Khatibzadeh noted that Assadollah Assadi’s imprisonment and conviction were faulty and violated the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

“The European parties involved in the case of Assadollah Assadi have been called to account,” Khatibzadeh said.

His comments came after an appellate court denied appeals filed by three persons who are said, in line with “unfounded and baseless accusations,” to have been “connected” to Assadi.

“Unfortunately, today, under the pretext of holding appeals court for the three foregoing people, we are once again witnessing fabricated lies by Western media about Mr. Assadi, a diplomat of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he remarked.

“As said in the past, the entire procedures of detention, trial, and issuance of legal verdict against Assadi have taken place in complete violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” the spokesman underscored.

“The Islamic Republic has officially communicated its protest over the matter to Austria, Germany, and Belgium, repeatedly rejecting the accusations that have been leveled against the diplomat, and insisting that he should be immediately released,” Khatibzadeh stated.

He described the entire situation as a pre-planned scenario carried out by the MKO with the objective of inciting Iranophobia.

Belgian officials said in June 2018 that they had seized a vehicle carrying homemade explosives and a detonation device, stating that Assadi had already sent the materials to two persons in Belgium. The next day, he was caught in Germany and told that he could not use his diplomatic immunity.

After being accused of organizing an assault against the anti-Iran terrorist MKO organization, a Belgian court sentenced him to 20 years in jail.

Since the triumph of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, the terror group has carried out countless killings and bombings against Iranian authorities and civilians. About 12,000 of the roughly 17,000 Iranians murdered as a result of the MKO’s act of terror.

The group is notorious for taking sides with the former Iraqi despot, Saddam Hussein, who inflicted a war on Iran.

Until 2012, the terrorist group was on the U.S. list of terrorist groups.

Since then, however, it has been actively promoted by the West as an “Iranian opposition group” and has enjoyed from heavy Western lobbying.

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The 22-year-old player has penned a two-year contract with the Belgian team.

The details of the fee contract have not been revealed.

Greenyard Maaseik will play at the CEV Champions League next season.

Karimi is the first Iranian player to play in Liga Heren (men’s volleyball in Belgium).

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His comments came as Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden issued a joint statement on Friday announcing becoming shareholders of INSTEX, making it more operational.

In an interview with IRNA correspondent in Beijing on Saturday, Araghchi said the European countries’ action in joining INSTEX is “valuable”.

INSTEX has been designed by the European Union to facilitate legitimate trade with Tehran. It was introduced on January 31 by France, Germany, and Britain, the three countries party to the 2015 nuclear deal. It was introduced long after the U.S. imposed sanctions on Iran and threatened to punish any country or company that does business with Iran.

It is supposed to be a financial channel and a special mechanism for transferring money in spite of U.S. sanctions on Iran. Its objective is to facilitate Iran’s transactions with European companies.

“The fact that the European countries are serious about having INSTEX as a business mechanism to keep economic relations with Iran and finding a way in order for Iran to have economic interaction with Europeans despite the United States’ sanctions is very valuable,” said Araqchi.

Araqchi served as a senior negotiator in crafting the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the JCPOA, with the other parties, which includes the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, Russia, Britain, France, and the U.S.) Germany and the European Union. However, the U.S., under President Donald Trump, abandoned the deal and reinstituted sanctions on Iran.

“I believe even in the state of sanctions, INSTEX can cover almost 20 percent of Iran’s economic relations,” Araqchi stated.

Araghchi said on November 11 that INSTEX has not been yet fully implemented.

During a meeting with a group of Austrian MPs in Tehran on April 29, he criticized European delay in implementing its special mechanism to save the JCPOA.

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STRASBOURG (Dispatches) – Finland, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden will join the INSTEX mechanism for trade with Iran, the six countries declared in a joint statement on Friday (29 November) ahead of further talks between parties to the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna next week.

According To Iran News, Sanction-hit Iran was recently shaken by demonstrations that erupted across the country last week, hours after the price of petrol was raised by as much as 200%, and unrest spread to scores of urban centres, with officials confirming five deaths.

In reaction to EU statements calling for “maximum restraint” handling the protests, Tehran said Europe should refrain from intervening in Iran’s affairs and instead focus on delivering promises under the 2015 nuclear deal.

Iran’s economy has been battered since May last year when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The plan was signed in 2015 by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, UK, US, Germany, and the EU, and hit Iran with sanctions.

The accord required Iran to scale back its nuclear program and considerably downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief.

European efforts to ensure that Iran can keep trading in spite of the sanctions have had little impact.

“In light of the continuous European support for the agreement and the ongoing efforts to implement the economic part of it and to facilitate legitimate trade between Europe and Iran, we are now in the process of becoming shareholders of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) subject to completion of national procedures,” the joint statement said.

INSTEX was born as the brainchild of France, Germany and the UK in January 2019. It was created as a special purpose vehicle to help EU companies do business with Iran and facilitate non-USD transactions to avoid breaking US sanctions against the country.

Following a meeting of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA in June, EU’s foreign affairs chief, Federica Mogherini, said that the purpose of INSTEX is to facilitate “legitimate trade” with Iran for any EU member and that it has been conceived to be open to non-EU countries.

The six EU member states joining the mechanism reiterated that they “attach the utmost importance to the preservation and full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) on Iran’s nuclear program by all parties involved”.

They also urged Iran to return without delay to full compliance with the terms and provisions of the nuclear agreement.

After the U.S. withdrawal, Tehran began gradually abandoning its JCPOA obligations. In May this year, Iran warned it would gradually abandon its nuclear commitments every 60 days.

Iran announced publicly last week it would resume low-grade uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow nuclear plant, a site ringed by anti-aircraft guns, and this was confirmed by findings of the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

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IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK

Petit said that her country has agreed to join the INSTEX, adding that according to the new approved law by Belgium government, the country has joined the mechanism as one of the main members and Belgium Parliament has also approved the bill and according to the bill, Belgium can join the INSTEX as a shareholder.

Petit, accompanied by two commercial attaches of Belgium Embassy, went on to say that although the INSTEX has not fully become operational, Belgium by joining the trade mechanism with Iran is ready to strive to boost its economic cooperation with Iran, and as the result, Belgium Embassy has done its efforts to encourage those Belgium companies which are not engaged in deal with the U.S. to have permanent presence in Iran’s market for expanding cooperation with their Iranian counterparts.

She added that launching the INSTEX is a measure which will be considered in the future as sign of Europe’s independence from the U.S.

Khansari , for his part, said that expectations for the launch of the INSTEX have been beyond what everybody witnesses  now, adding that European countries especially signatories of the JCPOA have only chanted slogan and Iran has not seen any action for implementation of the INSTEX.

He admitted that after the U.S. reimposing sanctions, the trade volume between Iran and Belgium has declined. He went on to say that despite the decline, the tie has not been totally severed and there are huge grounds for expanding co-operations in different sectors like pharmaceuticals, construction and food industry.

Caretaker of international department of Tehran’s Chamber of Commerce Mr. Hassamuddin Hallaj pointed to the recent visit of the head of INSTEX and his meeting with the private sector of Iran, adding that Michael Bock admitted that private companies of Iran and Europe have increased pressure for operationalizing the INSTEX, noting that European companies have announced readiness for cooperation with their Iranian counterparts.

He reiterated that for operationalizing the INSTEX, a European bank should enter the scene for creating balance in bilateral financial interactions.

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Marc Wilmots would ask for $1,500,000 a year, as well as two Belgian assistants. For its part, the Iranian Federation would like Wilmots to accept an Iranian deputy in his staff which would probably be Javad Nekounam, former international and captain of Team Melli, and former player of Osasuna in Spanish Liga.

Wilmots has been unemployed since November 2017 and Ivory Coast’s non-qualification for the Russian World Cup.

Carlos Queiroz stepped down as Team Melli coach after the 3-0 defeat against Japan in the semifinal of AFC Asian Cup on January 28. He left Tehran for Lisbon three days later after Iran’s Football Federation didn’t offer any proposal for extending his contract. He then signed with Colombian football federation to coach the South American team.

Bert van Marwijk, Vincenzo Montella, Julen Lopetegui, Hervé Renard and Dick Advocaat were among other coaches who had been linked with the Iran job.

The Iranian federation has not officially confirmed the deal but according to reports, it is doing preparations to reveal Wilmots in a special ceremony.

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آدرس: ولی عصر- خیابان ‏فیاضی(فرشته)- پلاک ‏‏۱۵۵‏

تلفن: ‏۲۲۰۴۹۲۴۷‏، ‏۲۲۰۴۱۶۱۷‏

فکس: ‏۲۲۰۴۴۶۰۸‏

سایت: http://www.diplomatie.be/tehran

ایمیل: tehran@diplobel.fed.betehran@diplobel.fed.be

روز و ساعت کاری: یکشنبه تا پنجشنبه ۱۴- ۹‏

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Belgium, who suffered a painful 1-0 defeat to France in the semi-finals, also beat Gareth Southgate’s England in the first round in Russia on their way to topping the group before beating Japan and Brazil.

“It’s all about the achievement. This is Belgium’s best finish at a World Cup. The players deserve that and they wanted to make the country proud,” said coach Roberto Martinez said.

He said despite England’s run to the semi-finals, where they were beaten by Croatia, the young team are still not the finished article.

“We closed it for sure (the gap to the top teams),” he said. “But today shows, and some other games show, that there is still room for improvement.”

“Obviously I’m disappointed I couldn’t get a goal in the last few games,” added the Tottenham Hotspur striker, who is aiming to become just the second England player after Gary Lineker in 1986 to win the Golden Boot.

“Sometimes it goes for you, sometimes it doesn’t. But if I win it, it’ll be something I’ll be very proud of.”

– France favourites –

Didier Deschamps’ France are firm favourites to win Sunday’s showpiece in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium and become world champions for the second time — 20 years after their first triumph in 1998.

France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris said they are shutting out the mounting excitement at home as they focus on one final push against Croatia.

“To be honest with you, we are in our bubble,” said goalkeeper and captain Hugo Lloris.

“Of course we know what’s happening in France, all the more so after seeing all the images after the Belgium game.

“But tomorrow we will be coming up against opponents of great quality. They deserve to be in the final just as much as us. They have demonstrated their worth and that they have the physical and mental resources to go and win it.”

Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic is prepared to make changes if some of his players have not recovered from their exertions in reaching football’s biggest game.

Dalic’s men have been forced to go through three periods of extra-time against Denmark, Russia and England to become the smallest country in 68 years to make the final.

Ivan Perisic, who scored and set up Mario Mandzukic’s winner in the semi-final win over England, was among five Croatian players to miss training on Friday.

“We need relaxation and rest to gain freshness for tomorrow,” Dalic said. “We have some minor injuries, minor problems, and I hope my players will be ready. If not, I have great players on the bench who will be raring to go.”

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