NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Sunday, January 7, 2024.
IRAN DAILY:
- Iran-Russia annual trade beats $5b: Lawmaker
The annual bilateral trade of Iran with Russia stands at over $5 billion, announced the deputy head of the Iran-Russia Parliamentary Friendship Group, adding that both countries enjoy great potentials which can help increase the level of Tehran-Moscow ties.
Talking to Iran Daily, Mojtaba Yousefi criticized the volume of current exchanges between Iran and Russia, noting that the ground should be paved for a significant increase in the level of commercial exchanges.
According to official statistics, trade exchanges between Iran and Russia increased from $2.22 billion in 2020 to $4.6 billion in 2022.
Referring to the policies adopted by the incumbent government, he said that Iran has prioritized increasing relations with regional countries as well as signing new regional and international agreements.
“Decided by the new government, our foreign diplomacy, especially towards friendly and allied countries, came out of passivity, as we followed a very active diplomacy in this field, and we joined important groups in line with a win-win approach to issues. We signed a lot of cooperation with different countries.”
In this regard, close relations were formed between Tehran and Moscow, but despite all efforts, the current level of cooperation is not satisfactory, the lawmaker said.
“We should move towards the use of national currencies in financial exchanges between the two countries in order to speed up the increase of trade relations and investment between the two countries.”
Supporting investors, establishing bank branches to facilitate financial transfers, and optimal use of capacities of private sectors of the two countries are other ways to improve the level of economic and commercial exchanges, Yousefi stated.
Bilateral consortia have been formed between the commercial and agricultural sections of the two countries, he said, adding that the two sides are also trying to focus more on international corridors crossing through Iran and Russia.
“We can extend collaboration in the field of technologies that require long-term investment which provide the common interests of both parties, such as the development of power plants and other infrastructures, also the two countries can supply basic goods needed by each other if necessary.”
Iranian investors have made great efforts to establish a brand name in the Russian market, but the problem that has existed is that, for example, in the field of exporting food and agricultural products, certain protocols and standards for exporters were not defined, the MP criticized.
“We have missed many opportunities in the field of using the capacities of the Russian market, so we must take more serious action in the near future.”
In the past challenges between European countries and Russia that led to sanctions against Moscow by Europe, we could have acted better and more actively in the field of supplying the goods needed by the country, especially food and agricultural products, Yousefi said.
However, due to the lack of some infrastructure, including the lack of refrigerated trucks, we could not achieve success in the field of exporting agro-products.
Referring to the geopolitical features of Iran, he explained that Iran has a unique position in establishing connections between East and West as well as North and South, and Russia can access the Sea of Oman and high seas through Iran.
The two factors of distance and cost of transportation are very important, the lawmaker noted, adding that our country can provide the best route for regional countries to access a 650-million-people market.
- Iran to launch joint investment funds with Russia, Oman, Saudi Arabia
A member of the Board of Executive Directors of the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI) said the country has plans to set up joint investment funds with the Russian Federation, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The NDFI is after cooperating with the funds of the neighboring states and negotiations are underway with Russia to launch a joint investment fund, Hossein Eyvazlou stated, reported Tasnim news agency.
Highlighting the cooperation of the NDFI with the wealth funds of other countries, he noted that the NDFI is tasked to cooperate with other funds throughout the world and priority has been given to the wealth funds of the neighboring countries.
Positive signals have been received from Russia, showing that the country is keen on setting up a joint investment fund with Iran, Eyvazlou added.
In this regard, the NDFI has prioritized launching joint investment with the neighboring states in the oil, gas, petrochemical and pharmaceutical fields, he said.
The official pointed out that his fund has also held negotiations with the Sultanate of Oman and Saudi Arabia and it is hoped that the sides to join joint venture projects.
The NDFI has also concluded agreements with African states, he said.
There are ways other than SWIFT in the international payments, he said, stressing that the Central Bank of Iran has defined special methods for establishing relations with the brokerage companies of other countries and this mechanism has started among Iran’s neighboring states.
- Metals, minerals worth $350m traded in IME
The Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) announced that a total of 2.43 million tons of various products, worth about $350 million, were traded at IME’s domestic and export metal and mineral trading hall in the week closing on January 5.
According to a report by ime.co.ir on Saturday, over 3.11 million tons of commodities, worth over $624 million, were traded in its domestic trading and export halls.
Among the traded products were 255,597 tons of steel, 792,000 tons of iron ore, 119,000 tons of sponge iron, 2,510 tons of zinc, 12,095 tons of aluminum ingots, 10,121 tons of copper, 200 tons of molybdenum concentrate, nine tons of precious metals, and 1.25 million tons of cement.
In addition, 667,115 tons of various commodities, valued at over $270 million, were traded at IME’s domestic and export oil and petrochemical trading halls.
Other traded items were 100,623 tons of polymeric products, 176,900 tons of vacuum bottom, 57,000 tons of lube cut, 44,697 tons of chemical products, 13,570 tons of sulfur, 3,818 tons of base oil, 500 tons of insulation, 380 tons of feedstocks, 5,560 tons of petroleum products and 265,011 tons of bitumen.
- OPEC Dec. oil output rises before new cuts
OPEC oil output rose in December, a Reuters survey found, as increases in Iraq, Angola and Nigeria offset ongoing cuts by Saudi Arabia and other members of the wider OPEC+ alliance in support of the market.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumped 27.88 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up 70,000 bpd from November, according to the survey that tracks a wide array of shipping, flows and production data. Output is down more than 1 mbd from the same month a year ago.
The boost comes ahead of further OPEC+ cuts in 2024 and Angola’s exit from OPEC, which are set to lower January output and market share. OPEC’s market share has already been falling due to output restraint and the departure of some members.
In December, the biggest increases of 60,000 bpd came from Iraq and Angola, which both boosted exports, the survey found. Nigeria also shipped more crude abroad without, as yet, beginning oil products output at its new Dangote refinery.
Angola’s increase was seen by two sources in the survey as a one-off and likely not sustainable into January, while Iraq still has a sizeable amount of production offline because of the ongoing halt in its northern crude exports via Turkey.
Among those showing lower output, Saudi Arabia trimmed production slightly below 9 mbd, the survey found, as the top exporter extended a voluntary 1 mbd output cut to provide extra support for the market.
Iran lowered exports in December, the survey found, with Iranian production falling slightly from a five-year high reached in November. Iran posted one of OPEC’s biggest output increases in 2023 despite U.S. sanctions still being in place.
OPEC’s output is still undershooting the targeted amount by almost 600,000 bpd, largely because Angola and Nigeria lack the capacity to pump at current targeted levels.
Angola’s exit from the group and a new Nigerian quota for 2024 should bring actual output closer to the target level.
The Reuters survey, which aims to track supply to the market, is based on shipping data provided by external sources, Refinitiv Eikon flows data, information from companies that track flows such as Petro-Logistics and Kpler and information provided by sources at oil companies, OPEC and consultants.
- Raisi: Enmity toward Iran due to its support for Palestinians
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the animosity toward the Islamic Revolution is due to the Islamic Republic’s support for the rights of the oppressed Palestinians.
The enemies’ animosity toward the Iranian nation, the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Islamic establishment and late top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani is due to the fact that the Islamic Republic as well as Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei attach special importance to the rights of the oppressed Palestinians, Raisi told people in the northwestern city of Zanjan on Saturday.
Raisi said the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, brought up the issue of supporting the Palestinian cause and stressed the need for the liberation of the holy city of Al-Quds and elimination of the Israeli regime as a cancerous tumor more than four decades ago.
Iran’s “insistence on the legitimacy of Palestine after four decades has become clear to the whole world,” he said.
Raisi said that while the Iranian people’s support for the Palestinians has generated enmity and verbal attacks against them over the past four decades, they have remained steadfast in their backing.
“During these four decades, the enemy created enmity with the Iranian nation. It sanctioned and threatened, imposed an economic blockade, and waged enmity of various kinds, but the Iranian nation won in this war of wills,” he said.
The president said the enemies, in spite of numerous attempts and threats, have miserably failed in their anti-Iran plots, while young Iranian specialists have acquired and employed cutting-edge technologies.
“They thought they could get us away from the nuclear industry, but they couldn’t. It was the same in the military industry, but many great works have been done and many works are in progress.”
He said that the Israeli regime will definitely disappear despite all the unconditional support it receives from global arrogant powers.
“The fake Zionist regime, which draws support from the global arrogant powers, will certainly disappear. Injustice and oppression can never last forever, and this is a divine pledge. What will last is justice,” he said.
“This is the emphasis of our religion and our policy is to defend the oppressed people of the world,” Raisi said.
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
- Could the US Remain Immune From the Flames of Its Terrorism?
Reports are rife of two Israeli oil tankers hit by projectiles and seriously damaged in the Indian Ocean over two thousand kilometers from the coast of Yemen.
The unidentified fast flying objects, whether drones or missiles, struck the two Israeli tankers west and northwest of the Maldives following the militarization of the Red Sea by the US in support of Israel’s genocide in Gaza where in the past three months American directed Zionist bombing has led to the death of almost 23,000 civilians – mostly women and children.
The range of the attack has unnerved the regime in Seychelles – a tiny Indian Ocean archipelago nation some 2,300 km from the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait dragged into the US-led naval coalition to try to keep the sea lane open for the Umm ar-Rashrash Palestinian port on the Gulf of Aqaba which Usurper Israel wrongly calls Eilat Port.
The precision of the deep Indian Ocean attack has also panicked the cowardly Americans whose terrorism to destabilize the region has seen over the past few days the unprovoked sinking of three Yemeni boats and the martyring of some ten crewmen in the Red Sea; the violation of Iraq’s sovereignty for target-killing in Bagdad of a commander of a popular mobilization unit; and the two bomb blasts in Kerman (southeastern Iran) through their macabrely murderous takfiri agents in the path of a pilgrim rally commemorating Martyr Qasem Soleimani that led to the death of some 90 men, women, and children.
While Israel is worried that the Indian Ocean attacks might be a prelude to the avowed blocking of its major Haifa Port on the Mediterranean shores of Occupied Palestine by the Resistance Forces whose reach seems to be ever expanding, Uncle Sam as the main criminal-supporter of the illegal Zionist entity and its ongoing carnage in Gaza, seems to be more terrified.
Any unwitty move by the Joe Biden regime in the Red Sea could result in a devastating blow to US prestige and power if the defenders in Yemen decide to sink an American naval craft.
In view of the rapidly increasing faster-than-sound speed, precision and range of the projectiles in possession of the Resistance Forces that have sprang up for the defence of the persecuted people of Palestine, analysts are advising the White House to stop worrying about the possibility of the probable destruction of the Diego Garcia base (some 3,650 km from Yemen), but think of the far greater damage – both material and psychological – if the oil installations in Texas (over 13,000 km from the Red Sea) were to be targeted.
The US, with its satanic slaughter of millions of people around the world cannot remain secure for long, and the days are fast approaching for the flames of its terrorism around the world to engulf it on its home turf in North America.
- President Raisi: Zionist Regime Will Definitely Disappear
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Saturday the occupying regime of Israel will definitely disappear despite all the unconditional support it receives from arrogant powers.
“The fake Zionist regime, which draws support from the global arrogant powers, will certainly disappear. Injustice and oppression can never last forever, and this is a divine pledge. What will last is justice,” he told people in the northwestern city of Zanjan.
Raiei said the enemies’ animosity towards the Iranian nation, the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Islamic establishment and late top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani is due to the fact that the Islamic Republic as well as Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei attach special importance to the rights of the oppressed Palestinians.
“This is the emphasis of our religion and our policy is to defend the oppressed people of the world,” he said.
Raisi said the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, brought up the issue of supporting the Palestinian cause and stressed the need for the liberation of the holy Al-Quds city and elimination of the Zionist regime as a cancerous tumor more than four decades.
Iran’s “insistence on the legitimacy of Palestine has become clear to the whole world after four decades,” he said.
Raisi said while the Iranian people’s support for the Palestinians has generated enmity and verbal attacks against them over the past four decades, they have remained steadfast in their backing.
“During these four decades, the enemy made enmity with the Iranian nation. It sanctioned and threatened, imposed an economic blockade, and waged enmity of various kinds, but the Iranian nation won in this war of wills,” he said.
The president said the enemies, in spite of numerous attempts and threats, have miserably failed in their anti-Iran plots, while young Iranian specialists have acquired and employed cutting-edge technologies.
“They thought they could get us away from the nuclear industry, but they couldn’t. It was the same in the military industry, but many great works have been done and many works are in progress.
“They wanted our economy not to grow, but it did. According to statistics, we have more than 5% economic growth. They wanted to stop production, but we revived many inactive and semi-active production units,” Raisi said.
- Iran to Host Asian Judo Championships
The Judo Union of Asia has selected Iran as the host of the Asian Judo Championships and the Asian Kata Tournament for the first time in the judo history of the country.
The Islamic Republic of Iran Judo Federation is scheduled to host these sports events on Kish Island located in the Persian Gulf in June 2024.
During the Asian Junior Championships 2023 in Uzbekistan’s Tashkent, President of the Iranian Judo Federation Arash Mir-Esmaeili held talks with President of the Judo Union of Asia Obaid Al-Anzi.
In this meeting, Mir-Esmaeili said that Iran is ready to host the Asian Judo Championships for youth and adult categories as well as the Asian Kata Tournament. Following precise studies, the Judo Union of Asia eventually agreed upon this proposal.
- UN Warns Gaza ‘Uninhabitable’, 4% of Population ‘Dead, Missing, Wounded’
As the Zionist regime continues to bomb the Gaza Strip, the UN warns that the besieged Palestinian territory has been rendered “uninhabitable” by three months of war.
The fighting, triggered on October 7, has sent tensions soaring across the region, and shows no signs of abating with the conflict entering its fourth month on Sunday.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have borne the brunt of the violence amid widespread displacement, destruction and a deepening humanitarian crisis.
With swathes of the territory already reduced to rubble, UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement Friday that “Gaza has simply become uninhabitable”.
“Gaza has become a place of death and despair,” the statement by Griffiths read.
“Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured,” it said, adding, “Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment.”
More than 22,600 people have died since October 7, when the Israeli regime launched the war in response to an operation staged by Gaza’s resistance groups.
On Thursday, Gaza’s Government Media Office said the Israeli regime had dropped more than 65,000 tons of missiles and bombs on Gaza throughout the war.
The weight of the explosives, it added, was more than the weight of three nuclear bombs like those, which were dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.
The office noted that two-thirds of the bombs and missiles used in the onslaught were unguided and imprecise projectiles, which are commonly known as dumb bombs.
The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also reported that more than 90,000 people in Gaza, accounting for about 4% of its population, are dead, injured or missing.
The rights monitor made the assessment and said Israel’s continuous air, land and sea attacks have destroyed about 70% of the Gaza Strip’s civilian infrastructure since Oct. 7.
The group accused Israel of making the strip uninhabitable.
“Israel is pushing hundreds of thousands of civilians towards mass forced displacement,” is announced in a statement.
Hundreds of bodies that cannot be recovered remain on roads, according to Euro-Med, particularly in areas where the Israeli army has conducted ground incursions.
The group added Israel’s attacks are an “apparent attempt” to expand its territory to include the entire Gaza Strip, uprooting the vast majority of the population in violation of international law, which, it noted, “likely amounts to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide”.
Referring to reports that Israel is prohibiting humanitarian supplies from entering the Strip more frequently, Euro-Med stressed that Israel is using “starvation as a weapon”.
TEHRAN TIMES:
- Leader emphasizes the integral role of prayer at 30th National Salat Conference
In a powerful convergence of spiritual insights, the 30th National Salat Conference unfolded with messages from the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, both underscoring the pivotal role of prayer as more than a ritual but a guiding force in the life of the individual and the community. Amidst discussions of prayer’s centrality to a righteous life, the conference served as a platform to illuminate the profound responsibilities tied to promoting and practicing this divine duty. The Leader’s message reads: “In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful All praise is due to God, Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon Muhammad and his pure Progeny, particularly the Remnant of God on earth (may we be sacrificed for him). I thank Almighty God for the continuation of this blessed, auspicious tradition of honoring salat [prayer]. I would like to sincerely extend my gratitude to Hujjat al-Islam Qara’ati, a diligent, insightful scholar who is the founder of this blessed movement.
- Staying silent more dangerous than taking action: Hezbollah chief
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday spoke transparently about the latest events unfolding in the region following the Gaza war. Speaking during a memorial service for Mohammad Hassan Yaghi (Abu Saleem), the former Lebanese MP, and his executive assistant, Nasrallah said remaining passive in such a situation is more dangerous than taking action. The remarks by Nasrallah came one day before the Hezbollah resistance group hit an Israeli aerial surveillance base with scores of missiles in its first response to the assassination of Hamas’s deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri by Israel in southern Beirut on Tuesday. One important aspect of Nasrallah’s speech is the power of deterrence Hezbollah possesses today against the Israeli regime. Since October 8, Hezbollah has conducted nearly 700 operations against the Israeli regime’s military.
- Two Israeli oil tankers come under drone attack near Maldives
Two oil tankers belonging to Israel were targeted by unidentified drones in the west and northwest of Maldives in the past days, Jordan News reported, citing an informed official. Initial reports indicate that explosions seriously damaged both oil tankers. The two oil tankers were supposed to pass through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea. Yemen’s army has threatened to continue to target Israeli ships and tankers in the Red Sea unless the occupation regime ends its killing of the people in Gaza. The two mentioned unidentified drones targeted oil tankers at a distance of 2000 km from Bab al-Mandab Strait.More importantly, both ships were forced to change course due to damage and fear of being hit again. Israeli officials are unwilling to confirm or deny this news for various reasons. The attack on the oil tankers is a major security concern for Israel, as it relies on the Red Sea for much of its oil imports.
- Gaza war has ‘disabled’ 12,500 Israeli soldiers, estimates show
At least 12,500 Israeli soldiers are predicted to be recognized as “disabled” due to the fighting in Gaza, Israeli outlet Yediot Ahronoth reported on Friday. The “gloomy forecast”, as it described, was presented by a company hired by Israel’s war ministry to conduct an assessment of injuries among troops. The 12,500 figure is a conservative and cautious estimate. The number of cases requesting disability recognition could reach 20,000, the report said. The ministry’s rehabilitation department is currently treating 60,000 disabled Israeli soldiers. At least 5,000 were admitted to the department in 2023, including 3,400 admitted since 7 October. These figures include only soldiers and not civilians. Yediot Ahronoth said these numbers, along with other official data, show that the injury tally provided by the army during the war has some discrepancies.
NOURNEWS