NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Sunday, September 17, 2023
IRAN DAILY:
-- Iran can retaliate against US theft of its oil on ‘larger scale’: Defense minister:
Iran’s defense minister rebuked the US government’s seizure of one million barrels of Iranian crude, warning that the Islamic Republic is fully capable of retaliating “on a larger scale” in due time.
The US Department of Justice confirmed on September 8 that it had seized the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker carrying Iranian oil, named Suez Rajan, and its cargo of 980,000 barrels of crude oil off the coast of Texas.
The department claimed that Suez Rajan was in April transporting Iranian oil to China in violation of Washington’s sanctions against Tehran. It also said the US government had obtained a warrant earlier this year for its seizure.
“This is an act of theft by the United States, which is not acceptable across the world whatsoever,” Defense Minister Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani stated.
Speaking with ISNA, Ashtiani warned that if Washington goes ahead with stealing the Iranian oil cargo, “we will definitely retaliate, and we can react on a larger scale.”
“But for now, we have limited our action to the discussions we are engaged in,” he said, stressing that Iran expects the Americans to stop such actions.
“We are located in a strategic and very important region. The energy transmission lines pass through this region, and we have control over these lines. Therefore, it is possible for us to take countermeasures against the US on a larger scale.”
For months, American oil firms had resisted the temptation of touching the 800,000-barrel tanker for fear of Iranian retaliation in the Persian Gulf waters. Still, the US Navy later unloaded the tanker of stolen Iranian oil worth around $56 million off the Texas port, brushing off warnings from the Islamic Republic.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani described the US move at the time as contradictory and said Tehran had summoned the Swiss ambassador to the ministry in this regard.
Under the guise of “sanctions-enforcement operations,” the United States has in recent years seized foreign vessels carrying Iranian oil across the world.
Back in February 2021, the Americans seized a tanker carrying Iranian oil off the coast of the Emirati city of Fujairah and sold more than a million barrels of oil confiscated from it for $110 million, or $55 a barrel.
-- Raeisi meets families of security forces killed during last year’s unrest:
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi met with the families of security forces killed during mass protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini last year.
Raeisi’s meetings were held during a visit to the northeastern city of Mashhad on Thursday and Friday, ahead of the Sept. 16 anniversary of Amini’s death, which caused months of protests across the country.
“Raeisi met today with the families of security defenders,” the official IRNA said.
His meetings included the families of Danial Rezazadeh and Hossein Zeinalzadeh, according to Tasnim news agency.
Rezazadeh and Zeinalzadeh – members of the Basij forces – were killed on November 17.
Their deaths were blamed on Majidreza Rahnavard, one of seven people Iran’s judiciary later executed over their links to the protests.
During a meeting on Thursday, Raeisi welcomed “the shameful failure of the enemy’s project aimed at destabilizing” Iran, according to a statement issued by the Office of the President.
-- US’s interaction with Syria terrorists sparks regional instability concerns:
The Syrian government has strongly condemned the recent visit of a US delegation to northern Syria, calling it a destabilizing move for the region. The delegation, led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ethan A. Goldrich, visited areas controlled by Western-backed anti-Damascus armed groups this month.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry decried the visit as illegal and a clear infringement on Syria’s sovereignty, also citing violations of international law and United Nations Security Council resolutions. Notably, some Kurdish regions in northern Syria are under the sway of US-supported separatist militias, such as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which receive material and financial backing from various countries, including the United States.
The US military occupies roughly half of Dayr al-Zawr Province, with Syrian government forces in control of the other half. The US maintains influence over oil-rich Syrian territories through the SDF. President Biden’s statement that the US military has not fully withdrawn from these areas contradicts these ongoing operations. Moreover, the SDF is actively working toward establishing an independent state in Syria, as well as in Kurdish-majority areas in Turkey. The Syrian government accuses the United States of using the SDF to fuel instability in the region. The SDF, created in 2015 with US support, includes Kurdish separatists and other ethnocentric factions that resist Arab and Turkish governance.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry said that the visit of a senior US official is not merely an intrusion into internal affairs but also an indication of the United States’ hostile intentions toward Damascus, warning of severe consequences.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Goldrich said that the visit aimed to “discuss the way forward in Syria” and to “support the Syrian people”.
The visit is expected to further strain the already tenuous relations between the US and Syria, which have been at odds since the outset of the war in the country in 2011.
In addition to Syria, the Arab League has criticized the US delegation's visit, citing it as a violation of Syria's sovereignty and a refusal to support any actions that might destabilize the nation.
The timing of this visit is significant, given Syria's mounting international pressure, with calls from the United Nations for an end to violence and national reunification. While the exact repercussions of the visit remain uncertain, it is evident that it has stirred outrage from the Syrian government and the Arab League. Despite the US support for armed groups deemed terrorists by Syria, the United States has struggled to achieve its objectives in Syria, with the SDF, its primary ally, seemingly encouraged to foster instability in both Turkey and Syria, potentially reigniting conflict in the region.
-- Iran sends humanitarian aid to flood-hit Libya:
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said on Friday that it has sent 40 tons of humanitarian aid to flood-stricken Libya to help the victims.
The head of the Iranian organization, Pir-Hossein Kolivand, said the aid package includes tents, blankets, mats, medicine, and foodstuffs, according to Mehr news agency.
He also said that three rescue teams have been dispatched to the African country, which hit by devastating floods.
According to the Libyan Red Crescent, at least 11,300 people have been killed so far and another 10,000 people are feared missing after a storm in the Mediterranean caused dams to burst — washing entire coastal neighborhoods out to sea.
Storm Daniel pounded the North African country last Sunday night, unleashing heavy rainfall that caused flash flooding. But the major destruction would come hours later, when two dams located on the Wadi Derna River burst, creating a wall of water that destroyed everything in its path. The greatest devastation was seen in the port city of Derna, which is home to 90,000 people.
Derna's mayor Abdel-Moneim al-Ghaithi said the death toll would likely climb to 20,000 considering the devastation of the city. Another 170 people reportedly died in neighboring coastal cities.
Before the devastating storm struck the east of Libya, the area was already host to more than 46,000 internally displaced people as a result of the country’s decades-long conflict.
-- Iran given Brazil, England tasks in group stage:
Iran will be facing a mammoth task in the FIFA U-17 World Cup later this year when taking on two age-group heavyweights in the group stage.
The draw for the event – starting November 10 in Indonesia – took place in the FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Friday, where Iran was drawn against Brazil and England, as well as Oceanian side New Caledonia in Group C.
Hossein Abdi’s boys will begin their campaign against Brazil at the Jakarta International Stadium on Nov. 11, before squaring off against England three days later.
The final round of the group fixtures will see Iran play New Caledonia on November 17.
Brazil will head to Indonesia on the back of a 13th South American crown in April, looking for a record-equaling fifth world trophy, and second in a row after defeating Mexico in the 2019 final.
England, the under-17 World Cup champion in 2017, had a below-par run in May’s European Championship – beaten by France in the quarterfinals – but still managed to bounce back with a 4-2 victory over the Switzerland to secure the continent’s fifth berth for the competition.
New Caledonia, meanwhile, made it to the final showpiece of the OFC U-17 Championship last January, before a 1-0 loss to New Zealand.
“We are in probably the toughest group at the World Cup,” Iran head coach Abdi said after the draw, adding: “Brazil is the second most decorated team in the history of the competition, while England is also a top-quality side, but I don’t have much information about New Caledonia.”
Iran is one of the four Asian sides – alongside Japan, South Korea, and Uzbekistan – to join host Indonesia in November’s tournament, after reaching the last four of June’s U17 Asian Cup in Thailand.
“We’re still thrilled to be in this group as a top side of the continent as we only suffered a single defeat against Japan, which was among the top-seeded teams in the World Cup draw, in the Asian Cup. We’ll be looking to show our prowess against Brazil and England,” added the Iranian coach.
Iran will hope to build on the previous World Cup participation in 2017, where a brave run saw the Asian team beat Germany, Guinea, and Costa Rica to win the group and then come out victorious against Mexico in the knockout stage before falling to Spain in the quarterfinals.
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
-- France Defies Marching Orders by Niger, Burkina Faso:
President Emmanuel Macron has claimed that France’s envoy to Niger is living like a hostage in the French embassy and accused military rulers of blocking food deliveries to the mission.
The ambassador is living off “military rations”, Macron told reporters in the eastern town of Semur-en-Auxois on Friday.
“As we speak, we have an ambassador and diplomatic staff who are literally being held hostage in the French embassy,” he said. “He is eating military rations.”
Niger’s military leaders told French ambassador Sylvain Itte he had to leave the country after they overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.
But a 48-hour ultimatum for him to leave, issued in August, passed with him still in place as the French government refused to comply, or to recognize the military government as legitimate.
Macron said the envoy “cannot go out, he is persona non grata and he is being refused food”.
Asked whether France would consider bringing him home, Macron said: “I will do whatever we agree with President Bazoum because he is the legitimate authority and I speak with him every day.”
France keeps about 1,500 soldiers in Niger and said earlier this month that any redeployment could only be negotiated with Bazoum.
The country’s new leaders have torn up military cooperation agreements with France and asked the troops to leave quickly.
On Friday, the foreign minister of neighboring country Burkina Faso notified France of the expulsion of the embassy’s military attache for “subversive activities”, in an official letter seen by AFP on Friday.
The ministry said attache Emmanuel Pasquier and his team had two weeks to leave the country, which underwent two military coups last year.
The letter did not elaborate on what Pasquier did to prompt his expulsion. It said the defense section of the Burkina Faso embassy in Paris had been closed with immediate effect.
Burkina Faso’s transition government has already ordered the departure of France’s ambassador and that of senior United Nations official Barbara Manzi.
The impoverished Sahel region south of the Sahara has witnessed a tsunami of government changes in recent years in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea as well as Niger.
Last week, Colonel Amadou Abdramane, a spokesperson for Niger’s coup leaders, accused France of gathering forces and equipment in West African countries with a view to launching a “military intervention” against Niamey.
Niger is also embroiled in a standoff with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has threatened to intervene militarily if diplomatic pressure to return Bazoum to office fails.
France was a colonial power in West Africa until 1960.
-- Libya’s Disaster of Epic Proportions Keeps Unfolding:
Libyan authorities limited access to the flooded city of Derna to make it easier for searchers to dig through the mud and hollowed-out buildings for the more than 10,000 people still missing and presumed dead following a disaster that has already claimed more than 11,000 lives.
The staggering death toll could grow further due to the spread of waterborne diseases and shifting of explosive ordnance that was swept up when two dams collapsed early Monday and sent a wall of water gushing through the city, officials warned.
The disaster has brought some rare unity to oil-rich Libya, which after years of war and civil strife is divided between rival governments in the country’s east and west that are backed by various militia forces and international patrons. But the opposing governments have struggled to respond to the crisis, and recovery efforts have been hampered by confusion, difficulty getting aid to the hardest-hit areas, and the destruction of Derna’s infrastructure, including several bridges.
Aid groups called on authorities to facilitate their access to the city so they can distribute badly needed food, clean water and medical supplies to survivors. Four days into the crisis, the lack of central oversight was apparent, with people receiving supplies and resources in some parts of Derna but being left to fend for themselves in others.
Manoelle Carton, the medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Libya, described waiting in line for hours to get into the city and, once inside, finding volunteers from around the country who had flocked to Derna getting in the way of humanitarian workers at times.
“Everybody wants to help. But it is becoming chaotic,” she said. “There is an enormous need for coordination.”
Teams have buried bodies in mass graves outside the city and in nearby towns, Eastern Libya’s health minister, Othman Abduljaleel, said.
But officials worried that thousands more have yet to be found.
Bodies “are littering the streets, washing back up on shore and buried under collapsed buildings and debris,” said Bilal Sablouh, regional forensics manager for Africa at the International Committee of the Red Cross.
“In just two hours, one of my colleagues counted over 200 bodies on the beach near Derna,” he said.
Divers are also searching the waters off the Mediterranean coastal city.
Carton said later Friday that most of the dead bodies had been cleared from the streets in the areas of the city the Doctors Without Borders team visited, but there were other grim signs, including that one of the three medical centers they went to was out of service “because almost all of the medical staff died.” Thousands of people displaced by the flooding are staying in shelters or with friends or relatives, she said.
Adel Ayad, who survived the flood, recalled watching as the waters rose to the fourth floor of his building.
“The waves swept people away from the tops of buildings, and we could see people carried by floodwater,” he said. Among them were neighbors.
Salam al-Fergany, director general of the Ambulance and Emergency Service in eastern Libya, said late Thursday that residents would be evacuated from Derna and that only search-and-rescue teams would be allowed to enter. But there were no signs of such an evacuation on Friday.
Health officials warned that standing water opened the door to disease — but said there was no need to rush burials or put the dead in mass graves, as bodies usually do not pose a risk in such cases.
“You’ve got a lot of standing water. It doesn’t mean the dead bodies pose a risk, but it does mean that the water itself is contaminated by everything,” Dr. Margaret Harris, spokeswoman for the World Health Organization, told reporters in Geneva. “So you really have to focus on ensuring that people have have access to safe water.”
Imene Trabelsi, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, warned that another danger lurked in the mud: landmines and other explosives left behind by the country’s protracted conflict.
There are leftover explosives in Libya dating back to World War II, but most are from the civil conflict that began in 2011. Between 2011 and 2021, some 3,457 people were killed or wounded by landmines or other leftover explosive ordnance in Libya, according to the international Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor.
Even before the flooding, Trabelsi said the ability to detect and remove mines from areas was limited. After the floods, she said, explosive devices may have been swept to “new, undetected areas” where they could pose an immediate threat to search teams and a longer-term threat to civilians.
Carton echoed the concerns about an outbreak of water-related diseases in the city. Beyond that, she said, there is a “huge need in mental health support” among survivors, witnesses and medical workers.
According to the Libyan Red Crescent, there were 11,300 flooding deaths in Derna as of Thursday. Another 10,100 people were reported missing, though there was little hope many of them would be found alive, the aid group said. The storm also killed about 170 people elsewhere in the country.
Libyan media reported that dozens of Sudanese migrants were killed in the disaster. The country has become a major transit point for Middle Eastern and African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty to seek a better life in Europe.
Flooding often happens in Libya during the rainy season, but rarely with this much destruction. Scientists said the storm bore some of the hallmarks of climate change, and extremely warm sea water could have given the storm more energy and allowed it to move more slowly.
Officials have said that Libya’s political chaos also contributed to the loss of life. Khalifa Othman, a Derna resident, said he blamed authorities for the extent of the disaster.
“My son, a doctor who graduated this year, my nephew and all his family, my grandchild, my daughter and her husband are all missing, and we are still searching for them,” Othman said. “All the people are upset and angry — there was no preparedness.”
-- Iranian Nation’s Islamic Spirit Continues to Frustrate Enemies:
Yesterday the Iranian nation in yet another grand display of piety, probity, and patriotism commemorated the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Reza (AS) with a record six million pilgrims present at his holy shrine in Mashhad over the past three days – to mark as well the passing away anniversary of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) – and to bid farewell to the two-month annual mourning season for the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS).
Throughout the Islamic Republic huge public gatherings were held on the last day the month of Safar as expression of faith, spiritual values, and solidarity of Iranians of all strata of society, including our Sunni Muslim brethren.
As night fell, people in Mashhad, Qom, Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, and other cities, towns, and hamlets. came out on the streets with candles to observe the “Shaam-e Gharibaan” or “Evening of the Stranger” since Khorasan was a strange land for the Prophet’s Eighth Infallible Heir Khorasan who was forcibly brought from Medina, declared against his will as Heir Apparent to the crafty Abbasid caliph, Mamoun, and then fatally martyred in 203 AH (818 AD).
As usual, these spectacular annual assemblies of the Iranian people – over four million of whom had recently returned home from Iraq after participating in the 23-million strong Arba’een March as renewal of faith and inter-Islamic solidarity – were ignored by the frustrated Zionist-controlled western media.
Instead these media horns, in view of the fact that Safar 30 this year coincided with September 16, the 41st anniversary of the brutal massacre by Israeli agents of five thousand Palestinians – mostly women, children, and the elderly – in southern Lebanon’s refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla that was marked by conscientious people all over the world, including Iranians, vented anger on the utter failure of the West’s abortive bid last year to incite a group of thugs, traitors, blasphemers, and morally-loose women to riot in some isolated parts of Tehran and a few other cities that led to murder of several innocent people, including security personnel.
Such is the deep bias of the so-called international media towards Islam and the positive developments in Iran that it also ignored Saturday’s joining of hundreds of thousands of Iranians to sign the largest ever petition against the desecration of the Holy Qur’an and Islamic sanctities by blasphemers in some Western countries.
The 1,114 meter long petition, initiated by the Arba’een Qur’anic Camp in four languages – Persian, Arabic, Urdu and English – is part of practical and effective measures aimed to prevent desecration of holy books and sanctities.
Instead, similar to last year’s frenzied tirade by the Farsi language TV channels which incited some apostates to attack mosques and burn religious books, their broadcasts yesterday called on thugs, traitors, terrorists, and characterless women to come out on the streets and indulge in violence, but in vain.
None of the hypocrites, fearful of inviting the wrath of the God-oriented Iranian nation, dared to violate the sanctity of the Day of Martyrdom of Imam Reza (AS), thereby further frustrating the hedonists and scantily clad women in some western countries who masquerading as Iranians chanted anti-Islamic slogans when the fact is they are far removed from the culture and religion of the Iranian people.
Thanks to the devotion of the Iranian people for the Prophet of Islam and his Immaculate Ahl al-Bayt, Iran has been transformed from a US client state into the powerful and independent Islamic Republic, based on firm spiritual foundations, coupled with brilliant achievements in science, technology, culture, and diplomacy that wield profound influence in the region and beyond, thereby shattering the dreams of Global Arrogance to re-establish its hegemony through traitors and terrorists.
-- Zionist Military Strikes Gaza, Palestinians Mourn Teenager Martyred in West Bank:
The Zionist regime’s military said it launched an airstrike on Gaza Friday, following protests at a rally near the Gaza fence in which health officials said multiple Palestinians were wounded.
The strike was the first since early July, when the occupying regime responded to rocket fire from Gaza launched after its deadliest Zionist raid in the occupied West Bank in years.
The army said it hit “a military post belonging to the Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip.”
A military spokesman said the airstrike hit an area where Palestinians had gathered earlier Friday, near the permanently closed Karni crossing.
A security source in the Palestinian territory told AFP that the Zionist regime “bombed a resistance observation post east of Gaza City,” requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly to the media.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank city of Al-Khalil, Palestinians took part in the burial ceremony of Palestinian teenager killed by a Zionist trooper.
Milad al-Raee dreamed of being famous. The 16-year-old was an avid footballer, and everyone knew he wanted to go to Spain’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium to watch his favorite team Real Madrid play. And one day, he wanted to play for them.
In the narrow streets of al-Arroub refugee camp, north of the occupied West Bank city of Al-Khalil, everyone was used to seeing Milad with his friends kicking a football around, usually wearing his Real Madrid shirt.
On September 9, as Milad made his way back to the camp after a barbecue on a nearby hill, his life was cut short by a single Zionist bullet.
According to witnesses, a Zionist soldier in a military watchtower at the entrance of the camp shot the child in the back.
He became the 47th Palestinian child to be killed by the occupying regime this year.
Abdulqader Badawi, a resident of al-Arroub camp, remembers how he ran into Milad and they joked a bit, two days before the child was shot.
“The whole camp loved him,” Badawi said.
“I remember him sitting in the neighborhood with his group of friends, which is now missing one. That neighborhood, near the women’s center and the kindergarten and leading out to the main street, down there you couldn’t miss Milad, with his friends or playing football.”
The researcher at the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR) added that the presence of the military watchtower had been a point of friction for many years.
“There is no space in the camp to play, because space is limited and people and houses are packed in tight,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Milad and his friends would just play in the street, it was occupied by the Israelis but this did not prevent them from playing football every day, a few meters away from the military tower.”
The tower was erected ostensibly to protect the movement of the army and Jewish settlers surrounding the camp.
Milad was the second of three brothers, and a music lover who learned about it from his father. While his dad sang national and folkloric songs, Milad was more into music and wrote his own raps in Arabic.
“My voice is loud, my time is precious, that’s why I dream of flying,” he once wrote.
-- West Avenges Defeat of Riots With New Sanctions:
The United States has imposed a new round of sanctions on more than two dozen Iranian individuals and entities over groundless accusations of “human rights abuses” on the eve of the anniversary of Western-backed riots in the country.
The U.S. Department of Treasury announced in a press release on its website on Friday that the bans targeted 29 individuals and entities in connection with what it claimed was “violent suppression of nationwide protests” following the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman of Kurdish descent who lost her life in hospital after collapsing at a police station in the capital Tehran last September.
The sanctions were imposed on 18 top members of Iran’s security forces, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the police as well as the head of the Iranian Prisons’ Organization. The bans were also imposed on three individuals and one company in connection with Iran’s telecoms ministry.
Tehran-based news channel Press TV as well as Fars and Tasnim news agencies and three of their senior officials were also targeted with sanctions.
They are the U.S. Treasury’s 13th round of measures in connection with foreign-backed riots that began last September.
They came two days after the Australian government imposed sanctions on a number of Iranian individuals and entities, including Press TV, in yet another attack spearheaded by the West against freedom of speech in Iran.
The measures, including financial sanctions and travel bans, targeted four individuals and three entities over what Canberra claimed were “human rights violations” in Iran.
On Friday, the British government also added five designations to its Iran sanctions list, targeting four individuals and one commercial entity over what it claimed were “human rights” violations.
Among the targeted individuals were Iran’s police spokesman General Saeed Montazer-al-Mahdi and Tehran’s Mayor Alireza Zakani.
The European Union added four Iranian officials and six entities to its sanctions list.
The 27-nation bloc has already imposed visa bans and asset freezes on around 170 Iranian individuals, companies and agencies over the accusations of “rights abuse.”
The four officials targeted included an IRGC commander, two regional police chiefs and a prison boss.
Tasnim news agency, four prisons, and Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace were also placed on the blacklist.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani denounced the sanctions as “unconstructive behavior,” which was not in line with the Western countries’ own interests.
The West, he added, rather had to adopt “a new policy based on respect for the great and civilized Iranian nation, the Islamic Republic’s sovereignty, and the two sides’ common security and interests.”
Kanaani said when it comes to the provision of public security for the country, the Iranian people and authorities “would not be influenced by the Western parties’ malicious propaganda and measures.”
He reminded the Western states of their own dismal rights records, identifying them as “countries, which continually perpetrate the most severe instances of violence against their own citizens, especially women, and also minorities, people of color, aboriginals, and migrants.”
These countries also never dare to truly protest and condemn the “child-killing Zionist regime’s daily crimes,” the spokesman noted.
Such states, therefore, “have no right to shed crocodile tears for the Iranian nation,” he added.
Kanaani said the West’s support and safe haven for anti-Iran terrorist groups, such as the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), which is guilty of killing thousands of Iranians, “belies their claim of supporting the Iranian people’s rights.”
TEHRAN TIMES:
-- Separatist groups agree to disarm and move away from Iran border: report:
Iranian Kurdish separatist groups have agreed with a proposal from the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq to put aside their arms and stay away from Iran’s border, according to Tasnim. Citing a political source in Iraqi Kurdistan, Tasnim said the KRG and the separatist groups have reached an agreement regarding Iran based on which the groups will lay down their arms and move away from the border with Iran. “The government of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has practically started the measures to remove the Iranian opposition parties based in the Kurdistan Region in the border strip with Iran,” the source was quoted as saying on Saturday. The source added, “The opposition parties (terrorist separatist groups) have agreed to move to the camps already established in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah provinces.” The source continued, “It is never true that the opponents have refused to agree to the terms of the security agreement between Iran and Iraq, and want to resort to military options.” The source noted, “The opposition parties (terrorist separatists) have fully agreed with the actions of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government.”
-- Iran becomes 3rd top oil producer among OPEC members: report:
Iran continued to increase its oil production in August to reach three million barrels per day (bpd) and stand at the third place among OPEC top producers, according to figures released in the organization’s latest monthly report. OPEC data showed that Iran’s oil output increased by 143,000 bpd or five percent in August compared to production figures reported in July, Shana reported. The figures showed that Iran had regained its position as the third largest oil producer in OPEC in August behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Iran posted the largest increase in oil production in OPEC last month, as the country is exempt from output cuts introduced by the alliance to help boost international oil prices. Iranian heavy oil prices rose to $87.58 per barrel in August from $81.48 reported in July, OPEC data showed.The figures prove earlier reports suggesting Iranian oil production and exports had reached multi-year record levels in August despite U.S. sanctions that restrict the country’s ability to engage in normal trade of oil products. Estimates by international energy firms published earlier this month had suggested that Iran’s oil exports were nearly 3.15 million bpd in August as oil exports from the country reached over 2 million bpd. Private refiners in China accounted for a bulk of oil purchases from Iran last month as shipments rose to an all-time record of 1.5 million bpd. Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Oji said earlier this month that Iran’s oil production will reach 3.4 million bpd by late September.
-- Prominent Palestinian prisoner secures early release:
Israel has freed prominent Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh earlier than he was expected to be released, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society has announced. It is another victory for the Palestinian prisoner’s resistance. Awawdeh made regional and global headlines last year after going on hunger strike for 172 days in protest against his administrative detention by the Israeli regime, by holding him without charge or trial. “We are an undefeated people in our battles. We either win or we die,” he was quoted as saying last year from Israel’s Ofer Prison. In May this year, another high-profile Palestinian prisoner, Khader Adnan, was martyred following an 87-day hunger strike in an Israeli prison.
-- Tehran conference: some important points on SDSs:
The International Conference on Combating Sand and Dust Storms (SDSs) was held in Tehran on September 9-10. The event was a further step towards the implementation of the environmental protection policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It was also based on Paragraph 15 of the general environmental policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran specified by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Based on this paragraph, the country is required to strengthen environmental diplomacy by endeavoring to create and strengthen regional institutions in order to stand against sand and dust storms as well as water pollution.
NOURNEWS