Banking System’s Role in Thwarting Sanctions Appreciated

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday appreciated the support of the banking system in thwarting sanctions.
Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a meeting with managing directors of Iranian banks, IRNA reported.
The role of banks in assisting the government and leave behind the current sensitive juncture is important, he said adding that the government overcame the enemies plot to impose sanctions.
He lauded the efforts of bank managers and the staff to render invaluable services to the public.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is a big country with huge and unique potentials and a noble nation, said President Ahmadinejad adding that all should help the government overcome the ill-wishers and enemies.
Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the banks played pivotal role to bring about economic development and progress, he said.
President Ahmadinejad said that the enemies have identified the country’s economic bottlenecks to deal a blow to the economic pillars.
He said that the enemies tried to use all its power and capabilities to target Iran’s economy through tougher sanctions, but to no avail.
“The government has plans to control economic sanctions to help speed up the country’s economic development.”
In the meantime, the president called for the removal of current problems in the banking system through collective contribution of all experts.

Iran, Iraq to Implement Cooperation Accords

Iran and Iraq plan to implement a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) in a bid to boost cooperation in security, political and cultural fields.
Speaking in a meeting with Iraq’s Acting Interior Minister Adnan Al-Assadi in Tehran on Monday, Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the MoU was discussed and drawn up during a recent visit to Iraq and deputy interior ministers of the two countries came to terms about its implementation, Fars News Agency reported.
He hoped that the MoU would increase trade exchanges between Iran and Iraq as well as other neighboring states.
On the details of the new MoU, Mohammad Najjar said the agreement is about establishment of new border markets, facilitating Iranian pilgrims’ visit to Iraq and training and equipping the two countries’ police forces.
Iran and Iraq have enjoyed growing ties ever since the overthrow of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, during the 2003 US invasion of the Muslim country.
Meantime, Iranian and Iraqi energy officials are in the final stages of their talks on exporting Iran’s gas to Iraq and the two countries are slated to strike a deal on Iran’s gas export before March 20.
Based on the deal, Iran will export 25mln cubic meters of gas to the neighboring country per day via a 270-kilometer gas pipeline.

Speaker for Expansion of Croatia Ties

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, in a meeting with the head of Croatia-Iran Parliamentary Friendship Group Mladen Novak, called for the expansion of ties in all fields.
“Iran and Croatia economic and trade relations are historical; the two friendly countries should use all the capacities and opportunities to develop their relations,” Larijani said on Monday.
Larijani voiced hope for bolstering and reinvigorating parliamentary ties between Iran and Croatia, IRNA reported.
Novak, for his part, noted that Croatia welcomes development of ties between the two countries in all fields, in particular in the field of economy and industry.
He submitted Croatia’s invitation message to Larijani which calls for development of ties between the two countries’ parliaments and invites Iranian parliament speaker to visit Croatia.
Iran and Croatia established diplomatic relations on April 18, 1992 when Iran became the seventh country to recognize the newly-independent Croatia. Croatia has an embassy in Tehran and Iran maintains an embassy and a cultural center in Zagreb.
Iranian vice-president at the time, Hassan Habibi visited Croatia in 1995 and the former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami visited the Croatian capital Zagreb in 2005. The former Croatian president Stipe Mesic paid a three-day state visit to Iran in 2001.
In 2008 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hailed the two countries’ relations as well as shared cultures and histories, owing to the possible Iranian origin of the Croats, would strengthen those relations. During the same year, the Croatian national oil company INA actively took part in industrial project of Ardebil province.

IAEA Urges Continuation Of Talks

NAM Statement Backs Iran
Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano Monday urged the need for continuation of Iran-IAEA talks to finalize a ‘structured approach’ to clear remaining concerns over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear activities.
Addressing the opening session of the seasonal meeting of the agency’s Board of Governors in the Austrian capital, Amano stressed reaching an agreement with Iran on structured approach, IRNA reported.
Amano added that ‘negotiations must proceed with a sense of urgency’ and that he ‘would like to report real progress by the next meeting of the next (IAEA) board meeting in June’.
Iran has repeatedly reiterated its commitment to continue talks with the IAEA to settle the remaining issues and also stressed that any success to this end needed a peaceful atmosphere away from the present political and media propaganda.
The last round of Iran-IAEA talks was held about three weeks ago in Tehran.
The two sides have been engaged in various rounds of talks in the previous year to formulate a modality plan to clear all doubts about the so-called Possible Military Dimension (PMD) of Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities.
Tehran says that the IAEA’s conclusions about the ‘possible military dimensions’ of its program are based on flawed information from western and Israeli spy agencies--information that it says it has not been allowed to see.
Iran believes that the modality plan made in 2007 between the two sides could be a proper pattern to set the new modality.
Western powers were however expected to refrain from seeking a resolution from the 35-nation IAEA board at this week’s meeting over Iran so as not to jeopardize parallel diplomatic efforts by six world powers.
Talks last week in Kazakhstan last week saw the P5+1--the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany--sweeten an offer made to Iran last year, scaling back some of their demands and offering more relief from sanctions.
Technical experts from both sides are to begin thrashing out the details on March 17-18 in Istanbul before chief negotiators return to Almaty on April 5-6 and Iran in particular has expressed optimism about the process.

NAM Statement
The 45th statement issued by the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in support of Iran’s nuclear rights is to be read out to the IAEA Board of Governors meeting.
The meeting, the first in 2013, is the normal gathering which will review security and nuclear issues as well as questions on the agency’s budget and plans.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is the current rotating president of the NAM.
The recent report on Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities was released ten days ago by IAEA chief.
The report was also presented to IAEA members.
Amano, in his new report, has stressed the IAEA commitment to continue talks with Iran on modality.

Normalized Relations With Egypt Sought

Head of Iran’s Interest Section in Egypt Mojtaba Amani said Tehran seeks to normalize relations with Egypt following the overthrow of former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.
“We seek normalized relations with Egypt and the removal of obstacles [to bilateral ties] created during the rule of Hosni Mubarak,” Amani said on Sunday.
Stressing the importance and role of Tehran and Cairo in the Middle East equations, the official said Iran and Egypt are two great civilizations and their ties benefit both countries and the region as a whole, ISNA reported.
Iran severed its diplomatic ties with Egypt after the 1979 Islamic Revolution because Egypt had signed the Camp David Accords with the Israeli regime and offered asylum to Iran’s deposed monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Bilateral relations, however, have been on the mend following the 2011 revolution in Egypt that resulted in the ouster of Mubarak.
Amani further stressed Tehran’s willingness to establish ties with any democratically elected administration in Egypt.
“Iran will cooperate with any government that assumes power through popular vote.”
Referring to Iran’s cooperation with Egypt to resolve the crisis in Syria, Amani said the issue of Syria has increased relations and consultations between Tehran and Cairo.
Unrest has gripped Syria for nearly two years and clashes continue between Syrian army forces and foreign-backed militant groups.
Many people, including large numbers of Syrian army and security personnel, have been killed in the turmoil.
During a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in August 2012, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi put forward the initiative of forming a contact group on Syria, comprising Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
On February 7, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a meeting with his Egyptian and Turkish counterparts, Morsi and Abdullah Gul, to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria and the solutions to end the unrest in the Arab country.
During the trilateral meeting in Cairo, which was held on the sidelines of the 12th Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit, the trio called for an immediate settlement of the crisis and an end to bloodshed in Syria.

Majlis Ratification of AMIA Agreement Necessary

A recent agreement between Iran and Argentina to set up a ‘truth commission’ to investigate the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing must be first ratified by the Iranian parliament (Majlis), says the Iranian deputy foreign minister.
“The agreement between Iran and Argentina on the AMIA case should be drawn up as a bill and presented to Majlis [for final approval],” Hassan Qashqavi said on Sunday, ICANA reported.
On January 27, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Argentinean counterpart, Hector Timerman, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to shed light on the AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires which left 85 people dead.
AMIA stands for the Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina or the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association.
Argentina’s Senate on February 21 gave the green light to the agreement with Iran on the AMIA case with the senators voting 39-31 in favor of the MoU.
Argentinean lawmakers later signed the agreement into law after a 14-hour session with 131 ayes against 113 nays.
Meanwhile, spokesman for Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini also stressed that the deal requires parliamentary approval.
Based on the Constitution, Majlis must ratify all Iran’s agreements, accords and memoranda of understanding with other countries, he said.
Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Timerman have endorsed the agreement, which stipulates that the fact-finding commission, composed of five foreign legal experts, should issue a report after conducting an evaluation of Argentina’s investigation into the issue.
Under intense political pressure from the US and Israel, Argentina had formally accused Iran of having carried out the bomb attack. The Islamic Republic has categorically denied any involvement in the terrorist bombing.
the Syrian crisis, without foreign meddling.

Leader Stipulates...

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The Leader urged Iranian intellectuals to get more involved in the country’s macro issues.
He highlighted the significance of drawing up plans for the future of the country, saying that it is necessary to refrain from making hasty decisions to achieve an end result.
“In the Islamic-Iranian paradigm for progress, objectives will be set but the strategies may be changed or amended in proportion to timing issues. This reflects the flexibility of the model,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The Leader warned that the country may face ‘contradictory moves’ in the absence of such a comprehensive plan similar to certain cultural and economic issues over the past 30 years.
He underlined that goals and values of the plan should be based on Islamic teachings and said it is a matter of honor for the Islamic establishment in Iran to make plans for progress on the basis of Islamic resources.
“The use of two concepts of ‘Islamic’ and ‘Iranian’ is never meant to reject achievements and rightful experiences of others,” the Leader further said.
Ayatollah Khamenei further stressed that historical, geographical, cultural, economic and social circumstances should also be taken into consideration in the plan for progress.

Rial Rebounds After...

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Following the talks, officials from both sides portrayed them as a positive step.
Since Sunday, the Iranian government has provided larger supplies of dollars to the currency market, boosting the rial, Mehr News Agency reported.
“Those active in the currency and (gold) coin markets see the widespread provision of hard currency to the market and the positive environment of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group in Almaty as the main factors behind the drop in the price of coins and currency,” the agency said.
Iranians can exchange rials for hard currencies through loosely regulated money changers, though the government cracked down on the traders and arrested dozens after the rial’s plunge last year.
Fars News Agency quoted an unnamed money changer on Monday as saying the rial’s rebound this week had been so strong that many traders had stopped buying and selling currency until prices stabilized.

Senior MP Off to Sudan

Head of the Majlis Research Center Kazem Jalali is in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to attend a meeting of the Islamic Inter Parliamentary Union (IIPU)’s subsidiary committee.