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By Mohammad Fatemizadeh

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

By Banafsheh Esmaeili

Mohammad GhaderiTehran Times editor-in-chief @ghaderi62

EDITORIALRamin Hossein Abadian

Mehr News Agency journalist

R E P O R T

Cold season comes to an end in Syria

Despite the fact that Syrian crisis has been going on about eight years, the Syrian government has achieved

valuable triumphs and victories against enemies, and that has made an increasing number of Arab states to begin normalizing relations with Syria.

In 2011, the leaders of the Arab League, under widespread pressure of the US and Western countries, voted to suspend Syr-ia’s membership in the league. But now, with the new developments, the same countries are surpassing other states to resume relations with Damascus.

The developments throughout these years clearly show that the Arab states have played a significant role in inten-sifying and elongating the Syrian crisis as well as their sudden change of heart that indicates their defeat in Damascus.

Head of Syrian National Security Bureau visited Egypt at official invitation

Ali Mamlouk, head of the National Se-curity Bureau of the Ba’ath Party, recently traveled to Cairo at the invitation of Egyp-tian intelligence chief. During his trip to Egypt, he met with senior security officials of Egypt including the head of the Egyptian intelligence agency, Abbas Kamel. During the meeting, the two sides discussed the se-curity developments in the region and ways to resume the military relations between Damascus and Cairo and fight terrorism.

This was Mamlouk’s second trip to Egypt in the past two years. His first trip was on October 22, 2016 when the Syrian official visited Director of the General In-telligence Directorate Khaled Fawzy and a number of other senior security officials.

Renovation of the UAE Embassy in Damascus

Recently, the media and social networks have released images showing that the Unit-ed Arab Emirates is renovating embassy in Damascus. The move comes at a time when the UAE and Syrian authorities have resumed diplomatic relations. The reopening of the UAE embassy in Syria has also been met with various reactions from officials.

Faisal Mekdad, the Syrian Deputy-For-eign Minister has recently said, “The decision to reopen an embassy strictly depends on a country as that is the case with the UAE, which is an independent country with the right to announce and publish the news.” 7

Independent European army: A dream which will never come true

It has been a rather long time that politicians like the French President Emmanuel Macron, and German

Chancellor Angela Merkel, didn’t speak of the formation of an “Independent European Army.” This is doubling the assumptions on the cross-sectional and reactionary nature of this idea by Eu-ropean authorities.

Countries like Germany, France, and Spain supported this idea, and, on the contrary, Britain, Denmark and the Neth-erlands have strongly opposed it. However, the evidences suggest that such this idea has an abstract nature, and it is merely a minimal and periodic reaction by Macron and Merkel against unilateral measures taken by the U.S. President. Meanwhile, Germany and France spent 1.2 percent and 1.8 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense spending under the NATO pact.

Trump called on German and French officials to increase this amount to 2 per-cent. Britain and four other countries (out of the 29 NATO member states) have so far been willing to devote 2% of their GDP on NATO defense spending, and 24 other countries have not yet responded to this request. This is a sign of a continuous conflict between the United States and other NATO members which will last for a long time, even after Trump’s leaving the White House!

Accordingly, we should pay attention to the thorough opposition of British officials to the idea of forming a “True European Army”, as it was previously raised by Merkel. Speaking about the prospect of a European army, Gevin Williamson, the British Defense Sec-retary, told the Daily Mail: ‘You can absolutely rest assured that Britain will never become part of a European army on my watch.

‘It is an absolutely crazy idea. NATO has delivered European security for the last 70 years and we should feel very proud of it. Should we undermine that by forming a separate military force? Absolutely not. To begin discussing a new EU army is dangerous and undermines the security that NATO underwrites.’ 1 3

2 2

Al-Amiri thanks Iran for aiding Iraq against terror

Leader’s post-2009 election statements published

Iran’s Khademalsharieh wins silver at World Rapid Championship 15

Nine debut films get Fajr festival premiere 16

Saudi cabinet reshuffle: An attempt to avert potential dangers

TEHRAN — The cabinet reshuffle

carried out by King Salman of Saudi Arabia has raised a lot of questions about the real motives behind the changes and future steps taken by the Saudi regime.

The political structure in Saudi Arabia is established in a way that the cabinet is led by the king. In cabinet shake-up the king

has announced former Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf would succeed Adel al-Jubeir as the nation’s Foreign Minister. Al-Jubeir, who served as the Foreign Min-ister since 2015, was appointed minister of state for foreign affairs.

In November 2017, Al-Assaf was de-tained in Saudi Arabia in a corruption crackdown conducted by a new royal anti-corruption committee. 1 3

Iran builds radars to monitor satellites in low earth orbit

TEHRAN — Briga-dier General Hossein

Salami, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps second-in-command, announced on Saturday that Iranian experts have succeeded to build radars to monitor satellites in low earth orbit (LEO).

Addressing a conference at Su-preme National Defense University in Tehran, Salami said, “Today, we have

achieved world’s modern technology by relying on domestic capabilities despite economic, scientific and technical boycott.”

He added that Iran has built radars to monitor satellites in low earth orbit, drones to carry out operations pre-cisely, and ballistic missiles to destroy warships through relying on domestic capabilities. 2

Chabahar trilateral agreement to take effect on Feb. 26TEHRAN— According to the deputy head of

Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) for ports and economic affairs, the trilateral agreement between Iran, India and Afghanistan on transit of goods via Iran’s southeastern port of Chabahar will be offi-cially implemented on February 26, 2019.

As the official portal of the Trans-port Ministry quoted Mohammad-Ali Hassanzadeh as saying in an interview in a state-TV program on Saturday, the

agreement’s implementation requires at-traction of businessmen and launching direct shipping lines between Chabahar and India’s port, as well as other ports at the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

“The implementation has been start-ed since a week ago and of course, some cargos had been transited from India to Afghanistan before that,” he said, “About 10 ships of wheat and beans, weighting 120,000 tons, have been transported from India to Afghanistan, previously.” 4

16 Pages Price 20,000 Rials 1.00 EURO 4.00 AED 39th year No.13291 Sunday DECEMBER 30, 2018 Dey 9, 1397 Rabi’ Al thani 22, 1440

TEHRAN — After Donald Trump said he would withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, the Turkish military operation against Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria has been postponed. Cur-rently, the main cast in Syria is assessing the position of their forces to continue fighting the remaining ISIS presence after the departure of the U.S.

The Mehr News Agency conducted an inter-view with Syrian Deputy Parliament Speaker Najdat Anzour.

Following is the full text of the interview: What’s your assessment of Trump’s deci-

sion about the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria and the region?

A: This issue should be analyzed from four points. First there is the resistance and achieve-ment of the Syrian people, second is in the regional dimension where the resistance is strengthen by our friend, Iran. Third, on the world stage, for the return of the East from Russia to China, its political and economic role and its place at the center of the world. Fourth, because of the U.S.

roles and their implications for international politics and the future of the United States in international affairs.

Therefore, real changes have been made in all of these cases, all of which are the reason for the withdrawal of American troops from Syria.

How do you evaluate U.S. policies vis-à-vis the region, in particular in Syria since Trump took office? Is he just looking at these issues from the point of view of economics and spending for the United States, or are there other goals behind it? 7

TEHRAN — Pakistan and Afghanistan, the two estranged neighbors with history of hostility and bad blood, have made concerted efforts in recent months to open a new chapter in their bilateral relations.

The new government in Pakistan has not only pledged its support to Afghan-led and Af-ghan-owned peace process, but it has also taken initiatives to remove the trust deficit between

the two countries.One of the sources of conflict between them

is the porous 1,500 mile border. The two gov-ernments believe terrorists infiltrate through the porous border from both sides and launch attacks. It also allows drug smugglers to do their illicit trade.

The western border, Durand Line, has been the main bone of contention between the two countries as Afghanistan has refused to recog-

nize its legality.The armies of the two countries have often

engaged in cross-border skirmishes, resulting in military and civilian casualties, and escalating political and diplomatic tensions.

Pakistan army, in a bid to seal the border and prevent influx of terrorists and smugglers, has been constructing a fence along the border. The work was inaugurated by Pakistan’s army chief Qamar Bajwa in May this year. 6

TEHRAN – Asad Qaiser, speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly, believes that “there is no competition” between Gwader port owned by Pakistan and Chabahar port in Iran.

Gwader is going to be operated by China and Chabahar by India.

“It is our will to kick off cooperation between these ports,” Qaiser tells the Mehr news agency.

Following is the text of the interview: Chabahar Port of Iran and the Gwadar Port

in Pakistan are said to be complementary to each other. What kind of joint venture can take place between the two ports?

A: First and foremost, Iran is our friend and a brotherly country. Pakistanis love and consider Iranians their best friends. Fortunately, the two countries don’t have

any disputes. The new government in Pa-kistan is determined to expand and deepen relations with the Iranian government and nation.

The project of Gwadar Port is a great op-portunity for both countries. It is our will to kick off the cooperation between these ports in a way that both Pakistan and Iran would be able to take advantage of this opportunity. 7

Pentagon and CIA are against Trump, reasons of U.S. withdrawal from Syria: Anzour

Pakistan fencing Afghan border to curb infiltration, but Afghans not happy

No competition between Gwader and Chabahar ports: Pakistan parliament speaker

See page 2

Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader meets Zarif

Snow tubing fun in

central Iran Young people revel in Fereydunshahr ski resort, which is nestled in the foothills of the Zagros mountain range in Isfahan province, central Iran, December 28, 2018.

No skill required, as thick fresh snow covers slopes across the country, people of all walks of life grab snow tubes and head for having fun.

Iran has long been an international destination for avid powder chasers during winter, while - in total contrast - its arid and semi-arid climate reaches sweltering levels in summer.

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Iran to continue backing Palestine, Zarif says

DECEMBER 30, 2018

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MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

TEHRAN — An American author and

former diplomat has highlighted rea-sons behind President Donald Trump’s recent decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, saying Trump “could see no way of overcoming Iranian and Russian aid” to the Damascus government.

“Naturally, President Trump could see no way of overcoming Iranian and Russian aid; that help obviously proved decisive,” Michael Springmann, the former head of the American visa bureau in Saudi Arabia, said in an interview with Tasnim.

“Additionally, and this is pure spec-ulation, Trump or someone close to him finally recognized that the U.S. had illegally invaded Syria,” he said, adding, “Since Iran and Russia had been invited to help Bashar al-Assad fight his enemies, the idea likely coalesced that remaining in Syria in a losing war would be, in the long run, against American Interests elsewhere.”

Springmann expressed hope that this withdrawal is not the end of the beginning, but the beginning of the end of a cruel, needless war.

On whether the move is a victory for Iran, he said, “I would not necessarily say, as some analysts have, that the U.S. withdrawal from Syria is a victory for Iran.”

Instead, the analyst continued, “I would remark that the expected drawdown of American forces is a distinct advantage for the Islamic Republic.”

Iran’s role in removing American sol-diers from Syria has been to help irregular forces, allied with the government, in fighting the terrorists, Springmann said about Iran’s role in Syria.

“Iran’s advice and counsel proved in-valuable in helping groups like Hezbollah deal with the better-armed groups and cooperate with the Syrian government’s army,” he added.

He also said there is no timetable for removing the stated 2,000 U.S. soldiers from Syria. “Nor is there confirmation that America will not continue to bomb that unhappy country or that the U.S. will

cease its support for the various extremist groups it has been backing over the years.”

Because of the U.S. withdrawal, “I believe the Israeli Apartheid Entity will continue to wage war in Syria, in the hope that it will finally destroy the country,” he added.

“Saudi Arabia may well become more deeply involved there as well. And, of course, Turkey will seek to press farther into Syria, both to seize land that had once been part of the Ottoman Empire and to continue its war against the Kurds, including those in Syria who have been fighting ISIS.”

On the reasons behind Trump’s move, he said, “His reasons for doing so are likely fulfillment of his campaign promise to leave the Forever War in the region, end U.S. overextension in the Middle East, and re-orient American forces to counter non-existent threats from Russia and China.”

Springmann also said, “Predictably, the old European colonial powers objected to the U.S. retreat. France vowed to remain in Syria. Britain said it disagreed with U.S. policy. The Germans commented they were surprised because the ‘threat’ is still there.”

“Only Vladimir Putin, the Russian pres-ident, welcomed the move. He noted that ISIS had been defeated and there was no longer a reason to keep the illegitimate U.S. invasion forces in Syria,” he added.

Trump couldn’t overcome Iran, Russia aid to Syria: ex-U.S. diplomat

The director of the Istituto Affari Inter-

nazionali (IAI) think tank in Rome, Ita-ly, has described the 2015 nuclear deal as an “existential interest” for Europe, stressing that the 28-member European Union is doing everything it can to save the agreement.

“…the EU and in particular the EEAS (European External Action Service) have been working on this (the special purpose vehicle (SPV)), on the technical details of it for a number of months and weeks now,” Nathalie Tocci told Tasnim in an interview published on Saturday

The SPV is expected to allow busi-nesses to continue trading with the Islamic Republic in the U.S. sanctions era. France and Germany announced last month that they may host the SPV.

She added that other EU member states have so far refused to host the payment system as they fear the U.S. may decide to take “retaliatory measures” against them through secondary sanctions.

“As you know Austria and Luxemburg came under pressure by the United States not to host the SPV and ultimately they backed out,” Tocci said.

“Three signatories (France, Germany and Britain) of the JCPOA are ready to get wet,” she said.

Tocci was referring to remarks by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in an interview with Italy’s Rai News24 in late November who had said, “It is impossible to swim without getting wet”.

“In the case of the United Kingdom, obviously it is slightly different given the issue of Brexit… when it comes to France and Germany; they will share the burden of wetness by finding a mechanism so that one country will physically host the SPV and in the other country the SPV will be legally registered”.

“So I think it is very fair if you like the way in which Europeans are trying to do what they can and, obviously and inevitably, they will try to the extent

possible to get as wet as possible and create Transatlantic (trade with Iran).”

When it comes to the JCPOA, Euro-peans try to do what they can to save the agreement, as it is an “existential interest” for Europe, said Tocci, who is also special adviser to High Repre-sentative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

The European Union has vowed to counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed sanctions on Iran, including by means of a new law to shield European companies from punitive measures.

On May 8, the U.S. president pulled his country out of the Joint Comprehen-sive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the nuclear deal that was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the 5+1 group (Russia, China, the U.S., Britain, France and Germany).

Following the U.S. exit, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.

Trump on August 6 signed an execu-tive order re-imposing many sanctions on Iran, three months after pulling out of the nuclear agreement.

He said the U.S. policy is to levy “maximum economic pressure” on the country.

The second batch of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic took effect on November 4.

JCPOA an ‘existential interest’ for Europe: researcher

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TEHRAN — Foreign Minister Mohammad

Javad Zarif said on Saturday that Iran will stand beside the Palestinian people and will continue supporting the Pales-tinian cause.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will remain on the side of the Palestinian people and will support the Palestinian cause,” Zarif said during a meeting with Ziad al-Nakhala, the secretary general of the Islamic Jihad movement.

Zarif said it is one of the principles of Iran’s foreign policy to support Palestine.

For his part, Nakhala said the resist-ance front has boosted its capacities to counter the aggressors.

Nakhala cited the Great March of Re-turn, the Zionist regime’s failure in its recent attack on Gaza and a consequent announcement of snap elections in the

occupied territories as manifestations of the capabilities of the resistance movement.

Also, during a meeting with Mahmoud al-Zahar, the co-founder of Hamas and a member of the Hamas leadership in Gaza, on December 23, Zarif said supporting Palestine is a principled policy of Iran.

“Supporting Palestine is one of the principled policies of the Islamic Re-public and we hope that certain Islamic governments which are dependent on the U.S. and Zionists’ support would return to the world of Islam and would realize that the Zionists are not a trusted friend and partner,” he said.

Zarif also suggested that the Islamic world should support Palestine unitedly.

Zahar expressed hope that the Zionism project would end in failure through re-sistance by the Palestinians and support by the Islamic world.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader meets Zarif

TEHRAN — Brigadier General Hossein Sa-

lami, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps second-in-command, said on Saturday that the U.S. policies and strategies in the Middle East region have ended in failure.

“The U.S. spent a lot and at the end left Syria. The U.S. signed the JCPOA [the 2015 nuclear deal] and then pulled out of it. The U.S. gets involved in eco-nomic war with the powers that it has economic relations with. All of these show the U.S. failure in political arena,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference at the Supreme National Defense University.

The general said, “The Iranian people have found their way in such atmosphere and are aware that the major powers have limited capabil-

ities and give in to the reality if they face resistance.”

U.S. President Donald Trump on De-cember 19 announced that U.S. troops had defeated the Daesh terrorists in Syria and he sought to pull some 2,000 U.S. troops out of Syria.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokes-man Bahram Qassemi has welcomed Trump’s decision, saying the U.S. mil-itary presence in the Middle East fuels insecurity in the region.

“Basically, U.S. forces’ arrival and presence in the region was a wrong, illogical, tension-provoking and cri-sis-inducing move from the outset, and has always been one of the key contrib-utors to instability and insecurity in the region,” said Qassemi in a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry website on December 22.

U.S. policies in the region have failed: general

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Zarif: U.S. should drag the world into chaos if it tries to prevent Iran’s oil export

1 According to Fars news agency, National Space Center chief Manouchehr Manteqi also said that Iran has been in possession of the know-how and infrastructure to manufacture experimental satellites and explorer rockets.

“We have been able to attain the technology and nec-essary infrastructures to design and build experimental satellites and explorer rockets and launch (satellites) to

the low earth orbit as well as space discoveries sciences,” Manteqi stated.

He also added that the Iranian researchers were work-ing on the technology to design and build sensing and operational telecommunication satellites, noting that the country aimed to indigenize the projects as soon as possible through serious international cooperation.

Iran builds radars to monitor satellites in low earth orbit

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Al-Amiri thanks Iran for aiding Iraq against terror

TEHRAN — Hadi Al-Amiri, an Iraqi MP and head of Fatah Alliance, has

thanked Iran for its support to Iraq in fighting terrorism over the past years, ISNA reported.

Al-Amiri made the remarks on Friday as he criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for making an unannounced visit to U.S. troopers in Iraq.

He also said it is necessary for all foreign forces to exit the Iraqi soil.

On the same day, Iraj Masjedi, the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, repeated that all Iranian military advisers had left Iraq after Daesh was defeated.

“Iran has built drones to carry out operations precisely, and

ballistic missiles to destroy warships through relying on

domestic capabilities.”

TEHRAN — Iran’s for-eign minister says the U.S.

would have to resort to policies that would drag the world into a chaotic state if it tried to actually shut down Iran’s oil exports.

In an interview with the Hong Kong-based television broadcaster Phoenix TV which was aired on Friday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said the United States cannot simply stop Iran from selling its oil.

Zarif said that Iran would never hold talks with the U.S. in desperation. He said it was the U.S. which walked away from the nuclear deal, not Iran, and so it is the U.S. which needs to come back.

Zarif voiced doubt that reaching a nuclear deal with the U.S. would be possible if negoti-ations were to be held now instead of in 2015. He added that even in case of an agreement, the deal would still be similar to the one reached between Iran and the P5+1 three years ago.

About U.S. decision to withdraw troops from Syria, Zarif said that Iran does not know yet what the Americans’ agenda is with this move, but “what matters to us is that the U.S. policy in the region is dangerous and must be changed.”

About Canada’s arrest of Huawei’s CFO, Zarif said the arrest would have a negative

impact on the world before it could actual-ly affect Iran, because Canada has arrested

someone that has done nothing illegal.He said the arrest also raises questions

about some trade rivalry going on behind the scene.

Zarif called on other parties to the Iran nu-clear deal to take a serious stance against U.S. moves, not for the sake of Iran but for the future of their own and the international relations.

The Iranian diplomat maintained that while Europe has promised Iran to be work-ing on the finalization of a trade mechanism with Iran to bypass U.S. sanctions, Tehran is not holding its breath until the EU delivers on its promises. Zarif stressed that Iran’s main trade partners are China, Russia and its neighboring countries.

He further reassured China that Iran’s interests in the East Asian country are “stra-tegic”, not tactical and temporary.

Elsewhere in the interview, Zarif said the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf is illegal and would add to tensions.

He said the dispatch of a U.S. aircraft car-rier to the Persian Gulf would create tensions, adding that increased presence of Americans in the Persian Gulf has always posed threats to the regional states.

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Ayatollah Movahedi Kermani chairing Expediency Council

TEHRAN — Until the Leader appoints a new chairman for the Expediency Council,

Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Movahedi Kermani will chair the council, ISNA reported on Saturday, quoting a council member.

“After the demise of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the deputy chairman of the council chaired the council until a new chairman was named,” Gholamreza Mes-bahi-Moghadam said, adding that the current circum-stances are similar to that period.

Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi passed away at a hospital in Tehran after his health deteriorated due to a chronic dis-ease. He had served in many crucial positions in the Islamic Republic, including the chairman of the Expediency Council.

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All plots against Iran doomed to failure: general

TEHRAN — Ahmad Vahidi, president of the Supreme National Defense Universi-

ty, said on Saturday that Iran’s enemies have always failed in their policy of economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic, stressing the new U.S. sanctions will fail as well.

“The Islamic Revolution has so far thwarted many plots hatched by the enemies,” Brigadier General Vahidi said, adding that the Islamic Republic will, as always, emerge victorious against such plots, Mehr reported.

Pointing to Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran in the 1980s, he said the war was one of the plots hatched by the enemies, after which an even stronger Islamic Republic emerged.

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Turkey to continue co-op with Russia, Iran on Syria

TEHRAN — Turkey will continue its close cooperation with Russia and Iran on Syria

and other regional issues, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday.

He made the remarks on a visit to the Russian capital for talks on Syria between top Turkish and Russian officials.

Turkey and Russia have a joint will to clear “all ter-rorist groups from Syria”, Cavusoglu said, according to Anadolu Agency.

He stated that Turkey and Russia, as guarantors of the Astana peace process, are defending Syria’s territorial in-tegrity and political unity from all efforts to harm them.

Before the meeting, Cavusoglu said he came to Russia to hold talks about the latest developments in Syria.

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Cyberspace cannot be shut down: Judiciary official

TEHRAN — The Judiciary chief’s cul-tural deputy believes that not all of the

activities that people do in social media apps such as Tel-egram are criminal and that the people need social media for different reasons.

“Both good and bad activities are done in cyberspace,” IRNA on Saturday quoted Hadi Sadeqi as saying.

“Cyberspace cannot be shut down, because people need it… The government has the duty to facilitate positive usage of cyberspace,” Sadeqi added.

He also said Iran’s enemies exploit cyberspace to commit criminal activities against the country.

Leader’s post-2009 election statements published

TEHRAN — Unpublished statements by Leader of the Islamic Revolution

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after the events surrounding the 2009 election have been made public in a new book, ISNA reported on Saturday.

Following the 2009 presidential elections, which resulted in incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad winning re-election with 62% of the votes cast, candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi rejected the results, claiming the elections were rigged.

Karroubi, Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, were then placed under house arrest for insisting on their claims and calling for protests.

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Zarif says Iran would never hold talks with the U.S. in desperation.

DECEMBER 30, 2018 INTERNATIONALI N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Ansarullah start to redeploy in Hudaydah amid Saudi raids

Egypt kills 40 ‘terrorists’ in crackdown after Giza attack

Belgium reviews smartphone use by troops to counter spying: media

‘Yellow vests’ target Macron’s holiday hideout

New Saudi foreign minister denies kingdom in crisis

Russian and Turkish ministers meet for Syria talks

If Emmanuel Macron is hoping for some holiday respite from the anti-government protests that have rocked France, he might want to avoid the presidential retreat along the Mediterranean coast. Around 40 “yellow vest” demonstrators Thursday tried to storm the medieval fort of Bregancon that serves as Macron’s summer retreat before being turned back by police, the mayor of nearby Bormes-les-Mimosas, Francois Arizzi, said Friday.

“It’s madness. For people who want more democracy, they should start by respecting other people’s property,” Arizzi said, adding many of the protesters had tried to infiltrate the fort by crossing private land. The yellow vest movement has morphed from anger over fuel taxes to a broad rebuke of Macron, whom critics accuse of neglecting the rising costs of living for many in rural and small-town France.

Bregancon generated some unwanted headlines last summer when it emerged Macron was installing a 34,000 euro ($39,000) swimming pool at the fort, which already has its own private beach.

Media reports have said the president canceled a planned Christmas skiing trip, possibly at his longtime destination of La Mongie in the Pyrenees, not far from where his grandmother lived while he was growing up.

(Source: AFP)

Saudi Arabia’s new foreign minister struck a note of defiance Friday in the face of international outrage over critic Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, rejecting the kingdom was in crisis or that his predecessor had been demoted. Ibrahim al-Assaf, a former veteran finance minister who was briefly detained last year in what Riyadh said was an anti-corruption sweep, replaced Adel al-Jubeir as foreign minister in a major government shake-up Thursday that was ordered by King Salman.

The surprise reshuffle was seen partly as an attempt to elevate the kingdom’s marginalized old guard.

But speaking to AFP in his first interview since his appoint-ment, Assaf insisted the restructuring was motivated not by the Khashoggi affair, but the need to make the government machinery more efficient. “The issue of Jamal Khashoggi ... really saddened us, all of us,” Assaf told AFP at his residence in Riyadh, adorned with mahogany furniture, a wall-mounted elephant tusk and other hunting trophies.

“But all in all, we are not going through a crisis, we are going through a transformation,” he added, referring to social and economic reforms spearheaded by the crown prince.

Assaf, 69, inherits the ministry after a series of combative foreign policy moves by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who along with regional allies imposed a blockade on neighboring Qatar, launched a military campaign in Yemen and engaged in a bitter diplomatic row with Canada.

Topping it all, Khashoggi’s murder in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate by what it calls “rogue” agents is testing ties with key ally Washington, particularly after a U.S. Senate resolution recently held Prince Mohammad responsible for the killing.

When asked whether his biggest foreign policy challenge was to repair the kingdom’s tarnished reputation, Assaf replied: “I wouldn’t say ‘repair’ because the relationship between my country and a vast majority of countries in the world is in excellent shape.”

In Thursday’s reshuffle, Jubeir was appointed minister of state for foreign affairs, fueling speculation that he had been demoted after he failed to quell global criticism over Khashoggi. “This is far from the truth,” Assaf said, adding that Jubeir had performed with distinction.

Jubeir’s new role, he insisted, was tantamount to a division of labor and not a demotion, in a bid to accelerate the task of remaking a ministry known to be overly bureaucratic.

“Adel represented Saudi Arabia and will continue to represent Saudi Arabia ... around the world,” Assaf said. “We complement each other.”

Assaf, who is on the boards of state oil giant Aramco and the vast Public Investment Fund, said his appointment as the top diplomat would help bring his financial experience to foreign affairs amid a current “dip” in the economy. “Economic rela-tionships now dominate foreign” affairs.

“I say with all modesty that my experience will help.”(Source: AFP)

Russian and Turkish foreign and defense ministers met in Mos-cow Saturday to discuss northern Syria as U.S. forces prepare to withdraw and Turkey threatens to launch a military operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces controlling nearly a third of the country.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said before the talks began that they would focus on the situation in and around Idlib, as well as “what can and should be done” when the U.S. withdraws from Syria. After the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters that much of the discussion focused on the pending U.S. withdrawal, and that Russia and Turkey man-aged to agree on coordinating their steps in Syria “to ultimately eradicate the terrorist threat.”

Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency said the meeting lasted an hour and a half. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said only that “we will continue our close cooperation with Russia and Iran on Syria and regional issues.”

(Source: Daily Star)

Yemen’s Ansarullah (Houthi) movement fighters say they have started to redeploy from the port of the Red Sea city of Huday-dah as part of a United Nations-sponsored peace agreement signed in Sweden earlier this month.

A UN source confirmed the announcement on Saturday which saw the Saudi regime air-planes carry out new airstrikes despite the presence of UN observers who arrived in Hudaydah this week.

“Our forces have started to redeploy since last night from Hudaydah port, as agreed in Sweden,” an Ansarullah military spokesman told Yemen’s al-Masirah TV.

The Ansarullah have agreed to let interna-tional monitors to be deployed in the strategic city. Under the deal, a Redeployment Coor-dination Committee (RCC) including both warring sides will oversee implementation.

The redeployment is intended to be the first step in the implementation of the agree-ment, to be followed by both sides pulling their forces out of three ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Rass Issa.

The parties are due to present detailed plans for a full redeployment to head of the UN advance team charged with monitoring the ceasefire Patrick Cammaert at the next RCC meeting on Jan. 1, the United Nations said.

It is still unclear how far they will with-draw and who will control the three ports or if the two sides will share control with UN monitors positioned between the two fronts.

The UN monitors will not be uniformed or armed but will provide support for the management of and inspections at the ports and strengthen the UN presence in Hudaydah.

The agreement, the first significant break-through in peace efforts in five years, is part of confidence-building measures intended to pave the way for a wider truce and a frame-work for political negotiations.

On Saturday, the Saudi regime air raids hit an area near Qabiah Village in Bayt al-Faqih District on Friday, Press TV’s correspondent Mohammed al-Attab reported from Huday-dah’s countryside.

The attacks came as UN observers met with representatives of Yemen’s former govern-ment and the Ansarullah movement, which defends the country against the invaders.

The United Nations dispatched the team after the two sides hammered out the truce deal affecting Hudaydah Province in Sweden on December 18.

The strikes were the latest to be committed by the House of Saud regime and the forces backed by the kingdom since the agreement was reached.

On Friday, Yemeni army spokesman Brig-adier General Yahya Saree said the Saudi regime had violated the truce as many as 158 times over the previous 24 hours, Yemen’s

al-Masirah television network reported.The truce deal saw the parties agree to let

local forces take control of the port, which receives some 80 percent of the humanitarian aid headed into Yemen.

Child soldiers from Sudan’s Darfur fight in frontline of Saudi war on Yemen

Meantime, child soldiers from Sudan’s Darfur have reportedly been fighting on be-half of the Saudi regime and its allies in the frontline of the deadly war on Yemen, with money being their only motive.

The New York Times reported that the Saudis have used their vast oil wealth to out-source the war, mainly by hiring survivors of the Darfur conflict to operate in Yemen, many of them children.

Citing several Sudanese mercenaries and lawmakers, the report said that as many as 14,000 Sudanese militants have been fighting in Yemen alongside the Saudi regime-backed forces while at least hundreds of them have been killed so far.

Almost all the Sudanese come from Dar-fur and most of them belong to the Rapid Support Forces, a tribal militia blamed for war crimes during the Darfur conflict, the report added. Elsewhere, the report said that the Saudi or UAE overseers commanded the Sudanese militants by remote control radio headsets and GPS systems in a bid to keep a safe distance from the battle lines.

The report also noted that some Sudanese families even bribe militant officers to let their teenage sons go fight.

Abdul Raheem, 32, said that last year his

family paid a local militant leader a bribe worth $1,360 so an older brother could go to Yem-en. “People are desperate. They are fighting in Yemen because they know that in Sudan they don’t have a future. We are exporting soldiers to fight like they are a commodity we are ex-changing for foreign currency,” said former banker Hafiz Ismail Mohamed.

Five Sudanese militants, who had returned from Yemen, and another about to depart told The New York Times that children made up at least 20 percent of their units. Two other militants, however, put the number at over 40 percent.

They said that Sudanese jets flew from the cities of Khartoum or Nyala to Saudi Arabia with 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers on board.

They added that at Saudi camps, which already host as many as 8,000 Sudanese, the Sudanese mercenaries received Ameri-can-made uniforms and weapons.

Then, they said, Saudi officers provided the Sudanese two to four weeks of training, divided them into units of 500 to 750 and sent them over land to Yemen.

The Sudanese militants interviewed also noted that they all had fought in Yemen only for money.

The Sudanese are paid in Saudi riyals, the equivalent of about $480 a month for a 14-year-old novice to about $530 for an experienced officer. They receive an addi-tional $185 to $285 for any month they saw combat — every month for some.

Italy to halt arms sales to Saudis amid Yemen war

Elsewhere, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe

Conte says his government wants to end arms sales to Saudi Arabia due to war and atrocities in neighboring Yemen.

“We are not in favor of the sale of these weapons and so now it is only a question of formalizing this position and acting ac-cordingly,” Conte said at the prime min-ister’s traditional end-of-the-year press conference on Friday while responding to Italy’s continuing arms exports to the Persian Gulf kingdom.

The move comes amid controversy over Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen and massive aerial bombardment of Yemen’s residential areas and infrastructure there as well as the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Kashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Tur-key’s Istanbul.

If Conte’s decision goes ahead, Italy would join a growing list of countries halting arms sales to the Saudis.

Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway have already decided to stop selling arms to the Saudi regime, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also expressed interest in canceling his country’s $13 billion arms deal with Riyadh.

Despite Trudeau’s pledge however, reports last week revealed that a consignment of the military vehicles had already left Canada for Saudi Arabia.

Canada’s leading daily The Globe and Mail reported last Sunday that a cargo ship loaded with armored vehicles left the port of Saint John for Saudi Arabia a day after protesters gathered to condemn the shipment.

Another report earlier this month further revealed that despite Germany’s claim of halt-ing its arms shipments to the Saudis over the murder of Khashoggi, Berlin is covertly continuing its arms exports to the kingdom and is even planning to resume overt weapons sales to Riyadh soon.

This is while many more Western gov-ernments are continuing their arms deals with the Saudis, including the United States, France, and Britain.

The United Nations calls Yemen the site of the worst humanitarian suffering in the world as the Saudi war has left 14 million people facing starvation

The House of Saud regime invaded Yemen in March 2015 to reinstate former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who had resigned amid popular discontent and fled to Riyadh.

The aggression is estimated to have left 56,000 Yemenis dead.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

(Source: Press TV)

Egyptian police killed 40 alleged “terrorists” in a crackdown Saturday after a roadside bomb hit a tour bus claiming the lives of three Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian guide.

The suspects were killed in separate raids in the Giza gov-ernorate, home to Egypt’s famed pyramids and the scene of Friday’s deadly bombing, and in the restive Sinai Peninsula, the interior ministry said.

Two raids in the Giza governorate killed 30 “terrorists,” while the remaining 10 were killed in the North Sinai, the ministry said in a statement.

It said authorities acted after receiving information the suspects were preparing a spate of attacks against state and tourist institutions and churches.

“Information was received by the national security that a group of terrorists were planning to carry out a series of aggressive attacks targeting state institutions, particularly economic ones, as well as tourism, armed forces, police and Christian places of worship,” the statement said.

Early on Friday evening, a roadside bomb hit a tour bus in the Al-Haram district near the Giza pyramids, killing the three Vietnamese holidaymakers and their Egyptian guide, officials said.

A statement from the public prosecutor’s office said 11 other tourists from Vietnam and an Egyptian bus driver were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, the first attack to target tourists since 2017.

Saigon Tourist, the tour company that organized the trip, said the Vietnamese tourists were “on their way to a restaurant for dinner” when the bomb exploded.

Company officials were heading to Cairo on Saturday and plans were made to allow some relatives of the victims

to also fly to Egypt.One of those heading to Cairo was Nguyen Nguyen Vu

whose sister Nguyen Thuy Quynh, 56, died in the bombing, while her husband, Le Duc Minh, was wounded.

The couple, both aged 56, were in the seafood business and holidaying in Egypt when the tragedy occurred, Quynh’s younger brother said.

“We were all very shocked... My sister and her husband travel quite a lot and they are quite experienced in traveling abroad. Their hobby is traveling,” Vu told AFP.

He said he was applying for a visa for Egypt and hoped to travel on Saturday. “Our wish is that we could bring my sister back home, and I hope that I can settle things well in the next 2-3 days.”

Friday’s deadly bombing was the latest blow to Egypt’s

vital tourism industry, which has been reeling from turmoil set off by the 2011 uprising that forced veteran president Hosni Mubarak from power.

Egypt has been seeking to lure tourists back by touting new archaeological discoveries and bolstering security around archaeological sites and in airports.

It is also planning to open a major museum near the Giza pyramids – the only surviving structures of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

In July 2017, two German tourists were stabbed to death by a suspected militant at the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.

In October 2015, a bomb claimed by a local affiliate of Daesh (ISIL) killed 224 people on board a passenger jet carrying Russian tourists home from the Sinai peninsula.

While tourism has picked up since 2011, the 8.2 million people who visited Egypt in 2017 are still a far cry from the 14.7 million who visited in the year before the uprising.

The blast and the subsequent police raids come as Egypt battles a persistent militant insurgency in the North Sinai, which surged after the 2013 overthrow by the army of Mubar-ak’s successor Mohammad Morsi.

Militants linked to Daesh (ISIL) have claimed responsi-bility for previous attacks, including against Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority who make up about 10 percent of the population.

The army launched a large-scale operation dubbed “Sinai 2018” in February to rid the Sinai of militants after an attack on a mosque in the north of the peninsula killed more than 300 people.

The army says that hundreds of suspected militants have been killed since the campaign was launched.

(Source: AFP)

Belgium’s defense ministry is reviewing restrictions on the use of smartphones by active-duty soldiers on operations to coun-ter potential espionage and data tracking especially by Russia, local media reported Saturday.

A review is underway of all Belgian mil-itary and troops operating in Baltic states, including those bordering Russia, should no longer be allowed to use their smartphones

in “certain regions and circumstances,” news agency Belga said.

“We’ve been investing in prevention and awareness for several years but it does not appear to be enough,” Carl Gillis, a head of operations for the Belgian armed forces, told public channel VRT. “We know that Russia is interested in this kind of mobile geolocation data.”

Geolocation uses mobile phone GPS as

a way to locate devices as other nations have banned their troops using some GPS-enabled devices or applications while on overseas deployment as a way to counter spying.

At the beginning of January, 250 Belgian troops are scheduled to be stationed in Estonia as part of a multinational battalion within a NATO operation.

Last year, the Netherlands warned about

the risks from a physical training activity tracking app collecting data on soldiers and military intelligence personal from 69 countries.

In January the Pentagon reviewed the rules for using another application for sports activity Strava because they worried it revealed data on the military movements in U.S. bases around the United States.

(Source: AFP)

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

DECEMBER 30, 20184 E C O N O M Y

TEHRAN — Iran exported $252 million

of saffron during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-Novemebr 21), showing 44 percent growth from the figure of the same period of time in the preceding year, according to the director general of Exports Development Department of Ministry of Agriculture.

Shahrokh Shajari put the weight of exported saffron during the mentioned time span at 170 tons with a 36-percent

rise from that of the same period of time in the past year, ILNA reported on Saturday.

Iran’s exports of saffron increased about 55 percent in the past Iranian calendar year compared to its preceding year, breaking the record of exports in the past ten years.

According to Kaveh Zargaran, the chairman of the Agricultural Committee at the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA), some 236 tons of saffron worth over $326 million were exported to the

destination markets in the mentioned period.

UAE, Hong Kong, Spain, Afghanistan and China were the top importers of Iranian saffron while the top three namely UAE, Hong Kong and Spain accounted for over 77 percent of the total exports, Zargaran said.

Also, as announced by the Ministry of Agriculture, the saffron output in the country will reach 400 tons by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2019).

The annual saffron production stood at 326 tons during the previous year.

TERHAN — Iranian deputy industry minister announced that in the budget

bill for the next Iranian calendar year 1398 (starting on March 21, 2019) specific attention has been paid to domestic production and renovation of domestic industries, IRNA reported on Saturday.

“In comparison with the budget bill of 1397, that of the next year allocates more credit to industries renovation and localization expansion and also is more protective regarding the related issues to the existing funds, providing facilities to mining sector, and allocated grants,” Farshad Moghimi said.

President Hassan Rouhani presented the administration’s draft of the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year to the Majlis on December 25.

The proposed bill amounts to 17.03 quadrillion rials (about $405 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials).

South Korea’s economy appears headed for a slowdown in 2019, as chipmakers send industrial output sliding and other key industries such as automobiles are expected to remain soft.

The gloomy economic outlook has weakened public support for President Moon Jae-in, who continues pursuing income-driven policies such as big wage increases.

Industrial production nationwide fell 1.7% on the month for November, returning to negative territory after an increase in October, government data out Friday showed. Semiconductor output slipped 5.2% on the month, extending a losing streak that began in May. Capital outlays tumbled 10% on the year overall, weighed by declining investment in chip production.

The weakness in semiconductors was triggered by a slowdown in investments into

data centers, which had driven demand for memory chips. Optimism that the tech industry is enjoying a supercycle with ever-growing demand has receded, and speculation is rising that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will post profit drops for the October-December quarter after stretches of growth.

Hyundai Research Institute predicts that business conditions for major industries will deteriorate across the board in 2019. The steel and auto sectors, after a recovery stage in 2017, are expected to stagnate again. The think tank also projects a recession for the information and communications industry despite a strong 2018.

The only bright spot is shipbuilders, for which orders are bottoming out.

Automakers, a key engine fueling the country’s export-dependent economy, are losing their edge over foreign competitors.

Hyundai Motor’s operating profit tumbled nearly 80% on the year in the July-September quarter. The company’s strategy of using the money earned at home where it dominates to develop overseas markets no longer works, as local players emerge in the key Chinese arena. Hyundai also faces rising costs following wage deals with its union employees.

Moon enacted a minimum wage hike in January as part of his “J-nomics” package aimed at income-led growth. The president hoped the steep wage jump of 16.4% would prompt workers to spend more, buoying the economy. But the move backfired, as small business owners like restaurant and convenience store operators cut jobs to trim costs, raising unemployment and depressing consumption.

Seoul this month downgraded its estimate for South Korea’s gross domestic product

growth to between 2.6% and 2.7% from a previous forecast of 2.9%, while anticipating a similar level in 2019. Hyundai Research Institute eyes 2.5% growth for next year, deeming the economy in a downturn.

“The situation will be even tougher next year,” said an analyst at brokerage SK Securities.

Two out of three South Koreans have a negative opinion of the government’s economic policy, a Wednesday survey by the Maeil Business Newspaper found. Business leaders urge the Moon administration to stimulate industry and freeze minimum wage hikes. Though Seoul has hinted at deregulation as well as slowing the pace of these pay increases, it remains committed to income-driven growth.

A Dec. 21 poll by Gallup Korea shows Moon’s disapproval rating exceeding his support rate for the first time, 46% to 45%.

(Source: Nikkei Asian Review)

COMMODITIES

CURRENCIES

STOCK MARKET

USD 42,000 rialsEUR 47,936 rials

GBP 53,353 rials

AED 11,380 rials

TEDPIX 158443.7IFX 1836.84

WTI $43.10/b

Brent $51.12/b

OPEC Basket $53.92/b

Gold $1,272.65/oz

Silver $14.88/oz

Platinium $799.70/oz

Sources: tse.ir, Ifb.ir

Source: iribnews.ir

Sources: oilprice.com, Moneymetals.com

TEHRAN — In collaboration with Iran-Azerbaijan Joint Chamber of Commerce,

Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) plans to dispatch a trade delegation to Baku in early February 2019.

The delegates active in the foodstuff, agricultural products, nuts, livestock, greenhouse products, pesticides, car accesso-ries and spare parts, electronics, petrochemicals, textile and related industries and tourism will visit the neighbor country to find potential partners through B-2-B meetings, the portal of ICCIMA published.

The ICCIMA Head Golam-Hossein Shafeie is to lead the delegation.

TEHRAN – An Iranian trade delegation headed by the chairman of Iran Chamber

of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) is due to accompany Iranian foreign minister in his visit to India in January 7, 2019, the portal of ICCIMA reported.

As reported, Iran-India Joint Chamber of Commerce has organized this four-day business visit.

The delegation is comprised of businessmen active in a vari-ety of areas including medicine and pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, vegetable pesticides, car accessories and spare parts, electronics, petrochemical and chemical materials, textile and related industries, health tourism and information technology.

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

N E W S I N B R I E F

ICCIMA to dispatch trade delegation to Baku in early February

Iranian trade delegation to visit India in early January

Saffron exports up 44% in 8 months on year

Domestic production a focal point in next year’s budget bill

South Korean economy enters rough seas as chips lose steam

Chabahar trilateral agreement to take effect on Feb. 26

1 On October 23, Iran, India and Afghanistan inked an agreement on transit of goods via Chabahar.

The agreement was signed in Tehran by Mohammad Rastad, the head of PMO, T.S. Tirumurti, the secretary of economic relations in India’s Ministry of External Affairs, and Imammohammad Warymoch, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of transport, during the first meeting of coordination council of agreement on the establishment of an international transport and transit corridor among Iran, India and Afghanistan (Chabahar Agreement).

These three countries signed a trilateral transit agreement in Tehran in May 2016, which allows them open new routes to connect among themselves via converting Chabahar Port into a transit hub bypassing Pakistan.

Accordingly, through Chabahar Port India can bypass Paki-stan and transport goods to Afghanistan and Central Asia, while Afghanistan can get linked to India via sea.

The document was signed in the presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

DECEMBER 30, 20184 A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

First Announcement

RENEWAL OF INTERNATIONAL TENDER NO. 97/120-51/10Tender Holder: ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN BROADCASTING (IRIB)

Subject of Tender: Purchasing of Audio and Video Equipment (LTO Cartridge, LTO Drive, SSD, HDD) accordance with the technical specifications and other terms and conditions mentioned in the tender documents.

Deadline and How to Receive the Tender Documents: From Monday 31 Dec. 2018 (1397/10/10) by 4 p.m. on Monday 07 Jan. 2019 (1397/10/17) with presentation of introductory letter by company or its representative and the receipt of paying the documents fee.

Place of Receiving the Tender Documents: Interested participants may refer to purchasing (KALA) Dept., 4th Floor of IRIB Administration Complex, Hotel Esteghlal St., Vali-e Asr Ave., Tehran Iran.

The Fee of the Tender Documents and How to Deposit it:Submission of payment receipt for the amount of 1,000,000 Rials to Account No. 4101029171204273 (IBAN: IR310100004101029171204273) with CENTERAL BANK OF IRAN in the name of IRIB.

Type and Amount of Guarantee for Participation to Tender: The amount of deposit for participant in tender is USD 35,000 fixed or its equivalent in 3,500,000,000 Rials which should be in the form of Bank Guarantee.

Time and Place of Delivering Priced Bid:The sealed A, B & C packages/envelopes should be submitted no later than 4 p.m. on 16 Feb. 2019 (1397/11/27) and at the address mentioned in the 4th clause.

Time and Place of Opening Envelopes:The date of opening the envelopes A&B is on 17 Feb. 2019 (1397/11/28) at 3 p.m. in the office of Financial Vice President and opening of envelope C will be after technical evaluation.

For more information, please see:www.iriboffice.ir/tenders and http://iets.mporg.ir/ Tel: 00982122167463

Purchasing (Kala) Dept. of IRIB

IN THE NAME OF GOD ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN BROADCASTING

Trade wars cost U.S., China billions of

dollars each in 2018The U.S.-China trade war resulted in billions of dol-lars of losses for both sides in 2018, hitting industries including autos, technology - and above all, agriculture.

Broad pain from trade tariffs outlined by several economists shows that, while specialized industries including U.S. soybean crushing benefited from the dispute, it had an overall detrimental impact on both of the world’s two largest economies.

The losses may give U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, motivation to resolve their trade differences before a March 2 deadline, although talks between the economic su-perpowers could still devolve.

The U.S. and Chinese economies each lose about $2.9 billion annually due to Beijing’s tariffs on soy-beans, corn, wheat and sorghum alone, said Purdue University agricultural economist Wally Tyner.

Disrupted agricultural trade hurt both sides par-ticularly hard because China is the world’s biggest soybean importer and last year relied on the United States for $12 billion worth of the oilseed.

China has mostly been buying soy from Brazil since imposing a 25 percent tariff on American soybeans in July in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. The surge in demand pushed Brazilian soy premi-ums to a record over U.S. soy futures in Chicago, in an example of the trade war reducing sales for U.S. exporters and raising costs for Chinese importers.

“It’s something that’s crying for a resolution,” Tyner said. “It’s a lose-lose for both the United States and China.”

Total U.S. agricultural export shipments to China for the first 10 months of 2018 fell by 42 percent from a year earlier to about $8.3 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The most actively traded soybean futures contract averaged $8.75 per bushel from July to December 2018, down from an average of $9.76 during the same period a year earlier.

As of Dec. 28, futures in the last month of the year were averaging $8.95-1/2 a bushel. That was down from $9.61-3/4 for all of December last year.

To compensate suffering farmers, the U.S. govern-ment has allocated about $11 billion to direct payments and buying agricultural goods for government food programs, after consulting economists, including Tyner.

In North Dakota, which exports crops to China through ports in the Pacific Northwest, soy farmers face at least $280 million in losses because of Beijing’s tariffs, said Mark Watne, president of the North Da-kota Farmers Union.

“You could almost put another $100 million on top of this because all commodity prices are down and that affects North Dakota farmers indirectly,” Watne said.

China’s tariffs improved margins for U.S. soy crush-ers such as Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM.N) by leaving plentiful supplies of cheap soybeans on the domestic market.

(Source: Reuters)

Russia’s 2018 inflation hits 4.2 pct, above central bank›s targetRussia’s consumer price index (CPI) rose slightly above the central bank target of 4 percent in 2018, the statistics service’s preliminary data showed on Saturday.

Earlier this month, the central bank raised its key interest rate, seeking to keep a grip on rising inflation spurred by an increase in value-added tax from 2019 and some external factors.

Annual inflation in December accelerated to 4.2 percent, exceeding the central bank’s target of 4.0 percent for the first time since June 2017.

Month on month, inflation picked up to 0.8 percent in De-cember from 0.5 percent in November.

The central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina said this month that the central bank had acted proactively trying to curb the inflationary risks.

Inflationary expectations, another factor the central bank is paying a close attention to, continued to rise in December.

(Source: Reuters)

5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

E N E R G Y

Azerbaijan is likely to increase oil output in 2019

Canada is producing more oil than it can handle

Azerbaijan is likely to increase oil output in 2019, Trend reports citing S&P Global Platts.

It expects rising condensate production at the Shah Deniz field offsetting declines at legacy crude fields in Azerbaijan.

“We forecast Azerbaijani crude and con-densate output to grow modestly in 2019, by less than 10,000 barrels per day (b/d). The Shah Deniz condensate project will grow by 30,000 b/d due to its Phase 2 ramp up, to an average of 90,000 b/d,” said Platts.

Azerbaijan’s flagship project Azeri-Chi-rag-Gunashli, which accounts for the bulk of production, is set to see further natural decline next year, according to the analysis.

Platts analysts pointed out that despite project operator BP introducing measures to shore up output, it has been broadly on the decline since it peaked at 800,000 b/d in 2009.

“We expect Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) to produce 510,000 b/d next year, down from 530,000 b/d in 2018,” Platts said.

Azerbaijan presented data on its daily oil production in November 2018 to the OPEC Joint Technical Committee as part of the Vienna Agreement.

Daily oil production stood at 801,000 barrels in November 2018, of which 733,000

barrels accounted for crude oil and 68,000 barrels for condensate, while 6,000 barrels of oil products were exported.

In January 2018, daily oil production stood at 814,600 barrels, in February 2018 – at 806,000 barrels, in March – 794,000 barrels, in April – 785,700 barrels, in May – 801,000 barrels, in June – 792,000 barrels, in July – 773,000 barrels, in August – 774,000 barrels, In September – 796,000 barrels and in October – 783,000 barrels of oil per day.

In December 2016, at a meeting of oil producers in Vienna, 11 non-OPEC coun-tries, including Azerbaijan, agreed to cut oil production by a total of 558,000 barrels a day. The agreement was concluded for the first half of 2017 and was extended until the end of the first quarter of 2018 at a meeting on May 25, 2017.

(Source: Azernws.az)

The marriage between Russia and OPEC is off. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak on Friday poured cold water on long-simmering plans to make Moscow’s alliance with OPEC and other oil producers permanent. The group of roughly two dozen producers has been managing global petro-leum supply for the last two years in order to rebalance the market after a prolonged and punishing oil price downturn.

The effort succeeded in shrinking glob-al crude stockpiles and boosting prices to four-year highs — until the market suddenly crashed again in early October. The group has agreed to a fresh round of output cuts that begin Jan. 1.

For at least a year, OPEC Secretary Gen-eral Mohammed Barkindo has discussed “institutionalizing” the arrangement. That would essentially form a supergroup of oil producers comprised of the 14-nation OPEC, Russia and nine other oil-exporting nations, which would be able to more quickly respond to problems in the market.

Energy ministers had been talking up progress toward the permanent arrange-ment as recently as their meeting in Vienna earlier this month.

But on Friday, Novak said the prospects for that plan now look dim, Reuters report-

ed. He said it would create too much red tape and expose the non-OPEC members of the alliance to potential sanctions from the U.S. government.

“There is a consensus that there will be no such organization. That’s because it re-quires additional bureaucratic brouhaha in

relation to financing, cartel, with the U.S. side,” Novak told reporters, according to Reuters.

The U.S. penalties in question are spelled out in legislation known as NOPEC, or the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act. The bill would authorize the Justice

Department to sue groups like OPEC that are deemed cartels for price fixing and antitrust violations, stripping countries of sovereign immunity protections currently built into U.S. law.

The legislation was first introduced in 2007, during a time of rising crude prices and concerns that the world’s oil reserves would run dry. It was revived earlier this year in both chambers of Congress by bi-partisan groups of lawmakers.

The White House has historically opposed the legislation, but President Donald Trump’s attacks on OPEC this year have raised con-cerns that he could back the measure.

However, like past presidents, Trump has shown he is willing to work with OPEC when it suits his needs.

His administration lobbied top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia to reverse the alli-ance’s policy of capping production in order to prevent oil prices from spiking as the U.S. prepared to sanction Iran, OPEC’s third-big-gest producer. The alliance agreed to hike output in June, a decision that ultimately contributed to the current oil price slump.

Russia and Saudi Arabia were the world’s top two oil producers until this year, when U.S. output surpassed production from both countries. (Source: CNBC)

The recent collapse in oil prices makes an anticipated recovery for the beaten-down sector in 2020 unlikely, investment bank Jefferies said Friday as it cut its price targets for offshore drilling stocks.

Companies that provide offshore drilling equipment and services have seen their stock tumble since the 2008 recession — even as share prices tied to oil producers, pipeline companies and other enterprises in the energy complex have rebounded.

Diamond Offshore shares are now trading at all time-lows going back to their stock market debut 1995. Ensco, Noble Corp, Rowan Companies and Transocean are trading at lows not seen since 1993-1995.

With Brent crude forecast to trade at roughly $70 a barrel in 2019, the offshore drilling sector had appeared poised

for “robust” growth in activity in 2020, according to Jefferies. But the collapse in oil prices in the fourth quarter has cast doubt on that view.

“If most of 2018 felt as though the Offshore Drillers were seeing some momentum build for a late-decade recovery, the macro meltdown feels like it has brought the industry back to square one,” Jefferies analysts said in a research note on Friday.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, has collapsed from more than $86 a barrel on Oct. 3 to about $52 a barrel Friday.

Prior to that, oil prices had spiked to nearly four-year highs, emboldening offshore drillers to submit bids for deepwater projects with day rates for floating rigs at roughly $225,000, according to Jefferies.

“The Brent oil price collapse to $60/bbl had not put this into question, in our view, but a prolonged period of oil prices in the $50-$60/bbl range or lower could put downward pressure,” the analysts said. “Regardless, the bigger issue is the implication that commodity price weakness/uncertainty has on any ‘real’ recovery.”

Jefferies analysts expect oil companies to seek lower rates from offshore drillers, or halt the tendering process altogether in some cases. They now see day rates averaging about $175,000-$190,000 in 2020.

The investment bank slashed its price targets roughly in half for Ensco, Noble Corp and Rowan Companies. It knocked $5 off its target for Diamond Offshore and cut its target for Transocean by $4 per share. Transocean is the only stock out of the five

that Jefferies rates as a buy, based on its order backlog.

The 2014-2016 downturn in oil prices caused energy companies to pull back capital spending, with big, long-cycle projects like deepwater drilling hit particularly hard. A rebound in those types of projects hinges not only on higher prices, but also confidence that the cost of crude will remain relatively stable.

Until October, oil prices had mostly rallied since hitting 12½-year lows in early 2016, with occasional pullbacks over that period.

Oil majors like Exxon Mobil and Chevron have been investing in short-cycle shale fields in the United States, where production can be ramped up and throttled back quickly when oil prices change directions.

(Source: CNBC)

Urals crude oil differentials in Northwest Europe have continued to climb relative to the UK’s medium sweet Forties, despite having slipped slightly from recent highs, S&P Global Platts data shows.

On Thursday, Forties loading FOB from UK’s Hound Point was assessed at a premium of 67 cents/b versus Urals loading FOB from the Russian Baltic Sea port of Primorsk.

This is significantly lower than the $2.145 cent/b premium seen between the two crude grades on December 10, and is indicative of a general divergent trend between the two Northwest European crude grades, which have historically been seen as possible substitutes for each other in the local refining market.

Urals, which is typically traded in Northwest Europe on a delivered Rotterdam basis, has been uncharacteristically strong over the last two months on a combination of high freight rates -- this is included in delivered crude differentials -- and strong regional demand. Platts FOB Urals assessments are netbacks from the more liquid delivered assessments.

Differentials for Urals, delivered CIF basis Rotterdam, hit their highest levels since mid-2013 in late-November, briefly peaking at a premium of 37.5 cents/b to Dated Brent on November 23.

This surge in prices was partially driven by a bullish freight market, and failed to carry through to the FOB market, which continued to price more in line with the local FOB medium sour crude market.

However, a surge in demand for Urals loading out of the Baltic from refiners in the Mediterranean throughout late-December and into early-January has helped to keep Urals differentials supported, even as the cost of freight has eased.

“Urals in the north is still super strong,” a trader said. “Nothing from the Mediterranean is coming through the [Turkish] straits at the moment.”

Shipping delays through the Turkish straits now exceed two weeks for southbound cargoes, which has pushed many Mediterranean refiners towards alternative sources of crude.

Traders said none of the Urals cargoes from the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk have sold into the Mediterranean

market so far in January because no one can guarantee arrival time, which has pushed buyers towards the Northwest European market, even as differentials have remained at premiums well above Dated Brent and arbitrage has been theoretically closed.

Despite the high cost of refining Urals, few buyers have turned towards medium sweet Forties as an alternative, even as limited buying interest from far eastern refiners has put substantial pressure on differentials.

On Thursday, Total offered a January 10-12 Forties cargo loading FOB from Hound Point down to Dated Brent minus $1.25/b and Vitol offered a January 13-15 to minus $1.15/b before both offers were lifted by Glencore.

Market sources said the frequency with which Forties moves to Asia -- despite being the North Sea’s single-largest crude stream, nearly two-thirds of every Forties program sells into the far East -- has meant that much of the local refining market no longer factors it in to the refining slate as a substitute for Urals.

“Who even really does that Forties-Urals swap anymore,” one trading source said. “Sure some probably still do, but there are a lot fewer of them than there used to be.”

It seems likely that the two cargoes Glencore purchased Thursday will also now move east. According to Platts tracking data, the company now holds five of six cargoes currently loading between January 5 and January 15, a likely line-up to combine into a VLCC.

(Source: Platts)

Western Canada is producing 365,000 bpd more crude oil that current pipeline capacity can handle, a new report from the National Energy Board has revealed.

According to the authority, as of Sep-tember this year, Western Canada produced a daily average of 4.30 million barrels of crude, while pipeline capacity stood at 3.95 million barrels per day.

Alberta, the largest oil producer in Canada, has turned to oil trains to offset the pipeline capacity shortage, and last month Premier Rachel Notley announced that the province will buy an additional 120,000 bpd in oil train capacity, to be-gin operating next year. It will reach full capacity in 2020.

Oil-by-rail shipments are already at a record high: in October, NEB said, these averaged 327,229 barrels per day, up by over 21 percent from the 269,829 barrels per day transported by rail in September. Although some familiar with the industry argue that shipping oil by rail is not as expensive as it may seem at first glance because the heavy Canadian crude does not need as much diluent as it would to be shipped via a pipeline, the current ar-rangement is not optimal according to

the Albertan government.This prompted Premier Notley to im-

pose obligatory production cuts effective January 2019 and totaling 325,000 bpd until the excess oil in storage is cleared. The cuts will be reviewed on a monthly basis, and once the overhang is gone, they will be reduced to 95,000 bpd, to remain in force until the end of 2018. The glut clearing is estimated to take no more than three months.

Meanwhile, troubled producers are being late with their municipal tax pay-ments and some are even foregoing these payments, which has so far resulted in losses in the tens of millions, according to a report by the Globe and Mail, which has created tensions between the industry and municipalities.

(Source: oilprice.com)

DECEMBER 30, 2018

Russia dashes plans to make its oil market alliance with OPEC permanent

Drones begin to deliver on their potential for the oil and gas sector Despite recent bad press following the flight disruption at London’s Gatwick Airport Unmanned Aerial Platforms, or drones as they are more commonly called, have a vital role to play in industry. The use of drones, in the oil and gas industry, is growing and the technology is ready to take off in a big way. It offers benefits to oil and gas operations in a numerous ways— safe and efficient maintenance and inspections among them—but the data that UAS technology provides is transforming the industry.

“Oil and gas companies will continue to explore new tech-nologies and digitize their operations, especially as crude prices have fallen in recent months,” Renner Vaughn, Cape’s director of oil and gas, explains. “Remote vehicles, including UAVs and underwater ROVs, will be operationalized, as enterprises get beyond the testing phases and begin to realize the safety advan-tages, the time saved on asset inspections and the situational awareness that live aerial video can provide.”

One of the most significant benefits of drones in the field to date has been their ability to improve safety in the field. As tools used to support and enhance emergency response and recov-ery, drones can provide live situational awareness during fires, spills, and other emergencies. Additionally, drones are enabling companies to safely and efficiently assess, monitor, and manage assets. This includes conducting routine inspections and pro-viding real-time visibility into systems and sites that were once a challenge to view, fix, and maintain.

“With the ability to remotely pilot drones from anywhere in the world, whether onshore or off, operators can much more easily and quickly inspect well sites, pipelines, storage tanks, and offshore platforms, giving the right experts all the benefits of a first-person viewpoint, without the safety risks or time and cost required to manually traveling onsite,” Vaughn explains. “For example, operators can deploy drones to get visibility on an alarm situation before sending a field operator out, helping them to more quickly get eyes on the situation while also keeping personnel out of a potentially dangerous situation.

“Additionally, the remote visibility offered through the drones can slash the costs of managing large-scale facility builds, minimizing timelines for approvals and drastically reducing costs previously required for travel, ensuring time, resources, and personnel are dedicated to more impactful areas of work.”

Increased visibilityDrones provide a new and unmatched level of visibility

and accessibility, both for operators in the field and for offsite experts around the world. Traditionally, visibility around oil and gas sites required manual, cost-and time-intensive, and inefficient methods. From lease operators physically driving out to inspect well sites, to deploying a helicopter to offshore platforms, inspections came with heavy resource requirements and often steep safety risks.

“Drones enable operators and experts to get complete, up-close, and real-time visualization into assets from anywhere in the world, for a fraction of the cost of traditional methods, and without the physical constraints or budget constraints,” Vaughn adds. “Additionally, access to real-time data and video footage allows subject matter experts to instantly assess assets in need of repair, without having to wait until post-inspection.

Future technologyToday, drones can be fitted with several payloads that enable

faster and more accurate decisions for organizations across industries. From software like the Cape Aerial Telepresence that allows for easy remote operation of the drone from anywhere in the world and the ability to live stream the video to up to 50 credentialed users, to the use of thermal sensors and cameras to detect tank levels or potential issues, drones are unlocking a new level of information and insight never possible.

“The realm of possibilities for drone integration in oil in gas is quite literally sky high,” Vaughn concludes. “Widespread adoption of commercial drones, whether onshore or off, will require solutions that are both safe and easy to use,” Vaughn concludes. “In the future, we’ll see a focus on integrations to further enhance the capabilities of drones. From gas detection sensors and advanced thermal imaging to autonomous flights, additional integrations and payloads will exponentially increase the value that drones already offer.

“We’re already applying machine learning and AI capabilities to drones to help detect cues in video feeds, for example, and enable operators to automatically adjust systems based on those cues.”

(Source: Forbes)

Russia inks MOU with Japan’s Saibu for Asia-Pacific LNG optimization Russia’s Novatek said it had agreed a provisional deal with Japan’s Saibu Gas to optimize its LNG portfolio through the use of Saibu’s 3.5 million mt/year Hibiki LNG import terminal in Japan.

Novatek operates the 16.5 million mt/year Yamal LNG plant in northern Russia and also plans to take final investment decision on the planned 19.8 million mt/year Arctic LNG-2 plant next year.

Since Yamal LNG started up in December last year, many cargoes have stayed in Europe, but Novatek has signaled that the Asia-Pacific region would be a key market for its LNG.

Under Thursday’s memorandum of understanding, Novatek said it had agreed to consider potential cooperation with Saibu “to enter the end-customer market and optimize Novatek’s LNG portfolio supplies to the Asia-Pacific region by utilizing the Hibiki terminal.”

Saibu started operations at Hibiki LNG in 2014.Novatek deputy chairman Lev Feodosyev said the Asia-Pacific

region was a “priority destination” for Novatek’s LNG projects.“Our ability to use the Hibiki terminal will help diversify our

customer base and increase the flexibility of deliveries to the premium LNG markets,” Feodosyev said.

Saibu has long-term LNG purchase agreements with Russia’s Sakhalin Energy and Malaysia LNG.

Trading partnerships are becoming increasingly popular in LNG markets as global players look to work together to smooth out inefficiencies in the LNG value chain.

In November, Germany’s RWE Supply & Trading signed a memorandum of understanding with Tokyo Gas to cooperate over and optimize their LNG sourcing, trading and shipping activities.

And in July this year, Japan’s JERA and energy company EDF Trading agreed to merge their short- and medium-term LNG trading and optimization businesses in an attempt to enhance their global portfolio flexibility and risk mitigation capabilities.

(Source: hellenicshippingnews.co)

Oil price ‘meltdown’ puts offshore drilling stocks ‘back to square one,’ analyst says

Urals crude oil differentials continue to climb versus Forties in Northwest Europe

Syed Zafar Mehdi

DECEMBER 30, 20186I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

INTERNATIONAL

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INTERNATIONALd e s k

TEHRAN — Days after New York Times reported

that the ambitious China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project has a military dimen-sion and the two new all-weather allies were building a military partnership, both Beijing and Islamabad have rejected the report.

Reacting to the NTY report that China has hatched a secret plan to build fighter jets and other military hardware in Pakistan as part of CPEC, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesman Mohammad Faisal said the project was a bilateral economic project with no military dimensions.

“The CPEC has helped Pakistan improve its economy, particularly energy and infra-structure sectors have improved under it,” he was quoted as saying by Dawn. “The CPEC is a bilateral economic project, which is not against any country.”

China also dismissed the report as false. “According to our information the relevant report is not true,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, told media on Friday.

Hua said the CPEC is an important frame-work for cooperation bearing the long-term interests in mind.

“Chinese officials have repeatedly said the Belt and Road is purely an economic project with peaceful intent. But with its plan for Pakistan, China is for the first time explicitly tying a Belt and Road proposal to its military ambitions — and confirming the concerns of

a host of nations who suspect the infrastruc-ture initiative is really about helping China project armed might,” the NYT report said.

“In Pakistan, China has found an amena-ble ally with much to recommend it: shared borders and a long history of cooperation; a hedge in South Asia against India; a large market for arms sales and trade with potential for growth; a wealth of natural resources,” the report added.

“Now, China is also finding a better showcase for its security and surveillance

technology in a place once defined by its close military relationship with the United States,” it said further.

The growing strategic partnership between China and Pakistan has been one of the im-portant stories of recent years, especially after the Pakistan-U.S. ‘marriage’ ended in an acrimonious divorce.

China has become the new all-weather ally of Islamabad, investing heavily in the country and offering aid to the Imran Khan led government at a time when it has been

trying to revive the flailing economy.The militaries of the two countries maintain

high-level exchanges as well as defence and security cooperation. The strategic partnership has manifested itself in the form of CPEC, infrastructure development and routine joint military exercises.

The CPEC, which connects Gwadar Port in Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang province, is the flagship project of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitious Belt and Road Ini-tiative (BRI).

The eighth joint coordination commit-tee (JCC) meeting of the CPEC took place this week, in which the two sides signed an agreement to expand industrial cooperation in diverse fields and attract investment in special economic zones.

Last week, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had visited China as part of his four-nation tour, during which he held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

Last month, PM Imran Khan embarked on his maiden visit to China, during which he held talks with the top Chinese political leadership and business community.

In an interview to Tehran Times recently, Pakistan-based journalist and analyst Farrukh K Pitafi said Pakistan-China relationship “has and will go from strength to strength”, adding that Washington, which has been engaged in tiffs with both Beijing and Islamabad, was dis-playing a “characteristic lack of imagination”.

‘CPEC a bilateral economic project, has no military component’

N E W S I N B R I E F

INTERNATIONALd e s k

INTERNATIONALd e s k

INTERNATIONALd e s k

Indian mission off to space by 2022

Pakistan-Russia trade jumps to $660m

EU, Pakistan sign two key pacts

‘Trump didn’t order Afghan troop withdrawal’

TEHRAN — India looks all set to send astronauts to space by 2022 in its ambi-

tious space program, which got a major boost this week with BJP government approving budget for it.

India’s union cabinet approved Rs. 10,000 crore ‘Gaga-nyaan Programme’ that envisages two unmanned and one manned flight to space in next three years.

Senior Indian minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was quoted saying by IANS news agency that three Indian astronauts will be sent to space for up to seven days by 2022.

The space program was announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, the country’s Independence Day. The cost of the project is estimated at Rs 10,000 crore, which includes the cost of technology development, flight hardware realization and essential infrastructure elements.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the IANS report said, will collaborate extensively with various national agencies, laboratories, academia and industry to accomplish the objectives of program.

First human space flight demonstration is targeted to be completed within 40 months from the date of sanction. Prior to this, two unmanned flights in full complement will be carried out to gain confidence on the technology and mission management aspects.

TEHRAN — The bilateral trade between Pakistan and Russia increased to $660

million during 10 months of the current calendar year, and is expected to reach around $750 to $800 million by year-end.

It was announced by Russia’s trade representative Yury Kozlov , who said there was huge potential to boost the exist-ing trade volume between the two countries, which has seen slow pace due to lack of direct banking channels.

The Russian official informed that Russia was engaged in numerous projects and was cooperating with Pakistan in the construction of north and south gas pipeline from Karachi to Lahore and also engaged in a project at Jamshoro Power Plant for production of 600MW.

He said all these Russian companies were keen to ex-plore opportunities in Pakistan, whereas the business and industrial community of Karachi Chamber should look into the possibility of participating in numerous trade exhibi-tions in Russia.

He further asked KCCI to send a trade delegation to Russia to enhance the existing trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

TEHRAN — European Union and Pakistan signed two crucial financing agreements

on Friday with aim to provide assistance of €100 million for enhanced education and growth for rural development programs.

EU envoy to Pakistan Jean Francois Cautain signed the agreements with Pakistan government’s economic secretary Noor Ahmed.

The agreements - Development through Enhanced Educa-tion Program (DEEP), and Growth for Rural Advancement and Sustainable Progress (GRASP) – are equivalent to Rs. 15,942 million collectively.

Pakistan and European Union have a long history of development cooperation, and the financing agreements were part of the Multiannual Indicative Program (2014-2020) signed between European Union and Pakistan, said a report in The News.

The Pakistani official said the government of Pakistan deeply appreciated the development assistance provided by the European Union. Both sides agreed to deepen their engagement in multiple areas of development cooperation.

TEHRAN — In a classic volte-face, White House has contradicted reports that the

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

Apparently, in response to backlash at home and abroad, White House spokesman dismissed reports that Trump di-rected the military to pull 7,000 soldiers out of the war-torn country, Bloomberg reported.

“The president has not made a determination to draw-down US military presence in Afghanistan and he has not directed the Department of Defense to begin the process of withdrawing US personnel from Afghanistan,” Garrett Marquis, a spokesman for U.S. National Security Council, said in an emailed statement on Friday.

The statement came more than a week after a senior U.S. defense official said the Pentagon will withdraw 7,000 of about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan. That decision was widely reported in media across the world.

While the decision was welcomed by many countries that saw it a step towards peace in the war-ravaged country, there was huge uproar in the U.S. over what they saw as America’s humiliating retreat from Afghanistan after 18 years of war.

The U.S. commander of international forces in Afghani-stan, General Scott Miller, said on Sunday that he hadn’t received any orders to change troop levels in the country, according to Voice of America.

Pertinently, security situation has deteriorated in Af-ghanistan in recent months despite the so-called ‘peace talks’ between the U.S. government and the Taliban.

INTERNATIONALd e s k

Pakistan fencing Afghan border to curb infiltration, but Afghans not happy

In 2018, Trump’s erratic belligerence spiraled

1 The first phase of the mega project – 482 km long patch of the border in Khyber Pakhtunkha (K-P), has been completed, according to reports.

Pakistani authorities believe it will resolve the issue of terrorism and smuggling quite significantly, which will help in betterment of ties with Afghanistan.

From the Torkham border crossing, around 1,200 trucks and 10,000 people enter on a daily basis but now only those with proper documents would be allowed to enter the bor-der, officials said.

Special entry cards have been given to 200 Afghan stu-dents who live in Afghanistan but study in Pakistan. People in need of medical care will be given permission to enter without documents.

The fencing work on the border will be completed by the end of 2019, according to Pakistan Army’s spokes-person, who hoped that it will benefit peace-loving people of the two countries while restricting the move-ment of terrorists.

The decision, however, has not gone down well with the Afghan government authorities. While Pakistan insists on building a barrier at the border crossing “to prevent terror-ists’ entry into Pakistan”, Afghanistan does not recognize the colonial-era Durand Line drawn up in 1893.

Torkham connects eastern Nangarhar province of Af-

ghanistan with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Border incursions and setting up of military bunkers by

both Afghan and Pakistani troops along the border in eastern and southern provinces have always sparked political and diplomatic tensions between them.

Afghanistan has often accused Pakistan of interminably firing rockets into Afghan provinces bordering Pakistan, killing civilians and security forces and rendering people homeless. A large number of people in these border prov-inces – mainly Kunar, Nuristan, Paktika and Nangarhar – have been forced to evacuate their homes and move to

safer locations. Former Afghan army chief Shir Mohammad Karimi once

said these attacks are used as ‘pressure tactics’ by Pakistan to force Afghanistan into recognizing Durand Line as an international border.

But, Pakistan has maintained that it has both external and internal compulsions to secure the border from secu-rity perspective. It has already announced to add as many as 60,000 troops to boost its patrol along the disputed border, to prevent flow of terrorists and smugglers and illegal refugees.

The political and diplomatic ties between the two South Asian neighbors, once described by the former Afghan president Hamid Karzai as “inseparable brothers”, have worsened in recent years. During the previous government in Islamabad, the relations had touched an all-time low.

Following the political transition in Pakistan this year, the two governments vowed to bury the hatchet and improve bilateral ties. There have been many peace overtures in recent months, which have rekindled hopes of better ties between the unfriendly neighbors.

However, whether the construction of fence on the bor-der will again put spanner in their relations is a matter of speculation right now. Both sides have so far refused to work out a compromise formula.

TEHRAN — As we get ready to bid adieu to 2018, an eventful year marked by trials, tribulations and triumphs, it is time to look back at some of the major developments that shaped the year.

As yet another year goes by, it is time to reflect and see whether the world is getting better or worse. Optimists would tell you that the world is certainly becoming a better place. But, there is a section of people who believe that the world has taken a turn for the worse.

Their misgivings aren’t completely un-founded. Looking at the world today and how certain countries are acting as ‘globocops’, bullying and intimidating other countries through interventionism, intrusiveness and imperialism, it can be argued that our world still isn’t a better place to live in.

It was another year for the American in-dustrial military complex to advance their hegemony around the world and for the mega-lomaniac U.S. president to prove why he is such a loathed world figure today.

The year 2018 started with Donald Trump launching a tirade against former U.S. ally Pakistan with a hyperbolic tweet, which raised eyebrows in Islamabad and led to fractures in the U.S.-Pakistan ties.

“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help,” Trump tweeted.

It was followed by suspension of security aid to Pakistan, from $255 million to whopping $900 million before culminating in $3 billion. The sequence of events that led to the decline and fall of this relationship began on the first day of this year. Despite latest overtures, the divorce is final.

Another interesting development that happened in the beginning of this year was the sensational Twitter battle between North

Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Trump. Kim warned that the U.S. was “within the

range of our nuclear strike and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office.” That didn’t go down well with mandarins in Washington and the president himself. He responded in his characteristic way, boasting he had a bigger nuclear button than Kim.

A few months later, he held a summit with his Korean counterpart and famously told a crowd of his supporters that he had “fallen in love” with the North Korean leader. A perfect match it was.

Ironically, a year later, North Korea’s nu-clear program is still thriving and Trump’s handshake and love letters have failed to dis-suade North Koreans from building a robust nuclear arsenal.

Known for his loud-mouthed, thoughtless utterances, Trump made many controversial and provocative remarks throughout the year. He called some African nations “shithole coun-tries”, which backfired in a way he wouldn’t have imagined.

Trump used the vulgarity to describe Haiti during a meeting on immigration. However, veteran journalist Bob Woodward in his re-cent book ‘Fear: Trump in the White House’

writes that Trump has used the term many times, including during his 2016 campaign in Little Haiti.

This year, the U.S. president also blasted G7 leaders in Canada, insulted leaders of European Union and announced an unprecedented trade war with China. He threatened to impose heavy tariffs on Chinese imports to force Beijing into renegotiating its trade balance with the U.S.

However, the old man forgot that the U.S. will be a loser as big companies like Walmart import billions of dollars of cheap goods from China. The war is still going on and there is no sign of truce.

The year’s most important strategic event, though, was Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran – a decision that shocked the world and exposed the hy-pocrisy of the U.S. As Financial Times noted, Trump “isolated America from the rest of the West by quitting the Iran deal”.

The brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was one of the biggest stories of this year. And the way Trump deemed “credible” Saudi explanation that the journalist died in a fistfight was preposterous. He even denied a U.S. intelligence conclusion that Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman was directly

involved in the killing. This year, Trump not only engaged in

blatant war-mongering and sabre-rattling, he also crushed the values of universal human rights, violated press freedom, and supported dictators accused of horrendous war crimes.

Yet he had the audacity to stand up in the United Nations and claim that his administra-tion had “accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” The titters from the world leaders sitting in the hall was a perfect response to his gran-diloquence and pomposity.

As Guardian editorial on Thursday noted, Trump’s increasingly “erratic belligerency” is not simply a display of his unsuitability for the presidency. “It is the behavior of a president who sees the threats facing him and whose instability is such that he may try to pull the temple down with him.”

Bloomberg, reviewing his performance this year, said the damage Trump has wreaked on the U.S. role in the world is “only beginning to manifest itself”, adding that the year saw a “staggering number of countries misruled by the worst crop of world leaders in recent memory”, with Trump topping the list.

New York Times said 2018 has been a year of “perpetual motion” for Trump, who has “presided over near constant turmoil as he has increasingly relied on his own instincts”.

The year ends where it began, with res-ignation of Defense Secretary James Mattis, withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria and Af-ghanistan and the much-publicized govern-ment shutdown.

A latest poll by Reuters/Ipsos showed that 47 percent of adult Americans held Trump responsible for the government shutdown, which officially began at midnight on De-cember 22.

The year ahead doesn’t promise much change with people like Trump presiding over a devilish empire, announcing open war against the world, barring Israel and Saudi Arabia. Because petro dollars matter and the powerful Jewish lobby in the U.S. matters too.

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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DECEMBER 30, 2018 ANALYSIS & INTERVIEW

Cold season comes to an end in Syria 1 Additionally, a UAE delegation from Damac Properties

recently traveled to Damascus at the invitation of Syrian com-panies and members of the delegation met with their Syrian counterparts to work together to develop real estate in Da-mascus. Damac Real Estate is one of the leading construction companies in the Arab world, which currently has more than 20 projects in the Middle East.

Abdul Sattar Bushnaq, an international affairs research-er, said, “The UAE delegation trip to Syria coincided with US President Donald Trump’s announcement of the withdrawal of American forces from Syria. Clearly, on that trip, the military and economic instructions of Syria were also discussed. The trip by the UAE is only part of the movement of Arab countries towards the Syrian government.”

Abdullah II of Jordan and acknowledgement of normalizing relations with Syria

Jordan might be one of the countries waiting to restart relations with Damascus. The recent comments by King of Jordan Abdullah II on Syria and the nature of the relationship between Damascus and Amman could be the best source for citing Jordan’s desire to resume relations with Syria.

King Abdullah II recently said in a statement: “Our re-lationship with Syria will return to what it was. We see that the situation in Syria is improving, and Jordan has goodwill toward Syria. God willing, the situation in Syria will return to normal.” In line with that, Amman and Damascus have had close cooperation on reopening the Nasib Border Crossing.

The Arabs’ message of resuming ties with Da-mascus

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Damascus

on Sunday. This is the first visit of the leader of an Arab state to Syria since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011. The trip is considered the introduction of the official Arab return to Damascus.

The Lebanese alliance party released a statement in which it said, “President Omar al-Bashir’s visit to Damascus will stabi-lize the return of the Arabs to Syria. We will expect more visits by the Arab authorities, while Lebanon continues to have a relationship with Damascus. The region is moving towards building ties with Syria again.”

Regarding al-Bashir’s visit to Syria, Mohammad Khair al-Akar, an expert in political and international affairs, says, “The Arab countries did all they had in power against Damascus and the Syrian resistance, and now they are struggling with the fact that Damascus has triumphed in the war against terrorism. They are planning their future relationship with Damascus according to this fact.”

Turkey has implicitly agreed for al-Assad to stay in powerIn addition to the Arab countries, Turkey, which has always

been at the forefront of supporting armed opposition groups in Syria, has implicitly endorsed the presence of Bashar al-Assad at the head of the Syrian government.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut cavusoglu delivered a speech in which he said: “If Bashar al-Assad succeeds in a democratic election, perhaps Turkey and other countries will consider the option of working with him.” In response to a question about Ankara’s cooperation with Assad’s government, he said, “First, an election should be held, and then we’ll discuss this issue.”

Remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a few days ago also indicate that Ankara, despite the fact that still

holds on to its former policies towards Damascus, is accepting al-Assad’s power and plans to deal with it. That’s precisely why Erdogan recently stressed that Turkey does not have an eye on Syria. The comment is a message to the leaders of Damas-cus to reduce the tension between the two sides, especially in eastern Syria.

An attempt to restore Syria’s membership in the Arab League

The attempt to resume Damascus’s membership in the Arab League is another issue that reaffirms Arab efforts to normalize relations with Syria, although perhaps Saudi Arabia may prevent the desirable outcome by influencing the Arab League members, politically and financially.

An informed source in the Tunisian government has said that President Beji Caid Essebsi had put in place new efforts to resume Syrian membership in the Arab League. “President Essebsi will hold talks with the Arab states on the sidelines of the Arab summit in Lebanon, scheduled to be held in Lebanon, to return Syrian membership to the Arab League.”

President Essebsi will also discuss the issue of inviting Bashar al-Assad to the Arab League summit in March with the Arab parties.

All in all, a series of efforts have been made by some Arab and non-Arab countries to normalize relations with Damascus are not a goodwill gesture, but it proves their defeats in Syria.

Now, the Arab leaders and their regional and international allies have come to the conclusion that the continuation of the current trend will only bring them more pain, especially since the Americans have also decided to leave Syria. Now, we have to wait and see the new chapter of Arab relations with Damascus.

1 To make China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), in Gwadar more efficient and accessible to other countries and establish a connection between them, the cooperation of the two ports of Gwadar and Chabahar is very important. Both Iran and Pakistan are working out the necessary steps to move in this direction.

Gwadar Port serves as Pakistan’s co-operation with China, and Chabahar Port be-tween Iran and India. Some people believe that Chabahar Port is rival to Pakistan’s Gwadar Port. What is your take on this please?

A. There is no competition between the two ports and generally there shouldn’t be any. In fact, Gwadar and Chabahar ports are great gifts from God and nature to both Iran and Pakistan. Therefore, it is necessary to make use of these ports wisely and based on a robust program which can benefit both countries in the long term.

In fact, the growth and development of one country does not create a barrier to the advancement of the other and usually it is complementary and necessary. Therefore, as the cooperation between Iran and Pakistan increases, the challenges in connecting these ports will be lessened and the road to progress will be smoother.

Pakistan has a new government in place. Has it come up with a new plan to launch and facilitate Iran-Pakistan Pipeline (IPP) project?

A. I had a meeting with Iranian President Dr. Hassan Rouhani and Iran’s Majlis Speaker Mr. Ali Larijani on this issue, and will continue the talks until a solution is reached about the IP gas pipeline project. Pakistan’s embassy in Iran is also in contact with the Iranian government

to convey the progress on completion of the joint Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.

After taking office, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said in his speech that he would travel to Iran as his first foreign trip, but this has not been done yet. Is this trip going to happen any time soon?

A. Iran being a neighbor is of utmost impor-tance to Pakistan and Prime Minister Imran Khan’s position on upgrading relations with Iran is very clear. Dr. Javad Zarif, Iran’s For-eign Minister, visited Pakistan and the foreign ministers of both countries are in close contact.

In addition to this, a high powered Paki-stani delegation came to Tehran to attend the Conference of the Presidents of the Six Asian Countries, which reflects Iran’s importance in the context of Pakistan’s foreign policy. Paki-stan’s prime minister’s visit to Iran will also be realized in the future as the incumbent Pakistani government has a strong will to strengthen relations between the two countries.

What is Pakistan’s stance on Af-ghan-American Peace Talks with the Taliban and the Taliban peace talks in Russia?

A. The will of the Pakistan’s government is establishment of stability and security in all countries of the region including Afghanistan because stability in Afghanistan is tantamount to stability and security in Pakistan. Peace and stability in Afghanistan will serve the interest of all countries in the region.

In addition, Pakistan has been a victim of terrorism for many years and thousands of Pakistanis including personnel from military, law enforcement agencies and civilians have lost their lives in fighting terrorism. Pakistan’s government has borne a lot of suffering due

to the menace of terrorism. Therefore, the Pakistani government has called for the end of the war in the region and the elimination of elements that are vying to cause instability and insecurity in the region.

How can participating countries in the 6th Asian Leadership Conference (ALC) combat terrorism? What actions will the participating countries take in the conference?

A. In a statement issued at the end of ALC, the cooperation of the participating countries in the fight against terrorism was emphasized. Strengthening the economy and increasing trade relations between the six Asian countries were also on the agenda.

In these meetings, the participating states also try to bring the governments, parliaments and people of these six countries closer and provide an effective mechanism for promoting business and trade cooperation between the Asian countries.

Iran recently witnessed terrorist activ-ity in Chabahar Port. Unfortunately, terrorist groups cross Iran-Pakistani borders to carry out their malicious terrorist activities. Has Pakistan devised any plan to deal with these terrorist groups decisively?

A. The occurrence of such terrorist incidents, both in Iran and in Pakistan, has always been condemned. As you know, such incidents also occur in Pakistan’s territory and a while ago, suicide bombers attacked Chinese consulate in Pakistan’s Karachi. Thus, Pakistan, too, has been exposed to destruction and loss of lives due to terrorism and terrorist attacks.

Terrorism is the common foe of the two countries. Pakistani and Iranian officials, at the level of government and military, have had

close and effective cooperation with each other on this issue. In addition, we seek to formulate an effective mechanism for resolving issues that exist on Iran-Pakistan common borders through the two states’ parliamentary cooperation.

Following the recent visit of Pakistan’s Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia, Pakistani au-thorities said that Riyadh has agreed to invest in a new oil refinery in Gwadar Port. Is it pos-sible for Saudi Arabia to join China-Pakistan Economic Corridor?

A. Islamabad welcomes investments and partnerships with all countries, including Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Free Trade Zones offered under the CPEC project.

7

1 A: Trump is not just a person, but also an expression of serious frustration with the return and renewal of capitalist crises in the world centered in the United States. Also, institutions such as the Pentagon and the CIA and the lobbies that influence the U.S. are often against Trump. These issues require an in-depth study because they will greatly affect the return of balance to the world, especially in our region.

Q: After announcing the decision to withdraw from Syria, Zi-onists and Israeli officials threatened Iran with escalating attacks in Syria. How is this possible?

A: Netanyahu is afraid to put these threats into practice, but repeated violations may be the same as the recent developments in Syria. On the other hand, the axis of resistance is becoming stronger every day.

Given efforts to defend the resistance, we emphasize that the biggest loser is certainly the occupying regime. Also, internal crises in the Zionist regime are on the rise, even if the Zionists express themselves with military power, they still cannot make up for their mistakes.

Q: How do you comment of the role of the coalition between Russia, Iran and Turkey in the political arena and the pressure on America?

There is no real coalition of this kind, but Russia and Iran are united, and relations with Turkey are at the level of political consensus that the geographical and natural necessities require joint efforts.

Of course, these understandings are good and essentially formed with the aim of keeping the region from massive wars. The larger test of these understandings is also to stop Turkey from invading Syria, and instead of deploying terrorism, getting Turkey to take up the fight against terrorism.

The center of this struggle is Idlib and also the Euphrates.Q: How has the Syrian military power been progressing in

recent years? Are the Syrian forces ready to fight the Zionists to recapture the Golan?

A: We look at the Golan as a sacred piece of land occupied by the Zionists, and its liberation is not just about the power of the Syrian army. The strength of the Syrian army has advanced considerably. The country depends on the army, the economy and culture.

The goal of all three is to promote Syria. All of this, especially our heroic army, is in a state of increased ability and excellence. Knowledge is at the center of this and, despite all the crises that surround us, we certainly hope for the future liberation of our occupied territories.

Pentagon and CIA are against Trump / Reasons of U.S. withdrawal from Syria: Anzour

7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

DECEMBER 30, 2018

TEHRAN TIMES

Iran’s Leading International Daily

Advertising Dept

021 - 430 51 450Tel:

ANALYSIS & INTERVIEW

N.I.O.C1397.5056

National IranianDrilling Company

First Announcement

تهران تایمز نوبت اول 97/10/9نوبت دوم 97/10/10

(Foreign Procurement Dept.)More of this & other tenders are accessible by click on:

www.nidc.ir http://sapp.ir/nidc_pr

Call for public tender (First/Second publish)- RetenderTwo-Stages (semi compressed) tender

Subject of Tender PARTS FOR 12P160 NATIONAL MUD PUMP API 7 K

National Iranian

Drilling Company

N.I.O.C

1397.5056

Call for public tender (First/Second publish)- Retender

Two-Stages (semi compressed) tender

Subject of Tender PARTS FOR 12P160 NATIONAL MUD PUMP API 7 K

Tender descriptions:

Estimated value

(Rial/Euro)

Tender No.

/Indent No. Registration No. through national electronic tendering system The Tender holder

41,820,000,000 Tender No.:FP/17-97/028

Indent No.: 48-22-9622052 3,185,811 National Iranian Drilling Company

Qualitative evaluation of tenderers

R Based on minimum scoring (60) made in award criterion reflected in the tenderers pre-qualification forms. Method

1- Applicants which have more than 4 in process contacts with NIDC are not allowed to participate in this tender.

2- Applicants which have more than 2 in process contacts with NIDC in similar subject ( exclusively same subject) are not allowed to participate in another tender.

Purchasing & Submitting

The distribution of the documents will be started one day after the publishing of second advertisement and ended on the following tenth day thereof.

Tender Document Distribution by Company

Hall No.:113, 1thfloor, Foreign Procurement Dept., National Iranian Drilling Company, Airport square, Ahwaz, IRAN.KASHANI-TEL:06134148659-

Distribution Place

Submitting one original Bank Fund Receipt in the amount of 510,000

Iranian Rials under account number 4001114004020491( Shaba No. IR 520100004001114004020491) in name of “NIDC Incomes Centralized Fund”

issued by I.R. of Iran Central Bank. Submitting format Request for the purpose of receiving Tender

Documents.

Submitting Method

14 Days after the last time of Purchasing. Closing date

Documents Receiving Method Hall No. 107, 1stfloor, Tender Committee, Operation building, National Iranian Drilling Company, Airport square, Ahwaz, IRAN.

Tel: +98-61-34148580 +98-61-34148569

Address

Tender Guarantee

2,091,000,000 Rial/ 42,526 Euro Value of guarantee

Bank guarantees or guarantees issued by non-bank institutions that obtain activity license from the central bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Submitting one original Bank Fund Receipt under account number 4001114006376636 ( Shaba No. IR 350100004001114006376636) in name of “NIDC saving account” by the central bank of Islamic Republic of Iran.

Type of guarantee

Tender Guarantee and quotation should be valid for 90 days and extendable maximum for one time in initial validity duration.

Duration of credit & quotation

(Foreign Procurement Dept.)

More of this & other tenders are accessible by click on:

www.nidc.ir http://sapp.ir/nidc_pr

10/10/97نوبت دوم 9/10/97تهران تایمز نوبت اول

Khouzestan Steel Company

First Announcement

First Announcement

IN THE NAME OF GOD INVITATION TO INTERNATIONAL TENDER IN TWO STEPS

No. :392583 KHOUZESTAN STEEL COMPANY INTENDS TO PURCHASE

500 MT ACTIVE BASIC TERMAL INSULATING POWDER WITH THE FOLLOWING SPECIFICATIONS:

CH

EMIC

AL

AN

ALYS

IS

SiO2 95 %

MgO < 0.5 % Al2O3 < 1.0 %

Na2O+K2O 2.0 % Fe2O3 < 0.5 %

C < 10 %

PHYS

ICAL

PR

OPE

RTI

ES Appearance Powder

Bulk Density 0.25 gr/cm3 Melting Point 1650 C

Humidity < 1.0 %

Grain Size < 2.0 mm

INTRESTED BIDDERS MAY OBTAIN SET OF DOCUMENTS, CONTAINING THE RELEVANT TERMS AND CONDITIONS BY SUBMISSION OF A WRITTEN APLICATION AND PAYMENT OF A NON-REFUNDABLE FEE OF:

EUR 50 "FIFTY EURO" TO THE ONE OF BELOW ACCOUNT No.: 1) ACCOUNT No.0100013543943 AT "EXPORT DEVELOPMENT BANK OF IRAN AHVAZ CENTERAL BRANCH" 2) ACCOUNT No.1902-750-4019644-1 AT "EGHTESAD NOVIN BANK- OF IRAN AHVAZ SHARIATI BRANCH" OR Rials 2,000,000,"TWO MILION RIALS" TO THE ONE OF BELOW ACCOUNT No.: 1) ACCOUNT No.0102513186002 AT "MELLI BANK OF IRAN AHVAZ KSC BRANCH" 2) ACCOUNT No.0100304453001 AT "SADERAT BANK OF IRAN AHVAZ KSC BRANCH" AND PRESENT THE PAYMENT RECEIPT TO THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS:

CONSUMABLE MATERIAL PURCHASING DEPARTMENT KHOUZESTAN STEEL COMPANY (KSC) KM 10 AHWAZ – BANDAR IMAM KHOMEINI ROAD P.O.BOX: 1378 POST CODE: 61397-31398 AHWAZ– IRAN

Note1: BIDDER SHALL SUBMIT WITH TENDER A BID BOND ISSUED BY AN IRANIAN BANK OR BY A EUROPEAN FIRST CLASS BANK , IN THE AMOUNT OF 1,653 Euro OR 160,000000 Rial FOR 500 MT ACTIVE BASIC TERMAL INSULATING POWDER AND MAY REDUSED IN PROPORTION WITH THE QUANTITY OF BIDDERS OFFER.

Note2: ALL BIDS MUST BE INFORMED US WHICH PARTICIPATE IN OUR TENDER UP TO 14thFeb., 2019. WHEN YOUR COMPANY IS

CONFIRMED AND THE TENDER DOCUMENT IS SENT TO YOU, YOU MUST BE DELIVERED TO THE AFORESAID ADDRESS ON OR BEFORE THE CLOSING DATE 27thFeb.,2019.THE OPENING DATE OF ENVELOPES WILL BE AT 11 AM ON THE 29thFeb.,2019 IN THE BUYER'S CONFERENCE ROOM LOCATED AT THE HEAD OFFICE OF KSC AHWAZ-IRAN AND THE BIDDERS OR THEIR AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVES CAN ATTEND THE MEETING OF THE TENDER.

Note 3: FOR MORE INFORMTION PLEASE CONTACT WITH FOLLOWING DETAILS: Tel No. : +98 61 32908115 / 32136159 Fax No. : +98 61 32908115

Mr.M.FARZINEJAD EMAIL : m.farzinejad @ksc.ir OR VISIT:http://WWW.KSC.IR

7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

DECEMBER 30, 2018

TEHRAN TIMES

Iran’s Leading International Daily

Advertising Dept

021 - 430 51 450Tel:

ANALYSIS & INTERVIEW

N.I.O.C1397.5056

National IranianDrilling Company

First Announcement

تهران تایمز نوبت اول 97/10/9نوبت دوم 97/10/10

(Foreign Procurement Dept.)More of this & other tenders are accessible by click on:

www.nidc.ir http://sapp.ir/nidc_pr

Call for public tender (First/Second publish)- RetenderTwo-Stages (semi compressed) tender

Subject of Tender PARTS FOR 12P160 NATIONAL MUD PUMP API 7 K

National Iranian

Drilling Company

N.I.O.C

1397.5056

Call for public tender (First/Second publish)- Retender

Two-Stages (semi compressed) tender

Subject of Tender PARTS FOR 12P160 NATIONAL MUD PUMP API 7 K

Tender descriptions:

Estimated value

(Rial/Euro)

Tender No.

/Indent No. Registration No. through national electronic tendering system The Tender holder

41,820,000,000 Tender No.:FP/17-97/028

Indent No.: 48-22-9622052 3,185,811 National Iranian Drilling Company

Qualitative evaluation of tenderers

R Based on minimum scoring (60) made in award criterion reflected in the tenderers pre-qualification forms. Method

1- Applicants which have more than 4 in process contacts with NIDC are not allowed to participate in this tender.

2- Applicants which have more than 2 in process contacts with NIDC in similar subject ( exclusively same subject) are not allowed to participate in another tender.

Purchasing & Submitting

The distribution of the documents will be started one day after the publishing of second advertisement and ended on the following tenth day thereof.

Tender Document Distribution by Company

Hall No.:113, 1thfloor, Foreign Procurement Dept., National Iranian Drilling Company, Airport square, Ahwaz, IRAN.KASHANI-TEL:06134148659-

Distribution Place

Submitting one original Bank Fund Receipt in the amount of 510,000

Iranian Rials under account number 4001114004020491( Shaba No. IR 520100004001114004020491) in name of “NIDC Incomes Centralized Fund”

issued by I.R. of Iran Central Bank. Submitting format Request for the purpose of receiving Tender

Documents.

Submitting Method

14 Days after the last time of Purchasing. Closing date

Documents Receiving Method Hall No. 107, 1stfloor, Tender Committee, Operation building, National Iranian Drilling Company, Airport square, Ahwaz, IRAN.

Tel: +98-61-34148580 +98-61-34148569

Address

Tender Guarantee

2,091,000,000 Rial/ 42,526 Euro Value of guarantee

Bank guarantees or guarantees issued by non-bank institutions that obtain activity license from the central bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Submitting one original Bank Fund Receipt under account number 4001114006376636 ( Shaba No. IR 350100004001114006376636) in name of “NIDC saving account” by the central bank of Islamic Republic of Iran.

Type of guarantee

Tender Guarantee and quotation should be valid for 90 days and extendable maximum for one time in initial validity duration.

Duration of credit & quotation

(Foreign Procurement Dept.)

More of this & other tenders are accessible by click on:

www.nidc.ir http://sapp.ir/nidc_pr

10/10/97نوبت دوم 9/10/97تهران تایمز نوبت اول

Khouzestan Steel Company

First Announcement

First Announcement

IN THE NAME OF GOD INVITATION TO INTERNATIONAL TENDER IN TWO STEPS

No. :392583 KHOUZESTAN STEEL COMPANY INTENDS TO PURCHASE

500 MT ACTIVE BASIC TERMAL INSULATING POWDER WITH THE FOLLOWING SPECIFICATIONS:

CH

EMIC

AL

AN

ALYS

IS

SiO2 95 %

MgO < 0.5 % Al2O3 < 1.0 %

Na2O+K2O 2.0 % Fe2O3 < 0.5 %

C < 10 %

PHYS

ICAL

PR

OPE

RTI

ES Appearance Powder

Bulk Density 0.25 gr/cm3 Melting Point 1650 C

Humidity < 1.0 %

Grain Size < 2.0 mm

INTRESTED BIDDERS MAY OBTAIN SET OF DOCUMENTS, CONTAINING THE RELEVANT TERMS AND CONDITIONS BY SUBMISSION OF A WRITTEN APLICATION AND PAYMENT OF A NON-REFUNDABLE FEE OF:

EUR 50 "FIFTY EURO" TO THE ONE OF BELOW ACCOUNT No.: 1) ACCOUNT No.0100013543943 AT "EXPORT DEVELOPMENT BANK OF IRAN AHVAZ CENTERAL BRANCH" 2) ACCOUNT No.1902-750-4019644-1 AT "EGHTESAD NOVIN BANK- OF IRAN AHVAZ SHARIATI BRANCH" OR Rials 2,000,000,"TWO MILION RIALS" TO THE ONE OF BELOW ACCOUNT No.: 1) ACCOUNT No.0102513186002 AT "MELLI BANK OF IRAN AHVAZ KSC BRANCH" 2) ACCOUNT No.0100304453001 AT "SADERAT BANK OF IRAN AHVAZ KSC BRANCH" AND PRESENT THE PAYMENT RECEIPT TO THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS:

CONSUMABLE MATERIAL PURCHASING DEPARTMENT KHOUZESTAN STEEL COMPANY (KSC) KM 10 AHWAZ – BANDAR IMAM KHOMEINI ROAD P.O.BOX: 1378 POST CODE: 61397-31398 AHWAZ– IRAN

Note1: BIDDER SHALL SUBMIT WITH TENDER A BID BOND ISSUED BY AN IRANIAN BANK OR BY A EUROPEAN FIRST CLASS BANK , IN THE AMOUNT OF 1,653 Euro OR 160,000000 Rial FOR 500 MT ACTIVE BASIC TERMAL INSULATING POWDER AND MAY REDUSED IN PROPORTION WITH THE QUANTITY OF BIDDERS OFFER.

Note2: ALL BIDS MUST BE INFORMED US WHICH PARTICIPATE IN OUR TENDER UP TO 14thFeb., 2019. WHEN YOUR COMPANY IS

CONFIRMED AND THE TENDER DOCUMENT IS SENT TO YOU, YOU MUST BE DELIVERED TO THE AFORESAID ADDRESS ON OR BEFORE THE CLOSING DATE 27thFeb.,2019.THE OPENING DATE OF ENVELOPES WILL BE AT 11 AM ON THE 29thFeb.,2019 IN THE BUYER'S CONFERENCE ROOM LOCATED AT THE HEAD OFFICE OF KSC AHWAZ-IRAN AND THE BIDDERS OR THEIR AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVES CAN ATTEND THE MEETING OF THE TENDER.

Note 3: FOR MORE INFORMTION PLEASE CONTACT WITH FOLLOWING DETAILS: Tel No. : +98 61 32908115 / 32136159 Fax No. : +98 61 32908115

Mr.M.FARZINEJAD EMAIL : m.farzinejad @ksc.ir OR VISIT:http://WWW.KSC.IR

No competition between Gwader and Chabahar ports: Pakistan parliament speaker

DECEMBER 30, 20188I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

times1979@gmail.com

ADVERTISEMENTS

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From Oxford Cert Universal

TEHRAN TIMES

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021 - 430 51 450Tel:

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9I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

H E A L T H

By Maryam Khosrojerdi

H E A L T Hd e s k

DECEMBER 30, 2018

TEHRAN — In 1993, only two liver transplants

were conducted in Iran, but the figures has been rising significantly over the years, reach-ing 749 transplants in 2016.

According to a large-scale research con-ducted by Tehran University of Medical Scienc-es in coordination with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, 4,485 liver transplants were performed in the country, over a period of 23 years (from 1993 to 2016).

The research data was gathered around by a collaboration of 24 university professors.

According to a report, first published in July, the transplants were performed in six centers; two centers in Tehran and one center in each cities of Shiraz, Mashhad, Isfahan and Kerman.

The report revealed that the number of transplants has been increasing steadily in all the centers over this period; however, the rise has been much faster in Shiraz, growing from only two transplants in 1993 to 524 in 2016.

Shiraz was at the forefront of such surgeries over the whole period with doing 3,663 of liver transplants out of the total 4,485 ones performed in the country.

Out of the total transplants, 4,106 were from deceased donors and 379 were from living donors. There were 3,553 adults and 932 pediatric recipients. Hepatitis B and biliary atresia were the most common etiologies in adult and pediatric patients, respectively.

The report indicates that over this period, livers were procured from more than 700 deceased donors per year.

In November, Deputy Health Minister Reza Malekzadeh announced that Iran is among the top 10 countries in the world in liver transplantation and ranks first in the region.

He stated that annually there are at least 500 liver transplantations in the country, around 85% of which are from brain dead patients.

Rising trend of liver transplant in Iran: from 2 to 749

The report revealed that the number of transplants has been increasing steadily in all the centers over this period; however, the rise has been much faster in Shiraz, growing from

only two transplants in 1993 to 524 in 2016.

A glance at Imam Sadr’s Derdghaiya medical center

It was the spring of 2018 when we visited Derdghaiya health care center, standing on the heights of the southern prov-ince of Lebanon. The medical facility was established by the Imam Sadr Foundation in 1987.

The clinic puts patients at ease by offering a pleasant location, cleanliness and even fruit trees in its small yard.

We became acquainted with nurse Mona Tiba, in charge of the spinal cord rehabilitation department. She was ad-mitted to nursing school in the Islamic University with the support of the foundation the year earlier. Tiba welcomed us with open arms and gave us a tour of the clinic and explained the caregiving offered at the facility.

The clinic provides services for rheumatology, pediat-rics, counseling, neurology, general medicine, nutrition, urology, cardiovascular, physiotherapy, immunology and midwifery. It serves 350 to 400 patients every month.

The clinic is the only healthcare center in the district that offers physiotherapy and spinal cord care affiliated with the Norwegian Group Norvac. The bilateral relationship is important for the transfer of knowledge and technology for treating spinal cord injuries.

The staff of the clinic attends Norvac Group’s specialized workshops every so often. In addition, in 2017, Derdghaiya health care center held three scientific meetings at Hiram hospital in Tyrus, Al Rassoul Al Azam Hospital in Beirut, and at Rahmat rehabilitation hospital in Tripoli.

The second floor of the clinic has rooms with specialized machines for various tests for urinary and bladder ailments suffered by children and adults and expectant mothers.

When a patient loses control of his urination, the clinic offers initial tests and, if necessary, they are referred to specialized hospitals.

The cost of running such tests at the American Univer-sity of Beirut is around $650, while the clinic only charges $170, and very low-income people pay only $32.

All expenses of the clinics are provided by the Imam Sadr Foundation.

The clinic offers free services to people with disabilities and vaccinations are free.

Each year, around 150 food packages are distributed among those in need during the holy month of Ramadan.

The clinic is also associated with some Christian insti-tutions that provide medicine for patients who are con-stantly in of such.

To protect the environment the clinic has fridges for the disposal of pharmaceutical waste, and each month the waste is sent to landfills.

Before leaving the clinic, we noticed a couple of tall buildings, sitting adjacent to each other on a hilltop just a bit further away from the clinic, a mosque and a church.

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Salt intake in Iran doubles global standards

8 hospitals built in 9 months costing $120m

TEHRAN — Salt consumption in Iran

is twice as much as global standards, the head of the Iranian Heart Association has said, Fars news agency reported on Thursday.

“The average salt intake among Iranians is around 10-12 grams per day, which is far beyond standard levels and it is mostly due to consuming breads that contain too much salt,” Fereydoun Noohi added.

According to recent studies in the coun-try, salt intake among women is three times the men, he noted.

World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults consume less than 5 grams (just under a teaspoon) of salt per day; however, based on global statistics, most people consume too much salt—on average 9–12 grams per day that is around twice the recommended max-

imum level of intake. WHO has stated that salt intake of less

than 5 grams per day for adults helps to reduce blood pressure and risk of cardi-ovascular disease, stroke and coronary heart attack.

National surveys in Iran has revealed that around 34% of Iranians have high blood pressure, leading to the prevalence of stroke and cardiovascular diseases to the extent that they are the second cause of death among Iranians over the age of 50, Noohi remarked.

“Controlling high blood pressure is a must in today’s society. So, taking pa-tients’ blood pressure should become a priority on doctors’ protocol. Additionally, the people must constantly check their own blood pressure at home with digital devices, especially if they are over the age of 35,” he explained.

TEHRAN — Eight hospitals have been built

in the country since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21), announced the deputy minister of transport and urban development.

According to Mohammad Jafar Aliza-deh, in total, the hospitals have 1,200 beds and their construction cost some 5 trillion rials (around $120 million), ISNA reported on Saturday.

The new hospitals are in seven prov-inces; namely, Tehran, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Lorestan, East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Kordestan and Khuzestan, Alizadeh stated.

“Some 4 trillion rials (around $95 mil-lion) has also been assigned to the construc-tion of hospitals in six other provinces of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Hamadan, Mazandaran, Gilan, Ardabil and Ker-

manshah. The new hospitals are under construction and will be inaugurated by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2019),” added Alizadeh.

“Currently, there are on average 2.8 hospital beds in the country per 1,000 people,” he further remarked.

Health Minister Hassan Qaziza-deh-Hashemi said on Friday that 31,500 new hospital beds have been set up in the country since 2013 when President Hasan Rouhani started his first round of administration.

According to the minister, there are currently 120,000 hospital beds in the country.

On Friday, a 294-bed hospital was inau-gurated in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, western Iran. The completion of the hospital took 10 years and some 900 billion rials (nearly $22 million) was spent on its construction.

H E A L T Hd e s k

H E A L T Hd e s k

10I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

HERITAGE & TOURISM DECEMBER 30, 2018

TEHRAN – A team of archaeologists has exca-

vated some archaeological remains in the basement of a shop located in the grand bazaar of Tehran.

“[Parts of] a wall and a fort, related to the Timurid period (1370-1507(, were discovered in Hazrati Bazaar [a locale in the grand bazaar],” according to Qadir Afrovand, a senior Iranian archaeologist, IRNA reported.

On December 19, excavations in a two-by-two meter trench led to discovery of a wall and bricks that date back to the Qajar, Safavid, and Timurid periods, Afrovand told reporters.

The trench has yielded pieces of tiles and potteries so far, which date from var-ious periods including Qajar and Timurid eras, he explained.

Studies on the site is ongoing, however, its “identity and usage” is still unknown, he said, adding “Excavations in the site will be continued until it reaches the intact soil.”

In 2014, a mysterious skeleton of a woman was unearthed in Molavi Street, south of the Iranian capital. Initial sur-veys on the human remains, which dates back to the 5th millennium, suggested that Tehran may date back to 7000 years ago.

Many archaeologists were used to asso-ciate earliest settlements in Tehran with the time of Safavids who ruled the country from 1501–1736.

The Timurid Empire was a Persianate Turco-Mongol empire comprising mod-ern-day Uzbekistan, Iran, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, much of Cen-tral Asia, as well as parts of contemporary India, Pakistan, Syria and Turkey.

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

T O U R I S Md e s k

Archaeological remains unearthed in heart of Tehran

TEHRAN — A team of Iranian experts has commenced studying on a recently excavated

historical bathhouse used to be supplied with clay water pipes in northwest Iran.

Experts estimate that the bathhouse dates from the Seljuk era (1037–1194) as pottery fragments founded beneath the structure suggest.

“This structure, which is built of brick, covers some 100 square meters of area and it is a remarkable example of early Islamic bath-houses,” CHTN quoted a provincial official as saying on Saturday.

The archaeological discovery was made recently in Germi county of Ardabil province where a team of researchers and restorers strengthened centuries-old Alajouq fortress before a nearly dam is inaugurated.

Sprawling on a high, windswept plateau, Ardebil is well-known for having lush natural beauties, hospitable people and its silk and carpet trade tradition, it is also home to the UNESCO-registered Sheikh Safi al-Din Khanegah and Shrine Ensemble.

Study begins on ruined historical bathhouse

Historic monuments zone of Tlacotalpan

Tlacotalpan, is an exceptionally well-preserved Spanish colonial river port close to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

The original urban plan, a checkerboard or grid pattern, laid out by the Spanish in the mid-16th century, has been preserved to a remarkable degree.

Its wide streets are lined with colonnaded houses that reflect a vernacular Caribbean tradition with exuberant dec-oration and color.

Many mature trees can be found in the public parks, open spaces and private gardens. Initially settled by the Spanish around 1550, the settlement reached its major brilliance in the 19th century.

The surviving grid pattern consists of 153 blocks covering 75 hectares and divided into two distinct sectors, the larger “Spanish” quarter in the west and smaller “native quarter in the east. The larger quarter is created by seven wide streets or calles laid out east-west parallel to the Papaloapan River and connected by narrow lanes or callejones. The “public” sector, an irregularly-shaped area found at the intersection of the two quarters, has commercial and official buildings as well as public open spaces.

A UNESCO World Heritage, Tlacotalpan has retained an unusual density of high-quality historic buildings that provide architectural harmony and homogeneity. While the basic vernacular style is found elsewhere on the Mexican Gulf Coast, Tlacotalpan’s single-storey houses exhibit dis-tinctive manifestations that include a profusion of bright-ly-colored exteriors and original features such as the roof coverings of curved terra cotta tiles and the layouts with interior courtyards.

(Source: UNESCO)

ROUND THE GLOBE

In 2018, airlines set another record by flying nearly 4.5 billion passengers on nearly 45 million flights worldwide. On the surface, things were good.

But 2018 has only been an average year for safety in airline travel, according to retired airline pilot and safety expert John Cox, writing in USA Today.

Actually, Captain Cox may have been too kind. The Avi-ation Safety Network (ASN) stated that this year there were 16 airliner accidents that killed a total of 555 people as of December 27, 2018.

That’s a more than 900% increase over last year when just 59 people died in accidents. That led ASN to call 2017 “the safest year ever, both by the number of fatal accidents as well as in terms of fatalities.”

Of course, after 2017, for all practical purposes, there was nowhere to go but down (sorry) in terms of airline safety. But worryingly, the 555 deaths in 2018 are the highest in the last five years since 2014, when 692 died.

In 2018, plane crashes in Russia, Iran and Nepal killed 195 people in just one month, from February 11 to March 12. In the Iranian accident, the crash site (a 12,000-foot mountain) was not found for two days, yet Iranian officials reported there were no survivors of the 66 onboard before the aircraft was found. It is believed the plane was not able to de-ice its wings, but responsibility for the crash of the aging ATR-72 turboprop, which had been out of service for 7 years, is still unclear.

n another terrible accident, on May 18, 112 of 113 pas-sengers and crew were killed when a Cubana de Aviaci?n 737-200 crashed after takeoff from José Mart? International Airport in Havana, Cuba. As with the other accidents, the cause has apparently not been officially determined; ASN classifies it as “loss of control (presumed).

But in 2018, the spotlight was on two other accidents. Each is concerning, for different reasons.

One was the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 near Jakarta, Indonesia on October 29, killing all on board. The 189 fatali-ties, on a brand-new Boeing 737 MAX, made it the deadliest crash of the year and accounted for more than one-third of airline deaths in 2018.

In a powerful interactive presentation, the New York Times shows how the pilots of Lion Air Flight 610 apparently got false readings from sensors, ended up fighting the automatic anti-stall systems, tried to control the plane’s stabilizers and bounced up and down two dozen times. Sadly, they lost the

battle, and the plane plunged 5000 feet into the Java Sea.At least one lawsuit has been filed in the US against Boe-

ing on behalf of a victim of the Lion Air crash, alleging the airplane was “unreasonably dangerous.” The suit alleged that the plane’s safety system improperly engaged and pilots were not properly instructed by Boeing on how to respond.

Boeing issued an Operations Manual Bulletin in November on flight crew procedures to “address circumstances where there is erroneous input from an AOA (angle of attack) sen-sor.” The Federal Aviation Administration issued an emer-gency directive to US carriers like Southwest, American, and United to follow the new instructions on dealing with possible erroneous sensor alerts in 737 MAX aircraft. The directive warns “erroneous inputs can potentially make the horizontal stabilizers repeatedly pitch the nose of the air-plane downward, making the aircraft difficult to control.”

In a statement to the NY Times, Boeing said it was confident in the safety of the 737 Max. “While we can’t discuss specifics of an ongoing investigation, we have provided two updates to operators that re-emphasize existing operating proce-dures — the series of steps required — for these situations.”

A full investigation into the crash won’t be completed until next year.

The other notorious accident in 2018 was an engine fail-ure and cowling separation on Southwest Flight 1380 near Philadelphia in April. A woman sitting in a window seat was fatally injured and almost sucked out of the aircraft. Eight other passengers were injured. However, Southwest

Captain Tammie Jo Shults, one of the Navy’s first female fighter pilots, was able to land the depressurized 737 safely with a single working engine.

According to USA Today, the accident resulted in regula-tors “reviewing certification standards and the life limits for engine components.” Several other in-flight engine failures, thankfully, did not result in fatalities. In February, a United Boeing 777 also had to make an emergency landing after losing the engine cowling on a flight from San Francisco to Honolulu. Amazingly, the plane landed safely at its desti-nation just 20 minutes off-schedule.

In September, the captain of an Iberia Airbus A350 flying from New York to Madrid made an emergency landing in Boston after the in-flight shutdown of one of its Rolls-Royce engines. Issues with Rolls-Royce Trent engines took many Boeing 787 Dreamliners out of service for inspections during 2018, although the company insisted that the A350’s Trent XWB was based on a different architecture than the Trent 1000 in the 787.

Most recently, an Airbus A330 aircraft lost not one, but both engines in flight, but fortunately, not at the same time. According to Boarding Area, a Brussels Airlines A330-200 was flying from Kinshasha to Brussels on December 10 when the pilots received a warning from an electronic monitor that the port (left) engine had failed. They declared an emer-gency and descended to 27,000 feet, where the engine relit. The pilots were able to return to their 40,000 foot cruising altitude. The flight continued normally until the approach to Brussels. This time, the starboard (right) engine began to fail, relight and shut down while descending. It finally relighted as the aircraft landed. Investigators believe the rare dual-engine failure may have been caused by fuel con-tamination at Kinshasa airport.

The good news is that such engine shutdowns continue to prove that twin-jet aircraft can fly safely for significant periods of time on one engine. (Rigorous pilot training is also helpful.) Things have changed since FAA administrator Lyn Helms said in 1980, “It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let twins fly long haul, overwater routes.”

But with today’s clearly safer aircraft, the nearly ten-fold increase in passenger deaths from 2017 to 2018 is not ac-ceptable. The aircraft industry, the airlines, and government regulators must work together to ensure this troubling trend does not continue into 2019.

(Source: forbes.com)

TEHRAN — Iranian ar-rivals in Turkey fell some

18 percent during the first 11 months of the year from the same period a year earlier.

“In January-November 2018, 1.894 mil-lion Iranian tourists visited Turkey, 18.17 percent less than the same period in 2017,” the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey told Trend on Friday.

The share of Iranian travelers in the total foreign arrivals in Turkey was 5.05 percent during the first eleven months of 2018, the ministry said. “During November, 105,200 Iranian nationals visited Turkey, a decrease of 46.39 percent compared to the same month in 2017.” Statistics also suggest that 37.5 mil-lion tourists toured Turkey from January to November, which shows a 22.25 percent

increase year on year.Experts say Iran’s rial depreciation is the

main reason behind the slump, which started in May when U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, re-imposing new sanctions on Iran’s economy.

Rial weakness has also pushed up costs of air travel and accommodation for outbound Iranian passengers. The situation, on the other hand, has opened up a new chapter for travelers to the country, particularly Iraqi nationals.

Iran hosted some six million foreign trav-elers in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21), which shows 51 percent year-on-year growth.

History lovers are digging into the UAE’s rich past at one of the largest archaeological sites in the country.

Members of the public are being invited to take a step back in time before they usher in a new year by embarking on an eye-opening tour of Ed-Dur, in Umm Al Quwain.

A workshop - running until January 3 and organised by Umm Al Quwain Department of Tourism and Archaeology - is being held to help shed new light on a 2,000 year-old building recently discovered at the site.

It is just the latest treasure from the past unearthed at Ed-Dur since excavation began in the 1970s, with previous finds including everything from ancient temples, tombs and houses to jewellery, pottery and statues dating back to the Roman era.

Organisers are hoping the discovery will stir up lots of interest and spark plenty of

debate.“There are around 120 archaeological

sites in Umm Al Quwain and Ed-Dur is the largest one of them and was discovered by an Iraqi archaeologist in 1974,” said Rania Kannouma, head of the archaeology department at UAQ Department of Tourism and Archaeology.

“We picked a newly discovered ruins at the site to be the place for the workshop as we didn’t identify the ruins yet, if it’s a grave or a house, and that should make it exciting for participants.

“We have been organizing the archaeol-ogy exploration workshops since 2000. It is part of our community initiatives aimed at highlighting the unique archaeological sites in the emirate and to educate people about the country’s rich history.”

Ed-Dur lies along the south-east coast of

the Arabian Gulf and overlooks the shallow lake of Khor Al Beidha.

It is surrounded by high sand dunes, which protect it from the northern offshore wind that prevails in the region.

Saif Ali Ali, a 26-year-old Emirati, is among the visitors eager to learn more about his homeland’s history and says it is the “most exciting” thing he has taken part in.

“It’s a hobby that I inherited from my father who likes to collect artefacts and has a passion for history and archaeology,” said Mr Al Ali.

“This has made me become curious to know more about the pieces we had at home and what they were used for and which era they represent, so I took one piece to the archaeology department and it was dated back to the Neolithic period.

“So when I heard about the workshop I

immediately called to book a spot and until now it’s the most exciting thing I have ever done,” he said.

Mr Al Ali, along with the other participants, was first introduced to excavation tools and techniques and the story behind Ed-Dur site.

“I learned how to slowly remove the sand and dirt on and around the ruins and how to use the different tools such as the small hand shovels, trowel and brushes,” he said.

“I will keep visiting the site even after the workshop finishes as I want to see what kind of building it’s going to be,” said Mr Al Ali.

Another enthusiast, who came all the way from Ras Al Khaimah to take part in the workshop, said that she always feels a sense of calm when at historical places.

(Source: The National)

Airline fatalities rise more than 900% in 2018

Iranian visits to Turkey drop in Jan.-Nov.

Ancient history unearthed at UAE archaeological site

TEHRAN — Kermanshah province’s cultural heritage department is scheduled to hold a four-day national craft workshop from Jan-

uary 8 to 11, 2019. The event will be held at Kermanshah Parsian Hotel, provincial

tourism chief Parvaneh Heydari said, CHTN reported. The workshop will cover enamel and needlework among other

local skills, she said. Dozens of Iranian handicrafts have gained the UNESCO Seal

of Excellence during the past couple of years.

Kermanshah to host national craft workshop

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

Kilauea’s historically huge 2018 eruption didn’t just transform the southeastern corner of Hawaii’s Big Island. Most of the lava wound up spilling into the ocean, creating an enormous new undersea delta that hardy ocean microbes are already colonizing.

That finding, along with the broader exploratory campaign that made it possible, might inform the search for life on an icy moon of Saturn.

That’s according to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) geochemist scientist Chris German, who presented the unpublished findings along with WHOI volcanologist Adam Soule at the American Geophysical Union conference earlier this month.

To study the L`ihi seamount, an undersea volcano just south of the Big Island that, according to German, is one of Earth’s best comparisons to potential hydrothermal systems on the seafloor of Enceladus, an ice-crusted moon in Saturn’s E-ring with a liquid water ocean beneath its surface.

Mid-ocean ridgesAs German explained to Gizmodo, most

of the hydrothermal systems humans have studied so far occur at mid-ocean ridges, where tectonic plates are spreading apart and causing hot magma from the mantle to burble up near the surface.

The mineral-rich fluids spewing out of these so-called black smokers can get as hot as 400 degrees Celsius, which German says

is far hotter than any hydrothermal system we’re likely to find on Enceladus.

The depth of many black smokers means that life around them is subjected to crushing pressures that alien microbes on a gravitationally puny moon would have no experience with, either.

L`ihi is different. A “hotspot” volcano in the middle of the Pacific tectonic plate, it emits cooler hydrothermal fluids at shallower depths (and therefore lower pressures). It’s an environment not unlike something we could imagine existing on a wee ocean world orbiting Saturn.

Geochemical and microbiological samples

German, along with Darlene Lim at the NASA Ames Research Center and others, recently received funding from NASA and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to pursue that idea as part of a new astrobiology research program called SUBSEA. In August, the researchers shipped off for a multi-week expedition to map the seamount, collect geochemical and microbiological samples, and test space exploration protocols.

Location of the 2018 lava flows from Kilauea’s eruption, which deposited twice as much material in the ocean as it did on land.

But they wound up getting a little extra bang for their buck when German and Soule realized the mission’s timing — right as Kilauea was erupting — offered a rare opportunity to see how another ocean environment was being transformed by a different volcano. Soule worked with NOAA and the National Science Foundation to acquire funding to divert E/V Nautilus from L`ihi for a day to scope out the seafloor along Kilauea’s south flank, including the lava’s 3-mile-wide ocean entry site.

Using E/V Nautilus’ sonar system, the researchers first set about mapping the seafloor. They discovered a gigantic pile of freshly cooled lava that stretched some 1.5 kilometers offshore and sloped steeply down to a depth of about 1,000 meters.

(Source: gizmodo.com)

Our eyes, ears and skin are responsible for different senses. Moreover, our brain assigns these senses to different regions: the visual cortex, auditory cortex and somatosensory cortex. However, it is clear that there are anatomical connections between these different cortices such that brain activation to one sense can influence brain activation to another.

A new study by the laboratory of Associate Professor Shoji Komai at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Japan, seen in PLOS ONE, explains how auditory stimulation of the barrel cortex influences responses to tactile stimulation in mice and rats.

The barrel cortex is one of the most highly studied primary somatosensory systems in animals, that is, systems in our brain sensitive to touch, pain, and temperature.

It may not immediately be obvious why studying the barrel cortex, which maps sensation to whiskers, is relevant to humans, but it turns out the texture discrimination performed by the whiskers in rodents is quite similar to the same discrimination we do using our finger tips. Therefore, Komai considered the barrel cortex a good

model to see how sound can affect the perception of touch. Multisensory responses

“We think our senses are distinct, but there are many studies that show multisensory responses, mainly through audio-visual interactions or audio-tactile interactions,” explains Komai.

Using patch clamp experiments of single neurons, his group found that mouse and rat neurons in the barrel cortex

were unresponsive to light, but that a strong majority responded to sound. These neurons showed electrical responses to sound that could be categorized as regular spiking or fast spiking. Further, the barrel cortex appeared to treat tactile and auditory stimuli separately.

“These responses indicate that tactile and auditory information is processed in parallel in the barrel cortex,” says Komai.

Additional analysis showed that the electrophysiological properties of the responses were different, with sound causing longer postsynaptic potentials with long latency, almost priming the animal to sense touch. This would be like the shuddering one does when hearing a loud boom. According to Komai, this reaction would be an evolutionary advantage for nocturnal animals such as rats and mice.

“In a nocturnal environment, sound may act as an alarm to detect prey or predators. The combination of auditory and tactile cues may yield an effective response. It will be interesting to learn how the same system is advantageous in humans,” he says.

(Source: eurekalert.org)

S C I E N C EDECEMBER 30, 2018 11I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Chinese researcher He Jiankui discusses his lab’s effort to produce babies whose genes have been altered to protect them from future HIV infection.

2018 was a year when researchers focused in on ways to head off disease by reprogram-ming a patient’s own cells, but also crossed what many thought were ethical red lines in genetic experimentation. It was the first year in which women won a share of the Nobel Prize for physics as well as for chemistry, but also a year when the #MeToo issue came to the fore in the science community.

As I look back at 2018, I’m seeing some stories that I missed but ended up featuring prominently in other folks’ year-end recaps. So, to even things out, my top-ten list focuses on five developments that we featured in the course of the last 12 months, and five more that didn’t get much play at the time.

Science highlightsFeel free to use the comment section to

cast write-in ballots for the year’s science highlights and low lights. (For example, the sad tale of Tahlequah and the Southern Resident orca population tops The Seattle Times’ year-end list):

Gene-edited babies born in China: Last month, genetic researcher He Jiankui an-nounced that twin girls had been born with a genetically engineered mutation aimed at preventing them from getting the HIV virus. The claim raised concerns that a door was being opened to science-fiction scenarios in which genetic traits are changed or enhanced with the aim of creating the real-life equiva-lents of comic-book X-Men (and X-Women). But since then, there’s been a rising tide of

questions about what He and his colleagues actually did (or failed to do). Their experiments have now been put on hold due to multiple investigations.

Immunotherapy hits the big time: Tech-niques that rev up a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer and other diseases gained traction over the past year, thanks to research aimed at maximizing the benefits of genetically engineered cells while reducing the negative side effects.

Biotech venturesSeattle is becoming a center for such re-

search, thanks to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a bevy of biotech ventures. Immunotherapy’s latest local heroes include Juno Therapeutics, Seattle Genetics, Aminex Therapeutics, OncoResponse and Kineta. Next year, the Allen Institute for Immunology will join the campaign — fueled by $125 million from the institute’s late founder, Paul Allen.

Solving the brain’s mysteries: The Allen Institute started out 15 years ago with a focus on neuroscience, and the past year brought a string of advances. In March, the institute’s researchers unveiled a publicly available database of computerized neuron models that could be combined like Lego blocks to simulate brain activity.

Researchers also took part in a project that turned up a new breed of human brain cell, and laid out a “parts list” for the brain in research featured on the cover of the journal Nature. Looking ahead, the institute and its Allen Frontiers Group will play roles in multiple multimillion-dollar efforts focusing on con-nections between brain function and disease.

(Source: Geekwire)

Genetic breakthroughs make dreams (and nightmares) come true, researchers say

A simulation of indium wire atoms (red) on top of a silicon substrate. The glowing regions highlight where indium bonds have been excited and photoholes have formed.

In a recent publication in Science, re-searchers at the University of Paderborn and the Fritz Haber Institute Berlin demon-strated their ability to observe electrons’ movements during a chemical reaction. Researchers have long studied the atom-ic-scale processes that govern chemical reactions, but were never before able to observe electron motions as they happened.

Electrons exist on the smallest scales, being less than one quadrillionth of a me-ter in diameter and orbiting an atom at femtosecond speeds (one quadrillionth of a second).

Experimenters interested in observing electron behavior use laser pulses to interact with the electrons. They can calculate the energy and momentum of the electrons by analyzing the properties of the electrons kicked out of the probe by the laser light.

Recording eventsThe challenge for researchers is re-

cording events that are taking place on a femtosecond scale — they must first excite a system with a laser pulse, then watch the next few femtoseconds. Then, they send a second laser pulse with a short time delay of a few femtoseconds. Achieving this level of resolution is difficult, as femtoseconds are extremely short—light can travel 300,000 kilometers in one second, but just 300 nanometers in one femtosecond.

After being excited with the first laser pulse, the atoms’ valence electrons — elec-

trons on the outside of an atom that are candidates for helping form chemical bonds — may re-arrange to form new chemical bonds, resulting in new molecules. Because of the speed and scale of these interactions, though, researchers have only hypothe-sized how this re-arrangement takes place.

In addition to experimental methods, high-performance computing (HPC) has become an increasingly important tool for understanding these atomic-level interac-tions, verifying experimental observations, and studying electron behaviour during a chemical reaction in more detail. A Uni-versity of Paderborn group led by Prof. Dr. Wolf Gero Schmidt has been collaborating with physicists and chemists to complement experiments with computational models.

In order to better understand elec-trons’ behavior during a chemical reac-tion, Schmidt and his collaborators have been using supercomputing resources at the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) to model this phenomenon.

Substance changesLast year, Schmidt’s group partnered

with experimentalists from the University of Duisburg-Essen to excite an atomic-scale system and observe photo-induced phase transitions (PIPTs) in real time. Phase transitions — when a substance changes from one physical state to another, such as water changing to ice—are important in studying and designing materials, as a substance’s properties may change wildly depending on the state it is in.

(Source: phys.org)

Researchers monitor electron behavior during chemical reactions for the first time

How Hawaii’s volcanoes could help us find life on Saturn’s icy moon

Rare Super Blood Wolf Moon to coincide with total lunar eclipse this JanuaryThe total lunar eclipse will be witnessed on the evening of Jan. 20 to 21 wherein the rare Super Blood Wolf Moon is going to pass through the northern half of Earth’s shadow. This phenomenon is the first and last to occur across the winter skies within the next three years.

Another total lunar eclipse is happening almost a year after 2018 Super Blue Moon total lunar eclipse, only that it will not be a “blue” one this time around.

The total lunar eclipse will be witnessed on the evening of Jan. 20 to 21 wherein the rare Super Blood Wolf Moon is going to pass through the northern half of Earth’s shadow, according to meteorologist Scott Sutherland who revealed the news through The Weather Network.

The total lunar eclipse will be seen throughout the United States beginning Jan. 20. It will finish on Jan. 21 starting at 09:36 P.M. EST and end at 02:48 A.M. EST. The Super Blood Wolf Moon will grace the night-side of Earth that includes South America, the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the Western Atlantic Ocean, and Extreme Western Europe.

Interestingly, the total lunar eclipse happening in winter 2019 will not be just like any other. What makes it so extraordinary is it will be a rare Super Blood Wolf Moon total lunar eclipse. This is quite so as the total lunar eclipse takes place when the moon is near perigee, the point at which it is in closest distance to Earth than usual, making it appear larger.

Why is it called the Super Blood Wolf Moon? In Native Amer-ican times, hungry wolves would be seen near the towns and villages at a full moon. Also, the full moon is both a Supermoon and a Blood Moon, which obviously explains why it is named Super Blood Wolf Moon.

(Source: Tech Times)

Our universe: An expanding bubble in an extra dimensionResearchers have devised a new model for the universe -- one that may solve the enigma of dark energy. Their new article proposes a new structural concept, including dark energy, for a universe that rides on an expanding bubble in an additional dimension.

Uppsala University researchers have devised a new model for the Universe -- one that may solve the enigma of dark energy. Their new article, published in Physical Review Letters, proposes a new structural concept, including dark energy, for a universe that rides on an expanding bubble in an additional dimension.

We have known for the past 20 years that the Universe is expanding at an ever accelerating rate. The explanation is the “dark energy” that permeates it throughout, pushing it to expand. Understanding the nature of this dark energy is one of the paramount enigmas of fundamental physics.

It has long been hoped that string theory will provide the answer. According to string theory, all matter consists of tiny, vibrating “stringlike” entities. The theory also requires there to be more spatial dimensions than the three that are already part of everyday knowledge. For 15 years, there have been models in string theory that have been thought to give rise to dark energy. However, these have come in for increasingly harsh criticism, and several researchers are now asserting that none of the models proposed to date are workable.

In their article, the scientists propose a new model with dark energy and our Universe riding on an expanding bubble in an extra dimension. The whole Universe is accommodated on the edge of this expanding bubble. All existing matter in the Universe corresponds to the ends of strings that extend out into the extra dimension.

The Uppsala scientists’ model provides a new, different picture of the creation and future fate of the Universe, while it may also pave the way for methods of testing string theory.

(Source: sciencedaily.com)

Mount Etna comes to life, spewing ash, team findsMount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, came to life on Christmas Eve, spewing ash across a swath of the Italian is-land of Sicily.

The eruption was followed by a 4.8-magnitude earthquake, which shook eastern Sicily before dawn on December 26. The BBC reported that at least 28 people were injured in what was the strongest tremor since the eruption on December 24.

The quake damaged churches, roads and houses in towns near the volcano, and caused panicked residents to flee their homes. Many spent the remainder of the night sleeping in their cars.

A 70-year-old man suffered fractured ribs and was taken into surgery. A number of others were treated for minor injuries and released, according to the Italian news agency ANSA, while still more were treated for shock. Two people had to be pulled from the rubble of their homes, including an 80-year-old man.

“Etna remains a dangerous volcano, and this country of ours is unfortunately fragile,” gov-ernment undersecretary Vito Crimi said.

At more than 10,000 feet high, Mount Etna is the largest of Italy’s three active volcanoes, and the second largest in all of Europe (Mount Teide in Tenerife is taller). Etna is classed as the most active stratovolcano in the world and has a long documented history of eruptions, stretching back to 1,500 B.C.

Etna has seen frequent activity since July. The eruption on Christmas Eve saw a new fracture appear on the volcano’s flank, spewing lava. It forced the temporary closure of Sicilian airspace because of clouds of smoke and ash, which coated nearby villages.

The 4.8 magnitude quake was the largest of the many trem-ors felt after the eruption. The quake’s epicenter was north of Catania, the second-largest Sicilian city, although no damage was reported there despite reports of shaking buildings.

In some towns, piles of rubble littered the roads, while gaping holes ripped open the sides of shops and houses.

(Source: Newsweek)

The depth of many black smokers means that life around them is subjected to

crushing pressures that alien microbes on a gravitationally puny moon would have no

experience with, either.

Sound changes the way rodents sense touch

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

S O C I E T Y DECEMBER 30, 2018

Shoppers will have to pay double for carrier bags at all stores across England under new plans set out by the environ-ment secretary.

The current 5p charge will be increased to 10p and will apply to all shops, not just large retailers, under Michael Gove’s measures aimed at curbing plastic consumption.

An estimated 3.6 billion single-use bags are supplied annually by smaller retailers which are exempt from the current 5p bag levy.

Trade bodies representing around 40,000 small retailers have already launched a vol-untarily approach to a 5p charge, but this accounts for less than one-fifth of England’s estimated 253,000 small and medium-sized enterprises.

The changes, which could come into

effect in January 2020, are contained in a consultation which has been launched by the government.

In August, Theresa May promised there would be a consultation on changes to the levy by the end of the year despite reported opposition from the Treasury and Philip Hammond.

“The 5p single-use plastic carrier bag charge has been extremely successful in reducing the amount of plastic we use in our everyday lives,” Mr Gove said.

“Between us, we have taken over 15 billion plastic bags out of circulation.

“But we want to do even more to protect our precious planet and today’s announcement will accelerate further behaviour change and build on the success of the existing charge.”

The 5p levy was introduced in England

in 2015, with the money raised going to good causes rather than government coffers.

Association of Convenience Stores chief executive James Lowman said: “We welcome the government’s plans to extend carrier bag charging to all shops.

“This has been shown to be highly effective at reducing waste, whilst also raising money for local, national and environmental charities.

“Around half of small shops in England already charge for plastic bags voluntar-ily, with wider support for a mandatory charge.”

Oceanographer Dr Laura Foster, head of Clean Seas at the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), said she hoped there would be support for the move.

The MCS has been monitoring the impact

of the 5p charge since it was introduced in October 2015 and regularly provides evidence for government consultations.

Dr Foster said: “We are able to measure the impact of legislation and we’ve seen that since the introduction of the plastic bag charge in the UK the amount we find on the beaches has gone down.

“That’s also been replicated by studies that have been done offshore - they’ve also seen a reduction in the amount of plastic bags they find.

“So we do know that legislation can di-rectly impact on the amount we find on our beaches and in our oceans.”

Meanwhile, schools are being urged to end the consumption of single-use plastics by 2022.

(Source: The Independent)

Charge on plastic carrier bags to be doubled and extended to all shops in England

TEHRAN — Hundreds of university students

participated in a demonstration at Is-lamic Azad University, Science and Re-search Branch, in Tehran on Saturday, to stage their protest about old transport fleet which led recently to the death and

injury of dozens of their peers.In a bus rollover at the Islamic Azad

University, northwestern Tehran, on December 25, ten were killed and 28 were injured. Some of the injured are in a critical condition and the rest have sustained serious injuries.

After the accident many announced that the driver had a hard attack at the time of the crash. However, the main reason behind the deadly bus crash seems to be the old transport system as the driver lost the vehicle control after its brakes failed.

According to IRNA news agency some of the family members of the students who were killed in the bus crash also joined the demonstration.

The university has already fired five officials who are held accountable for the bus crash.

University students protest against old transport fleet S O C I E T Yd e s k

S O C I E T Yd e s k

S O C I E T Yd e s k

TEHRAN — The De-partment of Environ-

ment (DOE) will receive a budget rise by 47 percent as proposed in the budget bill for the next calendar year (starting on March 21, 2019), an official with the DOE has said.

“We received a total budget of 2.54 trillion rials (nearly $60 million) over the current Iranian calendar year, which will increase to 3.73 trillion rials (around $88 million) for the next year,” Mina Ebrahi-mi, deputy director of DOE’s budget and planning center said, DOE’s official website reported on Wednesday.

Moreover, Amir Zand, caretaker of DOE’s budget and planning center also said on Saturday that some 55.7 billion rials (about $1.3 million) is considered for combatting air pollution and a total of 1.67 trillion rials (nearly $40 million) will be allotted to protecting the biodiversity through restoration of the country’s wet-lands, as well as conservation and revival of Golestan National Park and areas under the organization’s protection.

He went on to highlight that another 51.8 billion rials (approximately $1.2 million) will also be earmarked for research and development in environmental issues.

Zand further stated that a budget amounting to 10 trillion rials (around $240 million) is proposed in the budget bill to create regional facilities for waste management by private sector, aiming at reducing irreparable damages caused by

poor waste management, especially in the northern cities of the country.

Referring to 40 percent increase in development plans budget for the DOE, he noted that for development plans also a credit of 2.43 trillion rials (around $58

million) will be allocated.And the Department’s expenses are to

be 1.02 trillion rials (about $24 million), of which some 350 billion rials ($8.3 million) will be allocated to increase protection in areas safeguarded by the rangers, he said.

Pointing to the staff shortage in the DOE, he highlighted that the necessary measures for recruiting 350 rangers and 200 environmental experts annually are being taken to compensate for the shortages.

Jamshid Mohabbat Khani, head of the DOE’s protection unit, said earlier this month that there should be 8,500 rangers protecting the country’s natural resources and environment, however, there are 3,200 rangers working in the country.

President Hassan Rouhani presented the administration’s draft of the national budget bill for the next year to the Majlis on December 24, which amounts to 17.03 quadrillion rials (about $405 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials). Supplying basic goods, treatment and medical equipment; securing livelihood; supporting production and employment; promoting tourism; and preserving water resources and environment are the focal points of the bill.

ENVIRONMENTd e s k

12DOE’s next year budget seen to rise by 47%

“deka-, deca-, dec-” Meaning: ten For example: In a large bowl put the 40 dekagrams

of flour.

Catch up Meaning: get to the same point as somebody else For example: You’ll have to run faster than that if

you want to catch up with Marty.

Come hell or high water Explanation: to do something in spite of the

difficulties involved For example: Come hell or high water, I’ve got to be

on time for the interview.

PREFIX/SUFFIX PHRASAL VERB IDIOM

ENGLISH IN USE

$170,000 collected in fundraising for cancer patientsPhilanthropists have donated a total of 7 billion rials (nearly $170,000) to cancer patients in a charity fundraising event held on Friday in Karaj, Alborz province.The event was held by Mehr-e-Soheila charity institute with the theme of “We are so many” to support patients suffering cancer, Mehr news agency reported.

کمک 7 میلیارد ریالی خیرین به بیماران مبتال به سرطان مراســم گلریــزان بــه نفــع بیمــاران مبتــا بــه ســرطان روز جمعــه در کــرج برگــزار ــن بیمــاران ــت از ای ــرای حمای ــال ب ــارد ری ــر هفــت میلی ــغ ب شــد کــه مبلغــی بال

توســط خیریــن اهــدا گردیــد.بــه گــزارش خبرگــزاری مهــر، ایــن مراســم بــا شــعار »مــا بســیاریم« و بــرای ترغیب بــه حمایــت از بیمــاران مبتــا بــه ســرطان، بــه همــت موسســه خیریــه مهر ســهیا،

بــه نفــع بیمــاران مبتــا بــه ســرطان برگــزار شــد.

LEARN NEWS TRANSLATION

Iranian scientist Babak Farzad dies of terminal cancer

TEHRAN — Iranian scientist Babak Farzad passed away on Thursday after months of bat-

tling with cancer. He was 41.Farzad was an Associate Pro-

fessor and Graduate Program Director at Brock University, Canada since the year 2007, IRNA news agency reported.

He came in third and won a bronze medal at the 7th Interna-tional Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), hosted by The Nether-lands in Eindhoven from June 26 to July 3, 1995.

He obtained a bachelor’s degree in computer software engineering in 1999 from Sharif University of Technology and completed a PhD degree in com-puter science at University of Toronto in 2004. He was also a post-doctoral fellow at McGill University from 2005 to 2007.

‘Diesel particulate filter best option to cut PM 2.5’

TEHRAN — Installation of diesel particulate filter on vehicles is one of the best and cost-ef-

ficient measures to reduce small particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5) in metropolises, Masoud Zandi, head of the national center for air quality and climate change, has said.

A diesel particulate filter is a filter that captures and stores exhaust soot (some refer to them as soot traps) in order to reduce emissions from diesel cars.

Renovating public transport has been put off due to budget deficiency and sharp increases of prices and currently retrofitting polluting old buses with diesel particulate filter is a cost-effective measure to quickly slash particulate emissions.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) ambient (outdoor) air pollution in both cities and rural areas was esti-mated to cause 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide per year in 2016; this mortality is due to exposure to PM2.5, which cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers.

Based on a statute passed by the cabinet has made diesel partic-ulate filter mandatory so that all in-use vehicles in 8 metropolises of Iran must be equipped with the filters and new models should already have the filter, YJC quoted Zandi as saying on Saturday.

The diesel particulate filters used to cost some 250 to 300 mil-lion rials (nearly between $6,000 and $7,000) but now the prices have climbed to 800 million rials (nearly $19,000), he regretted.

However, renovating the old and scanty public transport is much costlier, for instance a gas-powered bus costs some 14 billion rials (nearly $333,000) and as some 202 buses should be scraped already the prices will skyrocket, he explained.

Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health. By re-ducing air pollution levels, countries can reduce the burden of disease from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and both chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma.

Tehraners have experienced a fortnight of clean air quality since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21). Furthermore some 224 days of good air quality, and 43 days of slightly polluted air quality for sensitive groups were reported in this period.

L E A R N E N G L I S HSkiing A: Welcome ski lovers of all ages! My name is Rick Fields and here with me is the man that needs no introduction, Bob Copeland.B: Thank you, Rick! What a beautiful day here in Aspen, Colorado where the sun is shining, and we’ve got twelve inches of fresh powder. It doesn’t get much better than this.A: That’s right, Bob, but today we have a special treat for our viewers. We’re joined here by Ian Roussy, the four-time giant slalom champion. And on this special edition of the show, Ian is going to teach us the basics of skiing! So, let’s hit the slopes!C: Well, first off, let’s get those boots on. You’re going to want to make sure your boots fit snugly. That’s right; now snap them into your bindings. And you’re also going to want a good pair of goggles to protect your eyes. It’s a bright day today, so there’s going to be a lot of glare out there on the slopes. We don’t want you hitting any of those moguls!A: Bob, since you’re a beginner skier and might take a few spills, it is a good idea to have a good warm pair of dry ski gloves.C: Easy there, Rick! Well, let’s head on over to the chairlift, and test your skills! All right, we’re up here on the bunny hill, so, Bob, why don’t you do a few snow-plow turns. Gnarly run, Rick! Nice carving! You’ve got some mad skills! That was sick!A: You want to see gnarley? Well, see that bump over there, I’m going to catch some major air.C: Butt plant!B: Ha ha ha! He lost his skis! Yard sale!!!A: Ahem, well. Thanks for joining us here today, I think that about does it. Bob, Ian, time for some apres-ski?C: No way, man! We’re off to grab some freshies!!!

Key vocabularyslalom: a skiing race where you must go through flagschampion: winnerhit the slopes: start skiingsnugly: fitting very tightlysnap: make something attach by pressing downbinding: a bottom part that attaches the boot to a skigoggles: a pair of glasses used to protect one›s eyesglare: bright light that is reflected by the snowslopes: a space on the mountain which is used for skiingmogul: a bump on a ski hilltake a spill: fallski glove: a covering of hands with each finger separated chairlift: a line of chairs through moving cable that carries peoplesnow-plow turn: a slow, easy turn where you make a V with the skiscarving: turn on your skis with your edgesgnarley: awesome, cool (used by ski lovers)bump: small hillcatch some major air: used to describe a skier jumps really highyard sale: falling so hard that you lose all your ski equipmentapres-ski: a party after skiinggrab some freshies: ski on the area that has never been skied before

Supplementary vocabularylodge: the building that has restaurants and stores on the ski hillpow: (powder) soft, light snowavy: (avalanche) lots of snow falling on the mountainliftie: a person who operates the chairliftbowl: a steep hill with high sides, shaped like a bowl

The main purpose of scrappage of numerous old motorcycles is to renovate and replace them with new motorcycles and encourage

the residents to purchase electric motorcycle.

TEHRAN — Some 25,000 polluting carbureted motorcycles will be discarded

by the next two months as per enforcement of clean air law, head of the national working group for air pollution mitigation affiliated to the Department of Environment (DOE) has announced.

“According to the clean air law, no license plate for carbu-reted-engine motorcycle should be issued unless a clunker carbureted motorcycle is scrapped,” ISNA quoted Vahid Hosseini as saying on Saturday.

The clean air law constituting 35 articles has been drawn up by the DOE as an integrated approach to curb air pollu-tion, which was passed by the parliament on July 16, 2017. The law singles out inefficient vehicles, substandard fuels, industrial activities and dust storms as the major sources of air pollution in the country and tasks different organizations with specific actions in line with the objective.

Last week, an important agreement was reached between Tehran Traffic Police, the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order office, and all related bodies to help remove 25,000 clunker polluting motorcycles during the next two months, Hosseini stated.

The main purpose of scrappage of numerous old motorcycles is to renovate and replace them with new motorcycles and encourage the residents to purchase electric motorcycle, he added.

Carbureted motorcycles scrapping process has awaited implementation in recent years due to executive and legal problems, he noted.

He went on to say that motorcycle producers were obliged to scrap a carbureted motorcycle in exchange for the production of a new one.

In addition to discarding these motorcycles, the DOE

is trying to offer the government in order to support the owners of clunker motorcycles to exchange their vehicles with low-emission ones, he highlighted, adding that Tehran Municipality will be also ready to cooperate in this regard.

“We hope that other metropolises of the country being hit by air pollution cooperate to scrap polluting motorcycles and encourage the citizens to use electric motorcycles, which helps the motorcycle industry to grow and opens up many job opportunities,” he concluded.

The national working group for air pollution mitigation, made a proposal to bring production of the pollutant car-bureted-engine motorcycles to a halt some two years ago. The cabinet approved the proposal on June 22, 2016 which went into effect as of September 2016.

According to a report by the World Bank, motorcycles are the second largest contributor to PM in the capital, even before cars which greatly outnumber them. There are less than 1 million motorcycles in Tehran which contribute to about 12 percent of the total mobile PM emissions. On the other hand, with a total fleet of 3.37 million, or 80 percent of all vehicles, cars only account for about 3 percent of the city’s mobile PM pollution.

One of the main reasons behind their high contribution to emissions is that a large part of the fuel consumed in motorcycles burns incompletely. The Tehran motorcycle fleet consists mostly of carburetor-equipped motorcycles which are typically less fuel efficient and emit more emissions compared to newer, fuel injection technology.

25,000 carbureted motorcycles to be scrapped within 2 monthsENVIRONMENTd e s k

WORLD IN FOCUS 13I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

By Farzad FarhadiTEHRAN — Protests have arisen in Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Lebanon and Jor-dan this year. This coincides with the eighth anniversary of the Arab Spring revolutions that began in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, leading to the collapse of the ruling regimes in some Arab countries, in particular Egypt.

Some protests, such as those in Lebanon and Tunisia, have been inspired by the French “yellow vests”, which began on November 17 against the economic policies of French President Emanuel Macron over soaring energy and living costs.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese protests were so intense they led to the overthrow the rul-ing regime. On December 19, protest rallies across the cities of Sudan, including Khar-toum, captured the capital, and ensued so far in the 14 provinces of the country’s 18 provinces. The deterioration of livelihoods has been the main cause. Bread prices were also a concern. The cost of a loaf of bread reached four pounds in Sudan.

In addition, Sudan has long complained about the lack of fuel, and also financial li-quidity. Banks have prevented people from accessing their money to withdraw savings and turn currencies into U.S. dollars, and with the rises in bread prices, the chant “Peo-ple Call for the Overthrow of the Regime” swelled. This demand became famous during the Arab Spring revolutions.

In the protests, according to official fig-ures of the country, eight were killed and 22 others were wounded.

In 2018, Tunisia has witnessed sporadic protests centered on social demands. On De-cember 24 in al-Qasrayn in western Tunisia protesters and security forces clashed. This was followed by the suicide of Abdul Raz-zaq, a media photographer, who set himself

on fire in protest over the disastrous social situation, and in particular unemployment.

The protesters demanded pay increases. Tunisian activists chose red vests, inspired by the “yellow vests” demonstrations in France. Activists have said more peaceful protests will be launched in the coming days against the economic, social and political situation. But disagreements between the president Beji Caid Essibsi and Prime Minister Youssef al-Shahed also caused problems. Al-Shahed said that lack of political support didn’t yield better economic results.

Tunisians continue to demonstrate and attack the security forces with stones, and the police also use tear gas.

The “yellow vest” has also appeared in Morocco, worn by government and private sector workers on December 17. Again the issues were demands for better livelihoods

and wages.This protest movement came at the in-

vitation of the Technician League, which occurred on the anniversary of the Tunisian revolution of December 17, 2010.

Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco, has sacked four ministers because of the inability to execute the program and pardon hundreds of prisoners. The government also conducted talks with labor unions for wages and pensions, labor rights, and employer demands.

In Libya, the protests occurred in the southern cities of the country. The Fezzan Anger movement forced El-Sharara oil field to be closed on December 8. There, protesters demanded more work and fuel for citizens.

Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj agreed with the protesters and promised to meet their needs and the field was reopened. Siraj

announced the allocation of 120 million di-nars in Libya ($ 85.4 million) for immediate use in southern cities.

Lebanese activists also chose the “yellow vest” for protesting the country’s disastrous economic conditions. The first demon-strations were held this past Sunday when hundreds of people rushed onto the streets of al-Shohada and Riyadh-e-Salah in the center of Beirut.

The protesters wanted reduced taxes on fuel prices, the creation of a comprehensive health plan including health cards and the return of bond yields to 7.5 percent.

The protests arose because of the diffi-cult economic conditions facing Lebanon, and over political disagreements that have brought the formation of a government to a standstill.

In 2018, Jordan saw protests against the difficult economic situation and the introduction of new taxes. Beginning last February, protesters demanded that the government be dissolved because of ris-ing taxes and fuel prices and the removal bread subsidies.

The protests led to the resignation of the country’s previous Prime Minister Hani al-Mulki. King Abdullah in June appoint-ed Omar Al Razzaz to form his cabinet. But the failure of the execution of promises an-gered Jordanians. They want the dismissal of Al-Razaz and the current government.

It is undeniable that many Arab countries are facing harsh conditions. Lebanon and Sudan may be the worst off. There is military rule in Sudan, and in Lebanon, the process of forming the government has been fraught with turmoil.

It is noteworthy that the main demands of the protesters in these countries are for better economic conditions.

Independent European army: A dream which will never come true

1 He added: ‘Before Europe starts seriously planning its own army it should adequately fund the military that has protected its borders from aggression for 70 years. Two per cent of GDP should not be beyond the wit of those who have accumulated great wealth through the protection of NATO, primarily under the leadership of the US and UK.’

London’s opposition to the U.S. policies is not new. But this approach has intensified on the eve of the departure of Britain from the European Union. The British officials are seeking to maintain their security relations with the United States and the EU member states under the NATO after leaving the EU. In such a situation, there are various questions about this recent controversy.

Can the disagreements over the formation of the European Army be considered serious? Are the establishment of the Euro-pean Army and the disputes around to be analyzed as a symbol of a gap between in trans-Atlantic relations?

Regarding these questions, we should note that many ana-lysts argue about the lack of the real and necessary will among countries such as Germany and France to achieve their security independence from the United States. This has led the Europe to adopt a passive approach towards Washington. This passivity can be well seen in security and economic affairs, and is also evident in different positions taken by European leaders.

For example, shortly before, when the German Foreign Min-ister spoke of establishing a Special Purpose Vehicle to preserve the nuclear deal with our country, we saw that Merkel, empha-sizing the importance of security relations between Berlin and Washington, refused to confirm this solution. This is true for many European leaders.

This is while many European citizens are calling for the abolition of the North Atlantic Treaty and the creation of an independent European army. NATO has created violence and crisis not only in the international system and the rest of the world, but also has imposed a lot of financial and structural costs on European citizens. Currently, 26 NATO members are European countries.

Obviously, in the near future, the internal conflicts in Europe will be strengthened over NATO. Conflicts that will initially under-mine the foundations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and, at a later stage, would provide the ground for the collapse of this structure.

House GOP quietly ends probe into FBI’s 2016 decisionsHouse Republicans say more investigation is needed into deci-sions made by the FBI and the Justice Department in 2016 as they brought an unceremonious end to their yearlong look at the department’s handling of probes into Democrat Hillary Clinton’s emails and Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.

In a letter released Friday evening, less than a week before Republicans cede the House majority to Democrats, the chair-men of two House committees described what they said was the “seemingly disparate treatment” the two probes received during the presidential election in 2016 and called on the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate further.

House Judiciary Chairman Robert Goodlatte and Rep. Trey Gowdy, House Oversight and Government Reform chairman, both of whom are retiring next week, sent a letter to the Justice Department and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying they reviewed thousands of documents and conducted interviews that “revealed troubling facts which exacerbated our initial ques-tions and concerns.” Republicans have said since the election that they believe Justice officials were biased against President Trump when they started an investigation into his ties to Russia and cleared Clinton in a separate probe into her email use.

The wrapping up of the congressional investigation, done in a letter and without a full final report, was a quiet end to a probe that was conducted mostly behind closed doors but also in pub-lic as Republican lawmakers often criticized interview subjects afterward and suggested they were conspiring against Trump.

The investigation’s most public day was a 10-hour open hearing in July in which former FBI special agent Peter Strzok defended anti-Trump texts he sent to a colleague as he helped lead both investigations. Strzok fought with Republican lawmakers in a riveting spectacle that featured Strzok reading aloud from his sometimes-lewd texts, and Democrats and Republicans openly yelling at each other.

Goodlatte and Gowdy laid out several concerns in the letter, many of them echoing a report issued this year by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog. That report concluded that Strzok’s anti-Trump text messages cast a cloud on the agency’s handling of the probe and also that fired FBI Director James Comey repeatedly broke from protocol, including when he announced his recommendation against charging Clinton. But unlike the congressional investigation, the report also found there was no evidence that Comey’s or the department’s final conclusions were motivated by political bias toward either candidate.

Democrats have blasted the GOP-led congressional probe, saying it was merely meant as a distraction from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee, and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, top Democrat on the oversight panel, are expected to end the investigation when they take power in January. Nadler has called it “nonsense.”

California Rep. Adam Schiff, who does not sit on either panel but is the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, tweeted Friday evening that the Republican investigation is end-ing “not with a bang, but with a Friday, buried-in-the-holidays whimper, and one foot out the door.”

The Republicans have insisted that they were not trying to undermine the Mueller probe.

“Contrary to Democrat and media claims, there has been no effort to discredit the work of the special counsel,” Goodlatte and Gowdy wrote in the letter. “Quite the opposite, whatever product is produced by the special counsel must be trusted by Americans and that requires asking tough but fair ques-tions about investigative techniques both employed and not employed.”

Republicans have repeatedly asked for a special counsel to look into the 2016 questions, but former Attorney General Jeff Sessions never granted their request. The department is now led by Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, a Trump ally who has not weighed in on the issue.

(Source: AP)

ساعت: امضاء سردبیر: ساعت: امضاء ادیتور: ساعت: امضاء مسئول صفحه: ساعت: 19:40 امضاء صفحه آرا:

The Arab Spring, 8 years on; from Bouazizi self-immolation to Bread Revolution

1 Riyadh ulterior motives behind the politi-

cal smokescreensThose observing the changes consider the cabinet shake-up

as an agreement between the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and the king so that he can pretend he is still in power. In fact Saudi Arabia is striving to show the world that the changes are on the way in their country to deal with intense international pressure over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the conflicts in Yemen, and Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy towards its neighboring countries which are causing regional instabilities.

However, the reshuffle haven’t gone any further and the main reason behind the changes was to keep some certain people satisfied. The reshuffle doesn’t appear to lead to any particular changes in the policies of the Saudi regime and people close to the crown prince are still in full power. The cabinet reshuffle is setting the scene for King Salman to maintain authority and his son’s power and marginalize other powerful princes such as Mutaib bin Abdullah son of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and Muhammad bin Nayef former Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

The cabinet shake-up wouldn’t result in changes in Saudi Arabia’s policies towards Yemen, Qatar, and other regional

countries as well as those Saudi activists and critics of Sau-di regime inside the country, rather they would increase Crown Prince’s power more than ever. Some also predict that the tensions would heighten between Saudi Arabi, Qatar, and Turkey.

Some political analysts are still trying to remain positive and regard the recent changes as foreign policies to ease the tensions, especially as al-Assaf is a long serving politician being in office during the reign of three kings including Fahd, Abdullah, and Salman.

Some analysts also believe that Riyadh is making the changes in the wake of international fallout from the killing of Saudi writer Khashoggi.

Saudi authorities also have other purposes, they are trying to pretend to dismiss people close to Mohammad bin Salman such as Al-Jubeir and Turki bin Abdulmohsen, Chairman of the General Sports Authority who caused some problems. However, they took office again and that’s why they seem to pretend to make changes.

Averting possible dangers to MBSNonetheless the political changes are unreal but appointing

Prince Abdullah bin Bandar as chief of the powerful National Guard, which is the monarchy’s preeminent protector and provides internal security for the kingdom is theoretically

to bring down the opponents and King Abdullah’s offspring and their allies. Same goes for Musaed al-Aiban who was appointed as the new national security adviser.

Additionally MBS overseeing a restructure of Saudi in-telligence services are all aiming to increase crown prince’s power and averting any possible dangers to his government or ambitions.

A military diplomatic source says the planned withdrawal of the United States troops from Syria would expose the extent of war crimes committed by the U.S.-led coalition purportedly fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) Takfiri terrorist group in the war-ravaged country.

“The upcoming withdrawal of U.S. military personnel from Syria will most likely shed light on numerous war crimes committed by the international coalition during the so-called fight against [the] Daesh terrorist group.”

“First of all, this concerns, of course, the much hyped liberation of Raqqah in October 2017, which has transformed into a ‘ghost city’ as a result of carpet bombings by coalition aircraft,” Russia’s Sputnik news agency quoted the unnamed source as saying.

The source went on to say that Takfiri militants operating in the al-Tanf region were constantly trying to flee from the area and take refuge either in adjacent regions or even in neighboring Jordan in the wake of the announcement of the U.S. plans to withdraw troops from Syria.

“After the announcement of the imminent withdrawal of U.S. soldiers, the entire ‘hive’ of the militants there … was set in motion. Almost every day, the militants attempt to break through from there not only to the territory con-trolled by Damascus in Syria, but also to Jordan,” the source said.

The source added that the heavy smoke around the Rukban refugee camp in al-Tanf could indicate that the militants were burning the corpses of refugees, who had perished from hunger and diseases due to the shortage of humanitarian aid supplies.

The U.S.-led coalition has been con-ducting airstrikes against what are said to be ISIL targets inside Syria since Septem-ber 2014 without any authorization from

Damascus or a United Nations mandate.The military alliance has repeatedly

been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely inca-pable of achieving its declared goal of destroying the ISIL.

Syria has on numerous occasions condemned airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, asking the UN to force Wash-ington and its allies to put an end to their military intervention in the country.

On November 13, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates con-demned an airstrike earlier that month by the U.S.-led coalition against the eastern town of al-Shaafah, which left more than 60 people dead and injured, arguing that the massacre clearly pointed to the fact that members of the military alliance had no respect for moral values, international rules and regulations besides the lives of innocent civilians.

The ministry, in two separate letters, addressed to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the former rotating president of the UN Security Council Ma Zhaoxu, called on the Security Council to fulfill its responsibilities and stop the U.S.-led aerial assaults.

It also asked the world body to pro-pose an international, independent and impartial mechanism to investigate the crimes being perpetrated by the U.S.-led coalition.

The letters noted that the coalition was deliberately targeting Syrian civilians and making use of internationally banned weapons, including white phosphorus bombs, in Syria.

The ministry stressed that the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes were meant to kill as many Syrian people as possible, prolong the ongoing Syria conflict, destroy the country’s infrastructure and undermine its sovereignty and territorial integrity in flagrant violation of all UN Security Council resolutions on the country.

The letters concluded that the embar-rassing silence of the Security Council had encouraged the coalition to kill more Syrian civilians and destroy their property.

Syrian army positions, not Iranian advisers, target of Israeli airstrike: DEBKAfile

Meantime, an Israeli intelligence web-site has refuted Tel Aviv’s claims that a recent aerial raid in Syria had targeted Iranian military advisers and Hezbollah fighters, saying the attack actually hit Syrian army positions.

The DEBKAfile cited “highly credi-ble” U.S. military sources as saying that Israel had decided to take advantage of the chaos generated by Washington’s decision to withdraw forces from Syria and Turkey’s threat to launch an operation in the Arab country’s north.

Tel Aviv’s purpose of the Syria offen-sive was to disable the Syrian military sites, they added.

On Tuesday night, Israeli F-16 war-planes fired Delilah cruise missiles from Lebanon’s air space into Syria followed by similar air raids near Damascus by F-35 stealth fighter jets.

The second phase of the attack came after the F-16 missiles failed to reach their targets, DEBKAfile reported.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Syrian air defenses had destroyed 14 of 16 Israeli missiles launched against unspecified targets near Damascus by six Israeli F-16s.

Russia’s Defense Ministry also said the airstrike in Syria attributed to Israel “directly endangered” two civilian flights.

Syrian state media reported that Syr-ia’s air defenses had confronted “hostile” missiles launched by Israeli warplanes from over the Lebanese territory and downed most of them before they reached their targets.

The aggression, they added, damaged an ammunition warehouse and injured

three Syrian soldiers.Israel frequently attacks military tar-

gets inside Syria in what is considered as an attempt to prop up Takfiri terrorist groups that have been suffering heavy defeats against Syrian government forces.

U.S. commanders propose Kurdish fighters in Syria keep weapons

The developments follow as the U.S. officials say the Pentagon is considering recommending that Kurdish militants be allowed to keep American-supplied weapons after the withdrawal of troops from Syria.

Speaking on the condition of anonym-ity, three U.S. officials told Reuters that the recommendations were part of dis-cussions at the Pentagon on a draft plan.

The initiative, they added, would be presented to the White House in the com-ing days with the U.S. President Donald Trump making the final decision.

Pentagon defends Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria

However, the U.S. Defense Depart-ment is defending Trump’s decision to withdraw 2,000 American troops from Syria, saying the pull out is “deliberate, well thought-out, mutually supportive, and controlled.”

In a tweet on Friday, the Pentagon also called the withdrawal the “next phase” of Washington’s support to the so-called anti-ISIL coalition, but did not provide further detail about what that support looks like.

The tweet did not specify which parties were “mutually supportive” of the decision to withdraw the U.S. troops.

Trump announced his decision to withdraw the U.S. troops from Syria on Wednesday, asserting that the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group had been defeated.

(Source: agencies)

Exploring cabinet reshuffle in Saudi Arabia: An attempt to avert potential dangers

U.S. troops pullout to shed light on coalition’s war crimes in Syria

DECEMBER 30, 2018

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

W O R L D S P O R T S DECEMBER 30, 201814

Shiffrin collects record 15th victory in calendar year

WADA discussing date for lab visit as deadline nears - Russia

Rafael Nadal: tennis’ next generation is ready to take on Big Three

Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer have dominated men’s tennis for more than a decade. But could this finally be the year the status quo changes?

Starting with Federer’s 2003 Wim-bledon triumph, the Big Three have won 51 of 62 majors. That’s a strike rate of just over 82 percent.

Despite showing much promise, the generation immediately following the Big Three, which includes Kei Nishikori, Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic, have yet to win a grand slam title.

But Nadal, 32, believes the new gen-eration of young players is so strong, it won’t be long before they will start contending for the sport’s biggest prizes.

“For a long time, we have been very consistent,” Nadal, a 17-time major winner, told CNN Sport in an exclusive interview at his academy in Manacor, on the Spanish island of Mallorca.

’Not enough good’Nadal’s breakthrough victory came

at the 2005 French Open, when he was 19 years old. Since then, no teenager has won any of the sport’s four majors in the men’s game.

“The previous generation probably, they were not enough good,” said the second-ranked Nadal, who won a re-cord-extending 11th Roland Garros title in June.

“But now, yes, in my opinion, we have a new generation that is very good. It is just a question of time, that’s my feeling.

“It’s just about time that they are going to win grand slams. [Alexander] Zverev, [Dominic] Thiem, [Stefanos] Tsitsipas, [Denis] Shapovalov, [Karen] Khachanov, [Andrey] Rublev, all these guys are good.

“[Nick] Kyrgios, [Alex] De Minaur. All these guys are good, very good. So they are going to be there and they are going to fight for important things for probably the next five, six years.”

If they are going to be successful, the next generation will have to get past the Big Three, who between them have won all of the last eight majors. Only Stan Wawrinka (twice) and Andy Murray have interrupted their dominance in the last 16 grand slams.

Djokovic, Murray

Nadal said he wasn’t surprised at the successful comeback of Djokovic, who won Wimbledon and the US Open after dropping out of the top 20 following a six-month injury break.

“He is too good to not be back,” said Nadal about the Serb, who is a 14-time major winner and one of only two players to have beaten the Spaniard on the clay of Roland Garros.

“He did well, he held the passion in the tough moments, and he held the spirit of work when he had some tough moments

in the beginning of the season. And then he started, the confidence came back, and Novak is back to his normal level.”

Loses comeback matchNadal began his own comeback Friday

at an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi and it ended in a three-set defeat to South African Kevin Anderson, another player knocking on the door of a grand slam breakthrough.

Nadal, who has not played an official match since September after retiring with a knee injury in the semifinals of the US Open, also underwent ankle surgery last month.

The match started well, with the Spaniard taking the opening set, but the big-serving Anderson took the next two to win 4-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the final where he will play Novak Djokovic, who beat the emerging Khachanov in straight sets in the second semifinal.

Nadal later said he would likely not play in the third place playoff match Saturday although he insisted it was a precaution ahead of the Australian Open which starts next month.

“I want to do things step by step. I spent more time on court than I thought,” he said.

Murray, a three-time major winner, will also be making a comeback in 2019, starting with next week’s ATP event in Brisbane.

“If he is healthy, I am sure he will be back at the highest level,” Nadal said about the Scot, a former world No. 1 who has slumped to No. 256 in the rankings following a lengthy spell away following hip surgery in January 2018.

(Source: CNN)

American Mikaela Shiffrin cruised to vic-tory in the slalom in Semmering, Austria, on Saturday for a record 15th World Cup triumph in a year

It was also the American’s 36th slalom victory, also a record. She finished 0.29sec ahead of the Slovak Petra Vlhova, winner of Friday’s giant slalom, and the Swiss Wendy Holdener.

After a disappointing fifth place the day before, Shiffrin reasserted her domination of the World Cup slopes as she broke the record for World Cup victories she had briefly shared with the Austrian Marcel Hirscher who has won 14 this year. Neither will race again before January 1.

Swedish slalom great Ingemar Stenmark won 13 races in both 1977 and 1979.

Shiffrin also ensured she stands alone in women’s World Cup slalom history. She broke a tie with the legendary Austrian Marlies Schild, who won 35 slaloms be-tween 2004 and 2014.

Shiffrin has won 13 of the last 14 World Cup slaloms, including two parallels, and all five run this season, including one par-allel. At 23, she has already won 51 World

Cup races.Under clear skies in Semmering, she

built a 0.49sec lead over Vlhova in the first leg and, skiing last in the second leg, was able to cruise to victory by 0.29sec.

On Friday, after winning for the first time this season, Vlahova reacted with relief to a rare victory over Shiffrin.

“I’m always second. Second, second and second. Then seeing her behind me I feel pride,” Vlhova said. On Saturday she was second again.

She is also second in the overall World Cup standings. Shiffrin has 1,034 points, Vlhova has 568, although she is comfort-ably ahead of Ragnhild Mowinckel, in third on 396.

In the slalom standings, Shiffrin has a perfect 500 points while Vlhova has 400 for finishing second every time.

Holdener was third, 0.38sec behind Shiffrin for the career 18th podium finish in her specialist event.

The women and men slalom skiers open the New Year with a “City Event” through Oslo on January 1.

(Source: AFP)

Moscow and the World Anti-Doping Agency are discussing a date for WADA experts to visit and receive laboratory data, Russia’s sports minister said on Saturday, as Russia’s anti-doping agency, RUSADA, stands on the verge of suspension.

RUSADA was stripped of its accredita-tion in 2015 after a WADA-commissioned report found evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russian athletics, but conditionally - and controversially - reinstated in September.

If judicial authorities fail to hand over laboratory data by the end of the year, it will again lose its status, raising the pros-pect of Russia being banned from a second consecutive Olympics and remaining shut out of international athletics.

The minister, Pavel Kolobkov, said his ministry had received a letter from WADA president Craig Reedie outlining “the options for organising the process of copying the data from the Moscow an-ti-doping laboratory” and specifying the equipment to be used.

WADA could not immediately be reached for comment.

A WADA team returned from Moscow empty-handed this month after Russian authorities said their equipment was not certified under Russian law.

Kolobkov said that Russia’s Investi-gative Committee, which is holding the data for its own probe, had approved the equipment to be used.

He said WADA and Russia had a “mutual understanding” on the issue, adding: “We are currently discussing a date for the next visit.”

Russia was barred from competing at this year’s Pyeongchang Olympics by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after it was found to have run a state-spon-sored doping cover-up scheme at the 2014 Games in the Russian city of Sochi.

Some Russians with no history of dop-ing were invited to compete as neutrals, however. The world athletics federation, the IAAF, has also cleared some Russians to compete internationally as neutrals.

Moscow has denied any involvement in state-sponsored doping but has acknowl-edged some issues in its enforcement of anti-doping regulations.

(Source: Reuters)

Pep Guardiola’s obsessive attention to detail has brought much success but could also be the reason Manchester City have suffered a slump in form, claims Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg who played under him at Bayern Munich.

Hojbjerg will captain Southampton when they host Guardiola’s side on Sunday with City arriving on the back of three defeats in four matches leaving the champions in third place, seven points off leaders Liverpool ahead of this weekend’s matches.

The 23-year-old Danish international midfielder -- who joined Saints in 2016 for a fee believed to be £12.8million ($16.2million) -- admires Guardiola but thinks sometimes his analyzing of a match is too intense even for the Spaniard.

“He is the most demanding person, not only coach, that I have ever met,” Hojbjerg told The Times.

“We sit on the bus after we have won and he sits on the bus watching the game and then he is in his office with two laptops and a television and he is analyzing.

“Maybe that’s what makes him the greatest.“But also maybe that is what makes him lose, because it

is too much, he drowns.“I don’t judge him but he is the greatest teacher I have had.”

Hojbjerg, who was loaned out twice whilst at Bayern under Guardiola, says if the City players have taken their foot off the pedal they will soon be knocked into shape by the former Barcelona coach.

“He wants many good players to push each other,” said Hojbjerg.

“They will all fight against each other and the best one will play.

“You would not complain, you just do better on the pitch. He keeps players so sharp.”

Hojbjerg, who has battled his way back into the national side after an 18 month hiatus which cost him a place at the World Cup finals, admits he was too young at Bayern to appreciate all of Guardiola’s philosophy.

However, Hojbjerg -- who admits Guardiola transformed him from a man into a boy -- says there are some things that have stayed with him.

“He (Guardiola) always told me about controlling the game with or without the ball,” he said.

“To make the player you play against react to you, not you to him. “He used to say to me, ‘Pierre, the most important thing is, if they are close to you, go out and if they are open, you go in, but you need to read it.’

“He would say: ‘You need to tell me after one minute, how do they play.’”

(Source: AFP)

Guardiola’s intensity has a downside: Hojbjerg

Juventus go into the new year as the overwhelming favourites to claim their eighth straight Serie A crown.

The Bianconeri opened up a 12-point lead over Napoli with a hard-earned 2-1 victory against high-flying Sampdoria.

Juve certainly didn’t have it all there own way in Turin, but a brace from Cristiano Ronaldo either side of Fabio Quagliarella’s penalty sealed the three points.

The €100m summer signing now has 13 goals to his name in the league, just one behind Lionel Messi, who has 14 in La Liga already.

Ronaldo’s goals secured him another personal milestone, be-coming the highest scoring Portuguese player in a single Serie A season, eclipsing Rui Barrios.

However, it was the record set by Juventus as a team that will really catch the eye.

Max Allegri’s side have now amassed 53 points after 19 rounds of fixtures, the first time that has ever been done in the history of Italian football.

They have dropped just four points all season and are yet to lose a domestic game.

If they maintain their form for the entirety of the season, they would finish on 106 points.

Juve currently hold the record for most points recorded in a single Serie A season, amassing 102 in the 2013/14 season under Antoino Conte, where they won 33 out of their 38 games.

The Bianconeri also went unbeaten for an entire season back in 2011/12 under Conte.

Can Allegri beat both those records in the space of one campaign? They could be on course to do so with Ronaldo as their focal point.

Juve’s next two Serie A games see them take on struggling outfits Bologna and Chievo Verona, before a tough away trip to Lazio on January 27.

(Source: Football Italia)

Juve and VAR defeat Sampdoria

Men’s singles players at the Australian Open will be permitted 10-minute breaks if temperatures at next month’s Grand Slam reach hazardous levels.

Organizers have unveiled a “more extensive” Extreme Heat Policy after temperatures in the shade approached 40C during the 2018 tournament.

A 10-minute break was already in place for women’s and junior singles, plus a 15-minute break for wheelchair singles.

The Australian Open gets under way in Melbourne on 14 January.

Tournament director Craig Tiley said the wellbeing of players was the “utmost priority”.

Organizers were forced to defend their heat policy in 2018 after players, including six-time champion Novak Djokovic, criticized their decision not to stop play during extreme temperatures.

Under the new policy, if a reading of 4.0 is recorded on the Australian Open Heat Stress Scale during a men’s singles match, a 10-minute break will be allowed after the third set.

If the reading occurs during a women’s or junior singles match, this break will take place between the second and third sets, as will the 15-minute break in wheelchair singles.

If a reading of 5.0 is recorded, the tournament referee can suspend play.

Other changes to the policy for 2019 include more compre-hensive measuring of weather conditions and an increase in measuring devices across Melbourne Park.

“The AO Heat Stress Scale takes advantage of the latest medical research into the effects of heat on the human body including the maximum heat stress an athlete can safely withstand, the sweat rate of that person and their core temperature,” said Dr Carolyn Broderick, Tennis Australia’s chief medical officer.

“The scale also accounts for the physiological variances be-tween adults, wheelchair and junior athletes while also taking into account the four climate factors - air temperature, radiant heat or the strength of the sun, humidity and wind speed - which affect a player’s ability to disperse heat from their body.”

(Source: BBC)

Chinese athletes who use performance-enhancing drugs will receive criminal punishments and jail terms from next year, as China cracks down on doping ahead of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, state media reported.

China’s sports administration and top judicial authority are drafting rules that would apply criminal law to doping cases, official news agency Xinhua said Friday.

Citing remarks made at a Friday meeting by Gou Zhongwen, director of China’s sports administration, Xinhua said that the new anti-doping punishments will be put into effect “probably in early 2019”.

“It is our will to show the world we are really serious about anti-doping, and are taking concrete measures on fight against doping,” Gou said.

China’s sports administration told AFP it could not confirm Xinhua’s report.

Doping scandals have riddled China’s international sporting record in the past decade, with some athletes stripped of Olympic gold medals.

In January 2017, three Chinese women’s weightlifting gold medallists at the 2008 Beijing Olympics were disqualified and stripped of their medals for doping following a reanalysis of their drug tests.

Later that year, a Chinese doctor claimed that there had been a systematic doping programme in China during the 1980s and 1990s across a range of sports, in an interview with German media.

All medals won by Chinese athletes at major international tournaments in the last two decades of the 20th century are tainted by doping, alleged the whistleblower, Xue Yinxian.

This year, China banned several of its own athletes who were found to have used performance-enhancing drugs, as Beijing works to clean up its international sporting reputation.

(Source: AFP)

Australian Open players to get 10-minute break in extreme heat

China to punish athletic doping as criminal offence

S P O R T S 15I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

TEHRAN — Persepolis football club have con-

firmed the signing of KV Kortrijk defender Mohammad Naderi but the Reds have not agreed with Reza Ghoochannejhad “Gucci” over financial issues.

The 22-year-old defender has joined the Iranian giants on a six-month loan deal.

Naderi joined the Belgian First Division A side in July from Tractor Sazi of Iran.

He has also played in Nassaji Mazandaran.Furthermore, Persepolis did not reach

an agreement with Iranian striker of APOEL Ghoochannejhad.

The ex-Iran forward had been linked with a move to Persepolis in recent days but two parties have not reportedly reached an agreement on financial issues.

Persepolis, who are looking forward to win Iran Professional League for the third successive season, are going to strength-en their 2019 AFC Champions League hopes after they become runners-up in the last season.

Persepolis sign Mohammad Naderi, give up on signing Gucci

TEHRAN — Sarasadat Khademalsharieh from

Iran claimed a silver at the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2018 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The competitions are being held in Manege, the largest exhibition space in central Saint Petersburg from Dec. 25 to Dec. 31.

Chinese chess player Ju Wenjun, who had defended her Women’s World Champi-on’s title a month ago in Khanty-Mansiysk, managed to defend her champion’s title in

rapid chess as well. With 10 points in 12 games, she finished solely on top.

Wenjun has already won three world championships in 2018 (two classical) and might get yet another crown on Sunday, when the blitz event will come to an end.

Khademalsharieh and Russian Al-eksandra Goryachkina tied for second place a full point behind the winner. Khademalsharieh’s superior tie-break secured her second place, Goryachkina got the bronze.

Iran’s Khademalsharieh wins silver at World Rapid Championship

DECEMBER 30, 2018

There are just seven days until the big kick-off of the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019, with teams and fans beginning to descend on the United Arab Emirates.

As ever, the group stage will throw up a number of in-triguing clashes between the nations, so, next in the ‘10 of the Best’ series, the-AFC.com has picked out 10 standout fixtures to keep an eye out for.

United Arab Emirates v BahrainThe opening game of a tournament always generates wide-

spread excitement and it is regional rivals the UAE and Bahrain who face off in the curtain raiser in Group A on January 5.

When the UAE finished third in Australia four years ago, they claimed a narrow 2-1 win over Bahrain in the group stage, with Ali Mabkhout scoring the AFC Asian Cup’s fastest ever goal after just 14 seconds. The Bahrainis may view this as a chance for revenge.

United Arab Emirates v BahrainVenue: Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu DhabiKick-off: January 5, 20:00 UTC+4

Korea Republic v PhilippinesContinental heavyweights and competition debutants

collide when Group C gets underway, with two-time winners Korea Republic providing one of the toughest possible starts for the Philippines, who will look for support from a sizable expatriate community in the Emirates.

After narrowly missing out on qualification for Australia 2015, the Azkals finally booked their place this time round, while the Taeguk Warriors are looking for their first title since 1960 after again finishing as runners-up four years ago.

Korea Republic v PhilippinesVenue: Al Maktoum Stadium, DubaiKick-off: January 7, 17:30 UTC+4

Vietnam v IraqTwo teams who will have aspirations of advancing deep

into the tournament go head-to-head in their opening Group D match as 2007 champions Iraq take on recently crowned AFF (ASEAN Football Federation) Cup winners Vietnam.

The Southeast Asians have not appeared in the tour-nament since Iraq’s victorious 2007 campaign, when the Lions of Mesopotamia defeated the Golden Stars 2-0 in the quarter-finals after a brace from Younis Mahmoud.

Vietnam v IraqVenue: Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu DhabiKick-off: January 8, 17:30 UTC+4

Japan v TurkmenistanThe AFC Asian Cup’s most successful team, four-time

winners Japan, will again be among the favorites in 2019, and they kick Group F off against Central Asians Turkmenistan.

The Samurai Blue were last crowned champions in 2011, while they also claimed glory in 2004, the first and only time the Turkmens have appeared at the continental competition.

Japan v TurkmenistanVenue: Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu DhabiKick-off: January 9, 15:00 UTC+4

United Arab Emirates v IndiaAnother team with a large expat population in the UAE

is India, who will hope to have some support among the tens of thousands of Emiratis when they take on the hosts in Abu Dhabi on Matchday Two.

India are returning to the competition for the first time since 2011, and the Blue Tigers will hope to improve on a showing that saw them lose three from three as they aim to pick up their first AFC Asian Cup points since 1984.

United Arab Emirates v IndiaVenue: Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu DhabiKick-off: January 10, 20:00 UTC+4

Uzbekistan v TurkmenistanThe two nations took part in the first ever Central Asian

derby in the continental competition when Alexander Ge-nyrikh scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 victory for the Uzbeks in the 2004 group stage.

Fifteen years on and the rivals clash once more, with bragging rights at stake. For the first time ever, there are four sides from Central Asia at the tournament as the region’s teams continue to progress.

Uzbekistan v TurkmenistanVenue: Rashid Stadium, DubaiKick-off: January 13, 20:00 UTC+4

Australia v SyriaThe defending champions’ encounter with Syria in their

final Group B game marks a rematch of the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 qualifying playoff in October 2017 which

Australia edged 3-2 on aggregate after extra-time.That match was full of drama and with Syria boasting

an exciting frontline of 2017 AFC Player of the Year Omar Khribin and Omar Al Soma, as well as seeking revenge, this has the potential to also be a classic.

Australia v SyriaVenue: Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al AinKick-off: January 15, 17:30 UTC+4

Korea Republic v China PREast Asian heavyweights will bring Group C to a close in

the Emirati capital when Korea Republic take on China in what is the first time the sides have met in the competition since a 2-2 draw in the 2000 group stage in Lebanon.

More recently, the teams claimed a win apiece in the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, with Korea Republic defeating China 3-2 in Seoul in September 2016 and the Chi-nese running out 1-0 winners in Changsha in March 2017.

Korea Republic v China PRVenue: Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu DhabiKick-off: January 16, 17:30 UTC+4

Islamic Republic of Iran v IraqArguably the most eagerly awaited tie of the group

stage sees Iran and Iraq square off in a repeat of the 2015 quarter-finals – a scintillating 3-3 draw before the Iraqis eventually won 7-6 on penalties.

The Iranians may boast the better record at the tourna-ment, but they have not tasted glory since 1976. The 2007 champions have the better recent history and will be des-perate to defeat their neighbors once again.

Islamic Republic of Iran v IraqVenue: Al Maktoum Stadium, DubaiKick-off: January 16, 20:00 UTC+4

Saudi Arabia v QatarIt’s been some time since the Green Falcons and the

Maroons have come up against each other in the AFC Asian Cup, with a goalless draw in Lebanon in the 2000 group stage their previous meeting.

On that occasion, the pair advanced to the quarter-finals and they will hope to have done likewise before bringing Group E to a close on January 17.

Saudi Arabia v QatarVenue: Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu DhabiKick-off: January 17, 20:00 UTC+4Which of the 10 encounters do you think will be the most

exciting at the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 group stage? Cast your vote in the poll below. (Source: the-afc)

10 of the Best: Group stage match-ups

S P O R T Sd e s k

S P O R T Sd e s k

Iran tallest team in AFC Asian Cup With an average height of 184cm, Iran national football team is the tallest team in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

The tallest team at the tournament are willing to go all the way based on their strength and sheer passion for winning.

South Korea and China are second and third with 183cm and 182cm respectively.

Team Melli’s opponents Vietnam and Yemen are the shortest teams with an average of 175cm.

Iran have been pitted against Iraq, Vietnam and Yemen in Group D.

The 2019 AFC Asian Cup will be held in the United Arab Emirates from January 5 to February 1.

(Source: Fox Sports Asia)

Milad Mohammadi’s throw-in among 2018 notable events

Iran defender Milad Mohammadi’s throw-in against Spain in the FIFA World Cup is among the notable events in the 2018.

With seconds to go and Iran pressing for an equalizer against Spain in an actual World Cup game, Mohammadi chose the perfect moment to break out his innovative forward-roll non-throw-in.

He kissed the ball for luck before trying a dramatic somersault throw in as his team searched for a goal to draw level with Spain and keep their tournament hopes alive.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s stunning, high-velocity scorpion kick, which was nominated for the FIFA’s Puskas Award, was chosen as the most notable event.

(Source: Four Four Two)

Montazeri Iran’s oldest player in AFC Asian Cup

Team Melli defender Pejman Montazeri is Iran’s oldest player at 35 in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

Only 18 years and 6 months, Iraq striker Mohanad Ali is the youngest player in the tournament.

The oldest squad in the tournament is China with an average age of 28.74 years. Most of their players are in their late 20s with Zheng Zhi being the oldest player at the tournament at 38.

Iran sit 16th out of 24 teams with an average age of 27.04 years. The youngest team in the AFC Asian Cup 2019 are Vietnam,

whose average age is just 23.13. The 2019 AFC Asian Cup will be held in the United Arab

Emirates from January 5 to February 1.(Source: Fox Sports Asia)

Azkals set up camp in Doha for AFC Asian Cup

The Philippine Azkals have arrived in Doha, Qatar to kick off the final stretch of their preparations for their historic debut in the AFC Asian Cup to be held in the United Arab Emirates starting January 7.

The Azkals face AFF Suzuki Cup tormentors Vietnam in a friendly on New Year’s Eve as part of their preparations. The 23-man squad that will represent the country in its first-ever AFC Asian Cup appearance was revealed on December 27.

The team is not wanting in strikers with old hands Phil Young-husband and Patrick Reichelt joined by youngsters Jovin Bedic, Iain Ramsay and Curt Dizon. The biggest news for the offense, though, was the inclusion of talented Javier Patiño, who was in the Azkals’ Suzuki Cup lineup but was unable to see action due to an injury.

For the midfield, the coaching staff can choose among Stephan Schrock, the Ott brothers, James Younghusband, Kevin Ingreso, John-Patrick Strauss and newcomer Miguel Tanton.

The defense will have veterans Carli De Murga, Paul Mulders, Daisuke Sato, and Alvaro Silva teaming up with Luke Woodland, who is back after missing most of the Suzuki Cup with a leg injury, Stephan Palla and Adam Tull.

Manning the sticks will be Michael Falkesgaard, Kevin Ray Hansen and Ace Villanueva. Top keeper Neil Etheridge was left off after he could only commit to the January 7 match against Korea due to his duties with Cardiff in the English Premier League. Patrick Deyto, who saw action in the Suzuki Cup, was also stricken off the roster.

After Korea, the Azkals face China on January 11 and Kyr-gyzstan on January 16. All their group stage matches will be held in Dubai. The top two teams in each of the six groups plus the four best-placed third teams will advance to the knockout stages.

(Source: ESPN)

Qatar seeks solid World Cup rehearsal in UAE

An in-form Qatar will be hoping to use the 10th Asian Cup in nearby United Arab Emirates as a platform for a successful maiden World Cup campaign as the hosts of soccer’s biggest event in 2022.

The Jan. 5-Feb. 1 tournament will be Qatar’s last major com-petition ahead of the next World Cup and the tiny, wealthy Arab state will look to improve on their Asian Cup quarter-final ap-pearances of 2000 and 2011.

Comprised largely of players from 2018 AFC Champions League semi-finalists — Al Sadd and Al Duhail — the Maroons have been pooled alongside Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in Group E, with only North Korea below them in the FIFA rankings.

However, Felix Sanchez’s men will be confident of advancing deep into the tournament, having been boosted by two impressive displays in international friendlies last month.

Qatar pulled off one of the most impressive results in their history when they won 1-0 in Switzerland and five days later, they fought back to earn a 2-2 draw against 2016 UEFA Euro quarter-finalists Iceland.

“The Asian Cup is a very important tournament, and we want to give it our best,” Qatar goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb told sports weekly Doha Stadium Plus.

“Our preparations have been very good. We played two high-in-tensity matches in Europe and did well and hopefully, we can continue in the same way at the Asian Cup.”

(Source: Reuters)

TEHRAN — Iran national football team head coach Carlos Queiroz says his future depends on what Team Melli will do at

the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.Iran have been drawn in Group D of the competition along with Yemen, Vietnam

and Iraq. Team Melli will start the campaign with a match against Yemen on Jan. 7. Queiroz will look to end the country’s 43-year Asian Cup title drought at the

prestigious event. Iran last lifted Asian football’s most coveted trophy on home soil in 1976, when

they completed the third leg of three consecutive championship wins that mark the country out as one of continent’s most successful ever.

After Iran narrowly missed out on advancing from the group stage for a first time, Queiroz’s demands for a new four-year contract were ignored by Iranian football authorities and doubts will remain over his future until the Asian Cup finishes.

Asked him about his future in Team Melli, the Portuguese said, “At the moment, I just concentrate on the AFC Asian Cup. We are going to win the title and make the Iranian people happy. My current contract runs until the AFC Asian Cup and the future is in God’s hands.”

“The football coaches cannot decide their future because their future depend on the results they earn. At the moment, we concentrate on booking a place at the Asian Cup semis,” Queiroz stated.

“AFC Asian Cup is a difficult tournament and I think Australia, Japan and South Korea will most likely to qualify for the semis and the remaining teams must fight to advance to final four as the fourth team,” he concluded.

Queiroz, whose team take on Iraq, Vietnam and Yemen in the group phase, will be looking to create history for Iran once more and nothing short of victory in the final in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 1 will be deemed a success.

S P O R T Sd e s k

Carlos Queiroz unclear over his future in Iran

TEHRAN – Nine directorial debut movies

will premiere in the New Look section of the 37th edition of the Fajr Film Festival, the organizers announced on Saturday.

The lineup for the New Look section includes “Polo Coat”, a comedy by Mehdi Alimirzai that is about a philosophy student who has inherited a coat from his father. Evil thoughts pop into his head when he puts on the coat.

Cinematographer Turaj Aslani’s directorial debut “Gold Carrier” will also have its Iranian premiere at the event. The film has previously been screened in several international events.

It is about Reza, a gold runner who delivers gold pieces after work to retailers. Delivering the gold as usual one day, a group of gangs hit him and steal the gold pieces. The owner of the retail business demands paying back, but Reza has no way to pay him back. Hearing from his friend Louie that there is an expensive jewel somewhere on the floor of a traditional toilet in the workshop, Reza uses the money from the aid group to bid on the workshop at an auction.

Arash Lahuti’s acclaimed drama “Orange Days” will also screen in this section. The film is about Aban, the only female contractor in the cutthroat and male-dominated orange harvesting industry, who enters a competition to win a large contract.

Stage director Homayun Ghanizadeh will also compete with his screen debut “The

Clown” while actor Pulad Kimiai will join the festival with his directorial debut “Reverse”.

The lineup also includes “Yalda”, which is the second feature movie by Masud Bakhshi. He made his debut in 2012 with

“A Respectable Family”.“Tsunami” by Milad Sadr-Ameli, “Snake

Venom” by Javad Razavian, “Watching This Film Is a Crime” by Reza Zehtabchi and “Creature” co-directed by Hossein Amiri

and Pedram Puramiri are other entries to the New Look category.

The 37th Fajr Film Festival will take place in Tehran and several other Iranian cities from February 1 to 11.

No. 18, Bimeh Alley, Nejatollahi St., Tehran, IranP.o. Box: 14155-4843

Zip Code: 1599814713

Prayer Times Noon:12:07 Evening: 17:20 Dawn: 5:44 (tomorrow) Sunrise: 7:14 (tomorrow) DECEMBER 30, 2018

Managing Director: Ali Asgari Editor-in-Chief: Mohammad Ghaderi

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Kevin Spacey asks to skip Massachusetts court appearance

Mariah Carey’s Christmas classic sets new record on SpotifyNEW YORK (AP) — Mariah Carey’s 24-year-old Christmas classic is so popular it set a new one-day streaming record on Spotify on Christmas Eve.

Chart Data reported that “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” released in 1994, was played 10.8 million times on Spotify on Monday. The song bested the record set by rapper-singer XXXTentacion, who logged 10.4 million streams with “SAD!” a day after his death in June.

Spotify wouldn’t comment on the news when reached by The Associated Press. Carey called the new feat “such an amazing Christmas gift” in an Instagram post on Tuesday.

Every holiday season “All I Want for Christmas Is You” begins to climb the Billboard charts as its popularity resurfaces. This year the song reached its highest peak — No. 6 — on the Billboard Hot 100 chart; it’s currently No. 7 on the chart.

The success has helped Carey’s first

Christmas album, 1994?s “Merry Christmas,” spend its fourth week at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B albums chart.

LONDON (Reuters) — Music retailer HMV said on Friday it was calling in the administrators, blaming a worsening market for entertainment CDs and DVDs, to become the latest victim of brutal trading conditions in Britain’s retail sector.

The accounting firm KPMG has been named as the administrator and intends to keep the business running while it seeks a potential buyer, HMV said in a statement.

Will Wright, Neil Gostelow and David Pike from KPMG’s Restructuring practice have been confirmed as joint administrators to HMV Retail Limited and HMV Ecommerce Limited, KPMG said in a statement late Friday.

The retailer, one of Britain’s best-known high street stores, went into administration in 2013 before its rescue by restructuring specialist Hilco, but it has since been hit by competition from online rivals and music streaming services.

Sky News earlier reported that about 2,200 jobs were at risk if HMV went into administration, adding that the company had been in talks with leading names in the recorded music industry for funding, but that those discussions came to nothing.

HMV was opened on London’s Oxford Street by English composer Edward Elgar in 1921 and made famous by the image of the “dog and trumpet”.

“During the key Christmas trading period, the market for DVDs fell by over 30 percent compared to the previous

year, and whilst HMV performed considerably better than that, such a deterioration in a key sector of the market is unsustainable,” said Paul McGowan, Executive Chairman of HMV and its owner Hilco Capital, which paid around 50 million pounds ($63.47 million) for the group in 2013.

“The company has suffered from the ongoing wave of digital disruption sweeping across the entertainment

industry”, said Wright, a joint administrator and partner at KPMG.

“Over the coming weeks, we will endeavour to continue to operate all stores as a going concern while we assess options for the business, including a possible sale”, he added.

Britain’s retailers had been hoping Christmas would revive spending after a year for much of the sector that has seen a string of store groups go out of business or close shops.

Weakening consumer spending, uncertainty over Britain’s exit from the European Union, rising labour costs and higher business property taxes, has spread gloom across the retail industry.

In the years running up to its first rescue in 2013, HMV struggled to hold its own against supermarkets and online services in sales of CDs, DVDs and video games.

More recently, traditional players in the music industry have been hit by the growing popularity of online streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Inc’s Apple Music, which this year became the recording industry’s single biggest revenue source.

HMV - which had a hand in The Beatles’ big break in the 1960s, recommending the group’s demo record to publishers - had around 230 stores and over 4,000 staff before it went into administration in 2013. It currently has 125 stores around Britain and employs 2,025 people.

TEHRAN – Iranian director Amir-Reza

Kuhestani’s Mehr Theater Group will perform their acclaimed plays “Timeloss” and “Summerless” in Chile, France and Switzerland.

The troupe will start with performing “Timeloss” at the Santiago a Mil International Theater Festival in Chile in three performances arranged for January 3 to 5, the group has announced.

Starring Hassan Majuni and Mahin Sadri, “Timeloss” tells the story of two former lovers sitting in a room bickering over an argument they have had so many times and began so many years ago that they know it by heart.

The troupe will next move to Mulhouse in France to stage “Summerless” at the Les Vagamondes Festival on January 11 and 12.

The play will be performed by a cast composed of Mona Ahmadi, Saeid Changizian and Leili Rashidi.

“Summerless” is about the relationships between members of the new generation, eager to discover the world and live in a different society, an essential show to understand the current transformations of Iranian society.

The group will leave France for Switzerland to perform the same play at the Kaserne Basel on January 16 and 17.

The Théâtre Populaire Romand, a theater center in the Swiss city of La Chaux-de-Fonds will also host the troupe on January 19 and 20.

The Mehr Theater Group has frequently performed the plays in Italy, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the U.S. and several other countries over the past few years.

BOSTON (AP) — Lawyers for Kevin Spacey are asking a judge to allow the actor to skip his arraignment on sexu-al assault charges in a Massachusetts courthouse next month.

The Boston Globe reports that Spacey’s attorneys have filed a motion asking to excuse his presence at a Jan. 7 hearing in Nantucket District Court. The reason wasn’t disclosed.

Prosecutors asked the judge to deny the motion. The judge did not immedi-ately rule.

Cape and Islands Assistant District Attorney Michael Giardino wrote that Spacey’s appearance is required under state rules for criminal case procedure.

The 59-year-old Oscar winner is charged with felony indecent assault and battery.

Prosecutors say he groped an 18-year-old man in a Nantucket restaurant in 2016.

Spacey’s attorneys have not spoken publicly about the case but in a court hearing questioned the evidence.

In this Oct. 9, 2018 file photo, Mariah Carey poses in the press room at the American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

In this May 24, 2017 file photo, Kevin Spacey participates in the speaker series in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Nine debut films get Fajr festival premiere

GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

Happy is he who thinks himself humble, and his work and profit are to his heart’s desire; his intention is good and his heart chaste; his conduct admirable, and he feels lighter by giving the remainder of his wealth to the needy; holds his tongue and checks loquacity; abstains from troubling others and follows peace and good will; adopts the Prophet’s way in his life and gains happiness; and joins the good by avoiding innovations.

Imam Ali (AS)

“Gold Carrier” directed by Turaj Aslani.

Taxim Trio to perform at Milad Tower

TEHRAN – Turkish band Taxim Trio is sched-uled to perform a concert at Tehran’s Milad

Tower on January 8, 2019.The trio features Husnu Senlendirici on clarinet, Aytac Dogan

on qanun and Ismail Tuncbilek on baglama.

They will perform a combination of different styles such as classical, traditional, arabesque and jazz music.

The performance is organized by Rangin Kamane Honare Javan, a cultural institute in Tehran.

A poster for a concert that will be performed by Taxim Trio at Tehran’s Milad Tower on January 8, 2019.

Fajr Intl. Theater Festival announces national lineup

TEHRAN – Fourteen plays have been selected to go on stage in the national competition of the

37th Fajr International Theater Festival, the organizers announced on Saturday.

“Australia” by Peyman Karimi, “Return” by Ehsan Malekirad, “Living in Theater” by Mohammad Berahmani and “Centimeter” by Morteza Shahkaram are among the plays.

The lineup also includes “On the Dinner Table” by Mohammad-Javad Serami, “The Little Prince” by Mostafa Qorbanpur, “The Swan Lake” by Reza Saberi, “The Gods” by Rahmat Amini and “The Trap” by Esmaeil Movahedi.

The 37th Fajr International Theater Festival will be held in Tehran from February 11 to 23.

Britain’s HMV faces the music as retailer calls in administrators

Theaters in Chile, France, Switzerland set for “Timeloss”, “Summerless”

A scene from “The Trap” by Esmaeil Movahedi. (Tasnim/Alireza Vasiq-Ansari)

Vocalist Shahram Nazeri released from hospital

TEHRAN – Veteran vocalist Shahram Nazeri was released from the hospital on

Saturday after a quick recovery from severe respiratory infections.

Quoting his brother, Sadi, the Persian service of ILNA said that he has recovered from the illness.

Nazeri cancelled his concerts in the central Iranian city of Isfahan last week due to the illness and was admitted to Tehran’s Day Hospital last Thursday.

A scene from “Summerless”

Vocalist Shahram Nazeri in an undated photo.

Pedestrians walk past an HMV shop in central London, Britain December 28, 2018. (Reuters/Peter Nicholls)