NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Tuesday, September 26, 2023.
IRAN DAILY:
-- WSA: Iran’s eight-month steel ingot output near 20m tons
Iranian steelmakers churned out 19.7 million tons of crude steel in the first eight months of 2023, according to statistics released by the World Steel Association (WSA) on Monday, indicating that the country stands at tenth place among steel producing countries.
Steel mills of the country kept the rising trend for the eight-month period despite a major drop in production during the summer due to problems in electricity supply.
The country’s steel ingot production for August 2023 registered a 24.1-percent shrinkage compared to the figure for August 2022.
World crude steel production for the 63 countries reporting to the association was 152.6 million tons in August 2023, a 2.2 percent increase compared to August 2022.
China produced 86.4 million tons in August 2023, up 3.2 percent over August 2022, while India produced 11.9 million tons of steel ingots last month, up 17.4 percent compared to the figure for last year, as Japan produced 7.1 million tons, down 2.9 percent compared to the same month last year.
The United States produced 7 million tons of crude steel in August, up 1.1 percent. Russia is estimated to have produced 6.4 million tons, up 8.9 percent. South Korea produced 5.6 million tons, down 5.9 percent.
The World Steel Association is one of the largest and most dynamic industry associations in the world, with members in every major steel-producing country. The WSA represents steel producers, national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes.
Members represent around 85 percent of global steel production.
-- Iran’s economic growth at 7.9%: SCI
According to a new report by the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI), the country’s economy grew by 7.9 percent in the first three months of the Iranian calendar year (March 21 to June 21) compared to the same period in 2022.
The latest SCI report, which was published on Monday, showed that Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose to 2,144 trillion rials in the first quarter of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21), IRNA reported.
The data showed that Iran’s GDP, without oil, had increased to 1,818 trillion rials in the same period, up 6.1 percent from the second quarter of 2022.
The SCI said Iran’s agriculture sector had contracted by 4.6 percent, while the industry and mining sector grew by 7.3 percent, and the services sector reported an expansion of 9.3 percent over the second quarter of 2022.
-- Iran, Egypt economy
Furthermore, the event’s overarching theme, “Sustainable Growth in a Challenging World,” is suitable for encouraging discussions among delegates from AIIB member countries. It also promotes engagement with partners, prominent business leaders, civil society organizations, and experts from various fields globally.
High-ranking official representatives from AIIB member nations, the bank’s development partners, influential business figures and civil society organizations as well as scholars and experts across diverse domains have attended the event.
Operating since 2016, the Beijing-headquartered AIIB is a multilateral development bank and international financial institution that aims to collectively improve economic and social outcomes.
Iran is a shareholder and founding member of the bank.
-- Raeisi: Tehran never opposed IAEA inspections
President Ebrahim Raeisi said Iran has never opposed the inspection of its nuclear facilities by the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and is ready to further cooperate with the agency.
Raeisi made the remarks in an interview with the CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, who asked him about a recent decision by Tehran to bar multiple inspectors assigned to the country.
President Raeisi noted that Iran has never said that it is opposed to the inspection, but it has lost its trust in the people related to three European countries, namely, Germany, Britain and France.
He said that inspectors from different nationalities have always come to the country and Iran has no problem with their presence in Iran.
Raeisi said that the IAEA had confirmed 15 times that there has been no deviations in Iran’s nuclear activities. But these European countries ignore the IAEA reports and make baseless claims about Iran’s nuclear program.
President Raeisi said that the European actions are purely political and are carried out with the intention of exerting pressure on Iran.
Regarding Iran’s uranium enrichment to the purity level of 60%, Raeisi said that it was in response to the lack of commitment by the European parties to the 2015 nuclear agreement.
“In the beginning, we were not seeking 60% levels of enrichment. They (European states) trampled upon their commitments,” the Iranian president said. “What the Islamic Republic of Iran did was in response to a breaking of commitment of the signatories to the (2015) agreement.”
Raeisi also categorically rejected the country’s enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade levels, saying, “It was officially announced that the action that we intend to take is not to reach nuclear weapons of any type, or a military dimension of any type, but a response to the lack of commitment demonstrated by the Europeans.”
He also reiterated Tehran’s long-standing conviction that the Islamic Republic does not plan to acquire a nuclear bomb.
Meanwhile, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, asked the IAEA to take tangible measures to remain impartial and avoid disclosing confidential information on Iran’s nuclear activities and sites.
He made the remarks in an address to the 67th Regular Session of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on Monday.
Referring to the fact that Iran has been the subject of one of the most intensive investigations in the history of the IAEA, Eslami underlined that the cooperation between Tehran and the UN agency should not go unnoticed.
-- Teargas used to disperse rioters after Eredivisie game abandoned
Ajax Amsterdam’s home Eredivisie game against defending champions Feyenoord was abandoned on Sunday as fans threw flares onto the pitch, and mounted police used tear gas to disperse rioting fans outside the stadium.
A group of angry Ajax fans tried to force their way into the stadium after the game was halted leading the police to disperse them with tear gas, Amsterdam police wrote on social media platform X.
“After the stopped game supporters broke into the main (stadium) entrance. Order has since been restored,” the police said.
“It is a jet black day, this makes it even worse,” Ajax coach Maurice Steijn told broadcaster NOS.
Ajax were 3-0 down in the second half when the game was first suspended in the 56th minute.
Ajax, who have had a poor start to the season with just one win, sit 13th in the 18-team league and they conceded all three goals in the first half.
When flares were thrown onto the pitch for a second time, with many landing near the goal, the referee stopped the match and directed the players down the tunnel.
Fans paid no heed as the club displayed the message “Lighting of fireworks is prohibited” on the big screen at the Johan Cruyff Arena.
“De Klassieker has been permanently suspended after repeated fireworks on the field,” Eredivisie said in a statement.
“More information on playing out this game will follow later.”
Feyenoord manager Arne Slot said it was “especially annoying” that his side were not able to finish what had been a superb performance.
“In this way the chance for something very beautiful is taken away from us,” he said on the club website.
“We understand the decision that has been taken, but we do not feel a sense of victory... And so we certainly won’t get on the bus satisfied.”
Ajax finished third last season and failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 13 seasons. They had finished champions seven times and runners-up another five over the previous 12 seasons
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
-- Presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan Meet as Thousands Flee Nagorno
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have hailed Baku’s military victory in Nagorno-Karabakh as thousands of Armenians flee from the region into Armenia. Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, were forced into a ceasefire last week after a 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military. Erdogan met with Aliyev in Azerbaijan’s exclave Nakhchivan on Monday. Several days after the fighting, the first refugees arrived in Armenia on Sunday and 6,650 people have so far entered, Yerevan said on Monday.
-- France’s Top Court Rejects Appeal Against Ban on Muslim Dress in Schools
France’s highest court on Monday ruled that the government ban on Muslim dress abaya is legal. The Council of State said it had rejected an appeal by three organizations against the government ban announced last month on abaya – a loose-fitting and full-length robe – worn by some Muslim students in schools. Last week, the Sud Education Paris, La Voix Lyceenne and Le Poing Leve Lycee unions in France filed an appeal against the ban. On Aug. 31, Vincent Brengarth, a lawyer for the Muslim Rights Action (ADM), filed an appeal with the Council of State to seek the suspension of the ban on the abaya which he said violates “several fundamental freedoms.” The controversial move sparked a backlash against the government, which has been criticized in recent years for targeting Muslims.
-- Niger Gives French Troops the Boot
After Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic, France is being forced to withdraw troops from yet another former African colony that pivoted to Russia after souring on Paris: Niger.
France will pull its soldiers out of Niger following a July coup in the West African country, President Emmanuel Macron said, dealing a huge blow to French influence and counter-insurgency operations in the Sahel region.
Macron said 1,500 troops would withdraw by the end of the year.
Niger’s military rulers welcomed the announcement as “a new step toward sovereignty.”
France’s exit, which comes after weeks of pressure from the junta and popular demonstrations, is likely to exacerbate Western concerns over Russia’s expanding influence in Africa. The Russian mercenary force Wagner already present in Niger’s neighbor Mali.
“This Sunday, we celebrate a new step toward the sovereignty of Niger,” said a statement from the country’s military rulers, who seized power in late July by overthrowing President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26.
“The French troops and the ambassador of France will leave Nigerien soil by the end of the year.”
The statement, read out on national television, added: “This is a historic moment, which speaks to the determination and will of the Nigerien people.”
Earlier Sunday, before Macron’s announcement, the body regulating aviation safety in Africa (ASECNA), announced that Niger’s military rulers had banned “French aircraft” from flying over the country’s airspace.
France’s ambassador was also being pulled out and would return to the country in the next few hours, Macron added.
French influence over its former colonies has waned in West Africa in recent years, just as popular vitriol has grown. Its forces have been kicked out of neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso since coups in those countries.
Until the coup, Niger had remained a key security partner of France and the United States, which have used it as a base in West and Central Africa’s wider Sahel region.
France’s military base in Niger’s capital, Niamey, had become the epicenter of anti-French protests since the July 26 coup.
Groups have regularly gathered on the street outside to call for the exit of troops stationed in the capital.
-- Canadians Protest Zelensky Visit, Demand End to Ukraine Aid
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky faced backlash from Canadians for sending millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine while the nation faces a cost-of-living crisis.
The duo witnessed protesters expressing their displeasure while they exited the Royal York Hotel. There were many questioning Zelensky’s presence in Canada and asked him to leave.
The Canadian government announced a commitment of $650 million in aid for Ukraine during Zelensky’s visit.
The protesters blamed the rise of cost of living on Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau and the aid he is sending to Ukraine for the ongoing 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War.
Protesters held banners asking Zelensky to leave and accused Trudeau of treason. The protesters highlighted that gas prices witnessed a fourfold increase and mortgage rates that have tripled in recent months.
They pointed out that Canadians are making significant sacrifices to support Ukraine in its time of need.
High bank interest rates have made loan repayment challenging for many Canadians, leading to an increase in bad loans and bankruptcies. Rental prices have also skyrocketed, making housing affordability a critical issue.
With a minimum wage of only $16, many Canadians are finding it difficult to make ends meet.
The economic challenges have also forced many to enter the drug trade and join criminal syndicates.
The protesters also pointed out that the law and order situation deteriorated in Canada as funds for law enforcement agencies are being diverted for the war effort.
Police and local law enforcement are facing significant strain due to a surge in criminal incidents but due to lack of funding there is a hiring freeze.
Surrey needs more than 1,500 policemen but are making do with 500-600 policemen amid rise in gun violence and shooting incidents.
This has raised concerns about the police’s ability to effectively
respond to the growing law and order challenges.
A day earlier, Pope Francis has expressed frustration with the countries that are “playing games” with Ukraine by first providing weapons and then considering backing out of their commitments.
“It comes to my mind that there are interests, not just the Russian-Ukraine problem but selling arms, you know. The arms business,” Pope Francis said aboard the plane returning from a trip to the French port city of Marseilles.
He was responding to a reporter’s question about whether he was frustrated that his efforts to bring about peace had not succeeded. He has sent an envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to Kiev, Moscow, Washington and Beijing to meet with leaders there.
The Pope told the reporter he felt “some frustration” and then began talking randomly about the commerce of weapons, military industry and the war.
“We should not play games ... We have to help them resolve things ... I see now that some countries are moving backwards, not wanting to give (Ukraine) arms,” he stated.
The U.S. government recently confirmed that the Biden administration has sent more than $100 billion worth of weapons, munitions and other military aid to the former Soviet republic to be used in the Russia-Ukraine war.
-- Israel’s Fast Approaching End
The illegal Zionist entity, which the US and some west European regimes have criminally assisted in manufacturing and amassing nuclear weapons out of sight of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is a roguish, racist, and terroristic state led by war criminals and child-killers who pose serious threat to world peace and humanitarian values.
In other words, genocidal Israel has no right to exist on the world map – let alone in the occupied land of Palestine – and for this reason the Father of the Islamic Revolution had called it “a cancerous tumour” that should be weeded out.
Imam Khomeini (RA) had also said that if the each of the world’s Muslims (numbering a billion in those days) were to pour a bucket of water Israel will be drowned.
His words were prophetic and we are sure that sooner than later this will happen, no matter how devilishly the mother of all terrorism, the US, tries to lull into sleep the conscience of the unelected and unrepresentative regimes of Arab state regarding the Zionist danger to world Muslims – even Christians since most of whom resent the West’s blind protection of the modern day slanderers of Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary (peace upon them).
God’s promise of the end of the evil Israelites will finally prevail and in view of this fact, after careful study and analysis, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, had several years ago said those famous words: Insha Allah Israel won’t see the next 25 years. “
It is now almost ten years since the expression of this prophetic phrase and all indicators suggest that the illegal Zionist entity despite its unabated killing of the Palestinian people, its frequent air raids on Syria, its duping of some Arab regimes to set up diplomatic relations, and its weird threats against Iran – seven of whose scientists it cowardly assassinated through agents – is definitely hurtling towards its doom.
For the moment, as a result of the mounting protests of its own Jewish population illegally settled on Palestinian lands, implosion seems to be the plausible factor for its ignominious end.
True the mass demonstrations are in their 38 consecutive week and these will not drag Benjamin Netanyahu to his doom.
What will bring about his disgraceful end, like that of the notorious war criminal Ariel Sharon, who was in coma for several years, is Divine Wrath.
It is will strike before Netanyahu and the usurper state over which he presides, will realize. It will be swift. It will be explosive. More powerful than an earthquake or a tsunami, it will wipe out Israel from the world map, with the US being a helpless spectator.
TEHRAN TIMES:
-- Woman cyclist Partoazar makes history at Hangzhou
Cyclist Faranak Partoazar won Iran’s first medal in history of the Asian Games on Monday. She won a bronze medal at the Cycling Mountain Bike with a time of 1:42:44 hours at the CSC Mountain Bike Course. Chinese athletes Li Hongfeng (1:30:59) and Ma Caixia (1:36:45) won gold and silver medals, respectively. With more than 12,000 competitors from 45 nations and territories, the Asian Games has more participants than the Olympics. Iran has sent 289 male and female athletes to the Games in 34 sports events.
-- Public anger rises over police racism in France
No end appears in sight to public anger over ongoing police racism in France along with discriminatory and violent measures against minority groups. On Saturday, tens of thousands of angry people took to the streets nationwide to protest against the use of force by French police, arguing that state authorities are refusing to recognize and address the racist approach of the police. Protesters in the suburbs of Paris, where marginalized communities have long complained of police discrimination, came under attack by officers, with clashes and shuffles breaking out. The fatal shooting of a teenager with a minority background in Paris in June, which critics described as “execution style”, triggered over a week of violent unrest in the capital Paris and elsewhere.
-- Israel has put NPT and IAEA credibility in jeopardy: nuclear chief
Just a few days after the Israeli prime minister bragged that Iran “must face a credible nuclear threat,” the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has said that Tehran has the right to respond to Israel’s “arrogance”. Speaking on Monday at the 67th Regular Session of the IAEA General Conference in Vienna, Mohammad Eslami said that there is no question that the international community’s silence has given the Israeli regime more confidence. “It is clear that the Islamic Republic of Iran considers it its right to respond to the audacities of the Zionist regime,” he added. In his address to the 78th UN General Assembly on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of the “curse of a nuclear Iran” and claimed that Tehran has spent “billions to arm its terror proxies.” “Iran must face a credible nuclear threat. As long as I’m prime minister of Israel, I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. Netanyahu’s speech received vitriol by Iran’s diplomatic mission to the UN as a “comedy show”. It said in a statement that “the baseless allegations made by Israeli officials no longer fool anyone.”
-- IRGC offers collective security alliance for Persian Gulf
Rear Admiral Ali Reza Tangsiri, the commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Navy, has put forth the idea of forming a security alliance in the Persian Gulf that would include all the countries of the region. He suggested that eight littoral states of the Persian Gulf should form a naval alliance to ensure regional security without the presence of outsiders. In comments at a televised program on Sunday, Tangsiri said the Persian Gulf countries are capable of ensuring regional security through mutual cooperation within the framework of an 8-nation alliance, according to Tasnim News. He added that the naval alliance would help the regional people live in peace, reminding the neighboring states that the outsiders provoke Iranophobia to justify their illegitimate presence in the region. The commander warned that the foreign military forces are in the region with the purpose of selling arms and plundering the oil resources. In June, Shahram Irani, the chief commander of the Iranian Army’s Navy, dropped a bombshell that jolted the U.S. into reiterating its presence in the Persian Gulf. Irani said a maritime coalition in the north Indian Ocean will be established with the participation of Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Pakistan, and India.
NOURNEWS