A group of four persons who had received guidance from abroad were chanting anti-Islamic Republic chants over the past few months after Friday prayers in Zahedan, the capital of the border province.

The group’s members admitted to receiving anti-Iran banners and posters via an “intermediary” and being instructed via international social media sites.

They had also been instructed to raise the flag of the former U.S.-backed Pahlavi regime and take video clips of their gatherings and send them to the foreign agent.

The news agency said the group sought to portray the public as “aligned” with the Pahlavi monarchy by hanging anti-Iran flags and posters.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry declared that its troops had destroyed a number of terrorist groups linked to the Israeli regime in four different Iranian provinces.

The “sabotage cells” were part of a huge “Zionist-terrorist” network that carried out various operations in the four provinces of Khuzestan, Mazandaran, Kermanshah, and Sistan-Baluchestan, according to the ministry.

The terrorists were seeking to orchestrate attacks to blame the nation’s police.

Back in August, security forces had detained two Takfiri terrorists in Sistan-Baluchestan.

IRNA quoted the provincial police commander, Doostali Jalilian, as stating that the two terrorists were detained in Sistan-Baluchestan’s Qasr-e Qand district. Jalilian said they are members of the Ansar al-Furqan terror group.

Jalilian said the two were apprehended following their identification and careful observation of their moves by intelligence forces during a planned operation on the Qasr-e Qand roadway to Talang.

According to a preliminary investigation, the two operatives, who are Iranian nationals, participated in a planned attack on Basij troops in Qasr-e Qand city. During the assault, the two terrorists, along with two others, killed and wounded a number of the voluntary Basij forces in the southeastern city.

Sistan-Baluchestan has seen a number of terror incidents in recent years that have targeted both security forces and civilians.

In a fight with terrorists trying to get inside the country in June, an Iranian border guard was martyred in the province.

On August 4, a group of terrorists had been apprehended by the IRGC Ground Force in the border region of the province, not far from the Pakistani border.

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Cyclone Shaheen has developed into a severe cyclonic storm and is now at 240 km east-southeast of Chabahar Port in Iran, which is expected to move towards Oman’s coast across the Gulf of Oman and weaken gradually.

It closed schools in the cities of Chabahar, Konarak, and Dashtiari.

The storm is likely to move west-northwestwards, skirting Iran’s Makran coast during the next 24 hours. Cyclone Shaheen was formed from the remnants of Cyclone Gulab, which had hit the east coast on September 26.

However, fishermen have been warned not to venture into the sea till October.

The tropical storm caused the sinking and breaking of two fishing boats in the port of Pasabander Dashtiari, 100 km from Chabahar.

Following the incident, all operational teams and forces of the Red Crescent Society and vehicles are immediately on standby in the cities of Chabahar, Dashtiari, Konarak, Qasr-e Qand, Nikshahr, Sarbaz, Fanuj, and Pelan.

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The mugger crocodile, also called Gando in Iran, is a crocodilian native to freshwater habitats of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

Under the plan, the villagers of Sistan-Baluchestan, with the aim of boosting tourism and earning money, will implement objectives such as crocodile care, informing and educating tourists, he explained, IRNA reported on Monday.

This multilateral program is implemented in cooperation with the DOE, the NGOs, and the Wetlands Conservation Program to raise public awareness and elicit the participation of local communities and tourists, he said.

In this project, the mugger crocodiles are taken care of by the natives, who attract tourists in the form of educational and information programs and promote environmental culture in the community, he concluded.

The only crocodile native to Iran

Gando, one of the tourist attractions in the Chabahar Free Zone, is the only crocodile native to Iran and the largest reptile in the country.

It is interesting to know that the species is one of the rarest in the world and has a shorter snout than other similar species, which can be a valuable potential for attracting tourists and preserving wildlife in Iran.

“Wherever Gando is, there is plenty of water” is a common belief in southern regions of Sistan-Baluchestan, as they consider the animal as a symbol of blessing and prosperity and believe that with the migration and death of this animal, drought and famine will overshadow their lives.

Bahu Kalat and Sarbaz villages in Sistan-Baluchestan province have turned into a tourist attraction for their rare species of crocodiles found in Iran.

On the Iranian Makran coast near Chabahar lives a population of around 200 mugger crocodiles. Due to human activity and a long drought in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it had been pushed to the brink of extinction. Following several tropical cyclones in 2007 and 2010, much of the habitat of the mugger crocodiles has been restored as formerly dry lakes and hamouns were flooded again.

Although the crocodile is a very intelligent and shy species, it is, therefore, difficult to observe directly, so given the high probability of not being observed by census teams, the estimated number of this species in the region is twice the number observed about 400 crocodiles.

Threats to the rare crocodile

Asghar Mobaraki, a member of the crocodile group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said that climate change is a major threat to mugger crocodiles, as the animal gender is related to nest temperature, not genetics. So, the increase in temperature makes this species unisexual.

In fact, the population proportion is unequaled and this situation is a disaster in terms of population growth, he lamented.

Pointing to the decrease in rainfall in recent years and water shortages in some habitats and ponds, he said that therefore, the protection of crocodiles requires more attention to natural habitats and the implementation of special management programs.

Habitat destruction for agricultural purposes, improper water withdrawal by pumping and digging canals, various chemical contaminants such as pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, motor oils, and detergents can be catastrophic and directly or indirectly endanger their offspring, he also said.

Some crocodiles are also threatened on the routes due to car accidents.

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Davood Shahraki, the head of Sistan-Baluchestan province’s Industry, Mining, and Trade Department, also said that in the field of removing production barriers, the number of approvals in the province for production units has increased from 300 units last year to about 900 units this year.

Referring to the measures that have been the background for the removing of the barriers and started last year, he added that in addition to six trillion rials (about $142.8 million) in the last two years, facilities have been provided to the industry sector from various sources.

Referring to the good events of last year in order to revive the production units, the official said that 55 idle production units were revived in the province in the last year and 19 units returned to the production cycle in its previous year.

As announced by Deputy Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Mehdi Sadeqi Niaraki, 1,500 idle industrial units have been revived in the country during the past year.

According to Niaraki, over 6,500 new industrial units were also established across the country during the mentioned year which created jobs for over 121,000 people.

Touching upon the Industry Ministry’s plans for the realization of the motto of the current year which is named the year of “Production: support and the elimination of obstacles” by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, the official said: “In the year that has been dedicated to the production sector by the Leader of the revolution, the orientation of all government organizations and executive bodies should be towards supporting the country’s industrial and mining units.”

Niaraki pointed to a 40-percent increase in the issuance of establishment licenses for industrial units in the previous year, saying: “The number of establishment licenses increased to more than 36,000 last year, which shows that people are encouraged to invest in the productive sectors.”

He also mentioned an 85-percent rise in the allocation of land for establishing industrial units across the country and noted that over 4,500 hectares of land were handed over to applicants in the previous calendar year.

According to the official, there are over 46,000 small and medium-sized industrial units in Iran’s industrial parks and zones, of them about 9,200 units are inactive.

Iran’s industrial parks play a significant role in making the country independent through boosting production, which is a major strategy of Iran to combat the U.S. sanctions.

In fact, strengthening domestic production to achieve self-reliance is the most important program that Iran is following up in its industry sector in a bid to nullify the effects of the U.S. sanctions on its economy.

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According to Torbati, the supply of natural gas to the strategic port and to the Makran coasts is going to create industrial prosperity in the region, Shana reported.

Speaking in a follow-up meeting on Sistan-Baluchestan gas supply projects, Torbati said due to the vastness of the province, in total, 2,000 sections of gas pipelines have been designed and planned to be implemented across the province, of which so far 300 kilometers (km) have been implemented and 770 km of pipelines are currently being implemented.

Torbati put the projected capital for the implementation of the mentioned pipelines with the gas supply facilities in the cities at more than 200 trillion rials (about $4.7 billion), saying that the necessary steel sheets and pipes for the mentioned pipelines have been provided.

Back in February, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh had stated that over 95 percent of the country’s population is currently enjoying natural gas through the country’s huge national network.

According to the Oil Minister, the coverage of the national gas network in rural areas has also doubled over the mentioned period to reach 84 percent.

Since the Iranian calendar year 1392 (March 2013) up to the previous calendar year’s 11th month (started on January 20) over 20,000 rural areas with a total population of 1.76 million households have been supplied with natural gas through the national gas network, according to Zanganeh.

Chabahar Port, the only Iranian ocean port, is a strategic port with unique opportunities that can attract investments from Iranian and foreign private sectors.

The development of the Chabahar Port is important for the economic development of the region and also the neighboring countries and in this regard sustainable supply of energy carriers to the port has been of significant importance for the Iranian government and the projects for expansion of the national gas network in Sistan-Baluchestan province, where the port lays, have been seriously pursued by the NIGC over the past few years.

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The event will be staged in Tangeh-Sarhad village, Nikshahr county, with the aim of promoting the ancient skill being practiced widely in southern parts of the country, IRIB reported on Sunday.

Matting is the art of weaving or plaited strips of organic fibers into various baskets and flooring pieces, which are deemed as comfortable and suitable for hot tropical climates.

Dozens of high-quality Iranian handicrafts have been honored with the UNESCO Seal of Excellence over the past couple of years.

PHOTO: An Iranian artisan makes mat baskets.

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