Tehran Will Not Allow West To Overthrow Assad

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran will never allow any Western plots to oust Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to succeed.
Salehi on Sunday stressed that Iran would not allow Western projects to forcibly overthrow Assad--whether by indirect meddling in the form of arming militants or direct meddling--to succeed, Press TV reported.
He added that the behavior of Western powers and certain regional countries toward Syria is in blatant violation of accepted human regulations and divine laws.
Salehi said such hostile behavior cannot be justified under any circumstances and “such behaviors must be immediately stopped which is exactly what we have proposed in the form of a six-point plan for Syria to the UN, (the UN-Arab League Special Envoy to Syria) Lakhdar Brahimi, and several regional countries including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.”
The Iranian foreign minister said pressures exerted on an independent country like Syria to change its policies with regard to colonialism and occupation were against the international law. “Efforts are underway to overthrow the ruling system in Syria without regards for the vote of the Syrian nation and this is while only Syrians have the right to choose their political system and leader,” Salehi said.
The top Iranian diplomat emphasized that despite increasing foreign efforts for regime change in Syria, Iran would do everything within its might to prevent this from happening.

IAEA Talks Positive
Salehi also said recent talks in Tehran between the Islamic Republic and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have been positive.
Salehi made the remarks during a press conference in the Iranian capital on Sunday regarding the latest negotiations between the two sides, which took place on Thursday.
The Iranian foreign minister said Iran and the IAEA reached common ground on most of issues during the talks, and will discuss the remaining topics in the next meeting, which is scheduled to be held in Tehran on January 13.
He said the two sides discussed ways of hammering out a new modality plan to resolve the differences over Iran’s nuclear energy program.
The IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but has never found any evidence of divergence towards military objectives in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
Salehi also condemned the deployment of Patriot missiles belonging to the Western military alliance of NATO along the Turkish border with Syria, adding that the Syrian issue must be resolved by Syrians and without foreign interference.
He stressed that Iran has no intention to meddle in the internal affairs of other states and is merely working towards what Syrians want.
On November 21, Ankara formally asked NATO to deploy the missiles on its border with Syria.
On December 4, the alliance approved to act according to Turkey’s request, despite strong opposition from Syria itself, Russia, China, and Iran.

Patriot Missiles Provocative
Salehi, elsewhere, said deployment of NATO Patriot missiles along the Turkish border with Syria is more provocative than deterrent.
“The deployment of Patriot missiles will certainly not help establish security and stability in the region,” Salehi said on Sunday.
“Our assessment is that this measure will do nothing but create more tension or God forbid lead to an uncalculated measure,” the Iranian foreign minister added.
Salehi said the Syrian issue must be resolved by Syrians and without foreign interference, stressing that Iran has no intention for meddling in the internal affairs of other states and is merely working towards what Syrians want.
On November 21, Ankara formally asked NATO to deploy Patriot missiles on its border with Syria.
Despite strong opposition from Russia, Syria, China and Iran, the NATO military alliance on December 4 approved Turkey’s request for the deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles along its border with Syria.
All the six Patriot batteries, which will be under NATO command and control, are scheduled to be operational near the Turkish-Syria border by the end of January 2013.
Syria has been the scene of unrest since March 2011 and tens of thousands of people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the turmoil.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country.
Damascus blames western countries and some of their regional allies, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, of arming the opposition and fueling the crisis in the country, as reports indicate that a large number of insurgents fighting the Syrian government are foreign nationals.
Syrian President Al-Assad said in August that the country is engaged in a “crucial and heroic” battle that will determine the destiny of the nation.
Iran has repeatedly rejected foreign intervention in Syria’s internal affairs, calling for national dialogue as the only way out of the country’s prolonged impasse.

82 Pakistanis Deported

Eighty two Pakistanis who were deported from Iran were handed over to local officials.
Pakistani police said that they were arrested when attempting to enter illegally to Europe from Iran, Pakistan Today reported.
The Iranian forces arrested them and handed them over to Pakistani officials at Taftan.
The deported Pakistanis belong to different areas and were handed over to anti trafficking force for thorough interrogation.

ScanEagle Production Line Opens

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The loss of the drone, one of America’s most advanced surveillance aircraft, is considered a major embarrassment for Washington. Commenting on the importance of the Strait of Hormuz, Fadavi said, “The Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz are of vital importance for the entire world and any insecurity in this region would threaten the world’s energy security.” The commander added that in the current situation and given the global economic crisis, the world could not cope with an energy shock, particularly in the Persian Gulf.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf on the west to the Sea of Oman.
Statistically, the waterway is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, with a daily flow of about 15 million barrels of oil.

ISA to Send Living Creature Into Space

Head of Iran’s Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli said that the country plans to send a living organism into space on board the Pishgam (Pioneer) satellite carrier in the near future.
“Iran’s Space Agency (ISA) is fully prepared to send the Pishgam satellite carrier bearing a bio-capsule with a living creature,” Fazeli said Sunday, Press TV reported.
He expressed hope that the Pishgam satellite carrier, previously known as the Kavoshgar 5 (Explorer 5), would ‘soon’ be successfully launched into space carrying a monkey.
Iran sent its first bio-capsule of living creatures into space in February 2010, using the indigenous Kavoshgar 3 carrier.
The country successfully launched its first indigenous data-processing satellite, Omid (Hope), into orbit in 2009.
As part of a plan to develop its space program, Iran also successfully launched its second satellite, dubbed Rassad (Observer), into the earth’s orbit in June 2011. Rassad’s mission was to take images of the Earth and transmit them along with telemetry information to ground stations.
Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the United Nations’ Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which was set up in 1959.

Security for Persian Gulf Oil Passage Stressed

Senior Iranian military official Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi said the Islamic Republic seeks to guarantee the security of oil shipments passing through the Persian Gulf with the help of regional countries.
“The presence of the Islamic Republic in the Strait of Hormuz as the Persian Gulf’s number one power guarantees the security of oil exports to the world,” the senior military adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Monday, Press TV reported.
Referring to the fact that the vessels crossing the Persian Gulf must pass by Iranian islands, Rahim-Safavi said, “The Islamic Republic seeks to guarantee the security of oil exports in this region with the help of Persian Gulf southern littoral countries.”
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway which connects the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman. Statistically, the waterway is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, with a daily flow of about 15 million barrels of oil.
“We guarantee the [security of] oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz on the condition that no military threat is issued against our country because Asia’s southeastern countries direly need the region’s oil.”
Rahim-Safavi added that Iran uses its islands in the Persian Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz as military bases to defend the country.

Nasrallah: Iran Support For Palestine Unconditional

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“There are Arab and Islamic countries working to present Israel as friend and Iran an enemy,” he said, referring to some Persian Gulf neighboring states.
Different Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas, have already appreciated Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei for supporting the groups and foiling the plots hatched to sow discord between Iran and Hamas.
In a statement last Wednesday, Hamas thanked the Iranian Leader for his support.
“At a time when the region is passing through the most difficult times and faces different plots, religious schemes at top of them, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei with his unifying and insightful statements in the International Conference of Muslim Scholars and Islamic Awakening, drew attention to the main problem in the region and the source of plots and devilishness, that is the filthy occupying regime of Israel,” the statement said.
Over 160 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed and about 1,200 others were injured in the Israeli regime’s attacks on Gaza, which were carried out during November 14-21.
In retaliation to Israeli attacks, Palestinian resistance fighters fired rockets and missiles into Israeli cities, killing at least five Israelis.
Egypt announced on November 21 that the Israeli regime and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas reached a ceasefire agreement.
Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
The apartheid regime of Israel denies about 1.7 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs that pay proper wages, and adequate healthcare and education.

Nation Will Never Forgive MKO Crimes

A defected member of the terrorist Mujahideen Khalq Organization disclosed the anti-Iran sect’s horrendous crimes against the Iranian nation, saying Iranians will never forgive the MKO.
“Rajavi (the ringleader of the MKO) killed a large number of Iranian people as well as the MKO members through deception and temptation,” Qorbanabli Husseinnejad, a highly trusted veteran member of the MKO and the trusted interpreter of MKO ringleader Massoud Rajavi in talks with Iraqi government officials during Saddam’s era, told Fars News Agency on Monday.
Asked if he thinks that the Iranian people will forgive the MKO sect leaders and members, he said, “I never think so. Rajavi’s blow at the Iranian people after the (Islamic) Revolution (1979) is not forgivable.”
The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list.
The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-imposed war on Iran (1980-88).
Many of the MKO members abandoned the terrorist organization while most of those still remaining in the terror sect are said to be willing to quit but are under pressure and torture not to do so.
A May 2005 Human Rights Watch report accused the MKO of running prison camps in Iraq and committing human rights violations.
According to the Human Rights Watch report, the outlawed group puts defectors under torture and jail terms.
The group, founded in the 1960s, blended elements of Islam with Marxism and participated in the overthrow of the US-backed Shah of Iran in 1979. Ahead of the revolution, the MKO conducted attacks and assassinations against both Iranian and Western targets.
The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President Mohammad Ali Rajaie, Prime Minister Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief Mohammad Hussein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.
The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurdish uprisings in the country.
Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neoconservatives in the United States, who argued for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.
The US formally removed the MKO from its list of terror organizations in early September, one week after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent the US Congress a classified communication about the move. The decision made by Clinton enabled the group to have its assets under US jurisdiction unfrozen and do business with American entities, the State Department said in a statement at the time.
In September 2012, the last groups of the MKO terrorists left Camp Ashraf, their main training center in Iraq’s Diyala province. They have been transferred to Camp Liberty which lies northeast of the Baghdad International Airport.
Camp Liberty is a transit settlement facility and a last station for the MKO in Iraq.

Six-Point Peace Plan For Syria Unveiled

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The plan also calls for the release of all Syrians arrested on political charges as well as the trial of anyone who has committed atrocities.
The Iran plan seeks an end to the false reporting of Syria developments as well as the formation of a committee to assess the damages inflicted on the country’s infrastructure, and determine its reconstruction priorities.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of militants are foreign nationals.
Damascus says certain Western states, especially the United States, and their regional allies are fueling the unrest.

No US Proposal

Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Chief Alaeddin Boroujerdi said that Washington has not yet presented any special proposal on the settlement of the standoff over Tehran’s peaceful nuclear program.