President: Muslim Unity Must End Zionism

Political Desk

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Muslim nations to pursue ‘specific aims’ to achieve unity, saying putting an end to Zionism should be among the goals of unity.
“Under circumstances that the corrupt, uncultured and murderous Zionists are occupying and killing oppressed people, we should not sit idly by,” President Ahmadinejad said in an address to the 26th International Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran on Sunday.
He added that Muslims should unite against the evil and bullying powers and noted that monotheism, justice and love for humans are among other objectives of unity among Muslim nations, IRIB reported.
The chief executive criticized the existence of dissension among Muslims and stated that an incomplete understanding of the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is the reason for such differences.
Ahmadinejad further criticized the current global economic system, saying the system transfers the assets of nations to the pockets of certain powers.
The 26th International Islamic Unity Conference began in Tehran with the participation of Shiite and Sunni thinkers from 102 countries.
The participants are scheduled to discuss the issue of unity among Islamic Ummah and the existing problems of the Muslim world during the two-day event. A major part of the conference revolved around the topic of Islamic Awakening and the popular uprisings in the Arab world.

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Several Police Officers Killed in Afghanistan

Eight police officers and three detainees were killed when their vehicle was blown up by a powerful homemade bomb in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials said Sunday.
The incident happened late Saturday--the same day that a suicide bomber killed 10 policemen in the northern city of Kunduz, taking the toll to 18 in a single day, AFP reported.
The detainees had been arrested on suspicion of planting a homemade bomb, officials said. “Our police had an operation in Pero Qalacha area last night. They detained several suspected insurgents,” Jawed Faisal, the Kandahar provincial governor’s spokesman, told AFP.
“On the way back to the city (centre), their vehicle struck an IED (improvised explosive device). Ten police were killed and three suspects that they had detained during the operation were killed,” Faisal said.
Six other officers and one suspect on board a second vehicle were wounded in the blast, he said.
Police spokesman Ghorzang Afridi described the bomb as “very, very powerful”, saying it was an artillery shell attached to a detonator and possibly set off remotely.
The officials blamed the bombing on the “armed opposition”, a reference to the Taliban who have waged an insurgency against the Western-backed government since being ousted from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Turkey, Iran to Found Joint University in Van

Turkey and Iran have agreed to found a joint university in Turkish Van province.
Following extensive discussion of plans in a meeting on Saturday, officials from Van Yüzüncü Yıl University and Iranian University of Tabriz signed a protocol to found a joint university in eastern province of Van, which borders Iran, Today’s Zaman reported.
Officials from the two universities will take active role in the establishment process of the Turkish-Iranian university to bolster cooperation between the two countries in higher education.
Turkey and Iran signaled last year that they would establish a joint university to boost cooperation in the field of higher education while officials from both countries have been contemplating various plans for some time.

Davos Warns On Global Economy

The crisis mood is gone, but that does not mean you can slip back into your old ways--that’s the message from top international finance officials wrapping up the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
They warned governments on Saturday against letting their relief over an improved economic climate turn into complacency over reforms many want to see in order to sustain a still-uncertain recovery, AP reported.
Do not relax, International Monetary Fund Chief Christine Lagarde urged at a closing panel on the economic outlook.
She said the IMF outlook for a fragile and timid recovery depended on officials in the powerhouse economies of Europe, the US and Japan making the right decisions.
Her comments came at the end of the gathering of 2,500 business, financial and political leaders that took place in a more upbeat atmosphere than last year.
Fears over the breakup the euro currency union have abated, while the US has avoided the so-called fiscal cliff of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that threatened to push the world’s largest economy back into recession.

Strong Concerns
With those bullets dodged, there are strong concerns that governments may ease up on measures to improve growth and reduce debt that many institutions such as the IMF are calling for.

US Probing Swiss Firm for Medicine Trade

Despite claims of easing restrictions on the sales of medicine to Iran, Washington has launched an investigation into the transactions of Switzerland’s biggest pharmaceutical company, Novartis, with the Islamic Republic.
In its 2012 annual report, Novartis said its Alcon eye-care unit is being investigated by the United States for exporting medicine to Iran, Wall Street Journal reported.
Alcon received a subpoena in 2012 from the US attorney’s office for the Northern District of Texas, seeking documents related to its exports to Iran that date back to 2005, years before the current sanctions were enacted.
This is while the US Treasury Department said in October 2012 that American companies are allowed to sell certain medicines and basic medical supplies to Iran without first seeking a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
The move was made amid Iran’s protests that the US-engineered sanctions were hurting ordinary Iranian citizens and over fears that the humanitarian effects of the unilateral sanctions could undermine support for the bans among Washington’s allies.
According to US rules, exporters of medicine and medical supplies to Iran are required to apply for special licenses. Besides, as the aftermath of the sanctions, the impossibility of transferring money through banks has cast its shadow upon medicine and healthcare in Iran and has gravely affected the import of medicines to Iran.

Bolstering Ties With Armenia Underlined

By Sadeq Dehqan & Farzam Vanaki

Given the growing trend of Iran-Armenia ties during the past decade, transactions between the two countries have grown to $400 million, making Tehran, Yerevan’s fourth trade partner.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union and establishment of the Republic of Armenia as an independent state, the Islamic Republic of Iran was among the first countries that recognized Armenia as an independent country, and began having trade relations with it.
At present, after 2 decades, still the two countries seek to strengthen ties. In recent years, the two countries’ energy cooperation has turned into an axis for expanding ties. Launching a pipeline to export Iran’s gas to the country in 2009, reaching an agreement on establishing the third high pressure power transmission line from Yerevan to Tehran and constructing a hydroelectric power plant on Aras River are among the major projects the two sides have implemented in the field of energy.
However, the role of the two sides’ private sectors in increasing ties cannot be overlooked.

Oil, Gas Bans Imposed on EU

Iran’s Oil Ministry spokesman says all crude oil and gas exports have been banned to the 27-nation European Union, which has already imposed its own boycott on Iranian energy imports as part of sanctions over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.
Mehr News Agency quoted spokesman Ali Reza Nikzad Rahbar as saying on Sunday that the Iranian ban will remain as long as ‘hostile decisions’ are made by the EU.
Before the EU bans last year, the bloc represented about 20 percent of Iran’s oil sales.
It is unclear what practical effect the Iranian decision would have on the EU which is facing deep economic problem and vast unemployment. But Sunday’s announcement by Rahbar could be a symbolic act designed to reflect anger at western economic pressures on Iran.
On January 14, Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini said that the country plans to phase out dollar and euro in its future international transactions after the US and the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on Iran.
“[Iranian] government has made up its mind to phase out currencies such as dollar and euro in its [foreign] trade,” Hosseini told reporters on the sidelines of the first meeting of the heads of Economic Cooperation Organization’s tax organizations in Tehran.
He added that after the imposition of sanctions on Iran by the US and the EU, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) immediately moved to change the country’s hard currencies reserves into euro and gold which ‘was beneficial to the country’.
The Iranian minister also said that a change in trade model would reduce the country’s need to vehicle currencies, including dollar and euro.

By Emad Abshenass

Who Seeks Delay in Talks

‘P5+1 wants talks adjourned till February’, ‘P5+1 spokesman denies this. The spokesman claims that P5+1 is ready to sit and talk whenever Iran is ready’. The Iranians say that the Europeans are delaying the talks while the P5+1 is accusing Iran. The US secretary of state nominee, John Kerry in a statement presented to Senate Foreign Relations Committee says: “(I summon): Iranians should know, nothing else is posed, if their nuclear program is peaceful and non-proliferation they should prove it and that is what we are seeking.”
If all above-mentioned points are true, then what is happening?
Any lawyer can tell you that according to all state and international laws, the accuser is supposed to prove his claims while the accused has no compulsion to prove that he is not guilty. All in all, the defendant is irreproachable until proved guilty. This is the way all laws in history have worked, otherwise everyone will be able to claim that another person is guilty of doing something and the defendant will not be able to prove his innocence.
In the case of Iran, the Iranian Leader, who is not only the highest authority in the country but is also considered to be the highest ruling religious person, has issued an edict forbidding the production of weapons of mass destruction of any kind--including nuclear weapons. During wartime, when the Iranians were confronting different types of weapons of mass destruction provided to its enemy by the western countries, it never hesitated to produce or use any, while there are plenty of evidence to prove that the US and Israel have used such weapons even against civilians.
To those who are not familiar about the importance of the Leader’s edict, I should tell them that according to all Shiite beliefs, when the religious leader issues an edict then all his followers should blindly abide by it and since all Iranian scientists and officials follow the Leader’s word so no one (even unconsciously believes the opposite, or even if international laws are the to the contrary) will allow him or herself to think or behave against the edict.

Iran Daily felicitates its readers on the occasions of birth anniversary of Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] and Imam Sadeq (AS).

PBUH] and Imam Sadeq (AS

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