The mentioned projects including a water supply project, a water treatment plant, a wastewater treatment plant, and a dam were put into operation with a total investment of 26 trillion rials (over $619 million) in Khuzestan, Mazandaran and Hormozgan provinces.

The projects were inaugurated under the framework of the Energy Ministry’s A-B-Iran program and also as part of the series of inaugurations made by the president over the past year and in the cuurrent Iranian calendar year (started on March 21).

The president also ordered the beginning of a project for constructing another dam in Mazandaran province in which nine trillion rials (about $214.2 million) is going to be invested.

The first phase of the A-B-Iran program (the acronyms A and B stand for water and electricity in Persian) was initiated in the Iranian calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19, 2020), during which 220 major projects with a total investment of 335.6 trillion rials (about $7.99 billion) were put into operation across the country.

In the second phase of the program that was carried out in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) 250 water and energy projects worth 500 trillion rials (about $11.9 billion) were inaugurated in several provinces.

The third phase of the program was officially started on April 6 and like the previous phases, this year, too, the Energy Ministry is planning to inaugurate numerous water and electricity projects in various provinces every week.

In the first week of the third phase, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian inaugurated five major electricity projects worth 29 trillion rials (about $690.4 million) across the country to mark the beginning of the third phase of the ministry’s A-B-Iran program.

The inaugurated projects comprised of 8,142 sub-projects including numerous electricity supply projects, as well as power network modification and optimization projects.

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Some believe after Joe Biden took office as the U.S. President, the honey moon between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia during Donald Trump’s presidency has come to an end and for this reason Saudis now have decided to change their hostile policy against Iran and to get closer to this powerful country.

Some also believe that Saudis have been forced to change their tone because of Iran’s power and influence in the region and in the world as well as recent supremacy of Houthis in war with the coalition forces. And some also believe that the Saudis have changed their tactic and they want to show a peaceful nature despite years of atrocities against Yemenis and their anti-Iran measures.

Anyway and for any reason, the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes the new approach of the Saudis provided that it is a real change in attitude.

Reacting to Bin Salman’s interview and remarks, Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Iran welcomes the recent “change in Saudi Arabia’s tone” towards the Islamic Republic, adding that the “important” regional players can start revisiting their relations.

“With the help of constructive viewpoints and a dialog-based approach, the important regional and Muslim world countries can put their differences behind and enter a fresh chapter of interaction and cooperation towards realization of regional peace, stability, and development,” Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Thursday night.

Earlier, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had told the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV that the kingdom viewed Iran as a neighboring country and aspired to have good relations with it.

“At the end of the day, Iran is a neighboring country. All we ask for is to have a good and distinguished relationship with Iran,” he had said.

Khatibzadeh recalled how the Islamic Republic itself has been originating proposals aimed at sewing up existing rifts among regional countries, most importantly the Hormuz Peace Initiative (HOPE). Devised by President Hassan Rouhani, the proposal seeks to establish a mechanism implemented by regional countries to ensure regional security.

With such proposals, “the Islamic Republic has been pioneering the course of regional amity and cooperation and welcomes the change in Saudi Arabia’s tone,” the spokesman said.

He expressed hope that the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan inaugurates convergence among members of the regional Muslim society and rid the region of the scourge of warfare, displacement, and insecurity.

During the interview, however, Bin Salman added a touch of Saudi Arabia’s former discourse to his remarks, claiming Riyadh “has a problem with Tehran’s negative behavior, its nuclear program, and its support for militias.”

The Islamic Republic has changelessly spurned any claims aimed at branding it with regional interference or tarnishing its nuclear activities.

Iranians have always called for friendly ties with their neighboring states especially the Muslim states and have been urging Saudi Arabia to stop meddling in the regional countries’ affairs and put an end to the years-long Riyadh-led war on its impoverished southern neighbor Yemen.

Now Iran is a regional power that everybody has admitted and Saudi Arabia is also has to accept it and should stop taking offensive approach against the country and Saudis are better to cooperate with Iran and other regional Muslim states against foreign forces’ presence in the region because foreigners just think of their own benefits and they look to Muslim countries in the region as milking cow to take advantage of them.

Now time is ripe for unity among the Muslim countries against presence of foreigners in their countries and region, and the Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes stretching of friendship hand by any country provided that it is a true one and is not a dramatic gesture for deceiving because Iran is now  a smart and powerful country which monitors any move of friends and foes wisely.

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China today needs to buy oil around 800,000 barrels per day and it does it based on the short term contracts and its payment is through different means. But when it comes to the investment, the issue becomes totally different. The truth is that today in the world there is tough competition over attracting more foreign investment and those countries are more successful that they prepare the domestic grounds for attracting more foreign investment.

Nearly one of the main factors in all countries, that they have improved their economies and industries to reach the industrialist countries in recent decades, has been the success in attracting foreign investment; from China and South Korea to Malaysia and Turkey and even in the Persian Gulf states. The U.S. and European governments have a large number of laws and regulations for easing the attraction of foreign investment. The interesting part is that all efforts of President Hassan Rouhani’s government, which created void and chimerical noise on the JCPOA document, were to pave the grounds for foreign investment from Western countries through anti-security and anti-Islamic threats; more interesting is that the most important goal of the U.S. for imposing economic sanctions against Iran was to hinder foreign investment in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

In this condition it is very strange that some people in the country in tune with enemies of the Islamic establishment interpret foreign investment as selling the country. In the issue of China’s investment there is essentially no issue under the title of oil trade wherein the issue of cheap oil has been raised.

China’s eager for investment abroad is not confined only to the Islamic Republic of Iran. The People’s Republic of China, according to the data published by the American Enterprise Institute, has invested over 2.1 trillions of dollars in different countries worldwide only in the past 15 years; from rich countries like Switzerland and the U.S. to the African countries like Congo. According to the data released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in only 6 years (2013 to 2019, China has invested $62b in the railways sector in 34 countries.

The active economic presence of China has not meant expanding its political influence in those countries but the nature of these investments will be a haven for economic security. China’s investments in Africa has led to huge number of analysis  in the media that even experts believe with these investments, the fourth industrial revolution would happen in Africa, and this is said while there are no enough infrastructures for materializing this development. For preparing infrastructure developmental plans for Africa, China and India have turned into macro policies in changing the structures of the agro, industrial and educational services.

The American business magazine Forbes in its different analysis says China is the biggest partner of Africa and its annual trade volume with Africa stands at $200b. Accordingly, over 100,000 Chinese companies are active in Africa. The most exports from Africa to China in 2019 were from Angola, South Africa and Republic of Congo. Africa accounts for 20 percent of China’s need of cotton. Africa possesses half of the world magnesium reserves which is used in the steel industry and Democratic Republic of the Congo by itself possesses half of this amount of magnesium reserves. China needs all of these resources.

The details of Iran-China 25-year document has not been yet revealed. American newspaper The New York Times in an article had claimed that China’s president had offered the proposal for the agreement some five years ago (2016). The draft of this agreement was signed on June 24, 2020 in Beijing. It is said the Chinese are to take $600b of their overseas forex reserves into Iran in the span of 25 years and they are to have the same amount of investment in Iran in cooperation with companies and organizations both in private or public sectors.

The required guarantee for taking capital gains could have been the sale of oil. Now if they want they can take their capital gains in cash otherwise they can buy oil instead of their cash or else, they will be free to invest their profits in expanding their investment in those sectors.

That Iran enjoys having ready infrastructure, independent land, skilful and educated workforce as a valuable guarantee as its oil, has sweetened investment for the Chinese. So inducing the idea of oil for investment of the type of selling cheap oil is a big lie which is used to ruin the agreement and to put the pressure on the public opinion.

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In comments at a meeting of the Administration’s Economic Coordination Headquarters on Sunday,Rohani stressed the need for collective efforts for the materialization of the new Iranian year’s objectives.

In a televised speech at the beginning of the new year on March 20, Ayatollah Khamenei praised the Iranian nation’s victory in confronting the enemy’s maximum pressures, and chose “production: support and the elimination of obstacles” as the slogan for the year 1,400 (March 2021-March 2022) .

The president said in the Sunday meeting that what matters the most in the current conditions is to strengthen production and improve the atmosphere for businesses, which he said require cooperation and synergy among all Iranian sectors and branches of power.

The elimination of obstacles and supporting domestic production requires tangible and practical actions, not mere words, the president added.

He also emphasized that arrangements for a rise in production should be made rapidly by avoiding bureaucratic complexities.

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He said that if we fail to observe the restrictions, the statistics about those who may contract the diseases will rise up.

The president expressed concern about the upcoming Nowruz holidays cautioning Iranians about possible family gatherings.

He asked the state TV to advise people to use face masks and avoid shaking hands and kissing if they go to the houses of relatives during the Nowruz holidays.

President warned about gatherings and negligence of the health protocols. He said Iran’s activities could function as a “roadmap for posterity, a source for the university courses, and a model to fight contagious diseases” that may break out in the future.

The president further called on people to keep observing the health protocols during the new Iranian year’s holidays, reminding them that the conditions have not reached a stable and reliable state yet.

The coronavirus statistics show that the overall situation in Iran, except in one or two provinces, is satisfactory, the president added, warning though that the fourth wave of a pandemic may erupt in case of laxity in carrying out the health regulations.

Iran on Friday registered the lowest number of daily deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic since late May 2020.

More than 1,477,580 patients have recovered from the coronavirus infection so far or have been discharged from hospitals across Iran.

Three homegrown vaccines have undergone clinical trials in Iran, and several consignments of vaccine have been imported from Russia, China, and India.

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The president stressed that while those backing the failed economic terrorism are exerting every effort to make such a victory look unimportant, “Everybody should join hands to move the ideal goals forward and reach a brighter economic condition.”

Referring to the positive market developments in the past days, Rouhani said, “The infuriated enemies are trying to stop or slow down the positive trend with widespread propaganda and psychological warfare.”

“I am sure that the economic activists of the country and the people will not pay attention to such statements and actions, and will continue their path with strength, confidence, calm, and hope,” he stressed.

Rouhani stated that with the defeat of former US President Donald Trump’s economic war, the view of Iran’s trade parties has changed and the country’s economic relations are entering a new phase, adding that everyone should help manage sensitive markets such as foreign exchange within the policies of the central bank to reach the desired balance.

“The country’s economic situation is improving rapidly, but keeping such a development requires calm and peace in the market.”

The president of Iran is to sue his country’s state broadcaster after he was accused of opium use on national television.

On Friday, the president’s office of legal affairs said Rouhani would pursue damages for defamation after Ahmed Jahan Bozorgi, a cleric and member of an Islamic think tank, said Rouhani could often not be reached by members of the Iranian Cabinet because he was at home smoking the drug.

Alireza Moezi, on behalf of Rouhani’s office, said: “What was broadcast last night was sadly just shameless insult, slander, and foul language against the president.”

On Wednesday, Rouhani, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, and Communications Minister Mohammad Azari Jahromi were summoned to Parliament to face questions over their relationship with recently-installed US President Joe Biden.

Rouhani said he hoped that US sanctions on Iran would soon be lifted, amid hopes that a change of president in the US could see a return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or “Iran Nuclear Deal,” that was sidelined by the US under Trump.

Such a sequence of events, it is thought, would give Rouhani and his allies a significant political win in the build-up to the June elections. The move is opposed by the hardliners, though, who favor a stronger stance on the US.

“We do not need the nuclear deal anymore. Our strength comes from the fact that we have kept our existence without it,” said Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

One member of parliament, meanwhile, said Iran should look to “impeach” Rouhani, following the example of Democrat senators in the US towards Trump, amid claims the trio were “friends” of the new administration in Washington.

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The president pointed out that “the assassination of Martyr Soleimani was revenge against the Islamic Republic and all the independent countries in the region… A revenge against the great nations that stood against the US and Zionists’ conspiracies.”

Rouhani stressed that US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are on top of the list of perpetrators involved in the heinous terror attack, saying, “They did not want the ISIL terrorists’ issue to end like this.”

“ISIL was a mercenary of the Zionists and the Americans. When they were hit, the Israelites gave them weapons wherever they needed.”

He said, “The Zionists and the US, are the ones who take advantage of turmoil and insecurity in the region.”

“No one benefits from the insecurity of Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan except the Zionists.”

Rouhani said the enemies tried to eliminate the number one man in the fight against terrorism, but they made him eternal in history.

“The resistance continues to work with the same enthusiasm and even more power.”

The president, addressing the perpetrators of the assassination, said, “You cut off the arms of our commander, we will cut off your leg from the region.”

He said the end of Trump’s era is one of the effects of this shameful and stupid act, adding, “In a few days, the ruling time of this savage and crazy murderer will end and the whole history and his regime will go to the dustbin of history.”

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IRAN NEWS NATIONAL DESK

TEHRAN – President Hassan Rouhani says Iran cannot trust Americans when it comes to the transfer of money to purchase coronavirus vaccines as they are notorious for “stealing” Iran’s funds.

In comments on Saturday, President Rouhani said Tehran has been making efforts to buy the vaccines through COVAX, a global initiative aimed at working with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines.

“We provided the money needed to buy vaccines, but they said first we needed the approval of OFAC (The Office of Foreign Assets Control – a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the US Treasury Department) to make the payment. Then we tried to transfer the money through another country. Again, they said the money must first be transferred to an American bank,” said the president.

“How can we trust you (the US) when you are infamous for theft,” he said, referring to previous cases of US seizure of Iranian assets.

“The Americans hampered our efforts not only with regards to the purchase of vaccines. We can see traces of the United States’ wickedness with regards to anything we want to buy,” he said.

He then criticized media campaigns regarding Iran’s efforts to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Anti-Iran media outlets, which happen to be so cheeky, capitalize on an issue every day and use it as a pretext [to launch a campaign against Iran],” he noted.

“This time, they are using the issue of the coronavirus vaccine as an excuse and are taking advantage of the issue of purchasing foreign vaccines, the transfer of money and the production of a vaccine inside Iran,” the president.

“Since the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, one of the key issues in question was to provide a vaccine for the disease. All efforts in the country focused on a two-pronged approach: making attempts to develop a vaccine domestically while trying to buy safe foreign vaccines,” he noted.

He said all media campaigns regarding the issue of the coronavirus vaccine in Iran were false.

President Rouhani made it clear that the anti-coronavirus meeting is being held at least every week since the outbreak of the pandemic a year ago.

Further, he stressed the need to keep the current lockdown steady as it is an important factor in fighting the virus.

The President cautioned against the UK new variant corona virus that rapidly spreading compared with the former COVID-19 cases.

At his remarks, the President advised fellow citizens to use face mask as a national duty.

Criticizing the propaganda against the government’s anti-coronavirus plans, the President said Iran is involved in manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines; meanwhile, the country has made efforts to buy the vaccines from abroad.

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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

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