Drills Warning Enemies Not Neighbors

A senior commander said the recent military drills by the Army’s Ground Forces warn enemies against any possible attack against the country but convey a message of friendship to regional countries.
“The most important message of the drills (codenamed Jafar Tayyar) for our neighbors and friends in the region is peace and friendship and security can only be achieved by regional countries,” Commander of the Army’s Ground Forces Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan said.
“The drills also carry an important message for those governments that have in their minds the slightest idea of threatening or attacking the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that is the demonstration of power, solidarity and unity among the armed forces [of the country],” Press TV reported him as saying on Tuesday.
The three-day Jafar Tayyar war games opened in Iran’s South Khorasan province on Monday with the purpose of maintaining the preparedness and promoting the combat capability of the units stationed in the region.
Pourdastan said that all the objectives set in the drills have successfully been achieved, adding that to demonstrate the strength, unity, solidarity and coordination between different forces of the army, a military lineup was arranged for the drill, in which the air forces, defense forces and heliborne troops of the army entered the operation to support the ground forces.
Regarding joint military maneuvers by the Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force and the army, the senior commander said the drills are manifestation of a new defensive and tactical approach by the armed forces of the country. The drills would be the first joint military maneuver between the Army and the IRGC since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Tehran Air Pollution Alarming

Tehran’s air pollution, largely caused by cars and dust storms from neighboring countries, reached an alarming level on Wednesday.

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When an anesthetized obese patient is lying on an operating table, the weight of abdominal fat can make it difficult for the person to breathe.

Sepahan See Off Al-Ahli

Defender Mohsen Bengar headed in the winner four minutes from time as Sepahan of Iran leapfrogged Al-Ahli to the top of Group C with a 2-1 win over the Saudi club on Wednesday.
Needing a victory to secure top spot in the group, the recently-crowned three-time Iranian league champions dominated the match at Fouladshahr Stadium and took a deserved the lead through Xhevahir Sukaj in the 19th minute.
But Amad Al-Hosni leveled the score for Al-Ahli in the 62nd minute and the Jeddah club appeared to have done enough to win the match until Bengar, who had been pushed forward into attack in the closing minutes, rose above the Al-Ahli defense to head in the decisive goal in the 86th minute.
Sepahan coach Zlatko Kranjcar felt that his side deserved the win. “We should have had a good lead at half-time. We didn’t take advantage of several of our good chances in the first half but we finally we overcame Al-Ahli and qualified as the winners of the group,” said the Croatian.
“Unfortunately our strikers have not performed well lately. The overall effort of the team has been good but we need to work on our finishing.
“Our forwards did not do well in attack so we added Bengar to our attack which was a successful change of plan.”
With the win, Sepahan sealed first place in their group and a home match in the Round of 16 against either Iranian league rivals Esteqlal or Qatar’s Al-Rayyan next Tuesday.

Euro Extends Losses

Int’l Economy Desk

The euro extended losses in Asia on Wednesday as worries over Greek political turmoil continued to weigh on the single currency, while the dollar benefited from global risk aversion.
Greek politicians officially called for new elections after political party leaders failed to reach an agreement to form a coalition government following an inconclusive election on May 6, the Wall Street Journal wrote.
But it remains uncertain whether Greece will be able to form a new government after fresh elections in June, fueling speculations that the country may not get badly needed international aid and will eventually be forced out of the currency bloc.
At 0450 GMT, the euro was at $1.2715 after it briefly fell as low as $1.2698, the lowest since Jan. 17, according to EBS via CQG.
“A Greek euro exit is not the main scenario,” said Minori Uchida, chief analyst at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, given the fact that about 70 percent of Greek people hope to stay in the eurozone, even if anti-austerity parties take the initiative after the new elections.
But Uchida said the latest development in the political turmoil in Athens has increased the chance of Greece leaving the eurozone to “20-30 percent from the previous 5-10 percent,” making the euro likely to fall further to the $1.2600 level.
Indeed, Uchida said his bank sees the euro falling to as low as $1.1800 by the end of the year.

Nat’l Internet By Sept.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Reza Taqipour said the first phase of the National Information Network will be launched by the end of the Iranian month of Shahrivar (August 22-September 21).
He made the announcement while speaking in the Second National Festival of Information Technology and Communications held on Wednesday at the IRIB International Conference Centers concurrent with the World Communications Day.
Taqipour added that the first phase would include separating internet and intranet networks.
“In the second phase, all the website hosts will move into the country.”
He said that the second phase of the network will be operational by the end of the next Iranian calendar year (starts March 21, 2013), adding that with the implementation of the third and final phase, the government would attain indigenous internet management so that there would be no need for import of foreign software.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Taqipour said the cash flow in the country’s information technology and communications sector has doubled in the past two years from 81,000 billion rials ($6.6 billion) to 150,000 billion rials ($12.2 billion).

US Aids Persian Gulf Arabs Arm Syrian Rebels

Syrian rebels battling the government of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and US and foreign officials.
Obama administration officials emphasized that the United States is neither supplying nor funding the lethal material, which includes antitank weaponry. Instead, they said, the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the Persian Gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.
“We are increasing our nonlethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, and we continue to coordinate our efforts with friends and allies in the region and beyond in order to have the biggest impact on what we are collectively doing,” said a senior State Department official, one of several US and foreign government officials who discussed the evolving effort on the condition of anonymity, The Washington Post wrote.
The US contacts with the rebel military and the information-sharing with Persian Gulf nations mark a shift in Obama administration policy as hopes dim for a political solution to the Syrian crisis. Many officials now consider an expanding military confrontation to be inevitable.
Material is being stockpiled in Damascus, in Idlib near the Turkish border and in Zabadani on the Lebanese border. Opposition activists who two months ago said the rebels were running out of ammunition said this week that the flow of weapons — most still bought on the black market in neighboring countries or from elements of the Syrian military — has significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf states to provide millions of dollars in funding each month. Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood also said it has opened its own supply channel to the rebels, using resources from wealthy private individuals and money from Persian Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, said Mulham al-Drobi, a member of the Brotherhood’s executive committee.

Ratko Mladic On Trial For Genocide

Twenty years after the opening shots of the Bosnian War, former Bosnian Serb military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic went on trial Wednesday at a UN tribunal on 11 charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The ailing 70-year-old Ratko Mladic’s appearance at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal marks the end of a long wait for justice to survivors of the 1992-95 war that left some 100,000 people dead, AP reported.
The trial is also a landmark for the UN court and international justice — Mladic is the last suspect from the Bosnian war to go on trial.
Mladic, wearing a suit and tie, gave a thumbs-up and clapped to supporters in the court’s public gallery as the trial got under way Wednesday. He occasionally wrote notes and showed no emotion as prosecutors began outlining his alleged crimes.
Munira Subasic, who lost 22 family members in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, was among a group of relatives of war dead heading into the courtroom to face Mladic.
The 65-year-old said she wanted to look him in the eye “and ask him if he will repent for what he did.”
Presiding Judge Alphons Orie of the Netherlands said at the outset that the court was considering postponing the presentation of evidence, due to start May 29, due to “errors” by prosecutors in disclosing evidence to the defense.
Prosecutor Dermot Groome said he would not oppose a reasonable adjournment.

Euro Crisis: Beginning Of an End

By Mohammad Reza Erfanian

Political events caused by the financial developments in the eurozone have proved that austerity measures implemented by EU members for the past two years not only have failed to improve conditions in the continent, but have also upset political equations and led to deterioration of economic conditions.
Currently, France, Britain, Greece, Italy, Spain and even Germany that is considered to be Europe’s economic locomotive are facing political trouble as a result of implementation of the austerity measures.
Tides of bankruptcy in eurozone countries are so severe that citizens of powerful EU countries like Germany and France who have to bear the heavy burden of other member states are talking about a return to pre-euro era and issuing Deutsche mark and franc again.
The European Union, Europe’s Central Bank, and capital holders have paid over one trillion euros in the past two years to rein in economic recession and boost EU’s single currency, without achieving any definite results.
President of the European Council Herman Achille van Rompuy recently asked leaders of 27 EU member states to hold an emergency meeting by May 23 to draft a plan for stimulating economic growth in eurozone.
He suggested that the plan be submitted for approval to the EU Summit slated for late June and then be implemented.
As Paris and Berlin constitute the backbone of the austerity plan, if France withdraws from the plan, Germany would not be able to continue the path on its own and that would suggest the beginning of the collapse of the EU. In observers’ viewpoint, the different levels of economic and financial power among Euro Zone countries is an obstacle for putting the crisis behind, a crisis that could lead to the disintegration of a bloc whose formation took half of century of efforts.
Analysts believe the crisis in the eurozone is so deep and ever growing now that it has given rise to nationalism and intensified disputes in the EU.

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