IRAN DAILY

License Holder: (IRNA) www.irna.ir ● Number 4411 ● Saturday December 29, 2012 ● Dey 9, 1391 ● Safar 15, 1434 ● Price 2,000 Rials ● 12 Pages ● www.iran-daily.com

Photo Gallery

Japan Doubles Iran Crude Imports

Turkey to Buy Iranian Gas Despite US Sanctions

Shams Ready To Retake Futsal Job

US Cyber Attack Thwarted

Iran Launches Specialized Naval Drill

The Iranian Navy has launched a specialized naval drill, dubbed Velayat-91, to display the country’s capabilities and send a message of friendship to neighboring countries.
The maritime drill will be carried out in the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman, north of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden and Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, Iran’s Navy commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told reporters on Friday, Press TV reported.
“Among the aims of the drill is to display the capabilities of Iran’s Armed Forces and the Navy to defend our country’s water borders and interests in line with establishing durable security in the region and conveying the message of peace and friendship to the neighboring states,” Sayyari added.
He said that the Velayat-91 drill also sends this message to enemies that the Iranian nation seriously defends its vital interests in all areas, in particular in free waters.
Sayyari also said that the maneuver seeks to boost the Navy’s tactical and operational capabilities and added that during the maneuver the 23rd fleet of the Navy, comprised of Busheher warship and Jamaran destroyer, will escort Iran’s merchant vessels and oil tankers as part of the navy’s mission to fight piracy. On the first day of the drill, a fleet of surface and subsurface vessels were sent to the location of the exercise.
The fleet included different classes of heavy and light submarines, logistic and missile-launching warships and frigates as well as Alborz and Sabalan destroyers.
In the Friday drill, the Jamaran destroyer closely monitored the movements of the mock enemy and sent collected information to the headquarters of the drill.

Iran, Turkey to Weigh 6-Point Syria Plan

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Iran and Turkey plan to continue discussions on Tehran’s six-point peace plan for Syria.
“At the meetings with the Turkish officials, Iran’s six-point plan for resolving the Syrian crisis was examined and it was decided that negotiations continue on the areas of agreement,” Mehmanparast said at a Thursday news conference in the Turkish northeastern city of Trabzon, Press TV reported.
Denouncing any foreign intervention in Syria, Mehmanparast said, “Different plans have been proposed for the Syrian crisis of which Iran’s six-point plan that is peaceful and supports the people’s rights, is the best.”
The Iranian diplomat called on all countries to facilitate the democratic process in Syria and prevent foreign meddling in the country.
On December 16, Iran unveiled the details of a six-point plan to resolve the ongoing crisis in Syria, which calls for an immediate end to all violent and armed acts.
The plan also calls for the dispatch of humanitarian aid to Syrians following the end of all conflicts, the lifting of all economic sanctions imposed against the country, and the facilitation of the return of displaced Syrians to their homes.
It also calls on the Syrian government and the representatives of all Syrian groups regardless of their political and social tendencies to hold talks in order to form a national reconciliation committee.

Lavrov: Iran Has Rights to Nuclear Program

Use of force against Iran can bring most negative consequences, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Moscow on Thursday.
“Iran has the right to have peaceful nuclear activity under the complete supervision of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” he said in an interview with the Russian News Agency Interfax.
Lavrov added that the international community should respond to Iran’s positive steps and remove the sanctions gradually.
There are new horizons in talks between P5+1 and Iran in bridging the gaps, he said, referring to recent talks between Tehran and P5+1 representative.
“According to IAEA reports, there is no evidence of Iran’s deviation from peaceful nuclear program; IAEA representatives and Iranian officials made agreement on the modality of cooperation in latest talks in Tehran.”
Russian FM voiced hope that the upcoming January talks between IAEA representatives and Iran result in a final accord. He also said that the region is already suffering from increasing tensions.
Washington and its Western allies accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, while they have never presented any corroborative evidence to substantiate their allegations. Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that it has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

US ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Battle Heats Up

US President Barack Obama will host top congressional leaders including his bitter Republican rivals on Friday in a last-ditch bid to halt America’s slide over the so-called “fiscal cliff.”
A White House official said he will meet his Republican foes House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic allies Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, AFP reported.
McConnell and Boehner’s office also confirmed the meeting, which comes amid heightened political tensions and mounting pessimism in Washington over whether a convincing deal can be struck before a year-end deadline.
“We’ll see what the president has to propose. Members on both sides of the aisle will review it, and then we’ll decide how best to proceed,” McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Hopefully there is still time for an agreement of some kind that saves the taxpayers from a wholly preventable economic crisis.”
Senate rivals Reid and McConnell spent Thursday’s public appearances blaming one another for the looming failure, with Reid warning that the US economy was more likely than not heading into 2013 without a deal on the books.
“I have to be very honest,” Reid said on the Senate floor during a rare holiday week session. “I don’t know time-wise how it can happen now.”
On Wednesday, the president called the congressional quartet -- McConnell, Reid, Boehner and Pelosi -- hoping to inch forward on a deal, but lawmakers and their aides have stressed there was little to no progress over the holidays.
Obama cut short his Christmas vacation in Hawaii to return to the White House, where he ignored reporters’ shouted questions about the crisis, four days before a deadline to agree a deal on tax and spending.

Russia Urges Assad To Talk to Opposition

Russia, the only big power with close ties to the Syrian regime, on Friday urged President Bashar Al-Assad to follow through on pledges to meet the opposition and keep all options open for a transition government.
The call came as Moscow revved up its bid to save a tattered peace process by first hosting a top Assad envoy and then planning for a meeting Saturday with Syria peace mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, AP reported.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow still refused to back international calls on Assad to step down and expected the Syrian people to decide their own country’s fate. But he made explicit that Moscow wanted Assad to put all options on the table after 21 months of violence.

Royan Offers Stem Cell-Based Therapy

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Parents Warned Over Teen Drug Abuse

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Gun Lobby Vows To Fight Regulation of Global Arms Trade

The leading US pro-gun group, the National Rifle Association, has vowed to fight a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global arms trade and dismissed suggestions that a recent US school shooting bolstered the case for such a pact.
The UN General Assembly voted on Monday to restart negotiations in mid-March on the first international treaty to regulate conventional arms trade after a drafting conference in July collapsed because the US and other nations wanted more time. Washington supported Monday’s UN vote, Reuters reported.
US President Barack Obama has come under intense pressure to tighten domestic gun control laws after the Dec. 14 shooting massacre of 20 children and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. His administration has since reiterated its support for a global arms treaty that does not curtail US citizens’ rights to own weapons.
Arms control campaigners say one person every minute dies as a result of armed violence and a convention is needed to prevent illicitly traded guns from pouring into conflict zones and fueling wars and atrocities.

BRICS Tracking Money Flow

The five leading developing nations grouped in the BRICS alliance--Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa--are planning to intensify efforts to collect accurate trade data, so they can get a better picture of trade flows.
The exercise will help with economic planning, and will give improved insight into the economic links among the five members of the club.
“We can never agree on what our trade is,” Xavier Carim, deputy director general in South Africa’s Department of Trade and Industry, told IPS.
“We collect statistics differently, and we will seek to see why they don’t match. It’s a technical exercise.”
The statistical review is expected to be given a boost at the BRICS summit in Durban in March 2013, which will be attended by the heads of government and economy ministers from the five member nations.
Obviously, it is always good to have better data, Pretoria-based economist, Dawie Roodt of the Efficient Group said.
The better the data, the more efficiently economists can identify trends--and the better they can advise on policy.
Another leading South African economist, Mike Schussler of economists.co.za, agreed on the need for accurate data.
“You must have proper data. If you give advice based on data which is wrong, this will have led you to the wrong conclusions,” he said.

S. Pars Phases 15, 16 to Be Pre-Commissioned

An Iranian contractor says gas refineries related to phases 15 and 16 of Iran’s giant offshore South Pars Gas Field will be pre-commissioned in February 2013.
Mahmoud Shobeiri also said the pre-commissioning ceremony will be held for the refineries during the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations, marking the 34th anniversary of the 1979 victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in February. The Iranian contractor added that the refineries will process sour gas from phases 15 and 16 of the South Pars Gas Field. Shobeiri stated that development of the field’s phases 15 and 16 has so far progressed by 94 percent. Iran is currently producing 300 million cubic meters per day of gas from South Pars.

Spain’s Iberia Airline Crew Protest Planned Job Cuts

PM Warns of “Very Tough” Year
World Desk

Around 2,000 air and ground staff from Spanish flag carrier Iberia protested in Madrid on Thursday over planned job cuts as prime minister warned of a “very tough” year ahead for the economy.
“We still have a very tough year ahead, especially in the first half, and we have to persevere in the reforms we have embarked on,” Rajoy told a news conference. “The economy will continue in recession for some time although we hope it will start to improve in the second half of the year ahead.”
Labour unions and the company’s management are currently discussing a five-year restructuring plan which could see some 4,500 jobs axed.
The company, which is Europe’s biggest carrier to Latin America, has been struggling against competition from low cost airlines and high speed trains, as well as high operating costs and the economic crisis in Spain. Iberia employee Julia Pastor said the cuts will have a wider effect: “What is happening in Iberia is a bit like what is happening in the country, job destruction.”