The award was officially presented during a formal ceremony on Tuesday, by WHO Representative to Iran Syed Jaffar Hussain to the Ministry of Health and Medical Sciences of Iran and Governorship of Osku County in the virtual presence of WHO Regional Director for Eastern Mediterranean Office Ahmed Al-Mandhari.

The ceremony was attended by Health Minister Saeed Namaki, and he cited various factors of a healthy city. The website of the National Healthy Cities Network was also unveiled at the event.

The awarding is an important milestone for Iran and in WHO’s Healthy Cities Program in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, as Iran was the first country in the region to adopt the program for implementation in 1991 in three settlements in Tehran.

Iran is also among the countries with the highest number of registered cities in the Regional Healthy Cities Network (RHCN). Currently, 22 Iranian cities are registered in the RHCN. Sahand is the first city among the registered ones to be evaluated by WHO and receive the three-year Healthy City Award.

Sahand is located 20km southwest of Tabriz, with a population of about 161,000. The city is still being developed with a steadily growing population, and it is expected to feature future-proof urban spaces and services.

The healthy city program in Sahand started in 2015 with the vision to create “a safe and healthy community for the happy livelihood of every person”.

A final evaluation visit was conducted on May 23-25 by experts from the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office to assess the city’s “Healthy City” eligibility. The visit was the second, and final, part of the assessment as the first part was conducted through a virtual desk review in December 2020 due to restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual desk review was the first of its kind to be performed during the Healthy Cities evaluation process against the backdrop of COVID-19.

A Healthy City should meet at least 80 percent of the 80 indicators recognized by WHO, ranging from socio-economic measures, governance, and increasing potentials to institutional transformation and cooperation based on planning and implementing innovative projects. Sahand, as per the evaluation outcome, achieved 74 out of 80 Key Performance indicators (92.5%).

“I see Sahand has succeeded in transforming itself from a city where everybody was working alone to a city where everybody is working towards a healthy community, a healthy environment, and a healthy lifestyle,” said El-adawy, Director of Healthier Populations, after the visit. “I observed this in many aspects and places we visited, and in the attitude of the people we have met. Within the whole city, as we were moving around and visiting different communities, I could see the changes and focus of everybody on health and well-being”.

WHO promotes Healthy Cities by awarding, and endorsing, flagship cities such as Sahand, and by establishing National Healthy Cities Networks, which bring together healthy cities across countries through local capacity building, monitoring, implementation, and exchanging experiences. In both cases, WHO provides strategic, and technical support as well as capacity-building at the national and local levels.

Sahand has already received certification from International Safe Communities in 2019 and integrated the initiative into the healthy city program context. Iran plans to expand the Healthy Cities Program to cover 100 more cities across Iran through a National Healthy Cities Network.

“Sahand has been implementing the healthy city program during the last six years and now has reached a level of maturity. Hopefully, we can make Sahand a role model for other cities in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Mohammad Assai, WHO consultant and senior public health advisor. “Political commitment, community participation, and ownership are visible in all projects we visited.”

As a healthy city, Sahand prioritizes developing and improving healthcare, environmental services, safe water supply, optimization of the environment, addressing pollution, and improving housing. It ultimately aims to promote high-impact, unified community engagement by raising awareness and realizing the untapped potential of communities at the local and national levels. The Healthy Cities program ensures that health is the hallmark of economic, social, and political agendas, and thereby boosts the participatory morale of all stakeholders and mobilizes potential resources.

An important element in Sahand’s Healthy City development is to empower women (49.5% of the population) in collaboration with the governor’s office, health networks, municipal entities, the social protection sector, and civil society organizations. They have multiple community-led initiatives and programs for the socio-economic empowerment of vulnerable populations, including the elderly, people living with disabilities, women-headed households, children, etc. The services provided in Sahand are inclusive and accessible for all.

“I am optimistic because I have seen a very high level of commitment. Not only at the political level, but also of each individual in Sahand that I have met,” said ElFeky, Technical Officer of Community-Based Initiatives and Healthy Settings (CBI) in WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, during her visit to the city. “They can only transfer that passion, and I’m sure that it will be sustained.”

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The comments by Sayyari, the deputy Army chief for coordination affairs, comes as an Iranian destroyer and support vessel are now sailing in the Atlantic Ocean on a rare mission far from Iran.

In his commentary Sayyari said the Iranian naval fleet has entered the Atlantic Ocean without requesting access to a foreign port to show “its powerful presence in open seas in accordance with international maritime rules.”

The naval mission is being carried out by the vessel Makran and the destroyer Sahand, which is “completely manufactured” by Iran.

“The Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran had succeeded to send its naval fleet to distant waters including the Indian Ocean, the Pacific, and the Mediterranean. And now is able to materialize the promise of presence in the Atlantic Ocean, a move that is considered a new chapter for presence in open and distant seas,” the deputy Army chief remarked.

Through its powerful presence in open seas thousands of kilometers away from domestic coasts Iran once again “reminded that it is able to meet its need and conduct difficult maritime missions,” the admiral noted.

In addition, Iran showed that it is able to guard security of economy in the sea, he said, adding Iran also proved that through presence in distant waters it helps promote national diplomacy and create an opportunity for exchange of knowledge and information between maritime forces across the world.

The admiral said the naval mission has increased the “strategic depth” of Iran and also brought “dignity for our dear country.”

“However, like always we insist that such measures and moves not only are not a threat to any country but also they can help protect the security of countries, (prove) beneficial, and in line with the campaign against maritime terrorism and maritime rescue operations,” the top commander noted.

The fact the certain countries with colonial history which through their “useless presence” in other regions cause intensification of tensions and arms race express concern about Iran’s presence in open seas, show that the decision by the Iranian army is correct and that Iran’s presence in open seas sends “message of peace and friendship” to the world.

In a commentary on Thursday, Foreign Policy said the United States cannot take action under international law against two Iranian ships on voyage toward the North Atlantic Ocean even if the vessels are violating U.S. sanctions.

Citing three people familiar with the situation, the American news website said the vessels have been heading south along the east coast of Africa.

Foreign Policy argued that any U.S. action against the vessels would be unlawful and undermine sovereign immunity as a core tenet of international order.

“The costs of direct action would be severe, exposing the United States to charges of hypocrisy toward the rules-based order and potentially opening U.S. naval vessels to similar treatment by adversaries,” the American news publication said, arguing that the United States should “employ diplomacy rather than force” and encourage states along the route to deny the Iranian vessels port access if requested.

It added that in times of peace, sovereign immunity is a practically all-powerful ward against a foreign state’s jurisdiction, with exceptions only in extreme circumstances involving failed states, fake warships, or weapons of mass destruction. “This case, however, is textbook.”

While Tehran has not commented on the ships’ destination nor their cargo, it has pointed out that there is no ban on Iran’s sale of weapons to other countries under UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

“America has long tried to get the resolution violated [by others], but to no avail,” Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei told a press conference on Tuesday, making a reference to Washington’s failed attempts last year to keep a 13-year-old arms embargo on Iran, which finally expired on October 18.

“Iran reserves the right to enjoy normal trade ties in the framework of international law and regulations, and considers any interference and monitoring of these relations as illegal and insulting, and strongly condemns it,” Press TV quoted Rabiei as saying.

On Thursday, Politico said the U.S. has been monitoring Iranian Navy ships that are making their way across the Atlantic Ocean, potentially for a weapons delivery to Venezuela. The Biden administration is pressuring the Venezuelan and Cuban governments to turn away the Iranian ships, and a senior administration official warned that the U.S. will take “appropriate measures in coordination with our partners to deter the transit or delivery of such weapons.”

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