NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Tuesday, January 9, 2024.
IRAN DAILY:
- Iran calls for its removal from FATF recommendations
In a letter of protest to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Iran’s Finance Minister Ehsan Khandouzi called for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s name to be removed from Recommendation 7 and other documents related to UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
FATF Recommendation 7 requires countries to implement targeted financial sanctions to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their financing in compliance with UN Security Council resolutions, IRNA reported on Monday.
UN Security Council Resolution 2231—adopted in 2015 to implement the Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – terminated previous UN resolutions on Iran (1373, 1747, 1803, and 1929) but introduced restrictive measures, including targeted financial sanctions.
The resolution’s provisions would be applicable to Iran based on one of two conditions: up to eight years after the approval of the JCPOA, or upon the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) verification.
Given the JCPOA’s approval date of October 18, 2015, the first condition applies to the Islamic Republic.
Iran received a note from the UN Security Council Secretariat on October 19, which declared an end to restrictions the council had imposed on Iran’s missile program.
The FATF is a non-binding regulatory institution formed by the United States and its Western allies, supposedly to counter terrorism financing and safeguard the integrity of the international financial system.
Critics, however, say the organization reflects the interests of powerful countries seeking to impose preferences on other jurisdictions, and depends on funds from Western governments.
- NIGC to invest up to $2b in technology-based sector: CEO
The National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) has plans to invest up to $2 billion in the technology-based sector within the next few years, Shana reported.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding by the NIGC and the Department of Science, Technology and Technology-Based Economy, NIGC CEO Majid Chegeni added, “Based on the MoU, 12 groups of strategic products, worth over $500 million, will be made as we hope most of them will be produced by the end of the 13th administration’s term (August 2025).”
He said the Oil Ministry is one of the pioneers of the technology-based sector and the NIGC has taken appropriate measures in this field over the past years.
“We have made essential gas equipment and items domestically and the pace of indigenization will be accelerated following the signing of this cooperation agreement,” the official concluded.
Speaking at the ceremony, Iran’s Vice-President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy Rouhollah Dehqani Firouzabadi said technology-based companies need a large and stable market.
He added no support is more real and purposeful than the development of a large, permanent and steady market, underlining that aimless support may keep a company going but will not stabilize it.
The official said his department has divided technology-based companies into three categories of start-up, innovative, and technological.
The opportunity created today for cooperation with knowledge-based companies is unprecedented in the past 44 years, pointed out the vice president, adding 10 percent of the work has remained.
He promised that technology-based companies, which are doing research for and having technological cooperation with the gas industry, would make great achievements in the near future.
- NGO warns Israel persists in starvation policy
A human rights group has said that the starvation of people in Gaza is “not a byproduct of war but a direct result of Israel’s declared policy”.
“The horror is growing by the minute, and the danger of famine is real. Still, Israel persists in its policy,” said the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem.
“The images of children begging for food, people waiting in long lines for paltry handouts, and hungry residents charging at aid trucks are already inconceivable” it added. Changing this policy, the organization stated, is not just a moral obligation but a requirement under international humanitarian law.
“Starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited, and when a civilian population lacks what it needs to survive, parties to the conflict have a positive obligation to allow rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid, including food.”
The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B’Tselem, said the starvation of people in Gaza is “not a byproduct of war but a direct result of Israel’s declared policy”.
“The images of children begging for food, people waiting in long lines for paltry handouts, and hungry residents charging at aid trucks are already inconceivable.”
After Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Oct. 9 ordered “a complete siege on the Gaza Strip,” saying “there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” UN officials say a humanitarian cease-fire and the safe and unrestricted flow of supplies into Gaza, including commercial goods, are vital to avert famine. Israel should facilitate the entry and delivery of commensurate aid, Laurence says, adding that “failure to act in line with these obligations may have serious consequences under international law.”
The World Health Organization said on Sunday that it had been compelled to cancel a mission to bring medical supplies to northern Gaza on Sunday after failing to receive security guarantees. It was the fourth time WHO had had to call off a planned mission to bring urgently needed medical supplies to Al-Awda Hospital and the central drug store in northern Gaza since Dec. 26, it said.
Meanwhile, majority of medical staff, as well as around 600 patients, from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza have been forced to leave the complex to unknown locations with no information of their whereabouts, the WHO and the UN said on Monday.
The hospital is struggling to cope amid intense airstrikes across the enclave.
The two institutions note chaotic scenes as the remaining staff at the hospital continues to try to cope with an influx of injured people as “heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land, and sea intensified across much of the Gaza Strip”.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said Monday at least 23,084 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory since war with Israel began on October 7.
Meanwhile, the US and its allies in the Group of Seven were seeking a quick way out of the military phase of the Gaza conflict, Italy said on Monday, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his EU and German counterparts toured the region. He began a five-day Middle East diplomatic effort in Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, his fourth visit to the region since Oct. 7.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was in Israel on Monday and the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell was in Lebanon in a sign of international concern.
Pope Francis, tackling conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine in his yearly address to diplomats, said on Monday that “indiscriminately striking” civilians is a war crime because it violates international humanitarian law. Expressing concern that the war in Gaza could spread in the wider Middle East, he called for a “cease-fire on every front, including Lebanon”.
Speaking at a weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani described recent incidents in the Red Sea as “an outcome of the situation in Palestine.”
- Like Zionists in Gaza, Daesh massacres innocents
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the Daesh terrorist group seeks to kill women and children just like the Israeli regime that is massacring innocent people in Gaza.
Raisi made the statement in a meeting with Chairman of Tajikistan’s National Assembly Rustam Emomali in Tehran on Monday, Press TV reported.
He said all regional countries should actively counter terrorist groups such as Daesh, which is nurtured by the US and Israel.
He emphasized that Iran and Tajikistan must promote cooperation in the fight against terrorism, organized crime and smuggling of illicit drugs.
The president hailed the appropriate level of growing relations between Tehran and Dushanbe in the past two years and said the expansion of parliamentary ties would play a key role in boosting cooperation in the political and economic sectors as well.
Emomali, for his part, said Tajikistan supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and condemns Israel’s killing of more than 23,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza since the beginning of its war against the Gaza Strip in October.
The top Tajik parliamentarian described insecurity as an issue of common concern between Tehran and Dushanbe and a danger to promotion of bilateral trade cooperation.
Heading a high-ranking parliamentary delegation, Emomali arrived in Tehran on Monday morning.
MoU signed to boost parliamentary cooperation
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Emomali signed a memorandum of understanding to improve parliamentary cooperation.
They said Iran and Tajikistan should make use of their capacities to further expand relations.
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
- Barzani: Kurdistan No Platform for Anti-Iran Threats
President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq Nechirvan Barzani said Monday the semi-autonomous region will never become a platform for threats against Iran. Barzani made the remarks on Monday as he paid a visit to the Iranian Consulate General in Kurdistan’s capital of Erbil to offer his condolences to the Iranian people and leadership over last week’s terrorist attacks that martyred at least 91 people in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman. “We have repeatedly said and today we reiterate once again that we will never be a source of threat for any of our neighbors especially the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.
Barzani told officials in the Iranian consulate in Erbil that there was a need for increased cooperation in the region to root out terrorism.
He also appreciated Iran’s assistance to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in their fight against Daesh terrorists in recent years.
“Iran helped Iraq and the Kurdistan region a lot at the time Daesh emerged and increased its power,” said Barzani.
- Iran Sends Protest Letter to FATF
In a letter of protest to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Iran’s Finance Minister Ehsan Khandouzi has urged for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s name to be removed from Recommendation 7 and other documents related to UN Security Council Resolution 2231. FATF Recommendation 7 requires countries to implement targeted financial sanctions to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destructions (WMD) and their financing in compliance with UN Security Council resolutions. UN Security Council Resolution 2231-- adopted in 2015 to implement the Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- terminated previous
UN resolutions on Iran (1373, 1747, 1803, and 1929) but introduced restrictive measures, including targeted financial sanctions.
The resolution’s provisions would be applicable to Iran based on one of either two conditions: up to eight years after the approval of the JCPOA and upon the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) verification.
Given the JCPOA’s approval date of October 18, 2015, the first condition applies to the Islamic Republic.
Iran received a note from the UN Security Council Secretariat on October 19, which declared an end to restrictions the council had imposed on Iran’s missile program.
The FATF is a non-binding regulatory institution formed by the United States and its Western allies, supposedly to counter terrorism financing and safeguard the integrity of the international financial system.
Critics, however, say the organization reflects the interests of powerful countries seeking to impose preferences on other jurisdictions, and depends on funds from Western governments.
- Gaza ‘Triangle of Death’: Famine, Drought, Epidemics
Famine, drought and epidemics form a “triangle of death” in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra warned on Monday.
“The United Nations and its institutions must carry out urgent and focused interventions to prevent the health and humanitarian catastrophe to which the displaced are exposed,” said al-Qudra.
Medical Aid for Palestinians said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is rapidly deteriorating as a result of Israel bombing sanitation systems as well as bakeries and supermarkets.
According to the organization, around 71,000 cases of diarrhea have been recorded in children.
The United Nations children’s organization UNICEF added that 90 percent of children under two years now meet the definition of “severe food poverty,” in the besieged enclave.
Israeli NGO B’Tselem said the Zionist regime is starving Gaza, and that around 2.2 million people are surviving in Gaza “on almost nothing, routinely going without meals”.
“The desperate search for food is relentless, and usually unsuccessful, leaving the entire population – including babies, children, pregnant or nursing women and the elderly – hungry,” the statement read.
According to the organization, most cultivated fields have been destroyed, and accessing open areas during the war is dangerous in any case.
Bakeries, factories and food warehouses have been bombed or shut down due to Israel shutting off all fuel and electricity to the Strip since 9 October. Stockpiles in private homes, stores and warehouses have also run out.
B’Tselem also said that Israel was “deliberately denying the entry
of enough food into Gaza to meet the population’s needs,” and called for Israel to allow food into Gaza under the obligation of international humanitarian law.
Palestinian lawmaker Ahmad Tibi said the Zionist regime is “legitimizing” genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“The finance minister said that there are two million Nazis in Gaza,” Tibi said, referring to statements by Bezalel Smotrich. “This is how you legitimize genocide.”
“And when it sounds Nazi, looks Nazi, it’s neo-Nazi. Even if the minister is Jewish,” he added.
The comments come after Smotrich and security minister Itamar Ben Gvir have called for the “voluntary” and “encouragement” of migration of Palestinians from Gaza, and heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu suggesting Israel could drop a nuclear bomb on the besieged enclave.
Jordan’s King Abdullah said that the occupying regime of Israel had created a whole generation of orphans through a “brutal” war on Gaza, where he said around over 30,000 people, mostly women and children, had been martyred or were missing as a result.
In remarks at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, where he spoke of “unspeakable crimes” during that African conflict, Abdullah said a lesson to be drawn was that Israel’s “indiscriminate aggression” in Gaza would never guarantee its security.
“More children have died in Gaza than in all other conflicts around the world this past year. Of those who have survived, many have lost one or both parents, an entire generation of orphans,” he said.
“How can indiscriminate aggression and shelling bring peace? How can they guarantee security, when they are built on hatred?” Abdullah said of Israel’s war.
Exclusive footage obtained by Middle East Eye on Monday showed a Palestinian woman being shot by Zionist forces in the streets of Gaza City’s centre on November 12, as she and others attempted to evacuate the area while holding white flags amid the intense Israeli assault on northern Gaza.
Separate Israeli airstrikes killed the family members of two Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
Ahmad al-Batta, a reporter for Qatar-based Al Araby, lost his mother and several other members of his family in one attack.
A video of Batta finding out about the attack has been aired by Al Araby.
Separately, Sameer Radi, a reporter for a Palestinian television channel, also lost his wife and two children in an air strike.
- Nujaba Says Capable of Striking Beyond Haifa
Iraq’s Harakat Hezbollah
al-Nujaba resistance movement on Monday claimed responsibility for the missile attack on Haifa, declaring that the Zionist regime should await more crippling attacks in retaliation for its bloody war on Gaza.
Spokesman for the movement, Hussein al-Moussawi, told Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen television news network that the retaliatory strike conveyed a clear message to Israeli authorities that the Axis of Resistance will never abandon its strategic goals in the West Asia region.
“Resistance fighters are fairly capable of striking areas beyond Haifa,” Moussawi noted.
The Sunday strike was not an accident, but rather, falls within a well-developed and audacious plan to confront the actions of the United States and the Israeli regime, he said.
“The Axis of Resistance is determined to disrupt U.S. scenarios in the region and thwart the occupying Israeli regime’s schemes in Gaza,” Moussawi said.
He also said the resistance front is capable of withstanding the ongoing battle for a long time because of its resources and military potentials.
On Monday, a barrage of rockets targeted a U.S.-run military facility
at the Omar oil field in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.
Al-Mayadeen, citing an unnamed local source, said that nearly 30 rockets were fired the installation.
The source said that the attack was in response to the U.S. strike on a truck passing through Al-Qa’im border crossing, which connects the town of Abu Kamal in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr province to the city of Husaybah in the al-Qa’im district of Iraq’s western province of Anbar.
The source stressed that the rocket strike against the U.S.-occupied military base came from nearby areas.
The United States has provided the Zionist regime with a raft of arms and ammunition since the initiation of the Gaza war. Washington has also vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire.
TEHRAN TIMES:
- Martyr Soleimani laid the foundations for the Islamic Republic’s regional power
Major General Gholam Ali Rashid is one of the senior commanders of Iran’s Armed Forces and the commander of the Khatamal Anbiya Central Headquarters. He is one of the people who had been with Lieutenant General Martyr Haj Qasem Soleimani since the years of the Sacred Defense. In commemoration of the anniversary of the epic funeral of Martyr Haj Qasem Soleimani, the Farsi division of KHAMENEI.IR media interviewed with this senior military commander. Presented below is a brief overview of this interview. Given the events of the last two decades and the introduction of the Quds Force mission, kindly explain the reasons, the factors, and the necessity behind establishing this force as well as its achievements. General Soleimani was appointed as the commander of the Quds Force in the late 1990s. Due to the experiences, he gained during the war with the Iraqi army and after that in the fight against the evildoers in the country’s east, he was able to create a significant transformation in supporting the revolutionary forces in Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Yemen, and Syria.
- Hezbollah commander assassinated in Israeli strike in Lebanon
A senior Hezbollah commander identified as Wissam al-Tawil, also known as “Jawad”, was assassinated in an Israeli air strike on Monday. Unnamed security sources told news agencies that Jawad, the deputy head of a unit in the elite Radwan force, and another Hezbollah resistance fighter were assassinated when their car was hit by the air strike on the village of Majdal Selm. “This is a very painful strike,” one security source told Reuters news agency. The killing comes as the US secretary of state arrived in Israel on Monday purportedly intended to calm burgeoning tensions and the threat of a wider war. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has warned, “Whoever thinks of war with us … will regret it.” In a statement released on Monday afternoon, the Hezbollah resistance movement mourned the commander, publishing a number of photos that showed him alongside prominent Resistance leaders in the context of his line of work, according to Al Mayadeen.
- UN rapporteurs criticize ICC for being slow in indicting those guilty of war crimes in Gaza
The UN special rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, and UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing Balakrishnan Rajagopal criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Sunday for being slow in prosecuting those responsible for war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. Albanese quoted a post on X from a Save The Children official saying “more than 10 children per day, on average, have lost one or both of their legs in Gaza since (the) conflict erupted three months ago.” “Trials will also be needed. Criminals who have planned, ordered and executed such crimes must be brought to justice,” she said. “National courts with jurisdiction over war crimes, CAH (crimes against humanity) & genocide must be activated, as the ICC is proving slow and ineffective on the situation of Palestine,” she added. Rajagopal also shared a post on X to support Albanese’s call, saying: “Yes we need action now. Today. ICC is proving to be too slow.” UN rapporteurs and human rights organizations have called Israel’s recent attacks targeting civilians in Gaza and acts of collective punishment “genocide.”
- Why are so many journalists being killed in Gaza?
When the Israeli regime began its indiscriminate airstrikes on Gaza, the killing of journalists was considered “collateral damage”. As the number of journalists and media workers killed by the Israeli military in the enclave has risen to 109, many experts have reached another conclusion. The regime has censored its own media from displaying any footage of the Gaza Strip that has been reduced to rubble. The settler population will put pressure on the Netanyahu government to end the war if they realize that the army has failed to win over Hamas or recover Israeli captives despite killing 1% of the Gazans and flattening entire neighborhoods. Foreign journalists have been largely forbidden by the regime from entering the enclave at their own free will. They have only done so very rarely in carefully calculated Israeli military tours. Western journalists, in particular, have been prevented as they would naturally interview the displaced residents of Gaza.
NOURNEWS