NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Thursday, December 14, 2023.
IRAN DAILY:
- Some $1.4b attracted in investment for ports development: PMO
Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) attracted 700 trillion rials (about $1.4 billion) of foreign and domestic investment for development of Iranian ports, announced Jalil Eslami, the deputy head of the organization.
According to the official, 200 trillion rials (about $400 million) of the figure will be invested by the country’s private sector as the remaining is supplied by foreign investors, IRNA reported.
Underlining the government’s serious determination for the development of the country’s maritime economy, he noted: “In this regard, a conference dubbed maritime-oriented development will be held by the PMO on the occasion of National Transportation Day on December 19.”
Referring to the current government’s measures to increase the loading and unloading capacity of Iranian ports, Eslami stated: “The realization of the general policies of maritime-oriented development requires the synergy of all executive, government and maritime bodies.”
While Iran is combating the US sanctions on its economy, the country’s ports as the major gates of exports and imports play a significant role in countering the sanctions. This role makes all-out support to ports and more development of them serious and vital.
Such necessity has led the government to define projects for more development of the ports and also take some measures to encourage investment making in ports, in addition to facilitating the loading and unloading of goods, especially basic commodities.
The PMO has defined a high number of projects to develop and improve the country’s ports, as the country aims to double the capacity of its ports in a course of five years.
- Tehran to have 7,000 EV charging stations: Mayor
A sum 7,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations will be launched in Tehran within the next couple of years, announced Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani on Wednesday.
Zakani said that contracts related to the construction of the new charging stations have been concluded, adding that Tehran will have no problems in terms of the infrastructure and the supply of electricity needed for the stations, IRNA reported.
Tehran launched a first batch of 15 EV charging stations in a ceremony on Aug 28, 2023 which was attended by authorities from Iran’s Ministry of Industry.
Tehran Municipality and the Ministry of Industry have agreed to finish the installation of some 5,000 EV charging stations in the city by the end of the next Iranian year (March 2025), said Zakani.
He added that some 170 EV charging stations have become operational in Tehran.
- ‘Time to reap fruits’ of Iran-Syria economic cooperation
Syria’s emergence from years of conflict and the expansion of stability and peace in most parts of the country have provided Iran with a chance to re-establish economic and commercial cooperation between Tehran and Damascus.
After the destruction caused by years of war, Syria needs reconstruction. According to statistics, almost 40% of government and private buildings in Syria have been destroyed, or seriously damaged, according to Press TV.
The agricultural sector, which accounts for 20% of the country’s gross domestic product, and 30% of the employment of workers, is in a bad shape. Sectors of the Syrian industry such as textiles, food and chemical products, which were once famous in West Asia, North Africa, and even Europe, are mostly in tatters. Almost all the industrial and infrastructure towns of the country have been damaged or destroyed, so much so that 80% of the Sheikh Najjar industrial town, one of the most famous production areas in Syria, has been destroyed.
Another area of crisis in Syria is the country’s electricity and energy sectors. Of the 39 electricity generating stations in the country, 15 stations have been completely destroyed, 10 stations partially destroyed, and only one of the eight gas refineries is operating.
Considering the potentials, capacities and experience that Iran has in areas such as building construction, agricultural chains of irrigation, planting, harvesting and conversion industries, construction of power plants and establishment of refineries and petrochemicals, it is best placed to provide the basis for exporting and sending technical and engineering services to Syria with the support of the private and public sectors and raise bilateral economic exchange to more than $3 billion.
“Iranian companies have priority in participating in the reconstruction of Syria,” Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous said in Tehran on Saturday, stating that the Syrian people will not forget Iran for standing by them during years of a terrorist war and unilateral economic sanctions on their country.
According to Damascus-based Al-Watan newspaper, Syria’s commercial department emphasized in its meetings in Tehran that the time has come to reap the fruits of cooperation between Syria and Iran.
“Therefore, the agreements in the important areas of economic cooperation and investment in all sectors are in the implementation stage and are progressing well,” it said.
“The most important thing is that what is being worked on today will lead to raising the level of economic relations to the point that the two countries aspire to.”
Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade of Syria Mohammad Samer al-Khalil said that 15-year negotiations between the two countries have reached the implementation stage in the last one year and agreements signed between them are being carried out at a high speed.
Khalil was in the Islamic Republic on Saturday as part of a large delegation headed by Prime Minister Arnous for the 15th meeting of the two allies’ joint economic commission after a long hiatus. The visit resulted in the signing of a deal on free trade and several memoranda of understanding for tourism, media, sports, museums and libraries cooperation.
Iran’s Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash said the establishment of a joint bank in Syria has been finalized and its implementation will begin in the coming days. Also, the joint insurance agreed upon during President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Syria in May has been finalized, and the issuance of insurance policies will be activated soon.
He touched on preferential tariffs and many trade tariffs having been cut to zero for 88 items between the two countries, saying the agreement has been finalized and will be implemented in the coming days.
They have also set a target for 50,000 Iranian pilgrims to visit Syria next year. Bazrpash listed energy and electricity another key area of collaboration, saying Iranian companies are about to help Syria repair its national power grid and build new power plants in the country, with the agreement being in the final stages.
The Syrian media described the visit as strategic and unique, while Arab media said it marked Iran’s long-term economic presence in Syria and part of its plan to establish an East-West Corridor.
“This trip strengthens the economic and trade relations between the two countries in a way that the interests of the two brotherly nations are secured,” said the head of the Syrian-Iranian joint Chamber of Commerce, Fahd Mahmoud Darwish.
“Their participation in the meetings of the joint economic committee of ministers is aimed at promoting joint cooperation and finding solutions to all problems that hinder the exchange of goods and joint investment,” he said.
According to London-based New Arab outlet, all indications point to the fact that the agreements between Iran and Syria have been finalized and reached the implementation stage.
“The presence of an Iranian bank in Syria sends a message to the Arabs trying to normalize with the Syrian government that Iran has established a long-term economic presence in Syria and therefore efforts to reduce its presence in Syria have failed,” it cited Yunus al-Karim, an economic researcher, as saying.
By establishing a bank in Syria and strengthening their cooperation, the Iranians will become strong allies of Syria and increase their influence in the country, he added.
Karim also said the presence of an Iranian bank in Syria and dealing with local currencies is expected to help manage religious shrines in Syria and send pilgrims with the aim of developing tourism.
London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said Iran is pushing to activate the Iraq-Syria land transit line through Iraq, as well as a shipping line between Iranian and Syrian ports.
“This project aims to revive a trade line to bypass international economic sanctions and establish what is called the East-West Corridor in Iran,” it said.
The newspaper quoted economic sources in Damascus as saying that five major agreements have been concluded for the repayment of Syria’s debts to Iran, which include investments in the agricultural sector, phosphate mines, oil wells and a telecommunications project in Syria.
- Iran developing chopper, replacing assault rifle in Army: Minister
Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani said on Wednesday Iran “was taking measures” to develop a new homegrown military chopper.
“We are making an indigenous helicopter at the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries Co.,” Ashtiani told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting in Tehran.
In 2009, Iran unveiled its first copter Shahed 285, a light attack and reconnaissance aircraft.
Ashtiani also said the Defense Ministry would gradually equip various military units with a new indigenous assault rifle called Masaf to replace the German HK G3 battle gun.
“Masaf is an advanced weapon developed by the Defense Ministry,” he said.
HK G3 has been used as the official rifle in the Iranian Army for more than four decades.
Ashtiani further spoke of the Iranian-made training jet Yasin.
The aircraft “is one of the most advanced training jets” that would satisfy Iran’s needs for such planes to train pilots, he said.
- FM: US to blame for influx of refugees to West Asia, Europe
Iran’s foreign minister has blamed irresponsible actions and coercive economic measures of the US for the recent influx of refugees to the West Asia region and also Europe and elsewhere.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in an address to the Global Refugee Forum 2023, in Geneva, Switzerland on Wednesday, Press TV reported.
The minister said the Iranian government, which is itself hit by the US sanctions, works hard to provide basic services to millions of Afghan refugees in Iran, many of whom entered the country following the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan and after it took massive economic measures against the country.
The minister said the contributions offered by the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, only compensate for one percent of the total cost of supporting Afghan refugees in Iran.
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
- Iran-Made Infra-Red Motion Sensors Unveiled
A domestically-developed version of infra-red motion sensors has been designed and produced in Iran for the first time by local researchers.
The Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology has set up an exhibition displaying the latest accomplishments in the field of research and technology. Among the researchers taking part in the expo is Hamid Pakbaz, who has displayed a plan on testing infra-red motion sensors.
- Houthi Warns Ships to Avoid Traveling to Israel
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senior Yemeni official on Wednesday warned cargo ships in the Red Sea to avoid travelling toward Israeli occupied territories after the country’s armed forces targeted Israeli vessels.
Muhammad Ali al-Houthi, head of Yemen’s Ansarullah supreme revolutionary committee, said that ships should avoid heading toward Occupied Palestine and that any that pass Yemen should keep radios turned on, and quickly respond to Yemeni attempts at communication.
Al-Houthi also warned cargo ships against “falsifying their identity” or raising flags different from the country belonging to cargo shipowner.
In solidarity with Palestinians under attack from Israel in Gaza, Yemeni forces are using their control of Yemen’s western seaboard, including ports such as Hudaydah, to mount attacks on shipping linked to Israel. On Saturday, they said they would target all ships heading to Occupied Palestine, regardless of their nationality, and warned international shipping companies against dealing with Israeli ports.
On Tuesday, the Yemeni forces said they hit a Norwegian commercial tanker with a missile, in their latest protest against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
The group launched an operation against the tanker, the Strinda, because it was delivering crude oil to an Israeli terminal and after its crew ignored all warnings, Yemen’s military spokesperson Yehia Sarea said in a statement.
The tanker’s owner, Norway’s Mowinckel Chemical Tankers, claimed the vessel was headed to Italy with a cargo of biofuel feedstock, not crude oil. But it did acknowledge a tentative Israeli port call scheduled for January, details it had not offered in the immediate hours after the attack in the Red Sea.
“Upon the recommendation of our security advisers, it was decided to withhold this information until the vessel and her crew were in safe waters,” the company said in a statement.
Industry sources have warned that the cost of shipping goods through the Red Sea is rising as the Yemeni forces step up their attacks, with fears that a spillover could disrupt global supplies sailing through the region.
The London insurance market has listed the southern Red Sea among its high risk areas and ships need to notify their insurers when sailing through such areas and also pay an additional premium typically for a seven-day cover period.
About 23,000 ships pass through the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, said Duncan Potts, a former vice admiral with Britain’s Royal Navy and a previous maritime security commander in the Persian Gulf.
“These attacks have the potential to become far more of a global strategic economic threat than simply a regional geopolitical one,” added Potts, who is now a director with Universal Defense and Security Solutions consultancy.
Some shipping companies have already opted to re-route their ships via the Cape of Good Hope away from the Red Sea, adding journey times and additional costs.
On Wednesday, two missiles fired from Yemen targeted a tanker loaded with Indian-manufactured jet fuel near the key Bab el-Mandeb Strait, two U.S. officials said cited by the Associated Press. It is the first time they target an energy shipment heading to the Suez Canal, the news agency said.
The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker was traveling north toward the Suez Canal in the Red Sea, satellite tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed. The vessel was on its way from Mangalore, India, and had an armed security crew aboard it, according to data transmitted by the ship.
Ardmore Shipping Corp., which owns and operates the ship, issued a statement to the AP acknowledging the attack.
The ship was carrying a load of jet fuel from Shell MRPL Aviation Fuels & Services Ltd., a joint operation of the oil giant and India’s national oil company.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which provides warnings to sailors in the Middle East, earlier reported a separate incident off the coast of Oman. It said a vessel had been followed by smaller boats carrying machine guns and men in gray uniforms before escaping unharmed.
France and the United States have stopped short of saying their ships were targeted in Yemeni attacks.
Global shipping has increasingly been targeted as the Israel-Hamas war threatens to become a wider regional conflict — even during a brief pause in fighting during which Hamas exchanged prisoners for Palestinians held by Israel. The collapse of the truce and the resumption of a punishing Israeli ground invasion and airstrikes on Gaza have raised the risk of more sea attacks.
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is only 29 kilometers (18 miles) wide at its narrowest point, limiting traffic to two channels for inbound and outbound shipments, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nearly 10% of all oil traded at sea passes through it. An estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait annually.
In November, Yemeni forces seized a vehicle transport ship linked to Israel in the Red Sea off Yemen. They still hold the vessel near the port city of Hudaydah. Separately, a container ship owned by an Israeli billionaire came under attack by a drone in the Indian Ocean.
- Top Israeli Commanders Killed in Gaza Ambush
Ten Israeli soldiers, including a senior colonel who commanded a forward base of an elite infantry unit, were killed Tuesday in an ambush in northern Gaza, the army announced on Wednesday.
Itzhak Ben Basat, 44, the head of the Golani Brigade’s commander’s team, was killed on Tuesday in an ambush by Palestinian fighters in Gaza’s Shujaiya neighborhood, a stronghold of Palestinian resistance groups.
Ben Basat is the most senior Zionist officer to be killed in Gaza since the ground invasion was launched in late October.
The Israeli army confirmed the deaths of eight other soldiers in northern Gaza, including a commander of the Golani regiment, two company commanders, a platoon commander, a company commander, and three combat soldiers.
Since late October, 115 Zionist soldiers have been killed, while more than 300 soldiers were killed in the Hamas-led attack of October 7.
Among Israel’s casualties since the invasion started, 20 Zionist soldiers died from so-called friendly fire and other accidents, according to new data released by the Israeli army on Tuesday.
Most of these soldiers were killed due to mistaken identification in airstrikes, tank shelling, and gunfire, the army said.
The soldiers’ deaths in Tuesday’s ambush sparked an outpouring of reactions from senior Israeli politicians.
Israel’s extremist security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, wrote on his official Facebook page on Wednesday, “Difficult morning with threatening news”.
The news of the soldiers’ deaths comes as U.S. President Joe Biden said to donors at a fundraising event on Tuesday that Israel is beginning to lose global support over its “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, his strongest criticism yet of the Zionist regime’s leadership.
Of the more than 18,000 Palestinians who have been martyred in Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip, most of the dead have been women and children.
Responding to Biden’s comments, Israeli communications minister and member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, Shlomo Karhi, wrote on X Tuesday: “There will be no Palestinian state here. We will never allow another state to be established between the Jordan [river] and the sea. “We will never go back to Oslo.”
Hamas Denies Battalions Degraded
Senior Hamas members denied reports that the group’s Gaza battalions have been significantly degraded.
The occupying regime of Israel has claimed that up to 5,000 fighters, out of a total of 30,000 from the Qassam Brigades, have been killed in the past two months of fighting.
A Palestinian source, close to Hamas’s political leadership in exile, rubbished the Zionist military’s latest figures, telling Middle East Eye that the number of casualties among Qassam fighters was “very low”.
When pressed for a number, the source said that the “total number of casualties is below 10 percent”.
“Qassam is a military movement with a centralized structure
and a loose organizational ring. We have not heard that the central forces have suffered serious casualties, except for some commanders who were outside the tunnels because of the fighting,” he said.
The source’s comments came days after Israeli forces arrested scores of Palestinian civilians sheltering near two UN-run schools in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Zionist army has repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that between 10-15 percent of the arrested men belonged to Hamas.
The Middle East Eye said it has obtained a list of the names, ages, and professions of many of those who were detained. Some are academics, journalists, teachers at UN-run schools, school students, blue-collar workers, and employees with the Palestinian Authority, it said.
Israel leaders have sworn to crush Hamas after the Palestinian group attacked southern occupied territories on October 7, killing 1,200 Zionists.
Since Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza on October 28, Hamas has used above-ground ambushes and quick strikes against Israeli tanks, military vehicles and patrols, killing at least 105 Zionist soldiers.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, said on Sunday that the group’s fighters had completely destroyed or damaged 180 Israeli military vehicles in the first 10 days after the truce with Israel ended on December 1.
Another Palestinian source close to Hamas, who fought with the group until 2021 when he sustained an injury, said Qassam fighters were engaged in urban fighting reminiscent of the house-to-house fighting seen in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004 following the U.S.-led invasion.
“What is happening now in Gaza is a kind of guerrilla war,” the source said.
“It is unnecessary and risky to mobilize a force of thousands for this war. For hit-and-run operations, fast, few-man teams are enough. These teams are also very small in terms of targets and minimize casualties,” the source added.
According to analysts, Hamas has grown stronger since 2008, when it first faced an Israeli ground invasion. Back then, the Qassam Brigades fielded 16,000 fighters alongside 2,000 dedicated combat troops. Now, according to the Zionist army, it has amassed as many as 30,000 fighters and boasts an arsenal of drones and rockets.
Hamas has shipped in components to convert dumb rockets into guided precision weapons, and even built an underwater drone.
The group also makes its own shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, which it says can take out Israeli helicopters, and anti-tank rockets.
Since the early 2000s, Hamas has been using a vast web of fortified tunnels to help fighters melt away after staging military parades or attacks against Israel.
Since the latest truce elapsed on December 1, Zionist officials have directed their attention on Khan Younis and its refugee camp, which was founded to shelter Palestinians displaced in 1948 following the creation of Israel.
Two of Hamas’s top leaders, Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Deif, were born in the camp, and for weeks, Israel has claimed that the men could be hiding there.
While Hamas’s leadership in normal times makes decisions based on consensus, Israeli officials believe Sinwar is directing the course of the war.
- UK, U.S. Under Fire for Sale of Arms to Israel
Over a dozen MPs have called on the UK government to halt its arms exports to the Zionist regime, saying they fear Britain is complicit in atrocities being committed against Palestinians in Gaza.
The lawmakers, who spoke in a Commons debate, questioned what the UK government knows about how British weapons are being used and, consequently, what assessments have been made that the government is following its own arms export laws.
The government is obligated under those laws to suspend arms export licenses if it determines that there is a clear risk that British weapons might be used in violations of international law.
According to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), the UK government has licensed at least £472m worth of military exports to Israel since May 2015.
“Does the government know whether British weapons or military equipment are being used in Gaza or not?” said Labour MP John McDonnell, who also asked whether spare parts for F-16 and F-35 aircraft used in bombing had been shipped to Israel.
McDonnell said he believed arms transfers should be suspended and a “complete review” undertaken, as the government had done during the wars in Gaza in 2009 and 2014, “to see exactly how what we have supplied is being used and whether it is being used in Gaza, because if it is, I am afraid we [have] become complicit in the war crime,” McDonnell said.
McDonnell said that many of the questions he posed came from an 8 December letter sent by War on Want, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and CAAT to the UK government, calling for an immediate end to UK arms transfers to Israel.
McDonnell asked Trade Minister Greg Hands, who was present, if he had seen the letter. Hands said he hadn’t personally seen it, but would find it and see if there was a response.
“As a matter of course, we at [the Department of Business and Trade] respond to letters from non-governmental organizations,” Hands said.
Labour MP Zarah Sultana told the stories of Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks, including a teenager who wanted to be a doctor, a mother and baby killed in their sleep, and a child whose lifeless body was cradled by her grandfather after an air strike.
“I want to remind colleagues and the whole House of the shared humanity of those being slaughtered in Gaza today,” she said. “Whether we like it or not, this place is deeply complicit in the atrocities we see being inflicted on the Palestinian people.”
Maduro: U.S. Sold $32bn in Arms
Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says the United States has sold tens of billions of dollars of weapons to Israel during the past two months to kill civilians, including women and children, in the besieged Gaza Strip.
In a televised interview, Maduro said major arms companies, particularly those of the US, sold weapons worth $32 billion in the wake of Israel’s current war on the war-torn Palestinian territory more, Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television news network reported.
He added that these weapons had been used in shedding the blood of Palestinians, including children, women, and elderly individuals, in the impoverished sliver, slamming the move as “barbarism.”
“The war on the Gaza Strip is a demonic bloodthirsty trade war that history has never witnessed before,” Maduro further said during his weekly program titled “With Maduro and More”, adding that “the genocidal crimes committed by Israel remind us of the worst crimes of Adolf Hitler.”
Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s atrocities against Palestinians.
TEHRAN TIMES:
- Tehran, Minsk sign technological MOU
Iran and Belarus signed a memorandum of understanding on boosting technological cooperation on Wednesday. Amin-Reza Khaleqian, the head of Pardis Technology Park’s department for international affairs, and Oleg Tabanyukhov, the deputy head of Belarus Great Stone Industrial Park, signed the agreement, IRIB reported. The MOU highlights expanding technological cooperation, holding joint events, participating in mutual exhibitions, sharing technical knowledge, dispatching technological delegations, and making joint investments. The agreement was reached following a comprehensive cooperation roadmap signed in March by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. Sanctions lead to scientific progress In March, Iran’s first vice president said that Western powers’ unilateral sanctions on countries that seek independence have provided a great chance to rely on their own scientists’ expertise. The comment was made by Mohammad Mokhber at a meeting with Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, who made a two-day visit to Tehran. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has been able to break considerable grounds in the fields of science and technology by overcoming these sanctions,” Mokhber said. He stated that the two nations may leverage Iran’s experience coping with sanctions to strengthen their collaboration.
- Support for Hamas in occupied West Bank tripled in last 3 months: poll
The survey from prominent Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki – the first since October 7 – shows support for Hamas has also risen in the Gaza Strip. Support for the Palestinian Authority (PA) has dropped significantly, as demand for its dissolution rose to nearly 60 percent, the highest percentage ever recorded in polls conducted by Shikaki. The poll also showed that in the West Bank, 70 percent said they believe armed struggle is the best way to end Israel’s occupation. Since the Hamas attacks, support for armed resistance has risen in many parts of the West Bank - in places like Nablus and Jenin, BBC said in a report on Wednesday. “I see it in the voices of people, in the music they play in their cars, from Facebook or social media posts, from my debates with my students,” said Raed Debiy, a political scientist and youth leader for the West Bank’s ruling party, Fatah, told the BBC correspondent Lucy Williamson that the attacks were “a turning point” for Palestinians, just as they were a shocking turning point for Israelis.
- Could Al-Aqsa Storm bring a change to Saudi foreign policy?
Before the October 7 operation by the Hamas resistance movement, many believed a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel was around the corner. The first time Saudi Arabia’s crown prince and de facto leader acknowledged that the kingdom was moving towards normalization with Israel, was on September 20, 2023. “Every day we get closer,” Mohammad Bin Salman said during an interview with Fox News. He added that such a pact would be “the biggest historical deal since the Cold War”. While Palestinians have vehemently condemned previous Arab-Israeli normalization agreements, labeling them as treacherous stabs in the back and betrayals to the Palestinian cause, Bin Salman argued that his deal with the Israelis would “ease the life of the Palestinians”. Since the 1980s, Saudi Arabia has been a vociferous advocate of the two-state solution. The Fahd Peace Plan in 1981 and the Arab Peace Initiative proposed by.
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