that the commanders of this terror have been identified for the Islamic Republic of Iran and they will surely get a crushing response.”

Some of the attackers have been identified and even detained and they cannot “escape justice”, he said, adding they will receive a strong punishment.

However, the diplomat said he prefers not to provide more details due to the sensitivity of the issue.

The foreign policy advisor to the parliament speaker added though it became clarified later that the Zionists had played a great role in the assassination of Iranian scientists, they had made use of other countries’ help and their spy services to implement their pernicious intentions.

On Iran’s response to the terrorist act, he said, “In the not-too-distant future you will witness a decisive response to commanders

of this terror by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran’s response will be “multi-layer”, he

pointed out. Parliamentary ratification was a

response to the violation of commit-ments by JCPOA parties

He also said the parliamentary approval for lifting sanctions, which its discussions started about four months ago, was not just a response to the Fakhrizadeh assassination, but retaliation against breach of nuclear ob-ligations by the Europeans and the criminal and unilateral sanctions by the Trump ad-ministration.

Based on the parliamentary approval that is being endorsed by the oversight Guardian Council, the Atomic Energy Organization will be obliged to accelerate nuclear enrichment activities, increase the purity of nuclear fuel, install advanced centrifuges, and stop un-announced inspections by the International Atomic Energy if the sanctions against Iran are not lifted within a specific time.

The government has expressed uneasi-ness over the ratification, saying it has not been consulted by the parliament or that the ratification may affect the diplomacy.

However, Amir Abdollahian said the grievance is an indication of pluralism and democracy in the country.

The veteran diplomat said even though the JCPOA was signed and implemented during the Barack Obama administration it was breached in certain cases by the U.S. at that time.

The JCPOA – the official name for the nuclear deal – was signed on July 14, 2015, and went into force on January 16, 2016.

Donald Trump, who was campaigning in 2016, started his relentless attacks on the JCPOA and officially withdrew the U.S. from it in May 2018 and introduced the harshest sanctions in history against Iran.

Trump lost to his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the Nov. 3 election. Biden has vowed to rejoin the agreement.

Amir Abdollahian said in the foreign policy area it is “simplistic” to think that a golden opportunity has been created for revitalizing the JCPOA and resolving problems now that Biden, who served as vice president under President Obama, is going to lead the U.S. from January 20.

Still not taking the helm at the White House, Amir Abdollahian said, Biden, is talking about the necessity of an alliance with the European countries and some oth-

ers for countering Iran, China, and Russia.Biden is also talking about issues other

than the JCPOA, he said.“He is talking about the region, (Iran’s)

defensive missiles,” the foreign policy advisor said. “It seems that Biden wants to put all issues on the negotiation table.”

Amir Abdollahian, who served as Iran’s point man for Arab affairs in the Foreign Ministry, said “the criterion for us is the behavior of America.”

He added, “Biden and Democrats should tell us whether their strategy toward Iran is continuation of hostility or friendship and peaceful cooperation.”

Iran has vehemently said that it will not compromise on its defensive missile program or its regional influence.

“We are not going to have regional JCPOA and missile JCPOA and others,” the advisor pointed out.

On remarks by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas who have said that the JCPOA should be expanded to include Iran’s missiles and regional activities, Amir Abdollahian said, “The German foreign minister should provide answers to (Iranian) people about lack of commitment toward the JCPOA.”

In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel published in recent days, Maas said, “A return to the previous agreement will not suffice anyway. There will have to be a kind of ‘nuclear agreement plus,’ which is also in our interest. We have clear expecta-tions of Iran: no nuclear weapons, but also no ballistic missile program that threatens the entire region. Iran also needs to play a different role in the region,”

He added, “We need this agreement precisely because we distrust Iran. I have already coordinated with my French and British counterparts on this.”

Iran welcomes mutual dialogue with Saudi Arabia

The former diplomat also said if Saudi Arabia is seeking mutual talks he is welcomed, but there would be no talks on the JCPOA.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud has recently called for a new nuclear deal with Iran to replace the existing one. He has also offered that Persian Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia be included in the talks.

Iran has insisted that the JCPOA is a legally binding deal and it will never re-negotiate it.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Zarif

advised the Arab countries in the region to exclude the West from regional talks, saying the U.S. and European powers are the causes of problems in West Asia.

“Dear neighbors, why ask US/E3 for in-clusion in talks with Iran when: a) There won’t be ANY talks about OUR region with them as they’re the problem themselves. b) We can speak directly about our region without outside meddling,” Zarif wrote in a tweet on Tuesday.

Normalization deal was just be-tween Mohammed bin Zayed and Israel

Amir Abdollahian also said the normaliza-tion deal between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel was just an agreement between Mohammed bin Zayed and the Zionist regime and six other emirates had no role in it.

The diplomat went on to say that offi-cials in the U.S., due to their close ties with the Zionists, will use every opportunity to “humiliate” Arab rulers by pushing for normalization agreements between Arab capitals and Israel.

He said there is no doubt that the current rulers in Riyadh and elements close to King Salman have ties with the Zionist regime.

Amir Abdollahian also reiterated Iran’s long-held position on the Yemen crisis, saying, “The only soluble way for Yemen is dialogue and political approach.”

Saudi Arabia started a war against Yemen in March 2016 with the aim of reinstating the toppled government of Mansour al-Hadi. Other countries, including the UAE, joined Saudi Arabia in the war.

Amir Abdollahian said since the war started Britain has sold more than 6 bil-lion dollars of arms to Saudi Arabia and its partners in the war against Yemenis.

Making a comparison between the areas controlled by Ansarullah and its allies with those by others, saying no terrorist event has taken place over the past five years in Sana’a and northern Yemen run by Ansarullah but the country’s south has turned into a ground for terrorists and proxy wars.

Arms exporters need Yemen warThe expert on the Arab world said King

Salman and his son Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who is crown prince, are tired of the war in Yemen and are seeking a face-saving exit from the Yemen quagmire but “inter-national players” who are seeking to sell arms need the war in Yemen to continue.

“The level of decision making for the Yemen issue is beyond the Emirates and even the rulers of Saudi Arabia.”

He also said the fact that Iran has sent an ambassador to Sana’a clearly shows that “we are on the side of the legal government and Yemen people and at the same time were not against any Yemeni.”

On the visit by new Syrian foreign minister Faisal Mekdad, he said the visit took place due to Iran’s support for the Syrians in their war against terrorists and foreign-backed militants.

“This visit showed that the relations between the countries is a priority and the Islamic Republic of Iran is an important and strategic partner for Syria in the region.”

Pointing to the memoir of his meetings with the Syrian leader, he said President Bashar al-Assad has said, “The blood of the Iranian and Syrian people have been mixed.”

TEHRAN — The Italian Ambassador to Teheran, Giuseppe Perrone, was re-

ceived on Tuesday by Iranian Parliament Speaker Mo-hammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Italian embassy said in a press release.

During the meeting, Ambassador Perrone wished “that the Islamic Republic can fully grasp the possi-bilities of dialogue that will be created in the coming months” as Joe Biden will take the power at the White House next month.

Ghalibaf, the embassy said, confirmed to the Italian ambassador that his country is interested in full resto-ration of the 2015 nuclear agreement – JCPOA - with the arrival of the new American administration.

At the same time, according to IRNA news agency, the parliament speaker criticized France, Germany and Great Britain - the three European countries signatory to the nuclear agreement - for their declaration expressing dismay over an approval by the parliament obliging the government to speed up nuclear activities if the Western sides failed to honor their obligation under the multi-lateral nuclear agreement.

The two side also pointed to the importance of rela-tions between Italy and Iran as the two countries plan to celebrate the 160th anniversary of their ties next year.

Ghalibaf, the former mayor of Tehran and former general of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, underlined Iran’s friendship with Italy and the important role that Rome plays in supporting dialogue with the Islamic Republic.

Iranian, Italian deputy foreign ministers hold virtual talks

The deputy foreign ministers of Iran and Italy also held a new round of political talks via videoconference on Monday.

The virtual talks were held between Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Seyyed Abbas Araqchi and Elisabetta Belloni, secretary general of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

It was their second political consultation via video-conference.

The two ranking diplomats discussed various topics, including the issues related to Tehran and Rome, the latest developments surrounding the JCPOA, and the regional and international developments.

Pointing to the close political, economic, and cultural relations between the two countries, the Iranian deputy foreign minister highlighted the abundant capacities for the promotion of trade ties.

Belloni also hailed the age-old relations between Italy and Iran and expressed her country’s willingness to con-tinue bilateral ties and regional dialogue with Tehran.

TEHERAN – Foreign Minister Mohammad

Javad Zarif has hailed a joint railway project linking eastern Iran to western Afghanistan as a boost to regional trade and popular exchanges.

The railway project, officially called Khaf-Herat railway, is expected to be inaugurated on Thursday.

“The project will be inaugurated with the presence of the presidents of Iran and Afghanistan, thus extending the Iranian railways deep into Afghanistan,” Mohammad Eslami, Iran’s transport minister, told Tasnim news agency on Tuesday.

Zarif said this project will help turn Iran’s borders into bridges.

“The Khaf-Herat railway’s signifi-cance is not only for Iran & Afghanistan, but for the greater region. As a gateway that’ll boost trade and people-to-peo-ple exchanges, it will also contribute to regional stability & development. Turning our frontiers into bridges is a priority,” the chief diplomat tweeted on Wednesday.

P O L I T I C A Ld e s k

It was impossible for Israel to assassinate Fakhrizadeh alone: advisor

P O L I T I C A Ld e s k

Italian ambassador meets speaker Ghalibaf

Russian envoy: Israel-Arab issues, not Iran, is main problem in West Asia

1 With regard to recent International Atomic Energy Agency reports that Iran has developed more centrifuges to a further extent than permitted by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is known, Vik-torov said he does not agree that Iran has violated the agreement.

“The first step was made by... our American colleagues who unfortunately decided to quit the JCPOA [in 2018],” he said. “They quit the plan and that allowed the Iranian side to under-take some steps which are not in full compliance with the plan, which is unfortunate as well.”

Viktorov also said Russia “took note of some statements” that the incoming Biden administration seeks to rejoin the JCPOA.

If the U.S. returns to the deal, “it will make many things sim-pler,” he said. “It will be helpful to reduce concerns and allow the Iranians to develop a peaceful atomic energy program and allow [the IAEA] to look at what is going on in the military sphere.”

“Maybe some provisions could be modified,” he said, in ref-erence to Biden’s statements that he will strengthen the JCPOA, “but it’s a matter of negotiation with the interested parties, the Iranian authorities.”

As for whether Russia would sell arms to Iran after the UN arms embargo was lifted earlier this year, he said: “Iran is a sovereign state, why not? I am not familiar with specific plans; it’s a matter of negotiations.”

Viktorov said Russia is supportive of the Abraham Accords, in which Israel established diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, and said “any move towards interaction is a positive development, in of itself.”

Still, he said, “Israel should sit down and talk about how to take everybody’s legitimate concerns into account and not create alliances and blocs against somebody else,” an apparent reference to partnerships with Persian Gulf states against Iran.

“We strongly believe that the Palestinian question should not be put aside. The normalization should not replace a Pales-tinian-Israeli settlement because this problem will remain and will continue to endanger not only the countries and peoples of the region but also many others around the globe,” he stated, while calling for a two-state solution.

Viktorov warned that the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “allowing terrorists to recruit more supporters into their ranks.”

Russia’s offer for Israel and the Palestinians to hold direct negotiations in Moscow still stands, as well as a suggestion to hold an international conference on the matter, he added.

Ayatollah Yazdi passes away1 In June 1988, Imam Khomeini appointed him as a

member of the oversight Guardian Council. Also in a decree by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in July 2013, Yazdi was reinstated in his position as a jurist in the Council.

After serving in the Guardian Council for 25 years, he finally resigned on November 1 due to his deteriorating health.

The ayatollah was laid to rest in the shrine city of Qom on Wednesday.

A series of condolences poured in over the death of the ayatollah. Among those expressing sadness over his death were Guard-

ian Council chief Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, For-eign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and former parliament speaker Ali Larijani.

Rouhani said the services of Ayatollah Yazdi will remain in the memory of the Iranian people.

Speaker Ghalibaf also said Yazdi was a trusted confidant of Imam Khomeini and Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

Rouhani: White House hindering Iran efforts to import vaccine, medicinePresident Hassan Rouhani has lashed out at his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, for hampering Iran’s purchase of medical equip-ment and vaccines required to fight the coronavirus pandemic, saying the “evil” team at the White House did not even spare the elderly and the disabled from the “cruel” measures.

Addressing a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani said the U.S. administration has placed an obstacle in the path of every single Iranian effort to import vaccines and medical equipment.

“That is because they have created so many problems and are bothering us to the extent that the entire country has to work for weeks and sometimes months to move money from one place to another to buy medicine, a simple task that could have been taken care of via a phone call, a message and SWIFT,” he said.

“These people that were at the helm in the White House, and are spending the final days of their miserable [political] lives, were so evil that they did not even show mercy towards the health of people, the elderly and the disabled amid the coronavirus issue, and they acted in the most corrupt and most savage manner towards the people of the region and the great nation of Iran.”

Iran has been subjected to a series of tough economic sanctions as part of Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign” since 2018, when he withdrew Washington from the 2015 nuclear deal, offi-cially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

As Trump’s term is nearing its end, his administration has been tightening its oppressive sanctions against the Islamic Republic, defying warnings from Tehran and international human rights organizations that the restrictions are severely hindering the Iranian health sector’s fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

Rouhani also noted that Iran has the resolve to buy COVID-19 vaccines and has enough money for that purpose, but the U.S. is blocking its efforts.

“Although we have money and resources are available to us, we hit a brick wall due to U.S. troublemaking in our dealings with every country and every bank,” he added. “However, this does not mean that people should think they will not have access to the vaccine. We will overcome these problems at any cost.”

Iran, he said, will soon import COVID-19 vaccines, while working to speed up the production of domestic ones.

P O L I T I C A Ld e s k

FM Zarif hails Iran-Afghanistan railway project as border bridge

“We aren’t going to have missile JCPOA,” Amir Abdollahian says

3I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

I R A N I N F O C U SDECEMBER 10, 2020

S P O R T SEsteghlal face high expectations

TEHRAN — Esteghlal football team have started the current season of the Iran Profes-

sional League (IPL), not in the best mood. However they have accumulated eight points from five matches and are third at the table but the team’s officials are under pressure after poor performance in the matches played so far.

Esteghlal fans are not satisfied with the way the team play, and Mahmoud Fekri, Blue’s head coach, has faced a lot of fierce criticism both from fans and experts.

On Monday, Esteghlal were held 2-2 by Sanat Naft in Tehran. It was their second draw after two wins and one defeat in five weeks.

Right now, things are gloomy for a team that expect nothing less than a victory in every competition they enter — and their worst days may still be on the horizon.

Esteghlal have struggled for consistency this season. Mahmoud Fekri, who took charge at Esteghlal from the beginning of the current season, does not bear the responsibility for the results by saying this. He has received “the worst Esteghlal” and faced “the most expectations” by the fans.

Of course, some people feel positive about their team’s per-formance because Esteghlal have a good squad this season, and, unlike the previous seasons, the team have kept most of their main players without any big transfer.

Some argue that Esteghlal have been under pressure by the successes of Persepolis, their archrivals in the past four years. Persepolis have won four consecutive IPL editions and have reached the final match of the AFC Champions League two times in the past three years.

The psychological effects of this devastating pressure on Es-teghlal’s players and staff cannot be underrated. So, what has happened to the Iranian giants that have left them at such a point?

It appears the club’s off-field troubles are closely mirrored by their poor results.

Serious questions may also be asked about the setup and tac-tical approach of coach Fekri. But he believes something else.

“I’ve told reports and fans many times that this year we have got the worst Esteghlal of the recent years and everybody expects the most” he talked with the reporters at the training session on Wednesday.

“You should expect as much as you give something. Estegh-lal’s fans must support the team and technical staff, but so far, we have not seen enough support from the fans,” Fekri added.

Alireza Mansourian surprised by Tractor’s dismissal

TEHRAN — Alireza Mansourian said he was surprised to find out he has been sacked

as Tractor coach. The 49-year-old coach was sacked as Tabriz based football team

coach on Tuesday following poor results in Iran Professional League.“I was not contacted by anyone from Tractor regarding my

sacking from the club. I’m surprised by this decision as I thought coming into a new team with new players, there would naturally be a degree of adversity,” Mansourian said.

Saket Elhami is a candidate to take charge of Tractor.

Four Iranians shortlisted for AFC International Player of Week

TEHRAN — Iranian forwards Mehdi Taremi, Sardar Azmoun, Allahyar Sayyadmanesh

and Shahab Zahedi have been shortlisted for the AFC Inter-national Player of the Week.

In a week of hat-tricks and history, the continent’s interna-tional stars were in unstoppable form. This week’s 10 contenders produced a combined total of 15 goals, four assists and countless other highlights, with several other worthy candidates unlucky not to be nominated, the-afc.com reported.

Sardar Azmoun (Zenit, Iran)82 minutes, 3 goals, 1 assist, 1 penalty won (5-1 v Ural)90 minutes, 3 key passes (1-2 v Borussia Dortmund)This week’s list of outstanding Asian performances be-

gins with Sardar Azmoun, who turned in an exceptional Russian Premier League display against Ural on Saturday. The Team Melli star was directly involved in all five of Zenit’s goals, scoring three himself to earn Player of the Match honors.

Allahyar Sayyadmanesh (Zorya Luhansk, Iran)14 minutes, 1 goal (1-0 v Leicester City)61 minutes, 8 duels won (3-1 v Dnipro-1)On loan, on the pitch and onto the back page, Iranian youngster

Allahyar Sayyadmanesh made a sensational cameo appearance for Ukraine’s Zorya Luhansk, scoring a UEFA Europa League winner against Premier League highfliers Leicester City.

Mehdi Taremi (FC Porto, Iran)67 minutes, 1 goal, 87% pass accuracy (4-3 v Tondela)Mehdi Taremi continued his recent goal-scoring form, slamming

home a volley to help FC Porto to three points in a seven-goal thriller against Tondela. He has now found the net three times in his last five appearances.

Shahab Zahedi (Olimpik Donetsk, Iran)73 minutes, 2 goals, 4 shots at goal (3-1 v Rukh Lviv)In what was an exceptional week for Iranian strikers, Shahab

Zahedi added two goals, including a superb volley. Despite play-ing for mid-table Olimpik, the former Persepolis player’s eight goals make him the top scorer in the Ukrainian Premier League.

The four Iranian strikers will compete with Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur, Korea Republic), Sam Kerr (Chelsea, Australia), Saki Kumagai (Olympique Lyonnais, Japan), Ritsu Doan (Arminia Bielefeld, Japan), Bala Devi (Rangers, India) and Osama Rashid (Santa Clara, Iraq) to be named as the AFC International Player of Week.

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TEHRAN — Following the United States’ decision to impose sanctions on

Iran’s ambassador to Yemen, the Iranian envoy thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for imposing sanctions on him.

“I thank the gambler Trump, who in the last days of his presidency, insists on showing the true face of the U.S. government. Of course, towards the goal of freeing the nations of the region from the Zionism & U.S., We are not afraid of sanctions and martyrdom, but we are proud of it,” Hasan Irlou, the Iranian ambassador to Sanaa, said in a tweet on Wednesday, a day after the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Irlou.

Irlou has recently been appointed as Iran’s ambassador to Yemen. In early November, he submitted his creden-tials to Mahdi al-Mashat, the president of the Supreme Political Council of Yemen. Since then he was in the U.S. and its regional allies’ crosshairs.

Upon his arrival in Sanaa, the ambassador created a Twitter account. Twitter blocked the ambassador’s account without providing any explanation. Irlou said he did not make any remarks in violation of Twitter rules, adding that Twitter moved to delete his account under the pressure of the Saudi lobby. The ambassador created a new account on Twitter after his previous account was deleted.

“Unfortunately, my first Twitter account was blocked without any justification, and while I did not make any mistake. According to the threats and information that I received from Saudi Arabia, the Saudi lobby has bought Twitter to suppress the voice of righteousness and the voice of their opponents,” tweeted Irlou, using his new Twitter account.

The appointment of Irlou sparked a wave of specu-lation among some regional players who have seen the appointment of the new ambassador as a step toward strengthening ties between Tehran and Sanaa.

“The [Iranian] ambassador’s return [to Yemen] posed a strong challenge to them that they could not justify,

but rather failed to do so,” the ambassador said of these players without naming them.

He added, “They are trying, through their media, to strip the ambassador of his diplomatic status. They use disinformation and lies, and they say that Sanaa is Iran’s tool.”

Irlou said they have spent their money to promote extremist projects. The ambassador also pointed to the United States presidential election and its impact on the war in Yemen.

On Wednesday, the ambassador once again castigated the U.S. for its role in the Yemen war, saying that the Saudi siege against the war-torn Arab country is in fact a policy of the U.S.

“The U.S. role is prominent in the aggression against the peoples of the region. Especially against the Yemenis. What is happening in the Saudi siege & aggression against Yemen is merely the implementation of the American Zionist policies,” tweeted Irlou.

On Tuesday, the U.S. slapped sanctions on the ambas-sador in accordance with a “counterterrorism” executive order, claiming that Irlou is “an official in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).”

The sanctions against Irlou came after the U.S. desig-nated Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, Iraj Masjedi, on October 22, 2020.

TEHERAN — Sergei Ry-abkov, the deputy foreign

minister of Russia, has called on the United States to remove its sanctions on Iran’s oil sector so that Iran would be able to sell oil.

“The United States should lift its illegal sanctions that hinder the normal function-ing of Iran’s oil sector and the entire energy sector of this country,” the Persian-language Russian Sputnik news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying on Wednesday.

However, the Russian diplomat said that there is no sign that the White House may remove Iran’s oil sanctions.

“We do not see any signs that Washington is ready to move in this direction,” he told

reporters on Wednesday.Ryabkov expressed hope that the situation

in Iran’s oil sector will be normalized over the next year. “We hope that the situation in this sector will be normalized, at least relatively, over the next year.”

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sweeping sanctions on Iran, including a total oil ban, following his withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers on May 8, 2019.

The deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had formally allowed Iran to sell oil. It still, on paper at least, allows Iran to sell oil. But the U.S. sanctions have scared away some

of Iran’s oil buyers. In the previous round of sanctions on

Iran approved by the UN Security Council resolutions Iran was not banned from selling oil. Only the European Union boycotted oil import from Iran.

The Trump administration has said that it seeks to drive Iran’s oil exports to zero.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has recently said that Trump failed to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero. Speaking at an official meeting on Sunday, the president said, “Donald Trump’s dream of reducing Iran’s oil exports to zero has never come true and he will take that dream with him.”

Rouhani pointed out that the U.S.

economic war on Iran has caused many problems for the Iranian oil and pet-rochemical exports, but Trump failed to zero out Iran’s oil exports.

Iran ambassador to Yemen thanks Trump for sanctioning him

Russia calls on U.S. to lift Iran oil sanctions

Azerbaijani FM holds talks in TehranTEHRAN — Jeyhun Bayramov, the foreign

minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan, held high-level talks with several Iranian officials in Tehran upon his arrival in the Iranian capital.

The chief Azerbaijani diplomat met with President Hassan Rouhani, For-eign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Ali Shamkhani, the head of Iran’s top security body.

During the meeting, Rouhani described Iran-Azerbaijan relations as “good and brotherly”.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is willing to boost ties with the Republic of Azerbai-jan. And we hope that the two countries’ relations would be further expanded by drawing on the opportunity to create new international circumstances,” Rouhani stated.

Rouhani said Iran has taken a “clear and frank” position on the Nagorno-Kara-bakh conflict and the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan, expressing satisfaction over the end of the war and the liberation of Azerbaijan’s occupied terri-tories, according to the Iranian president’s official website.

Referring to the Iran peace initiative to end the conflict, which was present-ed during a visit by an Iranian special representative to Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, Rouhani expressed Iran’s readiness to play a constructive role in helping strengthen the ceasefire that was recently established between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Rouhani also underlined the need to take advantage of Iran-Azerbaijan borders to expand economic and trade ties.

“We feel countries have better cir-cumstances to cooperate given the end of Trump’s presidency in America and the coming of a new administration,” Rouhani noted.

Rouhani further announced Iran’s read-iness to participate in the reconstruction of the liberated areas of Azerbaijan, saying, “Considering the neighborhood of the two countries and the facilities available in Iran, Iran’s presence and participation in the reconstruction of the Nagorno-Kara-bakh war-torn areas will be in the two countries’ interest.”

The Azerbaijani foreign minister, in re-turn, appreciated the support of the Islamic Republic of Iran for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, saying, “We consider Iran a good friend and neighbor, and the will of the President and Azerbaijani officials is to comprehensively develop relations with Iran.”

“Azerbaijan’s borders with Iran are a border of friendship and development, and we believe that the restoration of these borders can lead to new coopera-tion projects between the two countries,” Bayramov said, referring to the liberation of Azerbaijani territories and the revival of the 132-kilometer border with Iran.

The foreign minister of Azerbaijan also condemned the assassination of the Iranian

scientist, Martyr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, underling that the assassination of scien-tists is not acceptable in any way, and “we strongly condemn this action.”

The Bayramov visit came nearly a month after Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a 44-day war between the two South Caucasus nations. The war began on September 27 and resulted in Azerbai-jan retaking its territories in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh that were under Armenian control for nearly three decades.

According to the ceasefire agreement, Armenia agreed to return occupied territo-ries such as Aghdam, Kalbajar, and Lachin to Azerbaijan. Under the agreement, the two warring sides agreed to establish two corridors; one linking Armenia to the Ar-menian populated region of mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh, and the other liking the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to mainland Azerbaijan. The agreement stip-ulates that both corridors will be controlled and monitored by Russian forces.

“All economic and transport links in the region shall be restored. The Republic of Armenia guarantees the safety of transport links between the western regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in order to organize an unimpeded movement of citizens, vehi-cles and goods in both directions. Control over transport shall be exercised by the bodies of the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia,” the agreement said.

But the clause of the agreement raised questions as to where and how these “trans-port links” will be established.

Bayramov also met with Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. During the meeting, the two sides discussed the latest bilateral, regional, and international issues.

Shamkhani welcomed the establishment of peace between Yerevan and Baku and the return of occupied territories to Azerbaijan. The top security official pointed out that

Tehran-Baku relations should be upgraded to the highest possible level, adding that the completion of joint projects and the implementation of agreements between the two countries as well as the start of new cooperation in various fields requires more serious efforts.

Shamkhani also warned about the presence of Israel, Daesh, and the U.S. in the region, saying that their presence will create crises and result in damaging results, while their withdrawal will bring more stability and peace to the region.

“The countries of the region must work together to prevent the creation of new insecure and troubling centers,” the sec-retary of the top security body said.

Iran had called on Azerbaijan and Ar-menia to resolve their differences through dialogue since the early days of the 44-day war.

“Iran is closely monitoring the alarming violence in Nagorno-Karabakh. We call for an immediate end to hostilities and urge dialogue to resolve differences. Our neighbors are our priority and we are ready to provide good offices to enable talks. Our region needs peace now,” tweeted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif shortly after Armenia and Azerbaijan be-gan the war.

The war continued even after Iran called on both warring sides to sit down at the negotiating table, but Iran didn’t lose hope to put an end to the war. Therefore, it of-fered a peace initiative and presented it to all regional countries involved in the conflict. Seyed Abbas Araghchi, the deputy foreign minister of Iran for political affairs, traveled to Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, and Turkey as the special representative of Iran’s president to present the Tehran peace initiative.

“Introduced Iran’s Regional Initiative to Help in Ending the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict to H. E. Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, in a positive and constructive long meeting,” the deputy foreign minister said in a tweet, following his talks in Baku.

Zarif has said that Araghchi held “very

successful” talks during a regional tour that included several countries involved in the Nagorno-Karabakh war.

“Mr. Araghchi went on this trip with an initiative that was discussed in our country and approved by the relevant authorities, and after visiting the border area, he held very good talks with various officials, especially with the President in Baku; with the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Russia, with various officials, especially the Prime Minister of Armenia, in Yerevan, and with his counter-part in Turkey. He presented our country’s initiative,” Zarif said.

The Iranian initiative pursued goals similar to what was later included in the Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement, which was welcomed by Iran. Following the announcement of the agreement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry issues a statement wel-coming the ceasefire.

“Iran hopes the agreement whose principles had also been mentioned in an initiative put forward by the Islamic Republic of Iran will lead to final arrange-ments to establish lasting peace in the Caucasus region in such a way that it will bring tranquility and welfare for people in all regional countries and ease existing concerns,” the statement said.

Despite Iran-Azerbaijan’s close contacts during the war, there have been details alleging that the two countries’ relations were not friendly enough. Some news re-ports even claimed that Iranian territories have become a transit route for the transfer of Russian arms to Armenia, a claim that was strongly rejected by Iran. Iranian au-thorities have repeatedly announced that there has been no arms transfer through Iran to Armenia.

During his Wednesday meeting with Bayramov, Shamkhani said these reports were aimed at making the citizens of the two countries pessimistic about each other and that there is a need to take more se-rious measures to stop this propaganda.

“It is necessary to pay more serious attention to these unconstructive and divi-sive acts and stop them,” Shamkhani said.

However, despite this propaganda, Iran-Azerbaijan relations in various fields seem to be moving forward, with some Iranian analysts hoping that a new chap-ter would be opened in the two countries’ relations.

Iran believes that the time is ripe for Teh-ran and Baku to deepen their tie. President Rouhani told Bayramov that the two sides need to complete joint transport projects such as the Rasht-Astara railway project.

The president stressed the need to ac-celerate the implementation and operation of the agreements, saying, “Conditions are ripe for the implementation of joint cooperation projects agreed between the two countries, including the Khoda Afarin dam and the construction of the power plant, and the two countries can further develop their cooperation in the fields of industry, science, pharmacy and other sectors.”

P O L I T I C A Ld e s k

TEHRAN — Strengthening domestic pro-duction to achieve self-reliance is Iran’s major strategy to tackle the sanctions.

All sectors in the country are now moving in line with this strategy to fulfill the goal of independence.

Among different sectors, the role of the energy sector is of vital importance in this due.

In the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 20), which is named the year of surge in production, the Energy Ministry has outlined its main programs to materialize this motto.

The ministry’s programs in this regard have been defined in 13 major axes.

Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian has said that his ministry, as an executive body, has a crucial role to play in providing wa-ter and electricity infrastructure to achieve the goals of the surge in production, adding that production sectors across the country should be sure about adequate water and electricity supply.

To this end, the ministry has set some programs for the domestic production of this sector’s imported equipment.

Power plant equipment is one of the major items that its domestic production is seriously pursued by the ministry.

The ministry has already achieved knowl-edge for the domestic manufacturing of several

pieces of equipment in this sector.Oxygen analyzer, which is used to measure

the concentration of oxygen (O2) in flue gas, is an example.

In mid-November, an official with Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Compa-ny (TPPH) announced that for the first time in the country, the oxygen analyzer required by power plants, which was previously im-ported and a lot of money was paid to buy a

foreign sample of this device, was designed and manufactured by domestic experts.

Esmaeil Namazi, the director-general of the technical affairs department of the holding, pointed out: “Domestic manufac-turing of this equipment was a step toward surge in production in this year, and with the successful implementation of this pro-ject while preventing the outflow of foreign currency to buy oxygen analyzers needed by

the country’s industries, another important step was taken to reduce the dependence of domestic industries on foreign sources”.

F-class gas turbine is the other item in this regard.

Iran used to import this piece of equip-ment from foreign sources such as Siemens of Germany.

But now the country has achieved the technology to manufacture this kind of tur-bine, which is used in the power plants with high efficiency.

Announcing that Iranian experts have achieved the technical knowhow to design and manufacture F-class gas turbine used in the combined-cycle power plants, Alireza Nasrollhai, the operator of the combined-cy-cle and thermal power plants projects, has recently said, “In the past, we lack the engi-neering capability to design the gas turbines; but now we have achieved the technical knowledge and this kind of turbine is de-signed and manufactured completely by Mapna Group.”

E-class gas turbine previously manu-factured domestically had an efficiency of 34 percent, while the F-class turbine has an efficiency of nearly 40 percent, which will play an outstanding part in boosting the efficiency of the power plants.Enjoying such technology, Iran is now among the countries capable of building power plants with high efficiency.

1 The Khaf-Herat railway was mainly imple-mented by the Islamic Republic of Iran under a tripartite agreement between Iran, Afghanistan, and India, Eslami said, adding: “One of the most successful countries in using the capacities of Iran’s Chabahar port for expanding trade exchanges is Afghanistan.”

The project was implemented in four parts, Iran was in charge of completing three of the mentioned four parts, two of which are in the Iranian territory and the other two are on the Afghan side.

Iran sent its first cargo of exports to Afghanistan last week via the Khaf-Herat railroad as a trial dispatch to detect possible technical problems and issues on that route.

The 500-ton cement cargo from Iran’s Khaf city arrived in Ghoryan district of Herat on Wednesday, December 2, indicating that the route was clear for the official inauguration.

Khaf-Herat line is part of the much bigger East-West Railway Corridor project which extends from China to Europe through Iran and Afghanistan.

Iran and Afghanistan have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with five other countries that are in the way of the East-West corridor and further negotiations are still ongoing in this regard.

In early July, Iranian and Afghan officials held a committee meeting to discuss the completion and in-auguration of the mentioned railway.

TEHRAN — Iranian Energy Minister Reza

Ardakanian said 154 major water and electricity projects have been put into operation throughout the country since the beginning of the current Iranian cal-endar year (March 20).

He said that 500.7 trillion rials (about $11.921 billion) has been invested for the mentioned projects, which have been in-augurated in the framework of the Energy Ministry’s A-B-Iran programs.

A-B-Iran program (the acronyms A

and B stand for water and electricity in Persian) was initiated in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), during which the minister made 31 trips to various provinces for inaugurat-ing over 220 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion).

Since the beginning of the second phase of the scheme in the current Iranian calendar year, every week several energy projects have gone operational across the country.

The most recent projects, worth over

5.69 trillion rials (about $135.4 million), were inaugurated in three provinces in the 31st week of the Energy Ministry’s A-B-Iran program on Thursday.

Back in August, Ardakanian said that in the second phase of the A-B-Iran scheme 250 projects were going to be inaugurated by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

The official had said that a total of 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) of in-vestment would be made in the mentioned 250 projects.

TEHRAN – Managing Director of Khazar Shipping Company said Astara

Port, located by the Caspian Sea, has become a new hub for container shipping in the region following the launch of new shipping services from this port, ILNA reported.

Mentioning the establishment of regular container transportation services from Astara port to Aktau port of Kazakhstan and Astrakhan in Russia, Davood Tafti said: “According to the plans, two regular transportation services will operate on this route weekly, one service from Astara to Aktau port and the other service is done from Anzali- Astara route to Aktau port.”

Emphasizing that the launch of these regular ser-vices has created a competitive environment between road and sea transport, Tafti continued: “One of the most important effects of launching a regular container shipping service between Astara and the ports of Aktau and Astrakhan is reducing land transportation rates and breaking the monopoly of land transportation so

that as soon as the news of the activation of these reg-ular container shipping services was announced, the road transportation rate in the region decreased to one thousand dollars.”

“Breaking the monopoly means reducing costs and increasing the options of traders, exporters and cargo owners,” he added.

Astara Port is 60 hectares and it is the first port of the private sector in Iran. it is the closest and the most cost-effective way for trade and transport between Asia, Africa, and Europe. It has been designed for loading and unloading 2,500-ton freighters.

Located by the Caspian Sea, Astara has sea, land, and railway borders points with the Azerbaijan Republic.

Even during the coronavirus outbreak, the port is considered one of the main points for Iran’s export and import.

Earlier in November, the head of Ports and Maritimes Department of Astara, said that the weight of exported and imported goods through Astara Port increased by 40 percent in the first eight months of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2020-November 20) compared to the same period of the previous year.

TEHRAN — Moham-mad Satakin, who heads

Iran’s Renewable Energy and Energy Ef-ficiency Organization (SATBA), said the capacity of the country’s renewable power plants is going to reach 1,000 megawatts (one gigawatt) by the end of the current government’s incumbency (August 2021).

To achieve this goal, SATBA has un-dertaken various activities, including monitoring and controlling the power plant projects, supervising the licens-ing process and concluding contracts for guaranteed purchase of electricity, according to Satakin.

SATBA has managed to sign 36 contracts with private companies for the guaranteed purchase of the electricity generated by over 438 MW capacity of power plants

and issuing construction permits for 159 power plants, the official said.

So far, over 136 trillion rials (about $3.2 billion) has been invested by the private sector for the development of renewable power plants in the country, leading to the production of more than 5.470 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, he announced.

Of the mentioned figure, the share of solar and wind power plants, has been 48 percent and 36 percent, respectively and the rest is related to other types of renewable power plants including biomass and small hydropower plants.

Satakin noted that, so far as a result of the government’s incentives and support-ive policies about 839 MW of renewable power plants have been constructed by

the private sector across the country.“Currently 54 companies are building

renewable power plants with a total ca-pacity of about 230 MW, including solar, wind and hydro, across the country” he added.

He further noted that the mentioned companies are going to construct 28 new renewable power plants by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

Overall, in the next five years, Iran is aiming for a 5,000 MW increase in renew-able capacity to meet growing domestic demand and expand its presence in the regional electricity market.

Currently, over 100 large-scale renewa-ble power plants are operating across Iran.

According to SATBA, the number of

small-scale solar power plants across the country which are used by households or small industries is also increasing noticeably as Iranian households and small industries are embracing the new technology with open arms and investors also seem eager for more contribution in this area.

By Mahnaz Abdi

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

DECEMBER 10, 20204 E C O N O M Y

Iran on the way to reduce dependence in power plant equipment industry

Over 655,000 tons of lead, zinc extracted in 8 months

TEHRAN — Lead and zin extraction reached 655,850 tons during the first

eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-November 20), which was one percent less than the amount extracted in the same period of time in the past year, IRNA reported.

The extraction amount of lead and zinc in the eighth month of this year was 71,602 tons, which was nine percent less than the figure for the same month in the past year.

According to the United States Geological Survey, Iran holds the world’s largest zinc, ninth largest copper, 10th largest iron ore, fifth largest gypsum and barite, and 10th largest uranium reserves.

20 idle industrial units revived in Lorestan Province

TEHRAN — The deputy governor-gen-eral of Iran’s western Lorestan Province,

announced that 20 idle industrial units have been revived in the province since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20).

Asad Abdollahi also said that 37 idle industrial units had been revived in the province during the past Iranian year.

As the acting head of Iran Small Industries and Indus-trial Parks Organization (ISIPO) has announced, 991 idle industrial units have been revived in the country since the beginning of the current year.

Asghar Mosaheb said that reviving the mentioned units has created jobs for 17,090 persons.

The official said there are over 46,000 small and me-dium-sized industrial units in Iran’s industrial parks and zones, of them about 9,200 units are inactive.

Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry was initially plan-ning to revive 1,500 idle units in the current year, but then it revised its programs to revive 2,000 units.

Bringing the mentioned 991 units back to the production cycle, the plan for reviving such units in the present year has been completed by 66 percent.

According to Mosaheb, preventing from the inactive status of the industrial units is a major plan of ISIPO, while lack of liquidity, problems in terms of supplying raw materials and machinery, and absence of market are the main reasons making the units inactive.

ISIPO’s Previous Head Mohsen Salehinia has said that providing liquidity is the main issue for many of the country’s production units, so based on the arrangements made, these units can receive part of their needed liquidity through bank facilities.

“Currently, the share of the country’s production and industrial units in receiving bank facilities is about 31 percent and it is necessary to allocate a larger share of banking facilities to the country’s production and indus-try,” he added.

Given the position of production in the country’s econ-omy and employment, and the fact that production units are facing lack of liquidity to supply raw materials and equipment, it is necessary to increase their share of bank facilities up to at least 40 percent, Salehinia stressed.

He further said: “Despite all the limitations, we are currently witnessing an increase in production in some units, for example those active in the field of home appli-ances; also, according to the plans made and by solving the problems in the way of the production and industrial units, we will realize the motto of “Surge in Production” by the end of this year.”

Strengthening domestic production to achieve self-reli-ance is the most important program that Iran is following up in its industry sector in a bid to nullify the effects of the U.S. sanctions on its economy.

To this end, the current Iranian calendar year has been named the year of “Surge in Production”, and all govern-mental bodies as well as the private sector are moving in line with the materialization of this motto.

Regarding its significant role in the realization of the mentioned goal, the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry has already defined its main programs for supporting the domestic production in the current year.

The ministry’s seven main axes of the surge in produc-tion are going to be pursued under 40 major programs.

In this regard, the development of industrial parks and supporting the units located in these areas is one of the major programs underway by the ministry.

While this program is being seriously pursued, the lack of necessary infrastructure in the industrial parks is impeding their development, therefore, the creation of needed infrastructure in the industrial parks has been put on the agenda.

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Over $666m invested for completion of Khaf-Herat railway

154 major water, electricity projects inaugurated since late March

Astara Port becomes new shipping hub in Caspian region

Renewable power generation capacity to hit 1GW by August 2021

5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

DECEMBER 10, 2020

Persepolis bring happiness to millions of Iranians: Nasser Al Khater

Maduro says alerted to assassination attempt by neighboring Colombia on election day1 The Venezuelan leader has on multiple occasions

held to task Colombia and its ally, the United States, for having plotted to eliminate him and his senior military officials since a long time ago.

Earlier this year, he was alerted to “a decision in the north and in Colombia by the oligarchy to assassinate” him.

He said both countries were governed by extremists, re-calling how Washington had orchestrated a coup to topple his government last year.

Colombia and the US recognized Venezuela’s opposition figure Juan Guaido as the legitimate leader of the county after he proclaimed himself president in January last year.

Maduro gave assurances that he would continue to show courage in the face of adversity, despite tens of hun-dreds of schemes hatched by the imperialists and all their at-tempts to eliminate him.

Protesters demonstrate against el-Sissi’s visit to FranceFrench protesters and human rights activists demonstrated outside the National Assembly in Paris on Tuesday in oppo-sition to the state visit of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi even though he wasn’t inside.

El-Sissi’s visit is in its second and final day. The protesters, who carried placards reading “Egypt, Human Rights Emergen-cy,” were also angry at French President Emmanuel Macron for rolling out the red carpet to the Egyptian leader, whom they view as a human rights abuser. Egypt has cracked down severely on political dissent in recent year, AP reported.

Macron welcomed el-Sissi at the Elysee Palace. The leaders held robust discussions on issues such as human right issues in addition to fighting terrorism, the conflict in Libya and other regional issues.

Macron previously acknowledged “disagreements” with his Egyptian counterpart, such as in the sphere of human rights, but he said it would be no obstacle to economic and defense deals with the North African country.

Despite human rights groups’ criticism, el-Sissi signed contracts with French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Tues-day for French development aid and hospital and transport cooperation.

Number of displaced people globally tops 80 million in 2020: UNDespite calls for ceasefires and compassion amid the coro-navirus pandemic, violence and persecution have continued to force people from their homes, with record numbers now displaced, says the United Nations.

By the end of 2019, 79.5 million people were living uprooted and displaced, including nearly 30 million refugees – more than one percent of the world’s population, al Jazeera reported.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on Wednesday said preliminary figures showed more people had been forced to flee in 2020, pushing the number past 80 million.

“We are now surpassing another bleak milestone that will continue to grow unless world leaders stop wars,” UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said in a statement.

In March, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had called for a global ceasefire while the world fights the pan-demic, which has now killed more than 1.5 million people.

Netanyahu rival breaks from Israel’s Likud to challenge premierA leading rival of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya-hu in the right-wing Likud party announced his resignation from parliament Wednesday as he launches a new party to challenge the premier.

Gideon Saar, an influential figure in conservative Israeli politics, had challenged Netanyahu in a Likud leadership race in December but decisively lost the primary, AFP reported.

With a Netanyahu-led coalition edging towards collapse, risking a fourth Israeli election in less than two years, Saar announced his break with Likud.

“I will create a new movement with the goal of replacing Netanyahu,” Saar said in a virtual press conference late Tuesday.

In a statement Wednesday, Saar announced his formal resignation from Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, freeing him to embark on his “candidacy for prime minister”.

It is not yet clear if Israelis will again head to the polls in 2021.

Haneyya felicitates Kuwaiti Emir on success of parliament elections

TEHRAN— Head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haneyya has congratulated

Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Nawaf Al Sabah over the successful holding of the National Assembly elections.

In a letter sent to the Kuwaiti Emir, Haneyya conveyed his Movement’s sincere congratulations to the Kuwaiti leadership and people for this democratic occasion in the country, wishing every success for the parliament members in serving their country and people.

He hailed the democratic process in Kuwait as “a reflection of political awareness and civilized behavior” and “a model for the Arab and Islamic worlds to emulate.”

The Hamas leader expressed hope that the new National Assembly would continue to play its honorable role in sup-porting the Palestinian people, their national cause and holy sites, and rejecting the normalization of ties with the Israeli occupation state.

1 Special thanks to Mehrdad Masoudi for making this exclusive interview possible.

TEHRAN Times: Qatar has hosted the East Zone from Nov. 18 to Dec. 13. It could be even better because the Qatar Local Authorities and Ministries have had more experiences to hold the event after you successfully hosted the 2020 ACL West Zone tournament. Your views on hosting the East Zone tournament and the AFC Champions League final?

The world has witnessed many challenges in 2020, challenges that people from every walk of life and most industries are still trying to understand and navigate. Football is no different. At the outset of this global pandemic, FIFA gave clear instructions to its member confederations and associations that the health and safety of every single individual associated with the game should be at the heart of any future plan to resume domestic and international competitions. Qatar’s position on the pandemic on a national level was no different and our health ministry’s response has been exemplary and one of the best in the world.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) entered into several consultation sessions with its member associations to draw up a roadmap to resume their critical competitions. While some competitions could be postponed until 2021, the AFC, like UEFA and other confederations, had to conclude their flagship continental club competition in the 2020 calendar year to fulfil their commercial obligations and most importantly, avoid any further calendar congestion in 2021.

With the health and safety of players and organizers of paramount importance, travel restrictions across a vast continent such as Asia and a huge number of games yet to be played, the AFC decided that a centralized format was the most plausible proposal for their Champions League tournament and began exploring with national federations and their participating clubs.

Once that concept was approved, the Qatar Football Association stepped forward to volunteer as host nation to stage the AFC Champions League West Zone’s 39 remaining group stage and knockout stage matches in September and October. Qatar’s football family worked alongside the AFC and the country’s health authorities, as well as a number of other entities in Qatar, to draft strict health and safety protocols to ensure that a bio-secure environment could be developed and delivered for the tournament to protect everyone involved, both on and off the pitch.

It was a huge undertaking and we’re proud to be able to look back at what we all achieved. We had sixteen teams and 39 matches to organize across four venues in just twenty days, representing the largest football tournament in size since FIFA World Cup Russia 2018™. All delivered in the midst of one of the most challenging time of our lives and the most challenging period for football in decades.

Despite one club not arriving in Qatar due to members of their delegation having tested positive ahead of their departure, we along with our AFC colleagues managed to successfully stage the competition in a safe and secure manner. That success, combined with strict travel restrictions in between Eastern Asian countries, meant it was an easy decision for the AFC to decide that the Champions League East Zone matches needed to be played centrally too and Qatar was the safest place to do it. Qatar was happy to once again help the AFC and we were ready and excited to host the four East Zone group and knockout stage matches and a total of 41 matches, including the grand finale on 19th December.

We will have hosted a total of 76 matches over a period of 50 days by the time the AFC Champions League final is concluded on Dec. 19 at Al Janoub Stadium – one of the proposed venues for the FIFA World Cup 2022. Hosting these matches has also helped us prepare for our biggest national sporting moment in two years’ time when we host the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. These 76 matches will have helped our venue and operations

teams assess and test a number of tournament readiness procedures that will help us deliver an amazing tournament in 2022.

Four Iranian teams, namely Esteghlal, Sepahan, Shahr Khodro and Persepolis took part in the competition. Persepolis advanced to the final for the second time in three years and it shows that the Team have progressed well in recent years. As a top football official and a person who knows football, do you think they deserved to qualify for the final?

Persepolis have reached the last four of the AFC Champions League on three occasions in the last four years. For any team to perform consistently in a tough competition such as the AFC Champions League, they have to have a solid base to launch their continental campaign from. You cannot be lucky to reach this level year after year, especially with challenges that Persepolis had in 2018 when they

reached the final with a limited number of players due to their player signing suspension.

Persepolis are one of the best-supported clubs in Asia: we noticed the nation-wide celebrations that their qualification for their second final appearance created right across Iran. They have very passionate fans which are the envy of clubs the world over, and it seemed they were playing to bring happiness to their millions of fans.

We wish them the best of luck in the final later this year and look forward to watching them battle it out at one of our new FIFA World Cup venues in a match as prestigious as the AFC Champions League Final.

To arrange a tournament like this is not an easy job because coronavirus pandemic restricted all activities across the world. What’s the secret behind the great success?

I couldn’t agree more, but there is a precedent in Qatar – we once organized a FIFA World Youth Championship (Under-20) on a three-week notice back in 1995. Over the years we have also stepped in to host a range of other tournaments with short notice. Combine our ability to adapt and ready the country to host events at such short notice, with our events experience gained from hosting over 100 local, regional and international events each year, and it’s clear Qatar has the depth of knowledge to put events like this together in a safe and secure way. Combine that with our evolving state-of-the-art sporting and national infrastructure and it’s clear we have what it takes to host world class events,

even at short notice.Of course, this time and 25 years

later since that 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship, the task was much greater as we were dealing with a global pandemic that has taken the whole world by surprise. In this past summer, we worked diligently with all stakeholders concerned both within the State of Qatar, outside global agencies and, of course, the AFC to ensure the safety of all involved from the moment they touched down in Qatar to the time of their departure.

The compact nature of the tournament, a strength that makes Qatar an ideal location for participating teams, helped us minimize travel during the AFC Champions League West and East Zone tournaments. FIFA World Cup training sites and four stadia being close to teams’ accommodation made it all possible to create this bio-secure environment. This was an advantage that we had over any other country for a competition that needed to be held in one location and not spread

over a large geographical area to avoid movements during the competition. A fact not lost on AFC officials.

We then had to adopt strict health protocols that dealt with the participants’ quarantined accommodation, training facilities, stadia that would only be open and accessible to a small group of AFC, Local Organizing Committee and Host Broadcaster staff. We had to arrange frequent testing for everyone involved and delivered 7,900 COVID-19 tests during the West Zone matches, in just over three weeks, a practice that has been repeated during the East Zone competition. This exercise has required the direct involvement of the State of Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health who has lent their personnel, time and expertise to us and the Asian football officials. Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health has managed the pandemic on a national level extremely effectively so their expertise and guidance were essential.

Throughout, we have also been monitoring the latest updates on the status of the pandemic elsewhere and advice that the World Health Organization would share with countries around the world to make sure any new development would be taken into our daily operational considerations.

The successful staging of the competition, the first of its kind in the new era of a global pandemic, has been down to the teamwork of many national and international stakeholders, above all those health workers, the real heroes around the world who have worked tirelessly and

selflessly to protect all of us.Experience has shown that Qatar

is not investing in football for much return – at least not in the short term. What’s the main reason behind the great process?

Qataris are passionate sports, and in particular, passionate football fans.

We are about to stage the 48th edition of the Amir Cup final on Dec. 18, on Qatar’s National Day. This domestic competition is as old as our independence. Qatar was the first Asian country that reached the final of a FIFA competition in 1981, thirty-nine years ago, when we reached the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship in Australia by overcoming Brazil and England in the knockout stages of that competition. Most recently, the Qatar National Team became Asian Champions for the first time in 2019 – which was an extraordinary moment in the country’s sporting history.

Sport plays an important role in our country’s overall long-term planning and the Qatar National Vision 2030. The state of Qatar has grassroots and professional sports at the heart of its long-term planning to ensure citizens follow a healthy lifestyle while making Qatar an international sports hub. Qatar Olympic Committee, along with the country’s other sporting stakeholders, stages over 100 local, regional and international competitions throughout each calendar year, while the Aspire Academy has become one of the world’s leading centers of excellence in the development of youth athletes. We have also become a trusted partner of many international sports organizations which in turn can help us with investment and tourism, part of our goals within the Qatar National Vision 2030.

The FIFA World Cup 2022 is a great opportunity to show the world how strong Qatar is. The tiny country can also be a role model for the region since it is for the first time a West Asian country has been chosen to host the FIFA World Cup. Do you think Qatar 2022 can accelerate the growth of neighboring countries as well as a long-lasting peace in the region?

There is no doubt that football has the power to bring people from every walk of life together, break down social and physical barriers and create connections between people with vastly different backgrounds. When we started bidding to host the FIFA World Cup 2022, we stated that our tournament would be a tournament for the entire region. A 28-day tournament hosted in Qatar, but a FIFA World Cup for all of the Middle East (West Asia) and Arab world and all of Asia. We emphasized that we wanted to use this unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bridge the gap between East and West and introduce our beautiful country and region to billions around the world.

We all saw how Russia successfully played host to millions of fans who were experiencing Russian culture for the very first time and how pleasantly surprised everyone was with Russia’s rich culture and hospitable nature. Russia was able to prove its fiercest critics wrong. Qatar will do the same in two years’ time.

We are in a region where hospitality is an integral part of our DNA and anyone visiting Qatar or the region has experienced that. While we all have our differences around the world, football provides us with a common language. The compact nature of our tournament will make those interactions even more pronounced, too, as fans will have more time to mingle while attending more than one match in a single day.

We also know the economic benefits that a tournament the size of a FIFA World Cup offers to a host country – and an entire region. South Africa in 2010 was as a tournament for the entire African continent; we want 2022 to be a tournament for the entire Middle East (West Asia) and Arab World.

With an influx of over one million fans to the region, we are all set to benefit, whether that is helping deliver our tournament infrastructure, hosting fans, or benefiting from the global exposure for our region, attracting tourists of the future, we can all benefit from this historical tournament.

ANALYSIS/INTERVIEW

INTERNATIONALd e s k

Resistance News

Qatar 2022 a tournament for entire of Asia

6I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

HERITAGE & TOURISM DECEMBER 10, 2020

TEHRAN – Iranian po-lice have recently arrest-

ed a blogger on the charge of “destroying” historical objects during his excursion to an ancient remote site in Iran’s southeast Sistan-Baluchestan province.

The blogger appeared on social media days ago demonstrating fragments of human skeletons he had found as he had reportedly made puzzles out of the human remains. His posts, however, prompted waves of disapproval from social-media users.

“Recent actions taken by a tourism blogger in Sistan-Baluchestan cannot be ignored… and the police respond to whom commit crimes against the cultural heritage in the

cyberspace,” CHTN quoted a senior police official in charge of protecting cultural her-itage, as saying on Tuesday.

The culprit is handed over to the judicial system for further investigation and trial, the police official said.

The collective Sistan-Baluchestan Prov-ince -- Sistan in the north and Baluchestan in the south -- accounts for one of the dri-est regions of Iran with a slight increase in rainfall from east to west, and an obvious rise in humidity in the coastal regions. In ancient times, the region was a crossword of the Indus Valley and the Babylonian civilizations.

The province possesses special signifi-

cance because of being located in a strategic and transit location, especially Chabahar which is the only ocean port in Iran and the best and easiest access route of the middle Asian countries to free waters.

For mainstream Iranians, the name of Sistan-Baluchestan conjures up stories of drought, desiccated wetlands, and dust storms. On the international scale, for-eigners may consider it a reminiscent of the big red blot on the Iran safety map. The vast province is home to several distinctive archaeological sites and natural attractions, including two UNESCO World Heritage sites, namely Shahr-e-Soukhteh (Burnt City) and Lut desert.

TEHRAN — A total of 26,000 historical relics, being kept at cultural heritage

museums across the northern Iranian province of Gilan, are up for being documented to a national database.

“26,000 ancient and historical objects have so far been submitted to [the authorities to] be registered on the national comprehensive databank for the movable historical and cultural properties,” the provincial tourism chief has said.

There are yet more than 15,000 historical objects wait-ing to be documented and organized, Masoud Hallajpour announced on Tuesday.

Documenting and organizing historical properties will help to their better preservation and maintenance, while

it also gives better access to the scholars, researchers, and archeologists, the official added.

He also noted that Rasht Museum is one of the most important museums in the province, which houses lots of historical objects that reflects the history, culture, and art of different eras, and their documentation seems important.

Bounded by the Caspian Sea and the Republic of Azer-baijan on the north, Gilan, in the far past, was within the sphere of influence of the successive Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanid empires that ruled Iran until the 7th century CE.

Gilan is divided into a coastal plain including the large delta of Sefid Rud and adjacent parts of the Alborz mountain range.

(Part 4/8) TEHRAN — The use of brick became quite

common during Seljuk era and various ge-ometrical shapes were used in bricks. The art of brickwork and decorating buildings with bricks was quite common in Iran in 5th century AH (1009 CE – 1106 CE).

Further to these very beautiful brick deco-rations, tokens and decorative writings using bricks was one of the properties of Seljuk architecture. Islamic era glasses which date back to 1st century AH (7th and 8th century CE) are the result of a merger between East-ern Rome Empire, Parthia and Sassanid.

Existence of stuff dating back to 5th to early 7th century CE indicates the zenith of glasswork during Seljuk era. Having discovered glass in areas near Gorgan and Neishabour, Khorasan and Gorgan can be considered as centers of glass production and manufacture.

Since the early Islamic era, the use of plaster in architectural decoration has been quite popular and the surface of the buildings

was usually covered with them and colorful plasters were used to decorate them.

In the 5th century AH, some transforma-tion took place in the shape and appearance of these plaster modelings which were the result of innovation and creativity. In this era, plaster modeling reached an awesome level in terms of varieties in implementation and various transformations and develop-ment also took place in the way plaster was used. Little by little, plaster modeling was replaced by the huge growth in brick work in Seljuk era.

However, such changes never meant that plaster modeling would lose its position, as existence of very rich plaster modeling’s such as Gonbad-e Alavian (“Alavian dome”) in Hamedan confirms this fact that plaster modeling has progressed and developed in line with brick work. During the realm of the Safavid dynasty, wooden decorations had a major role in non-religious buildings and more calligraphies and lacquered drawings were used in them.

Their design is closely linked with the art

of miniature. Carving and turnery especially in doors and ceilings was a certain art in this period. The art of tile work and attractive and bright masterpieces of plaster modeling in post-Islam Iran started during the Seljuk and Ilkhani dynasties and reached its zenith during the Safavid era.

Three important types of tile works are dominant in the buildings of this period: single-colored tile, mosaic or diaphoretic tile and seven-colored tile. Buildings of the Safavid era which are decorated with such types of tile works are unique in the whole world.

The interesting point about the internal and external decorations in Iranian traditional buildings is that such decorations were inte-gral parts of the building and they were never viewed as an extra element; even framing and decoration were done simultaneously in some certain period.

This high level of attention paid to array and decorations helped increase the quality of the spaces used. Iranian desert architecture especially for houses, due to its introverted

entity, is full of beautiful and lovely examples of internal design in which creation a space in contrast with the desert environment and induction of a sense of liveliness and fresh-ness inside the building is the main agenda of traditional architects in internal design. Utilizing glass, mirror, plaster modeling and other fine arts in decoration and arraying the space covered all aesthetic, climatic and even religious considerations.

TEHRAN — After decades of warnings about the possible demolition of the Fakhr

al-doleh Mansion, which was once belonging to the Qajar princess, has undergone some rehabilitation works, ISNA reported on Wednesday.

Located in the city of Rey, southeast of Tehran, the man-sion is one of the valuable and historical houses of Tehran province and is an important part of the cultural and historical identity of the region, Rey’s cultural heritage department director Amir Mosayeb Rahimzadeh announced.

A budget of 10 billion rials ($238,000 at the official rate of 42,000 rials) has been allocated to the restoration pro-ject which is being implemented in collaboration with the Kahrizak’s Municipality,

He also pointed out that the restoration project is ex-pected to be completed by the end of the next Iranian year 1400 (March 2021-March 2022).

Fakhr al-doleh Mansion belonged to one of the daughters

of the Qajar king Mozaffar ad-Din Shah (1853-1907). The house is considered as one of the first aristocratic summer houses in the country due to its special and attractive archi-tecture, which is a combination of European and traditional Iranian styles.

Rey was one of the capital cities of the Parthian em-pire (3rd century BC–3rd century CE) and it was captured by the Muslim Arabs in 641 CE. During the reign of the Muslim caliph al-Mahdi in the 8th century, the city grew in importance until it was rivaled in western Asia only by Damascus and Baghdad.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Islamic writers described it as a city of extraordinary beauty, built largely of fired brick and brilliantly ornamented with blue faience (glazed earthenware). It continued to be an important city and was briefly a capital under the rule of the Seljuqs, but in the 12th century, it was weakened by the fierce quarrels of rival religious sects. In 1220 the city was almost destroyed

by the Mongols, and its inhabitants were massacred. Most of the survivors of the massacre moved to nearby Tehran, and the deserted remnants of Rey soon fell into complete ruin.

TTEHRAN – A resto-ration and landscaping

project will soon be commenced on Tepe Hesar in northcentral Iran with the aim of having the 7,000 year-old archaeological hill prepared for a possible UNESCO registration.

“A restoration/landscaping project is scheduled to commence on Damghan’s Tepe Hesar in order to get it ready for [possibly] being registered on the UNESCO World Heritage,” provincial tourism chief Mehdi Jamal said on Wednesday.

Situated on the southern outskirts of Damghan, Tepe Hesar is one of the world’s five [archaeological] hills of the Iron Age, and the hill is also considered as of the oldest prehistorical sites in the Iranian plateau, the official explained.

“The hill dates back to 7,500 years ago and it bears three main cultural periods from the late Neolithic to the end of the Bronze Age.”

Identified in 1880, Tepe Hesar was ex-cavated in 1925 and 1931-1932 when the construction of the Trans-Iranian Railway cuts through the main mound. It was one of the first Chalcolithic and Bronze Age ex-

cavations in this area, and the stratigraphy has been very important to date similar sites. In 1976, research was briefly resumed and radiocarbon measures were taken.

The oldest layer, Hesar I, belongs to the Copper Age (Chalcolithicum; after 3800 BC); it is about as old as Susa and resembles Sialk III, by which it appears to have been influ-

enced, according to livius.org, a website on ancient history written and maintained since 1996 by the Dutch historian Jona Lendering.

Hesar II, which starts in about 3600 BC, is marked by the appearance of burnished grey pottery and the first objects made of bronze. Among the finds are long-shaped bottles. The next phase, Hesar III, began in about 2800 BC and saw nice metal work and grey pottery similar to Turan Tepe, which is on the other side of the Alborz mountain range. Some three centuries later, when Hesar IIIb ended, a part of the town was violently destroyed. The ruin that is now known as the “Burnt Building”, situated in the western part of the hill, is the most recognizable re-mainder of this catastrophe. Archaeologists have found stone arrowheads and charred battle victims.

After this period, the site was abandoned and there was a hiatus for about five or six centuries. After about 1350 BC, people re-turned and settled on smaller mounds in the neighborhood of the ancient mound. If the main hill was occupied, those recent layers have eroded.

T O U R I S Md e s k

T O U R I S Md e s k

T O U R I S Md e s k

7,000-year-old Tepe Hesar to be step closer for being global

This underground city repetitively sheltered women, children, and the elderly from invaders

1 The underground structure included several ingenious devices to trap and ambush hostile intruders, such as curving corridors and disguised pits covered with stones. The tunnels, which were put to good use during the Mongol invasion in the

13th century, worked particularly well as an emergency shelter because there were several entrances to the underground cham-bers, some of which surfaced within the town’s houses.

The underground city was eventually abandoned in the 1920s, however, it is promoted as one of the main tourist attractions in the region nowadays.

Nushabad underground city was inscribed on the National Heritage list in 2006.

Sunken watermill gains former splendor

TEHRAN — An ancient underground wa-termill in Nazarabad, Alborz province has

recently been restored to its original glory, provincial tourism chief has announced.

A budget of 3.3 billion rials (about $79,000 at the official rate of 42,000 rials) was allocated to the project, Fereydun Moham-madi said on Tuesday.

The restoration project involved fencing the surrounding area, replacing the worn-out materials, and repairing the walls and dome, the official added.

He also noted that the watermill is now set up symbolically and the stone rotation system and water circulation of the mill are functional.

Considering the short distance between the watermill and Tepe Ozbaki, a magnificent 9,000-year-old archaeological hill, the his-torical structure could become a tourist destination in the region, he explained.

Dating back to the Qajar-era (1789–1925), the watermill consists of two rooms as a resting place, warehouse, entrance corridor, water pool, and millstones and was in use until the 1970s.

Watermills were typically constructed by the then design re-quirements for instance they featured dome-shaped roofs with high-enough vestibules to allow camels or other livestock to move back and forth with ease to convey grains or flour.

Alborz province is surrounded by Mazandaran, Tehran, Markazi, and Qazvin provinces. Its name is driven by the Alborz Mountains. A significant part of the mountains is located in the north part of the province.

Historical resources and documents as well as archeological studies indicate that Alborz has a rich culture dating back to pre-historic times.

Bronze Age relics, sediment discovered in northwest Iran

TEHRAN – Archaeologists have recently discovered arrays of relics and sediment es-

timated to date from the Bronze Age in an excavation conducted at Tappeh Gerdi-Gouran in northwest Iran.

The discovery was made during the second season of an arche-ological survey at the ancient hill, which is situated in Piranshahr, West Azarbaijan province, to complete the information of the layers and architectural ruins [partly] obtained during the first chapter,” Azita Mirzaei, who leads the survey, said on Tuesday.

Azarbaijan region has been the seat of several ancient civili-zations. It formed part of Urartu and later of Media. In the 4th century BC, it was conquered by Alexander the Great and was named Atropatene after one of Alexander’s generals, Atropates, who established a small kingdom there.

The Mongols overran the region in the 13th century, and, un-der the ruler Hulegu, Azarbaijan became the center of a Mongol empire extending from Syria on the west to the Oxus River (now the Amu Darya) on the east.

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

T O U R I S Md e s k

Once princess house undergoes restoration after decades of neglect

Blogger arrested over cultural heritage misdeed

Museum treasure troves under documentation across Gilan province

A peek into Iranian traditional houses, mansions

People visit the Seljuk-era Gonbad-e Alavian (“Alavian dome”) in Hamedan

7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

DECEMBER 10, 2020

The world is barrelling towards a temperature rise in excess of 3C this century, despite a pandemic-related dip in emissions which ultimately will have negligible impact in the long run.

This was the stark findings of the 2020 Emissions Gap Report, from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on Wednesday, which looks at the disparity between what’s needed to tackle the climate crisis, and current greenhouse gas levels.

The report explores what steps must be taken if we are to achieve the goal of the 2015 Paris Accord, and hold global heating below 2C this century, or the increasingly aspirational 1.5C target.

The 2020 report found that global emissions are expected to fall up to 7 per cent this year because of reduced travel, industrial slowdowns and lower electricity generation during the coronavirus pandemic.

But it will barely make a dent: the dip only translates to a 0.01C reduction of global heating by 2050.

As it currently stands, predicted emissions in 2030 put the planet on a path to a 3.2C increase this century. A three-degree world would bring mass extinctions and leave swathes of the planet uninhabitable. An estimated 275 million people would be at risk in areas flooded by sea-level rise, according to non-profit Climate Central.

In 2019, total emissions from greenhouse gases, including land-use change, hit a record high, the Independent reported.

Top of FormGlobal emissions have increased, on

average, 1.4 per cent per year since 2010. Last year saw a spike of 2.6 per cent due to widespread forest fires, including at record levels in the Amazon.

The “nationally determined contributions” – targets for reducing emissions by around 2030 which each country signed up to under the Paris Agreement – remain “woefully

inadequate”, the new report stated. The Paris deal has a “ratchet

mechanism”, meaning each nation must come out with a bolder target for reducing emissions every five years. Updated NDCs are expected by the end of 2020.

“The levels of ambition in the Paris Agreement must be roughly tripled for the 2C pathway and increased at least fivefold for the 1.5C pathway,” the 2020 report found.

A special 2018 report by the world’s leading climate scientists found that even at 1.5C heating, the world will face severe climate impacts. At 2C, the consequences significantly worsen.

To take one example: at 1.5C heating, some 14 per cent of the global population would be exposed to severe heat waves at least once in five years. At 2C, it rises to 37 per cent facing exposure.

However, the 2020 report contained a glimmer of optimism. If governments commit to a “green recovery” from the pandemic, it stated, then predicted 2030 emissions could be cut by around a quarter. This would give the world a fighting chance at the 2C goal.

The report calls for prioritising zero-emissions technologies and infrastructure, reducing fossil fuel subsidies, no more coal plants and promoting large-scale landscape restoration and reforestation.

And if governments act swiftly, there is still a possibility of achieving the 1.5C goal, the report says.

(However there are indications that 1.5C warming is already locked in. “There is at least a one in five chance of it temporarily exceeding 1.5C by 2024,” secretary-general Professor Petteri Taalas of the World Meteorological Organisation said last week.)

The UN report also called on leaders to cement emerging net-zero commitments at the next global climate summit, COP26, postponed due to the pandemic and now

taking place in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021.

Inger Andersen, UNEP’s executive director, urged governments to back green economic recoveries from Covid-19 and raise their climate ambitions next year.

Ms Andersen said that the Emissions Gap report “shows that a green pandemic recovery can take a huge slice out of greenhouse gas emissions and help slow climate change”.

The most “significant” development of 2020, the report says, has been the growing number of countries committing to net-zero emissions goals by 2050.

So far 126 countries, covering 51 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, had adopted, announced or are considering net-zero goals.

Last week, Boris Johnson, the prime minister, announced a target to reduce the UK’s emissions by at least 68 per cent by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. The UK has also committed to net-zero emissions by 2050.

President-elect Joe Biden has set a target for net-zero emissions no later than 2050 and if the US adopts this goal, the share would jump to 63 per cent.

However while the net-zero goals are “encouraging”, they point to a “vast discrepancy” in the NDCs, the report found.

The emissions gap report also looks at specific sectors: in 2020, consumer behaviour, shipping and aviation.

Shipping and aviation, which account for 5 per cent of global emissions, need to combine energy efficiency with a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, the report finds.

Individuals, particularly in the developed world must also make significant lifestyle changes. Around two-thirds of global emissions are linked to private households.

The wealthy bear the greatest responsibility: the emissions of the richest

one per cent of the global population account for more than twice the combined share of the poorest 50 per cent.

This group will need to reduce its footprint by a factor of 30 if there is any hope of meeting the Paris targets, the Emissions Gap report said.

UNEP suggests a switch from short-haul flights to rail travel, incentives and improvements for cycling and car-sharing, making homes more energy efficient and reducing food waste as actions to help lower carbon consumption.

Dr Kat Kramer, Christian Aid’s climate lead, described the green recovery as a “life raft” to get us on track for tackling the climate crisis.

“Combining post-Covid economic investment to accelerate the change to a zero-carbon world gives us real hope that we can limit global heating to the all-important 1.5C temperature increase,” she said.

2020 is set to be one of the three hottest years on record, a WMO report found last week. There has been an unprecedented wildfire season in the western United States, while blazes have consumed vast areas of Australia, Siberia and South America. Death Valley in California hit 54.4C (129.9F) on 16 August, believed to be the highest temperature ever recorded.

A record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season struck in 2020, including unprecedented back-to-back category-4 hurricanes in Central America last month.

Tehran joins global program of sustainable smart cities

TEHRAN — Tehran has joined the “United

for Smart Sustainable Cities” (U4SSC) pro-gram to expand international interactions and cooperation within the framework of the Smart Tehran Program.

U4SSC is a UN initiative coordinated by ITU, UNECE and UN-Habitat, and supported by CBD, ECLAC, FAO, UNDP, UNECA, UNESCO, UNEP, UNEP-FI, UNFCCC, UNIDO, UNOP, UNU-EGOV, UN-Women, and WMO to achieve Sustain-able Development Goal 11: “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.U4SSC serves as the global platform to advocate for public policy and to encourage the use of ICTs to

facilitate and ease the transition to smart sustainable cities.

The U4SSC developed a set of interna-tional key performance indicators (KPIs) for Smart Sustainable Cities (SSC) to establish the criteria to evaluate ICT´s contributions in making cities smarter and more sustainable, and to provide cities with the means for self-assessment in order to achieve the sustainable devel-opment goals (SDGs).

Planned by Tehran Municipality, ‹Smart Tehran Program›, determines Tehran›s path to getting smart by defining the affil-iated projects. The program was admired at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, in November 2019.

Campaign starts to protect migratory birds in Hour al-Azim wetland1 Hassan Agha Shirmohammadi, commander of Khuzestan

department of environment, said that The Migratory Birds Safe Zone project has been implemented in collaboration with NGOs to create an area with fewer hunters and fishermen.

According to him, this project has been piloted in three points of Hour al-Azim, each with an area of 15 to 20 hec-tares, and will be expanded.

One ton of wheat was provided by non-governmental organ-izations, and the DOE also has allocated 450 kilograms of wheat and barley grains seized from violators, he noted.

Located in the southwestern province of Khuzestan bor-dering Iraq, the wetland had been dried up and turned into a major sand and dust storm hotspot due to oil sector projects and not being granted its water right.

This valuable wetland, on the one hand, is facing destruction and pollution, and on the other hand, is coveted by hunters.

Last [Iranian calendar] year, 150,000 migratory birds counted in the country in the winter census, the highest number of which were in Hour al-Azim wetland amounting to 79,700.

The annual census for migratory birds in Iran begins in the middle of the Iranian calendar month of Dey (December 22-January 20) and ends in the middle of the month of Bahman (January 21-February 19), which will be a 1-month period since January 1 to 31.

Not just lizards: Alligators can regrow their tails too, new study revealsA team of researchers from Arizona State University and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries have uncovered that young alligators have the ability to regrow their tails up to three-quarters of a foot -- about 18% of their total body length. They speculate that regrowing their tails gives the alligators a functional advantage in their murky aquatic habitats.

The team combined advanced imaging techniques with demon-strated methods of studying anatomy and tissue organization to examine the structure of these regrown tails. They found that these new tails were complex structures, with a central skele-ton composed of cartilage surrounded by connective tissue that was interlaced with blood vessels and nerves. Their findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports.

“What makes the alligator interesting, apart from its size, is that the regrown tail exhibits signs of both regeneration and wound healing within the same structure,” said Cindy Xu, a recent PhD graduate from ASU’s School of Life Sciences molecular and cellular biology program and lead author of the paper.

“Regrowth of cartilage, blood vessels, nerves and scales were consistent with previous studies of lizard tail regeneration from our lab and others,” she said. “However, we were surprised to discover scar-like connective tissue in place of skeletal muscle in the regrown alligator tail. Future comparative studies will be important to understand why regenerative capacity is variable among different reptile and animal groups.”

“The spectrum of regenerative ability across species is fasci-nating, clearly there is a high cost to producing new muscle,” said Jeanne Wilson-Rawls, co-senior author and associate professor with ASU’s School of Life Sciences.

Alligators, lizards and humans all belong to a group of animals with backbones called amniotes. In addition to previous studies about the ability of lizards to regrow their tails, the discovery of such large and complex new tails in alligators provides consid-erable new information about regenerative process in the larger animal classification of amniotes.

World on track for 3C rise this century – despite Covid emissions dip

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ENGLISH IN USE

Iran urges Afghanistan to resume talks on Hamoun wetlandsIran and Afghanistan should resume negotiations on the water rights of Hamoun wetlands, YJC quoted Masoud Tajrishi, deputy chief of the Department of Environment, as saying on Friday. Commenting on Afghanistan’s injudicious dam construction on its tributaries Tajrishi also noted that low precipitation levels in the region has added insult to the injury. “Iran and Afghanistan should reopen talks over the remaining water in Helmand River and discuss the water rights of the wetlands in Iran.” He further underscored the importance of reaching a formal agreement with Afghanistan as the exposed lake bed is the main hotspot for debilitating sand and dust storms which cause great discomfort both for Iranians and Afghans as well.

افغانستان برای دادن حقابه هامون باید به میز مذاکره بازگردد

ــگاران جــوان مســعود تجریشــی معــاون ــه گــزارش روز جمعــه باشــگاه خبرن بــران و ــت: ای ــت گف ــط زیس ــت محی ــازمان حفاظ ــانی س ــت انس ــط زیس محیافغانســتان بــرای بــرای دادن حقابــه هامــون بایــد بــه میــز مذاکــره بازگردنــد.تجریشــی بــا اشــاره بــه سیاســت هــای مســئولان افغانســتان بــرای ســد ســازی در بالادســت تــالاب اظهــار کــرد: متاســفانه وضعیــت بــارش هــا در منطقــه در

شــرایط مطلوبــی نبــود و بــه همیــن علــت شــرایط وخیــم تــر شــده اســت.ایــران و افغانســتان بــرای حــل مشــکل آب بایــد بــه میــز مذاکــره بازگردنــد تــا

بــرای آب باقــی مانــده در رود هیرمنــد مذاکــره کننــد.وی ادامــه داد: مــا بایــد پیگیــر ایــن آب باشــیم و بــه یــک تفاهمــی برســیم چرا کــه ایــن گــرد و غبــاری کــه در سیســتان و بلوچســتان وجــود دارد، حتــی مردم

افغانســتان را نیــز تحــت تاثیــر قــرار مــی دهد .

LEARN NEWS TRANSLATION

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TEHRAN — Liang Yun, the head of the Chinese Narcotics Control Bureau,

has praised Iran’s efforts in fighting against narcotics and drug trafficking.

“Statistics show that a large amount of narcotics is seized by Iran’s Anti-Narcotics Police. This issue proves very high capacity and capability of Iran in fighting against drug trafficking in both regional and global scales,” he added.

The Chinese official made the remarks in a meeting with Majid Karimi, head of Iran’s Anti-Narcotics Police, which was held through videoconference on Wednesday.

The Iranian official, for his part, referred to the coro-

navirus pandemic which has provided a situation for smugglers to boost drug trafficking from Afghanistan to other regional countries, including Iran, saying that some 10,000 tons of narcotics are produced annually in the region which is a serious threat not only for Asian countries but for the whole world.

Iran seized some 1,000 tons of narcotics in the pre-vious Iranian calendar year (ended March 20), putting the country in the first place in the world, Eskandar Momeni, the director of headquarters for the fight against narcotics, said in July.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Iran remains one of the major transit

routes for drug trafficking from Afghanistan to European countries and has had a leading role at the global level in the drug-control campaigns.

UNODC World Drug Report 2020 estimates that in 2018, 91 percent of world opium, 48 percent of the world morphine, and 26 percent of the world heroin were seized by Iran.

The country has spent more than $700 million on sealing its borders and preventing the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab, and Central Asian countries.

After the Islamic Revolution (in 1979), 3,800 were martyred, 12,000 were wounded and disabled in the fight against drug trafficking.

China lauds Iran’s efforts to combat narcotics

LET’S LEARN PERSIAN(Part 79) (Source: saadifoundation.ir)

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GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

Kindness is a mark of faith and whoever is not kind has no faith.

Prophet Muhammad (S)

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Composer of revolutionary songs Ahmad-Ali Ragheb dies at 76

1 Ragheb made trips to Tehran twice a month to improve his skills in classes with tar virtuoso Ali-Akbar Sarkhosh. His desire for learning drew him to move to Tehran, where he also began learning oud and setar.

The victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 marked a beginning of a new age in Iran’s music world, and Ragheb began a collaboration with the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), as it was one of the few centers that were allowed to work in the country’s music world.

Until his death, Ragheb continued his collaboration with IRIB where he worked with dozens of singers and songwriters, including Sabzevari, Golriz, Saed BAqeri, Mehrdad Kazemi, Abdolhossein Mokhtabad, Bahram Hasiri and Sina Sarlak.

Ragheb also composed many memorable songs, including “Hi Classmates”, which was recorded in the 1980s by a chorus to celebrate the reopening of schools.

In February 2013, Ragheb received a lifetime achievement award during the 28th Fajr International Music Festival.

Cinéma Vérité picks “Froth”, “Punks” for World’s Best

TEHRAN — The 14th edition of Cinéma Vérité, Iran’s major international festival for

documentary films, has selected the Russia and Qatar co-production “Froth” and Dutch documentary “Punks” to screen in its World’s

Best category.World’s Best features a

selection of documentaries acclaimed at 2020 international events across the world.

“Froth” directed by Ilya Povolotsky won an honorable mention at the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival – IDFA.

The film depicts the customs and everyday life on the coast of the Barents Sea. At the heart of the narrative are the stories of three ordinary people. Bardak

is a salty old sea dog, who after taking his pension opts to see out his years with hard work in an abandoned village on the very edge of the world. Sasha and his team of self-taught divers have taken the initiative to raise World War II shipwrecks, which the experts consider to be outside the realms of possibility. Young poacher Dima, whose sense of adventure and recklessness have earned him the nickname “Catastrophe”, manages to evade capture and read his daughter a fairy-tale all in one evening. The characters are united by an incredible blend of humility, inherent rebelliousness, a very specific moral code and attitude towards life. Nowhere except in these hills and on the harsh sea can they find peace, while they hustle through the days and the waves making froth.

“Punks” directed by Maasja Ooms shows three Dutch teenagers whose behavior is criminal. They are trying to better their lives with the help of a no-nonsense caretaker, somewhere deep in rural France. If they fail, they will be handed over to a closed juvenile home. In “Punks” the filmmaker is in search of the root cause of the survival strategies that unmanageable young people have developed and by which they have been derailed. What makes these kids so angry, indifferent, numb and even unscrupulous? What happened to them? Why do they behave the way they do?

Due to the pandemic, this year’s Cinéma Vérité will be organized totally online from December 15 to 22.

“Rockfield by Hannah Berryman from England, “Tony Driver” by Ascanio Petrini from Italy, “Two Roads” by Radovan Sibrt from Czech and “Acasa, My Home” by Radu Ciorniciuc from Romania have also been selected to be screened in the World’s Best section.

“Punks” directed by Maasja Ooms.

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Alireza Qorbani, Alim Qasimov sing duet “Rababi”

TEHRAN — Vocalists Alireza Qorbani from Iran

and Alim Qasimov from Azerbaijan have sung a duet of “Rababi” featuring a poem by the Persian mystic and poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi.

Their single is scheduled to be released on Friday by the Cultural and Artistic Institute of Ahang Eshtiagh (Aerecords), a company working in the fields of audio and video productions and publications.

The two vocalists have sung both in Persian and Azerbaijani together in the song, composer Hessam Nasser has said.

“A number of Iranian and international musicians have also collaborated in the project. Mahan Mirarab played guitar and his performance was recorded in Austria, and bass guitar was performed by Dara Darai,” he said

“Nabil Yousef Sharidavi, a researcher on Arab and Kurd music, also collaborated in this project by performing on Daf. Saman Samimi and Milad Mohammadi are other musicians who have worked for this song,” he added.

“Rababi” is not Qasimov’s first collaboration with Iranian musicians.

In December 2018, Iranian composer Saeid Khavarnejad and Qasimov joined together to make an album based on the Haft Paykar,

a magnum opus of the Persian poet Nezami Ganjavi (c. 1141-1209 CE).

Lyrics on the album “Haft Paykar” has been sung in Persian, Azerbaijani and French. Nezami is considered the greatest romantic epic poet in Persian literature who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic.

Qasimov and his daughter Fargana Qasimova together with the Tehran Wind Orchestra gave concerts at Vahdat Hall in January 2015.

The master also gave a concert at the Milad Hall of the Tehran International Permanent Fairgrounds in May 2014. After that program, he then performed concerts in Ardebil, Tabriz and Urmia, Iran’s major Azeri-speaking cities.

In addition, Qasimov along with a number of Iranian musicians, including vocalist Mohammad Motamedi and kamancheh virtuoso Sina Jahanabadi, performed a joint concert at the 49th International Festival of Carthage in Tunis in August 2013.

In 1999, Qasimov was awarded the International Music Council-UNESCO Music Prize, one of the highest international accolades for music.

He has performed at many international events in the Netherlands, Japan, China, Canada, Italy, the U.S. and many other countries.Cover the single “Rababi” by Alireza Qorbani and Alim Qasimov.

TEHRAN — “Sun Children”, “The Wasteland” and “The Night” have been

selected to represent Iran in the foreign language film category of the 78th Golden Globe Awards.

The child labor drama “Sun Children” by Majid Majidi tells the story of 12-year-old Ali and his three friends. Together, they work hard to survive and support their families, doing small jobs in a garage and committing petty crimes to make fast money.

“Sun Children” has been acclaimed previously in several festivals. The film won the Crystal Simorgh for best film at the 38th Fajr Film Festival in Tehran in February.

It was named best film in the international competition of the 33rd International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Isfahan in late October. Majid was also crowned the best director.

The movie brought Ruhollah Zamani the award for best actor and Majidi the Zaven Qukasian a Golden Butterfly.

Zamani was named the best young actor at the 77th Venice Film Festival, winning the Marcello Mastroianni Award in September.

“The Wasteland” by Ahmad Bahrami is about an old brick manufacturing factory that is going to be shut down, and all that matters to the factory supervisor is to keep his lover unharmed.

The film won the Orizzonti award for best film at the 77th Venice Film Festival in September, while it also received the Fai Persona Lavoro Ambiente Foundation Award of the festival.

“The Night”, a co-production between Iran and U.S. by Iranian director Kurosh Ahari, portrays an Iranian couple living in the U.S. who become trapped inside a hotel when insidious events force them to face the secrets that have come between them, in a night that never ends.

The film brought the best director award for Ahari at the Molins Horror Film Festival in Spain, while Shahab Hosseini won the award for best actor. The award for best script also went to this film co-written by Milad Jarmuz and Ahari.

A total of 138 foreign language films from 77 countries were eligible for consideration at the Golden Globe Awards, which is organized every year by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

The ceremony will be held on February 28, 2021, pushed back almost two months from its annual early January date due to uncertainties from the coronavirus pandemic.

TEHRAN — Eight movies by Iranian

directors will be screening in the various sections of the 3rd International Amity Short Film Festival, which will open on Friday in Istanbul, Turkey.

The three-day festival promotes films about friendship and amity.

The Iranian lineup includes “The Red Fire” by Mona Shahi, “The American Bull” by Fatemeh Tusi, “The Fosterless” by Sahar Jafarizad, “Gabriel” by Yousef Kargar, “Replacement” by Mojtaba Tahal and Jalal Mahdavi, “Behind the Glasses” by Mehdi Iravani, “Déjà vu” by Atefefeh Khademorreza and “Dummy” by Fatemeh Faal.

“The Red Fire” is about the Darkness Demon, which has swept over the world, trying to fix the end of Light, unlike the

earlier promises and prophecies. It is in such an era that a flock of Red birds travel in search of the Red Fire; a fire that according to the prophecies, wipes out the blackness and puts an end to the constant eclipse and absence of the Sun. But where are they going to find

the Red Fire?The story of “The American Bull” is

set in a border village between Iran and Iraq, where a group of villagers is doing animal husbandry. Saheb, the teenage boy who owns the only male American bull, is heavily dependent on his bull and earns money by its servicing for breeding.

“The Fosterless” tells the story of Vahid, a teenage boy whose father died of COVID-19 and his mother, who is suffering from an acute mental illness that has become more severe. He goes with his mother to the factory at which her husband had been working to get the quota announced by the company. He faces theft by the company’s security guard and demands his rights.

“Gabriel” is about Gabriel, a middle-

aged man who lives with his son. His wife has been lost for some time. All the people are suspicious about her. One day news comes to him and he has to choose one: expediency or conscience?!

“Replacement” is about Samira, a thirteen or 14-year-old girl who lives alone with her mother. Her mother, who is a nurse for a mentally and physically disabled boy, asks Samira to do something dangerous and strange to earn more for their lives and future, but in the meantime, Samira makes another decision.

“Behind the Glasses” revolves around a skyscraper window cleaner who encounters a strange occurrence on a dull work day and is dissatisfied with everyday repetitive work.

“Sun Children”, “Wasteland”, “The Night” represent Iran at Golden Globe Awards

Movies from Iran to compete in Intl. Amity Short Film Festival

Ruhollah Zamani acts in a scene from “Sun Children” by Majid Majidi.

Composer Ahmad-Ali Ragheb in an undated photo.

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TEHRAN — A Persian translation of Belinda

Luscombe’s book “Marriageology: The Art and Science of Staying Together” has recently been published by Lega Publications in Tehran.

The book translated into Persian by Zahra Azadfar is a smart and concise guide to staying together that draws on scientific findings, expert advice and years in the marital trenches to explain why marriage is better for one’s health, finances, kids and happiness.

Like every one else probably, Luscombe would rather have had her eyes put out than read a book about marriage; they all seemed full of advice that was obvious, useless, or bad. Plus they were boring. But after covering the relationship beat for Time magazine for ten years, she realized there was a surprisingly upbeat and little-known story to tell about

the benefits of staying together for the long haul. Casting a witty, candid and probing eye on the latest behavioral science, Luscombe has written a fresh and persuasive report on the state of one’s unions, how they’ve changed from the marriages of one’s parents’ era, and what those changes mean for the happiness of this most intimate and important of relationships.

“In Marriageology” Luscombe examines the six major fault lines that can fracture contemporary marriages, also known as the F-words: familiarity, fighting, finances, family, fooling around and finding help. She presents facts, debunks myths and provides a fascinating mix of research, anecdotes and wisdom from a wide range of approaches, from how properly dividing up chores can result in a better life to the benefits of fighting with one’s spouse (though not in the car)

to whether or not to tell one’s partner that you lost $70,000.

“Marriageology” offers simple, actionable, maybe even borderline fun techniques and tips to try, whether the relationship in question is about to conk out or just needs a little grease and an oil change. The best news of all is that sticking together is easier than it looks.

Luscombe is an award-winning Time magazine journalist and essayist. Her work has also appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated and Vogue. She won the Council on Contemporary Families Media Award for her reporting on marriage. She and her husband have been realizing how deeply unsuitable they are for each other but still figuring it out somehow for almost thirty years, often while being laughed at by their two children.

Belinda Luscombe’s “Marriageology” comes to Iranian bookstores

Copies of the Persian translation of Belinda Luscombe’s book “Marriageology: The Art and Science of Staying Together”.

“The American Bull” by Fatemeh Tusi.

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TEHRAN — The Alter do Chao Film Festival 2020 has picked a lineup of over

40 Iranian movies to go on screen during the event, which opened in Brazilian city on Wednesday.

The films will go on screen in the two competition and parallel sections.

“Limbo” and “Online Shopping” by Ghasideh Golmakani, and “How to Dry Wet Wastes” and “2050, a Year without Fish” by Reza Khodadadi are among the films in the competition section of the five-day festival.

The parallel section features “Angels Do Not Die” and “Snowy Heart” by Alireza Biglari, “Collapse: A Local Report”

by Mojtaba Yusefi, “I Call It Home” by Leila Ahang and several other Iranian movies.

There were 2075 films submitted from 105 countries, among them, a lineup of 323 films was selected to participate in the festival, including 121 films for the competition and 202 films for the parallel section.

Fest Alter is a panel of cinematography in the Amazon, Brazil and the world, which consolidates itself as a festival of national and international repercussion, with the purpose of giving opportunities to new directors, producers, actors and professionals from all the arts that pertain to cinema and audiovisual art.

Iranian movies line up for Brazil’s Alter do Chao festival

A poster for Alter do Chao Film Festival 2020.