Iran, Turkey to Weigh 6-Point Syria Plan

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Turkey Support Against PKK
Mehmanparast reaffirmed the Islamic Republic’s support for Turkey in the country’s fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK(.
In a Thursday meeting with Recep Kizilcik, the governor of the Turkish province of Trabzon, Mehmanparast expressed surprise over recent remarks by Turkey’s Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin who claimed Tehran provided support for the PKK.
“Turkish officials are aware of the point that we are also against this terrorist group. We support Turkey in its fight against the PKK,” he said.
On December 24, the Turkish interior minister claimed that PKK members use Iranian territory for training and treating their injured as well as for transporting arms and funds.
Sahin called on Tehran to strengthen its border defenses.
The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.
The Iranian spokesperson further said that as two strong countries in the region, Iran and Turkey should cooperate with each other to resolve regional woes.
“We do not need other countries to settle regional problems and we can resolve woes through consultation,” Mehmanparast pointed out.
He added that the presence of foreign forces in the region would affect security of all regional countries.
We believe that the Israeli regime and its allies seek to cause insecurity in the region, the Iranian spokesman said.
He highlighted the significance of bolstering politico-economic ties between Tehran and Ankara and noted that the value of trade exchanges between the two sides stood at some $16 billion in 2011 and neared $20 million in 2012.
It is expected that Iran and Turkey would increase their economic interaction to $30 billion in 2015, he added.

Iran hails outcomes of S. Africa ANC conference
The foreign ministry spokesman also praised the positive outcomes of the recent 53rd National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) in Bloemfontein, Mangaung.
Mehmanparast expressed hope that the reelection of South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma as ANC president would guarantee the interests of the African country and result in positive consequences to bolster amicable mutual ties.
“People of South Africa well remember the Islamic Republic’s support for the movement fighting against apartheid and friendly relations between Iran and South Africa have continued after apartheid,” the Iranian spokesperson said.
The 53rd National Conference of the ANC was held from December 16-20 in Bloemfontein, Free State.
On December 18, President Zuma was reelected as the ANC leader, winning in a landslide victory over Kgalema Motlanthe, his deputy and only rival for the position.
Cyril Ramaphosa, a former trade union leader who became one of the country’s richest businessmen, was voted in as the ANC’s new vice president, taking over from Motlanthe, who declined nominations for the job.

Tehran, Baku Vow Anti-Drug Campaign

Iran’s Ambassador to Baku Mohsen Pakaeen discussed ways to expand cooperation in the campaign against drug trafficking and organized crimes with Azerbaijan Republic’s Interior Minister Ramil Usubov.
During a meeting in Baku on Thursday, the Azeri minister stressed the use of Tehran’s experience in the field of campaign against drug trafficking and development of cooperation between the two countries against the organized crimes, IRNA reported.
“Iran and Azerbaijan Republic have an important role in the establishment of peace and security in the region,” he said.
Iran’s ambassador to Baku, for his part, emphasized the importance of the two countries’ cooperation against the organized crimes and drug trafficking.
“Iran and Azerbaijan Republic fight against terrorism and extremism can help the boost of regional peace and stability,” the envoy said.
With a 900-kilometer (560-mile) common border with Afghanistan, Iran has been used as the main conduit for smuggling Afghan drugs to narcotics kingpins in Europe.
Iran has spent more than $700 million to seal the porous borders and disrupt the transit of narcotics destined primarily for the European, Arab and Central Asian countries.
The war on drug trade originating from Afghanistan has claimed the lives of nearly 3,700 Iranian police officers and anti-drug agents over the past 30 years.
Iranian police measures along the eastern borders have forced drug traffickers to take other routes, including the Sea of Oman and the Persian Gulf, for smuggling their drug cargos originating from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
According to figures released by the UN, Iran ranks first in the world in preventing the entry of drugs and lowering demand for narcotics.

Lavrov: Iran Has Rights to Nuclear Program

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Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions for turning down West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.
Tehran has dismissed West’s demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that those sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path.
Iran has repeatedly said that it considers its nuclear case closed as it has come clean of IAEA’s questions and suspicions about its past nuclear activities.

US Cyber Attack Thwarted

Iran has neutralized a cyber attack generated in America’s Dallas city against the servers of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
Tehran said the electronic aggression was launched through servers in Malaysia and Vietnam, but was repelled by experts from the Supporting and Protecting Works of Art and Culture Center.
Iranian authorities frequently denounce similar aggressions against industrial centers and nuclear power plants from the US and Israel and have been forced to create, along with Iranian specialists, cyber battalions that operate 24 hours a day.
Cyber attacks against Iranian networks began in 2010 with a virus known as Stuxnet, whose target was computers at nuclear power plants.
These actions were part of a program that included the assassination of some Iranian atomic energy scientists, according to investigations.
In June, the New York Times reported that US President Barack Obama had secretly ordered a cyber attack with the Stuxnet computer virus against Iran to sabotage the country’s nuclear energy program.
A report published by the Washington Post also in June said that the United States and the Israeli regime had jointly created the computer virus Flame--a Stuxnet-like espionage malware--to spy on Iran.
In response to such attacks, Iran launched a cyber defense headquarters tasked with preventing computer worms from breaking into or stealing data from the country’s maximum security networks, including nuclear facilities, power plants, data centers, and banks.

Deputy FM Clarifies Parchin Comment

Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular, Parliamentary and Iranians Affairs Hassan Qashqavi has clarified his comments on Iran’s Parchin site.
In an interview with Press TV, Qashqavi provided explanations on reports quoting him that the country is ready to allow the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to visit Parchin military site.
“In my speech which I delivered in Tehran University, there are two subjects. In one of them I delivered my speech regarding national security of Iran and the other was about the nuclear issue,” Qashqavi said. “One of the correspondents who was in this speech mixed two subjects from two separate issues, and he delivered his perception regarding this matter but in the text of my speech there was not any kind of this sentence because [there were] two separate issues which were delivered by me and there is no connection between the two matters,” he added.
Some media had quoted the Iranian official as saying that Iran would allow IAEA inspectors to visit Parchin site if the world powers reduced their threats against Iran.

President Sacks Health Minister

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed Health Minister Marziyeh Vahid-Dastjerdi, appointing a caretaker to run the ministry.
After dismissing Vahid-Dastjerdi, the sole female cabinet minister, from the post, Ahmadinejad appointed Mohammad Hassan Tariqat-Monfared as caretaker health minister through a decree on Thursday, Press TV reported.
“Managing the family physician plan, [attending to problems related to] medicines and treatment [of diseases], attention to public health and nutrition, [ensuring] educational, health, and medical justice, and reducing people’s expenses in this sector are the main priorities of this important ministry,” Ahmadinejad said in his decree to Tariqat-Monfared.
Dastjerdi was the first Iranian female minister after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and her removal comes less than a year before her term draws to an end.

IRIB Baku Reporter Says He Was Framed

An Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) correspondent who was recently released from prison in Baku said he had been framed by the Azerbaijani police.
Upon his release, Anar Bayramli rejected as fake the drug-related charges pushed by Azerbaijani officials against him, and said that he was actually arrested for his journalistic activities, Press TV reported.
The IRIB’s local correspondent, who spent an unjust 10-month term in jail, thanked human rights organizations and activists who pressured Baku to release him, and vowed to resume his activities as a journalist.
Bayramli was released along with 86 other inmates after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a pardon order for the detainees, among them a number of political prisoners.
The IRIB reporter was arrested on February 17 after Azerbaijani police falsely incriminated him for allegedly possessing drugs. A Baku court sentenced Bayramli to two years in prison on June 11 based on false testimonies. On August 2, an appeals court reduced his sentence to 12 months following broad protests by Azerbaijani, Iranian and Turkish associations and international human rights bodies.
More than 30 social, media and political establishments in Azerbaijan as well as tens of international bodies, including Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders, condemned Bayramli’s arrest and described him as a political prisoner detained over his professional working and his knowledge of religious developments.

Iran Launches Specialized Naval Drill

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Following that, vessels including submarines, surface vessels and hovercrafts moved to the location of the battle to counter the mock enemy forces.
The Velayat-91 drill was launched on Friday and will continue for six days.
Over the past few years, Iran has held several military drills to enhance the defensive capabilities of its armed forces and to test modern military tactics and equipment.
Iran’s Navy launched the massive 10-day Velayat-90 naval exercise on December 24, 2011.
The drill covered an area stretching from the east of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden. Apart from military tactics, different domestically-built pieces of equipment were also tested in the drill.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly assured other nations, especially neighbors, that its military might poses no threat to other countries, insisting that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.

International Presence
On Thursday, Sayyari said that Iranian naval forces enjoy high capabilities and seek to maintain their presence in international waters.
“The presence [of naval forces] in open seas, where different countries of the world are present, is an international scene and any presence there shows the country’s capability,” Sayyari told IRNA. “When we are present in open seas and our destroyers cruise there on missions, we have entered the international arena and have contact with other countries and this demonstrates the Islamic Republic’s capabilities,” he added.
He also said that Iranian naval experts have acquired the scientific know-how to design and produce all weapons and equipment needed in the Navy.
In recent years, Iran’s Navy has been increasing its presence in international waters to protect naval routes and provide security for Iranian merchant vessels and tankers.
On December 16, Sayyari expressed the readiness of Iranian naval forces to extend their presence to international waters, including the Atlantic Ocean, to protect the Islamic Republic’s interests.
“In order to protect the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran and establish security for our country’s trade vessels and oil tankers in free and international waters, we are ready to extend our presence in these areas and even in the Atlantic Ocean,” Sayyari said.
Tehran has repeatedly clarified that its military might is merely based on the nation’s defense doctrine of deterrence and poses no threat to other countries.

Quake Hits Varzaqan

An earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale jolted the town of Varzaqan in East Azarbaijan province, Northwestern Iran, on Friday morning.