TEHRAN (Iran News)  The Financial Times newspaper has reported that the EU is set to impose tariffs on the import of U.S. farm products that contain pesticides.

The daily cited three European officials that the bloc aims to restrict agricultural products containing pesticides to support local farmers.

This move reflects the bloc’s commitment to a “reciprocal” trade policy in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade measures because the president refuses to comply with international trade standards.

In the next session, the European Commission is scheduled to discuss further import restrictions, with potential targets including soybeans grown using pesticides EU farmers are not allowed to use.

On Thursday, Trump criticized the EU and other states for banning U.S. products like shellfish, threatening to impose tariffs on countries that maintain such positions.

A spokesperson for the European Commission also said that the EU has no information on Trump’s tariff plans concerning European products; however, Europe is prepared to respond decisively if necessary.

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Regardless of the issue of the JCPOA, Biden Administration is facing a large number of challenges. Bipolarization of the country after the presidential election has made the U.S. face different challenges like national security, an uneven condition in managing the coronavirus pandemic, and even earmarking budget for resolving financial crisis ahead of the country because simultaneously, the federal budgets due to the infrastructural and public health crisis are in critical condition.

Reacting to these challenges, a growing will is seen in the public for reconsideration in the U.S. global role. It is clearly visible that Biden does not seek display of power, and with the domestic plights, he prefers first to focus on the domestic issue and then on the overseas issues.

In this regards, the American Rand Corporation think tank in an almost realistic report writes, “According to one of the options, the U.S. by adopting a realistic self-restraint has taken a constructive approach regarding the other powers because it has decreased its military and aggressive presence and it has preferred to end some of its security commitments so that it could once again reach agreements in a better condition.”

To understand this option better by the public and the U.S. policy-makers, the writers of this report in the think tank have explained how the U.S. security policies under a grand restraint strategy change in the key regions and have raised many important unanswerable questions, and they have explained, elaborated and analyzed the next steps of this option and its political consequences, and have also warned the risks of the introversion strategy.

The writers of the report have come to this conclusion that regional policies, under the grand strategy of prioritization depending on the level of the U.S. interests and the risk of the dominance of a powerful country in the region, will be variable.

Due to China’s considerable military capability, advocates of reconsideration policy in hegemony due to the domestic woes in the U.S. want the country to have a more military role in East Asia for protecting the U.S. hegemony against China than other regions.

Theories and evaluations of pro-restraint stance and the strategy of prioritizing the threats have been different from the theories and assessments of the policy-makers who have formed the grand U.S. restraint strategy since the Cold War era. On the whole, the intellectuals in this political and military think tank believe in diplomacy for settling the conflict in the interest, and in defending the vital U.S. interests, and they encourage other countries to keep their superiority and military power. They strongly believe that if the grand restraint strategy has been adopted, the U.S. will have a smaller army and its overseas commitments and troop deployments will be decreased, and using military force will face more hurdles than the current policies. So the country in a short time has to give up most of its stances in alignment with its political partners. Being aware of certain consequences in making decisions regarding this grand strategy from one region to the other region will be variable depending on the level of the U.S. interests and the risk of the hegemony of power in the region.

Advocates of this strategy seek a more constructive approach with the U.S.’s current rivals like Russia and Iran. The U.S. strategy in the Asia Pacific region which is considered as the most important region has divided the supporters of the change in the strategy. They believe the emergence of a strong country in Asia, Europe, or in the Persian Gulf will limit the vital interests of the U.S. or even threatens it but they have not offered and transparent and far-sighted instructions to the politicians inside the government or their allies in the world to set a prospective for important decisions and ways of rising of this threat.

To present more accurate policies in each region, think tanks and intellectuals, and even intelligence services should make its realm stronger by preparing a comprehensive policy and have double analysis. They believe time will play a key role in presenting the strategy of the game. They emphasize that the decision-making structure in the administration has not even reached a relative convergence to link the prospect of resolving the internal problems along with a lasting policy in direction of protecting a structure to its allies abroad.

The American Rand Corporation has paid less attention to this point that the trend of the U.S. hegemony in introversion for showing and magnifying the power needs a heavy budget and the U.S. in the current condition has no way but to solve its domestic problems through decreasing military budget with the dramatic application.

The danger of humiliation against China in West Asia is understandable for all political-defense experts in the U.S. but the Administration’s heavy and growing debts and the need for adopting domestic détente policies have made limited and even impossible the decision making between two indisputable actualities for setting the strategy.

The post Biden Does Dare Decision Making appeared first on Iran News Daily.

In news reports, I noticed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel after 18 years in office and leading the Christian Democratic Union is stepping down from her post with uttering this sentence “I have not been born Chancellor. I have always dreamed to act honorably in any job that I take its responsibility and leave it honorably.”

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

It seems she leaves a position that in the current condition U.S. President Donald Trump is fighting fiercely for keeping it. I do not believe that Merkel during her years as Chancellor has been beneficial for her country and not for the world. Her policies regarding Iran’s nuclear deal, the JCPOA, have caused damages to Iran and fortunately she took the same path that Trump had taken although it did not show to be positive.

The European and American policies have inflicted damages on the people in the West Asia that they may not be recouped in the next 100 years. Although Merkel, by concentrating on more empowering Europe against the U.S., inflicted heavy investment to her country, she kept Germany’s stand in the West Asia to some extent. That Europe and the U.S. both see their interests in the Middle East have ended will be of the strategic points in the 2021 to 2030 outlook.

The U.S. and Germany’s partners and allies in the Middle East will definitely react to this shift of concentration by Europe to other regions for finding new partners and allies. Some of them will side with the U.S. and Germany’s friends and some will join their adversaries. In the near term, at least, these countries through weapon proliferation or armed conflict are likely to engage in riskier behaviors. We’ve seen signs of all of those things happening already—in Yemen, in Iraq, in Libya, and elsewhere—and they’re likely to happen more.

Perhaps this analysis may be correct that none of these issues except weapons proliferation is important for Westerners, including Europe and the U.S., though, who have watched refugee crises shape their politics, and for East Asian allies, who import three-quarters of their oil from the Middle East, rising instability is a major worry.

Jon B. Alterman, the director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), recently in article published in the website of the center wrote, “Amid a robust discussion about the appropriate U.S. posture in the Middle East (it means the NATO), one element is underemphasized, and sometimes it is entirely missing. Too often, people assume that the United States will fundamentally reorient its strategy toward the Middle East, and other powers (China, Iran and Russia) will essentially roll with the punches.”

But that’s not true. While the West engagement in the Middle East has grown, the world’s engagement in the region has grown as well. Allies and adversaries alike are tied into the Middle East’s status quo and try to plan strengthening their stand. When it shifts, they will shift, and when allies and adversaries feel effects, the West, including the U.S. and Europe, will feel effects. The United States might feel it is done with the Middle East, but the reverse isn’t true for the NATO and his adversaries.

China, which lacks the domestic oil and gas necessary to drive its economy, seems lashed to the Middle East for years to come. It will almost certainly seek to increase its footprint there, and it is likely to use a more dominant position in the Middle East to exert leverage over East Asian neighbors who are also reliant on the region. As Middle Eastern states view a future in which the United States is receding and China is rising, Germany, as the super power of Europe and the U.S. and as the “reeve” of the world, will be hard pressed to prevent China from embedding itself in the region’s physical and technological infrastructure. China is averse to replicating the U.S. military footprint in the Middle East, or anywhere else, but is keen to advance its security by other means. If it is able to establish pervasive surveillance capabilities, it will do more than be a force multiplier for a limited Chinese military presence. It will also build good relations with Middle Eastern governments, almost all of which are concerned by the prospect of popular discontent and are impressed by the Chinese model of economic development without destabilizing social and political change.

Merkel’s parting with her consent, under the tough coronavirus condition and virus-hit economy and Europe’s pressure in dealing with the Brexit and UK’s double standard, is her savior but costly for Europe. But exerting pressure on Trump for leaving the White House is very beneficial for the U.S. and other countries especially for the West Asia.

  By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

The post Trump, Merkel to Leave the Office Simultaneously appeared first on Iran News Daily.

“The ceremony to unveil the oceangoing oil tanker developed by the Iranian experts was a goodbye party for the gambler Trump to make enemies understand that we have been able to unveil and launch the second giant oceangoing oil tanker despite all sanctions with the help of the Iranian experts at Sadra company,” Saeed Mohammad, the head of IRGC-controlled engineering company Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, told reporters at the ceremony to launch the oil tanker in southern Iran on Tuesday.

The IRGC, including its Al Quds Force, was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States last year.

IRGC-affiliated Sadra Company has built the oceangoing oil tanker, an Aframax vessel able to transport up to 750,000 barrels of oil, Mohammad said, as carried by the Fars News Agency.

The oil tanker has been built for delivery to a foreign customer, the official added. The new tanker is the second that IRGC-affiliated firms have built, and the two tankers have earned Iran almost US$146 million (120 million euro) in hard currency revenue, he said.

The official also went on to brag that Iran is capable of building its own tankers without the help of foreign companies.

“We have grown self-sufficient in all sections of the marine industry as a result of efforts of the young Iranian specialists, and today, we do not need foreign states for building any type of ship,” Fars quoted Mohammad as saying.

Earlier this year, the IRGC opened a new naval base in a coastal town along the world’s most important oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz, a theater of frequent incidents and frictions between Iran and the United States.

The post Iran Unveils Own Oil Tanker In “Goodbye Party” For Trump appeared first on Iran News Daily.

The U.S. in President Donald Trump era has had a special difference with other editions of presidencies in the U.S. history and the difference has been that the decision-makers in the White House were not military. In this four-year period, Trump has always accused previous administrations of expending which has not benefitted the U.S. in the whole world, and especially in the West Asia. This method of administering the country by Trump has led to restriction in the U.S. military budget and massive withdrawals from the U.S. ambitious stances in any part of the world by the U.S. military.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Emergence of morale lacking ambition and motivation in all military elements and its spread to the security structure has made the U.S. suffer from multidimensional confusions. That the U.S. with such deafening propagation and even with explicit claim of fight with terrorism and with fell to assassination of Martyr Qassem Soleimani and his comrades in Iraq is one of these confusions. That the U.S. in its haplessness regarding managing the COVID-19 pandemic accuses China is one of these confusions. That the U.S. presidential election structure has turned into an unusual bipolarity with norm-breaking behaviors is one of these confusions.

Of course, by writing this article I mean mostly attention on a strange confusion that has targeted the U.S. cyber system. In the news it has been reported that the U.S. after discovering a cyber-attack has noticed that the attack has been underway for over ten months with the most complicated methods and also realized that its control and its methods of prevention and defense against it had no plans, and it has not found yet the possible discovery of the source and trace of these attacks.

The U.S. president has recently assured that the cyber-attack is under control. Experts believe that under control in view of the U.S. officials means shutting down the cyber systems that for the time being that the systems could remain immune from the Russian detriment. Of course, despite different U.S. officials’ charges against Russian hackers, Russians have strongly denied those charges and have asked the U.S. officials to show down genuine, logical and documented evidence for their claim.

However American officials are not sure that Russians have a hand at this cyber-attack and they have not presented any evidence and document on Russian engagement in this attack and speculations believe this idea that Americans have moved on course to accusing Russians. However what is seen in the U.S. media climate is that the U.S. cyber army has been inflicted with heavy and irrecoverable blows.

One should take this point into consideration that the U.S. Administration has suffered heavy blows in several occasions and has lost many of its classified documents and secrets of its state-of-the-art technologies but in none of the previous occasion it had been involved with such a structural confusion.

The biggest hacking action that one can see its result openly is the manufacture of the fifth generation of fighter jets by China that by employing the confidential designing knowhow and technologies of the U.S. F-35 and F-36 in less than three years bore fruit, and the Chinese unveiled and flew their fighter jets before the Americans unveiled their F-35s.

Although data and information about the military technology is of great importance, the biggest concern of the Americans is not limited merely to the military technology and hacking some parts of air systems information but this concern is about the more strategic dimensions which will have more perils in the longtime. Let’s have a look back at what one of the American news agencies, the Associated Press, has covered on this issue recklessly, “Could Hackers Have Obtained Nuclear Secrets? COVID-19 Vaccine data? Blueprints for Next-Generation Weapons Systems?”

This type of speculations by the media is stated while it shows itself that these media outlets do not have actually any certain achievement and the amount of their information is very little and it is mostly speculations because if they had had anything special, they would not have passed it very easily and they would go for exposing the elements and currents, and would take the issue into the political scene.

In this complicated case, probably it may take several weeks, several months or even more time for experts of the digital sleuths combing through U.S. government and private industry networks to get the answers that show the infiltration holes and methods of hacking. Experts say these hackers are consummate pros at covering their tracks. What’s seems clear is that this campaign — which cybersecurity experts says exhibits the tactics and techniques of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency — will rank among the most prolific in the annals of cyberespionage.

However Americans should be asked, with taking into consideration of the past experience of their sophisticated drone being hacked and being landed on the land of the Islamic Republic of Iran, how they have dared to dispatch their nuclear submarine to the Persian Gulf and they have not feared the route of it towards northern coasts is not been traced.

It seems the aim behind hacking systems in different organizations in the U.S. from the Treasury Department and industries to the intelligence agencies is to wear out and to disappoint the American systems of getting the gesture of being a super power and to accept the federative collapse that fortunately by the U.S. refrain from retreating its political stand and insistence on its false ambition of being a super power, it itself foments more the materialization of hackers’

  By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

The post Collapse, the Main Aim of Hackers appeared first on Iran News Daily.

According to President Hassan Rouhani government’s promise to the nation, it was supposed after signing the JCPOA, all cruel sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran would have been completely lifted but with arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump at the U.S. political scene suddenly everything changed and not only were sanctions increased more and more but also all the promises that the maladroit  diplomacy team of the government had given to the government did not materialize and Iranian nation endured the tribulation of the indecisive JCPOA for four years.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Today all in the world have seen that the U.S. not only in the JCPOA but also in many international treaties has been presented as unethical and commitmentless. However, the president-elect who has won in the election is himself witnessing misconduct of his predecessor Trump who does not intend to hand over the power to the one who has won the people’s votes. But regarding Iran, the winner of 2020 U.S. presidential election, Joe Biden, claims the U.S. leadership of the world.

This very claimant of the world leadership at first should first show the world his leadership of morality in the U.S. in order to have shown at least a little bit difference with his predecessor. For him the smallest step to show him a different one is that he should lift without wasting time all sanctions which have targeted only Iranian people and have made them suffer from endless cruelty, and should suspend playing with words and avoid being the captive of the Zionist policies.

Today most of culture-oriented people in the U.S. politics and economy believe that the U.S. cannot push ahead its policy and goals in other countries by creating poverty and hopelessness; such policy is opposite of the U.S. verbiage of being the leader of morality in the world. Biden only by putting an end to these sanctions can both advance the U.S. interests and revive the lost reputation of the country. The U.S. interests can be better achieved through dialogue. For some time after Trump announced the pullout of the U.S. from the JCPOA, Iran according to the IAEA verification did not pursue enrichment process above the level which had been agreed in the JCPOA. But now the condition is totally different from that time. Iranians according to the paragraphs of 35, 36 and 37 of the JCPOA are allowed to pull out of the NPT Treaty and allowed not to let IAEA inspectors to have access to its nuclear facilities and verification.

All the world believe that the U.S. by returning to the negotiation table will benefit, and to materialize it, it is necessary that Biden cancels all Trump’s executive orders regarding Iran outright and without any negligence. Only such an action can revive the U.S. lost reputation in a short time that Biden needs it for an agreement, and it can provide the ground for broader talks over the other issues.

That Iran accepts Biden to resist for an all-out agreement may make the case more complicated and in this issue, the U.S. may probably gain nothing but “nothing”. Iranians believe sanctions have benefited them and they have succeeded in putting behind major part of the sanctions, and have relied on domestic power and capabilities, and have overcome the unpleasant effects of sanctions.

The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution recently during his clear remarks whose words were misused and distorted by the West-oriented media has said, “We must be strong in all areas, including economics, science, technology, and defense. Because the enemies will not give up their greed, aggression, and invasions until we become strong. So I strongly advise that you do not trust the enemy. Do not trust any of their promises regarding solving the problems of the people and the future of the country. You saw what the U.S. did to you under Trump and what they did under Obama. The hostilities are not particular to Trump’s America for this to end when he leaves office. Obama’s America was also malicious to you and the Iranian nation.”

The Leader went on to say, “The three European countries too have displayed a total lack of commitment and extreme malice, duplicity, and hypocrisy. Officials should not harm this unity and synergy of the people (referring to the national unity regarding to Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks) and should not divide the nations, and the three branches of power should strengthen national unity through convergence and cooperation and resolve their differences through dialogues. Don’t you say that we should negotiate with the world? Well, is not it possible to resolve differences with the domestic element, either? This is a fact that lifting of sanctions is in the hands of the enemy, but nullifying them is in our hands. Thus, we need to focus more on nullifying them than on having them lifted. Of course, we do not mean that we should not seek to have the sanctions lifted, because if the sanctions can be lifted, we should not hesitate for even an hour. However, this has been delayed for four years now. Since 2016 when all sanctions were supposed to be lifted at once, not only have they not been lifted, they have even increased.”

The Supreme Leader, who was addressing a group of the organizers of the first memorial ceremony of Martyr Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and his comrades who were martyred by the blood-sucker Trump, emphasized, “If the sanctions can be lifted in a correct, wise, Iranian-Islamic, and dignified manner, this should be done. But our main focus should be on neutralizing the sanctions, and the initiative for this is in your hands.”

This method of leadership in tackling Western immorality and misconduct especially by the Americans has kept Islamic Iran on its feet, and for this reason this belief exists that even if Biden moves in the same direction of the past misconducts of Barack Obama or Trump, Iranians would be stronger than before both to overcome the effects of sanctions on their economy and to have independence of their nuclear power.

  By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

The post Iranians Have Surmounted Sanctions appeared first on Iran News Daily.

IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

TEHRAN – Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says revenge for Iran’s senior commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimeni, who was assassinated by the United States, is certain and will be exacted at the right time.

Ayatollah Khamenei made the remarks on Wednesday at a meeting with organizers of programs to commemorate the first martyrdom anniversary of top Iranian and Iraqi anti-terror commanders, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and a group of their comrades.

The two commanders were martyred in a drone strike ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump near the Baghdad International Airport on January 3. Back then, General Soleimani was in the Iraqi capital on an official visit at the invitation of the Iraqi government.

The two figures were highly popular because of the key role they played in eliminating the US-sponsored Daesh terrorist group in the region.

Ayatollah Khamenei recalled the million-strong funerals that were held for the two commanders, saying the “unforgettable” ceremonies “surprised the arrogance’s soft war generals and served as a first severe slap in the face of the Americans.”

The Leader added that Iran’s retaliatory missile strike on the American Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq had been another slap in the face of the Americans

Ayatollah Khamenei said a tougher slap will, however, be the subjugation of arrogance in the software sector, which requires the efforts of revolutionary youth and faithful elite, besides the expulsion of the United States from the region, which demands the nations’ will and resistance.

“Of course, this harsh slap is separate from revenge, because those who ordered and killed General Soleimani must see revenge, and this revenge is certain [and will be taken] at the right moment,” the Leader added.

Ayatollah Khamenei said General Soliemnai’s “historic” martyrdom turned him into a hero for Iranians and the entire Muslim Ummah.

“The reason why martyr Soleimani became a hero for the Iranian nation and different strata of people (even those beyond imagination) honored him and expressed their feelings was that martyr Soleimani was the embodiment of cultural values of Iran and Iranians,” the Leader said.

He also mentioned courage and the spirit of resistance as two of the prominent characteristics of General Soleimani.

The Leader further said General Soleimani had “wisdom, ingenuity, sacrifice and altruism” and was a man of spirituality and sincerity, not hypocrisy.

General Soleimani defeated arrogance both during his lifetime and with his martyrdom, Ayatollah Khamenei said. “The U.S. president said that they spent 7 trillion dollars in the region but achieved nothing and finally he was forced to visit a military base for a few hours in the dark of night. The whole world acknowledge that the United States has not achieved its goals in Syria and especially in Iraq,”

“The hero of this great work is General Soleimani, which was done during his lifetime,” he added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Leader advised the people and officials to double their efforts to strengthen the country in economic, science, technology and defense sectors, and not to trust the enemy.

Ayatollah Khamenei further stressed the country should focus on neutralizing the sanctions instead of securing their removal, saying, “The lifting of sanctions is in the hands of the enemy, but neutralizing them is in our own hands.”

“Of course, we do not mean that we should not seek to lift the sanctions, because if the sanctions can be lifted, we should not delay that even by an hour,” he explained.

Criticizing Europe’s hypocritical behavior, Ayatollah Khamenei said that three European countries also showed extreme malice and hypocrisy.

He also urged Iranians to preserve national unity, calling on the country’s three branches of power to strengthen national unity through synergy and cooperation.

Referring to the imposed sanctions on Iran, Leader of the Islamic Revolution called on authorities to look for the ways to defuse sanctions rather than the ways to lift them.

“Of course, we are not saying that we should not seek to lift the sanctions. If the sanctions can be lifted, we should not hesitate to do it even for an hour,” he noted.

“If the sanctions can be lifted in a right, wise, Iranian-Islamic and dignified way, it should be done, but the main focus should be on defusing the sanctions,” Leader added.

“I support the officials of the country as long as they adhere to the goals of the nation,” Ayatollah Khamenei highlighted.

The post Leader Urges Nation , Officials to Focus on Defusing Sanctions appeared first on Iran News Daily.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

TEHRAN – President Hassan Rouhani yesterday says that the government does not allow anyone to delay the time of ending sanctions, stressing that if the U.S. and others return to their commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran will return too.

In his press conference on Monday attended by Iranian and foreign media, President Rouhani referred to the Iran Nuclear Deal or JCPOA, saying: “Government is very hopeful that it will take good steps in the area of removal of sanctions because everyone knows that Trump’s economic war has failed.”

“The whole world is pressuring the United States that JCPOA must be resumed. One of the Twelfth Government services was that the government did not allow JCPOA to be destroyed with all its might,” the president said.

“Trump’s main goal was to destroy JCPOA, which was unsuccessful, Rouhani said, adding that “of course some people inside the country wanted to destroy JCPOA as well. We tried to keep JCPOA alive so that this agreement is able once again to play its role in due time.”

Noting that JCPOA was a historic agreement in Iran and the region, President Rouhani added: “There may be flaws in this agreement, but in relative terms, it has been a very historic agreement in Iran and the region. Some people wanted to destroy JCPOA, but we kept this agreement because one of our goals is to achieve our nuclear rights.”

Referring to the U.S.’ illegal sanctions against Iran, Rouhani said: “The end of the sanctions means that the people have achieved their rights. The end of US sanctions means that economic terrorism has stopped, and the criminal has stopped his crime. The government does not allow anyone to delay the time of ending sanctions. Sanctions must end, and this is the right of our people. America must return to its commitments, and if everyone returns to their commitments, we will return to our full commitments, too.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, in response to a question from Al Jazeera News Network about the lifting of sanctions and the possibility of his meeting with US-President Elect Joe Biden bilaterally or in the form of a P5 +1, President Hassan Rouhani said the government was doing its best to lift the oppressive sanctions as soon as possible. “We will do our best to lift these sanctions even an hour earlier.”

“Whenever other parties fulfill all their obligations, we also fulfill our obligations, and there is no obstacle in returning to our obligations,” Rouhani highlighted.

Rouhani noted: “If the United States returns to the nuclear deal and makes up for past mistakes, and Biden returns to the conditions of 2017, we will fully return to our commitments.”

President Rouhani also reiterated that “Economic terrorism has come to a halt. That is, the crime has stopped.”

One significant objective of the government is to break the sanctions, he said, stressing that the government is extremely optimistic about its initiatives in this regard as Trump’s economic war has failed and the whole world has admitted that.

With regard to the upcoming elections in Iran, Rouhani described it a great measure to happen next year (according to the Persian calendar).

He expressed the hope that Iran would witness a magnificent election with the participation of all political parties and groups along with very good competition.

He explained that the country is facing a very hard time now because of the economic war waged against the nation as well as the difficult days due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rouhani Also underlined that one of the highest economic growth rates in Iran occurred in 2016 when the country recorded the highest boom in the world and “during these seven years Iranian government fulfilled its promises to the people in many areas.”

He referred to these promises as “moderation, constructive engagement with the global states, lifting imposed sanctions and bringing people to their own rights as well as establishing the nuclear right as a legal right for Iranians.”

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, many critical projects were inaugurated and some important projects to be started in the coming months, he said.

The President noted that Iran is one of the countries continuously informing the Iranians on the pandemic although all global states have not been open with their people.

President Rouhani stated that Israel’s goal in the assassination of Martyr Fakhrizadeh was to create a war at the last days of the Trump administration, stressing that Iran would avenge the top Iranian nuclear scientist’s blood in a proper time.

Referring to the tensions in the region after the assassination of scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, saying: “The assassination of Fakhrizadeh was the plan of Israel and its main goal in this assassination was to create instability and war in the last days of the Trump infamous administration,” he added.

He said the Islamic Republic of Iran will avenge Fakhrizadeh’s blood in a proper time.

Rouhani said that the Hormoz peace initiative is still on the table, and Iran is ready to negotiate it.

Referring to the Hormoz peace initiative, he said: “The stability of the region is very important for us. You know that we have given the Hormoz peace initiative for the Persian Gulf region. The Hormoz peace initiative was presented to the UN General Assembly. This peace initiative is still on the table, and we are ready to negotiate it.”

He referred to Iran-China cooperation in the region, saying: “Both issues are important. You know that the reason why the US President Donald Trump failed against Iran in the international community was because of Iran’s cooperation and coordination with other countries, so in every issue that Trump went to the UN General Assembly, he could not approve anything, so we continue to have close relations with all countries of the world, especially with China, Russia, the European Union, and our neighbors.”

The post If U.S. Rejoins JCPOA , Iran Will Return to Full Compliance appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Donald Trump’s election as the U.S. President in 2016 was a turning point for many countries in the world to experience a new strategy with the U.S. introversion in strategy of recouping their lag from China. Both Russia benefitted from Trump’s performance to earn more authority, and Europe began to ponder establishing an independent army because of its weak military structure and lacking independence and mandatory subordination of the NATO.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Recently and in this regard, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell in an article has tried to explain the reason for “European Strategic Autonomy” and expressed his concerns in this regard. Although the former Spain Foreign Minister agrees with the appropriate opportunity for mending relations of the EU with the transatlantic following the election of Joe Biden as the U.S. president and believes that Biden’s election will be a ground for a wiser economy for Europe and will provide the ground for expansion of peaceful relations in the world, and he, at the same, time believes irrespective of changes in the network of arrangement and new approach of the White House, EU should try to expand its thoughts and values through interactions with other countries.

In his article by referring to some part of work of 18th Century famous French writer and philosopher Montesquieu with the title of “How Can Anybody Be Persian (Iranian),” he writes, “We Europeans should also raise this question how Europe can be a Europe and, in other words, how it can have a strategic autonomy.”

By writing this, he means an awareness to European countries how much they have been forced to resort to pragmatism regarding protecting the value of national currency under influence of Trump’s serious challenge with Europe in damaging Euro against dollar, and this may ebb by Biden’s election but there is always potential for another election en route to make fragile the Western unity. In the article of this Spanish veteran politician, we realize that the issue of strategic autonomy has been delayed by the European leaders and politicians due to the U.S. passivity. He writes, “The outbreak of coronavirus showed us that Europe needs to have strategic independence in economic and technology grounds.”

Mr. Borrel emphasizes that actually this approach has emerged because of four years of Trump in power and his performance. That in the Western camp why and how one can give a definition to the unity, of course, does not and will not have a certain definition, and that one can define Europe alone in the framework of a sustainable unity is a fragile theory because of UK’s pullout of the EU, known as the Brexit. But this solidarity with the U.S. has once had meaning and just during the World War II and against Russia and it has lost totally its meaning and value in the framework of either culture or politics and even in the past decade in the economy.

Except what causes rift and division in the civilization structures, today the third factor has emerged which has made this unity meaningless under influence of economic authoritarianism in the world. Chinese goods, under the heavy dominance of China’s Communist Party over its people in competition with all of the world, have better prices and the world needs to these goods are on the rise day in day and without any doubt will surmount the Westernization of rules, and this factor has made each one of the western countries to focus more on the condition of their own people like employment and expenditures.

The unity of Europe and the U.S. may be considered as an action out of desperation in the framework of military and security with even heavy costs but economic unity will have no wise meaning. That Germany and France have so far paid the cost of EU in facing the value of euro and providing jobs in Europe, will definitely not continue in encountering China due to the impacts of decline of exports and if it is to define the meaning of autonomy in its true sense, this strategy will be nothing but rift in Europe’s unity with the U.S. in the first step and dispersion of other European countries in the next step.

  By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

The post Europe’s Delay in Autonomy Affected by Biden Election appeared first on Iran News Daily.

The operation for assassination of Brigadier General Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, as the follow-up of other terrors against scientists who have been active in the nuclear or defensive sciences, is per se considered a new and strange message on the threshold of 2021. Although in principle one cannot disregard terrorism in these years in the world without pointing to the evils becoming common.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

In the past century, if someone was assassinated, it was considered as a filthy, inhuman and unjust act in the views of the public in the world but today, governments themselves are founders and planners of measures, getting man’s understanding away from the filths of their acts. In the daytime and with the money of a certain current some people are organized to deprive people or even a nation of their security and to shed blood for their own goals (Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian dissident, is an example).

If we review the past years literature, we meet this point that over hundreds  of books and thousands of articles have been written and complied regarding denouncement of  the act of assassination and all people in the world once upon a time used to consider this act as inhuman one.

Today they kill someone who is a scientist, university teacher and instructor of science of technology in Iran out of jealousy and resentment, and the Secretary General of the so-called United Nations is not even ready to condemn this abominable act. In his opinion, governments are entitled to meet their goals through killing of innocent people.

Today’s world literature calls Hezbollah community or Palestinians as terrorists but it does translate the killing of an innocent people who merely serves science and his people as terrorism. But we believe one cannot consider as terrorist those who (like Palestinians) fight for liberation of their occupied lands and their most basic rights.

Support of popular struggle against foreign occupiers and domination of colonialism as well as the right for military fight and self-defense against the occupiers have been approved and recognized in the UN documents and charters but the current UN officials have disregarded them especially when they rely on their own personal interests regarding to implementation of those charters. Some UN General Assembly resolutions from 1972 to 1991 have emphasized this issue. Despite this fact, since 1994 and in all of approvals of the UN, the liberation movements have not been excluded from the terrorist activities, and since 1996 there have been some theories that disregarding this distinction means it is not an issue for the UN. Today the world public conscience never accepts the defense of the people displaced from their lands to be called terrorist act. Of course, supposing that the acts of these groups are considered a manly act, they should also be conducted like military men and they should be committed to the international human rights and humanitarian rights. For example, they should not hurt civilian and children for their acts, or the military measures against them should be proportionate to the goals.

According to what is said as definition of state terrorism, major evidences of state terrorism can easily be seen in the U.S. and its newbie state, Zionist regime. To enumerate the terrorist acts of these two states, it may need hundreds of books to be compiled. In the 21st Century, the application of the terms “terror” and “terrorism” have been used more than the 20th Century, and it is because of emergence of violent encounters between political parties and different groups in one country or sabotaging in a foreign country by assistance of an individual, a group or a foreign country.

The expression of “state terrorism” is a newly used one. Some countries accuse other governments of state terrorism. Different understandings from this term and its contradiction with individual or group terrorism adds on to its significance. Terror in Persian language has been defined as a political murder with a gun. This word has been borrowed from the French in Persian and it means panic in French.  Terrorist which has been driven from “terror” means the one who intends to create panic and fear. This term in today’s common Persian language is used for a person who commits a political murder.

In the history of French Revolution, this term had a special meaning and it had two connotations: First, it meant taking tough measures and methods against the revolutionaries. Secondly, it was the name of some periods of the history of the French Revolution and has been used as its first connotation was common.

Today this word and in the political terminology means any kind of act which is used for advancing certain goals through resorting to creation of panic and fear. According to some writers, terrorism means the belief to the necessity of killing, threat and creating panic among the people to achieve the political goals or toppling the government and to take the control of the government or handing it over to other groups which have been in the consideration. This belief is usually inspired by the main tool of Fascism, Machiavellianism and the like schools.

In Islam, the act of terror has been totally rejected. Even in the wars with enemies, those who had no arms in their hands were not attacked. We have repeatedly seen in the films and texts that one whose sward is broken in the fight is given another sward by his rival to continue fight in a fair manner which is considered a human behavior but today the U.S. Administration, according to Mrs. Clinton and Donald Trump, organizes Daeshi currents who behead innocent people in the cities and villages. They target the vehicle carrying Martyr Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani and his comrades to assassinate them by military drone and officially proclaims this operation proudly and they do not consider any shame for such a common disgrace.

To sum up the definitions given about the terrorism, it is to be said that terrorism is a term which means using all illegal and violent tools for exerting pressure against a government or a nation in order to achieve a certain goal.

Illegal tools and equipment usually lead to panic and fear, and the certain goals also include political, economic, social, cultural, etc. So with this explanation, the world is moving in the direction of becoming a jungle rather than a civilization.

  By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

The post 21st Century, Living With State Terrorism appeared first on Iran News Daily.