NOURNEWS- The following headlines appeared in English-language newspapers in the Iranian capital on Monday, October 2, 2023.
IRAN DAILY:
-- Iran’s six-month trade exceeds $54b: IRICA
Iran’s foreign trade surpassed $54 billion during the first six months of the current Iranian year (March 21-September 22), witnessing a 4.84 percent growth compared with the same period in 2022, announced Mohammad Rezvanifar, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
The Islamic Republic’s foreign trade was nearly at $54.6 billion in the first half of the current Iranian year, Rezvanifar noted, according to IRNA.
The foreign trade reached 85.3 million tons in terms of weight in the first six months of 1402, which grew 23.78% compared with the same period last Iranian year, he said.
Also, the official added, Iran’s foreign transit stood at 7.7 million tons in the first half of the year 1402, showing an 8.24 percent growth compared with the same period last year.
Iran exported 67.7 million tons of non-oil commodities, worth $24.144 billion, in the six months. The export of non-oil commodities in the period increased by 29 percent in terms of weight.
Meanwhile, a sum of 17.6 million tons of goods valued at $30.44 billion were imported into the country in the said period, indicating an 11.62 percent rise in terms of value, and a 6.89 percent rise in terms of weight, year-on-year.
Iran’s top export destination during this period was China, with $6.9 billion worth of imports from the Islamic Republic, followed by Iraq, with $4.5 billion, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with over $3 billion, Turkey with $2.4 billion, and India with $1.1 billion.
Liquefied natural gas, liquid propane, and liquid butane were the top exported items in the said six months.
Meanwhile, the country’s top five sources of imports in the first half of the current year were the UAE, with $9 billion, China, with $8.8 billion, Turkey, with $3.3 billion, Germany, with $1.1 billion, and India, with $987 million worth of imports.
Corn, smartphones, soybeans, sunflower seed oil, and rice were the top imported items in the said period.
Iran’s annual non-oil exports set a new record in the history of the country during the 12 months to March 20.
The non-oil trade of the country in the previous Iranian year hit 159.236 million tons in weight, and $112.821 billion in value.
Iran’s non-oil trade has increased by $11.38 billion as compared to the previous year, hitting a record in the history of the
country.
-- Arash gas field issue to be settled through dialogue: Analyst
A senior expert in Middle East affairs is convinced that the dispute over the Arash gas field, known as Al-Dorra in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, will be resolved through holding political negotiations and reaching an agreement.
Hadi Seyyed Afqahi made the remarks after Kuwait’s representative said in his address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia alone have full sovereign rights to exploit the wealth in the offshore gas field, Shana reported.
Given Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji’s clear remarks and call for talks, the issue will be settled through negotiations, assured the analyst.
“Owji’s presence in the 93rd Saudi National Day ceremony as the [Iranian] head of Iran-Saudi Arabia Joint Economic Commission drew much attention,” said Afqahi, adding the Iranian minister’s views were welcomed by Saudi officials, particularly the kingdom’s oil and energy authorities.
He said Owji’s presence at the ceremony will expand Tehran-Riyadh relations in all fields, including the oil, economic, and commercial sectors.
Following the Beijing statement signed by Ali Shamkhani, then-secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and Musaad bin Mohammed Al Aiban, minister of state and national security adviser of Saudi Arabia, and a joint statement issued after a meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the desirable impacts of Iran-Saudi Arabia rapprochement on regional developments, particularly in Yemen, are tangible, he noted.
Furthermore, a Yemeni delegation’s visit to Saudi Arabia was positive, recalled the expert, referring to the improvement of Syria-Saudi Arabia ties and an invitation extended by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend an Arab League summit, Bahrain’s willingness to resume diplomatic relations with Iran, and talks on the Palestinian cause as the positive impacts of Iran-Saudi Arabia détente.
-- US senators have confirmed rise in Iran’s oil output, exports: Owji
US senators and Western media have confirmed the increase in Iran’s oil production and exports despite sanctions over the past two years, said Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji.
Production and exports of oil products and gas condensates are on the rise thanks to the unflinching efforts of the Oil Ministry’s staff, Shana quoted the minister as saying.
The Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) and the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) registered 19.8 percent and 16.4 percent economic growth for the domestic oil and gas industry, respectively, in the spring of 2023, revealing the great efforts made in upstream and downstream sectors, the minister noted.
In September, Bloomberg reported that Iran’s oil exports continued their upward trend in August, to reach 1.85 million barrels per day (bpd).
Citing tankertrackers.com, which provides data on oil cargoes to governments, insurers and other institutions, the report noted that the increase in Iranian shipments comes in the same month that key OPEC+ producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, kept a lid on their own oil exports in a bid to tighten the market, the report said.
According to the TankerTrackers data, Iranian crude exports topped two million barrels a day in the first 20 days of August, the highest this year.
Iran has been steadily ramping up its oil production and exports this year, finding buyers for its supplies in Asia. The country’s production is now at the highest level since a ban on its exports kicked in five years ago, with US officials privately acknowledging they’ve gradually relaxed enforcement on some of the measures.
-- Raisi: Normalization with Israel ‘a regressive move’
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has censured the normalization agreements by certain Arab countries with the Israeli regime, underlining that the liberation of the occupied Al Quds is the “most important issue” in the Muslim world.
Raisi made the remark in an address to the opening ceremony of the 37th International Islamic Unity Conference in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Sunday.
He further stressed that attempts to normalize relations with the Zionist regime are seen as a “retrograde step” for any government, as it is what the foreigners want, Press TV reported.
“The way to confront the enemy is not through compromise and surrender but through resistance and resilience,” he noted.
“The option of surrender and compromise are by no means on the table; resistance and resilience against the enemy has paid off and will force the enemy to retreat.”
“Becoming united does not only mean unity of religions or geography, it rather means to express cohesion and solidarity to safeguard the interests of the Islamic Ummah,” he said.
Resorting to foreigners and fulfilling their wishes is a “regressive” step, he added.
“The liberation of Al Quds and Palestine is the most important indicator of the unity of the Islamic Ummah,” Raisi said.
He praised the international conference on Islamic Unity in Tehran as an “anti-Zionism and anti-hegemony” event, saying that “Today’s strategy of unity can fortify the Islamic Ummah against the enemy, and unity [works] against its hybrid warfare.”
Raisi also called for further consolidation of the Islamic Ummah’s unity in the face of threats posed by Takfiri terror groups.
“Takfiri groups’ horrific crimes perpetrated in mosques and religious centers, explosions in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the massacre of people as well as crimes committed by the US and the Zionist regime’s henchmen in various Islamic countries entail promoting unity among the Islamic Ummah to confront the Takfiri current,” he added.
He called on Muslim scholars and thinkers to prepare themselves for assuming an important role in the new world order by promoting cohesion, unity, and proximity of faiths.
“Muslims and the Islamic world must establish themselves in the new order, disrupt the current unjust order, and create a just order in the world,” he said, stressing that the Islamic Ummah will play a key role in the emerging world order.
Raisi said sacrilegious acts such as the desecration of the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet, heinous crimes by Takfiri terrorist groups, and normalization deals with the Israeli occupying regime as well as media campaigns spearheaded by the enemies are meant to deter the Islamic Ummah.
“The enemy intends to disappoint the Islamic Ummah about the future by propagating the idea that only everything it wants and wishes will happen, but the Islamic Ummah has foiled such plots,” the Iranian president added.
The 37th International Islamic Unity Conference kicked off in Tehran on Sunday with the participation of hundreds of guests from dozens of Islamic countries.
The annual conference is organized by the Iran-based World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought during the Islamic Unity Week which coincides with the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) tomorrow.
-- Sabalan destroyer equipped with record number of cruise missiles: Cmdr.
Iran’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani said his forces have managed to furnish the Sabalan destroyer with 12 anti-ship cruise missiles, breaking the record for the number of guided missiles installed on Iranian vessels.
Speaking to Tasnim news agency on Sunday, Irani said that the missile-equipped destroyer will be unveiled soon.
Sabalan is an Alvand-class frigate of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy. It was damaged in an encounter with the US Navy in the Persian Gulf during the Iraqi-imposed war in the 1980s, Press TV reported.
After a few years, the 1,500-ton destroyer was repaired by domestic experts.
Previously, Sablan was furnished with four anti-ship cruise missiles and took part in 13 Iranian naval fleets.
Iran’s Sahand and Sina frigates have each been equipped with eight cruise missiles.
The Iranian Navy has in recent years achieved self-sufficiency in manufacturing equipment.
It has also increased its presence in international waters to protect naval routes and provide security for merchant vessels and tankers.
On Saturday, during a ceremony in commemoration of the anniversary of the Iraq-imposed war, Irani said the navy will also take delivery of a new domestically-designed and developed destroyer in the near future, which is furnished with much more advanced and elaborate systems compared to the military vessels already unveiled.
He said that the homegrown military vessel, dubbed Deylaman, will soon join Iran’s naval fleet.
Irani also said that the Iranian Navy plans to set up a base in Antarctica.
Iran’s southeastern Makran coast is directly connected to the South Pole and the deployment of Iranian servicemen in that region would be of a practical nature, he added, saying that Antarctica is the best place to control the cruise of ballistic missiles.
-- Iran to deal with huge presence of Afghan migrants
Iranian parliamentarian Fadahossein Maleki said a program is underway to deal with the huge presence of Afghan refugees in the country.
“We are seriously pursuing efforts to organize them,” Maleki said, IFP reported.
This comes as public concern has grown over the huge presence of Afghan refugees in Iran, especially after the Taliban group took power in Afghanistan in 2021.
People argue that the presence of Afghan nationals has not only increased costs of public services, but also undermined security in the country.
Last week Ahmad Vahidi, the Iranian Interior Minister said currently there are five million Afghans in Iran.
The influx of Afghan refugees into Iran sped up following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan almost two years ago.
KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL:
-- Armenia’s Top Security Official Holds Talks in Tehran
Iran’s top security official said on Sunday any changes in the geopolitics of the Caucasus region will lead to insecurity, instability, and escalating crises in the region.
Ali-Akbar Ahmadian, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, met his Armenian counterpart Armen Grigoryan to discuss issues of bilateral interest, especially the recent conflict in Karabakh.
Ahmadian underlined the Islamic Republic’s fundamental policy of closer cooperation and interaction with its neighboring countries. He called for constructive dialogues
between regional countries to pave the way for enduring peace and security in the region.
Ahmadian said Iran is ready to “provide the necessary platforms” to facilitate discussions between the regional countries.
Grigoryan stressed the need for all parties to strive for peace and security in the Caucasus. He also called for closer economic and trade relations with Iran.
-- Ansarullah Delegation in Tehran for Talks
Head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations Kamal Kharrazi on Sunday called for efforts to address the humanitarian crisis facing the Yemeni people by lifting the blockade and sanctions on the country.
Kharrazi, a former Iranian foreign minister, met with Abdullah Hashem Al Sayani, a member of the political office of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement, here, discussing the latest developments in Yemen. Al-Siyani provided an update on the recent discussions between Ansarullah and Saudi Arabia aimed at ending the war, now in its seventh year.
-- Only Option for Muslims is to Resist
President Ebrahim Raisi on Sunday denounced any attempts by regional countries to normalize relations with the occupying regime of Israel as “reactionary and regressive.”
The remarks come amid the ongoing U.S. push between the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia to establish formal ties.
“Normalizing relations with the Zionist regime is a reactionary and regressive move by any government in the Islamic world,” Raisi says during an international Islamic conference held in Tehran.
Raisi said any normalization attempt is the “foreigners’ desire,” while adding that “surrender and compromise” regarding Israel are not on the table.
“The only option for all the fighters in the occupied land and the Islamic world is to resist and stand against the enemies,” he told the 37th International Islamic Unity Conference here.
President Raisi underlined that the liberation of the occupied Al-Quds is the “most important issue” in the Muslim world.
“Becoming united does not only mean unity of religions or geography, it rather means to express cohesion and solidarity to safeguard the interests of the Islamic Ummah,” he said.
The president described Muslim unity with adherence to the holy Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) as the secret of their victory throughout history.
Relying on foreigners and fulfilling their wishes is a “regressive” step, he added.
“The liberation of Al-Quds and Palestine is the most important indicator of the unity of the Islamic Ummah,” Raisi said.
“The way to confront the enemy is not through compromise and surrender but through resistance and resilience,” he noted.
“The option of surrender and compromise are by no means on the table; resistance and resilience against the enemy has paid off and will force the enemy to retreat.”
He praised the international conference on Islamic Unity in Tehran as an “anti-Zionism and anti-hegemony” event, saying that “today’s strategy of unity can fortify the Islamic Ummah against the enemy, and cohesion against its hybrid warfare.”
Raisi also called for further consolidation of the Islamic Ummah’s unity in the face of threats posed by takfiri terror outfits.
“The horrific crimes perpetrated by takfiri groups against mosques and religious centers, explosions in Pakistan and Afghanistan and massacre of people as well as crimes by the U.S. and the Zionist regime’s henchmen in various Islamic countries spurs promoting unity among the Islamic Ummah to confront the takfiri current,” he added.
Raisi called on Muslim scholars and thinkers to prepare themselves for assuming an important
role in the new world order by promoting cohesion, unity, and proximity of faiths.
“Muslims and the Islamic world must establish themselves in the new order, disrupt the current unjust order, and create a just order in the world,” he said, stressing that the Islamic Ummah will play a key role in the emerging world order.
Raisi said sacrilegious acts such as the desecration of the holy Qur’an and the Prophet, heinous crimes by takfiri terrorist groups, and normalization deals with the occupying regime as well as media campaigns spearheaded by the enemies are meant to deter the Islamic Ummah.
“The enemy intends to disappoint the Islamic Ummah about the future by propagating the idea that only everything it wants and wishes will happen, but the Islamic Ummah has foiled such plots,” the president added.
The 37th International Islamic Unity Conference kicked off in Tehran on Sunday with the participation of hundreds of guests from dozens of Islamic countries.
The annual conference is organized by the Iran-based World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought during the Islamic Unity Week which coincides with the birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him).
-- Near-Miss Shutdown Exposes U.S. Dysfunction
The U.S. narrowly dodged its fourth partial government shutdown in a decade on Sunday, but the past week exposed the depths of political dysfunction in Washington and particularly within the splintered House Republican caucus.
A last-minute decision by Republican House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy to turn to Democrats to pass a short-term funding bill pushed the risk of shutdown to mid-November, meaning the federal government’s more than 4 million workers can count on continued paychecks for now.
But the mere fact the government came within hours of shutting down - with former President Donald Trump cheering on the idea and just four months after the nation almost defaulted on its $31.4 trillion in debt - raises concerns about Congress’ ability to function.
“Congress is not looking very good,” said Sarah Binder, an expert on governance issues at the Brookings Institution think tank. “Arguably, the one thing it has to do every year is pass laws that fund the government, and their inability to do any of them this year is just a ringing indictment.”
The near-shutdown is only the latest example of congressional malfunction.
Hardline conservatives have held up Senate action on hundreds of military promotions over abortion, shuttered the House floor for a week in June and subjected McCarthy to 15 humiliating floor votes before allowing his election in January. They may yet oust him for having compromised with Democrats.
And of course, less than three years have passed since Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to overturn his election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden. Trump is the clear favorite for the Republican nomination to challenge Biden in 2024.
A push to impeach Biden, led
by Trump’s allies, has also fanned partisan anger and split the House majority with an inquiry that even some Republicans say has failed to produce tangible evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden.
The partisan divisions between House and Senate make the 118th Congress unlikely to match the policy achievements of the last Congress, when Democratic majorities in both chambers enacted bipartisan bills on infrastructure, U.S. technology and other issues.
Brinkmanship and polarization have already spread beyond politics to threaten the U.S. financial outlook. The credit rating agency Moody’s warned last week that a shutdown would harm its “Aaa” rating for the United States - the country’s last top rating.
“Hurtling from one fiscal cliff to the next is no way to govern. We never should have been in this position to begin with,” Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer said.
The House and Senate have been on divergent paths on funding since McCarthy agreed to set fiscal 2024 spending at $1.59 trillion four months ago.
House Republicans dissolved into infighting over hardliner demands for $120 billion in cuts.
“The dysfunction caucus at work,” Republican Representative Don Bacon told reporters earlier this month, after hardliners blocked consideration of a defense appropriations bill that finally passed on Thursday.
Some moderate Republicans have likened that party infighting to TV soap operas, including the one-time U.S. series “All My Children.”
“The government is not a telenovela,” Republican Representative Monica De La Cruz of Texas said on Friday, expressing her frustration over Biden border policies and opposition to a failed Republican stopgap bill that included border restrictions.
Before Saturday, bitter political relations between parties, and within the Republican Party in particular, boiled over into ad hominem attacks, some directed at hardline Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, a prominent holdout on bipartisan funding who has threatened to move for McCarthy’s ouster.
“He’s not a conservative Republican. He’s a charlatan,” Representative Mike Lawler, a centrist Republican from New York, said of Gaetz after the failed Republican stopgap vote.
Gaetz responded in a podcast appearance: “I’ll get my blanket and curl up in a corner and call my therapist and see how to work through all the hurt feelings.”
Some House Republicans worry about personal rivalries and a general lack of trust within a 221-212 majority that can afford to lose no more than four Republican votes on legislation opposed by Democrats.
“That’s the part that nobody wants to talk about. There are a lot of personalities at play here, and multiple strategic objectives,” Republican Representative Kat Cammack told reporters.
Only one in three respondents to an August Reuters/Ipsos poll said they had a favorable view of the House or the Senate.
Of the majority leaders, McCarthy scored an approval rating of just 21% while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer - the top Democrat in Congress - had a 26% approval rating.
Those ratings were well below the 40% of respondents in September who said they held a favorable view of either Biden or Trump.
Democrats view McCarthy as having wasted time presiding over chaos.
“The majority has demonstrated overwhelmingly, in the last several days and the last several months, an unwillingness to govern, an inability to govern, and chaos - general chaos,” said Representative Rosa DeLauro, top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
But many House Republicans directed their ire at the small group of hardliners that had opposed their own failed stopgap measure and its winning bipartisan successor, while complaining about the slow pace of progress on appropriations.
“There’s this sort of strange woulda-coulda-shoulda -- appropriations should have just moved faster,” said Republican Representative Dan Crenshaw.
-- EU Plans ‘Long-Term Security Commitment’ to Ukraine
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said during a visit to Kyiv on Sunday that Ukraine needed more military aid and he promised ongoing EU support.
“Ukraine needs more capabilities & needs them faster,” he said in a statement posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. He said he had discussed “continuous EU military assistance” during his first in-person meeting with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
“We are preparing long-term security commitments for Ukraine,” Borrell added.
Umerov, whose appointment by President Volodymyr Zelensky was approved by parliament on Sept. 6, thanked Borrell in a statement on X for “continuous support” and said the meeting was “a starting point for great cooperation.”
He said their discussions of EU military aid to Ukraine covered “artillery & ammunition, air defense, EW & long-term assistance programs, trainings, and defense industry localization” in Ukraine. EW is an acronym for electronic warfare.
This week the European Defense Agency said in response to questions from Reuters that seven EU countries had ordered ammunition under a procurement scheme to get urgently needed artillery shells to Ukraine and replenish depleted Western stocks.
However, there are no immediate plans to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Sunday, rowing back from comments by his defense minister who had suggested troops could carry out training in the country.
To date, Britain and its allies have avoided a formal military presence in Ukraine to reduce the risk of a direct conflict with Russia.
British defense minister Grant
Shapps, who was appointed to the role last month, said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper that he wanted to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian armed forces in Britain or other Western countries.
Hours after that interview was published, Sunak said there were no immediate plans to send British troops to Ukraine.
“What the defense secretary was saying was that it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine,” Sunak told reporters at the start of the governing Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester.
“But that’s something for the long term, not the here and now. There are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday said any British soldiers training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russian forces
Britain has provided five-week military training courses to around 20,000 Ukrainians over the past year, and intends to train a similar number going forward.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Shapps said there was scope to offer military training within Ukraine after a discussion on Friday with British military chiefs.
“I was talking today about eventually getting the training brought closer and actually into Ukraine as well,” he was quoted as saying. “Particularly in the west of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things ‘in country’.”
Shapps added that he hoped British defense companies such as BAE Systems would proceed with plans to set up arms factories in Ukraine.
In his speech at the conference, Shapps did not address his earlier comments, but said the war in Ukraine was consuming weapons and people “at an appalling rate” but “we must remain steadfast” in support the country in its war against Russia.
-- Iranian Pair Clinch Bronze in Men’s Doubles Table Tennis at Asian Games
The Iranian men’s doubles table tennis team of Noshad and Nima Alamian was defeated by the Chinese squad and received a bronze medal at the 19th edition of the Asian Games in China.
On Sunday, the Iranian sportsmen suffered a bitter 0-4 loss (4-11, 3-11, 3-11, and 6-11) to China’s Zhendong Fan and Chuqin Wang in their semifinal clash at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Gymnasium in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, and claimed the third spot.
This came a day after Noshad and Nima Alamian defeated the Japanese pair of Taisei Matsushita and Mizuki Oikawa 3-0 (11-6,11-8, 11-5) in the quarterfinals to advance to the last-four match of the competition.
A record high of nearly 12,500 athletes from 45 countries and territories compete across 40 sports in the prestigious continental multi-sport event.
Iran has sent 289 male and female athletes to the Games in 34 sports events.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far collected a total of 27 medals – three golds, twelve silvers, and twelve bronzes – at the Asian Games, and currently stands in the 11th place.
China leads the standings with 222 medals, including 116 golds. South Korea is in the second slot with 118 medals, among them 30 golds while Japanese athletes rank third, having won 29 golds and 106 medals in total.
-- Hamas: Al-Aqsa Mosque, Inmates Palestine’s Red Lines
The spokesman of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas slammed the Zionists desecration of holy Muslim sites, saying that Al-Aqsa and prisoner are Palestine’s redline.
According to the Palestinian Information Center (PIC), Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasim clarified in a press statement that the movement’s redlines is not just a “motto” but they are a fact that was proven both in the Battle of Saif Al-Quds (Sword of Quds) and in other battles.
Qasim stated that the current hard-line cabinet of the Zionist regime has launched a religious war against the Islamic and Christian sanctuaries of Al-Quds and is seeking to implement the plan to divide Al-Aqsa Mosque by any means.
Pointing out that the Zionist enemy has escalated the war and put pressure on the Quds residents with the aim of forcing them out, he emphasized that all the actions of the Zionist cabinet in the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings are carried out with the aim of implementing the Jewishization plan in holy Quds.
The Hamas spokesman further stated that the last crime committed by the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian nation was the attack on Palestinian prisoners in Ramon prison on Sunday morning.
He pointed out that the extremist Zionist cabinet, led by a number of extremists, is trying to put pressure on the prisoners with the aim of breaking their resolve, because the prisoners and Al-Aqsa Mosque are among the Palestinians’ symbols and red lines.
Qasim stated that the crimes committed by the extremist Zionist regime’s cabinet will face a strengthened Palestinian people’s resistance.
The remarks came as hundreds of Zionist settlers on Sunday forced their way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex to celebrate a Jewish holiday.
In a statement, the Jordan-run Islamic Waqf Department said Zionist troops closed the Al-Mughrabi Gate, southwest of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, “after allowing 602 extremists” into the site.
According to witnesses, the settlers entered the site in groups.
The Palestinian Al-Quds Governorate published a video on its Facebook account of settlers trying to enter animal sacrifices inside the complex.
Israeli police began allowing the settler incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in 2003, despite repeated condemnations from Palestinians.
TEHRAN TIMES:
-- Navy chief says Iran receiving orders for destroyers
Iran has received orders from many countries for destroyers as advanced as Dena, the Iranian Navy commander has announced. “Today many countries are seeking help from Iran in areas of education and production of vessels” in the naval industry and Iran has also got “many orders for destroyers” at the level of Dena, Rear Admiral Shahram Irani explained. Admiral Irani also said that the naval forces under his commander would soon get a new destroyer built domestically. Speaking to students at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran on at an event remembering Iraq’s imposed war against Iran in the 1980s, he added that the destroyer will be outfitted with far more sophisticated and advanced equipment than the military vessels that have already been displayed. Irani mentioned that the domestic military vessel, known as Deylaman, will soon join Iran’s naval fleet. He added that the Dena destroyer was not quite as advanced as Deylaman. Dena is apparently the fourth destroyer of the Jamaran class built by the naval industry of the Defense Ministry.
-- BRICS considering alternative to SWIFT
Reports have emerged that the BRICS economic alliance is considering a new global payment system for international trade that would be an alternative to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT). The six-member group’s finance ministers are exploring the possibility of a unified payments network and will formally discuss the plan in Russia at the next annual meeting of the bloc in 2024. The Russian Finance Minister, Anton Siluanov, says the network would boost independent efforts to create payment messaging systems. “We are trying to introduce our financial messaging system, the SPFS, our Chinese colleagues have their own system, other BRICS countries also either have their systems or are creating them,” Siluanov said. He pointed out that it would allow the bloc to continue its de-dollarization efforts and move away from Western influence on global settlements. He added, “This is why this issue is to be discussed by money authorities and financial agencies of BRICS member states.” It comes after BRICS, which stands for the states of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, formally decided to expand the group to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the UAE.
-- Tehran warns geopolitical changes in the Caucasus will be hazardous
Iran’s top security official warned on Sunday that any geopolitical changes in the Caucasus region will undermine stability and worsen the conflicts, underlining the need for concerted efforts to guarantee peace and security in the region. Ali Akbar Ahmadian, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), made the warning during a meeting with Secretary of Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan, who visited Tehran on Sunday afternoon. Changes in the geopolitics of the region would trigger “insecurity and instability” and “exacerbate” the challenges that lie ahead, Ahmadian cautioned. In order to prevent conflict and tension in the region, Ahmadian reiterated Iran’s policy of fostering cooperation and interaction with neighbors, saying that “explicit and constructive dialogue among the countries.
-- Iran, Venezuela, Syria ink tripartite deal to construct refinery in Homs
Iran, Venezuela, and Syria have signed a trilateral agreement to cooperate on constructing a new oil refinery in Syria’s Homs Province, a senior official with the Iranian Oil Ministry said. Deputy Oil Minister Jalil Salari provided the information in an interview with Iranian media, IRNA reported on Sunday. The deal foresees the construction of “a new 140,000-barrel refinery,” whose required oil would be provided jointly by the Islamic Republic and Venezuela, Salari said. “The [relevant] fundamental studies and designing process [for implementation of the project] has been completed,” the official noted. The refinery would complement two already functioning ones, the Banias Refinery and the Homs Refinery, which are both located in western Syria. According to Salari, “the financing and construction [phases of the project] are on the agenda.” Iran and Syria have also signed a memorandum of understanding towards repairing the 110,000-barrel oil refinery that is located in Homs, the Iranian official reported.
NOURNEWS