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IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

TEHRAN – Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said on Monday that Iran and China have always had common historical ties as well as good relations in various political and economic dimensions in East Asia.

Responding to Iran Press’ question at his weekly press conference, Mousavi highlighted, “During a trip by the Chinese President to Iran in 2015, the two sides agreed to take a strategic view as well as a road map into consideration. Afterward, Iran and China drafted an agreement several times. Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif delivered the suggestions by the Iranian side to the Chinese during a trip he had to the country. Consequently, the draft agreement was finalized by Iran, and should be delivered to the Chinese side to be finalized.”

The spokesman stressed, “The strategic agreement between Iran and China is unbelievable and at the same time unacceptable for different parties. They believe that the Islamic Republic of Iran, through this act, is making the cruel sanctions imposed against the Asian country ineffective which they are right in this case.”

Mousavi went on to say, “Iran is ready to define its long-term relations with other countries that have long-standing ties with it. The same procedures have been taken for some countries. Foreign roots have been the causes of the attacks. The Iranian nation is vigilant, and will not be the victim of a smear campaign that has been conducted by the rivals.”

Iran is considered as an important country in West Asia and China is considered as an important one in East Asia and relations between two countries has always been peaceful, the spokesman said.

He further said that Tehran does not accept the Europeans’ middle-course stance between the US and Iran.

“The Europeans’ stance is “not constructive”, Abbas Mousavi said, adding that Iran clearly announces that Europeans have some commitments they should be loyal to, but they are defeated by the US pressures that is by no means good for their international reputation.

Answering a question about why the details of the draft agreement between China and Iran are not revealed, Mousavi said the accord is still being negotiated. It is a roadmap that should be carefully-wrought. And those trying to sabotage it know “our sensitivity”.

He said that when finalized, the document will be published and that the hype is for distancing Beijing and Tehran from each other.

Regarding the fire in a U.S. warship in San Diego, he said the issue does not concern to Iran, but it is interesting how soon the US warships catch fire. “May be the American cheetah are responsible for.”

Calling on Azerbaijan and Armenia to exercise self-restraint and resolve their dispute over Karabakh through political ways, Mousavi expressed sorrow over the incident in which Azeri forces were killed.

Iran has repeatedly expressed readiness for helping the two neighboring countries to solve the issue peacefully, he said.

He said that the current Iranian year was named surge in production, which means when the Iranian markets are glutted, the country will need new markets for exports.

Iran has been talking with the neighboring countries about customs tariffs and use of national currencies for trade, he said.

Regarding the issue of fire that happened in Natanz nuclear facility, Mousavi said that the incident has no effects on Iran’s nuclear activities and that the job in Natanz in being done and the place is being reconstructed.

With regards to the 7-billion-dollar debt of South Korea to Iran, he said that the talks are in progress at the level of foreign ministries and central banks of the countries, adding that Iran has already told the Koreans that their pretext not to pay the debt of the Iranian people is by no means acceptable.

Mousavi said that Iran is not under UN sanctions; a rebel and bully country has sanctioned Iran, and South Korea as independent country has no duty to follow the sanctions.

Hoping that South Korea will pay its debts, he said the pretext of Seoul is accepted in no court.

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“We have already announced readiness to secure the release and return to the country of Iranian hostages (jailed) in the US,” Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.

“They (the Americans) have some prisoners in our country due to security-related crimes and their crimes are indisputable,” he said.

Mousavi referred to the goodwill efforts made by some countries, including those by the Swiss ambassador to Iran, and said Tehran has hailed the efforts from the humanitarian point of view and taken measures in this regard.

He added that if there are grounds for exchange of prisoners, Iran will use all its diplomatic capacities to secure the release of Iranians jailed in the US on baseless charges.

On Monday, Iranian scientist Majid Taheri, who had been imprisoned in the US for more than 16 months, finally returned home on Monday.

The Iranian national who was a longtime resident of the US state of Florida, spent 16 months in prison for allegedly violating US sanctions on Iran.

The development came days after another Iranian scientist Sirous Asgari, a professor of material sciences at Sharif University of Technology, also returned home.

He spent about three years in US detention on trumped-up charges of fraud and theft of information relating to his work with a university in Ohio. The case however, was dismissed by a US district judge and he managed to return to his country.

Iran has called on Washington to release all other Iranian citizens taken hostage. The country says the US must make up for the damages caused by detaining Iranian scientists.

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“By imposing repetitive and ineffective sanctions, US officials are just bothering themselves as Iran will not give in to such bans and pressure,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Seyed Abbas Mousavi told Iranian media on Wednesday.

He further advised the US to stop its “unilateral” and “illegal” measures and its playing with international rules and regulations as “their sanctions are ineffective, have domestic consumption, and do not enjoy international backing.”

The Iranian official called on the international community to stand up to the US actions, which he said would affect other countries as well.

US sanctions imposed on Iran’s shipping network took effect on Monday, months after they were announced in December.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement on Monday warned commercial and maritime industries, governments, and others that they risked US sanctions if they did business with the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and its Shanghai-based subsidiary, E-Sail Shipping Company.

“These designations serve as a clear warning that anyone doing business with or otherwise supporting IRISL or E-Sail are exposed to potential sanctions and risk contributing to Iran’s proliferation-sensitive programs, including its nuclear and missile programs,” Pompeo said in the statement.

He also asked governments around the world to investigate activity by the shipping entities in their ports and seas, encouraging them to take appropriate action to stop the activity.

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According To Iran News, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi has criticized the brutal killing of a US citizen, George Floyd, by the country’s police.

“Brutal killing of #GeorgeFloyd by Minneapolis’ white man in uniform in cold blood is a harrowing demonstration of systematic racism and white supremacism glorified by the current administration,” Mousavi wrote on his Twitter account on Thursday with the hasghtag #American_human_rights.

A video has surfaced showing brutal treatment of an unarmed black man under the knee of a US police officer before his death.

George Floyd died after being pinned down by a white officer despite yelling: “I cannot breathe.”

Police-involved shootings and killings of unarmed black men in the hands of white police officers in the US have led to mass protests across the country in recent years and the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement.

US police killed nearly 200 people in the first four months of 2020, according to reports.

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IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

TEHRAN – Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi in his weekly presser said, “The U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf must leave the Persian Gulf and any naval vessel should observe maritime commute regulations so not to make Iran react.”

Mousavi said, “In the midst of the medical issues that the world is facing these days, diplomacy continues. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the President of Iran Hassan Rouhani have had many contacts with their counterparts. Also, there are other programs on the agenda of our country’s officials that have been informed and some of them are being implemented; in this regard, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has made 14 phone calls to officials and political figures around the world.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman in a video conferencing and answering to question regarding “What is Iran’s response to the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf and recent tensions between Iran and the U.S., said, “The Iranian armed forces are to patrol the region and the Persian Gulf, and these developments must take place calmly. As far as we know, the American forces prevented the normal and lawful patrol of the Iranian forces, and this has caused the Iranian forces to give them the necessary warnings.”

Mousavi further stressed the need for foreign troops to leave the Persian Gulf region, adding, “Iran has been present in this region for thousands of years and the security of this region is in the hands of Iran and its neighbors, especially Oman, which is in the opposite side of the Strait of Hormuz. We are responsible for the vital strait of the world.”

“As the IRGC said in a statement, foreign forces that are illegally present in the region should withdraw, and secondly, observe maritime commute regulations and not force our army to react, we are dissatisfied with their entry into the region and we hope they leave our area as soon as possible,” Mousavi concluded.

Talking about the situation in Afghanistan and Iran’s efforts to resolve Afghanistan’s problems, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Mousavi said: “As a neighboring country, Iran wants Afghanistan to be safe, calm and stable along our eastern borders.”

“The post-election political disputes in Afghanistan have prompted Iran to take action as a permanent friend of Afghanistan. Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif had contacts with Afghan officials, and the deputy foreign minister for Afghanistan affairs has made several trips to Afghanistan, where he met with senior Afghan officials”, the spokesman stated.

In response to a question about Europe’s commitments, Foreign Ministry Spokesman said, “INSTEX is a prerequisite for fulfilling other commitments that Europeans made to Iran after the illegal withdrawal of the United States from the JCPOA, and they stated that they needed a financial mechanism to fulfill their obligations. We welcome the launch of this financial channel, but we have stated that this is not all the commitments of the Europeans, and they must fulfill all the 11 commitments, including in the field of transportation, insurance energy, and so on.”

Mousavi also reacted to the U.S. officials’ efforts to extend Iran’s arms embargo saying, “I advise Americans if they are concerned about of arms stockpile they must stop selling, the madly and greedily sale of all kinds of deadly weapons to countries in the region and the world that have resulted in nothing but instability and fratricide.

Mousavi continued to say: “This is one of the wonders and the interesting humor of the times that the law-breaking government that violated the JCPOA and violated Security Council Resolution 2231 is still pursuing its provisions and continues to violate it and compels others to move forward in the same track.”

He added, “With these actions, the Americans want to divert the world’s public opinion from economic terrorism against the Iranian people.”

The spokesman said there was no reason for the Security Council to violate UNSCR 2231, and that the U.S. request of others was “illegal”.

Regarding the regional cooperation between Iran and the PGCC member states in the current situation, the spokesman said, “Among the good things and opportunities that Coronavirus has had along with the threats against us in the world, are the approaches and the views of different countries to each other. Iran is always ready to interact and talk closely with its neighbors in the region, especially in the Persian Gulf. In any case, we have announced and presented many plans and initiatives in this field, and without preconditions, we are ready to talk to friends in the region.” Mousavi underscored.

“If the countries of the Persian Gulf, especially one or two countries that are a little more misunderstood, are ready, Iran is ready to enter into dialogue and interaction with these brothers at any level and in any situation that requires this time, which we hope to happen,” he highlighted.

Mousavi also rejected that Coronavirus is produced from a laboratory in Wuhan, calling this politicizing the Corona issue by the US.

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In remarks at a press conference on Monday, Seyed Abbas Mousavi hailed the improvement of regional cooperation between Iran and the Persian Gulf littoral states after the outbreak of coronavirus.

Apart from the threats that the novel coronavirus poses to the entire world, it has resulted in a series of favorable events and opened up opportunities as well, he said, adding that the outbreak has brought the stances and priorities of the countries closer together to some extent.

“We are witnessing streaks of shifting priorities and orientations in our region,” Mousavi stated.

“We have expressed readiness for dialogue with our friends in the region without preconditions,” the spokesman said, stressing that Iran is prepared for talks and interaction with the Persian Gulf littoral states.

Mousavi also stated that Iran has already proposed a regional peace initiative, known as the Hormuz Peace Endeavor (HOPE), and is still waiting to see readiness on part of the Persian Gulf countries for cooperation.

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