Iran Willing to Cooperate With Russia in Space Industry

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Tehran is interested in enhancing cooperation with Moscow in the field of space science and technology.
In an exclusive interview with the state-run Voice of Russia radio station on Thursday, Salehi said Iran’s space program is already well underway.
The top diplomat added that in order to become a leading space power in the Muslim world, Iran places great significance on its space program.
He added that Iran’s technological capabilities in manufacturing satellites are increasing, noting that Tehran has already launched five satellites into orbit.
Salehi stated that the first Iranian satellite, Sina-1, was built and launched for Iran by Russia in 2005, noting that another satellite has been designed and manufactured jointly by Chinese and Iranian space experts.
The foreign minister said Iran has become self-sufficient in manufacturing satellites over the past 10 years, but it still needs advanced space rockets to put its satellites into the orbit.
On January 28, Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said the successful mission of Pishgam (Pioneer) spacecraft, which successfully carried a monkey into the space, is the first step for Iran towards sending humans into the space.
Iran launched its first indigenous satellite, Omid (Hope), in 2009. The country also sent its first bio-capsule containing living creatures into the space in February 2010, using the indigenous Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) carrier.
The country is one of the 24 founding members of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which was set up in 1959.

Shateri Assassination Reveals West’s False Claims

A member of Majlis on Saturday referred to assassination of Brigadier General Hassan Shateri in Syria as a crime proving the West’s false claims on human rights.
Mohammad Ali Esfanani, rapporteur of Majlis Legal and Judicial Commission, told IRNA that Shateri had been to Lebanon to carry out reconstruction projects in that country.
The parliamentarian further said the Zionist regime has to be accountable for the crime against Shateri, who was in charge of the Iranian committee for the reconstruction of southern Lebanon.
The MP further announced that the Majlis Legal and Judicial Commission will examine the issue soon.
Martyr Shateri who was in Aleppo to implement reconstruction and development projects in that city, was assassinated by Syrian terrorists while he was on his way to Damascus airport to return to Lebanon.
Meanwhile, a Lebanese Christian MP also condemned assassination of Shateri and said that the assassinators are those who mercilessly kill the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese people.
Marwan Fares added that the terrorists intend to block development of the destroyed areas in Lebanon, but Iran will continue the reconstruction operations in the country.
He further noted that terrorist groups massacre those who serve the Lebanese nation.
Lauding Shateri’s efforts to help reconstruct Lebanon, Fares condoled his family on his martyrdom.
Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi has blamed the Zionist regime for the assassination of the IRGC general.
“We assure that this path will continue. It’s true that he used to serve the weak and the oppressed of the Lebanese citizens in a major role, the support of resistance facing the Israeli occupying forces. The assassination of this martyr is proof that the Zionist enemy doesn’t want such acts,” Roknabadi said. The Iranian embassy in Lebanon on Thursday opened its doors for condolences. Officials from the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah and other groups arrived to pay their condolences.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi and his Lebanese counterpart Adnan Mansour along with Lebanese groups in separate statements condemned the assassination.

MP: Bahraini Regime’s Days Numbered

The Al-Khalifa family in Bahrain is on the brink of collapse as the Bahraini people can no longer tolerate the authoritarian rule of the regime, a lawmaker said.
Ebrahim Aqa-Mohammadi, a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on Saturday, “Countdown has begun for the overthrow of Al-Khalifa regime,” Press TV reported.
He pointed to the second anniversary of the outbreak of the popular uprising in the Persian Gulf sheikhdom, saying, “The inequality of wealth distribution in Bahrain and the ban on political freedoms have persecuted the people of Bahrain and ultimately incited them against the regime.”
“Receiving the support of Saudi forces and also the green light of hegemonic countries, particularly the US, the Al-Khalifa regime committed massacre in the country and even used violence against children and women; therefore, in response to such actions, the Bahraini people will not be satisfied with anything, except for the removal of the violent regime,” the legislator stated.
Bahrainis have held major anti-regime demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the uprising of mid-February 2011.
The demonstrators say they will continue holding protests until their demands for the establishment of a democratically-elected government and an end to rights violations are met.
Scores of people have been killed during anti-regime protests since the uprising flared up in the Persian Gulf kingdom.

Justice

Justice is the foundation of the creation of humankind and the whole universe. Justice is tantamount to placing every phenomenon in its own place, and providing humans with opportunities to actualize all their divine capabilities. Without it, the order of the universe will collapse and the opportunity for perfection will fade away.
Without justice, it would be impossible for human society to taste real peace, beauty, joy and happiness. Justice is the main pillar of social life and without it social life cannot continue or grow.
Humans need to know God in order to realize a prosperous society in this world as well as to strive for a beautiful eternal life, and to this end they first have to know themselves and strive for loftiness in themselves and their societies.

Solving Global Problems
Clearly, it is not viable to continue having the status quo dominating the world. The current adverse, one-sided conditions defy human spirit and are in direct contradiction with the objective of the creation of humanity and of the world.
The production of fake currencies, injecting of the equivalent of tens of thousands of unreal dollars into the world’s economy and creating serious budget shortages, as well as the transfer of inflation and other economic woes to other countries and the transportation of the wealth of others to the economies of certain special governments is no longer effective.
The economic apparatus of an unrestrained capitalist system with its unjust arrangements has reached its end and is no longer functioning. This one-sided equation no longer holds.
The age of imposing the opinion of cold capitalism and forcing the style and tendencies of a particular group on the rest of the world, of expansion of global domination in the name of building the world and the era of establishing empires, have ended.
The period of humiliating other nations and imposing double standards, biased policies and multifaceted discriminatory values has passed. The fact that the fulfillment of the desired aims of certain governments was the only criteria for determining whether freedom and democracy existed in a region and that under the guise of freedom, the most repulsive methods of deceit and threat were presented as democratic and dictators were considered democrats, is abhorrent and lacks legitimacy.
Everyone witnessed how one-sided economic structures under the influence of political maneuverings sacrificed the interests of nations at the feet of a group of unethical entrepreneurs.
Such mechanisms cannot improve the present circumstances. Political and economic structures established after the Second World War which were devised according to the intentions of those who wanted to dominate the world have not succeeded in implementing justice or lasting security.
Today, we need to rise with a collective commitment against the status quo. We need to take change and transformation seriously and through general cooperation and struggle we must all try to return to ethical, human and innate values.

End of Capitalism & Existing Global Management
After about one hundred years of domination, the system of Capitalism and the existing world order has proved to be unable to provide appropriate solution to the problems of societies, thus coming to an end. I shall try to examine the two main causes of this failure and depict some features of the ideal future order. Very recently the world witnessed the ugly and inhumane act of burning the Holy Qur’an.
The Holy Qur’an is the divine book and the eternal miracle of the Prophet of Islam. It calls for worshipping the One God, justice, compassion toward people, development and progress, reflection and thinking, defending the oppressed and resisting against the oppressors; and it names with respect the previous Messengers of God, like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses and Jesus Christ (Peace Be Upon Them All) and endorses them.
They burned Qur’an to burn all these truths and good judgments. However, the truth could not be burned. Qur’an is eternal because God and truth are everlasting. This act and any other act which widens the gap and distances between nations is evil. We should wisely avoid playing into the hands of Satan. On behalf of the Iranian nation, I pay respect to all divine books and their followers. This is the Qur’an and this is the Bible. I pay respect to both of them.
The Iranian nation and the majority of the world’s nations and governments are against the current discriminatory management of the world. The inhumane nature of this management has put it at a dead-end and requires a major overhaul. Reforming the world’s affairs and bringing about tranquility and prosperity requires the participation of all, pure thoughts and the divine and humane management.

US Forced to Change Indian Ocean Strategy

Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said that emergence of new naval powers in north of the Indian Ocean has resulted in a change in approach by the US.
“After the cold war, the world’s naval concentration has moved to the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean and at present we are witnessing the emergence of new naval powers such as India, China and Iran … which have tightened room for the great naval powers who were once the sole actors in the world’s free waters,” Sayyari said in an address to the first conference on the development of Iran’s southeastern Makran coasts.
“Thus, we are witnessing a change of approach by the global arrogance (the US) in the Indian Ocean,” Fars News Agency quoted him as saying.
On security in the north of the Indian Ocean, Sayyari stated that Iran, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka can play the key role in protecting security beyond the 10-degree latitude.
In December 2012, Sayyari had said that the Iranian Navy has been able to successfully expand its operational zone to the northern waters of the Indian Ocean and is now operating in a vast area.
“Stretching the Navy’s operational range from a small limited zone to the northern waters of the Indian Ocean and an area of 2,000,100 square kilometers was another golden page in the history of the Navy’s glories,” he said at the time.
He added that the Navy’s ability to expand its presence in the sea is vital for Iran’s progress.

Expanding Operational Zone
Meanwhile, Deputy Navy Commander for Planning Captain Hossein Khanzadi underlined the need for the country’s naval force to expand it operational zone from the territorial waters to the far seas in a bid to meet changing conditions and requirements in the region.
Khanzadi pointed to the importance of the Indian Ocean and presence of 36 regional and trans-regional actors in there, and stressed that the Iranian Navy should expand its capabilities in the high seas.
“Given the threats and conditions of the region, a navy for the coastal waters should turn into a navy for deep waters,” Khanzadi said, adding that achieving such a goal needs a navy with strong logistical support to operate independently in the far seas without relying on coastal support and logistics.
“The Iranian Army’s Navy should be able to exercise control over air, surface and subsurface in specific time and geographical limits in a bid to render the enemy incapable,” he said.

Biased Attitudes

Senior lawmaker Esmaeel Kowsari criticized the recent remarks by the UN chief about Iran’s nuclear program, and called on Ban Ki-moon to avoid biased attitudes towards Tehran.