NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Monday, October 9, 2023.
IRAN DAILY:
-- Iran’s five-month steel products up 8%
Iranian steelmakers cast 6.68 million tons of steel products during the first five months of the current Iranian year (March 21-August 22), registering an eight percent rise compared to the corresponding figure of last year, which was 6.18 million tons.
According to figures by the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), the steel products included round bars, steel beams, coils, profiles, sheets and pipes, according to IRNA.
IMIDRO statistics also indicated that a sum of 1.19 million tons of steel products was made by Iranian steel complexes during the month to August 22, up two percent compared to the related figure for last year, which was 1.17 million tons.
The country also churned out 9.67 million tons of steel ingots during the first five months of the current Iranian year, while the corresponding figure for the preceding year was 9.57 million tons.
Iranian steelmakers produced 19.7 million tons of crude steel in the first eight months of 2023, according to recent statistics released by the World Steel Association (WSA), 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 the electricity supply.
The country’s steel ingot production up to August 2023 registered a 24.1 percent shrinkage compared to the figure for August 2022.
-- Iran receives $43m in damages from US government
Iran said it has received $43 million in damages from the United States, under Case No. A15 of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal.
The Center for International Legal Affairs of the Legal Vice Presidency of the Iranian President said in a statement that the amount was deposited into the country’s bank account in The Hague, the Netherlands, IRNA reported on Sunday.
The case involves Iranian properties that had not been transferred to Iran after the conclusion of the Algiers Declarations.
“The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal issued Award No. 604 in favor of Iran and ruled that the US government must compensate for the damage it caused to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” read the statement.
“Following repeated and persistent follow-ups by the Center for International Legal Affairs of the Legal Vice Presidency of the Iranian President to secure Iran’s rights based on the verdict, the amount of $43 million has been deposited by the US government in the account of the Islamic Republic of Iran at a Dutch bank in The Hague, for damages plus its interest,” it added.
The development comes as the US has faced successive legal defeats against the Islamic Republic through international legal channels.
-- Crude oil extraction from Sepehr-Jofeir Oilfield kicks off
Iran has started pumping 21,000 barrels per day of crude from Sepehr-Jofeir Oilfield in the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan, which is delivered to the processing unit of West Karoun Refinery, announced a member of Energy Committee of Iranian Parliament on Sunday.
Qassem Saedi said the oilfield, with an area of 352 square kilometers, is located in the east of the Azadegan Oilfield, west of the Karun River, and is considered the deepest and most pressurized oilfield in Iran, IRNA reported.
According to the initial contract, if all of the 21 wells of the oilfield are put into operation, it will be possible to produce 110,000 barrels of oil per day, which is definitely effective in economic growth and employment of young people in the region, he noted.
The lawmaker put the total amount of investment to complete all phases at $2.8 billion, saying that $440 million has been allocated for the first phase of the project. The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and a company affiliated with the Bank Pasargad have signed an upstream deal within the framework of the Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) and operations for the development of Sepehr-Jofeir field which began in September 2019.
-- Iran, D-8 discuss cooperation on energy developments
Iranian Energy Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian held a meeting with Secretary General of the Developing Eight Organization for Economic Cooperation (D-8) Isiaka Abdulqadir Imam on energy developments around the globe.
Mehrabian described D-8 as a very important organization that was established by influential countries which created great effects in the development of relations between these countries in different periods, IRNA
reported. The increase in the volume of trade relations between member states of D-8 is much lower than the growth rate of world trade, the minister criticized, adding that it is necessary to conduct a reform to strengthen the pact between the countries.
“Iran welcomes the strengthening of the organization and is ready to take good steps in this direction, but this issue is multifaceted which must be formed by all member countries,” Mehrabian said. Speaking at the meeting, Imam said considering the importance of the energy issue and also paying special attention to the establishment of cooperation in this field, it is desirable that Iran announces a time for holding the meeting of energy ministers of D-8.
Iran is one of the countries that is much more advanced and progressive in the field of energy than other countries of the organization, the secretary general noted.
-- Iran captures 13 golds, stands seventh in medals table
A number of 54 medals, including 13 golds, saw Iran finish seventh in the medals table of the Hangzhou Asian Games in China.
Iranians also collected 21 silvers and 20 bronzes across the 15 days in Hangzhou.
Iran’s golds came in volleyball, wrestling, wushu, kurash, athletics, sport climbing, karate, and chess competitions, while there were also podium finishes in rowing, taekwondo, artistic gymnastics, weightlifting, roller skating, mountain bike cycling, table tennis, fencing, shooting, canoe sprint and kabaddi.
On Sunday, karateka Sara Bahmanyar brought the curtain down on the campaign for the 285 Iranian athletes by bagging a bronze in the women’s kumite -50kg contests, thanks to a 6-5 victory over Japan’s Miho Miyahara.
Bahmanyar’s medal was the 18th for the Iranian female athletes and teams in Hangzhou – including Haniyeh Rostamian’s shooting bronze in the 10m air pistol mixed team contest – though none of the country’s 77 women walked away with a gold.
Despite some historic achievements, Iran’s run in the Games will fairly go down as a failure, as the number of golds was seven short of the figure the Iranians tallied for a sixth-place finish in Jakarta-Palembang 2018, while it was the lowest for the country since 2006, when Iran grabbed 11 gold medals in Doha.
In fact, Iran had to wait until the penultimate day of the Games to reach double figures in gold medals – courtesy of title-winning performances by freestyle wrestlers Younes Emami, Hassan Yazdani and Amirhossein Zare’ as well as a maiden chess triumph for the men’s team.
Iran’s total medal haul was also down by eight from five years ago, though the country was represented by 93 more athletes in Indonesia.
For all the lack of success in certain events – most significantly football, weightlifting, basketball, and shooting – the Iranian Ministry of Sport and the National Olympic Committee could still find silver lining elsewhere in the Games.
The Iranian men’s chess team – comprising Parham Maqsoudloo, Bardia Daneshvar, Mohammad-Amin Tabatabaei, Amir-Reza Pouraqabala, and Pouya Idani – was joined by Mahdi Olfati, Faranak Parto-Azar, and Taraneh Ahmadi in writing their names into the Asian Games’ history books.
Olfati won a first-ever medal for the country in artistic gymnastics – a men’s vault silver – while Parto-Azar’s cross country bronze was a maiden mountain cycling medal for Iranian women.
Ahmadi also bagged a first roller skating medal for Iran, taking the bronze in inline freestyle skating speed slalom.
Meanwhile, Alamian brothers, Nima and Noshad, also enjoyed a memorable campaign as their men’s doubles and team – Amirhossein Hodaei – bronzes were the first table tennis medals in the Asian Games for the country in 65 years.
Dominant host
China, as expected prior to the Games, topped the medals table with a record 201 gold medals.
China, which surpassed the previous high of 199 golds it won on home soil in Guangzhou 2010, also scooped 111 silvers and 71 bronze medals – finishing well clear of East Asian rivals Japan, which had 52 golds, and South Korea on 42.
India stood fourth with 28 golds – a massive improvement for the Peninsula after the eighth place in 2018 with 16 golds.
Uzbekistan and the Chinese Taipei also ended above Iran in the table, claiming 22 and 19 golds respectively.
-- Ex-FIFA boss Blatter slams decision for World Cup in six countries
Former FIFA PRESIDENT Sepp Blatter has criticised the decision by world soccer's governing body to hold the World Cup in six countries across three continents.
Morocco, Spain and Portugal were named hosts of the 2030 tournament, while Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay will also host the opening matches to mark the tournament's centenary, FIFA said in a surprise announcement on Wednesday.
The decision was criticised by Sepp Blatter, who was FIFA President from 1998 to 2015, before being forced out after a corruption investigation.
"It is absurd to tear the tournament apart in this way," Blatter told Swiss newspaper SonntagsBlick.
"The World Cup finals must be a compact event," he said, adding this was important for the identity of the event, for the organisation and for visitors.
Blatter, once one of soccer's most powerful figures, has previously criticised FIFA for awarding the 2022 tournament to Qatar, saying the Middle East country was too small.
The 87-year-old said the 2030 tournament should take place in South America, marking the 100th anniversary of the first event which was hosted and won by Uruguay.
"For historical reasons, the 2030 World Cup should have belonged exclusively in South America," he told the newspaper.
-- DoE, industries to cooperate to combat Persian Gulf pollution
The Director General of the Marine Pollution Investigation and Counteraction Office of Iran’s Department of the Environment (DoE) has announced a collaborative effort between the environmental and industrial sectors to combat pollution stemming from petrochemical and oil activities in the southern regions of the country, including the Persian Gulf.
Omid Sediqi highlighted the two main sources of pollution in marine waters. The first source comprises land-based pollutants that originate from various manufacturing industries located in coastal areas, such as refineries, petrochemical plants, and steel mills. These industries discharge their wastewater into the sea, including those in the Persian Gulf watershed, which release their wastewater into underground waters or rivers, ISNA reported.
Sediqi further explained that important areas like Asaluyeh and Bandar Imam, which house extensive petrochemical complexes, contribute to both air pollution caused by flares and torches, as well as water pollution due to effluents. The Marine Pollution Investigation and Counteraction Office is actively collaborating with these complexes, urging them to complete their sewage treatment systems.
He further emphasized that their work with petrochemical industries, particularly in Asaluyeh and Bandar Imam, is underway. “We have requested these industries to recycle their wastewater, and the process has already commenced,” Sediqi said, adding, “However, it is crucial for the treatment plants of these facilities to be completed first, as some were previously incomplete. Once the industrial wastewater is effectively treated, it can be reused.”
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
-- President Raisi Holds Talks With Haniyeh, Nakhala
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has separately spoken on the phone with leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance movements Ismail Haniyeh and Ziad al-Nakhaleh. He told Nakhaleh the Israeli regime is on the verge of collapse and the resistance front is advancing toward peaks of glory. Raisi said the Iranian nation has always stood by the freedom-seeking and independent nations, particularly the Palestinian people. Nakhaleh expressed appreciation for the support of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the Iranian people and government for the Palestinian nation. He said the resistance will proceed with its victories.
-- Iran Sends Rescue Teams to Quake-Hit Herat
Iran has dispatched search and rescue teams to earthquake-stricken areas in neighboring Afghanistan.
“Today, 50 rescue personnel in the form of 10 operational teams from the provinces of Razavi Khorasan, South Khorasan and North Khorasan as well as from the Relief and Rescue Organization were sent to Afghanistan,” said the head of the organization on Sunday. “The aid shipment contains 500 relief tents, 1,000 rolls of carpet, 4,000 blankets, 500 sets of dishes, 500 food packages intended to last for ten days, together with search and rescue equipment and teams,” he added. The logistics provided include several pick-up trucks, ambulances and heavy vehicles.
-- As Death Toll Tops 600, Zionists Pound Gaza in Desperation
The occupying regime of Israel battered Gaza on Sunday after suffering its worst defeat in decades, when Hamas fighters entered occupied towns killing 600 and capturing dozens more, as the spiraling clashes threatened a major new Middle East war.
Israeli airstrikes hit housing blocks, tunnels, a mosque and homes of Hamas officials in Gaza, martyring more than 370 people, including 21 children.
In a sign the conflict could spread beyond blockaded Gaza, Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement exchanged artillery and rocket fire, while in Alexandria, two Zionists were shot dead along with their Egyptian guide.
In southern Occupied Palestine, Hamas combatants were still fighting Zionist forces 24 hours after a surprise, multi-pronged operation of rocket barrages and bands of fighters who overran army bases and swept towns.
The Zionist military said it had deployed tens of thousands of soldiers around Gaza, a narrow strip that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and was starting to evacuate all Israelis living around the frontier of the territory.
The attack by Hamas launched at dawn on Saturday represented the biggest and deadliest incursion into Occupied Palestine since Egypt and Syria launched a sudden assault in an effort to reclaim lost territory in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago.
At least 600 Zionists were killed, according to reports by Israeli TV stations. The occupying regime has not released an official toll.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah which fought a war with Israel in 2006 and said its “guns and rockets” stand with Hamas.
The debris from Saturday’s operation still lay around southern Israeli towns and border communities on Sunday morning and Israelis were reeling from the sight of bloodied bodies lying on suburban streets, in cars and in their homes.
Palestinian fighters withdrew back into Gaza with dozens of Zionists. Hamas said it would issue a statement later on Sunday saying how many captives it had seized.
The capture of so many Zionists, some filmed being pulled through security checkpoints or driven, bleeding, into Gaza, adds another layer of complication for hardline prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamas fired more rocket salvoes into occupied territories on Sunday, with air raid sirens sounding across the south.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza began soon after the Hamas operation and continued overnight and into Sunday, destroying houses and other buildings.
Gaza’s health ministry said 370 people had been martyred and 2,200 wounded in the strikes.
More than 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have sought refuge in schools run by the United Nations, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency said.
In Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, people searched through the remains of a mosque early on Sunday. “We ended the night prayers and suddenly the mosque was bombed. They terrorized the children, the elderly and women,” said resident Ramez Hneideq.
The escalation comes against a backdrop of surging Israeli violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a Palestinian authority exercises limited self-rule, opposed by Hamas that wants the Zionist entity destroyed.
Conditions in the West Bank have worsened under Netanyahu’s extremist regime with more Israeli raids and assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages, and the Palestinian Authority called for an emergency Arab League meeting.
Peacemaking has been stalled for years and Israeli politics have been convulsed this year by internal wrangles over Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the judiciary.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the operation that began in Gaza would spread to the West Bank and Al-Quds. Gazans have lived under an Israeli-led blockade for 16 years, since Hamas won elections in 2007.
Western countries, led by the United States, supported the occupying regime of Israel.
Across the Middle East, there were demonstrations in support of Hamas, while Iran and Hezbollah praised the attack.
That Israel was caught completely off guard was lamented as one of the worst intelligence failures in its history, a shock to an entity that boasts of its intensive infiltration and monitoring of militants.
The main Tel Aviv Stock Exchange indexes fell 6% on Sunday and investors expected the violence to prompt a move into gold and other safe-haven assets.
-- Al-Aqsa Storm Rips Mask of Hypocrisy Off Real Terrorists
No tear was shed by the self-styled advocates of human rights when terrorists launched explosive-laden drones to target a graduation ceremony of Syrian military cadets in the city of Homs earlier this week, resulting in the death of around a hundred young aspiring soldiers and various degrees of injury to over two hundred-and-fifty others, some of whom are in serious condition.
Not a day passes when Zionist soldiers and dangerously armed illegal Jewish migrants hunt and hound to death unarmed Palestinians, including children, in the towns and cities of the West Bank of River Jordan, but no one in the supposedly civilized societies of North America and Europe bothers to condemn this unabated genocide of the past 75 years.
Neither the World Body nor its so-called Security Council have ever objected to the almost daily violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of UN member Syria whose towns and cities are targets of Israeli drones, missiles, and aircraft for the past few years, with mounting loss of life and destruction of the infrastructure.
Since 1979 UN Security Council Resolution 446 has not just been lying dormant but systematically violated through building of Jewish townships in a sizeable part of Syria’s Golan Heights, the Shabaa farmlands of Lebanon, the eastern part of Bayt al-Moqaddas, and the West Bank – all of which have been virtually annexed with the tacit approval of the US and the UK – but the ‘international community’ refuses to pressure Israel to withdraw from these 1967 occupied territories.
Moreover, Gaza has been under siege for the past 16 years and its 2.3 million people suffering from economic hardships that worsen because of the frequent air raids of Israel and the death and destruction it entails, yet this terrorism of a racist and roguish regime is never denounced by the ‘defenders of democracy’.
Now, when the besieged Gazans decide to exercise their right of self-defence by launching a lightning assault on parts of the 1948 occupied territories of their usurped homeland, they are being called ‘terrorists’, and that too by those whose state terrorism against fellow humans knows no limits, whether on the basis of race and religion or simply the lust for hegemony and expansionism, coupled in all these cases with their intense hatred for Muslims ever becoming economically independent and politically powerful.
Why do they fear Islam? Why do they want the Palestinians – or for that matter the Lebanese, the Syrians, the Iraqis, the Egyptians, the Yemenis, the Bahrainis, the Afghans, and the pious and patriotic people of the Islamic Republic of Iran – to be deprived of their inalienable right of resistance?
The answers are obvious. The terroristic regimes which rule the roost in several supposedly powerful countries fear that the liberating message of the Holy Qur’an will release people from the bondage of the libertine life promoted by the liberal democracies and the shackles of superstition imposed by demagogues riding to power on the jingoistic tendencies of ignorant mobs.
In other words, such vanishing breeds are terrified of the thought of the equal rights of all mankind and thus they have no other choice but to criminally voice support for the crimes against humanity of the illegal Zionist regime, and label as ‘terrorists’ the poor Palestinians and all those Muslims striving to awaken minds, enlighten hearts, and strengthen the spirit of universal brotherhood for building the ideal world order based on peace, prosperity, and justice.
Therefore, “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” that caught intelligence agencies of Global Arrogance by surprise and shattered the myth of invincibility of nuclear-armed Israel, came as a rude shock to the true terrorists all over the world who have rushed to the support of Tel Aviv and are weeping for the 700 odd killer Israelis killed by Palestinian defenders, the more than 2,000 Zionist criminals injured, and the over hundred thuggish soldiers captured and taken to Gaza.
At the same time, these hypocrites, whether in Washington, London, Paris, and Berlin or in other parts of the world, have dropped all pretensions to humanitarian values by applauding the ongoing air raids of the Zionists on Gaza that have so far claimed the life of over five hundred innocent Palestinians – mostly women and children – in addition to destroying the infrastructure of the besieged enclave.
It is, however, naïve of Global Arrogance to think the Palestinians are being pulverized by the Israelis who through their barbaric atrocities intend to teach a lesson as well to the Lebanese, the Syrians, the Iraqis, the Yemenis, the Egyptians, the Iranians, the Turks, and others from ever thinking of unifying ranks for the liberation of al-Aqsa – that will definitely happen and result in the weeding out of the cancerous tumour called Israel.
-- Israeli Officials, World Leaders Blame Zionist Policies, U.S. Support for Escalation
An Israeli official on Sunday admitted “serious intelligence failure” during the past few days that led to the escalating conflict between the Zionist regime and Palestine.
The official, requesting anonymity, stated that the war is expected to extend for “weeks,” according to Hebrew Channel 13.
Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on Saturday and said the surprise attack was in response to the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and increased settler violence. It said it fired rockets and captured many Israelis.
In turn, the Israeli army initiated Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, an Israeli lawmaker told Al Jazeera that his party warned about events like Saturday’s Hamas attack on Israel if the occupying regime continued its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.
Ofer Cassif, a member of the Knesset and leftist Hadash coalition, said he warned the situation would “erupt” if the cabinet of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not change its policies towards Palestinians. Hadash has four seats in the 120-member Knesset.
“We condemn and oppose any assault on innocent civilians. But in contrast to the Israeli regime that means that we oppose any assault on Palestinian civilians as well. We must analyze those terrible incidents [the attacks] in the right context – and that is the ongoing occupation,” Cassif said.
“We have been warning time and time again… everything is going to erupt and everybody is going to pay a price – mainly innocent civilians on both sides. And unfortunately, that is exactly what happened,” he said.
“The Israeli regime, which is a fascist regime, supports, encourages, and leads pogroms against the Palestinians. There is an ethnic cleansing going on. It was obvious the writing was on the wall, written in the blood of the Palestinians – and unfortunately now Israelis as well,” he added.
Many countries have also blamed the Zionist regime and the U.S. support for the recent escalation.
Iraq on Saturday condemned the occupying regime’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, saying it always stands by the Palestinians.
Government spokesman Bassim al-Awadi called on the international community to stop the injustice done to the Palestinian people and to intervene to restore the rights of the Palestinians.
Al-Awadi warned that the escalation and continuation of the tension in Palestinian territories will have negative repercussions on the region. He also called for an extraordinary meeting of the Arab League.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said the realization of an independent, and geographically integrated Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, with East Al-Quds as capital, could not be delayed any longer.
“Lasting peace in the Middle East is only possible through a final settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” Erdogan said at the opening ceremony of Mor Ephrem Syriac Orthodox Church in Yesilkoy on the European side of Istanbul.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Sunday said the international community continues to take one-sided actions regarding all forms of cruelty and oppression against the Palestinian people.
“The confiscation of land and property belonging to the Palestinian people is done relentlessly by the Zionists. As a result of this injustice, hundreds of innocent lives were sacrificed,” Anwar said in a post on X, according to Anadolu Agency.
“Malaysia remains in solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people,” he maintained.
Japan, Brazil, Indonesia are among mammy countries that called for a ceasefire.
TEHRAN TIMES:
-- The storm that greatly changes the calculations
History has turned the page. The developments of these days will shape the future of the region. Within a few hours, many calculations and very powerful equations were rendered useless. The fire started where they thought it was extinguished forever. The “Al-Aqsa Storm” operation is a big and historic attack on the calculations of the Zionist enemy. Such a blow is unprecedented since the day of occupation. Of course, the war has just begun and there will be many surprises on the way. Israel has not yet been able to list what it faced in a few hours. Disrupting Israel’s calculations is the spirit of the current battle. Israel has a set of very dangerous calculations based on which it had drawn up stupid strategies. These illusions must disappear. Israel’s first calculation in the past months was that it could destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and build its own temple on its ruins. A team of Zionist extremists who are currently in power wanted to destroy the mosque very soon.
-- Israel, Hezbollah exchange artillery, rocket fire
Israel and Lebanon’s powerful armed group Hezbollah exchanged artillery and rocket fire on Sunday following the deadliest attack in years by Palestinian gunmen on Israel. There were no immediate reports of casualties in either Lebanon or Israel from Sunday’s exchanges of fire. On Saturday, a multi-pronged attack by Palestinian gunmen on Israeli towns left at least 250 Israelis dead, with more than 300 Palestinians killed in Israel’s retaliatory bombardment. The Israeli military said on Sunday it fired artillery into an area of Lebanon where cross-border fire was launched. “IOF (Israel Occupying Forces) artillery is currently striking the area in Lebanon from where a shooting was carried out,” it said. Israel’s military said one its drones struck a Hezbollah post in the area of Har Dov, an area in Shebaa. “At this point, there is no further threat in Har Dov or the northern arena,” IOF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in televised remarks, adding that the military remained on high alert.
-- Iran President warns Israel against warmongering
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned the Israeli regime against making warmongering steps, saying that equations in the region have changed. President Raisi also spoke over the phone with Esmail Haniyeh, the chief of Hamas political bureau, and Ziyad Nakhala, the secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad Movement. The Iranian president also issued a message on the situation in Palestine. He welcomed the Palestinian operation against the Zionist regime of Israel, saying that the operation frightened and startled the world of oppression. He said the Palestinians took the initiative and showed that the steely determination prevails over all kinds of weaponry. The Iranian president underlined that the Islamic Republic of Iran invites all the world to observe the truth that the accumulation of oppression and injustice against the Palestinian people, the continuation of insults to the women and prisoners, and sacrilege to Al-Aqsa Mosque cannot last forever and will be met with resistance by nations.
-- Iran, Russia considering co-op in joint automobile, parts production
Tehran and Moscow have discussed cooperation in the joint production of automobiles and auto parts in a meeting between Iranian Deputy Industry Minister Manuchehr Manteghi and Head of Russia’s Central Scientific Research Institute of Automobile and Automotive Engines (NAMI) Fyodor Nazarov, IRNA reported. In this meeting, which was attended by the managers of Iran’s major carmakers Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) and SAIPA Group, the two sides explored avenues of cooperation between the Iranian automakers with NAMI for the implementation of the Russian institute’s standards on Iranian products. Reducing costs for the export of IKCO and SAIPA products to Russia and taking the necessary measures to create competitive opportunities in the Russian market for Iranian products were also among the subjects discussed in the meeting. Speaking in this gathering, Nazarov pointed out that Iran’s automotive market and automotive industry are progressing significantly and there is a good potential for bilateral cooperation in this field. “The NAMI institute has 115 kilometers of test lines for all types of cars, 3000 testing and measurement equipment for auto parts, and 40 different routes to perform different car tests,” the official said. He further emphasized that his institute is ready for joint cooperation with Iranian companies, including SAIPA and IKCO in the fields of science, car design, car testing, etc.
-- Iran sends aid, rescuers to quake-hit Afghanistan
The Iranian Red Crescent Society dispatched a package of humanitarian aid and a team of rescue forces to Afghanistan which was hit by an earthquake on Saturday. “Ten teams including 50 rescue workers have been dispatched to Afghanistan,” IRNA quoted Babak Mahmoudi, the head of the IRCS rescue and relief organization, said. Also, 500 tents, 1,000 pieces of moquette, 4,000 blankets, 500 dishes, and 500 food packages, along with search equipment have been sent to the quake-hit neighboring country. Hundreds of people are feared dead after a 6.3 magnitude hit western Afghanistan, near the Iranian border. More than 2,000 people are reported to be killed and many are still missing. The quake devastated at least 12 villages near the city of Herat
NOURNEWS