The announcement came in a joint press conference attended by Raisi and his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas on Monday, after the two heads of state held bilateral talks.

“We have decided to increase the cooperation between the two countries,” Raisi said.

“The volume of trade exchanges between Iran and Venezuela will be increased to 10 billion dollars in the first step, which can be raised to 20 billion dollars in the second step,” Iran’s president said.

Raisi noted that Tehran’s relations with Caracas are not ordinary diplomatic ties, but are of a strategic nature.

“Having common interests, positions and enemies has helped deepen cooperation between the two countries and make it strategic,” Raisi said.

The press conference was preceded by an official ceremony during which the two countries’ ministers and other top officials signed a total of 19 cooperation agreements and memorandums of understanding.

The agreements were aimed at expanding cooperation between Tehran and Caracas in many areas, including in the field of petrochemicals, as the two sides move to expand overall cooperation in the oil sector.

The documents will also boost the two countries’ cooperation in such areas as information and communication technology, energy, insurance, marine transportation, higher education, agriculture, medicine, culture and mines.

Meanwhile in a joint press conference with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Raisi said a new world order is being formed in favor of freedom-seeking, independent countries, stressing that resistance against the arrogant powers has led to significant achievements.

The Iranian president said Tehran and Caracas have managed to improve “strategic” relations in recent years, but they should swiftly implement the previously signed agreements to upgrade ties to higher levels given diverse mutual capacities.

He added that Iran has capabilities in the field of exporting technical-engineering services and processing agricultural and mineral products.

“The Iranian nation has gained valuable experience and achievements in the field of science and technology thanks to its resistance against the arrogant system and [success to] overcome the sanctions,” Raisi said, expressing Tehran’s readiness to share them with Venezuela.

The Iranian and Venezuelan presidents also announced their decision to increase the volume of bilateral trade to $20 billion.

The Iranian president stressed the importance of further activating the shipping lines between the two countries and called for strengthening cooperation in the industrial, mining, energy, monetary and banking sectors.

The Venezuelan president, for his part, pointed to Caracas’s strategic relations with Tehran and said Venezuela is firmly determined to start a new round of bids aimed at expanding relations with Iran.

Maduro added that Iran and Venezuela have made efforts to reduce their dependence on oil revenues and increase the resistance of their economies against foreign upheaval and pressure.

In the new world that is being formed, imperialism is collapsing and the countries that have resisted the excessive demands of the arrogant powers are on the verge of victory, he emphasized.

The Venezuelan leader stressed the necessity of establishing a direct air line between the two countries and strengthening shipping lines to increase bilateral trade.

He noted that Tehran and Caracas have also appropriate capacities for cooperation in the fields of tourism, agriculture and animal husbandry.

That deal includes repairs to oil refineries in Venezuela, which has the world’s largest crude reserves but has struggled to produce enough gasoline and diesel, leading to intermittent shortages that have forced drivers to queue for hours.

Iran has provided fuel and diluents to convert Venezuela’s extra-heavy crude into exportable varieties and since 2020 has supplied parts for repairs to the refining circuit.

A unit of Iran’s state-owned refiner NIORDC signed a 110-million-euro contract in May 2022 to make repairs at Venezuela’s smallest refinery, El Palito, which has a capacity of 146,000 barrels per day.

Iran is also set to be involved in a modernization project at Venezuela’s largest refinery complex, partly to restore distilling capacity.

Speaking in a joint meeting of Iranian and Venezuela tradesmen, Raisi said becoming stronger in the economic sector would be the most effective way to counter sanctions.

He added that the Iranian youths have succeeded in turning sanctions into opportunities by making use of the capabilities of the knowledge-based companies and maintaining peace and stability in the country against the upheavals.

He noted that Tehran and Caracas have enormous capacities to increase economic exchanges which have not been used yet.

The Iranian president emphasized that Tehran and Caracas can reach the 20-billion-dollar target through investment.

The two sides agreed to remove customs, banking and tariff barriers in order to facilitate and accelerate economic exchanges, he noted.

Raisi said Iranian ambassadors, commercial offices, the house of science and technology and all active sectors in the fields of industry, mines and banking affairs must work to facilitate mutual trade ties.

A high-ranking delegation comprised of ministers of foreign affairs, oil, defense, and health is accompanying Raisi on the five-day tour, which will also take him to Nicaragua and Cuba.

Iran has close ties with many Latin American states in different domains and seeks to further deepen its relations with those nations.

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A recent poll conducted by a reliable university opinion poll center showed that Judiciary chief Ayatollah Raisi is in the lead with 42%, according to Fars News.

Other potential candidates Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Expediency Council chief Mohsen Rezaei, and former Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani received 22%, 20%, 10%, and 6% respectively.

The poll was conducted on April 29. Respondents were asked to rate the five most prominent figures who are thought to announce presidential bids. The fifth figure is Es’haq Jahangiri, who serves as the First Vice President of Iran.

Jahangiri and Larijani received the most negative ratings, according to Fars News.

Respondents were also asked to choose between Raisi and Zarif in an imaginative contest between the two. 67% said they will elect Raisi while only 27% said they would vote for Zarif. This may indicate a sharp decline in Zarif’s perceived popularity.

Zarif’s popularity against Qalibaf also shrank to 33%. 56% of the respondents said they would choose Qalibaf in a possible contest between him and Zarif.

The poll also showed that turnout in the upcoming election will, for now, stand at 47%.

Iran is slowly moving toward an early election fever, with several unofficial candidates privately organizing their campaign staff to prepare for one of Iran’s most consequential elections that could determine Iran’s trajectory for years to come.

So far, none of these figures, except for Rezaei, have officially announced candidacy. Ayatollah Raisi has remained silent on whether he would run for president but public calls on him to run for office have intensified. Last week, a group of 1,400 university students called on Ayatollah Raisi to consider running for president. Raisi is widely seen as a figure who can upend the election dynamics given his experience in achieving more than 15 million votes in the most recent Iranian presidential election in 2017. Some conservative politicians believe that if Raisi announces the presidential bid, all conservative blocs, also known as the Principlists, will unite behind him, and thus he is the only conservative politician who has the ability to create partisan unity.

Manouchehr Mottaki, the former foreign minister of Iran who is currently coordinating the elections efforts of the Principalists, said on Saturday that Raisi is “very likely” to announce a presidential bid. And that all political factions should encourage him to run for president.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is going to hold its 13th presidential election on June 18.

Recent polls show that Iranians attach importance to the upcoming election. A recent opinion poll conducted by the Iranian Students Polling Agency (ISPA) in the period between January 20 and February 18, showed that a remarkable portion of Iranian society still positively looks to the political changes that will be produced by the election in the next spring. The poll also showed that a large number of Iranian people hope that with the change of government, openness will be achieved in their individual and societal lives.

More than 1,500 people above the age of 18 have participated in the ISPA poll. They were asked the following question: “In your view, how much does the participation of people in the election can be effective in resolving the current problems of the country?”

More than 55% of the respondents said they believe that participation of the people in the June election will have a positive impact on resolving the current problems while less than 39% said that participation will be to no use. A breakdown of the second figure into two groups shows that 13% of respondents believe that the election will be “somehow ineffective” in changing the conditions of their lives. And 26% of respondents said the election will not be effective at all.

The ISPA poll shows in no uncertain terms that the majority of Iranian people pin hopes on the election’s results and look forward to participating in the June election. According to the poll, those hoping the election will contribute to making their lives better have already made decision to vote

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He referred to the motto of the year “Production, Support and Elimination of Obstacles” by the Leader of the Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, and said: “When the Leader announces a slogan all institutions must work to achieve this, the judiciary must be involved in any area where it is possible to remove barriers to production and support production.”

“Our colleagues activated more than two thousand production units, which deserves appreciation and thanks,” he said.

Raisi said that the duty of the judiciary is to support production and remove its obstacles.

“Last year, my colleagues tried to save more than a thousand production units from closure,” said the chief of the judiciary.

He noted: “We are confident that with the efforts of our colleagues, the support of production and the fight against corruption to support production will come to an end.”

Raisi stated: “One of the important areas of production in the judiciary is fighting corruption; because economic corruption hinders production prosperity, and if there are bribery and special privileges somewhere, the prosperity of production will not take place.”

Emphasizing that economic security must be created for production prosperity, Raisi added: “Economic security depends on the fight against economic corruption. One of the important obstacles to production is the smuggling of the goods, and it is our duty to fight it.”

Touching upon the talks on the JCPOA, he that Iran will not reverse its remedial measures on the nuclear deal until the US removal of all sanctions and verification of its measures by Tehran.

“Today, the clear policy and strategy of the Islamic Republic towards the U.S. is that it should lift all sanctions and we should verify them and then return to the nuclear deal undertakings,” Raisi said.

“Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution (Ayatollah Khamenei) did not declare this strategy in a closed-door room but in the presence of all people of Iran, and no other strategy is acceptable,” he added.

Raisi referred to certain analyses which say that the new U.S. administration is different from the Trump government, and said the Americans have always been after implementing arrogant plots against the Iranian nation and if they claim that they have changed this policy, they should prove it in practice.

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“We are ready to open the doors of our prisons, so pretenders of human rights can visit any Iranian prisoner they want if they allow us to visit any prisoner we want in their country,” the top judge remarked.

Pointing to his recent visit to Iraq, Raisi also said, “Iran and Iraq agreed to cooperate on the case related to the assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani.”

Raisi stressed that Iran’s relation with its neighbors is a top priority, underlining, “I hope Iran’s international collaboration with Iraq will bear a positive result.”

Previosly, Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Judiciary, says, “We are obliged to defend women’s rights”.

Speaking at a meeting of the Supreme Council of Judiciary on Monday, Raisi said, “We have taken measures to introduce a bill to ensure the security and dignity of women and have submitted it to the government”.

The Judiciary chief made the remarks on the occasion of the martyrdom anniversary of Fatemeh Zahra (SA), the daughter of Prophet Mohammad (S) and the wife of Imam Ali (AS), the first Shia Imam.

He asserted that “the Quran, humanity, justice, and the first Imam of Shia are four central points of Fatemeh Zahra’s speeches, and are sufficient to indoctrinate the people and guide the individuals toward the salvation.”

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IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

TEHRAN – Iran Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi says Western countries are showing green light for the continuation of terror when they call for self-restraint.

“Westerners who call for restraint in the face of terror are actually showing green light to terrorists,” he said in a local judicial event on Monday.

The remarks come as European countries have called on Iran to show ‘self-restraint’ in response to the assassination of Iranian top scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on Friday.

Raisi also urged related military, judicial, and security officials to form a special task force to identify and prosecute those behind the assassination.

Naming Fakhrizadeh as the ‘hero’ of ‘nullifying sanctions and threats’ in defense and nuclear fields, Raisi said “Experience shows that to counter sanctions and terror, one should only become stronger.”

The logic of ‘producing power’ has become the mindset of Iranian youth in different fields, he said, adding that one should not neglect to adopt deterrent measures against the enemy as “it only understands the language of power.”

Sanction and terror are two sides of the same coin and it is a mistake to pin hope on the lifting of sanctions through negotiation, he added.

Speaking at a meeting of the Judiciary’s High Council on Monday, Raeisi ordered the country’s prosecutor general to set up a special task force in cooperation with the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, the Armed Force’s Judicial Organization, and the security and intelligence organizations in order to prosecute the people who ordered and perpetrated the assassination attack on Fakhrizadeh.

The top judge also urged the Iranian security and intelligence forces to immediately detect and disband the “infiltration network” across the country and take action against the insiders sending signals to the enemies.

Paying tribute to Fakhrizadeh as the hero of “nullifying the sanctions and threats” in the nuclear and defense industries, Raeisi emphasized the need for strong “preventive measures” because “the enemy knows only the logic of force.”

“Sanctions and assassination are two sides of the same coin. The Westerners that appeal for (Iran to exercise) self-restraint vis-a-vis assassination are in fact giving terrorists the green light,” he added.

The Judiciary chief went on to say that it would be a mistake to hope for a removal of sanctions through negotiations.

Meanwhile yesterday in a ceremony, akhrizadeh was laid to rest three days after his assassination outside Tehran, with the country’s defense minister pledging to continue his work “with more speed and more power.”

He was buried at Imamzadeh Saleh mosque in Tajrish in northern Tehran’s Shemiran district on Monday after a detailed funeral ceremony was held in the morning.

The cortege began at the Ministry of Defense in east Tehran, with top state and military officials on hand to pay their respect to a man who played a leading role in bolstering Iran’s defense power and advancing its nuclear energy program.

An honor guard carried the casket containing his remains which reportedly received three shots during an ambush in a boulevard in Absard where assailants blew up an explosives-laden Nissan truck before targeting him and his security detail in a hail of bullets.

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