Irandaily | No. 4473 | National

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NAM Secretary: Iran Enjoys Global Logic, Vision

Head of the Secretariat of the Non-Aligned Movement Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei said that Iran is an idealist country with an international viewpoint and a global logic.
“Iran has many plans for the future since it believes that humanity would experience a bright future as predicted in the Mahdaviat belief,” Mashaei told IRNA in a recent exclusive interview published on Saturday.
In Islamic eschatology, the Second Coming of Christ is preceded by the appearance of Mahdi or ‘rightly-guided one’. Twelver Shī’ah Muslims believe this person is the 12th Imam or ‘Imam of the Time’, who was hidden by God following the death of his father in 874 and will reappear as ‘the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world’.
Referring to the latest NAM summit which was held in Tehran last summer, Mashaei said Iran was determined to help materialize NAM goals.
Iran is the current rotating president of the NAM.
“Iran is to help promote cooperation among NAM member states through a collective management,” Mashaei said.
He noted that political motives as well as economic pressures imposed by NAM non-member states as well as some of its powerful members are making the NAM secretariat situation more complicated, adding that to solve this problem, a specific solution is needed.
He added that efforts have been made in the secretariat to help each member state present its plan to NAM troika (Iran, Egypt and Venezuela) to make the movement more independent and effective.
The troika would, in turn, review those plans and make decisions through a collective management in order ‘to reach an ideal future ruled by justice’, Mashaei stressed.
Cooperation of all NAM members in an effective way is the policy pursued by Tehran during its NAM presidency, Mashaei said.
He reiterated that NAM secretariat is determined to promote the movement’s objectives.

Aussie Spy Plane Driven Off By Navy Warships

Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Navy for Operations Admiral Siavash Jarreh announced that the Navy’s 24th fleet of warship warned off an Australian reconnaissance plane seeking to approach the Iranian fleet of warships near the coasts of Sri Lanka.
“The Navy’s 24th fleet of warships, comprised of Khark chopper carrier and Sabalan destroyer, which was nearing Sri Lanka’s coasts after leaving Zhangjigang port of China and crossing the Equator, shooed away an Australian reconnaissance plane which was approaching the fleet of warships to take footages,” Jarreh said on Sunday, reported Fars News Agency.
“The reconnaissance plane changed its flight route immediately after receiving the warships’ warning but dropped some subsurface units detection devices on the way of the fleet of the warships but all the dropped devices were hunted skillfully through timely action of the Iranian Navy forces,” he added.
Jarreh said that the Navy’s 24th fleet of warships managed to monitor the moves of over 130 floating and flying military units during its mission in the international waters.
In December 2012, Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari announced 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.
Iran started dispatching warships to the high seas after its cargo vessels and tankers came under attack and were hijacked by Somali pirates.
The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.
According to UN Security Council resolutions, countries can send warships to the Gulf of Aden and coastal waters of Somalia against the pirates and even with prior notice to Somali government enter the territorial waters of that country in pursuit of Somali sea pirates. The Gulf of Aden--which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea--is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West through the Suez Canal.

President’s Congratulatory Message for Pope Francis

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a message on Sunday congratulated Pope Francis on his election as the new head of the Roman Catholic Church.
In his message, the president referred to the current crises the world is facing, stressing that the today world is in dire need of reforms in the unfair international structures, IRNA reported.
He further said the common mission of all prophets of divine religions is to invite people to fight oppression and administer justice.
The president further hoped the world would witness peace and justice.
On March 13, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was named the new pope of the Roman Catholic Church, taking the title Pope Francis I. The pontiff, who is the first Jesuit pope, is said to be a soccer fan.
Pope Francis I is believed to have more liberal attitudes compared to his predecessors. However, he has supported the Vatican’s stance that denounces same-sex couples adopting children as a devil act and a ‘war against God’.
He also supports the idea that forbidding the marriage of cardinals, which is a war against the rule of God and human nature, has amounted to widespread corruption in the Catholic Church.
According to a report by the New York Times on March 13, the new pope will have to deal with challenges including ‘a shortage of priests, growing competition from evangelical churches in the Southern Hemisphere, a sexual abuse crisis that has undermined the church’s moral authority in the West and difficulties governing the Vatican itself’.
Pope Francis replaced Pope Benedict XVI as the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholics.
On February 11, the 85-year old Benedict XVI announced his decision to step down, saying he was no longer able to carry out his duties due to his advanced age. He officially resigned on February 28, becoming the first pope to resign in 600 years.

Scientific Progress Going On Regardless of Sanctions

A senior legislator underlined the ineffectiveness of the US-led western sanctions against Iran and its scientific progress, and said Tehran has turned the West’s pressure and embargos into an opportunity.
“Sanctions imposed against Iran’s oil industry have failed to undermine our economy, and on the contrary have reduced dependence on oil revenues,” Nasser Soudani said on Saturday, Fars News Agency reported.
He pointed to the opportunity that sanctions have provided Iran in its bid to become independent, and said, “Iran’s oil industry by utilizing domestic workforce and experts has been able to stand on its own feet in all stages of production, extraction, development and sale of petroleum products.”
Earlier, Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi announced preparedness of Iran’s oil industry to confront the western sanctions and said that the enemies’ economic war against Iran will be fruitless.
Qassemi said that remarkable progress made in the country’s oil industry indicated that sanctions imposed by enemies against the country have been ineffective.
He added that the Iranian society was well prepared to foil enemies’ restrictions thanks to the guidelines of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Washington and its western 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.
Tehran stresses that it has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.
Iran has dismissed West’s demands as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures consolidate Iranians’ national resolve to continue the path.

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