In a meeting with lawmakers in Tehran on Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei hailed the strategic laws passed by the parliament, including the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions.

“The strategic action law saved the country from bewilderment in the nuclear issue,” the Leader said. “This law clearly defined what we should do and we are witnessing its manifestations in the world.”

Under the legislation, which was approved in December 2020, the Iranian administration is required to restrict the inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and accelerate the development of the country’s nuclear program beyond the limits set under the 2015 nuclear agreement. It was adopted in a bid to counter illegal sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States and its Western allies.

Ayatollah Khamenei also congratulated the Iranian nation on the anniversary of the liberation of the city of Khorramshahr in the course of Iraq’s war of aggression against Iran in the 1980s, describing the event as a “miraculous epic.”

The southwestern port city was recaptured during a landmark operation code-named Beit ol-Moqaddas in 1982, putting an end to over 500 days of occupation by forces of the ex-Iraqi dictator’s regime.

The Leader said that the initiatives used in the outstanding operation and the sacrifices made by Iranian martyrs were more important than the great victory, adding that these facts should not fade into oblivion.

He added, “The conquest of Khorramshahr was a miraculous event.”

Referring to May 24, 1982, the anniversary of the liberation of Khorramshahr, the Leader of the revolution said: “The great saga of the conquest of Khorramshahr was truly and honestly a great feat.”

He added: “After the conquest of Khorramshahr, some world’s presidents and mediators paid a visit to Iran; Mr. Ahmed Sékou Touré, who was an important figure in Africa, came and told me that today your situation is different from yesterday because of the conquest of Khorramshahr.”

The leader continued: “The greatness of the conquest of Khorramshahr attracts the eyes, but I want to say that the Bait-ul-Muqaddas operation is more or at least as important as the conquest of Khorramshahr, this operation that led to the conquest of Khorramshahr, these operations, those sacrifices, those initiatives, those plans and war plans that, in my opinion, should be taught in the war universities.”

In this meeting, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei said: “From the beginning of the term of 11th Majlis, I believed that this parliament is revolutionary, and now after three years, I repeat the same”.

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In his impeachment session, Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Reza Fatemi Amin in defense of his performance said: “Today we need unity, we compensate with empathy.”

Referring to the false news published in recent days about handing over the car to the MPs during his previous impeachment, the minister said: “Fatemi Amin is not infected with corruption!”

He added: I am in the position of execution and your representatives are in the position of supervision, and if my answers are not convincing, I will hand over the position to the next soldier.

Referring to the issue of cars Fatemi Amin said: The car industry of the country is in bad condition, we are now in the middle of the way and we have reached good places.

Fatemi Amin said: “The car industry has many problems, but today its price is more noticeable. Car production has decreased and increased at times due to sanctions, which means that the enemy knows that cars have wide economic dimensions.”

In defense of Fatemi Amin and addressing the Majlis, President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi said that his presence at the parliament signals that the impeachment is not the manifestation of difference and deep disagreement but the sign of responsibility.

The President said that his presence is because of the fact that the impeachment of a given minister might be interpreted by some groups as the manifestation of deep disagreement.

Raisi went on to stress that he is grateful to those who saw the impeachment as part of their responsibility.

He added: “We agree with the Parliament on some issues.”

He noted: The point of agreement between the parliament and the government is that the situation of the car industry in the country needs to be changed.

Meanwhile in the impeachment session, lawmaker Jalil Mirmohammadi Meybodi spoke out against the impeachment of the Minister of Industry.

Meybodi argued that the impeachment does not send a message of empathy to solve the country’s problems, but instead creates further division and polarization in the Iranian political arena.

During his speech, Meybodi expressed concern about recent discussions regarding the government’s automobile, mining, and production statistics, as well as export data. He stressed that the impeachment of the minister does not solve the country’s problems.

Other lawmakers also defended the minister’s policies and measures, emphasizing the need for empathy between the government and parliament.

Representative Seyyed Mohammad Reza Mirtaj al-Dini warned against fomenting further division in the Iranian political arena, stressing the importance of unity to move the country forward.

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In January 2021, the administration submitted the long-awaited bill to the parliament.

The bill titled, Protection, Dignity, and Security of Women against Violence, had been under review since September 2019. It criminalizes any act or behavior that causes “physical or mental harm” to women “as a vulnerable gender”.

It recommends a fund for safeguarding women’s rights with provisions for providing medical expenses for the victims of violence and imparting skill development training to them.

For the first time in Iran’s legal system, this bill defines violence against women and considers various types of violence as “crimes” and provides “punishments” for them.

At the same time, it has set tasks for the relevant judicial and executive bodies to prevent the occurrence of violence against women and provide support to the victims of violence by directing and regulating the aforementioned bodies.

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President Raisii, who attended the open session of the Majlis in order to present the budget bill, said, “In the fiscal year 1401, the government was able to achieve success with the cooperation of all the concerned and caring people and benefiting from their efforts, thoughts and efforts in the government, parliament and all departments that operate in the name of the holy system of the Islamic Republic.”

The President added, “The first part of the country’s 1402 budget bill, which is related to state-owned companies, was submitted to the Islamic Consultative Assembly one month earlier according to the law so that the parliament has more time to deal with the budget of this part.”

The President stated, “All our efforts were to ensure that the budget bill 1402 was fully in line with the policies announced by the Leader and the policies of the 7th Development Plan,” adding, “Of course, you are aware that the general policies of the 7th Development Plan reached us in mid-September, that is, in the middle of the drafting of the budget bill, but nevertheless, the 1402 budget was inspired by the policies announced by the Leader.”

“After the finalization of the budget bill, the government devoted its efforts to developing the 7th Development Plan so that this plan can be submitted to the parliament as soon as possible,” Raisi said.

The President stated that the government and the parliament will definitely take into consideration how far the past programs have been implemented and what were the reasons for the non-implementation of parts of these programs, and said, “Considering that the evaluations indicate that 30 to 35 per cent of the past programes have been implemented, our focus will be that the 7th Development Plan will be formulated in such a way that it will be fully implemented.”

Referring to the points considered by the Leader in the general policies of the 7th Development Plan, Ayatollah Raisi added, “One of these important points is to separate permanent orders from one-year orders so that businesses become more stable in the coming years and the parliament can review the budget bill easier”.

According to the reports, the government revenues through tax will increase by over 55$ next year comparing to this year’s budget.

Raisi considered the reform of the budget structure as one of the emphasis of the Supreme Leader and a serious necessity of the country and stated, “In the budget bill of 1402, the strengthening of production and employment has been given special attention and 540 trillion tomans for the purpose of investing state companies in the country’s economy and 327 trillion Tomans is also planned as the construction budget of the government”.

He further mentioned the 7% reduction in the tax on production units as well as the reduction in the customs tariff of livestock inputs and basic goods from 4% to 1% as tax incentives foreseen in the budget bill 1402 in order to support production and employment.

The President considered housing as an important concern of the people and their representatives in the Majlis and said, “The government will make the necessary forecasts in next year’s budget in order to provide financial resources to support the construction of housing, as well as provide the necessary credits from the transportation development fund”.

Raisi said, “We thank God that our wise nation disappointed the enemy according to our wise leader and this time, as in the past, the enemies of this nation were defeated in these conspiracies, and of course, our responsibility towards the good, pious, and sincere people who love the Revolution has doubled”.

On this basis, the President pointed out, “All the elements of the system must do their best to serve the people and take steps to solve the problems. We consider ourselves capable of solving problems and we deeply believe in the slogan of “we can” and move things forward with cooperation, empathy, coordination and convergence”.

At the end, Raisi expressed hope that next year’s budget will be the best budget compared to the previous budgets, and by announcing the imminent submission of the 7th Development Plan bill to the parliament, he thanked the people’s representatives, as well as the parliament’s presiding committee and the members of the specialized budget review commissions.

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The bill was sent to the government from the judiciary and will be sent to the parliament as soon as possible by the president’s decree, he explained, ISNA reported.

He went on to say that the country has used all its capacities to fight against drug smuggling, focusing on three approaches targeted and smart combat, informative measures, focus on borders, and use of modern equipment.

The result of the approaches has been an increase in seizing the financial properties of smugglers, a decrease in martyrs of anti-narcotics missions, an increase in casualties and criminals, and an increase in discoveries, he further stated.

Narcotics seizure

Iran holds the record for narcotics confiscation in the world, Eskander Momeni, secretary general of the Anti-Narcotics Headquarters said in December 2021.

However, great achievements in the field of countermeasures have been gained, and the United Nations has officially announced that 90 percent of opium, 48 percent of morphine, and 26 percent of world heroin have been discovered by Iran.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime attaches special importance to the regional and global role of Iran in the fight against narcotics and, as a leading United Nations agency, Alexander Fedulov, UNODC Iran Country Representative, said in June.

In the Iranian calendar year ended in March 2021, about 1,200 tons of drugs were discovered, which was the highest rate of discovery in the world.

Despite the conditions caused by the coronavirus outbreak and the imposition of harsh sanctions against the country, fortunately, with the efforts of anti-narcotics police in 2020, drug detection increased by 41 percent.

After the Islamic Revolution (in 1979), more than 3,800 have been martyred, and 12,000 wounded and disabled in the fight against drug trafficking.

The UNODC has praised Iran’s efforts to fight against narcotics trafficking on the occasion of International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The organization also officially announced that the world’s first place in the discovery of opium, heroin, and morphine belongs to Iran.

According to UNODC, Iran remains one of the major transit routes for drug trafficking from Afghanistan to European countries and has had a leading role at the global level in drug-control campaigns.

UNODC World Drug Report 2020 estimates that in 2018, 91 percent of the world’s opium, 48 percent of the world’s morphine, and 26 percent of the world’s heroin were seized by Iran.

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“Currently, in order to deal with destructive violations such as unauthorized transactions, we are considering a bill to amend the capital market law for the independence of Stock Exchange Organization (SEO) and to add new restrictive regulations,” Pour-Ebrahimi said.

According to the official, the details of the mentioned bill have been reviewed by the committee’s specialized working groups, and it is now being reviewed by capital market experts and specialized institutions to be passed by the end of summer (September 22).

He pointed to the enhancement of transparency in the capital market as one of the main axes of this bill and said: “In order to prevent violations and problems due to unprofessional behavior and illegal activities, the capital market needs to increase transparency.”

Unprecedented fluctuations in the Iranian stock market over the past few months have led shareholders, experts, and scholars to call for the government to increase its support for the market.

Following the rising concerns over the market conditions, in early April, the Government Economic Coordination Headquarters, in its 216th meeting, approved some new directives for regulating the stock market.

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He made the remarks in his meeting with the Speaker of the Legislative Chamber of Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan Nurdinjon Ismoilov in Tashkent on Wednesday and hoped that the visit would be a turning point in broadening parliamentary ties between the two nations and governments of Iran and Uzbekistan.

The two countries of Iran and Uzbekistan enjoy high capacities to expand their bilateral ties in all fields, Ghalibaf emphasized.

Developing cooperation and interaction with neighboring and regional countries in various social, political, cultural, trade and security fields is the main policy of the 13th government under President Raisi, he added.

Currently, ‘geostrategic’ conditions in the world and geopolitics in the region are very sensitive and it seems necessary that neighboring and regional states enhance the level of their cooperation with one another through unity, amity and empathy.

Iran attaches great importance to its relationship with the Republic of Uzbekistan so that Uzbekistan has great and unique capacities in terms of economy as well as historical and cultural records, he said, adding that cooperation between Iran and Uzbekistan creates many opportunities for the two countries to develop bilateral cooperation, especially strengthening transit and transportation relations.

Emphasizing multilateral parliamentary cooperation, Ghalibaf said that the two countries must establish constructive and influential cooperation in Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Ismoilov, for his part, said that the two countries of Iran and Uzbekistan have been equipped with high facilities for developing their relations in scientific, economic, cultural, transport and energy fields.

He said that both Iranian and Uzbek officials are interested in developing bilateral ties so that the two countries can expand their relations in all fields, especially in the area of transport.

Earlier Qalibaf had said that Iran has targeted $200b worth of trade with neighboring states

Speaking in a meeting with Iranian businessmen and producers in Tashkent, capital city of Uzbekistan, Qalibaf called for designing a logistic hub for facilitating trade ties between Iran and Uzbekistan.

He referred to the Iranian government and parliament’s foreign policy with regard to increasing interaction with neighbors, saying that Iran is after activating the private sector in these fields.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Qalibaf pointed to transit, visa problem, and preferential tariff as issues that are pursued by the Iran-Uzbekistan joint commission.

He also lauded Iran’s capacities in engineering services and knowledge-based fields.

Earlier, speaking during a press conference before his departure, the Iranian Parliament speaker said that parliamentary relations are undoubtedly of special significance in the relations between the two nations.

He said that Iran and Uzbekistan are very close both geographically and culturally, but the relations between the two countries have not developed in a way to match this closeness.

Qalibaf said that during his stay in Uzbekistan, he would have meetings with the heads of the country’s two parliaments and a number of the Iranian businesspersons working in Uzbekistan.

He expressed hope that the visit to the Central Asian country will help President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration’s foreign policy of prioritizing neighboring and Islamic countries.

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The resolution proposed by the United States and the European Troika (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund) against Iran was adopted on Wednesday, June 8, despite strong opposition from China and Russia at the IAEA Board of Governors’ quarterly meeting.

Following the IAEA’s move, Iran’s top nuclear official said the country has begun injecting uranium gas into advanced centrifuges and disconnected some UN atomic agency’s cameras monitoring its sites outside the Safeguards Agreement.

A group of parliamentarians issued a statement saying: The Islamic Republic of Iran, according to the reports of the Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency, is a country that has provided the most opportunities for monitoring and access to this agency in various periods, but these accesses instead of helping resolve the West’s claims against a peaceful nuclear program has faced with new stubborn questions from the Secretary-General each time that has now cast doubt on the need for such cooperation.

Iranian MPs also said: If cooperating with IAEA inspections raises excuses for ambiguity, why should these opportunities be repeated?

Unfortunately, the Director-General and consequently the Secretariat of the International Atomic Energy Agency have lost their technical credibility. Mr. Grossi’s visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and his meeting with the leaders of a regime that refuses to accept the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and does not consider various reports on the illegal acquisition of nuclear weapons are the most apparent signs of Grossi’s biased behavior and commitment to the implementation of its respective Agency’s missions on the path to nuclear disarmament

The MPs added that contrary to the agency’s internal rules and procedures, the allegation leveled by the Zionist spy service is the basis of the Secretary’s requests for Agency’s to Iran, which is a clear indication of the political and non-technical nature of the agency’s request on remaining issues and three claimed locations.

In their fourth paragraph of the statement, Iranian Parliamentary members stated:  In the negotiations and agreement of March 2022 between Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Director-General of the IAEA agreed that after receiving the initial and supplementary explanations of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the remaining issues, to take steps in his report to resolve the problem in the Board of Governors. In this context, our country has handed written explanations and held three rounds of face-to-face meetings with the IAEA once during the last three months, but from the Director-General’s remarks before the end of the talks in the European Parliament and after his negative report to the Board of Governors, it became clear that political motives had replaced the technical approach in Grossi’s positions!

According to the statement by the MPs, with the continuation of the politically-motivated process in the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Islamic Consultative Assembly supports the actions of the administration and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to reduce cooperation with the IAEA, including the cessation of monitoring cameras beyond safeguards agreements.

Majlis lawmakers also reassured that as the members of Iran’s Parliament, while earnestly requesting the administration and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to underscore protecting the rights of the Iranian people in maintaining the framework of the nuclear program and effectively lifting sanctions for the economic benefit of our people in the face of the Western parties and consider the strict implementation of the “Law on Strategic Action to Lift Sanctions and Protect the Interests of the Iranian Nation” (approved by the 11th Majlis) as the primary means of protecting the rights of this great nation.

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Iran is one of the top three countries in the world in accepting immigrants from other countries, especially neighboring countries, and since our neighboring countries are generally involved in civil wars, we must have an organization to manage the related issues, MP Abolfazl Abutorabi said on Saturday.

“There are certain laws in the field of citizenship, but in the issue of residency, the last law passed in this regard is related to the year 1931,” he stated.

Through national immigration organization, we seek to organize immigrants in the country by giving them residency, and they will be obliged to pay tax, in addition, a platform is provided for immigrants to invest in the country, he noted.

Iran is hosting the world’s fourth-largest refugee community. The country has generously hosted approximately 1 million refugees for the past 30 years. The majority, which mainly came from Afghanistan and Iraq, live in urban areas. Approximately 31,000 of the most vulnerable refugees are living in 20 settlements located throughout the country.

Based on the latest statistics, over 3 million Afghans are living in Iran – some 780,000 Afghan refugees, over 2 million undocumented Afghans, and another 600,000 Afghan passport-holders with Iranian visas.

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In the Sunday statement signed by 250 lawmakers, out of 290, stressed that getting credible guarantees is a red line to ensure the interests of the Iranian people is protected. Hardliners loyal to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dominate the Iranian parliament since 2020, after elections in which most rivals were banned from contesting.

Iran has been insisting to obtain a political guarantee from the United States that it would not renege on a new nuclear agreement. Former president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018, reimposing crippling sanctions on Tehran.

Lawmakers said the negotiations to revive the 2015 deal have reached a critical point, calling on the president not to compromise on any of the demands reiterated by the Islamic Republic. These include not only a political guarantee, but also the removal of all sanctions imposed on Iran, whether for nuclear or other reasons, such as human rights violations or terrorism. The text explicitly mentions guarantees by France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the three European signatories of JCPOA, to remove all sanctions.

The statement said the U.S. and the three European signatories of the nuclear deal have shown in the past eight years that they are not committed to any agreement and used all the possible means against the interests of the Iranian people, adding that they also put sanctions on medicines – a highly questionable claim.

The lawmakers also asked Raisi to get credible will not use JCPOA’s trigger mechanism designed to reimpose international sanctions in case Iran violates the nuclear agreement.

According to the statement, the U.S. and the three European countries must lift all the sanctions related to nuclear, terrorism, missiles, and human rights issues, including the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), CAATSA U-turn, and the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA).

The U.S. and JCPOA signatories must fulfill their obligations about sanctions in a manner verifiable for Iran, they said, noting that the administration should brief the parliament on the removal of oil and banking sanctions, then the parliament would approve reducing the nuclear activities.

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