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By Mohammad Homaeefar

Head of the Sport DeskBy Masoud Hossein

Persepolis advance to 2020 ACL final

Persepolis into 2020 ACL final despite AFC’s harsh decision ahead of Al Nassr match

W W W . T E H R A N T I M E S . C O M I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Israel pours gasoline on the fire in Nagorno-Karabakh

U.S. protests: Activists call for anti-government protests nationwide Activists have called for protests to demand the resig-nation of U.S. President.

According to Garda world, activists affiliated with multiple organizations, such as Refuse Fascism, have called for protests in the following cities and start times (local time):

Boston (Massachusetts): Park Street Station, from 14:00

Chicago (Illinois): Federal Plaza, from 14:00Honolulu (Hawaii): Lalakaua Avenue and Kapa-

hulu Avenue, from 10:00Houston (Texas): Westheimer Road and Montrose

Boulevard, from 16:00Los Angeles (California): Hollywood and Highland

Shopping Center, from 14:00New York City (New York): Union Square, from 14:00Philadelphia (Pennsylvania): Independence Mall,

from 18:00San Diego (California): Ballboa Park, from 14:00San Francisco (California): Civic Center

Plaza, from 14:00Seattle (Washington): East Green Lake North and

Northeast 71 Street, from 16:00Washington, DC: U.S. Supreme Court, from 15:00Further spontaneous protests may also take place

in other major cities. A heightened security forces presence and localized travel disruptions should be anticipated in the vicinity of protests.

Meanwhile, corporate America, city governments and federal and local law enforcement across the country are making plans to deal with political insta-bility, civil unrest and violence around the upcoming presidential election.

Concerns range from isolated violent incidents to a long stretch of mass protests, violent confrontations between extremists and widespread property damage, if the outcome of the election remains unclear or is hotly contested for weeks or months, according to security consultants, analysts of extremism, police officials and local elected leaders who spoke with CNN.

TEHRAN – As the war rages on for the eighth straight day between Azerbaijan and Armenia, more attention has been paid to Israel’s role in the conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, with some news media reports suggesting that Israel is militarily siding with Azerbaijan.

The war began on September 27 when Azer-baijani and Armenian forces exchanged fire along the lines of contact on their borders. The two sides used heavy weapons such as rockets and mortar shells thereafter, in the biggest escalation in the decades-long conflict over the volatile Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is interna-tionally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by the local Armenian forces who are backed by Armenia.

The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh dates back to the Soviet era when Azerbaijan and Armenia both were parts of the Soviet Union. However, after the dissolution of the Soviet

Union in 1991, Azerbaijan and Armenia, the two newly-established states, both sought to extend their sovereignty over Nagorno-Kara-bakh. Since the early years of the 1990s, they have fought deadly wars which ended in Azer-baijan losing large swaths of its territories. The conflict has never been settled. There were clashes from time to time but all failed to change the situation.

The ongoing clashes were the latest in a series of clashes that have continued over the past years without leading to major change on the ground. Now, it seems that Azerbaijan, backed by some regional players, seeks to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict once and for all.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that the war will end only when Armenia leaves Azerbaijani territory, which means returning the Nagorno-Karabakh region to Azerbaijan. 3

AFC disturbs football by banning Persepolis forward

The Asian Football Confeder-ation (AFC) Disciplinary and Ethics Committee’s decision

on Saturday to ban Persepolis for-ward Issa Alekasir just hours be-fore he was due to lead his club against Al Nassr was incredibly disturbing.

Alekasir made a slant-eyed gesture to television cameras after scoring against Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor in the AFC Champions League (West) quarter on Wednesday, while he has already made the celebration in Doha.

The Iranian giants were shocked by the decision since it seems to be a non-sport decision. Alekasir always dedicate his goals to his nephew Mikaeil since months ago in Iran Professional League and it was a weird decision to ban the player from taking part in any kind of football-related activity for six months.

The Iranian fans have been also a source of strength for the Asia and they have pushed football forward in the con-tinent, however these kinds of non-sport decisions will surely disappoint them.

Article 58.1 states that anyone who offends the dignity of a person or group of persons through contemptuous, discrim-inatory or denigratory words or actions concerning race, skin color, gender, disa-bility, language, age, physical appearance, religion, political opinion, wealth, birth or any other status, sexual orientation, or ethnic, national, or social origin has committed an offence.

But there is no evidence that Alekasir has offended anyone since there is so many archival photos and footage which shows him celebrating his goals with the gesture.

It might seem a racially pose but it depends to where a person does it. The Spanish men’s basketball team made the pose in 2008 ahead of the Olympic Games but nothing happened.

“It was something like supposed to be funny or something but never offensive in any way. I’m sorry if anybody thought or took it the wrong way and thought that it was offensive,” said Spain center Pau Gasol.

That’s it. And this leads us to question what went

wrong with the Asian Football Confedera-tion’s Disciplinary and Ethics Committee.

It will definitely harm football because the sport needs fans.

Rural development projects worth $3b to be inaugurated TEHRAN – Rural development projects worth 130 trillion rials (nearly $3 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials) will be inaugurated on the occasion of the National Day of Villagers and Nomads, which is marked on October 5.

Currently, 26 percent of the country’s population lives in villages, Mohammad Omid, the vice president for rural development, said, adding that around 39,000 villages have more than 20 households and 23,000 villages have less than 20 households.

Thus, more than 97 percent of the country’s ru-ral population lives in villages with over 20,000 households, he added.

He went on to state that 6,750 construction pro-jects will come on stream on this day in various fields such as roads, communications, etc. In addition, a total of 26,512 projects will be launched throughout the country.

Moreover, some 71,000 newly-built residential units will be inaugurated, he noted.

At present, 99.5 percent of the rural population is connected to the national electricity network, and in terms of fresh drinking water, 90 percent of the villages are connected to the piping network, he explained.

In the field of rural health houses, today 96 per-cent of villages benefit from these services, he said.

The country’s PHC system is formed of several sections working in harmony to offer primary care to different groups of people in rural and urban areas; in rural areas, Health Houses are established in villages with over 300 residents, providing primary care in each health house; including, preventive care, health promotion, screening, and basic medical services for the predefined conditions. 7

TEHRAN – Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, a professor in global thought and comparative philosophies, believes that the U.S. foreign policy toward Iran is “institutionally hegemonic”, and that a Biden administration would in some way continue the confrontational approach.

“I have theorized that the U.S. foreign pol-icy towards Iran as institutionally hegemonic. There are nuances of course, and there was a real difference between Obama and George W.

Bush,” he told the Tehran Times in an interview conducted on Tuesday.

“But Biden is no Obama,” he opined. “While he will accentuate the language of diplomacy, the policies of his administration will continue to be recurrently confrontational. I have studied this dynamic in depth in my forthcoming book What is Iran: Domestic Politics and Internation-al Relations in Five Musical Pieces (Cambridge University Press, 2020).”

Asked how a Biden administration would af-

fect Iran, Adib-Moghaddam said Iran needs to focus on its own presidential elections which will determine the context of Iranian-U.S. relations by far more decisively than the deliberations of the White House.

“If Iranians could come together in an election that fosters unity, and that brings to the fore a candidate with diplomatic diligence and empa-thy for the plight of ordinary Iranians, then the likelihood of any major national security threat is already minimized,” he said. 2

U.S. foreign policy toward Iran is ‘institutionally hegemonic’, says professor

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Persepolis forward Alekasir banned for six months

Foreign Ministry says regards General Soleimani case ‘a top agenda’

Bahrainis protest normalization deal with Israel despite clampdown 5

Ruholamin, painter of Islamic stories, to hang works at Tehran gallery 8

767 idle industrial units revived since late March

Foreign Ministry warns Azerbaijan, Armenia against violating Iranian soil

TEHRAN — The deputy head of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO) announced that 767 idle industrial units have been re-vived throughout the country since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20).

Asghar Mosaheb said that reviving the mentioned units has created jobs for 13,577

persons, IRIB reported.There are 46,000 small and medi-

um-sized industries in the country’s in-dustrial parks for the moment, of which 9,800 units are inactive, the official said and announced that reviving 1,500 idle industrial units has been targeted for the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021). 4

TEHRAN – In a statement on Satur-day, the Iranian Foreign Ministry warned about any encroachment on the Iranian soil by Azerbaijan and Armenia, saying any violation against Iranian territories would be “intolerable.”

The warning came after many rockets and mortar shells landed on Iranian terri-tories on the borders with Azerbaijan and Armenia, which are locked in fighting over

the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. “Movements in the border areas of our

country are being seriously and sensitive-ly monitored by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in this regard, while declaring any attack by any of the warring parties in the region on our country is intoler-able, we seriously warn all parties to seriously take care in this regard,” the ministry said. 3

Book of Leader’s speech for Quds Day 2020 published in Iraq

TEHRAN — The speech the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made for International Quds Day 2020 has been published in a book by the Iranian Culture Center in Iraq.

International Quds Day, which falls on the last Friday of the holy month of Ram-adan every year, was initiated in 1979 by the founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, to express solidarity with Pal-estinians who have been under the Zionist

regime’s occupation for seven decades.In his speech, the Leader considered

the dawn of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the subsequent emergence of the Resistance Front to be factors that have impeded the “Zionist virus.”

He said the fact that the Zionist regime, the worst human evil, will be uprooted from the region, despite being supported by the United States and its minions, in the not-too-distant future. 8

Epic by IraniansSee page 3

Flying kites in the time of corona

A man wearing a mask prepares a kite for flight at Tehran’s Pardisan Park, October 3, 2020. Although the city is grappling with the coronavirus predicament, people still enjoy weekend to find a way for relieving from city life stress and spend their time with children.

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1 Adib-Moghaddam also argued that some elements of the Iranian state are by far more responsible for some international crises than any other institution, citing the problems of dual-nationals as an example.

Basically, Iran has no problem with those holding dual nationality. The point is that dual nationals should not take sensitive managerial posts. For example, Mahmoud Reza Khavari, who was head of Bank Melli, the most important state bank, fled to Canada after it was revealed that he had been involved in a financial scandal.

Tensions arose between Tehran and Washington after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal, which was reached in 2015 between Iran and six major powers including the U.S.

The deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached when Barack Obama was the president of the United States.

“I am in no doubt that Biden would immediately fly to Europe, and put the JCPOA on top of the agenda,” Adib-Moghaddam said, responding to whether Biden would revive the nuclear pact.

“In Europe, he would be welcomed with great fanfare in order to reinstitute a positive image of the United States, one that is decisively tarnished by the Trump administration, certainly among a whole generation and globally,” he said.

The professor further said that the JCPOA is likely to be presented as a transatlantic initiative to bring Europe and the U.S. closer.

However, he continued, even a Biden presidency will take a “condescending” approach framed by occasional threats and demands for a change in Iran’s foreign policy behavior and domestic politics.

“Once the JCPOA is back on the table, it is absolutely crucial for the next Iranian president, to make any further steps towards verification entirely and

uncompromisingly dependent on sanctions relief,” he said, adding, “Ordinary Iranians deserve nothing but that for their daily sufferings which are heart-breaking and unsustainable. Both the Khatami and the Rouhani administrations failed Iranians on this account.”

Professor Adib-Moghaddam was asked to comment on what would happen if Trump gets re-elected to rule the U.S. for the next four years. He said it would have the benefit that his administration would continue to be treated as a “quasi-pariah”.

Trump is probably the most hated politician in the world right now, and no self-

respecting leader would want a photoshoot with him, he remarked.

“This perception seriously constraints the ability of this administration to forge a diplomatic consensus among its allies in Europe and beyond. On the negative side, the policy of threats, insults and sanctions would continue, with intermittent efforts towards provoking a military confrontation,” he noted.

On why the three European countries to the JCPOA – namely Britain, France and Germany – have failed to protect Iran’s interests under the deal, Adib-Moghaddam said Europe doesn’t have the diplomatic

backbone to translate diplomatic defiance of the United States into independent foreign policies.

“The JCPOA is a very good example for that,” he maintained. “Europe said no to the United States, most recently in its rebuke of the snapback travesty that has been rightly ridiculed in Brussels and London alike. But this negation of U.S. efforts to escalate the situation hasn’t translated into an alternative strategy.”

Asked whether Trump’s hatred toward Obama was a significant factor behind his withdrawal from the JCPOA, the professor said undoubtedly there is a pathological personal hatred that Trump feels towards Obama which stems from an obvious inferiority complex.

“He has also needed to contrast his type of politics quite radically from Obama’s to secure his right-wing constituency in the United States,” he said. “He can’t be a compromise candidate because he would lose the votes of those extremists.”

President Hassan Rouhani and his administrations have argued that the 2017-2018 widespread protests across Iran, which began on 28 December 2017 and lasted for two weeks, prompted Trump to exit the nuclear deal. Offering his take on the matter, Professor Adib-Moghaddam said he believes it is analytically false and politically dangerous to link events in Iran to foreign policies of other countries.

“It is a form of Gharbzadegi in reverse because it ultimately suggests that Iranians are not writing their own history. It is also a form of discrediting real grievances that must be addressed sooner or later to avert any crisis in the future,” he said.

The professor suggested a “fresh start” is needed in interactions between Iran and the United Sates, noting that the “paradigms of the past” are “self-harming.”

TEHRAN (FNA) – Russian Ambassador to Tehran Levan Dzhagaryan has said that his country recognizes expiration of UN arms sanctions against Iran on October 18 and is ready to supply the country with its S-400 air defense system.

“We have said since the very first day that there will be no problem for selling weapons to Iran from October 19,” Dzhagaryan said in an interview with the Persian-language

Resalat newspaper on Saturday.He underlined that Russia does not fear

the U.S. threats and will remain committed to its undertakings, adding that Moscow is ready to study the Iranian side’s proposals on purchasing weapons from Russia after October 18.

“As you know we have provided Iran with S-300. Russia does not have any problem to deliver S-400 to Iran and it

did not have any problem before either,” Dzhagaryan said.

After the removal of pre-nuclear-deal sanctions against Iran, Russia delivered S-300 air defense systems to the country under the existing contract.

Iran designed and developed its own version of the S-300 missile shield, named Bavar 373, after the Russians shrugged off delivery of their advanced missile defense

system to Iran on the pretext of the UN Security Council sanctions.

The Iranian version has superior fea-tures over the original Russian model as it enjoys increased mobility, agility and reduced launch-preparation time.

Iranian commanders had earlier said that Bavar 373 is similar to its original Russian model and traces and intercepts high-altitude targets.

TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mo-hammad Javad Zarif has said the in-

ternational community must compel Israel—which has aggression in its very DNA—to promptly accede to the NPT and destroy its nuclear arsenal.

“Given its six decades of deception and clandestine development of nuclear weapons, it (Israel) must be compelled to submit to the most intrusive inspection regime that law-abiding members of the NPT observe,” Zarif said at the Virtual Meeting of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on Friday.

The 75th high-level plenary meeting was attended by nearly 100 foreign ministers to commemorate and pro-mote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

“75 years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on in-nocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki—the first and only use of such horrific weapons—this meeting provides a unique opportunity to mobilize the world to liberate humanity from the nuclear nightmare,” Zarif suggested.

“25 years after the NPT Review and Extension Con-ference called for reduced reliance on nuclear weapons and the ICJ ordered good faith efforts towards nucle-ar disarmament, the U.S. is developing new nuclear weapons and recklessly lowering the threshold of their deployment. It has further caused immense damage to the NPT by unlawfully withdrawing from the INF and the JCPOA,” he added.

The foreign minister noted that the world’s lone per-petrator of a nuclear attack “extends blind support to the sole possessor of nuclear arsenal in our region.” He referred to Israel as an outlaw regime that has openly threatened others with nuclear annihilation, while crying

wolf about proliferation.“We also call on the General Assembly to declare as

a binding norm of international law that a nuclear war cannot be won—and must never be fought,” he stated, adding that this should be followed by a long-overdue, concrete program for time-bound nuclear disarmament and provision of security assurances to non-nuclear-weapon states in the interim.

The chief Iranian diplomat concluded his remarks by saying that “last year, $72.9 billion was spent on nuclear weapons—half of it by the U.S. alone. This is higher than the GDP of most countries. Just imagine if the billions wasted on instruments of global annihilation were allocated to help fund the fight against COVID-19.”

Enough is enough, he added.The remarks came days after Israeli Prime Minis-

ter Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Iran poses the greatest threat to peace in West Asia. He accused the Islamic Republic of attacking its neighbors and fomenting violence in the region.

In his speech at the UN General Assembly on Tues-day, Netanyahu lauded U.S. President Donald Trump for leaving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimposing the sanctions that had been lifted against Tehran under the pact.

He also claimed that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons.Israel is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty

(NPT), and has refused to either confirm or deny the possession of nuclear weapons in its arsenal.

The regime is believed to possess 200 nuclear war-heads, making it the only country in West Asia that has nuclear weapons.

This is while Iran has signed the NPT and its nucle-

ar program is inspected regularly by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The IAEA has in nu-merous occasions certified the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.

IAEA director general Rafael Grossi has said that the UN nuclear watchdog carried out more than 400 inspections in Iran last year.

“We carried out more than 400 inspections in Iran last year,” Grossi said in an interview with Der Spiegel published on September 30.

In response to Netanyahu’s speech, Tehran said it was part of a serial of “puppet shows” that originate from the Israeli premier’s conspiratorial mind and from the counter-intelligence campaign run by the Zionist regime’s espionage services.

“The prime minister of the fake, usurper and child-mur-dering Zionist regime continues to tell lies by taking the podium at international circles, and is trying to deceive public opinion and the global circles with ridiculous shows in order to prevent trial of the regime’s criminal leaders at the international courts,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Wednesday.

U.S. foreign policy toward Iran is ‘institutionally hegemonic’, says professor

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Foreign Ministry says regards General Soleimani case ‘a top agenda’

TEHRAN – Iran’s Foreign Ministry says it has put the issue of pursuing the U.S. as-

sassination of top anti-terror commander Qassem Soleimani as a top agenda.

In a statement on Friday, the ministry said considering the unjust remarks made over its pursuit of the assassination, it has provided a number of points to enlighten public opinion over the issue.

“Surprisingly, the allegations made by a few media outlets against the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they question the ministry in cases already described in the same writings as positive achievements of the ministry at the international level,” the statement read, according to Mehr.

A headquarters has been set up at the Foreign Ministry which is tasked with fulfilling domestic and foreign coordina-tion in following up the various aspects of the assassination of General Soleimani at the international level as well as general diplomatic measures, it said.

“In addition to following up the case by a headquarters set up at the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is obvious that other institutions of the country have also set up similar headquarters, each of which has been responsible for following up the case separately within the framework of its inherent duties,” the ministry explained.

“The Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that this ministry, based on its inherent duties, has always had the issue of General Soleimani’s mar-tyrdom on the agenda, and in this regard, it welcomes any constructive criticism and effective interaction with the media and institutions of the country,” it said.

The ministry added that at the same time, it recommends that foreign policy issues should not be the subject to the irrelevant factional issues due to their sensitivity and direct connection with national interests.

On January 3, U.S. President Donald Trump ordered strikes that martyred General Soleimani, chief of the IRGC Quds Force, and al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

In the early hours of January 8, the IRGC attacked Ain al-Assad airbase in western Iraq, where U.S. forces were sta-tioned, as part of its promised “tough revenge” for the U.S. terror attack.

In June, Tehran said 36 individuals were identified in con-nection with the Soleimani assassination.

“36 individuals who cooperated, collaborated, and participated in the assassination of Hajj Qassem, including political and military authorities of the U.S. and other countries, have been identified,” Tehran Prosecutor General Ali Alqasi-Mehr said.

Alqasi-Mehr named Trump as the key individual at the top of the list, saying his pursuit will continue even after his tenure as U.S. president.

Culprits behind deadly attack on IRGC members arrested

TEHRAN – The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced the arrest of

those responsible for the killing three of its forces in southeast-ern province of Sistan-Balouchestan near Pakistan’s border.

In a statement on Saturday, the IRGC said its forces arrested the main culprits and individuals linked to the attack, which took place on September 29.

In the terrorist attack on that date, three IRGC forces were killed and one was injured.

By pursuing and taking special intelligence and operational measures, the forces of the Quds unit of the IRGC Ground Force managed to arrest the main culprits linked to the incident, the statement said.

On September 29, two vehicles carrying IRGC forces were attacked by assailants in another car on a road in Nikshahr County.

Two of the assailants were killed in the clashes.Terrorists operating in neighboring countries, including

Pakistan and Iraq, have repeatedly targeted Iranian military and security forces serving in border provinces.

Iran has urged its neighbors to engage in meaningful and effective counter-terrorism efforts aimed at rooting out the malign border activities.

General: Army to firmly continue battle against COVID-19TEHRAN (MNA) – The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Army continues its efforts to help contain the coronavirus pandemic in the country, said the commander of Army Ground Force.

“All the 28 hospitals of the Army Ground Force have been exerting every effort 24/7 to help contain the pandemic since the spread of the novel coronavirus; they will not leave the battle till the end,” Brigadier General Kiumars Heidari said on Saturday at the funeral ceremony of a military physician who lost his life due to the pandemic.

The commander urged all Army forces and the Iranian people to remain sensitive and active in the field until the coronavirus is uprooted in the country.

According to Deputy Coordinator of the Islamic Repub-lic of Iran’s Army Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, the Army has established a base to specifically address the pandemic issue.

More than 12,000 Army personnel are now active in different healthcare sections, including hospitals and lab-oratories, to contain the pandemic.

Zarif: World must force Israel to destroy its nuclear arsenal

“I am in no doubt that Biden would immediately fly to Europe, and put the JCPOA on top of the agenda,” said theprofessor.

“Europe doesn’t have the diplomatic

backbone to translate diplomatic

defiance of the United States into

independent foreignpolicies,” Adib-

Moghaddam noted.

“The U.S. is developing new nuclear weapons and recklessly lowering the threshold of their deployment. It has further caused immense damage to the NPT byunlawfully withdrawing from the INF and the JCPOA.”

“If Iranians could come together in an election that fosters unity, and that brings

to the fore a candidate with diplomatic diligence and empathy for the plight of ordinary Iranians, then the likelihood of any major national security threatis already minimized,” Arshin Adib-Moghaddam told the Tehran Times.

Israel which has openly threatened others with nuclear annihilation is always crying wolf about proliferation, Iranian FM says

Envoy: Russia ready to supply Iran with S400- defense system

‘Biden is no Obama’

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Time to privatize Esteghlal, Persepolis

TEHRAN — While Esteghlal have been eliminated from the 2020 AFC Champions League, losing to Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor 2-1 in the Round of 16, the sense of chaos and uncertainty at the Tehran based seems to be more noticeable. Much of it is self-inflicted.

The Iranian giants have been engaged in controversies in recent weeks, and the team’s players and managers are under huge pressure after they didn’t live up to fans’ expectations.

Esteghlal board of directors decided to sack general manager Ahmad Saadatmand on Wednesday following his fiery comments about some of the team’s players.

In a video message, Saadatmand had criticized some Esteghlal players for indiscipline and promised to reform the club.

He questioned the players’ commitment and sense of respon-sibility by revealing that some of them had slept until noon during the Champions League competitions underway in Qatar, and some others had been active on social media till after midnight.

Now Esteghlal are in a weird condition; the club have neither a general manager nor a head coach!

The team’s foreign players, such as Cheick Diabate and Hrvoje Milic, seek to terminate their contracts due to the club’s inability to pay their salaries.

This leads us to question what went wrong within the club which has weekend them since Esteghlal have quality players at their disposal.

It seems that the solution to get Esteghlal out of the crisis is the privatization of the club. Iran’s Ministry of Sport and Youth owns two major clubs of Iran, Persepolis, and Esteghlal. The Ministry of Sport and Youth also chooses the Persepolis and Esteghlal’s board of directors and general managers. The supporters of these clubs and the experts are asking for privatization for many years.

The managers who are appointed by the Ministry of Sports are often criticized by football fans and experts and are negatively titled as “government managers” who do not deserve to run big clubs such as Esteghlal and Persepolis.

Recently, the Iranian Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Masoud Soltanifar has confirmed that the country’s most pop-ular football teams Esteghlal and Persepolis will be ceded to the private sector by auction.

It can be the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the two clubs. Ceding to the private sector means that the clubs’ managers will no longer be appointed through the Ministry of Sports, but they will be elected by the process of presidential elections in which the fans and shareholders can play their role. The elected general manager will be committed to respond to the fans in any situation.

Persepolis forward Alekasir banned for six months

TEHRAN —Iranian striker Issa Alekasir has been handed a six-month ban by the Asian

Football Confederation for a “discriminatory gesture” just hours before he was due to lead his club Persepolis into the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League.

The 30-year-old forward, who has scored four times in the last three games in the competition, received the ban after making a slant-eyed gesture to television cameras after scoring against Uz-bekistan’s Pakhtakor in the quarter-finals on Wednesday evening.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Disciplinary and Ethics Committee has banned Issa Alekasir, of Persepolis FC, from taking part in any kind of football-related activity for six months for violating Article 58.1 of the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Code (2019 Edition). The ban will take effect immediately.

The player, who was also fined USD10,000, was found to have used a discriminatory gesture during the AFC Champions League (West) game against Pakhtakor on Sept. 30, 2020 in Doha, Qatar.

Article 58.1 states that anyone who offends the dignity of a person or group of persons through contemptuous, discriminatory or denigratory words or actions concerning race, skin color, gender, disability, language, age, physical appearance, religion, political opinion, wealth, birth or any other status, sexual orientation, or ethnic, national, or social origin has committed an offence.

Persepolis advance to 2020 ACL final

TEHRAN — Persepolis booked a place at the 2020 AFC Champions League final for

the second time in three years after beating Al Nass of Saudi Arabia in penalty shootout.

Persepolis football club advanced to the final with a 5-3 win on penalties against Al Nassr after the West Zone semi-final ended 1-1 after 120 minutes at the Jassim bin Hamad Stadium on Saturday.

Persepolis started the match with a big shock since the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Disciplinary and Ethics Committee’s decision banned the team’s forward Issa Alekasir just hours before the match.

The 30-year-old forward received the ban after making a slant-eyed gesture to television cameras after scoring against Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor in the quarter-finals on Wednesda, while he has always made this celebration due to his nephew.

In the 34th minute, Khalid Al-Ghannam was tripped down in the Persepolis area by Bashar Resan and Moroccan striker Abderazak Hamdallah converted the penalty with a right footed shot to the center of the goal.

With three minutes to the break, Mehdi Abdi headed ball home from the center of the box to the bottom left corner in the 42nd minute.

Persepolis were reduced to 10-man in the 104th minute after Ehsan Pahlevan was shown his second yellow card.

Al Nassr put Persepolis under pressure in the second added time but failed to find the back of the net.

In the penalties, Persepolis defeated Al Nassr 4-3 and went into the final match.

The remaining matches in the eastern half of the draw are sched-uled to be played in a centralized venue from Nov. 18 to Dec. 13.

By Farrokh Hesabi

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TEHRAN — Hamid Reza Dehghani-Poudeh has been appointed as the new

Iranian ambassador to neighboring Qatar, succeeding Mohammad Ali Sobhani, who has been Tehran’s ambassador to Doha since November 2016.

Sobhani’s tenure ended on September 21. At the end of his tenure, Sobhani met with several high-ranking Qatari officials including Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, and Sheikh Khaled bin Khalifa Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar.

During the meeting with the emir, Sobhani appreciated Sheikh Tamim’s “unique support” to Iran, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Dehghani-Poudeh will soon replace Sobhani. He met with President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday. Rouhani

asked the newly-appointed ambassador to strengthen Iran’s economic ties with the Persian Gulf nation.

Dehghani-Poudeh is a career diplomat who has served in various positions including as the director of the Foreign Ministry’s West Asia and North Africa Directorate, Iran’s permanent representative to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the deputy head of Iran’s mission in Beirut, and the head of the Foreign Ministry’s training office.

Iran-Qatar relations have grown greatly over the past few years, especially after a blockade has been imposed on Qatar by four Arab countries – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt- which accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and fomenting unrest in these countries.

1 It also called for respecting the ter-ritorial integrity of Azerbaijan, protecting civilians, ceasing the clashes, and starting serious and time-framed talks. The For-eign Ministry expressed readiness to help achieve these goals.

Clashes erupted between Azerbaijan and Armenia on September 27, killing dozens of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops. The two countries are fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, a breakaway internationally recognized as part of Azer-baijan but controlled by Armenian forces. The warring sides are using artillery and mortar shells, with Azerbaijan also using advanced combat drones that are capable of targeting Armenian positions without being intercepted.

As the war raged between Armenia and

Azerbaijan, mortar shells and rockets landed inside Iranian territories without causing any fatalities among people living in border areas. However, images and videos circulat-ing on social media platforms showed that the projectiles have caused damage to some houses and farms.

Iran has called on both sides of the war to immediately cease the conflict and resolve disputes through dialogue.

“Iran is closely monitoring the alarming violence in Nagorno-Karabakh. We call for an immediate end to hostilities and urge di-alogue to resolve differences. Our neighbors are our priority and we are ready to provide good offices to enable talks. Our region needs peace now,” tweeted Foreign Minister Mo-hammad Javad Zarif shortly after Armenia and Azerbaijan began the war.

Azerbaijan has announced that the only way to end the war is for Armenia to retreat from Nagorno-Karabakh. Otherwise, Azer-baijan will continue the fighting.

“Ceasefire okay, but on what con-ditions? Conditions must be that they withdraw from the territories. I said just two days ago, let them start withdrawal, let us have the timetable for withdrawal,

let them undertake serious obligations proved by mediators and the ceasefire, and also, obey the ceasefire regime and of course, we will also do the same. Why should we need this military clash? We need our territories back by peaceful means and we demonstrated for 28 years our willingness to have a peaceful settlement,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Al Jazeera TV, according to the Trend news agency.

On the other hand, Armenia announced that the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh con-flict is possible when Turkey leaves the conflict zone.

“Peaceful resolution will be possible when terrorists and Turkey leave our region with their goals,” Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a tweet on Saturday.

Iran appoints new ambassador to Qatar

Foreign Ministry warns Azerbaijan, Armenia against violating Iranian soil

Israel pours gasoline on the fire in Nagorno-Karabakh

1 “We still keep our position unchanged. What I am demanding is absolutely in line with international law, because the whole world recognizes the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and no country in the world recognizes the so-called ‘Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’. What I am saying is complete-ly almost the wording of the UN Security Council Resolutions. And they need to leave our territory, and then, the war will stop, and then the conflict will come to an end. And then, maybe some time later people of Azerbaijan and Armenia can again live together, in peace. So, that’s our position, and it is unchanged,” Aliyev said in an in-terview with Al Jazeera TV, according to the Trend news agency.

Whether Azerbaijan would succeed in re-taking the disputed region is something that we should wait and see, but Azerbaijan seems to be counting on its allies in terms of supplying it with game-changing weapons such as combat drones and precision-guided missiles.

The drones have played a crucial role in Azerbaijan’s military operations in Na-gorno-Karabakh. Over the past week, the defense ministry of Azerbaijan has published videos showing how Azerbaijani forces used advanced combat drones to target Armenian forces’ positions in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Israeli news media outlets and journalists said these drones and other weapons were imported from Israel from which 60% of Azerbaijan arms procurement comes.

In an interview with the Hebrew-lan-guage Walla News outlet, Hikmet Hajiyev, the foreign policy adviser to the president of Azerbaijan, publicly said that Azeri forces were using Israeli-made drones in military operations against Armenia, according to the Israeli news website I24News.

“If the Armenians are afraid of these drones they should stop the occupation,” Hajiyev was quoted as saying, referring to the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We appreciate very much the cooperation with Israel - especially the security coopera-

tion,” the president advisor noted. “The goal is to strengthen the defensive capabilities of Azerbaijan. We are in a state of defense and this technology allows Azerbaijan the ability to protect the security of its citizens.”

American news website Axios also reported that Hajiyev confirmed that Azerbaijan is us-ing Israeli Harop drones. The advisor praised the Israeli drones, saying they have “proved themselves very effective” in the fighting over the last few days.

Axios also reported that an “air train” of cargo planes affiliated with the Azeri ministry of defense departed for Israel, days after they were used in the fighting in the disputed re-gion. According to flight radar apps, the cargo planes stopped at Ovda airbase in southern Israel before departing for Azerbaijan.

Israel and Azerbaijan have very close ties. Israel is the main supplier of arms to Azerbaijan, while a large portion of Israel’s oil supply – about 40% of its oil needs- comes from Azerbaijan, according to Axios.

Israeli officials refuse to publicly side with Azerbaijan, but Israeli media has sought to focus on the Israeli weapons being used in the Azerbaijan-Armenia war.

“A video shared from the clashes be-tween Armenian and Azeri forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh region shows Azerbai-jani forces using an Israeli “LORA” missile to shell a bridge in Armenia,” said the Je-rusalem Post. The paper added, “A truck is seen in the video approaching a bridge on the Armenian side of the conflict zone when a missile suddenly strikes and levels the bridge. LORA (Long Range Attack) is a theater quasiballistic missile made by the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). It can be launched from a ship or by land. With an operational range of 400 km (250 miles), it is accurate in hitting targets within ten minutes after launch. Azerbaijan was the first and only confirmed country to which Israel delivered LORA missiles – in an arms deal that took place in 2018.”

It also said President Aliyev revealed in 2016 that his country signed $5 billion worth of long-term contracts over the years to buy weapons and security equipment from Israel.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has estimated that Israel provided Azerbaijan with some $825 million in weapons between 2006 and 2019. Those

exports included drones, loitering munitions, anti-tank missiles, and a surface-to-air mis-sile system, information from SIPRI’s Arms Transfers Database showed.

Israel’s military support to Azerbaijan has enraged Armenia, which established diplomatic ties with Israel only recently. On Thursday, Armenia recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations over the arms trade between Azerbaijan and Israel.

“Israel’s workstyle is unacceptable. The ministry has to call back its ambassador in Israel,” said Armenian foreign ministry spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan.

Israel’s arms trade with Azerbaijan once again highlights the danger of Israel’s mili-tary arsenal, including its weapons of mass destruction, which could be used in conflicts thousands of miles away from Israel regardless of their humanitarian implications. Israel is the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Western Asia region.

Many countries in the region have called for nuclear disarmament of Israel, given its status as the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the region.

At the virtual meeting of the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on Friday, Foreign Minister Mo-hammad Javad Zarif called on the interna-tional community to compel Israel to destroy its nuclear weapons.

“Given its six decades of deception and clandestine development of nuclear weapons, it (Israel) must be compelled to submit to the most intrusive inspection regime that law-abiding members of the NPT observe,” Zarif said.

Israel is not a signatory to Non-Prolif-eration Treaty (NPT) and it never allowed international inspectors to inspect its nuclear facilities. It also stubbornly refuses to confirm whether it does have nuclear weapons or not. But it is widely believed to possess about 200 nuclear warheads, making it the only regime in West Asia that possesses weapons of mass destruction.

TEHRAN — Iran once again called on Azerbaijan and Armenia to stop the war

and resolve differences through dialogue, voicing readiness to use its good offices to facilitate peace negotiations between the two warring sides.

“We, as a mediator, are ready to facilitate talks be-tween the two countries and establish a ceasefire be-tween them,” said Abolfazl Amouei, the spokesman for the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) news agency.

Amouei added, “The continuation of the killings and clashes not only does not solve the problem but also creates more disputes. This is why in the talks that our country’s officials held with their Azerbaijani and Armenian counter-parts the need to stop the clashes and start talks to resolve disputes was reiterated.”

Clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region erupted on September 27 when the two sides exchanged fire along borders in the volatile region, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians. Dozens have been killed as the two sides used heavy weapons such as tanks and artillery.

Iran has called on the two sides to stop the clashes and start

talks immediately after the start of the clashes.“The Islamic Republic of Iran is worryingly and closely

watching the clashes between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Armenia and, while urging restraint, it urges the two countries to immediately stop the clashes and start dialogue,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on September 27.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also echoed the same position, underlining the region’s need for peace.

“Iran is closely monitoring the alarming violence in Na-gorno-Karabakh. We call for an immediate end to hostilities and urge dialogue to resolve differences. Our neighbors are our

priority and we are ready to provide good offices to enable talks. Our region needs peace now,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet shortly after the clashes started. The foreign minister also spoke by phone with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts, urging them to end violence and resolve differences through dialogue.

Amouei once again reiterated Iran’s position that the clashes should be ended.

“Our first request is an end to the conflict so that this conflict can be resolved peacefully and through negotiation,” said the lawmaker, noting that Iran has a great capacity to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

“We can help so that peace and ceasefire can be achieved in accordance with preserving territorial integrity and the UN resolutions because this is in the interests of the region’s people. And by establishing a ceasefire, Takfiri forces will be prevent-ed from entering the region,” the parliamentary committee spokesman pointed out,

Amouei also said the Iranian Parliament and other bodies are “seriously” examining the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis.

“Escalation will attract extremist forces and those who seek to exploit the tensions. Therefore, this crisis should be ended and brought under control as soon as possible,” he added.

MP says Iran ready to mediate between Azerbaijan and Armenia

Images and videos show projectiles have caused damage to some houses and farms inside Iran

1 He said through returning 767 industrial units to the production cycle since the year start, the plan for reviving the small and medium-sized industries in the present year has been materialized by 51 percent.

In terms of job creation, the plan has come true by over 50 percent as well, as creating 27,000 jobs has been targeted for this year, the official added.

Mosaheb further said that reviving 60 idle units, Tehran Province accounted for the highest number of revived units since the year start, followed by Mazandaran Province, where 51 units were revived.

ISIPO Head Mohsen Salehinia has said that providing liquidity is the main issue for many of the country’s production units, so based on the arrangements made, these units can receive part of their needed liquidity through bank facilities.

“Currently, the share of the country’s production and industrial units in receiving bank facilities is about 31 percent and it is necessary to allocate a larger share of banking facilities to the country’s production and industry,” he added.

Given the position of production in the country’s economy and employment, and the fact that production units are facing lack of liquidity to supply raw materials

and equipment, it is necessary to increase their share of bank facilities up to at least 40 percent, Salehinia stressed.

The ISIPO head further said: “Despite all the limitations, we are currently witnessing an increase in production in some units, for

example those active in the field of home appliances; also, according to the plans made and by solving the problems in the way of the production and industrial units, we will realize the motto of “Surge in Production” by the end of this year.”

Strengthening domestic production to achieve self-reliance is the most important program that Iran is following up in its industry sector in a bid to nullify the effects of the U.S. sanctions on its economy.

To this end, the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 20) has been named the year of “Surge in Production”, and all governmental bodies as well as the private sector are moving in line with the materialization of this motto.

Regarding its significant role in the realization of the mentioned goal, the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry has already defined its main programs for supporting the domestic production in the current year.

The ministry’s seven main axes of the surge in production are going to be pursued under 40 major programs.

In this regard, the development of industrial parks and supporting the units located in these areas is one of the major programs underway by the ministry.

While this program is being seriously pursued, lack of necessary infrastructure in the industrial parks is impeding their development, therefore, the creation of needed infrastructure in the industrial parks has been put on the agenda.

TEHRAN — An official with Iran’s Thermal Power Plants Holding Com-

pany (TPPH) announced that upgrading the gas units of the country’s thermal power plants has added 464 megawatts (MW) to their electricity generation capacity, IRNA reported.

According to Esmail Namazi, the director-general of TPPH Research and Construction Office, the implementation of projects to improve the practical capacity of thermal power plants’ gas units has increased the total capacity of such power plants by 1,565 MW in the past five years.

He noted that the generation capacity of the country’s thermal power plants has already increased by 2,000 MW by implementing overall improvement and mod-ernization projects in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20).

“These projects have been carried out with an invest-ment of 4.27 trillion rials (about $101.6 million) while

the construction of a new power plant with 1,000 MW of capacity requires about 15 trillion rials (about $357.142 million) of investment,” he said.

Currently, a total of 478 thermal power plants are operating throughout Iran which includes both gas power plants and combined cycle plants.

Over two-thirds of Iran’s thermal power plants are owned and operated by the country’s private sector and private owners are currently generating nearly 67 percent of Iran’s thermal power.

Iran’s total power generation capacity currently stands at about 85,000 MW, more than 90 percent of which is supplied by thermal power plants.

Earlier in September, Hamidreza Azimi, the deputy managing director for planning affairs in TPPH, had announced that 1,239 MW was added to the generation capacity of the country’s thermal power plants since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year.

According to the data released by the Energy Ministry, from August 2013 up to August 2019, a total of 69 ther-mal power plants were constructed across the country to add 8,991 MW to the capacity of the country’s thermal electricity output.

TEHRAN —Iran’s agricultural products export has risen 12.2 percent during

the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-September 21), from the first half of the past year, an official with the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) announced on Saturday.

Mehrdad Jamal Orounaqi, the IRICA deputy head for technical and customs affairs, put the value of exported products at $2.57 billion in the first half of the present year, IRNA reported.

He said the weight of agricultural products exported in the six-month period has risen 24.4 percent to stand at 2.979 million tons.

The official mentioned pistachios, tomatoes, water-melons, tomato paste, pistachio kernels, apples, potatoes, and peaches as the major exported products.

Pistachio was the top exported item, as 47,000 tons of the product valued at $304 million was exported in the first half, he added.

Orounaqi further named Iraq, the United Arab Emir-

ates (UAE), Afghanistan, and China as the top export destinations of Iranian agricultural products in the six-month period.

Iran exported over $5.8 billion worth of agricultural

and foodstuff products in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), Head of Agriculture Ministry’s Planning and Economic Affairs Department Shahrokh Shajari has announced.

According to the official, about 7.104 million tons of such products worth $5.821 billion were exported to foreign destinations last year.

In the mentioned period, over 6.941 million tons of agricultural and foodstuff products worth $6.392 billion were also imported into the country, according to Shajari.

Watermelons, apples, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and shallots were the top five exported products in the previous year in terms of weight, while in terms of value, pistachios, apples, tomatoes, pistachio kernels, and watermelons were the five major exported items.

Shajari further pointed to the major imported items in terms of weight, saying, corn, barley, soybean meal, soybean, and untreated sugar were the top five import-ed items, while in terms of value livestock corn, rice, barley, and soybeans were the top imported products.

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

OCTOBER 4, 20204 E C O N O M Y

767 idle industrial units revived since late March

Number of dual-fuel cars reaches nearly 4m

Over $238m of facilities to be allocated for supporting saffron industry

TEHRAN – The num-ber of dual-fuel cars

in Iran has increased to 3,908,604 ve-hicles following the implementation of a program to turn public vehicles into dual-fuel cars, the data released by Na-tional Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) showed.

Back in December 2019, the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) and Iran’s state-owned Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to add new dual-fuel vehicles to the country’s public transportation fleet.

The mentioned MOU was aimed to add 1.46 million dual-fuel vehicles to the public transportation fleet, of which so far 25,000 cars have been converted.

As reported, following the imple-mentation of the mentioned program, the distribution capacity of compressed natural gas (CNG) in supply stations across the country has now reached about three million cubic meters per hour and on average, about 22 million cubic meters (mcm) of CNG is supplied on a daily basis.

Based on the NIOPDC data, as of September 22, a total of 24,621 public vehicles have become dual-fueled across the country, and 22,520 vehicles are waiting to be converted.

Iranian Oil Ministry considers CNG as the national fuel, therefore, the min-

istry has it on the agenda to increase the share of this fuel in the country’s energy basket.

Iran has recently started a program for the rationing of subsidized gasoline and increased fuel prices to reduce the energy subsidies and to use the revenue for supporting underprivileged families.

The implementation of the rationing plan has led to the reduction of gaso-line consumption while promoting CNG consumption in the country.

Iran’s CNG consumption stood at 19 mcm per day before the implementation of the fuel rationing scheme, however, in mid-September, an official with NIORDC announced that the daily consumption of CNG has reached 25 million cubic meters in Iran.

There are currently 2,495 CNG sta-tions across Iran that supply 22 percent of the country’s fuel basket.

TEHRAN – Iran’s Planning and Budget

Organization (PBO) has signed a multilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) with three of the country’s banks on allocation of 10 trillion rials (about $238.09 million) for supporting the saffron industry.

The MOU was signed by PBO’s Deputy Head Hamid Pour-Mohammadi and the managing directors of Agriculture Bank, Mellat Bank, and Export Development Bank of Iran, IRNA reported on Saturday.

Speaking in the signing ceremony, Pour-Mohammadi noted that the men-tioned funding will be provided to saffron producers and processors in the form of bank facilities to support the production of saffron and the packing and processing of this product which has been impacted by the outbreak of coronavirus.

According to the official, the interest rate of the mentioned facilities would be 18 percent, of which PBO has agreed to pay three percent.

Back in August, Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Head Hamid Zadboum had said that the organization has set up a special task force on the saffron industry.

Underlining the significance of saffron in Iran’s exports, Zadboum had said that TPO has been supporting the saffron industry by offering different incentives to the producers and packers since the Iranian calendar year 1380 (March 2001- March 2002).

The special task force held its meeting

at the place of TPO in the presence of the representatives of the Agriculture Ministry, Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran (ISIRI), Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Health Ministry, Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI), Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), Iran Chamber of Cooperatives (ICC), National Saffron Coun-cil, and the Organization for Protection of Consumers and Producers (OPCP).

About 85 percent to 90 percent of Iran’s saffron is produced in the northeastern prov-inces of North Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi and the eastern province of South Khorasan.

Based on the data released by the Iranian Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, Iran earns some $500 million annually by exporting medicinal herbs, of which about $350 million is related to saffron and the rest is the share of other medicinal herbs.

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TEDPIX gains over 42,000 points on Saturday

TEHRAN — TEDPIX, the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), rose 42,719 points to 1.546

million on Saturday, which is the first day of Iranian calendar week.As reported by IRNA, over 6.96 billion securities worth 69.689

trillion rials (about $1.659 billion) were traded on Saturday.The first market’s index climbed 38,530 points and the second

market’s index rose 57,149 points.The index fell 103,000 points, or seven percent, during the

past Iranian calendar week.The weekly drop occurred while TEDPIX’s 10,000-point growth

in the last trading day of the past week created some hope for the index returning to the rising trend.

The indices of Bank Mellat, Mobarakeh Steel Company, National Iranian Copper Industry Company, Ghadir Investment Compa-ny, Isfahan Oil Refinery, Iran Khodro Investment Development Company, and Iranian Investment Petrochemical Group Company (IIPGC) were the most traded indices during the past week.

Since the week ended on August 14, the TSE, which is Iran’s major stock exchange, has witnessed drop of its main index every week, except for the week ended on September 18.

Govt. to continue supporting stock market: fin. min.

TEHRAN – Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand said that

the government is going to continue implementing development programs to help flourishing the capital market, ILNA reported.

“The stock market situation is not measured only by the fluc-tuations of its index. The Iranian stock exchange is in the process of becoming a modern stock market,” Dejpasand said.

The Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE)’s main index (TEDPIX) has dropped nearly 600,000 units in less than two months and the shares of some companies have faced a loss of up to 70 percent.

Factors like the increase in the number of members, the growth of the value of transactions, and the expansion of instruments are also indicators of a deepening and growing trend in the market and the index should not be the only factor for evaluating a market, the minister said.

Dejpasand pointed to his ministry’s efforts for offsetting the budget deficit and funding development projects in the current year and said the shares of government-owned companies worth 330 trillion rials (about $7.85 billion), as well as 900 trillion rials (over $21.4 billion) worth of treasury bonds, were issued in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-September 21).

Raising funds through the debt market is seen as critical for the government saddled with deep budget holes that have become bigger due to the coronavirus pandemic, collapsing oil prices, U.S. sanctions, and loss of oil export revenue.

Dejpasand had previously said the government may not be able to realize 1.4 quadrillion rials ($33.3 billion) of its projected revenue in the current fiscal budget.

TEDPIX had hit the record high of two million points on August 2, and while it had been experiencing an unprecedented trend of rising over the recent months, it witnessed several drop days in over seven weeks.

While Iran’s stock market has not received any external shocks such as those form the foreign currency exchange rate, inflation, parallel markets, and international issues, some internal factors have caused the recent drops in this market.

2nd phase of Ilam Refinery development project to start soon

TEHRAN – The second phase of Iran’s Ilam Gas refinery project is going to be commenced

in the near future as the country’s giant Persian Gulf Holding Company is going to invest 10 trillion rials (about $238 million) in the project, Shana reported on Saturday, quoting Ruhollah Nourian, the refinery’s managing director as saying.

Pointing to the growth of the refinery’s production index in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-September 21) compared to the same period last year, Nourian said, “Implementing several projects in various fields, including the development of sulfur products, commissioning of incinerators, recovering the gases sent to the burner and ... are also on the agenda.”

He also referred to some of the refinery’s challenges, includ-ing the lack of an olefin unit, the problem of supplying some

parts and chemicals, and the lack of financing for the Galal Dam water treatment plant project, and called for more cooperation and coordination to address these challenges.

Back in August, Nourian had announced a 20-percent increase in injected gas into the national gas grid by Ilam refinery in Q1 of the current Iranian year (started on March 20) and stated: “In this period we have seen six percent increase in condensate production, 21 percent in sulfur and 360 percent in LPG.”

The refinery produced 1.9 billion cubic meters of gas last (Ira-nian) year, which was 83 percent of the nominal capacity of the refinery, he said.

“In last (Iranian) year, the commitments of Ilam Gas Refining Company in the production of gas condensate and sulfur were fulfilled by 93 percent and 107 percent respectively. The rate of LPG production was 16 percent, which was due to the delay in commissioning of the Ilam Petrochemical Complex,” he said.

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Thermal power plants’ capacity up 464 MW

Agricultural exports up 12% in H1 on year

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

By Daniel Patrick Welch

By Mohammad Ali Haqshenas

OCTOBER 4, 2020

This election farce should come with a warning label as they have on children’s toys, “Valid For Entertainment Value Only,” otherwise you run the risk of mistaking it for a real election, where real change and real policies may be decided, as opposed to living under an oligarchy in which the election process is a sham. There’s no policy discussion. There’s no hope of change. There’s nothing at all besides this ad hominem sandbox fight, which makes for good television sometimes, although that display the other night was horrific, it is also is dangerously distracting from the truth. I mean, this is not a real thing going on here.

One of my favorite definitions of U.S. democracy came from a friend years ago, and I still use it today: two vir-tually indistinguishable candidates spending a billion dollars to convince voters that the other guy wet his bed when he was seven.

And now to bring the COVID situation into it just makes it even more of a farce, to be honest. Everyone, you have half the country waking up and thinking, Ha! Ha! like the old Nelson Muntz routine from the Simpsons. That it’s Karma. Karma is a bitch. You call out someone’s addicted son on national television, and this is what happens, you know. But the focus really should be on the major questions that are burning for the American people - the question of access to health care--that should be on Medicare for all.

Will COVID kill Trump? Who caresI mean all the speculation of what’s going to happen if

Trump dies? That’s all taken care of in the Constitution in its excruciating minutiae of what if, and before the election, if he dies, and so on. But really, the guy has the best health

care in the world. He’s not deprived of it like hundreds of millions of Americans are. And that should be the focus, not this silly debate that we had the other night.

Everyone was appalled by Trump’s behavior. Yeah, he’s a bully. Yes, he called out Biden’s son. Biden told him to shut up. He called him a clown. Trump kept interrupting him. He has no respect for the rules. He lies. Again, circus entertainment value.

Biden stood there looking like Mr. Magoo trying to defend a position that he doesn’t share because he doesn’t stand for anything. I mean that’s the trouble. You have another meme floating around like the Batman. Vs Penguin debate from the old Batman series. Entertainment! And Biden has nothing to say, no leg to stand on because they’re left fight-ing a battle they are not prepared for. It’s the ideas that the Sanders wing of the party pushed, these mega-popular ideas like the Green New Deal, like Medicare for all, like higher living minimum wage, etc., etc.

As mild as they are, they can’t defend them because they don’t share them, and guess who is best to defend those ideas: People who actually believe in them! But Democrats have to remember--or people who are going to vote Democrat--that the DNC and its oligarchic levers of control already won the election that they chose to contest. They much preferred to beat Sanders and his ideas for taking over the Democratic Party than to lose to Trump.

At this point, they really couldn’t care less because they already won what matters, and they are in a trap of their own making. All of that rhetoric, all this Russiagate crap, all of that manipulating Facebook sowing discord and all this stuff is meant to devalue the very notion of populism as equated to fascism. In other words, it leaves the only

thing available as right-wing populism. People are pissed off. They want and need real policies, real change. These ideas are wildly popular, but they’re untouchable because they’re not running on this platform. But the right-wing knows they can run against it.

Call him a socialist, call him a radical left-winger. It sounds silly to Trump opponents, but it lands with his half of the electorate. And besides, it’s better entertainment. That’s the thing.

What do you what do we learn from this contest? This virtually identical in foreign policy, you have in many attempts Biden outflanking Trump on the right in terms of Trump not being hard enough on China, the constant chattering about Russiagate and Putin’s puppet and all that stuff -- just ridiculous stuff.

Kids in a Sandbox And Trump was right to call him out over the Crime

Bill and calling young Black men super predators. That all happened. That’s all real. Just because Trump is cynically manipulating doesn’t mean that the Democrats have a leg to stand on against it, and that’s the issue. That’s why this election is not worth paying attention to the outside of this circus component because it doesn’t change anything.

Just like the Russians have said: “Presidents change, poli-cies don’t.” And the oligarchy will be in control on November 4. And it will be in control on January 20, and it will still push this agenda. In fact, with things returning to normal, so to speak, and you go back to the kind of support like the guy who’s really good at killing people and the drone wars. That is arguably worse than the stalemate that exists now.

I may be wrong, but I don’t think Trump’s going to die. I think he’s going to come back and say that this was huge, one of the best. He recovered and it’s the best recovery ever, and

you ain’t see nothing yet. It’s just like the economic recovery, all of his usual shtick. And the Democrats are left looking like they don’t want to win the election because, in fact, they don’t. They really don’t care.

They already beat down what they consider to be radical ideas, which are people-based ideas. And they’re going full sail into all the wars, all the foreign policy, the kind of attacks on Russia and China, the continued use of police to beat down dissent at home, all those expan-sions of police power that took place under Democrats as well-- don’t get it twisted. And they’re not going to be rolled back by a Democrat president.

So you know I say pass the popcorn, and we’ll just have to enjoy for what it is, or just shut the TV off. Either way is fine.

Daniel Patrick Welch is a writer of political com-mentary and analysis. Also a singer and songwriter, he lives and writes in Salem, Massachusetts, with his wife. Together they run The Greenhouse School. He has traveled widely, speaks five languages, and studied Russian History and Literature at Harvard University. Welch has also appeared as a guest on several T.V. and radio channels to speak on foreign affairs and political analysis topics around his day job. He can be available for interview requests as time and scheduling permit. Despite the price of being outspoken against U.S. for-eign policy and military adventurism -- which can be steep in today’s circumstances -- he believes firmly, as did Rosa Luxemburg, that “It will always be the most revolutionary act, to tell the truth out loud.

(Source: Press TV)

Sudan’s government and rebel groups Saturday inked a landmark peace deal aimed at ending dec-ades of war in which hundreds of thousands died.

Ululations and cheers rang out as one by one, representatives from the transitional government and rebel groups signed the deal, a year after the peace talks began, at a ceremony in the South Su-danese capital Juba, AFP reported.

“Today we have reached a peace agreement. We are happy. We have finished the mission,” Tut Gatluak, head of the South Sudanese mediating team said shortly before the signing took place.

Ending Sudan’s internal conflicts has been a top priority of the transitional government, in power since last year’s ouster of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in a popular pro-democracy uprising.

Sudanese paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo -- best known by his nickname “Hemeti” -- signed the deal on behalf of Khartoum.

Debate showed ‘an empire in decline’: academic

Joe Biden pledges to ‘reassess’ ties with Saudi ArabiaOn the second anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged to “reassess” the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Late on Thursday, the former vice president released a statement expressing support for Saudi dissidents, suggesting that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) was behind the assassination of Khashoggi.

“Two years ago, Saudi operatives, reportedly acting at the direction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, murdered and dismembered Saudi dissident, journalist, and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi,” Biden said.

“His offense - for which he paid with his life - was criticizing the policies of his government.

“Today, I join many brave Saudi women and men, activists, journalists, and the international community in mourning Khashoggi’s death and echoing his call for people everywhere to exercise their universal rights in freedom.”

Khashoggi, who lived in Virginia and wrote for the Washington Post and Middle East Eye, was killed and dismembered by Saudi government agents at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Saudi government initially insisted the journalist had left the building alive, before admitting that he had been killed. Still, they framed the murder as a rogue operation that occurred without the approval or knowledge of top officials.

In Washington, however, the assassination sparked outrage against Saudi Arabia’s rulers, specifically MBS.

The CIA concluded that the crown prince was behind the killing.

Donald Trump has been a vehement defender of the Saudi royal family.

Yemeni protesters censure Saudi aggression, blockadeYemenis have demonstrated against the Saudi all-out blockade and atrocities committed by the Riyadh regime and a number of its regional allies in the impoverished Arab country.

The employees and workers of Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC) gathered outside the United Nations office in the capital Sana’a on Friday, decrying deadly Saudi airstrikes and the Saudi-led blockade that has left thousands struggling to survive, Press TV reported.

“The suffocating blockade and continued detention of vessels loaded with oil derivatives endanger the lives of more than 26 million Yemeni citizens and threaten the collapse of vital sectors. Such actions are in contravention of the international law and humanitarian principles,” the YPC said in a final communiqué.

Trump hospitalized for virus treatment, campaign groundedU.S. President Donald Trump was in a military hospital Saturday for treatment after testing positive for COVID-19, an extraordinary development that upended the presidential race a month before the Nov. 3 election.

Roughly 17 hours after he made his diagnosis public, Trump walked slowly from the White House to a waiting helicopter to be taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He wore a mask and business suit and did not speak to reporters.

“I think I’m doing very well, but we’re going to make sure that things work out,” Trump said in a brief video message posted on Twitter. Early Friday, he had tweeted that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, had contracted the virus.

Trump will work in a special suite at the hospital for the next few days as a precautionary measure, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said. Online video showed a small group of Trump supporters outside Walter Reed late Friday waving Trump 2020 flags, most not wearing masks.

Israeli police detain two Aqsa guards

TEHRAN— Israeli occupation police detained two guards of the Aqsa Mosque

in Occupied Jerusalem near the Bab el-Rahma cemetery at the eastern wall of the holy Islamic site on Saturday.

Eyewitnesses said that israeli policemen rounded up the guards, Mohammed Shalalde and Ahmed al-Dallal, from the Bab el-Rahma cemetery after they prevented Jewish settlers from treading on the graves at Bab el-Rahma cemetery.

The eyewitnesses pointed out that Jewish settlers target Bab el-Rahma cemetery, especially during Jewish holidays, and deliberately tread on Muslim graves to provoke Muslim feelings.

Bahrainis protest normalization deal with Israel despite clampdown

TEHRAN— Bahraini protesters have staged rallies across the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom,

denouncing the recent agreement between the ruling Al Khalifah regime and Israel to establish full diplomatic ties.

Waving Palestinian flags and wearing face masks for protection against the coronavirus, demonstrators rallied in the northern villages of Abu Saiba and Shakhura on Friday, walking over the name of Bahraini monarch King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah in an apparent show of outrage over the normalization deal.

Protests were also held in the villages of Barbar, Karzakan, Nuwaidrat and Sehla, Salmabad town as well as Sar residential area west of the capital, Manama.

TEHRAN — An American professor be-lieves the first debate between Presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden has demonstrated a declining empire.

The first debate between Republican and Democrat candidates was held on Wednes-day, but the wave of reactions to it is still hitting American politics. The event has been described as a “humiliation” and source of “national shame” by many American outlets.

The debate was full of interruptions and insults from both sides to a point where the organizers have decided to introduce new regulations to avoid such chaotic scenes in the two upcoming debates.

“The debate represented an empire in decline with two leading candidates for the presidency displaying rudeness, fury, and discourtesy bordering on near violence, the latter being a key trait of the empire,” Gerald Horne, professor of African American Studies at the University of Houston said.

There were some key moments during the debate, but one that stood out was when President Trump refused to condemn white supremacy. He called on the white suprem-

acist group ‘Proud Boys’ to “stand down and stand by,” which was immediately used by the group as a slogan.

We asked Professor Horne how he assesses the situation around racism when it comes

to Republicans vs. Democrats.“The Republicans are worse insofar as

they heavily depend upon a stridently rac-ist fringe to prevail in elections. However, a portion of the Dem base also insists on

racism too, which should not be discounted and helps explain Biden’s senatorial record where he pioneered in jailing Blacks, his ma-jor constituency,” replied the academic who has written several books on the history of African-Americans.

Biden confirmed there is “systemic in-justice” in law enforcement, but also said the blame lies simply on individual “bad apples” in the system. Commenting on his statement, Horne highlighted that “Biden is seeking vainly to appeal to contrasting blocs with such incoherent statements.”

Meanwhile, Richard N. Haass, President of the Council of Foreign Relations, has described the debate as “the most discour-aging, most depressing, most troubling 90 minutes” that he can recall, noting that “If you are not worried about the future of this country you were not watching.” He believes such debates will “weaken what American influence remains in the world and will set back the cause of democracy.”

Commenting on Haass’s remarks, Pro-fessor Horne said that “He is correct.”

“He could have added that a desperate and declining U.S. imperialism may be more prone to launch a war.”

“For Entertainment Value Only”: U.S. fake elections exposed for the farce they are

Sudan, rebel groups ink landmark peace deal

ANALYSIS/INTERVIEW

INTERNATIONALd e s k

INTERNATIONALd e s k

Resistance News

INVITATION TO RENEWAL OF ONE STEP INTERNATIONAL TENDER SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT

55/99/1664204/10/2020

AGRICULTURAL SUPPORT SERVICES COMPANY Agricultural Support Services Company Ministry of Jihad-e-Agriculture

For more information, you may refer to our website www.assc.ir, and http://iets.mporg.ir or contact us by phone no. 00982188776325.

PR & Intel Affairs Dept. of Agricultural Support Services Company (ASSC)

دومنوبت 16642/99/55شماره 13/7/99تاريخ :

Agricultural Support Services Company, hereinafter will be reffered as ASSC, affiliated to Ministry of Agriculture-Jahad of I.R of Iran, is considering the purchase of the below 3 items of technicals, through renewal of one step international tender.

All of the qualified and interested companies are invited to receive tender documents from Saturday dated 3/10/2020 until Sunday dated 11/10/2020 (7 working days) from our purchasing committee (located at the 9th floor, no. 1, fourth alley, Gandhi st., Tehran, Iran). The bidders are requested to submit their letters of introduction, along with remittance bill of I.Rials 1,200,000 to ASSC's account no. 4001039704005791 with SHEBA no. IR250100004001039704005791 at the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran through payment order of SATNA or PAYA with the 30 character identification code of 358039782263500650000000000006. The bidders are requested to submit their sealed and stamped envelopes containing offers latest on Saturday dated 14/11/2020 (during official working hours) to our security office located on the 8th floor. Meanwhile the meeting for the opening of the envelops will be held on Sunday dated 15/11/2020 at 14:00 PM with the presence of bidder's representatives at our purchasing committee hall (9th floor , no. 1, Fourth Alley, Gandhi st., Tehran, Iran). We would like to emphasize that the bid bond amount should be in bank guarantee as follows: 1- € 22100 for Fipronil (premix 20%) Tech(18.8-21.2) pct. equivalent to Iranian Rials 5890000000

2- € 9000 for Deltamethrin Tech Min 98.5 pct. equivalent to Iranian Rials 2400000000

3- € 3291 for Permethrin Tech Min 95 pct. equivalent to Iranian Rials 877404000

- The bid bond value should be in Euro or in equal value of any other foreign currencies, except US dollars, based on Telegraphic Transfer rate in Sana rate website, www.sanarate.ir. It should be noted that this site lists the currency transactions, executed in Integrated Currency Transactions System [Nima website] on 15/ 09/2020. - After approval of ASSC's Financial Manager, the bidders are permitted to use their previous and definite outstanding claims as the bid bond.

ITEM

Name PACKING Quantity KG

1 Fipronil (premix 20%) Tech (18.8-21.2) pct. 200 kg drum 5500 2 Deltamethrin tech Min. 98.5% 200 kg drum 3000 3 Permethrin tech Min.95% 200 kg drum 5500

For more information, you may refer to our web site www.assc.ir and http://iets.mporg.ir, or contact us at phone no. 00982188776325.

روابط عمومی و امور بین الملل شرکت خدمات حمایتی کشاورزی

6I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

HERITAGE & TOURISM OCTOBER 4, 2020

TEHRAN – High in the mountains at an altitude of 2,300 meters lies the relatively

well-preserved Babak fortress, a tourist destination near Ka-leybar in West Azarbaijan Province, northwest Iran.

Locally known as Qaleh Babak, it consists of several stone towers and lodging areas stretched in an area of nearly ten thou-sand square meters, attributed to the Sassanid-era (224–651).

The fort is named after Babak Khorramdin, an Iranian warlord who managed to resist Arab invaders until his death in 838 CE.

Access is challenging and involves an arduous uphill walk that takes one to two hours. There are several paths to the castle, though the normal route soars stairs behind the seasonal Babak Hotel. The hike is not recommended for the infirm, elderly or those afraid of heights.

Once at the top, onlookers are highly rewarded with some matchless vistas of the encircling Arasbaran oak forests, jagged cliffs and some steep gorges.

Here is a select of comments that visitors to the historical fortress have posted to TripAdvisor, one of the most popular travel websites in the world:

“Beautiful way up and amazing castle”We booked a taxi ride to this place at our guesthouse in

Tabriz. It took us around two hours and a half to get there by taxi; once we got to the base of the hill, we started the walk up and it took us one hour and a half to get to the castle.

It’s a rough climb, but totally worth it, as the views of the castle and from the castle are really beautiful. At the base,

where there is a parking lot, you will find a shop selling water and some other drinks, but no food. There is also a public toilet near the parking lot. (FerTarran form Apucarana, PR; visited May 2017)

“Stunning scenery and amazing people”One of my best experiences in Iran (even though I had many).As a 28-year old in fairly average/good shape, I found it

to be a difficult trip. The weather was very hot since it was in the middle of July and there’s not really anything to buy once you get there. Luckily we had brought soooo much water and we had just enough.

I also recommend wearing hiking boots or really solid shoes. I wore sandals and it was not a good idea. I fell once and was close numerous times. It was amazing though - once we actually reached the top there were locals yelling out / singing poetry and some were playing instruments while walking down. The atmosphere was unbelievable. (CarinaCPH from Denmark; visited July 2016)

“Very steep hike to reach the castle”Please be prepared to a very long and quite arduous hike

to Babak Fort (Castle). Taxi driver will leave you at the start of a long flight of stairs and after you’ll need to climb through rocks and little paths.

There is basically no sign to the Castle and got almost lost in the climbing. There is a pathway on the right hand side once you’re on top of the stairs, take it, it is a bit longer but less strenuous. At the end of the path, you’ll finally see the black board for the Fort and lot of stairs again.

Once on top, you’ll have to go down again a lot of stairs to get to the other side of the mountain before you reach the castle. Wear good hiking shoes and expect the hike to take 1,5-2 hours to go up and about 1h to go down. There is a little house with a man to buy drinks and hot tea, I would say 3/4 from the base. It is very cold at the top (2500m) wear accordingly. (Magman from Switzerland; visited April 2016)

Babak fortress is embraced with Arasbaran Protected Area, which is a candidate for inclusion in the UNESCO World Her-itage list for 2018.

TEHRAN – The pictured Iranian chalice, which is

decorated with leopards and geometric pat-terns, dates from the fourth millennium BC. It was unearthed near Tepe Sialk which is a large ancient archeological site in a suburb of the city of Kashan, central Iran.

The object is being kept and displayed at Louvre museum in Paris. According to the Louvre’s Department of Near Eastern An-tiquities, painted ceramic vessels comprised the principal medium of artistic expression in Iran during the fifth millennium BC. The most beautiful examples feature highly stylized animal motifs repeated several times over. Goats appear frequently. Lions, panthers, and leopards are rarer. Footed vessels were found both in Tepe Sialk on the edge of the Kavir Desert and at Tepe Hissar east of the Caspian Sea.

Iranian painted ceramics of the fifth mil-lennium BC and early fourth millennium BC are characterized by the quality of their execu-tion and by the variety of designs employed: they formed a vast common cultural idiom.

As the potter’s wheel had not yet been invented, the vessels were made by hand using coils of clay. The brown designs with which they were decorated combined geometric

patterns with elements derived from the local environment; however, animals and plants were so highly stylized that they were difficult to identify. These motifs were repeat-ed several times - in the art of this period, rhythmic repetition took precedence over narrative considerations. The Tepe Sialk site was established on the edge of the Iranian plateau; it was founded circa the mid-fifth millennium BC - a little earlier than Susa, the major site of the Elamite period.

The depiction of big cats is a characteristic of Tepe Sialk art. In contrast, such imagery is totally absent from the vessels vases produced

in Susa. A larger shallow bowl from Sialk depicts a procession of panthers or leopards on its upper level. A sherd of a pot from the same site portrays a leopard rising up on its hind legs and gripping the hindquarters of an ox.

How chalices of Tepe Sialk differ from those crafted in Tepe Hissar

Louver experts believe despite the ex-istence of a vast common cultural idiom in Iran during the fifth millennium BC, which was principally reflected in painted ceramics, regional variations can be seen in the shapes and decorative motifs employed: footed ves-sels, also called ‘chalices,’ were made both in Tepe Sialk and in Tepe Hissar, east of the Caspian Sea. Goblets were common in Tall-e Bakun, in the Fars region.

“Bushel, bowls, and small elegantly de-signed jars were the three basic forms found in Susian pottery. Ceramics with designs painted on a red ground were typical of Is-lamabad, south of Tehran. The designs often combined geometric patterns (here, bands of jagged lines alternating with ladder patterns next to a stylized woolly fleece) and animal motifs: ibexes, ducks, birds with outspread wings, and, more rarely, big cats: panthers or leopards.”

Evidence shows that representations of human figures were very rare during this period. The image most frequently found on the vessels of Tepe Sialk and Tepe Hissar image is that of a leaping goat in mid-air with its legs pointing forwards.

“There was obviously a connection be-tween the shape of the vessel and the nature of its design. On the vessel shown here, a procession of big cats with spotted coats is depicted.”

The walking motion is conveyed by the oblique position of the legs. It is amusing to observe a kind of contradiction between the simplified way in which the leopards’ bodies have been rendered and the extreme realism with which the animals’ tails are depicted, with their curling tips emphasized and fur meticulously evoked by small streaks of color.

Tepe Sialk has so far been excavated several times; the first three seasons in (1933, 1934, and 1937) by a team headed by Roman Ghirshman and his wife Tania Ghirshman. Artifacts from the original dig ended up mostly at the Louvre, while some can be found at the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the National Museum of Iran and in the hands of private collectors.

TEHRAN — Rashti-Duzi is a traditional needlework which is practiced across

villages in Gilan province, northern Iran for centuries. This crocheting is done by the use of a type of special

hook that makes colorful patterns with silk yarns on Mahut fabric, which is a kind of wool worsted fabric.

In the 5th century, at the time of Sassanid dynasty, Iranian textiles were exported to all over the world. These products were so popular in Europe that the cover of tombstones of the European kings and elders were mostly chosen from Iranian textiles and carpets. A piece of the most excellent Sassanid fabric decorated with crocheting work is kept in Hermitage Museum, according to Tasnim.

This handicraft flourished in the years after Islamic era, during Safavid, Afsharid, Zand and Qajar dynasties when the artists made all kinds of products. These years are known for their high number of products. After sketching and drawing of the patterns with various social, political, common culture, religious and economical subjects, the

crocheting was done by craftsmen.The masters combined the art of crocheting and needle

work to enhance the beauty of the products which resulted

in very elegant patterns. In Gilan, most of the motifs were made from the memory and imagination of their makers, and were passed from each generation to the next.

The motifs that are more popular and more on demand are old motifs of “Kaj Butehee”, paisley and circle. Rashti crocheting is divided into three groups: 1. simple crochet-ing, this method includes crocheting of all the fabrics with colorful silk yarns that takes place after drawing of the pattern. 2. Crocheting combined with “Tekeh Duzi” method.

In this method, after the artist applies the patterns on the Mahut fabric, he cuts away a specific part and replaces it with a piece from another color and then makes the cro-cheting. 3. Crocheting combined with “Moaragh” method.

This kind is the most elaborate of all. The artist places colorful Mahut pieces on the basic fabric, and patches them together by crocheting the edges. Products such as table clothes, drapery, beddings, cushions, coasters, bags, baggage and floor coverings have been made by this technique.

TEHRAN — Two years ago, Iran was successful in

registering “Sassanid Archaeological Land-scape of Fars Region” on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Today, the country is seeking the possible inscription of another archaeological landscapes near the Persian Gulf, dating back to the Achaemenid era (c. 550-330).

“Iran aims to propose a possible registra-tion of its Achaemenid-era archaeological landscape located in Dashtestan county, Bushehr province, neighboring the Persian Gulf,” said Yadollah Zekavatzadeh, director of the Achaemenid archaeological ensemble in Dashtestan.

The ensemble is comprised of three areas of Gur-e-Dokhtar, three stone mines, and over 30 historical sites, which are attributed to the Achaemenid era, the official noted.

Gur-e-Dokhtar, possibly the most notable monument in the ensemble, is a stone tomb belonging to the mother of Cyrus (Mandana) or her daughter (Atoosa). The tomb of Gur-e-Dokhtar is made of creamy color boulders and the roof is of a gable shape and has a height of about 4.5 meters.

“Whenever it comes to Achaemenid sites and relics, the first image that comes to mind is the [majestic] palaces of Persepolis and

the ones existing in Susa. However, there are sites and artifacts from the Achaemenid period being discovered in other parts of the country, including the Achaemenid triple sites in Dashtestan,” Zekavatzadeh explained.

The Achaemenid [Persian] Empire was the largest and most durable empire of its time. The empire stretched from Ethiopia, through Egypt, to Greece, to Anatolia (modern Turkey), Central Asia, and to India.

The director of the World Heritage Affairs Office at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts, Farhad Azizi, has said that Iran is ranked 10th regarding the number of historical monuments and sites registered in the UNESCO World Heritage list, and upgrading this position can be very effective in the development of tourism in the country.

To date, 22 cultural sites, namely Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran (2008), Bam and its Cultural Landscape (2004), Bisotun (2006), Cultural Landscape of Maymand (2015), Golestan Palace (2013), Gonbad-e Q?bus (2012), Historic City of Yazd (2017), Masjed-e J?mé of Isfahan (2012), Meidan Emam, Esfahan (1979), Pasargadae (2004), Persepolis (1979), Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region (2018), Shahr-i Sokhta (2014), Sheikh Safi al-din Kh?neg?h and Shrine Ensemble in Ardabil (2010), Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System (2009), Soltaniyeh (2005), Susa (2015), Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex (2010), Takht-e Soleyman (2003), Tchogha Zan-bil (1979), The Persian Garden (2011), and The Persian Qanat (2016), and two natural sites, namely Hyrcanian Forests (2019), and Lut Desert (2016) have been inscribed on the UNESCO list.

T O U R I S Md e s k

T O U R I S Md e s k

Iran wants UNESCO tag for Achaemenid archaeological landscape near Persian Gulf

Coronavirus cancels Qalishuyan religious ritual

TEHRAN — Qalishuyan, a religious ritual which was held annually in the central city

of Kashan, has been called off this year due to the coro-navirus pandemic.

“The Qalishuyan ritual or any other related (congre-gational) mourning ceremonies won’t be held in Mash-had-e Ardehal,” IRNA quoted Kashan Governor Ali-Akbar Mortezaei as saying on Thursday.

“Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, and according to regulations issued by the national headquarters for coro-navirus control, we should put stricter restrictions in place because people’s health is our first priority,” the official noted.

Passed down from generation to generation, the religious ritual is traditionally observed by hundreds of faithful Shia Muslims who came together in Khaveh village of Mashhad-e Ardehal near Kashan.

The ritual was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012. It takes place on the nearest Friday to the seven-teenth day of the seventh Iranian calendar month of Mehr, started Sep. 23.

Qalishuyan is practiced to honor the memory of Soltan Ali, a holy figure among the people of Kashan, Fin, and their nearby cities and villages.

According to legend, he was martyred, and his body found and carried in a carpet to a stream, where it was washed and buried by the people of Fin and Khaveh. The mausoleum of Soltan Ali is the site of a ritual where a carpet is washed in the holy stream by a huge gathering.

In the morning, the people of Khaveh gather at the mausoleum in order to sprinkle rosewater on the carpet. Having completed the wrapping rituals, they deliver it to the people of Fin outside, who rinse the carpet in running water and sprinkle rosewater drops with neatly cut and beautifully decorated wooden sticks.

An alluring destination, Kashan boasts a bunch of archi-tectural wonders, an atmospheric covered bazaar, boutique hotels, and a UNESCO-registered garden.

Many travelers opt to bypass the delightful oasis city that is sprawled on the edge of the Dasht-e Kavir on their journeys between Tehran and Isfahan provinces.

Malayer, a global hub for woodcarving and carved-wood furniture

TEHRAN – Late January this year, Iran’s Malayer was named a global hub for wood-

carving and carved-wood furniture by the World Crafts Council - Asia Pacific Region (WCC-APR).

Located in west-central Hamedan province, the an-cient city is home to over 4,000 furniture workshops in which more than 8,000 wood masters and some 25,000 crafters are engaged.

Although the art had been practiced in Malayer from a long time ago, it is about a half century that it has gained prosperity in the region.

In some cases, the whole family are occupied with tra-ditional furniture making and although they didn’t make much money this way, their love for handicrafts and the increasing perseverance of woodcarving artists of Malay-er shows today a new face of this art-craft to the world.

Artists and crafter of this region use the wood of beech, walnut and plane trees to make different products such as traditional, classic, steel and sofa furniture. Their other products are dining table, desk, all kinds of chair, bed and decorative pieces.

Currently more than 60 percent of the furniture and woodcarving products in Iran is reportedly produced in Malayer and they are sent to various Iranian cities or being exported to Central Asian countries, Persian Gulf littoral states, Turkey and Iraq amongst some others.

Known in classical times as Ecbatana, Hamedan was one of the ancient world’s greatest cities. Pitifully little remains from antiquity, but significant parts of the city center are given over to excavations, and there’s a scat-tering of historical curiosities.

Ecbatana was the capital of Media and was subsequent-ly the summer residence of the Achaemenian kings and one of the residences of the Parthian kings. According to ancient Greek writers, the city was founded in about 678 BC by the semilegendary Deioces, who was the first king of the Medes. The Greek historian Herodotus described the city in the 5th century BC as being surrounded by seven concentric walls.

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

H E R I T A G Ed e s k

Under tourists’ eyes: Challenging Babak fortress

Arts of ancient Iran: Chalice decorated with leopards

Discover Rashti-Duzi: a special craft being practiced in Gilan for long

A view of Babak fortress, a tourist destination in West Azarbaijan Province, northwest Iran

A view of Gur-e-Dokhtar, an Achaemenid-era stone tomb belonging to the mother of Cyrus (Mandana) or her daughter (Atoosa) in Dashtestan, Bushehr province, southwest Iran.

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

OCTOBER 4, 2020

The climate crisis is heating up nights faster than days in many parts of the world, according to the first worldwide assessment of how global heating is differently affecting days and nights.

The findings have “profound consequences” for wild-life and their ability to adapt to the climate emergency, the researchers said, and for the ability of people to cool off at night during dangerous heatwaves.

The scientists compared the rises in daytime and night-time temperatures over the 35 years up to 2017. Global heating is increasing both, but they found that over more than half of the world’s land there was a difference of at least 0.25C between the day and night rises, the Gurdian reported.

In two-thirds of those places, nights were warming faster

than the days, particularly in Europe, west Africa, western South America and central Asia. But in some places – southern US, Mexico and the Middle East – days were warming faster.

The changes are the result of global heating causing changes to clouds. Where cloud cover increases, sunlight is blocked during the day but the clouds retain more heat and humidity at night, like a blanket.

This leads to nights getting increasingly hotter compared with days. Where cloud cover is decreasing, mostly in regions that are already dry, there is more sunlight during the day, which pushes temperatures up more rapidly.

Ecosystems have evolved as fine balances between species and many biological activities, such as feeding, occur at specific times of day. So the asymmetric changes between

night and day temperatures in many parts of the world “will have profound consequences for the species inhabiting those regions and their ability to adapt in the face of the changing climate”, the scientists said.

The research is published in the journal Global Change Biology.

Daniel Cox, a research fellow at the University of Exeter and leader of the study, said: “We demonstrated that greater night-time warming is associated with the climate becoming wetter, and this has been shown to have important conse-quences for plant growth and how species, such as insects and mammals, interact.

“Species that are only active at night or during the day will be particularly affected.”

TEHRAN — The Kavir Biosphere Re-serve, located south-east of Tehran, is

characterized by salt and sandy lands with arid and semi-arid desert vegetation, and is inhabited by steppe communities, creating incredible biodiversity.

Stretching to 686,598 hectares, the Biosphere is located in the Anatolian Iranian Desert. The Kavir plain is composed mainly of flood plains and low mountain ranges.

The Kavir Biosphere Reserve is located south-east of Tehran megacity and encompasses parts of the Great Salt Lake basin and Dasht-e-Kavir. The reserve represents a typical type of Central Asian steppe grassland classified as desert. The central zone contains the oldest Precambrian stones found together with active and semi-active volcanoes.

Some 205 plant species have been identified within the reserve of which 35 are endemic. Based on recent studies, there are 31 mammal species, 131 bird species, 20 reptile species, and only one amphibian (bufo kavirehsis). The re-serve served as an important habitat for the Persian zebra (Equus Hemionus Onager), but the species gradually became extinct due to hunting from the late 1970s onwards.

The park is sometimes known as “Little Africa” for its safari-like wildlife, including native goats, sheep, striped hyenas, Indian wolves, gazelles, the rare Asiatic cheetahs, and the Persian leopards. Typically, the area receives around 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain a year, most of which falls between November and May. The vegetation in the region is adapted to drought and salty soils. To retain water and

combat grazing by animals some plants grow leaves with thorns, much like thorn trees and bushes found in Africa desert landscapes.

Namak Lake (Salt Lake) sits immediately outside the park boundaries. This is actually a salt marsh, and water flows into the lake from the north via the Qom River, which also flows through the northern part of Kavir National Park.

Local authorities consider insufficient labor force, ex-cessive use of land to graze cattle, and illegal hunting as the main problems the park is faced with. Despite the vastness of the park, only 30 rangers work there.

There is no local community inside the core and buffer zones, however, traditionally migrant communities make use of pastures. Some cities at the margin of the reserve have experienced rapid population growth because of their prox-

imity to the capital, Tehran. The most important tribes and communities living in the reserve are the Alikani, Aslanlo, Hadavand, Katti, and Kale Kohhi. People in the area earn a living from livestock rearing, agriculture, horticulture, and the sale of handicrafts. Seasonal grazing by the livestock of nomadic communities takes place in the core area.

Why deserts need protection?Deserts are topographic landscapes that receive little

precipitation in a typical year. The threshold is 10 inches, or 25cm. But more than simply having low rainfall, a desert is “arid”, which means a high rate of water loss through plant reclamation (called transpiration) and through evaporation.

Deserts will differ depending on their climate and loca-tion and their overall aridity can influence many things, not least of all the ecology, food chain, plant and animal types. High evaporation leaves behind higher salt levels, affecting further which plants can grow and the individual size and the numbers of herbivores that may feed on them and, in turn, carnivores. Some experience vast temperature fluctuations, especially hot deserts which may reach unbearable heat during the day and extreme cold at night. This is because the rock and sand absorb heat during the day and releases it at night. There may also be an extreme variation between warm and cool seasons, including extreme winds and storms due to the mixing of cold and warm air.

Deserts are vitally important to the planetary ecosystem. They cover approximately 1/3 of the dry land of our planet. They are also amongst the most fragile and endangered biomes.

Festival of innovative ideas to help revitalize wetlands

Rural development projects worth $3b to be inaugurated 1 He added that 90 percent of the country’s villages

have schools, although some of them do not have proper structures.

Also, in the field of gas supply, today more than 88 percent of the country’s villages are connected to the gas supply network, he added.

According to Omid, by providing this service, in fact, a great help to the environment has been done. The gov-ernment has decided to increase gas supply in the villages to 100 percent.

The share of rural employment in the country has in-creased from 5 percent to 30 percent, which is valuable, and in addition, the rural unemployment rate has declined from 8.7 to 7.3 percent, which has reduced the rural un-employment rate by 1.4 percent, he further emphasized.

The Villagers and Nomads Social Insurance Fund has so far insured 1.2 million villagers, who will eventually be able to receive a pension, he stated.

Main reasons behind migration from villages to cities

Shahla Kazemipour, a demographer and sociologist, said in October 2019 that over 53 percent of Iran’s popu-lation was living in rural areas some four decades ago, but urbanization has influenced rural demographic trends, decreasing the rural population to 20 million, representing 25 percent of the country’s population.

Referring to the three main reasons behind migration from villages to urban areas, she noted that the population in Iran was associated with high growth due to increased fertility, but since the rural economy is based on agriculture, rural areas lost attraction due to lack of farms.

Eventually, a population overflow happened in urban areas, that is, the population grew but the rural economy was not capable of attracting more villagers, so the villagers migrated to the cities, she said, adding, on the other hand, a high concentration of population in rural areas caused some populated ones to become cities.

Pointing to another factor contributing to the increased urbanization rate, she noted that in the period when cities expanded due to population growth and migration, some surrounding villages joined the urban complex, and the urbanization rate reached up to 75 percent.

About 24 percent of Iran’s population is less than 15 years old, and some 6 percent is above 65 years old, while 70 percent of the population is 15-65 years old, she announced.

According to statistics, rural areas are holding a high-er population of younger people, because fertility is still slightly higher than urban areas and migration from rural to urban areas generally occurs by the working population, in fact, about 27 percent of the rural population is aging less than 5 years old, she explained.

Although statistics showed that only seven percent of the rural women are working, it can be argued that in fact out of the 6.4 million women aged 15 to 65, about 40 per-cent are active as many of whom are involved in farming, animal husbandry, and poultry,” she explained.

Referring to the healthcare among rural women, she said that the country’s mortality rate is 5 per 1,000, but statistics show that the mortality rate is higher among men, with a rate of 6 per 1,000 while the figure is less than 5 per 1,000 among women.

Abolfazl Razavi, the deputy vice-president for rural development and deprived areas, has said that some 60 percent of migrations from rural to urban areas are caused by the lack of appropriate jobs and sufficient income for educated people.

Measures taken to reverse migration by making people move to rural areas including providing facilities and sus-tainable job-generating has increased the rural population in some provinces of the country, he highlighted.

TEHRAN — The second “festival of innovative ide-

as and products for reviving wetlands” will be held in Tabriz city on October 16-19.

The event is organized with the partici-pation of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Department of Envi-ronment (DOE), the Government of Japan, and a number of knowledge-based companies.

The festival aims to identify and inter-act more with innovators and inventors to identify, support, and promote methods to improve the pattern of water consumption and natural resources, to rehabilitate the country’s wetlands, to introduce the environ-mental, economic, and social effects of drying lakes and wetlands and help to strengthen knowledge-based companies active in the production of innovative ideas and products.

Innovative strategies for managing agricultural activities to improve produc-tivity and environmental sustainability, collaborative strategies for adaptation to climate change and increasing environ-mental resilience, using renewable energy to optimize wetland resources and reduce energy consumption and new waste man-agement strategies inputs are among the issues to be addressed in the festival.

Cash prizes will be awarded to the best ideas and their implementation in the Ira-nian Wetlands Conservation Project will be supported.

Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Pro-

ject aims to focus on better management of wetlands in accordance with climate change, improving the management of natural re-sources, and emphasizing on the role of public participation and raising awareness.

The Project, in cooperation with the DOE, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the UNDP, has been operating since 2005 with the aim of reducing or permanently eliminating threats of the wetlands and maintain sustainability in general.

The third phase of the project will start in June 2020, which outlines key strategies for the next five years, between Iran and the Unit-ed Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Under the second phase, $2 million was provided by the Government of Japan to UNDP, contributing to the revival of Lake Urmia from its current critical situation. The project specifically addressed the restora-tion of Lake Urmia through the promotion of sustainable agriculture and the effective

reduction of water consumption. The project engaged with local communities and farmers using Integrated Participatory Crop Man-agement Techniques (IPCM).

Why reviving wetlands?Wetlands are ecosystems saturated with

water, either seasonally or permanently. They store water and ensure its quality, provid-ing resilience against drought. They play a central role in sustainable development by supplying all our freshwater.

Wetlands play a major role in protect-ing the land against floods and the impacts of storms. They provide food and diverse habitats which support genetic, species, and ecosystem biodiversity. Wetlands play a key role in the life cycles of many species and in annual migration patterns.

Unfortunately, wetlands are being degrad-ed and lost due to pollution, overexploita-tion, climate change, and human population growth. In recognition of these challenges, the RAMSAR Convention, an international treaty, was adopted in 1971.

There are 80 big and small wetlands in the country, 24 sites designated as wetlands of international importance (Ramsar sites) out of 2,290 worldwide. About one third of Iran’s 24 sites are under pressure or in a critical condition.

Chief of the DOE Issa Kalantari has said in order to restore wetlands in the country a budget of 600 trillion rials (nearly $14 billion) is required.

Global heating warming up ‘nights faster than days’

Kavir Biosphere Reserve: a trip to incredible biodiversity hot spot

S O C I E T Y

ENGLISH IN USE

20% of areas in Iran at highrisk of floodTwenty percent of areas across Iran are highly prone to flooding, Khosro Shahbazi, head of the Forests, Range, and Watershed Management Organization (FRWMO), has said.“Precipitation in Iran is one-third of the world’s average, as the country is located in a dry and fragile region where we experience 11 millimeters decrease in precipitation each 10 years and an increase in evaporation of more than 50 millimeters every year,” he explained, ISNA reported.Rainfall fluctuations usually lead to flood and devastation, so a comprehensive planning for watershed management and flood control is required, he noted.Since most of the water supply is extracted from groundwater resources, the country is in a critical condition in terms of groundwater resources, he stated, highlighting, because perception is less than water withdrawal from the aquifers, so the best way to store rainwater is watershed and aquifer projects.

بیست درصد ایران جزو مناطق با خطر سیل خیزی باال است

ــد ــد ۲۰ درص ــی گوی ــزداری م ــع و آبخی ــا، مرات ــازمان جنگله ــت س سرپرســاال اســت. ــزی ب ــیل خی ــر س ــا خط ــق ب ــزو مناط ــران ج ای

ــارش در ــزان ب ــزود: می ــهبازی اف ــرو ش ــنا، خس ــه ایس ــزارش روز جمع ــه گ بــی در ــر جغرافیای ــا اســت و از نظ ــوم متوســط آن در دنی ــک س ــا ی کشــور مــا ۱۱ ــال ب ــر ۱۰ س ــه ه ــده ایم ک ــع ش ــکننده واق ــک و ش ــه ای خش منطقــرق ــر و تع ــش تبخی ــر افزای ــش از ٥۰ میلیمت ــارش و بی ــش ب ــر کاه میلیمتمواجــه هســتیم کــه همــه منجــر بــه ایــن شــده کــه بارش هــا در منطقــه مــا ــع ــزی جام ــه ری ــد برنام ــن خاطــر نیازمن ــه همی ســیالبی و ویرانگــر باشــد، ب

ــتیم. ــیالب ها هس ــرل س ــز و کنت ــای آبخی ــت حوضه ه ــرای مدیری بــورد اســتفاده در کشــور از ــه بیشــتر آب م ــی ک ــه شــهبازی از آنجای ــه گفت بــی ــوق بحران ــی و ف آبهــای زیرمینــی تامیــن می شــود جــزو کشــورهای بحرانــا از ســفره ها بیــش ــوده و چــون برداشــت م ــی ب ــع آب زیرزمین از نظــر منابــا ــن آب ه ــره ای ــرای ذخی ــکار ب ــن راه ــت و بهتری ــه آنهاس از ورودی آب ب

ــت. ــداری اس ــزداری و آبخوان ــای آبخی ــام پروژه ه انج

LEARN NEWS TRANSLATION

ENVIRONMENTd e s k

ENVIRONMENTd e s k

LET’S LEARN PERSIAN(Part 28) (Source: saadifoundation.ir)

By Seyyed Mostafa Mousavi Sabet

No. 18, Bimeh Alley, Nejatollahi St., Tehran, IranP.o. Box: 14155-4843

Zip Code: 1599814713

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Cartoon An exhibition of cartoons by

Kambiz Derambakhsh, Davud Shahidi, Hassan Karimzadeh, Mehdi Karimzadeh Dian and Arvin is currently underway at Atbin Gallery. The exhibit named “Meaning of Distance” will continue until October 23 at the gallery that can be found at 42 Khakzad Alley, Vali-e Asr Ave. near the Parkway Intersection.

Painting/sculpture Seyhun Gallery is playing host

to an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by a group of artists, including Sadeq Adham, Alireza Puya, Sina Nayyeri, Hossein Tamjid, Mehdi Dashti and Sara Keshmiri.The exhibit runs until October 21 at the gallery located at No. 11, 4th St., Vozara Ave.

An exhibition titled “Turbulence and Quietude” displays sculptures and paintings by Giti Seif at Shirin Gallery 1.Shirin Gallery 2 is also showcasing sculpture by Nasrin Shapuri-Azar in an exhibition named “Another Narrative”.Both exhibits will run until October 27 at the gallery located at No. 5, 13th St., Karim Khan Ave.

Painting An exhibition of paintings by

Keyvan Roshanbin is currently underway at Vaali Gallery.The exhibit named “Two” will continue until October 20 at the gallery located at 72 Khoddami St., Vanak Sq.

Drawing Dastan Basement Gallery is

displaying drawings by Yashar Salahi in an exhibition entitled “Solitude”.The exhibit will be running until October 23 at the gallery located at 6 Bidar St., off Fereshteh St.

Drawings by Shaya Shahrestani are currently on view in an exhibition at Iranshahr Gallery.The exhibit entitled “Original Narrative” will be running until October 16 at the gallery that can be found at 1/69 Sepand St. off Azodi St., Karim Khan Ave.

Drawing/painting Drawings by Leili Rashidi are

currently on display in an exhibition at Etemad Gallery 1.Etemad Gallery 2 is also showcasing an exhibition of paintings by Samira Hodai.The exhibitions will be running until October 20 at the gallery located at 25 Shirudi Alley, Mofatteh St., near Haft-e Tir Square.Painting/calligraphic painting

Painting and calligraphic painting by Mahsa Qasemi, Reza Shah-Hosseini and Ali Mazarei are on view in an exhibition at Shalman Gallery.The exhibit named “Trouble” will run until October 7 at the gallery located at 27 Kavusi Alley, West Rudbar St., off Mirdamad Blvd.

Painting/photo Paintings and photos by a group

of artists, including Hooman Bayat, Amir Asgharzadeh, Barana Bayat, Negar Azizian, Hamed Norusi and Reza Alizadeh, are on display in an exhibition at Shokuh Gallery. The exhibit will continue until

October 21 at the gallery located at 19 Amir Nuri Alley, North Salimi St. near Andarzgu Blvd.

Multimedia Mohsen Gallery is playing host to an exhibition displaying

a collection of artworks in various media by Mahsa Parvizi, Dorsa Asadi and Mohsen Rafei.The exhibit runs until October 30 at the gallery located at 42 East Mina Blvd., Naji St., off Zafar St.

WHAT’S IN ART GALLERIES

GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

Long and numerous experiences strengthens your mind.Imam Hussein (AS)

A R Td e s k

C U L T U R Ed e s k

A R Td e s k

A R Td e s k

TEHRAN — Four movies by Iranian filmmakers have been selected to

compete in the 34th Annual Washington DC International Film Festival, which opened on Friday.

“Coup 53” by Taqi Amirani, “Just 6.5” by Saeid Rustai, “Yalda: A Night for Forgiveness” Masud Bakhshi and “Driving Lessons” by Marzieh Riahi will be screened in various section of the event that will be running until October 11.

While making a documentary about the Anglo-American coup in Iran in 1953, Amirani and editor Walter Murch find an extraordinary and never before seen archive. Documents and 16mm footage recount this story in unprecedented detail, with explosive revelations about secrets hidden for 66 years. From a historical documentary about four days in August 1953, the film becomes a living investigation that exposes the roots of Iran’s volatile relationships with the United Kingdom and the USA.

Starring Payman Maadi and Navid Mohammadzadeh, “Just 6.5” is about a police group under the leadership of Samad who has been assigned to arrest Nasser Khakzad,

a major drug trafficker in Tehran.“Yalda: A Night for Forgiveness” is about Maryam,

a young woman who has been sentenced to death for murdering her husband, Nasser. Iranian law allows the victim’s family to forgive her and spare her life, so Maryam’s fate will be decided by Nasser’s daughter, Mona, on the country’s most popular televised reality show. In front of millions of viewers during Yalda, the winter solstice celebration, Maryam and Mona discover that forgiveness can be difficult as they relive the past.

The film won the special mention for best screenplay at the 24th Sofia International Film Festival in Bulgaria in July.

The award-winning short drama “Driving Lessons” tells the story of Bahareh who, according to the laws of Iran, must have her traditional, chauvinistic husband accompany her to driving lessons so she and her male instructor will not be alone.

TEHRAN — Several Iranian short films have won awards at the 7th Pink City

International Short Film Festival in India.The best sound designing award was given to sound recorder

Hossein Qurchian for the animation “Echo” directed by Barzan Rostami, and the best actor award went to Mehrali Qazvini for his role in “Mermaid” by Saber Mostafapur.

The story of the animation “Echo” is about understanding wildlife and the consequences of environmental abuse on the human race.

In addition, “Redundancy” by Kayvan Sarvari won an honorable mention.

The online festival took place in the Indian city of Jaipur on September 23.

TEHRAN — The Institute for Intellectual

Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) began screening a lineup of its popular, memorable movies in an online program on Saturday to celebrate Children’s National Week.

The lineup includes “A Non-Profit Police Station” by Yadollah Samadi, “The Water Urn” by Ebrahim Foruzesh and “Harmonica” by Amir Naderi.

Also included are “Knockout” by Gholamreza Ramezani, “Inspector 2” by Behruz Gharibpur and “Path of Love” by Bijan Shekarriz.

All the films are available on th.kpf.ir on the web portal of the IIDCYA to entertain children.

New York-based Iranian filmmaker Naderi’s “Harmonica” is set on the sun-drenched southern coast of Iran. It is about a young boy who receives a musical present from abroad. Fascinated and envious, his friends make him the leader of the pack, as they compete for the privilege of holding the harmonica or even blowing a few notes. No one is more obsessed than Amiru, gentle and heavy-set, who seems willing to do anything to get close to the harmonica and its owner.

Set in a two-room schoolhouse in mid-20th century Iran, “The Water Urn” is a heartwarming story about the daily misadventures and

experiences of the village children and their beloved schoolmaster, Mr. Samadi.

It provides an inspiring look at provincial life in a quintessential Iranian village where survival means that all members of a community must learn to work together to achieve a common goal.

“Knock Out” is about a smart student, Mohammad, who is the target of bullying by another student, Bijan. Bijan is supposed to compete with Mohammad’s friend Amir in a Taekwondo match.

Mohammad finds out that Amir is suffering from a very serious disease, so he goes to Bijan and asks him to lose against Amir.

TEHRAN — Russian author Ludmila

Ulitskaya’s novel “The Funeral Party” has recently been published in Persian by Borj Publications in Tehran.

The book has been rendered into Persian by Yalda Bidokhtinejad.

The story of the book happens in August 1991 in a sweltering New York City apartment, where a group of Russian émigrés gathers round the deathbed of an artist named Alik, a charismatic character beloved by them all, especially the women who take turns nursing him as he fades from this world.

Their reminiscences of the dying man and of their lives in Russia are punctuated by debates and squabbles: Whom did Alik love most? Should he be baptized before he dies, as his alcoholic wife, Nina, desperately wishes, or be reconciled to the faith of his

birth by a rabbi who happens to be on hand? And what will be the meaning for them of the Yeltsin putsch, which is happening across the world in their long-lost Moscow but also right before their eyes on CNN?

This marvelous group of individuals inhabits the first novel by Ulitskaya to be published in English, a book that was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Prize and has been praised wherever translated editions have appeared.

Simultaneously funny and sad, lyrical in its Russian sorrow and devastatingly keen in its observation of character, “The Funeral Party” introduces a wonderful writer who captures, wryly and tenderly, the readers’ complex thoughts and emotions confronting life and death, love and loss, homeland and exile.

Ulitskaya is a critically acclaimed modern

Russian novelist and short-story writer. She was born in the town of Davlekanovo in Bashkiria in 1943. She grew up in Moscow where she studied biology at Moscow State University.

Having worked in the field of genetics and

biochemistry, Ulitskaya began her literary career by joining the drama theater as a literary consultant. She was the author of two movie scripts produced in the early 1990s, “The Liberty Sisters” (1990) and “A Woman for All” (1991).

Ulitskaya’s first novel “Sonechka” published in Novy Mir in 1992 almost immediately became extremely popular, and was shortlisted for the Russian Booker Award. Nowadays her works are much admired by the reading public and critics in Russia and many other countries.

Her works have been translated into several languages and received several international and Russian literary awards, including the Russian Booker for Kukotsky’s Case (2001).

The author currently resides in Moscow. Ulitskaya’s works have been translated into many foreign languages.

Movies from Iran line up for Washington DC festival

Pink City festival honors Iranian shorts

IIDCYA celebrates Children’s National Week with online screenings of popular movies

Ludmila Ulitskaya’s “Funeral Party” comes to Iranian bookstores

1 “Without a doubt, the Zionist virus, which is the record holder of human evil, won’t last long, and it will be uprooted,” he said.

“Today is Quds Day, a day created - thanks to Imam Khomeini’s intelligent initiative - to unite Muslims on the issue of Holy Quds and in support of the oppressed people of Palestine. It has played an important role in this regard for several decades now, and God willing, it will continue to do so in the future as well. Nations welcomed Quds Day and considered it to be a religious obligation to hold up the flag for Palestine’s liberation. The main policy of the arrogant powers and Zionism is to

push aside the issue of Palestine in the minds of Muslim communities and to cause it to fade into oblivion,” reads part of the Leader’s message.

“The most urgent responsibility in this regard is fighting this treachery, which is conducted by the enemy’s political and cultural mercenaries in Islamic countries. The truth is that an issue as important as Palestine is not something that the pride, self-esteem and increasing intelligence of Muslim nations will allow to sink into oblivion, even if the Americans, other domineering powers and their regional minions use all their money and power to achieve this goal,” the message added.

Book of Leader’s speech for Quds Day 2020 published in Iraq

Hassan Ruholamin, painter of Islamic stories, to hang works at Tehran gallery

TEHRAN — Hassan Ruholamin, an Iranian painter who is mostly known for illustrating stories from the history of Islam, plans to hang his works in an exhibition in Tehran.

The exhibit named “The Images of the Truthful” will open at the Khial Gallery of the Saba Art and Cultural Institute on Monday and will run for two weeks.

Seventeen works by Ruholamin have been selected to be showcased at the exhibition that will be organized in collaboration with the Tehran Municipality.

Among the works is “The Conqueror of Khaybar”, which depicts Imam Ali (AS) removing the door of the enemy’s fort in the Battle of Khaybar, which was fought in the year 628 between Muslims and the Jews living in the oasis of Khaybar, located 150 kilometers from Medina in the northwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula in modern-day Saudi Arabia.

Another highlight of the exhibition is “My Friend”, which shows Prophet Abraham (AS) when God took him as a friend, saving him from the fire of the idolaters.

“Seal of the Prophets” referring to Prophet Muhammad (S) in another artwork of the collection.

“King of Kindness” is one his latest paintings unveiled on the 19th of Ramadan, which marks the anniversary of the night in 661 CE upon which Imam Ali (AS) was stabbed in the head with a poisoned sword.

The painting depicts Imam Ali (AS) in an alley in Kufa, Iraq at night, carrying a bag of food for the poor. The painting refers to a story about the Imam who disguised himself as a stranger to help the poor by distributing food for them at night.

Ruholamin, 35, was nominated for the Islamic Revolution Artist of the Year award in 2018, 2020. However, he failed to win the honor that is presented every year by the Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization

The exhibition will also hang several huge paintings by Mehdi Shams, Mohammadreza Mohammad-Hossein and Mirza Amu Tehran. The huge paintings, each of which is called a “pardeh”, depict tragic stories about Muslim leaders, especially the Imams of the Shia. A poster for painter Hassan Ruholamin’s exhibition “The Images of the Truthful”.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A scene from “The Water Urn” by Ebrahim Foruzesh.

Front cover of the Persian translation of Russian author Ludmila Ulitskaya’s novel “The Funeral Party”.

A poster for “Echo” by Barzan Rostami.

This combination photo shows a poster for the 34th Annual Washington DC International Film Festival and scenes from the Iranian movies competing in the event.