Meeting Reviews Challenges Facing Blind People

A meeting was organized in Tehran on May 14 to review the challenges facing the blind people. Held by the Persian daily “Iran Sepid”, which is...

Iran Makes Micronutrient Fertilizer From Worn Tires

Researchers at Isfahan Polytechnic University have produced a micronutrient fertilizer with high quality and the least impurity...

Election Outcome Won’t Change Iran’s Stance

By Emad Abshenass


Last night I was invited to the Norwegian Constitution Day function which was apparently attended by all ambassadors, representatives of foreign missions and diplomats. Given the attendance, one can predict two things: first, the international relations of that country and second, the personal relations of the ambassador that country sends to the host country.
Norway is a country with good relations with probably all countries. These days, it is almost rare to find a country that has good relations with a majority of others. I believe such countries are more successful. Norway has worked very hard to maintain its status as an oil producer while keeping away from international conflicts. I think a research should be done to analyze the way the Norwegians were able to gain such success.
I am sure that Iran likes to have good relations with all countries. Some countries, due to their rich resources and geopolitical position, are always targets of foreign greed. Middle East countries are among them. Due to the natural resources that exist in this part of the world and due to their geopolitical position, they have always been targets of various plots. Iran is one of them. Throughout history Iranians have always faced conspiracies. Their country has always been a target of plots and attacks and was invaded by every super power in history.
In past centuries, Iranians managed to work hard to become so powerful so that no country would dare invade their country. Before the Islamic Revolution, the shah was considered to be a close ally of the US and the West but he was never able to trust western countries and history proved to the Iranians that these countries were not qualified for trust.
Western countries were always plotting against the Iranians without caring that the Iranian regime at that time was 100 percent loyal to them. By the way, the shah was even a good and close friend to Israel.

US Jobless Claims Jump

Economy Desk

More Americans filed claims for jobless benefits last week and manufacturing in the Philadelphia region unexpectedly shrank in May, signs the slowdown in growth is rippling through the US economy.
The number of applications for unemployment insurance payments jumped by 32,000 to 360,000 in the week ended May 11, the most since the end of March, Labor Department figures showed in Washington. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index fell to minus 5.2 from 1.3 in April.
Concern the automatic federal budget cuts that took effect in March will hurt sales may be prompting employers to trim staff and factories to pull back.
At the same time, another report showing inflation is retreating as gasoline costs drop means households have extra cash to buy other goods and services, which will help underpin consumer spending.
“We are seeing things like the sequester and budget cuts act as a restraining factor,” said Julia Coronado, chief economist for North America at BNP Paribas in New York.
Second-quarter growth is going to be slower than the first quarter, and we haven’t yet broken out of this pattern of strong quarters followed by weak quarters.”

IRAN DAILY

License Holder: (IRNA) www.irna.ir ● Number 4509 ● Saturday May 18, 2013 ● Ordibehesht 28, 1392 ● Rajab 7, 1434 ● Price 2,000 Rials ● 12 Pages ● www.iran-daily.com

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Jalili, Ashton Describe Istanbul Talks as ‘Fruitful’

Nuclear Issues Not Affected By Election Outcome

Political Desk

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton concluded their talks in Istanbul, Turkey, describing the negotiations as fruitful.
Speaking to reporters, Jalili said he held ‘fruitful’ talks with Ashton, adding the two sides agreed to meet again in the near future.
“We will soon hold talks again to set a date for the meeting,” the SNSC secretary added.
Ashton, representing the six world powers which make up the P5+1 group, also said she had ‘useful’ discussions with Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator in Istanbul on May 15.
“We will now reflect on how to go on to the next stage of the process,” she said in a statement.
“We will be in touch shortly,” she added.
Ahead of the Wednesday talks, Jalili had said Iran was still waiting for answers to the proposals it made to the P5+1 group in April.
During the April meeting, Iran presented the P5+1 with the details of its proposal ‘to launch a new round of cooperation’ between the two sides, SNSC Undersecretary Ali Baqeri said on April 5.

US Fails to Secure Wrestlers’ LA Trip

Iran Crushes US in NY Exhibition

Sports Desk

Iran inflicted a crushing 6-1 defeat on the United States in a wrestling exhibition event at a crowded train station in a friendly match.
According to Press TV, in a rare sign of cooperation, top-level sportsmen from the United States, Iran and Russia joined in New York’s Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday as part of a unified effort to save wrestling as an Olympic sport and raise money for the New York based organization Beat the Streets.
Iran was scheduled to wrestle in Los Angeles on Sunday but US wrestling officials said that they have no responsibility over Iran’s visit to LA.
Iran’s Wrestling Federation in a statement said, “We hail Iran’s representative office effort at the UN and those Iranians who cheer the wrestlers,” Mehr News Agency wrote.
The event dubbed ‘The Rumble on the Rails’ marked the fourth straight year a New York City landmark was transformed into a wrestling meet to raise money for charity, with the last two in Times Square.
“It’s typical Iranian. Wherever we go, they do the same thing,” two-time world champion Mehdi Taqavi said referring to the fans after winning his match, AP quoted him as saying.
An American freestyle wrestling team first faced the wrestlers of Iran and then Russia in the main hall at Grand Central Terminal as a large and loud contingent of fans, waving Iranian flags, cheered them on. Iran put on a dominant performance to beat the host 6-1.

Lavrov: Iran Should Take Part in Syria Conference

Iran should take part in an international conference agreed by Moscow and Washington to help broker an end to the Syria conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted in an interview broadcast Thursday.
Lavrov told Lebanese television that Russia believed the conference, which he and US Secretary of State John Kerry announced in Moscow last week, should include Iran, a key Syria ally.
“We must not exclude such a country as Iran from this process due to geopolitical preferences. It is after all a very important outside player. But as yet there are no agreements on this subject,” Lavrov was quoted as saying in a transcript published on the Russian foreign ministry’s website. The interview aired Thursday on Lebanon’s Al-Mayadeen channel but was filmed on Monday, according to the ministry website.
Iran, which is Russia’s main regional ally and backs Syrian President Bashar Assad, ‘can play the same role as the other outside players, directly interacting and supporting one or other Syrian side in a political or other way’, Lavrov said. “There are obvious things: Iran has often stressed its solidarity with the Syrian government and representatives of the Iranian leadership regularly visit Damascus,” he said.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Tuesday would not rule out the possibility that Iran could be invited to join the talks in search of a political resolution to end the conflict now in its third year.

US Stonewalling Global Disarmament

Canada’s Meddling Condemned

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi says the United States’ opposition and lack of commitment to various international disarmament conventions are obstacles to advancing the issue of global disarmament.
Pointing to the US’s 16-year opposition to bringing up the issue of disarmament in the UN Disarmament Conference, Araqchi said, “The US has, for all practical purposes, taken the conference hostage and is hindering its effective performance in advancing international peace and security.”
He said that the US opposition to the protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention, its non-adherence to its commitments under the Chemical Weapons Convention to eliminate its arsenal by 2012, and efforts to prevent global denuclearization as well as a nuclear-free Middle East are all part of Washington’s dark record of non-compliance with international obligations and disrespect for international mechanisms on global disarmament and security.

Bomb Attacks Kill Dozens in Iraq

Two bombs near a mosque and another against a funeral procession killed 49 people in Iraq on Friday, officials said, after two days of attacks against Shiites that killed dozens.
The burst of violence raises the specter of tit-for-tat killings common during the height of sectarian bloodletting in Iraq that killed tens of thousands of people, AFP reported.
One bomb exploded as worshippers were departing the Saria mosque in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, while a second detonated after people gathered at the scene of the first blast, killing a total of 41 people and wounding 57, police and a doctor said.
And in Madain, south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a funeral procession for a man, killing eight people and wounding at least 25, security and medical officials said.

Iran, IAEA Wrap Up Talks

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have wrapped up their latest round of talks on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
Late on Wednesday, the two sides wrapped up in Vienna another round of talks that focused on a technical framework for cooperation.
Iran’s Ambassador to the IAEA Ali-Asghar Soltanieh who led the Iranian delegation said the two sides put forward new proposals.
“We started talking with the IAEA on a modality or structure approach, for the resolution of outstanding issues,” Soltanieh told Press TV on telephone. “We were able to further touch upon some remaining issues and we had progress. Both sides gave proposals in order to bridge the gaps and pave the way for a final agreement and conclusion of a final agreement on the text of this modality,” he added.
The ambassador said the Islamic Republic is determined to prove the peaceful nature of its nuclear program in its negotiations with the world body.
“We have decided as a very historical important decision to deal with issue of allegations--the so-called ‘possible military dimension’ allegation,” he stated, stressing that the move is a volunteer gesture beyond Tehran’s legal obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The talks were the 10th round of the negotiations between Iran and the IAEA over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program since early 2012.