*** IRAN DAILY
-- Iran Leader urges ‘exemplary punishment’ in building collapse tragedy
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei offered condolences over the loss of lives in a building collapse in Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan, calling it an “unfortunate incident”.
In a message on Thursday, which was read in a meeting chaired by President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi, Ayatollah Khamenei called for the rescue operation to be accelerated and the casualty toll minimized, Press TV reported.
The death toll from the Monday collapse of the 10-story commercial building, known as Metropol, in the city of Abadan has now reached 24, making it one of the deadliest disasters in Iran in recent years, ISNA quoted Abadan’s Governor Ehsan Abbaspour as saying.
-- Iran, Russia explore avenues to boost cooperation
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak explored all avenues with Iranian officials in Tehran to promote bilateral cooperation. Heading a high-ranking delegation, Novak visited Tehran to attend the Iran-Russia Joint Economic and Trade Cooperation Commission.
Novak told Russia’s official TASS news agency that Moscow and Tehran had agreed to “move to the highest possible level of mutual settlements in national currencies”. Novak said Iran and Russia will continue talks to connect their electronic payment systems as well as their financial messaging systems.
-- ‘Leila’s Brothers’ receives positive reviews at Cannes
The Iranian feature, ‘Leila’s Brothers,’ directed by Saeed Roustaee, received positive reviews from critics at the Cannes Film Festival.
Variety wrote: “If this sounds soap operatic in the slightest, credit Roustaee for ensuring the story never feels that way on screen. The helmer constructs scenes with a bustling documentary energy, studiously avoiding melodramatic tropes, even when they might serve to make the narrative more engaging, less unwieldy or simply easier to digest overall.”
“Thanks to the director’s command of his material, the entanglements we witness may be unbelievably challenging and yet do not require any suspension of disbelief. This subtle, convincing emotional tour-de-force doesn’t feel as long as its generous running time,” Screen Daily reviewed.
*** KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL
-- Iranian FM: Sanctions Holding Up Vienna Talks
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian said Thursday that the continued U.S. designation of its Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) is not holding up stalled nuclear talks as much as disagreements over the removal of sanctions.
Speaking on stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the minister also hit out at U.S. President Joe Biden for keeping his predecessor’s hardline policies in place, stating that the occupying regime of Israel and its supporters are holding U.S. foreign policy “hostage”.
“The most important thing is that the economic sanctions need to be lifted in an effective way,” Amir-Abdollahian told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. “The most important thing is that the maximum pressure policy of the Trump era — the factors, the elements there — need to be removed.”
-- Iran Summons Swiss, Greek Envoys Over ‘Piracy’
Iran on Friday summoned the envoy of Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests in Tehran, to protest against the U.S. seizure of Iranian oil from a Russian-operated ship near Greece, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry called for the immediate release of the ship and its cargo, official IRNA news agency quoted it as saying.
The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on what it described as a Russian-backed oil smuggling and money laundering network for Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’ Quds Force.
-- Iraq Criminalizes Normalization With Zionist Regime
Iraq’s parliament on Thursday unanimously approved legislation that criminalizes any form of “normalization” with the occupying regime of Israel.
According to the text of the law, all Iraqis, whether inside or outside the country, are banned from establishing relations with Israel, visiting Occupied Palestine, or promoting normalization.
The legislation applies to all state officials, including those in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan region, as well as government institutions, private sector companies, the media, foreign companies and their employees.
*** TEHRAN TIMES
-- Iran football federation is to blame
It’s true that Canada Soccer has cancelled the friendly with Iran but Iran football federation is responsible for preparing the team ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. With less than six months away from the start of the 2022 World Cup, the federation has yet to arrange a single warm-up match.
Iran football team have a historic chance to qualify for the next stage of the FIFA World Cup for the first time ever but the federation’s chaotic situation has lessened the team’s chance to make it happen. The federation is leading by acting president and it seems to find a president for the country’s football is more important than finding an opponent ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
-- Iran eyeing new destinations for oil shipments: NIOC
The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has said Iran is looking into potential new destinations for the country’s oil cargoes to diversify the list of oil buyers, IRNA reported.
Mentioning a 40-percent increase in the country’s oil exports over the past few months, Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr told IRNA that: “This increase in exports has been both due to having new destinations and new customers and also the hard work carried out for reviving part of the traditional markets.”
-- Translation of millennia-old cuneiform tablets unveiled
The translation of four millennia-old cuneiform tablets has recently been unveiled in a cultural heritage museum located in central Iran. “Two of the cuneiform tablets have been unearthed from (the UNESCO-registered) Tchogha Zanbil, and they date from the Elamite era,” ILNA quoted Arak’s provincial tourism chief as saying on Thursday.
“Two other cuneiform tablets, which their translations unveiled today, date some 3,000 years and they belong to the Sumer civilization,” Mostafa Marzban said.
6125**9417
Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish
Your Comment