NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Sunday, November 19, 2023.
IRAN DAILY:
-- Iran oil output up 50% despite sanctions, to hit 3.6 mbd: Owji
Iran’s oil production has increased 50 percent since the 13th administration took office two years ago, said Oil Minister Javad Owji.
The minister, who made the announcement at a meeting with some religious sources of imitation, including Ayatollah Seyyed Hashem Hosseini Bushehri and Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi Amoli, in the holy city of Qom, north-central Iran, added that the country’s oil production stood at 2.2 million barrels per day (mbd) when the incumbent government took over in August 2021, while the output has now soared to 3.3 mbd, and will hit 3.6 mbd by the end of the upcoming winter, Shana reported.
The country’s oil production has witnessed a 50 percent hike, and crude exports have increased 2.5 times under the 13th administration in spite of intensified sanctions, he pointed out.
Iran’s oil industry was controlled by foreign advisers before the Islamic Revolution and they plundered the country’s products, said Owji. “The oil industry has witnessed great events after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, over the past 44 years. No foreign advisers are now present in the country’s oil and gas industry, and Iranian oil experts are developing the domestic industry.”
In the pre-revolution era, he continued, one gas refinery and one petrochemical plant had been built, while 23 refineries and 65 petrochemical complexes are operating now, said the oil minister, adding that $14 billion in revenues earned from petrochemical exports in the previous year were deposited into Iran’s Integrated Forex Deals System (NIMA).
A few cities and villages were supplied with gas before the revolution, recalled Owji, adding that 98 percent of the urban population, and around 84 percent of the rural population have now been connected to the gas grid, as 5,700 villages and 40 towns, mainly underprivileged and cold areas, have been provided with gas since two years ago.
The country is currently making 80 percent of the products and equipment needed by the domestic oil industry, said the minister, underscoring that the 13th administration has accelerated the implementation of oil projects.
“We have become self-sufficient in the oil and gas industry and are exporting technical and engineering services to countries sanctioned by the US,” said Owji, explaining that Iran started exporting technical and engineering services to refineries in Venezuela and Latin America under the 13th administration and reactivated their oil industry, which had come to a standstill due to sanctions.
The incumbent administration has given top priority to the completing of partly-finished projects and the launching of new projects such as the newly-inaugurated Phase 11 of the South Pars (SP) Gas Field, he pointed out.
Qom Province’s gas consumption in all sectors is between four and five million cubic meters per day (mcm/d), said Owji, adding that SP Phase 11 produces some 14 mcm/d and its production will increase by drilling more wells.
Under the 13th administration, he said, domestic gas output has jumped 50 mcm/d, while the country faced no problems with gas supplies during last year’s severe winter.
Shifting to projects for reducing air pollution, the oil minister referred to the collecting of associated petroleum gas (APG), stating 11.5 mcm of flare gas has been gathered per day since the 13th administration took office and the volume of APG to be captured by the end of the year (March 19, 2024) will be equal to the amount produced by one phase of the SP field.
Owji pointed to the impacts of the oil industry on the country’s economic growth, concluding that the oil and gas sectors’ economic growth stood at 10.5 percent in the year to March 20, 2023, and rose to 19.6 percent in the spring of 2023.
-- CBI sees oil industry annual economic growth at 15.2%
The Iranian oil industry’s economy is projected to grow 15.2 percent this Iranian year (started March 21, 2023), said the country’s top banker.
Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Mohammadreza Farzin pointed to a 24 percent growth in crude oil output and a 16,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) increase in gas condensate production in the first half of the current Iranian year, forecasting a 15.2 percent economic growth for the oil sector, Shana reported.
Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to hit 4.3 percent by mid-March 2024, he continued.
The industrial sector’s growth will be mixed, said Farzin, adding some industries will post high growth and some will report decline.
Estimates are based on growth in main domestic industries including oil and agriculture and balance of payments (BOP).
-- Turkmenistan proposes to construct joint economic zone with Iran
Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan has expressed his country’s interest in developing ties with Iran and proposed to construct a joint economic zone with Iran.
Rashid Meredov made the remarks addressing the opening ceremony of the economic conference of Iranian and Turkmenistan businessmen in the Turkmen capital city of Ashgabat on Saturday, IRNA reported.
He said that developing trade exchanges, seeking new routes of cooperation, and employing the two countries’ capacities are the goals of the conference to provide vast investment opportunities.
Referring to the positive economic ties between Iran and Turkmenistan, he added that Turkmenistan has an active economy, natural gas, and oil reserves that provide many opportunities for Iranian investors.
Pointing to the role of border markets in the growth of trade, he noted that Bajgiran border markets are active in two countries and Turkmenistan proposes the creation of a joint economic zone in the Sarakhs and Incheh-Borun regions.
Iran’s companies enjoy modern technology, he said, asking Iranian companies to cooperate with Turkmenistan.
Meredov pointed to Iran-Turkmenistan’s electricity cooperation, and said that the construction of a power transmission line with 400 kWh is under negotiation with an Iranian company.
Meanwhile, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for economic diplomacy pointed to the capabilities of Iranian companies and expressed the Islamic Republic’s readiness to implement development projects in neighboring Turkmenistan.
Speaking in the inaugural ceremony of the Iran-Turkmenistan Economic Forum on the sidelines of the “Iran Project” Exhibition, Mehdi Safari said the two countries have high potential to increase bilateral trade.
Turkmenistan is Iran’s strategic partner in political and economic terms, he added.
Promoting relations with neighbors is one of the priorities of the current administration of Iran, he said.
Today, the volume of trade exchanges between the two countries has increased to about $500 million, Safari added.
-- Iran-Pakistan exhibition highlights Israeli atrocities on Palestinians
Iran and Pakistan are collaborating in holding an exhibition, highlighting the atrocities being committed by Israel on the Palestinians.
Caretaker Minister for National Heritage and Culture of Pakistan Jamal Shah and Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri-Moqaddam on Friday inaugurated the three-day exhibition.
The theme of the exhibition is ‘Palestine: Oppression, Resistance, Victory,’ and is being held at the Lok Virsa Art Gallery in Islamabad. It is organized by the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in collaboration with the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage - Lok Virsa, tribune.com.pk reported.
The exhibition showcases 76 selected art works in photography, painting, and caricature, focusing on themes related to Quds, Palestine, and Gaza.
Syrian Ambassador to Pakistan Ramez Alraee, Iranian Cultural Attaché Ehsan Khazaei, National Heritage and Culture Division Adviser Mohammad Kashif Irshad and Lok Virsa Executive Director Mohammad Uzair Khan were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Jamal Shah said Palestinians were valiant people and would succeed in their legitimate struggle for right to self-determination.
He said responsibility rested with the world community and the United Nations to play their role in stopping the Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.
Shah regretted that the cowardly Israel was targeting weaponless Palestinians, their schools and hospitals, adding that the Israeli forces were not even sparing the children.
He said Pakistan did not recognize the state of Israel and had repeatedly called for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters”.
Iranian envoy Amiri-Moqaddam expressed his condolences to the Palestinian nation for the martyrdom of more than 10,000 innocent men, women and children.
“I would like to appreciate the government of Pakistan for the strong position taken by the high officials and different authorities, scholars and people from various walks of life to support the innocent people of Palestine and against the atrocities and genocide committed by the Zionist and fascist regime of Israel,” he added.
Amiri-Moqaddam said the Zionist regime broke its own record of barbarism, war crimes and genocide, adding that in the status quo, the Muslim world should take meaningful and tangible measures to first guarantee a cease-fire, open a humanitarian corridor to Gaza, and then get united to exercise due leverages against Israel.
He expressed appreciation for the organizers of the exhibition, participants and all those who contributed to holding this event.
Iran’s Cultural Attaché in Pakistan, Khazaee, stated that the people of Pakistan, especially the younger generation, are eager to witness artistic programs and familiarize themselves with the culture of resistance.
He emphasized that over the past few weeks, they have demonstrated their unity in supporting the Palestinian people and condemning the crimes of the illegitimate Zionist regime.
Khazaee added that the exhibition aims to depict the daily suffering of the people in Gaza under the oppression of the occupying Israeli Army.
According to Khazaee, organizing this exhibition is a way to shed light on the ongoing events in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly serving as an enlightening narrative against Israel’s crimes and the world’s silence on the genocide in Gaza.
-- Iran to send two dossiers of Lorestan Province for 2024 UNESCO registration
In an announcement, Ata Hassanpour, the head of the Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism Department in Lorestan Province, said that Iran allocated its 2024 quotas for registration on UNESCO World Heritage List to Khorramabad Valley and Falak-ol-Aflak Castle.
Hassanpour expressed optimism about making significant progress in meeting long-standing demands of the province.
He acknowledged the potential challenges in this process and emphasized collaboration with executive officials, the mayor of Khorramabad, experts, and colleagues in addressing them.
Hassanpour also mentioned special initiatives by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi regarding the release of the area around Falak-ol-Aflak Castle, including the acquisition of 12 shops to free the northern section of the castle’s neighborhood.
Since there are nearly 60 days left for the documentation, the preparation of the records for both sites is currently underway.
The responsibility for compiling this documentation has been assigned to Hassanpour by Ali Darabi, the deputy minister of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts.
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
-- Iran Condemns Assassination of Gaza Parliament Speaker
Iran on Saturday said the assassination acting Gaza parliament speaker Ahmad Bahar further exposed the criminal nature of a regime which has killed thousands of people in Palestine over the past few weeks.
“The apartheid Zionist regime has laid bare its dirty, criminal and anti-human nature by killing the acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council and thousands of Palestinian citizens in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank over more than 40 continuous days,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said.
-- Over 100 Pro-Palestine Rallies Held in UK
Organizers of the pro-Palestine marches that have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to London’s streets coordinated smaller action in villages, towns and cities on Saturday.
More than 100 pro-Palestine events demanding a ceasefire in Gaza were due to take place across the UK.
Tens of thousands of people were expected to attend vigils, protests, petitions, fundraisers and marches across London boroughs and cities including Birmingham, Cambridge, Liverpool and elsewhere, according to organizers.
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said the rallies were organized to show that “ordinary people” support a ceasefire.
“This Saturday, ordinary people across the UK will come out again to show the vast majority of them support a ceasefire,” said Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), a lead organizer of the march.
“They will show their solidarity with Palestinians who are suffering unimaginable harm. They will also demand the root causes are not forgotten: Israel’s decades-long military occupation of Palestinian territories and its system of apartheid against Palestinians.”
A spokesperson for organizers Stop the War Coalition said the rallies would be followed next Saturday by a national demonstration.
“Groups around the country are organizing local rallies and marches to basically build for the national demonstration that has been called for next Saturday,” she said.
“I think most of them have speakers from various organizations that are involved in the main marches, and then trade unionists,” she said.
“Some of them have trade unionists as speakers, and some of them are marching, like the one in Highbury.”
The Metropolitan police said a “significant” policing operation was planned for the capital this weekend.
They said they would target deployments in areas “with significant Jewish or Muslim communities”, which they said “continue to experience increased uncertainty and fear in light of events
in the Middle East and their impact here in London”.
Temporary commander Karen Findlay, who is leading the operation, said: “Whilst there is no single large central protest event on Saturday, our policing priorities remain the same across the local events that are due to take place.
“We are here to ensure that people can exercise their right to protest but to make sure that is done lawfully, and that unreasonable disruption to the lives of other Londoners is kept to a minimum.
“Our officers will intervene swiftly where they see offences taking place. In particular, I want to reiterate that there is no place for hate in London. Hate crime will not be tolerated.
“Regrettably, while the majority of protesters coming out in recent weeks have been peaceful, we have continued to see people taking part in offensive chanting or intentionally carrying placards that cross the line from political statements into racially or religiously aggravated offences.”
The latest action comes a week after hundreds of thousands of people marched through central London without major incident. The prime minister and former home secretary had insisted the march should be banned.
The national march, organized by PSC alongside Stop the War, the Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa and others, will resume in London on November 25, with organizers saying they will continue until there is a ceasefire.
-- Millions of Iranians Vent Anger at Gaza Genocide
Millions of Iranians held nationwide rallies on Saturday to support the oppressed Palestinian people and condemn the Zionist regime’s genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.
People in the capital Tehran took to the streets in their thousands to express solidarity with the people of Gaza, who are under the most barbaric bombings of the Zionist regime and a total siege.
They descended on the Enghelab (Revolution) Square in central Tehran, waving Iranian and Palestinian flags.
The demonstrators voiced their unwavering support for the oppressed people of Palestine in the face of the ongoing Israeli atrocities.
Addressing the protesters, IRGC chief Major General Hussein Salami hailed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as the most “exceptional” blitzkrieg against the Zionist enemy since its illegal inception.
General Salami said the operation was a reaction to the century-long oppression imposed by the UK, the U.S., France, and the Zionist regime on the Palestinian people, who have endured 75 years of expulsion and displacement from their lands.
“What is important is that the Palestinians have never accepted to be subservient to the policies of the United States and the Zionist regime,” he said.
Gen. Salami said Operation Al-Aqsa Flood shattered the Zionist illusion of dominance over the Palestinians.
People in many provinces from Sistan and Baluchestan in southeast to Fars in south, Golestan in north and Ardabil and Zanjan in northwest held similar rallies.
In Golestan, protesters chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel”, and carried placards bearing messages in support of the Palestinian people.
Iranians have held several rallies since the occupying regime of Israel launched its brutal war on the impoverished Palestinian territory nearly one and a half months ago.
-- Basij Chief: Gaza War to Begin a Transformative Era
Iran on Saturday strongly condemned Israeli military attacks on hospitals and medical centers across the Gaza Strip, terming them as yet another manifestation of the regime’s brutality against Palestinians.
“After the failure of Israeli authorities to prove their false claims about Al-Shifa Hospital, its army has resumed its attacks on other hospitals in Gaza,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani wrote on X.
“Attacks on Jordan and Indonesian hospitals are yet another manifestation of the regime’s aggressive and barbaric nature,” he added.
Attacking hospitals “is in conflict with all the standards of human rights, international law and Geneva Conventions,” he said, adding such a move “makes the criminal nature of this regime even more obvious to the world.”
Basij Chief Brigadier General Gholamreza Soleimani said Zionist killers should be tried in international courts.
Gaza today, he said, is the scene of a serious conflict between right and wrong and between heresy and Islam, where the Western powers, headed by the criminal America, have provided all their military and media technological capacities and capabilities to the child-killing regime of Israel in order to stifle the voice of freedom and defense of the oppressed land of Palestine.
Gen. Soleimani said the conflict in Gaza will be the beginning of a transformative new era for human history.
“Time is needed for the transformational effects of the great victory of the Palestinian fighters in Al-Aqsa Flood and the irreparable defeat of the usurping Zionist regime to be revealed,” he said.
He said while the media devils of the world support the aggressors and offer their media capacities to the Zionist killers to be used against Palestine, a groundswell of awakened consciences has appeared in the West, where the largest march against the government in the U.S. took place near the White House in support of the oppressed people of Palestine.
“Westerners thought that they could guarantee the continuation of their empires by resorting to media and virtual space, but the schools of thought emanating from Western civilization and the Renaissance have reached a dead end and expired.”
Gen. Soleimani said if it had not been for American support for Israel, the fake usurping regime would have collapsed by now.
He said some European countries deliver ammunition and military equipment to the Zionist killers by sea and air.
“There is nothing but brutality and cruelty, and the violators of the rights of the Palestinian people are more disgraceful today than ever,”
-- Israeli Media: Hamas Has Not Been Broken, Rescuing Captives Impossible
Experts and former security officials with the Zionist regime confirmed that it is impossible for Tel Aviv to combine its declared goal of destroying the Hamas resistance movement and rescuing the captives.
According to Razi Barkai, from Israel’s Army Radio, associated with the Zionist regime’s army, executing the two missions of: “Destroying Hamas and rescuing the hostages at the same time is not possible.”
In turn, General of the Reserve Army Giora Eiland, former head of the Operations Department, believes: “Hamas as an organization has not been broken, not only because its leadership still exists, but also because the goal on its part is very simple: to persevere and be steadfast.”
He added: “As long as it continues to persevere and hold on to part of the captives, it assumes that Israel will at a certain stage be forced to stop due to international pressure or other reasons; therefore, this battle is still at its peak.”
As for the Arab affairs correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13, Zvi Yehezkeli, he asserted that Hamas is not in distress: “And you won’t find senior leaders under al-Shifa Medical Hospital.”
For 42 days, the Zionist occupation army has launched a devastating attack on Gaza, leaving over 12,000 martyrs, including 4,710 children and 3,160 women, in addition to 29,800 injured, 70 percent of whom are children and women, according to the latest official Palestinian census.
Jordan’s foreign minister also voiced doubt on Saturday that Israel could reach its goal of obliterating Hamas with its heavy bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip long dominated by the Palestinian resistance movement.
“Israel says it wants to wipe out Hamas. There’s a lot of military people here, I just don’t understand how this objective can be realized,” Ayman Safadi said at the annual IISS Manama Dialogue security summit in Bahrain.
Biden Discusses Captives With Qatar
U.S. President Joe Biden has pressed for the immediate release of hostages seized by Hamas during talks with the leader of Qatar, which has relations with the resistance fighters.
Biden, in San Francisco for an Asia-Pacific summit, in a telephone call with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani “discussed the urgent need for all captives held by Hamas to be released without further delay,” a White House statement said.
Biden also raised the Zionist regime’s decision to let two tankers of diesel each day into the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Biden and the emir “discussed ongoing efforts to increase the flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza and Israel’s decision to resume fuel deliveries for life-saving aid,” the White House said.
Biden two days earlier had told reporters that he was “mildly hopeful” of reaching a deal to free the captives, believed to include about 10 U.S. citizens.
TEHRAN TIMES:
-- Why are the secret confessions of Gen. Kohavi important?
In a revelation that peels back the layers of secrecy surrounding the Israeli military and its political affairs, a recently surfaced audio tape from a confidential meeting exposes the inner workings of the Zionist command. Key figures, including Aviv Kohavi, the former Chief of General Staff of the Israeli military, participated in this high-level gathering, shedding light on military operations and strategic discussions. Kohavi is an influential figure in the Israeli military. His role as the architect of the “Tenufa” plan, aimed at countering specific threats from Iran.
-- Israel to try its luck in the south
- The Israeli war on Gaza was primarily motivated by anger at a huge intelligence and military failure following the retaliatory al-Aqsa Storm operation by Hamas on October 7. There was indeed an immediate political imperative by the regime to do something and get on with it, rather than developing clear military objectives. After weeks of indiscriminate bombing campaigns against Palestinian civilians, the Israeli ground forces tried to invade the northern Gaza Strip. But the ground offensives in the north of Gaza have made no success, with Israeli commentators admitting so in talks with the regime’s media. After the ground offensives began in the north, the Israeli military’s stated aims were to seize Gaza City.
-- Dutch company sentenced to compensate five Iranian victims of poison gas
A Dutch court on Wednesday ordered Dutch company Forafina Beleggingen, previously KBS Holland, to pay compensation to five Iranian victims of poison gas during the imposed war of the 1980s. The initial ruling was issued on November 15, 2023, as announced by the Iranian president’s public relations office, in a case where five Iranian citizens brought legal action against the Dutch companies Forafina Beleggingen and OTJIAHA, seeking compensation for harm caused by toxic gases supplied by these companies to Iraq during the imposed war. Forafina Beleggingen was found guilty of selling chemical raw materials to Iraq during the war. Also, the appeal to OTJIAHA company is being considered. The five Iranians were left permanently injured after three Iraqi mustard gas attacks in 1984 and 1986 during the imposed war, the court said in a statement. They argued that the two companies “knew or should have known” that thionyl chloride sold to Iraq would be used to make mustard gas. Lawyers for the company cleared, now called OTJIHA, denied that the company, formerly known as Melchemie, had any knowledge that the chemical would be used by Iraq to make mustard gas. The court agreed, saying that in the 1980s, “it was not yet widely known that the Iraqi regime was using mustard gas in the war against Iran, let alone that Iraq was using thionyl chloride for the production of that gas.
-- Panic as Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital evacuates
Israeli forces ordered doctors, patients, and displaced people at Gaza’s alShifa Hospital to evacuate the medical compound, forcing some to leave by gunpoint, medical sources told Al Jazeera on Saturday. The hospital housed more than 7,000 people, including critical patients. Doctors said the facility, which has been under siege by Israeli troops for several days, was now largely deserted hours after soldiers ordered people to leave on Saturday. But in a post on X, the Israeli army spokesperson denied giving any order, claiming the “IDF responded to the request of the director of Shifa Hospital to allow Gazan citizens who were sheltering in the hospital and who wish to evacuate from Shifa Hospital towards the humanitarian crossing in the Gaza Strip via a secure axis”
-- Iran, Azerbaijan emphasize bilateral cooperation
The Foreign Ministers of Iran and Azerbaijan have expressed the two countries’ willingness to deepen and develop bilateral cooperation during a phone call. Iran’s top diplomat, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, on Saturday, reiterated his country’s call for the expansion of ties with Baku. “The more we strengthen regional cooperation, the better it will be for the whole region,” he said during the phone conversation on Saturday. Azerbaijan’s senior diplomat, for his part, highlighted the need to eliminate foreign interference, and work in tandem to achieve mutual goals. Jeyhun Bayramov also called for more engagement between the two countries in different fields. Tehran recently agreed to help connect mainland Azerbaijan to its breakaway region, Nakhchivan, via Iranian soil.
NOURNEWS