Some 4,200 villages and 630 cities nationwide now have access to natural gas.

KASHAN, Isfahan, Feb. 11--A senior Oil Ministry official said here on Sunday that some 500 villages and 34 cities have been connected to the national gas supply network during this year’s 10-Day Dawn festivities marking the 28th anniversary of the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Seyyed Reza Kasaeizad, deputy oil minister and managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIGC), said that some 4,200 villages and 630 cities nationwide now have access to natural gas.
“A total of 12 million people have access to gas in Iran,“ he said, adding that the company also supplies gas to 46 power plants, cement factories and refineries as well as 125,000 small and large industries, IRNA reported.
He said natural gas could effectively contribute to reducing environmental pollution, adding that the nationwide natural gas supply costs more than six billion dollars a year.
The official added that the company provides gas to 1,000 new customers per day, stressing that it would be able to extend its services once required funds are made available.
Iran has the world’s largest gas reserves after Russia. The country is also the world’s fourth largest oil producer and second biggest exporter within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Iran holds a 40% share of the world hand-woven carpet market.

TEHRAN, Feb. 11--Five more countries will join the Persian carpet target markets by late March, said the head of Iran’s National Carpet Center here on Sunday.
Morteza Faraji told IRNA that the new markets are located in Europe and the Americas and are considered ’favorable potential’ markets for Iran’s Persian carpet exports. He did not name all the five countries which would import carpets directly from Iran, but said one of them is Russia.
He said Iran holds a 40-percent share of the world carpet market, adding that the country is expected to improve its international carpet export rankings as it is planning to produce carpets based on preferences in target markets.
The official also said that the United States and Germany are Iran’s top carpet export markets, adding that some 60 percent of Persian rugs are exported to these two countries.
He said Iran is planning to expand its Persian carper market in the US. “Despite the (political) issues between the two countries, the Persian carpet enjoys a high status among the American people,“ he said.
Iran has launched extensive efforts to promote the carpet weaving culture in both rural and urban areas as part of efforts to reverse the downward trend of production of the luxurious commodity prompted by a rise in prices of raw materials and the lowering purchase power of average Iranians.
Faraji told IRNA last month that the First Persian Carpet Olympiad will be held on February 13-14 in the four major categories of designing, dyeing, weaving and repairing Persian carpets.
He said the Olympiad aims at promoting the culture of weaving Persian carpets in the country.
“Many young talents could be encouraged to take up Persian carpet weaving-related jobs after participating in such events,“ he said, adding that 18 universities in 20 provinces took part in the preliminary round of the Olympiad.
Following the reported decline in Iran’s international carpet sales, the national carpet industry has begun to hold several seminars nationwide to promote weaving and export of the precious handicraft.
A permanent carpet exhibition and art forum, for instance, has opened in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan province.

TEHRAN, Feb. 11--Iran is ready to supply gas to Armenia on a trial basis, said the official in charge of implementing the giant gas pipeline project.
Mohammad Reza Lorzadeh told ILNA that Iran has been ready since last month to begin gas export to the former Soviet Republic, stressing, however, that the Armenian side is still not prepared to receive the gas.
The official said the trial pumping of gas into the pipeline will begin as soon as weather conditions permit and the authorities give permission to proceed.
A spokesman for the Armenian president said last month that the natural gas pipeline linking Iran and Armenia will become operational this spring.
The construction of the 141-kilometer (90-mile) pipeline from Iran began in 2004 at a cost of about $210-220 million, including $120 million for the Armenian section, RIA Novosti reported.
“The gas pipeline will be commissioned this spring. Only then will it be possible to say whether it will be a transit system. In any case, Yerevan has always been guided by considerations of economic expediency. Economic projects that had a political subtext have always been rejected by the Armenian authorities,“ Viktor Sogomonyan said.
Based on the agreement, Iran is to deliver 36 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Armenia over the next 20 years, subject to a possible five-year extension and an increase in deliveries to 47 billion cubic meters.
Armenia plans to use all of the gas to produce electricity for subsequent export to Iran, as well as for domestic consumption.
Sogomonyan also confirmed that Russian energy giant Gazprom was considering a project to build an oil refinery in southern Armenia near the Iranian border.

Flights leaving Tehran will stop in Damascus on their way to Caracas.

CARACAS, Venezuela, Feb. 11--Iran’s national airline will begin direct flights to Venezuela next month in another sign of the two nations’ increasingly close ties.
Iran Air will operate a weekly, commercial flight linking Tehran and Caracas in March, the Venezuelan government said in a statement Friday. Flights leaving Tehran will stop in Syria’s capital of Damascus on their way to Caracas, it said.
Iran Air opened a new office at the headquarters of Venezuela’s state airline Conviasa in Caracas on Friday, and Conviasa will soon open a commercial office in Iran, the statement said, AP reported.
Iranian Ambassador Abdollah Zifan was quoted as saying that the flight will help strengthen ties between Latin America and the Middle East by facilitating travel and will benefit the many families dispersed across the two regions.
Zifan added that President Hugo Chavez ’is much loved in our country and our people want to come here to get to know this land’.
Relations between the two countries have strengthened under Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who are united in their antagonism to the US government.
Venezuela and Iran plan to jointly produce everything from bricks to bicycles and are also cooperating in the development of Venezuela’s oil fields.
Last month, the oil-rich nations announced a joint $2 billion fund to finance investments in Venezuela and Iran, as well as projects in other countries seeking to help thwart US domination. The two leaders have spoken of investing in infrastructure, social and energy projects, but have not offered specifics.

SEMNAN, Feb. 11--Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mohammad Jahromi said here on Sunday that some one million jobs will be created in the year to March 2008.
The minister told Fars that the Ahmadinejad administration had planned to create some 900,000 jobs during March 2006-2007. He did not say how many jobs were created in the period.
“Since March (2006), some 130,000 workers have lost their jobs and are now receiving unemployment benefits,“ he said, adding that the Bank Refah (Welfare) and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs will help them find jobs.
He said if large business institutions employ job seekers who receive unemployment benefits from the government, they will be paid 100 million rials in profit-free loans for each new recruit.
He further noted that unemployment rate presently stands at 12.3 percent in Iran, where he said the number of jobless university graduates has dropped drastically since last March.
The minister said the number of jobless is also expected to grow by one million people a year.
Jahromi said last month that for the first time in the post-1979 Islamic Revolution era, the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will have achieved the employment targets set in the Fourth Five-Year Development Plan (2005-2010) for March 2006-2007.
He told the Persian daily ’Iran’ that his ministry’s performance has been quite successful and that some 900,000 jobs will have been created by March. He said the unemployment rate will come down by 0.8 percent during the period.
“Of the 900,000 jobs, some 600,000 would be created in small industries,“ he said, adding that the banking system has approved 285,000 applications for financial facilities since late March 2006.
The minister said that loans worth some 60 trillion rials have been approved by the banking system, of which 58 trillion rials has been made available to applicants, mostly small industries.
Jahromi further noted that the banking system extended only 17 trillion rials in financial facilities for entrepreneurships during the Third Five-Year Plan (2000-2005).

NEW DELHI, India, Feb. 11--Italy’s Prime Minister Romano Prodi has said that Italy is Iran’s biggest European trading partner.
Prodi (68), who begins a five-day state visit to India on Saturday (Feb 17), made the disclosure in an interview with the New Delhi-based English daily The Hindu, IRNA reported.
On Italy being part of the group negotiating with Iran on its nuclear standoff with the West, he said, “I am not happy about that. You must include countries that have the greatest interest in the problem at hand. Italy is Iran’s biggest European trading partner. This is one thing I did not understand about my predecessor because he never asked to be part of that group. Never.“
He pointed out, “There must be a dialogue with Iran. Having dialogue does not mean that you are weak. I see no advantage in closing the door to dialogue, in excluding a country just because it would create more resentment.
“This does not mean that I am not strongly against nuclear proliferation, which I see as one of the dangers for the future. But keeping a dialogue open means you retain the possibility of influencing the course of events.“
On Iran calling upon India to use its good offices to help resolve the nuclear issue, he said, “Given Italy’s position in favor of dialogue and the fact that it is Tehran’s largest trading partner in Europe, could there be an Indo-Italian initiative?
“An initiative can come later. What we must do first is exchange views. Iran and Afghanistan are both part of your (India’s) area of concern too.“
Prodi comes to India accompanied by four ministers and a large, top-level business delegation.

TEHRAN, Feb. 11--Three million ’vulnerable’ people will receive charity coupons over the next few weeks, said a senior official with the country’s main aid organization here on Sunday.
Mohammad Hossein Hosseini Fashami, deputy head of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee (IKRC), told ISNA that the IKRC already covers 4.5 million people, stressing that the committee has earmarked 7.6 billion rials for providing mothers and children covered by charity services with food supplements as part of efforts to check malnutrition.
He, however, criticized the ’small increase’ in the committee’s budget for the year to March 2008, saying with the 60-billon-rial increase in budget allocation, the committee would not be able to boost its donations.
Imam Khomeini Relief Committee is one of the largest charity organizations in the region, extending financial and medical services to the poor both in Iran and in a number of regional countries.
Ali Akbar Velayati, the leader’s advisor on international affairs, said last month that the IKRC is one of the greatest achievements of the Islamic Republic rendering charity services both at home and in regional countries.
“The committee has managed to operate in every government with every political leanings and this is indicative of the special attention that all the governments attach to the IKRC,“ he said.
IKRC Chief Seyyed Reza Nayyeri also said that the committee offers financial assistance to more than 2.5 million people a year, stressing that the charity services also include medical and insurance services.
He said the committee extends charity services to over 4.5 million people through its 1,400 offices in Iran and abroad.
The committee also sponsors 60,000 marriages a year, of which not even one percent end in divorce, he said.

ILAM, Feb. 11--A lawmaker said here Saturday that a gas refinery project is to be launched in the border city of Mehran in the western province of Ilam.
Fereydoun Hemati, an MP from Ilam province, added that construction work on the gas refinery will begin at the earliest given the region’s enormous oil and gas potential and consultations that have already been held with Oil Ministry officials, IRNA reported.
He added that the construction of the refinery will pave the way for gas resources of Ananran region to be supplied to other provinces.
The parliamentarian predicted that the refinery, after it begins operational, will effectively contribute to the region’s economic development and create jobs for the local population.
Ilam province’s has an estimated at 14 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves.