Support for Assad’s Plan Reiterated

First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi underlined the Islamic Republic’s support for a plan offered by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to settle the unrest in the Arab country.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran supports this stance and considers it a significant step for the establishment of stability and security in Syria,” Rahimi said in a telephone conversation with Syrian Prime Minister Wael Al-Halqi on Tuesday.
Terrorists and foreign countries should know that the Syrian nation wants peace and reforms and does not brook foreign interference in the country, Rahimi added, according to IRNA.
The Syrian premier, for his part, praised Iran’s support for the Syrian nation, and added that the Syrian people stand firmly against enemies and do not allow any foreign interference in their country.
In a key speech on Sunday, Assad called for an end to the terrorist operations inside Syria and urged ‘concerned states and parties’ to stop funding, arming and harboring militants.
He said his government is always ready to hold talks with the opposition and political parties and will call for a ‘comprehensive national dialog’ after foreign parties end their support for the militants and the terrorist activities cease in the country. The Syrian leader also proposed the drafting of a new constitution.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 and tens of thousands of people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the turmoil.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
Damascus blames western countries and some of their regional allies including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of arming the opposition and fueling the crisis in the country, as reports indicate that a large number of insurgents fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.
Several international human rights organizations have accused the foreign-sponsored insurgents of committing war crimes.
Iran has repeatedly rejected foreign intervention in Syria’s internal affairs, calling for national dialog as the only way out of the country’s prolonged impasse.

Syria Realities
Meanwhile a member of Majlis said the plan proposed by Assad to resolve the country’s crisis is based on the current realities of the Arab state.
Seyyed Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini said that foreign countries are supporting terrorists in Syria and providing them with weapons, while the people are standing by their country.
“This crisis will result in the massacre of the people,” said the spokesman for the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.
“Terrorists will never overcome the Syrian people and government,” Naqavi-Hosseini noted, saying that Assad has considered the reality that the ongoing war in Syria is between foreign powers on the one side and the Syrian people and government on the other.
In a key speech on Sunday, President Assad called for an end to terrorist operations inside Syria and urged ‘concerned states and parties” to stop funding, arming and harboring militants.
Assad added that his government is always ready to hold talks with the opposition and political parties and would call for a ‘comprehensive national dialog’ after foreign parties end their support for the militants and the terrorist activities cease in the country.

Iran Key Player In Interpol

Interpol’s Executive Director of Police Services Jean-Michel Louboutin said Iran is an effective player in the organization’s international operations.
Louboutin, who is visiting Iran to promote cooperation between the international organization and the Iranian police, made the remarks during a Tuesday meeting with chief of Interpol section of Iranian police, Colonel Massoud Rezvani, ISNA reported.
Saying that Iran is one of the oldest member countries of Interpol, Louboutin said, “Cooperation between Iran and Interpol is at an acceptable level.”
Louboutin, on his first visit to Iran, stressed that Iranian police have been trained effectively enough to deal with different crimes.
Referring to a joint operation between the Iranian police forces and Interpol, Louboutin hailed Iran’s comprehensive efforts in combating drug trafficking.
Rezvani, for his part, said, “The Iranian police is ready to improve its communication with Interpol, especially in the area of organized crime.”
Iran has a 900-kilometer border with Afghanistan and has frequently been used as the main conduit for the smuggling of Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.
It has spent more than $700 million to seal its eastern borders and prevent the transit of narcotics destined for European, Arab and Central Asian countries.
The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Iranian police officers over the past 33 years.

AMIA Talks With Argentina ‘Very Constructive’

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has described as ‘very constructive’ a recent meeting with his Argentinean counterpart Hector Timerman on the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina or Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) case.
“The meeting with Mr. Timerman to achieve [results] and make progress in the legal proceedings for the AMIA was very constructive and I hope that the issue will continue to make progress and yield good results,” Salehi told reporters on Tuesday, Press TV reported.
Meanwhile, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said resolving the issues pertaining to the AMIA case, a 1994 bombing attack in Argentina, was the main focus of the meeting held in the Swiss city of Zurich on January 3.
Mehmanparast said the talks were carried out in a friendly and constructive atmosphere, stressing that Tehran welcomes the continuation of the talks and hopes the negotiations will bear a favorable result that is acceptable by both countries.
A press communiqué released by the Argentinean Foreign Ministry on Monday also considered the meeting as ‘highly productive’, saying that progress was being made with Iran regarding the legal proceedings of the case.
Under intense political pressure imposed by the US and Israeli regime, Argentina formally accused Iran of having carried out the 1994 bombing attack on the AMIA.
The attack on the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires killed 85 people and wounded 300 others.
The Islamic Republic has vehemently and consistently denied any involvement in the terror bombing.
Salehi and Timerman had agreed during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2012 that both sides would continue discussions over the case until a mutual agreement is reached.

Israel’s Anti-Iran Propaganda a Disguise

A senior lawmaker downplayed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent anti-Iran remarks as insignificant and aimed at concealing Tel Aviv’s failures.
Netanyahu told Israeli diplomats on Thursday that ‘Iran remains the number one threat’ and that Israel was determined to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
“These slogans which lack practical support are propaganda methods used by Netanyahu and his associated [Likud] party to cover up the weaknesses and political failures of the occupying Zionist regime in domestic, regional and Mideast affairs,” Hossein Sobhaninia, member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Commission, said on Tuesday, Press TV reported.
The Israeli regime is faced with a legitimacy crisis at home and Tel Aviv is making an attempt to influence the Israeli public opinion in order to ensure or reinforce its future political standing, the lawmaker explained.
“[The current] rulers of the Zionist regime [of Israel] seek to introduce the Islamic Republic of Iran as a source of threat to people and claim that if they are...[reelected], these threats would be defused,” Sobhaninia pointed out.
The United States, Israeli regime and some of their allies have accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Iran strongly rejects the allegation, saying that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use peaceful nuclear technology.

Police Chief Vows Calm Presidential Election

Police Chief Brigadier General Esmaeil Ahmadi Moqaddam said his forces can monitor and foil any foreign plot which might pose a threat to the upcoming presidential election slated for June.
“We promise that Iran’s presidential election will be held in an atmosphere calmer than all the previous elections,” Ahmadi Moqaddam said, addressing a ceremony in Kerman province on Tuesday, Fars News Agency reported.
“We are already closely watching foreign threats, any ground for insecurity in the country and all areas neglecting which could cause a loss at the time of elections,” he said.
The Interior Ministry in September announced the country will hold the next presidential election on June 14, 2013.
In its statement, the ministry said that the presidential election will be held concurrent with municipal voting.
This will be the first time that the two elections are held together. More than 100,000 seats are up for grabs on the local level, and campaigning for them can have national implications.

Syria Unrest, Result of West Meddling

Iran’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohsen Pakaein said the unrest in Syria results from western and Israeli intervention in the Arab country’s internal affairs.
In an interview with the Azeri daily, Islamin Sesi, Pakaein emphasized that western countries provide Al-Qaeda terrorists with military support and use them against the Syrian government.
“Al-Qaeda kills Syrian people there (Syria), but it can’t implement reform and bring freedom to the country,” he said, adding that the West is pursuing the downfall of the Syrian government to break the resistance front against the Israeli regime.
Pakaein also noted that the people of Syria want political reforms to be implemented through elections and Iran welcomes the implementation of reformist measures in Syria based on the nation’s vote.
“We know the opposition in Syria well,” Pakaein said, adding, “Although some of them endorse terrorism and violence, the majority of them support reforms.”
Syria has been the scene of unrest since early 2011 and has witnessed the death of many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel in the violence.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
In a key speech on Sunday, Assad said his government is always ready to hold talks with the opposition and political parties and will call for a ‘comprehensive national dialog’ after foreign parties end their support for the militants and the terrorist activities end in the country.

Freedom of Religion

Head of the Armenian Diocese Grigor Chiftchian said on Wednesday that religious minorities, including Armenians, residing in Iran face no restriction in performing their religious rituals.