On Friday, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei in meeting with the 36^th International Islamic Unity Conference participants hailed Iran’s progress and achievements and called it a strong tree that cannot be uprooted by no one.

“The powers had differences in tens of issues but they were united in one thing: opposing the Islamic Republic,” he said, adding, “They imagined that they could uproot this seedling [but] this seedling has now turned into a mighty tree.”

The Leader said the unipolar world order in which one or two states impose their will on other countries is no longer accepted. “The political map of the world is changing,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.

The issue of being in a unipolar world where “one or two countries forcing other states and nations has lost its legitimacy,” he said, adding, “Nations have been awakened. The unipolar world order is no longer accepted and is gradually losing its legitimacy.”

In a unipolar system, he maintained, arrogant powers such as the US, would design their own schemes and dictate them to other countries such as Iraq, Syria, Iran, or Lebanon.

The people of the world are awakening to the truth of those powers and are opposed to one or two states bullying others into obedience, he said.

The leader also urged Muslim nations to be united against the world arrogant bullies and said that Islamic unity means being united in safeguarding the interests of the Islamic Ummah across the world.

“Unity means being united in protecting the interests of the Islamic Ummah (community),” he said.

It also does not mean geographical unity, he maintained, as some Arab countries tried to get united in the 1960s and 1970s. “This is impossible.”

“We should first detect the interests of the Muslim Ummah. Then, nations should come to an agreement on that and see what the Ummah needs at the time; [they should see] to whom they should be foes, [and] with whom friends, and how they should engage in friendship.”

Unity means implementing “joint actions against the plots of the Arrogance,” he added.

As the Supreme Leader mentioned, the main problem of the Muslim nations is their lack of unity and existing rift which helps enemies and especially the West to take advantage of it. Muslim nations can pursue the path of Iran’s progress and achievements in order to become a real power in their regions or in the world.

“Islamic unity, peace and avoiding division and conflict within the Islamic world” had been named as the main theme of this year’s Islamic Unity Conference.

The Muslim Ummah can attain a “high position” in the new world which is gradually being shaped, he said, adding that the Muslim world can become a “role model” and a “pioneer.”

However, the Leader continued, the only condition for realizing this is to have unity and overcome the temptations of enemies, especially the U.S. and Israel.

“Unity among Islamic nations is possible but it needs efforts,” he said, adding, most hope on this issue is pinned on elites and thinkers of the Muslim world as they can guide the public opinion toward the issue. “If the public opinion is formed in a country, the administrative policies of that country will forcibly move in that direction.”

Ayatollah Khamenei went on to note that the Islamic Republic stood against two major powers of the time, namely the US and the Soviet Union.

“The powers had differences in tens of issues but they were united in one thing: opposing the Islamic Republic,” he said, adding, “They imagined that they could uproot this seedling [but] this seedling has now turned into a mighty tree.”

“They are damn wrong in thinking that they can uproot it,” he said.

Further expanding on unity, Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized that differences in religious schools of thought, i.e. Sunni or Shia, should not lead to strife or discord among people, noting that American and British politicians, who are anti-Islam and are neither good towards Shias nor towards Sunnis “have brought the ‘Shia-Sunni’ debates into their circles, and this matter is really dangerous.”

Enemies of the Muslim nations always try to sow the seed of rift and hatred among the Muslims and this is what the Muslims should avoid it if they want to witness progress and prosperity otherwise the enemies will succeed in spreading poverty and ignorance among the Muslim nations to loot their wealth.

Elsewhere in his address, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the Palestinian issue and normalization of ties between some Arab countries and the Israeli regime.

Enemies planted the “rotten seed of a cancerous cell in the region, namely the Zionist regime” to act as a base for Islam’s enemies.

Following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the leader said, “They needed to have a base in the region so as to be able to constantly engage in occupation and not allow the realization of lofty goals.”

He also pointed to the ongoing efforts to press ahead with the infamous normalization deals, saying, “Now they are working to remove the title of the enemy from this detrimental body and grown cancerous cell so that it can sow more division among regional countries … these normalizations are among the biggest betrayals that are being made against Islam and Muslims.”

So the Muslim nations are recommended to use the Islamic Republic as their role model for progress and achievement and above all the power of their countries otherwise enemies will continue their dictation on them for looting them.

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Speaking in a meeting with a group of Sunni scholars and clerics, President Raisi referred to the government’s serious efforts to solve people’s livelihood problems, and stated, “The government pays attention to the concerns of the people that are conveyed to the clerics and tries to solve these problems”.

Explaining the situation in the country at the time of the inauguration of the 13th Administration, the president said, “Budget deficit of nearly 500 trillion, remaining monthly debt of 10 trillion, death of nearly 700 people a day with coronavirus, unprecedented inflation, injection of the 4k-toman currency to the market and the unfavorable situation of the stocks of basic goods in the country were among the issues that the government was dealing with in the early days after its inauguration”.

Raisi described the payment of the 4k-toman currency as one of the country’s problems and stated, “In practice, a large part of what was paid as subsidized exchange rate was in the service of corruption and rent. In fact, we had a waste of the country’s resources and subsidies did not reach the people, so in order to prevent this situation from continuing, it was decided to give this amount to the last chain and the main beneficiary, the people and consumers, instead of paying to the first supply chain”.

Emphasizing that paying 400,000 tomans per month to each person is a difficult task, but experts consider this method as a step towards approaching justice and eliminating absolute poverty.

In another part of his speech, referring to the important position of Sunni Iranians and scholars in the history of the country, the President said, “You Sunni clerics and thinkers have provided many services in their own country, and Shiites and Sunnis have lived together in Islamic Iran for many years”.

Raisi referred to the request of some Sunni scholars to employ them more in managerial positions and said, “Using qualified people is an important and necessary thing, and the criterion for the government is efficiency, and in every province I go, I emphasized the local forces must be employed more”.

In another part of his speech, he referred to the growth of takfiri movements in the region and said, “We must be careful about the influence of Takfiri and Salafi ideas in the country; British Shiites and Sunni Americans are two sides of the same coin, and both are anti-unity in the Islamic world, while unity is a strategy for the Islamic Republic of Iran, not a tactic”.

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Delivering a speech in the joint meeting of the High Council for Human Rights of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the resident ambassadors and NGOs, Ali Bagheri Kani said that for more than 4 decades, several Western governments led by the U.S. regime had used all their capacities in the fields of hardware and software against the rights of the Iranian people.

“By using all tools they had tried to comprehensively and continuously violate the rights of the Iranian people, and in this context, they have even taken measures to ensure the definitive violation of the rights of the Iranian people,” he added.

“The Iranian nation will not forget that the American regime opposed the issuance of a UN Security Council statement against the use of chemical weapons by Saddam’s Iraq, and France and Britain did not vote either,” he went on to say.

Secretary of the High Council for Human Rights of Iran said: “Our nation will not forget forever that the weapons that the United States, France, Britain, Germany, and several other European countries gave to Saddam killed thousands of Iranians.”

Bagheri Kani said: “The Iranian nation will not forget forever that the oppressive sanctions that have been approved in Washington and are being implemented by several European countries have led to the killing of innocent children with or special diseases.”

He added: “The Iranians will never forget that those who pretend to defend human rights not only did not condemn the assassination of the Iranian nuclear and defense scientist but also did not recognize this crime as a terrorist act.”

“The Iranian nation will not forget forever the heavy sanctions that Donald Trump imposed on Iran, Joe Biden pushing them forward and deprives the nation of its rights,” he said.

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IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

TEHRAN – Iran says it will not let those behind the assassination of the country’s legendary anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani evade punishment.

“We will not allow the martyr’s blood to go to waste and those who did it escape punishment,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told a virtual news conference in Tehran Monday.

The Islamic Republic has ceaselessly pursued this matter and will keep doing so through the international channels, he said.

“This is not something that the Iranian government and the establishment could let go by. The U.S. administration is accountable in this regard,” the diplomat added.

Khatibzadeh said the United States committed a monumental strategic mistake by perpetrating the terrorist act.

“We will not abandon this pursuit until we have taken all those who abetted this [atrocity] or were involved in it, to the altar of justice.”

General Soleimani was the former commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). He was admired as the Middle East’s most potent counter-terrorism combatant, with a unique charisma.

He was Iran’s lead military advisor helping in Iraq and Syria defeat foreign-backed takfiri terrorists, chiefly Daesh in late 2017.

He was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on January 3 during an official visit. His Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Hashd al-Sha’abi anti-terror force, was also killed along with their other companions when their convoy was hit.

Khatibzadeh touched on Tehran’s efforts to present the enormity of the atrocity to the world and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The Islamic Republic, he said, has registered more than five letters and official notes with the United Nations and used its diplomatic missions to introduce General Soleimani and the nature of his mission to the world.

The official said Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, denounced the assassination as an act of terrorism earlier this year, only after Iran’s Foreign Ministry presented the world body with a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding the terrorist act.

Tehran will follow up on its efforts in this area across international courts and tribunals, he added.

Apart from commanding the Quds Force, General Soleimani served as a “pillar of regional stability” who contributed most to the realization of peace and maintaining interaction with different leaders of the region, Khatibzadeh said.

The spokesman touched on General Soleimani’s famous “We are a nation of martyrdom” remarks, saying extremism cannot be defeated unless through the courage and pure blood of those confronting

Khatibzadeh further warned the outgoing administration of President Donald Trump against any new adventurism, saying the U.S. would bear responsibility for any act of mischief.

“We are not looking for tension, but we would defend Iran’s national interests with all our might,” he said, adding the Islamic Republic has given the message that it would hold “the U.S. and other plotters” responsible for any mischievous act against it.

Khatibzadeh said he hoped level heads would prevail at the White House over warmongering elements during the final days of the Trump administration.

The spokesperson also said that Iran has never been willing to resolve its issues in another region and it is the United States who has made regional countries as bases of insecurity against Iran.

Khatibzadeh answered questions raised by reporters over recent development in the field of foreign policy.

The senior Iranian diplomat spoke about the recent meeting JCPOA member countries at the ministerial level, stating that in the meeting the Islamic Republic emphasized the commitments of the other side, and the latest situation was discussed in this informal meeting.

In response to a question about Muqtada al-Sadr’s claims that Iran should not turn Iraq into a place of conflict with the United States and the purpose of the recent rocket attacks on the Green Zone in Iraq, he said, “I said last week that in our view, attacks on diplomatic and residential premises are completely rejected. Iranian diplomatic facilities in Iraq have been attacked several times.”

What Trump and Pompeo claimed are both condemned and rejected, he said, adding that the type, timing, and content of such claims and tweets are questionable and suspicious.

“We have made our message clear, while we do not seek tension, we defend the interests and national security of Iran with all our might”, he stressed.

According to Khatibzadeh Iran has never been willing to resolve its issues in another region and it is the United States who has made the countries of region bases of insecurity against Iran.

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If the 25-year strategic cooperation deal between Iran and China is signed without the common behind-the-scene brokerages in the trade, it is too much desirable. Both governments of Iran and China are fully aware that an agreement in such a dimension, which is to be signed definitely as a hidden and overt fight with the U.S., needs the approvals of their parliaments. That in this sanction era China has stepped forward and intends to sign a 400-billion-dollar investment deal in Iran and it will definitely get back its capital and profits through purchasing Iran’s oil, gas condensates and oil derivatives in the period of 25 years, is useful for both Iran and China provided that the ground is provided for safeguarding the interests of both countries in the deal.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

Both countries are wisely and fully aware of the dimensions of this deal that an Islamic Republic has been established in Iran; the country is currently in the sanctions condition and the Westerners have bought some pawns and planted some mercenaries in its pillars, and it is natural the implementation of the deal to face challenges and oppositions.

Exactly now and at the beginning that both countries are in negotiation process for striking the deal, some critics have warned Iranian nation of some of colonialist records of China in Africa, claiming that China through such deals has seized Mombasa Port in Kenya, Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka, and some other areas in different parts of the world.

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by publishing a video clip in his instagram account called on the nation to rise up against signing the deal. Majlis lawmakers, too, are concerned about behind-the-scene political and economic collusions. If both countries are eager to stretch friendship hands for 25 years and to plan the future road of world economy in Asia, they should consider the public satisfactions and approvals in both countries by inserting few conditions in the agreement.

According to this strategic agreement, China is to invest $280b in Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemical industries and is also to invest $120b in developing production infrastructures and transportation. But before investment, both countries should make it clear and transparent about the payment mechanism and ways of payment as well as the time of the start of the operations. In the agreement, both sides should make it clear how the dues and accounts will be settled regardless of political and military views. In dispatching technical force to Iran, interests of Iran especially in creating job should be taken into consideration.

The Chinese side should realize that almost ten months later, it will not deal with the current government because all of the current government’s officials will leave. Iranian nation will be definitely happy about the deal which has abundant profits for the region and Asia but their joy relies on how transparency in safeguarding national interests is observed in the deal without any collusion and under-the table payments.

We in the past 42 years in Iran have hosted our Afghan brothers and in cooperation with millions of Afghans have benefited billions of dollars to Afghanistan and today the approach to Afghans and Afghanistan is a brotherly one. Iranian nation’s expectation from this move for the deal is to create an effective reciprocal cultural relation in order that Iran and China can change criteria in the economic process in Asia, and subsequently in the World, in favor of them.

The concerns of Iran and Iranians and majority of compassionates regarding this agreement can be this issue that the 12^th government has the lowest approval and acceptability in the country’s current condition for any negotiation. Some people who are involved in this agreement have committed the biggest treason during the nuclear deal, the JCPOA.

So if the agreement with Iranians for cooperation in the next 25 years takes this point into consideration that Iranians are after materializing the Islamic Republic’s ideals, Iranian people will naturally look at any Chinese expert or manager visiting Iran as a partner and friend.

If we define the incentive behind this agreement as a mere economic one with an eye on fair interests, it will strengthen the way for expanding this tie day by day. We in Iran have resources which await exploitation and they need the arrival of capital and technology. I, myself, as someone who was in charge of providing the needs of the country from China during the Iraqi-imposed war have the experience of signing and implementing billion-dollar agreements with China and have not seen any misbehavior or breaching the agreements from the Chinese partners. Perhaps I can dare to say that I have been the link between Iran and China and I have benefited both countries through agreements. I personally predict that advantages of Iran-China deal, provided that long-term common  interests are considered and stipulated in the deal, will lead to major development in the region and Asia and ultimately it will be expanded to the world.

 By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

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“Iran has an extensive missile development program, and the size and sophistication of its missile force continues to grow despite decades of counter-proliferation efforts aimed at curbing its advancement,” the Pentagon study said about Iran’s missile force.

Iran has “the largest missile force in the Middle East,” the report added.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a US intelligence official said that Israel was included in the analogy.

The US Department of Defense also repeated allegations that Iran’s missiles force was not for peaceful and defensive purposes.

“Iran has embraced ballistic missiles as a long-range strike capability to dissuade its adversaries in the region — particularly the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia — from attacking Iran,” the report said, adding that Tehran had developed a series of missiles that could strike at a distance of 2,000 kilometers — capable of reaching Tel Aviv or Riyadh.

Authorities have time and again said that Iran’s missile force has not been established for non-conventional purposes and is only meant as part of the country’s deterrence capability.

The US has ratcheted up pressure on Iran since last year after withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic and other countries.

Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has been trying to reduce Iran’s oil exports to “zero,” and sent an aircraft carrier strike group as well as some 1,500 additional forces to the region to counter an alleged threat from Iran.

Iranian officials have dismissed such moves as psychological warfare, saying the country has its own ways of confronting the American animosity.

The Islamic Republic says it poses no threat to any country but will defend itself if attacked.

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