*** Iran DAILY
-- Iran, Kuwait sign MoU to cooperate against dust storms
Iran and Kuwait signed a memorandum of understanding in Kuwait City on Tuesday to tackle sand and dust storms, a natural hazard in the region that has increasingly been fueled by climate change.
In a statement issued after the signing ceremony, Director General of Kuwait’s Environment Public Authority Sheikh Abdullah al-Humoud al-Sabah said the agency is working extensively with countries in the region to exchange knowledge, experiences, and best practices, and “seeks to cooperate with all government agencies to increase green belts to reduce the effects of these dust storms,” Xinhua reported.
-- Iranian movie projectionist Heidari loves his career
There are many people in the world who may not seem very successful to us, but they are satisfied with their lives. They are neither well-educated nor wealthy because they prefer to live their lives for themselves, not the expectations of others. They tend to make decisions with their heart rather than their head.
Ali Heidari is one of them. He has been passionate about cinema since he was a child. He left his small village located near the city of Hashtrud, in the northwestern province of East Azarbaijan, for Tehran to achieve his dreams.
-- Raeisi calls for strengthening trade exchanges with regional states
Speaking at the cabinet session on Wednesday, Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi emphasized the necessity of seizing the opportunities created to strengthen trade exchanges with the countries of the region, especially neighboring countries, iranpress.com reported.
He said: "The Ministry of Agricultural Jihad is one of the bodies that can become more active in the field of exchanges of such products due to the context and capacity of production of agricultural products in neighboring countries."
*** KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL
--Iran Eyeing $115bn in Profits by Developing Azadegan Oilfield
Iranian Minister of Petroleum Javad Owji says development of Azadegan Oilfield would generate $115 billion in revenue and 24,000 jobs.
Speaking in a televised interview regarding the signing ceremony of the memorandum of understanding for the integrated development of the joint Azadegan oil field between the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), banks and exploration and production companies on Tuesday evening, Mr. Owji said Azadegan is a joint oil field between Iran and Iraq; the models for the development of the joint field have been designed with the planning and studies carried out by the NIOC in recent months, but financing was one of the important concerns about the project, which today using the capacity of banks and holdings, this issue was also sorted out.
--Belgian MPs Approve Prisoner Exchange Deal With Iran
Belgian lawmakers gave initial clearance on Wednesday to a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran that could lead to the release of an Iranian diplomat.
The foreign relations committee of Belgium’s lower house debated the treaty for more than six hours over two days before finally approving it.
The measure still needs to be put before the full 150-member lower house of parliament, most likely in the next two weeks, but the chamber normally follows votes of its committees, given they have similar party compositions.
-- Iran Beat Poland in Five-Set Thriller in VNL
Iran defeated powerhouse Poland 3-2 (21-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-27, 15-7) in Week 3 of the 2022 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) Tuesday night.
Poland suffered their second defeat in the men’s Volleyball Nations League in Gdansk, Poland, on Tuesday.
Poland wanted to extend its winning streak to seven games, but the visitors, who performed in Gdansk without a few crucial players such as Saeid Marouf, produced a huge surprise.
World champions Poland couldn’t find a way to stop Milad Ebadipour but managed to take the lead 10-6 and then kept the advantage to win 25-21 in the first set.
*** TEHRAN TIMES
-- Iran, Egypt agree to develop ties: report
Iran and Egypt have held a high-level meeting in recent days and have agreed to boost their relations, according to a Qatari-owned newspaper.
Citing Egyptian diplomatic sources, Al Araby Al Jadeed said new developments have taken place in the relations between Tehran and Cairo ahead of a mid-July visit by U.S. President Joe Biden to the region. “A high-level meeting, which took place during the recent visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to the Sultanate of Oman early last week, brought together Egyptian and Iranian officials,” the sources told Al Araby Al Jadeed. They added that the meeting was attended by a high-ranking figure from the delegation accompanying the Egyptian president with Omani coordination.
-- Oil drilling reveals cemetery with giant urn-like tombs in southwest Iran
An ancient cemetery bearing urn-like tombs has accidentally been discovered in an oil drilling project off the river Karun in Ahvaz, southwest Iran. Situated about 150 meters from the river, the cemetery has yielded ancient human remains some beige-colored urn tombs that are coated with natural tar, Iranian archaeologist Hossein Feizi told ILNA on Tuesday.
The urn tombs face the river, suggesting a hypothesis that those burials were made according to Mithraism principles. “The fact that this type of burial is toward the river strengthens the hypothesis that this cemetery and its burials had links with Mithraism,” the archaeologist said.
-- Non-oil trade with neighbors up 18% in Q1
The value of Iran’s non-oil trade with its neighboring countries increased 18 percent in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, the spokesman of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced. Ruhollah Latifi put Iran’s non-oil trade with its neighbors at 20.973 million tons worth $12.363 billion in the three-month period.
He said trade with the neighbors accounted for 49 percent of the value and 59 percent of the weight of Iran’s non-oil trade during the first quarter. The country exported 16.05 million tons of non-oil goods worth $6.736 billion to the neighboring countries in the three-month period of this year, indicating 20 percent rise in value, while 10 percent drop in weight, as compared to the same time span of the previous year, the official stated.
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