Tehran, Kabul Seek Peace for World

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran and Afghanistan seek “peace and brotherhood” for all countries in the world.
The president made the remarks during a meeting with Afghan Minister of Information and Culture Seyyed Makhdoom Raheen in Tehran on Monday, ISNA reported.
“The two nations of Iran and Afghanistan are against wars,” Ahmadinejad said, adding that Tehran and Kabul “seek peace and brotherhood for all nations.”
The cultural commonalities between Iran and Afghanistan have helped unite the two nations on regional and international issues, Ahmadinejad said.
The president also voiced Tehran’s readiness to continue its cooperation with Kabul particularly in the cultural sector.
The Afghan minister, for his part, said that the two countries should use their cultural and historical similarities to expand their ties.
Raheen also met with Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini on Sunday.
Since his arrival, the Afghan minister has held meetings with a number of other officials regarding cultural ties between the two countries.

Messengers of Friendship
Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance said that while drums of war are beaten across the world, friendly and brotherly countries of Iran and Afghanistan are messengers of peace and friendship.
Addressing a seminar themed “Night of Ghazni” held in the ECO Cultural Institute, Hosseini referred to the deep bonds between the two nations and said that diverse programs have been drawn up to mark designation of the Afghan city of Ghazni as the cultural capital of the Islamic World.
The designation is a suitable opportunity to focus on cultural commonalities and promote Persian language as well as unity between the two nations, the minister said.
Currently, some three million Afghans are living in Iran, he said.
Afghan Minister of information and culture also told the same event, “I think that Ghazni will smile again after 1,000 years following the designation of it as the cultural capital of the Islamic world in 2013.”
Ghazni has experienced bitter calamities in the past millennium and most of its monuments are on the verge of destruction due to the attacks by enemies, Raheen said.
One of the reasons Ghazni was designated as the cultural capital of the Islamic world is that it has nurtured many great scientists and scholars such as Abu Rayhan Birouni and Sanaei Ghaznavi.

Test of Indigenous S-300 Subsystems Underway

Iran is now testing the subsystems of Bavar (Belief) 373 missile defense system--the local version of the sophisticated S-300 long-range air-defense missile system, a military official said.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a ceremony here in Tehran on Tuesday, Commander of Khatam ul-Anbia Air Defense Headquarters Brigadier General Farzad Esmaeili said “laboratory tests” are underway on subsystems of the long-range Bavar-373 air defense system, Fars News Agency reported.
“We are in good status in this regards and the Defense Ministry and Khatam ul-Anbia Headquarters are pursuing the project,” Esmaeili continued.
Late in September 2012, Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi announced that his ministry would soon release sensitive information about the production of the indigenous version of the sophisticated S-300 air defense system which is currently underway in Iran.
“The works pertaining to the designing and building of the (S-300) system are underway and the relevant information will be released soon,” Vahidi said at the time.
According to Esmaeili, the missile system, Bavar-373, is more powerful and advanced than the Russian S-300.
Under a contract signed in 2007, Russia was required to provide Iran with at least five S-300 air defense systems. Moscow has been refusing to deliver the system to Iran under the pretext that it is covered by the fourth round of the UN Security Council sanctions resolutions against Iran. The S-300 surface-to-air system, known as the SA-20 in the West, can track targets and fire at aircraft 120 km (75 miles) away. It also features high jamming immunity and is capable of simultaneously engaging up to 100 targets.

Qader, Nour Missiles Successfully Test-Fired

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The specialized maritime maneuver covers an area from east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Sea of Oman and north of the Indian Ocean as far as the 18th parallel north.

Electronic-Warfare Systems on Vessels
Rear Admiral Rastegari said all the surface and sub-surface units of Iran’s Navy are equipped with electronic warfare systems.
“The Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has equipped all of its surface and sub-surface units with these systems (electronic warfare systems),” the spokesman for Iran’s ongoing Velayat-91 naval drill said on Monday. Rastegari added that the maneuvers involved conducting operations to detect enemy signals, including communication systems and radar signals, analyzing and processing them and tracking down the emission source of the signals.

Iran’s Deterrence Power
Meanwhile, an Iranian lawmaker said Iran has no intention to carry out an act of aggression against any country, stressing that the ongoing naval drills are aimed at giving a firm response to those regimes which covet regional energy resources.
“Holding of the Velayat-91 maneuvers is a firm response to those regimes that covet the energy [resources] of the region,” member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Evaz Heidarpour Shahrezaei said on Monday.
He added that the naval exercises convey Iran’s clear message to countries which seek to carry out certain moves in the Persian Gulf [to let them know] that the Islamic Republic is completely ready to defend its air, land and sea borders.

Israel War Threat Mere Lie

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Jazayeri pointed to Israel’s failure in the 33-day war against the Lebanese Hezbollah in 2006, the 22-day war against Gaza in 2008, and the November 2012 invasion of Gaza, saying, “The Zionist regime [of Israel] is not capable of engaging in any serious war.” In November, Commander of the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said that Iran has provided the Palestinian groups with the needed technology to mass produce Fajr-5 missiles.
“We cannot send arms to Gaza because of its siege, but we have provided them (the Palestinians) with our experiences in manufacturing Fajr-5 missiles and today this missile is being manufactured (by Palestinians) in large numbers,” Jafari said at the time.
Palestinians now have a large depot of the strategic weapons, he added.
On November 14, the Israeli regime launched a deadly offensive on the blockaded Gaza Strip.
In response, Palestinian resistance fighters incessantly poured rockets and missiles onto the Israeli cities, killing at least five Israelis, including one soldier.
An Egypt-mediated ceasefire agreement, which took effect at 1900 GMT on November 21, ended the eight-day Israeli onslaught on Gaza.
Israel was surprised when Palestinians in Gaza targeted Tel Aviv, 70km away from the foremost Palestinian territories, for the first time.
Fajr-class rockets, Fajr-5 (Dawn 5) in particular, are known and described by the world military experts, as a weapon system appropriate for asymmetric wars, where the military power of the conflicting sides differs significantly.
The two-stage version of Fajr-5 rockets are the most effective and longest range of the Fajr-class rockets and can be used against enemy targets such as command and control centers, logistics, radar, communication, airports, plants and economic and political centers.
The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since June 2007, which has resulted in mass unemployment, extreme poverty and food price hikes.
The Israeli regime has repeatedly refused to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Lawmakers’ Reactions
Lawmaker Evaz Heidarpour Shahrezaei also said Israel’s new claim about directly attacking the Islamic Republic’s capital, Tehran, is just a “lame joke and military bluff”.
“Attacking the heart of Tehran is by no means possible for the Zionists and the Islamic Republic of Iran strongly defends [its] air, land and sea borders, and monitors its entire air space,” member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission said on Monday.
The Iranian lawmaker added that Iran would strongly counter any attack and if the Zionists carried out their threat against Tehran, it would be the beginning of the Israeli regime’s collapse.
The Iranian legislator’s remarks came after the Israeli commander recently accused Iran of transferring arms to the Gaza Strip and threatened that Israel will strike at “the heart of Tehran”.
Meanwhile, another member of the same Majlis commission Mohammad Saleh Jokar said Iran’s long-range missiles can easily wipe the Israeli regime off the world map.
“The army of the Zionist regime [of Israel] was even unable to defend [itself] against short-range missiles of Hamas during the eight-day war [on the Gaza Strip], let alone to defend itself against Iran’s long-range missiles,” he added.
In another development, spokesman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Naqavi Hosseini reacted to Eshel’s claims, noting that the Israeli regime has no power to implement such threats and does not dare to fire a bullet toward Iran.
“The occupying regime of Isreal is in no position to threaten Iran because it is well aware of the consequences that the slightest threat against the Islamic Republic of Iran will have for them,” Naqavi Hosseini said.
The Iranian lawmaker described Israel’s threats as mere slogans and warned the Tel Aviv regime against “dangerous repercussions of such oral threats”.
Israel has frequently threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities based on the unfounded allegation that Iran’s nuclear energy program has been diverted towards military purposes.
Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Iranian officials have also vowed a crushing response to any military strike against the country, warning that any such measure could result in a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.

Iran, Russia Cooperation Key Factor in Regional Stability

A Russian analyst said Tuesday that cooperation between Tehran and Moscow is the key factor in maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East region.
Maksim Shevchenko, Head of Russia’s Center for Strategic Studies of Religion and Politics of the Modern World, told IRNA that Iran and Russia have been making extensive efforts to that end. Joint measures taken by Tehran and Moscow have focused on providing security for regional countries without the interference of extra-regional powers including the US, said the analyst.
He further said the two countries are against any unilateralism and meddling that could threaten regional peace.
Efforts made by Iran and Russia will be effective in insuring the success of diplomacy on Syria and settling the Syrian crisis, he said.
About Russia’s stand on Syria, Shevchenko said his country and Iran have taken the same stand on that issue.
The two countries, he added, are against any terrorist operations in Syria or any military solutions to solve the crisis there.
About Iran’s six-point plan for Syria, the Russian analyst called it as a proper solution to end Syrian conflicts if implemented.
The United States wants to prepare the ground for partitioning Syria, added Shevchenko.
He expressed hope that independent states including Iran, Russia and China will cooperate to foil the Western plots against the Syrian nation and government.

West’s Sanctions Harm Energy Supply to Turkey

A senior Turkish researcher said the US-led sanctions against Iran’s energy sector are causing problems for energy supply to his country.
“Iran is an important energy supplier to Turkey. A third of our natural gas comes from Iran. That makes the timing of sanctions very inopportune since the winter cold makes gas buyers more dependent as customers,” Guven Sak, managing director of the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV), wrote in an article in Al-Monitor website.
Sak went on to criticize the latest US sanctions banning the sale of precious metals to Iran, saying, “That bodes ill for Turkey, which was paying for its gas purchases with gold.”
“Iran is a country in the region with which Turkey has a persistent foreign trade deficit. That is, we buy more from them than we sell,” wrote the Turkish researcher.
He recommended Tehran and Ankara to “find more creative ways on continuing their arrangement.”
On December 26, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said his country will keep buying natural gas from Iran regardless of the Western sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
On December 29, Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister for Gas Affairs Javad Owji said the country’s daily gas exports to Turkey have for the first time topped 31 million cubic meters.

Saudi Arabia Releases 6 Sailors

Political Desk

The Saudi Arabia has released six Iranian sailors arrested over alleged illegal entry to territorial waters of the Arab country, Iran’s ambassador to Riyadh said on Tuesday.
Mohammad Javad Rasouli Mahalati said the sailors were freed following the consultations between the Iranian and Saudi officials, Mehr News Agency reported.
He added that Riyadh also gave back the sailor’s confiscated vessels.
According to Foreign Ministry, 497 Iranian inmates have been released from foreign prisons in the first three quarters of the current Iranian year (started March 20).
Kazem Sajjadi, director general of the Iranian Foreign Ministry department for Iranian expatriates, said on Monday the prisoners were released upon the efforts made by the Iranian Foreign Ministry and a number of Iranian embassies.
The inmates were in detention mostly for illegal entrance and drug trafficking.

War on Drugs

Chief of Anti-Narcotics Police Brigadier General Ali Moayyedi said on Tuesday that Iran has seized some 355 tons of drugs over the past 9 months.