Irandaily | No. 4437 | National

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Sanctions Obstacle To Nuclear Breakthrough

Sanctions will not resolve Iran’s nuclear issue, Russian Ambassador to Spain, Yuri Korchagin said on Thursday.
Speaking in a press conference in Madrid, he noted that Moscow believes Tehran’s nuclear issue can be resolved through dialog, IRNA reported.
“Every member of the international community, including Iran, has the right to a peaceful nuclear program; Moocow is committed to expand relations with Tehran.”
Washington and its 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.
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 sanctions as well as unilateral western bans for turning down the West’s calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. In the meantime, Korchagin added that Russian policy towards unrests in Syria has not changed and Moscow believes all sides should end violence and come to the negotiating table.
“Armed gangs supported by the outside powers are the cause of violations in Syria; those who provoke unrests in this region should take a lesson from the situation in Libya and similar areas.”
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.
Thousands of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.
The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.
The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to topple Assad and his ruling system. Media reports said that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.

Zionist System Controls News Channels

Following a new round of attacks against the Iranian media, Mohammad Sarafraz, deputy director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), said the Zionist system controls all the mainstream news channels in the world.
“Because they [the Zionist system] want to proceed with their own economic agendas, they have to control peoples’ thoughts and they achieved this by controlling the largest news channels throughout the world,” Sarafraz said in a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of Iran’s Spanish-language news channel, Hispan TV, in Tehran.
“If a news channel comes and it is an alternative news channel, then the Zionist system wants it removed,” he added, Press TV reported on Thursday.
The event comes after the Spanish government ordered Madrid’s regional government to stop Hispan TV’s broadcast as of January 21 in another blow to freedom of speech.
Hispan TV and Iran’s 24-hour English-language news channel, Press TV, have been already targeted by Hispasat’s fellow European satellite providers Eutelsat and Hotbird.
Hispasat is partly owned by Eutelsat, whose French-Israeli CEO is blamed for the recent wave of attacks on Iranian media in Europe.
The IRIB deputy director denounced the move as a violation of freedom of speech and said, “The US talks about being the biggest advocate of human rights, free speech and democracy, yet it supported dictators and kings of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.”
“It is worried about losing power in the Middle East especially since many of its allies such as [ousted] Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia’s dictator bin Ali and others have been removed from power,” Sarafraz pointed out.
The ban on Press TV and Hispan TV in Spain followed a similar move by France’s Eutelsat company, which had already taken several Iranian satellite channels and radio stations off the air, claiming that the channels were removed because of ‘a wider interpretation of EU regulations’.
Eutelsat SA and Intelsat SA, which stopped the broadcast of several Iranian satellite channels in October, 2012, have cited pressure by the European Union as the main reason.
The EU has, however, denied the claims by the European satellite companies.

Enemy Seeking to Disrupt Election

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said enemies have maximized pressure on the Islamic Republic with the aim of disrupting the next presidential election.
“Enemy has increased pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran to the highest level in the hope of repeating the 2009 unrest and creating crisis before or after the election,” Mehmanparast said Thursday, Press TV reported.
Mehmanparast said that the next presidential election has become the biggest point of hope for enemies to create major unrest in the country and called for massive and enthusiastic turnout in the upcoming election.
“We are now witnessing an all-out war against the Islamic Republic of Iran launched by the global arrogance with the aim of isolating Iran and preventing the country’s youths from obtaining science and technology,” he added.
Mehmanparast said enemies seek to defeat Iran from within the country by targeting the three factors which led to the victory of the Islamic Revolution, namely unity, national solidarity and adherence to principles and values.
On January 8, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said one of the schemes of Iran’s enemies is to prevent a mass turnout in the election by distracting people through creating a political, economic or security incident.
The Leader, however, noted that the Iranian nation is too prudent to be deceived by the hostile plots of the enemies or their agents.
Iran’s Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar said in December that the Islamic Republic’s eleventh presidential elections will be held on June 14, 2013.

Israel After Instability in Region
The spokesman has also condemned Israel’s airstrike on Syria, saying that the Tel Aviv regime seeks to create insecurity and instability in the region.
“The operation conducted by the aggressive Zionist forces against targets in Syria last night shows that this regime is after creating instability and insecurity in regional countries as well as weakening the resistance movement,” Mehmanparast said in an interview with Press TV on Thursday.
He further stated that Israel’s move also indicates that the Tel Aviv regime continues its crimes and aggressions whenever it finds the opportunity.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman warned that those who are creating tension, insecurity and instability in Syria are ‘in fact voluntarily or involuntarily laying the ground for further violations and aggressions by the Zionist regime [of Israel]’.
“Regional countries should be aware of the main danger in the region. They [West and Israel] are trying to create a rift between Islamic countries in the region. They are also trying to create unrest in countries that are in the frontline of the resistance movement against the occupying Zionist regime [of Israel],” he explained.
The official further called on the regional countries to work towards the establishment of security and stability through cooperation and converging their views. Mehmanparast also stressed the Islamic Republic’s respect for territorial integrity of all regional countries, adding ‘any violation of a country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity committed by the Zionist regime [of Israel] must be dealt with’.
On Wednesday, the Syrian army said two people were killed and five others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a research center in Jamraya, near the capital, Damascus. Israel declined to comment on the issue.
Earlier in the day, Russia also expressed concern over the airstrike carried out by the Israeli regime in Syria with the Russian Foreign Ministry saying, “If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked strikes against targets located on the territory of a sovereign state, which brazenly infringes on the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motive used for its justification.”

Strong Reaction...

From Page 1
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011.
Many people, including large numbers of security forces, 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.
Several international human rights organizations have accused the foreign-sponsored insurgents of committing war crimes.

Consequences for Tel Aviv
Also Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian condemned the Israel’s airstrike, noting that the assault will have serious consequences for the Tel Aviv regime.
Amir-Abdollahian said on Thursday that the attack clearly demonstrated that foreign-sponsored militants and Israel pursue the same goals with respect to Syria.
He called on the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon to adopt an effective and practical measure against the attack.
“Parties that have always taken tough stances on Syria should now take serious measures and decisive positions on this invasion by Tel Aviv and place regional security high on their list of priorities,” Amir-Abdollahian pointed out.
The deputy foreign minister also advised Israeli officials not to rely too much on the Patriot missile systems deployed in the region, stressing that their ineffectiveness has been already proven in Israel’s eight-day aggression against the Gaza Strip in November 2012.

Strike Unmasked Syria Crisis
Iran’s Ambassador to Beirut Ghazanfar Roknabadi says Israel’s recent strike in Syria reveals that the motive behind the Damascus unrest is to protect the Tel Aviv regime’s interests.
“The recent assault by the planes of the Quds-occupying regime (Israel) on Syria has taken the mask off the Syria crisis, proving that from the very beginning the main objective of planning armed measures and humanitarian crisis in the country has been to provide the Zionist regime’s interests,” Roknabadi said Thursday in a meeting with a delegation of Lebanese media in Iran’s mission in Beirut.
He also highlighted Iran’s commitment to supporting justice across the world with the liberation of the Palestinian land occupied by Israel on top of it.

Syria Entitled to Respond
An Iranian lawmaker has also censured the Israeli regime’s air strike, saying the Syrian nation reserves a legal right to give a crushing response to Tel Aviv.
“Damascus retaliation against the illegal move of the Zionist regime [of Israel] is a right of the Syrian people,” a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Hassan Asafari said on Thursday.
He added that the Israeli regime’s action was clearly in breach of international law, saying Tel Aviv violated Syria’s territory and the international community must take a serious stance on the issue.
The legislator emphasized that during the upcoming summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Egypt, Muslim countries should not merely issue a statement condemning Tel Aviv’s attack on Syria but should also take a serious attitude towards Israeli officials.
Asafari noted that if a proper response is not given to the Israeli regime at present, it will dare to carry out further attacks on Syrian territory.
He urged the OIC, the UN and the Security Council to condemn the Israeli regime’s airstrike against Syria and the violation of the Arab country’s airspace and adopt a clear and firm stance on Tel Aviv’s military operation.

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