NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Tuesday, December 5, 2023.
IRAN DAILY:
- Tehran, Astana to raise annual bilateral trade to $3b
Kazakh and Iranian officials signed a memorandum of understanding to bring mutual trade to $3 billion.
The document was signed by Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin and Iranian Minister of Agriculture Mohammad Ali Nikbakht at the 19th meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation between the two countries, held in Tehran on December 2-3.
During the meeting, officials and business persons from Iran and Kazakhstan discussed various issues of common interest between the two countries.
Nikbakht, the Iranian co-chair of the intergovernmental commission, said, “This is the second meeting of the two countries’ Joint Economic Committee in the current Iranian year (started March 21), which shows the two countries’ determination to expand economic ties.”
Currently, the economic exchange between the two countries is not at a good level, so we have targeted the trade exchange between the two countries to hit $3 billion, Nikbakht noted.
According to the minister, Iranian enterprises can arrange supplies of fish and dairy products, honey, fruits and vegetables, herbs, dried fruits and other food products to Kazakhstan.
The Iranian side also showed interest in Kazakh investments and expressed its readiness to provide special conditions for doing business in free economic zones of Iran.
Zhumangarin for his part pointed to a meeting with Iranian businessmen and said the two countries of Iran and Kazakhstan have vast capacities to cooperate.
“In the 19th Joint Economic Committee meeting, two issues of transportation logistics and bank settlement were agreed upon,” he added.
At the end of the meeting, Iran and Kazakhstan signed four MOUs to boost cooperation.
- Iran to produce power from gas pressure boosters
Iran has started the project of electricity generation from the exhaust system of gas turbines, with the aim of optimal use of existing resources along with increasing the efficiency of gas pressure boosting facilities.
Samad Rahimi, the manager of the gas pressure boosting facility project at the Iran Gas Engineering and Development Company, announced the above, adding that that there are about 80 gas pressure boosting facilities in Iran, most of which use four turbines, Shana reported.
“Currently, we see the waste of a large amount of thermal energy from the exhaust system of turbines in the facilities, which can be converted into electricity using new technologies,” he added.
The project will be undertaken using two technologies for different climates, Rahimi said, explaining that one technology is for facilities that have access to water, while the other technology is for stations that are located in regions with water shortages.
- Leader calls for coalition among nations opposed to US bullying
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said great political and economic capacities of Iran and Cuba should be used to form a coalition against the bullying of the United States and its Western allies.
Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks in a Monday meeting with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who is heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was also present at the meeting. Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the remarkable potentialities of Iran and Cuba, and said, “These capacities should be used to set up an alliance and a coalition among those countries that share the same position against the US and Western bullying,” Press TV reported.
“This coalition, with a focus on economic collaborations, can have a united and influential stance on global issues, such as the Palestinian cause,” the leader added.
The Palestinian issue is not only related to recent events in Gaza and bombardments, as the Palestinian people have endured various forms of torture, suffering, and massacres over the past 75 years, the Leader emphasized. However, the current tragedy in Gaza is so significant that it has brought the reality to the world’s public consciousness, making it impossible to conceal. Ayatollah Khamenei regarded the positions of the Cuban president on global issues, especially the Palestinian cause, in harmony with the Islamic Republic’s stance, president.ir reported.
Referring to the collaboration of the two countries in international forums, he added that relations between the two countries, including scientific cooperation, should be strengthened more than ever.
The Leader expressed hope that the memoranda of understanding and agreements between the two countries would progress to the implementation and action stage.
Agreements inked
In the presence of the Iranian and Cuban presidents, senior officials of the two countries signed seven documents and agreements on the improvement of bilateral cooperation.
Raisi and Díaz-Canel also issued a joint statement on strengthening strategic relations between Tehran and Havana. According to the documents, Iran and Cuba will strengthen cooperation in various sectors of science and technology, health, agriculture, energy and mines, communications and medicine.
‘Unacceptable
genocide’
The Cuban president emphasized that the two countries can complement each other in various fields, especially in countering interventionist actions and sanctions by the United States and its allies.
“What is happening in Gaza today is an unacceptable genocide, and international organizations close their eyes to the massacre of tens of thousands of people in Gaza, two-thirds of whom are children and women,” he said.
Support of Palestine
The Iranian president had a separate meeting with the Cuban president, during which he said the two sides have a common stance on the need to form a coalition to support the oppressed Palestinian people in different continents, in cooperation with allied countries.
Raisi slammed the deafening silence of the international community on the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Díaz-Canel said Cuba slams Israel’s killing of thousands of Palestinian people and calls for the immediate establishment of a cease-fire in Gaza, which would prepare the ground for the formation of an independent Palestinian state. The Cuban president also said that in his talks with Iranian authorities in Tehran, both sides focused all their efforts on ways to deepen mutual relations, especially in the economic and commercial
spheres.
- Israeli forces enter southern Gaza
Israel moved ground forces into southern Gaza in its war on Hamas, witnesses said Monday, despite global concern over mounting civilian deaths and fears the conflict would spread in the Middle East.
Israel ordered people out of swathes of the main southern city in the besieged strip as it pressed its ground campaign deep into the south, sending desperate residents fleeing even as it dropped bombs on areas where it told them to go.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry on Sunday, 15,523 people had died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war with Israel on October 7.
Seventy percent of the Palestinians killed in the war were women and children, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said, adding that 41,316 people had been wounded.
Germany urged Israel on Monday to guarantee “realistic” protection to civilians with its Foreign Ministry spokesman saying, “Something we expect from Israel is that they not only urge civilians to leave the danger zone, but that they are in a realistic position to find safe shelter elsewhere”.
“Too many civilians have already been killed in this war,” Sebastian Fischer said.
On Monday, dozens of Israeli tanks as well as armored personnel carriers and bulldozers entered the south of the territory near the city of Khan Yunis, which is crowded with internally displaced Palestinians, witnesses told AFP.
‘Unconditional
support to kill babies’
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that the Western nations supporting Israel were giving it “unconditional support to kill babies” and were complicit in its crimes.
In a speech to an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) committee meeting in Istanbul, Erdogan said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would eventually be tried as a war criminal over the ongoing offensive in Gaza.
“Beyond being a war criminal, Netanyahu will be tried as the butcher of Gaza, just as Milosevic was tried,” Erdogan said, in reference to Yugoslav ex-president Slobodan Milosevic, who was tried for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes at a tribunal in The Hague.
“Those who try to skip over the deaths of all those innocent people by using the excuse of Hamas have nothing left to say to humanity,” he added, referring to Western powers, which he said were “blind and deaf”.
Commercial ships hit
Despite global fears that the conflict will spread elsewhere in the Middle East, Israel has widened its offensive in Gaza.
On Sunday, ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthis struck three commercial ships in the Red Sea, while a US warship shot down three drones in self-defense during the hours-long assault, the US military said. The Houthis claimed two of the attacks.
The strikes marked an escalation in a series of maritime attacks in the Mideast linked to the Gaza war, as multiple vessels found themselves in the crosshairs of a single Houthi assault for the first time in the conflict. The US vowed to “consider all appropriate responses” in the wake of the attack.
“These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security,” the US military’s Central Command said in a statement. “They have jeopardized the lives of international crews representing multiple countries around the world.”
Intolerable suffering
Full-scale fighting in Gaza resumed Friday after the collapse of a week-long truce brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, during which Israel and Hamas had exchanged scores of POWs and prisoners.
Air strikes have since intensified in Gaza’s south, said James Elder, a spokesman for the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.
“Despite what has been assured, attacks in the south of Gaza are every bit as vicious as what the north endured,” he posted Monday on X.
“Somehow, it’s getting worse for children and mothers.”
The Red Cross president, who arrived in war-torn Gaza on Monday, called for the protection of civilians in the Palestinian territory, where she warned that human suffering was “intolerable”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric’s travel to the region would happen in several stages with “a visit to Israel expected over the coming weeks”.
“I have arrived in Gaza, where people’s suffering is intolerable,” Spoljaric said on X, formerly Twitter.
“It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza, and with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible,” she added in an ICRC statement.
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
- Iran FM in Moscow to Attend Caspian Sea Meeting
Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian on Monday headed to Moscow to take part in the meeting of Caspian Sea foreign ministers.
On his page on social media, Amir-Abdollahian said he will follow up on the issues of mutual interest as well as the latest regional issues. The Caspian Sea, as an impetus for the growth of multilateral trade relations between the littoral countries, plays a crucial role in the neighborhood policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he underlined.
- Army Chief Calls for Prosecution of Zionists, Americans
The chief commander of the Iranian Army on Monday lauded the Palestinian resistance against Israel’s brutal aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip, saying the prosecution of those perpetrating crimes against Palestinians is the minimum price the Israelis and Americans must pay.
Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi made the remarks at a ceremony in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Sunday as he praised Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, the largest military operation by the Palestinian resistance groups against the occupied territories in decades.
- Iran, Cuba Sign Seven Documents for Cooperation
Presidents and high-ranking officials of Iran and Cuba here Monday signed seven cooperation documents and a joint statement.
As per the documents, Iran and Cuba will strengthen cooperation in various sectors of science and technology, health, agriculture, energy and mines, communications and medicine.
The Cuban president, who is heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, was welcomed by Iran’s Minister of Health and Medical Education Bahram Einollahi at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport upon his arrival.
He was later officially welcomed by his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi at Saadabad cultural complex in northern Tehran.
Díaz-Canel’s visit is the first since the late Cuban president Fidel Castro’s trip to Iran about 23 years ago.
Back in June, the Iranian president traveled to Havana and met with his Cuban counterpart. In the presence of the two presidents, Iran and Cuba signed six agreements to expand bilateral economic, political and judicial cooperation
Díaz-Canel will tour an exhibition showcasing the latest joint achievements reached in cooperation with Cuba in medical and pharmaceutical fields.
President Raisi said Iran and Cuba have a common stance on the need to form a coalition to support the oppressed Palestinian people in different continents in cooperation with the allied countries.
“Unfortunately, the United States and the West are supporting these heartbreaking crimes,” Raisi said, slamming those who claim to defend human rights for backing Israel’s crimes against humanity.
He also expressed regret over the inefficiency of the international systems which have failed to stop the “war machine that the U.S. has provided to the Zionist regime.”
He stressed the need to end the current unfair international system and form a fair global system that supports the oppressed people and prevents oppression.
Díaz-Canel said Cuba condemns Israel’s killing of thousands of Palestinian people and calls for the immediate establishment of a ceasefire in Gaza which would prepare the ground for the formation of an independent Palestinian state.
He added that Iran and Cuba call for international efforts to condemn Israel’s acts of genocide against the Palestinian people.
The Cuban president lashed out at the U.S. for interfering in Iran’s internal affairs, saying that Havana defends Tehran’s legitimate right to determine its own fate.
Later in a joint news conference, Raisi said both Iran and Cuba are resisting the arrogant system, warning the U.S. and its allies of their miscalculation regarding the implementation of the policy of sanctions against the countries.
He said the resistance of Tehran and Havana against U.S. hegemony and excessive demands has led to the imposition of sanctions.
“The U.S. and arrogant system think that sanctions can force countries to surrender, but this calculation is incorrect,” the Iranian president said.
He said those countries that are under sanctions can exchange capacities in a bid to neutralize them, adding that Iran and Cuba decided to promote relations as a major step towards foiling the sanctions.
Raisi hailed Iran’s growing cooperation with Cuba, particularly in the fields of science and technology, and noted that the two countries are also determined to expand relations in agriculture, mines and energy sectors.
He described his Cuban counterpart’s visit to Tehran after 21 years as a “turning point” in the improvement of mutual ties.
- Iraq’s Nujaba Leader: U.S. to Pay Dearly for Attack
Leader of Iraq’s Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, part of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) that works under the supervision of the government in Baghdad, on Monday warned that the United States will pay dearly for an attack that killed five members of the resistance movement in north of Iraq.
In a statement, Sheikh Akram al-Kaabi said the U.S. should expect more painful attacks by Iraqi resistance forces on its bases and interests in the Arab country following an airstrike that killed Nujaba fighters in Kirkuk a day earlier.
Kaabi said attacks by Iraqi resistance groups on U.S. forces will continue until they are completely expelled from Iraq.
That came after U.S. forces said late on Sunday that they had targeted a site in Iraq that has been used to launch drone attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria.
Iraqi resistance forces said on Sunday that they had used drones to target the Al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq, where U.S. forces are stationed, as well as an American military base in Al-Khazra village deep inside the Syrian territory.
Iraqi resistance forces have launched dozens of attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria over the past two months in a bid to force Washington to end its support for the Israeli regime’s ongoing aggression against the Palestinians in Gaza.
The attacks are part of a larger regional pattern of anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli action that has repeated itself since the occupying regime of Israel launched its aggression against Gaza in early October.
That includes attacks on targets in the occupied territories by the Yemeni army and the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.
Yemen’s ruling Ansarullah movement has also seized a ship believed to be linked to the Israeli regime.
The group has warned that its sees all ships linked to Israel that sail off Yemeni ports as legitimate targets.
- 28 Israeli Military Vehicles Destroyed in 24 Hours
The occupying regime of Israel expanded its ground invasion of the besieged Gaza on Monday, as international concern deepened over the mounting civilian death toll.
The return to open warfare after a truce between Israel and Hamas broke down has had ripple effects around a region on the cusp of a wider conflagration.
Since the expiry of the truce on Friday, fighting in Gaza has resumed between Hamas and Zionist troops, as have resistance fighters’ rocket launches toward Israel and Israel’s airstrikes on the Palestinian territory.
Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades have completely or partially destroyed 28 Israeli military vehicles in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, according to its spokesman Abu Obaida.
The Al-Qassam Brigades have deployed anti-fortification and anti-personnel weapons against Israel at close range, Abu Obaida said.
Hamas has previously showcased its fighters targeting Zionist military vehicles in videos where fighters emerge from rubble and tunnels carrying anti-personnel weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
In a statement, Abu Obaida also said that Hamas was using mortar shells against Israeli soldiers and claimed responsibility for a series of rocket barrages at occupied cities.
The Zionist regime has stepped up its bombardment on Gaza City in the centre of the Strip and Khan Younis in the south, resulting in a rising number of civilian casualties.
Doctors Without Borders reported an influx of wounded Palestinians since the breakdown of a fragile truce in Gaza last week.
“Since the fragile truce in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, collapsed on December 1, aerial and ground attacks by Israeli forces have resulted in hundreds of people killed and injured,” Doctors Without Borders, which supports two hospitals in the Gaza Strip, said on Monday.
In the last 48 hours, Doctors Without Borders said over 100 dead Palestinians and over 400 injured had arrived at Al Aqsa hospital in central Gaza alone.
“We hear bombing around us, day and night,” Katrien Claeys, an official with the group in central Gaza said.
“We see patients with signs of infection and necrotic tissue, as they have not received a change of wound dressing in days and sometimes weeks,” she added.
Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, where Israel has turned for the next stage of its invasion, has been overrun with injured Palestinians.
“The hospital has been receiving multiple severely injured patients nearly every hour,” Chris Hook, a Doctors Without Borders coordinator in Khan Younis said.
“With the situation as it is in the hospital – there is no available space anymore – it really is a terrible situation. Everyone is genuinely worried about what will come next,” he added.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) will hold an emergency meeting on December 10 with the Palestinian envoy who is seeking
improved medical access to Gaza.
The UN health agency said on Monday that it had received requests from 15 countries to hold the session, which will be chaired by Qatar.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, said the meeting would focus on Gaza, but also cover attacks on the health sector in the West Bank.
He added that he would call for an end to Israeli targeting of the health sector and for more medical aid to be sent to the strip.
Israeli airstrikes and dwindling fuel supplies to the besieged enclave have crippled most of Gaza’s hospitals. The few that remain operational are overwhelmed with the number of wounded arriving.
According to a WHO database, there have been 427 attacks on healthcare facilities in Palestinian territories since the Israeli invasion began on October 7.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) posted on X that Israeli airstrikes are even targeting areas in Gaza where Palestinians are being encouraged to flee, including the Rafah crossing.
“No place is safe, not there and not anywhere in Gaza. A brutal war continues unabated,” the agency posted on X.
Thomas White, the agency’s Gaza chief added that he had “nothing” to tell the people “pleading for advice” on where to take shelter.
The Red Cross president, Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, has arrived in Gaza, and called for the protection of civilians on Monday.
Spoljaric Egger said: “I have arrived in Gaza, where people’s suffering is intolerable.
“It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza, and with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible,” she added.
UNRWA said almost 1.9 million people - 80 percent of the population - have been displaced in Gaza since the war started.
“A staggering 1.2 million people are sheltering in 156 UNRWA installations across all five governorates,” they added.
TEHRAN TIMES:
- Iran’s military chief urges Iraq to take more action against KRG-based militants
The Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces has urged Iraq to continue disbanding terrorist groups hostile to Iran in the country’s Kurdistan region and drive them out of the border regions. Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri made the remarks during a meeting on Sunday with Iraqi Interior Minister Abdul Amir al-Shammari on Sunday. Iraq has already taken steps to relocate anti-Iranian terrorist groups away from the Kurdistan region’s borders with Iran, a move that won Bagheri’s appreciation. The Baghdad government is anticipated to continue its actions until the terrorist groups are completely disarmed, the Iranian general noted, stressing that there are still worries and hints regarding the presence of a number of terrorist elements near the shared border. “There is still evidence and concern about the presence of certain terrorist elements in the border region, and the Iraqi government is expected to keep up the border control job until the complete disarmament of those groups,” the top Iranian general added.
- Why Israel is not entitled to “self-defense”
- Since Israel initiated its devastating assaults on Gaza, Western governments have been fervently supporting the regime’s actions under the pretext of “self-defense,” turning a blind eye to the deliberate targeting of civilian facilities such as homes, hospitals, places of worship, and educational institutions. On October 15, leaders of the European Union voiced unwavering support for Israel’s “right to defend itself” within humanitarian and international law, disregarding the regime’s deliberate strikes. During U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel on Nov. 3, the West’s unbridled support for Israel was further extended. Blinken not only declared support for “Israel’s right to self-defense,” but also said, “It is obligated to do so, and we strongly support it.”
- Human rights, a tool to cover up Israel’s crimes in Gaza
Some Western think tanks, providing invalid information about the issue of human rights in Iran, make bids to deflect public opinion from the realities in the Gaza Strip. On December 2, the Guardian published a report, penned by Deepa Parent, accusing the Islamic Republic of failure to observe human rights. Deppa, simultaneous with her report, tweeted, “The Islamic Republic has been executing prisoners at an alarming rate.” Deppa, by neglecting Iran’s endeavor to uphold human rights, has based her report on unauthentic and unspecified sources and spared no effort to call Tehran’s actions in the realm of human rights into question.
- Iran and Oman hold detailed talks on Gaza war
Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamood Albusaidi, the Foreign Minister of Oman, is in Tehran for discussions with high-ranking Iranian officials over regional and international matters, including Israel’s cruelty in the besieged Gaza Strip that began on October 7. Heading a high-ranking delegation, Albusaidi arrived in the Iranian capital on Sunday, three days after the Israeli regime resumed its savage attacks on Gaza at the end of a seven-day ceasefire. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian greeted his Omani counterpart upon his arrival. The two talked about a variety of crucial matters of mutual interest. Amir Abdollahian and Albusaidi also discussed the disastrous humanitarian situation in Gaza, the necessity for a lasting truce, and the delivery of humanitarian relief to the war-torn population. The Gaza Strip is home to 2.3 million population. Iran has urged all Muslim nations to step up efforts to put an end to Israel’s horrendous crimes in the coastal enclave. Qatar served as the primary mediator in discussions between the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and Israel, which resulted in the November 24 truce. The ceasefire allowed much-needed humanitarian goods to reach Gaza, while Hamas and Israel exchanged hostages and detainees.
NOURNEWS