Barzani hails Iran’s support for Iraqi Kurds in fighting ISIL

August 26, 2014 By administrator

President of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Masoud Barzani has praised Iran for supporting Iraqi Kurds in their fight against the Takfiri ISIL militants.

Speaking in a joint press conference with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday, Barzani added that Iran was the first country that supplied the Kurdish forces with arms and helped them fight ISIL terrorists.

He emphasized that Iraqi Kurds would never forget Tehran’s support that came at a crucial timing without any expectation for reciprocation.

Barzani also underlined the need to continue fighting ISIL terrorists and said the final defeat of these Takfiri militants is only possible through a joint effort on the part of all regional countries.

The Iranian foreign minister, for his part, said fighting the ISIL Takfiri militants is a comprehensive campaign that must be pushed ahead until a crushing defeat is inflicted on the terrorists.

“The ISIL is not an enemy only to Kurds, Arabs and Shia [Muslims] but is the enemy of all of us in the region,” Zarif said.

The Iranian foreign minister described ISIL as an “international threat” and added, “We call for unity and the establishment of security and stability in Iraq because we regard this country’s security as our own security.”

He threw Iran’s weight behind any agreement between Kurdistan Regional Government and Baghdad’s central government, hoping that formation of a “broad-based government” would settle all problems in Iraq.

Zarif, however, made it clear that Tehran has not sent any troops into Iraq, saying Iran believes that Iraq has no need to military aid.

The Iranian foreign minister arrived in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region on Tuesday for the second leg of his two-day visit to the Arab country.

The visit came as Iraq has faced turmoil caused by the ISIL in the north and west since early June. The crisis deteriorated in recent weeks, as the militants swept over new towns in the north, forcing members of the minorities out of their homes.

The ISIL terrorists have threatened all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Izadi Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq.

Iran calls on Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold talks

August 4, 2014 By administrator

Iran has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold talks to reach an agreement, Iranian Foreign Ministrant spokeswoman said.

Marzieyeh Afkham said the dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan has no military solution, IRNA reported. She expressed regret over killing several people in a recent military clash and invited both sides to exercise restraint.

Iran leader to visit Armenia

July 28, 2014 By administrator

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani intends to visit to Armenia later this year to discuss issues of mutual interest, and regional and global developments.

“We are pursuing the issue, but due to the president’s busy schedule the time of the trip cannot be specified exactly. However, the trip will occur,” FARS News Agency quotes Iranian Ambassador to Armenia Mohammad Raeisi as saying.

The website reports that Iran and Armenia have taken major strides toward promoting their bilateral relations over the recent years, particularly in the economic sector. It reports the Iranian Commercial Attaché in Yerevan, Hamaiak Avadis Yanes, as saying that the trade turnover between the two neighboring states hit $293mln in 2013

Big Caucasus Game: Iranian gas seen as major part of regional equation

July 21, 2014 By administrator

By Naira Hayrumyan
ArmeniaNow correspondent

Late last week, Iranian Ambassador to Armenia Mohammad Reisi called a press conference during which he made a number of statements that were described by many Armenian media as “sensational”. Political

analysts have called them Iran’s new proposals that show that Tehran enters into open competition with Moscow for influence in Armenia.

The most sensational was the proposal to Armenia regarding the transit of gas from Iran to Georgia and from there to Europe via Armenia. It is for the first time that such a proposal is made openly. The ambassador said that in case of Armenia’s consent it could sell cheaper gas to Armenia, and Armenia’s energy minister will soon visit Tehran where he is likely to discuss the matter.

Last December Armenia tied itself with Russia with what many consider to be a fettering agreement, according to which, in fact, for 30 years it will not be able to make decisions in the gas sector without Gazprom’s permission. The Russian state-run corporation supplies natural gas to Armenia and its subsidiary distributes it in the country on a monopoly basis and will not allow the entry of less expensive gas. But most importantly, Iran is gradually becoming the most powerful rival of Russia in the European gas market, and Moscow is trying to block all possible ways for Iranian gas to reach Europe.

By the way, the ambassador said that the likelihood of resumed hostilities in the Karabakh conflict zone is small and that Iran does not want destabilization in the region. He also said that to his knowledge, there are no Turkish military units in Nakhijevan. It looks like Iran’s ‘calming’ Armenia, which usually rejects favorable economic and political projects, citing the threat of destabilization in the region. In fact, Iran, through its ambassador, said that there are no threats in the region, that Tehran will take care of that and now Armenia should not be afraid to make an important step.

The next remarkable statement was that Iran is not interested in the appearance of third countries’ troops in the Karabakh conflict zone, because “it will become a threat to the whole region.” In fact, Iran says that it has the leverage that it will use not to allow the entry of other forces, including Russian troops, into the region, and, accordingly, will not allow the partition of Karabakh. Some experts believe that the function of peacekeeping forces in the Karabakh conflict would come down to ensuring a “peaceful” division of the territory currently controlled by Nagorno-Karabakh. And this is another “guarantee” of Iran to Armenia, which is not interested in the deployment of peacekeepers and the partition of Karabakh.

The Armenian-Russian gas agreement and a broader range of interests of Russia in Armenia has become a major obstacle not only to the development of Armenia and the removal of its economic blockade, but also a barrier to the opening of the entire region. The revision of the agreement is not a very simple matter, and the only “occasion” could be Georgia’s changing its attitude towards the transit of Russian gas to Armenia through its territory. On July 18, Georgia ratified the agreement on joining the Free Trade Area with the European Union, and when this agreement is ratified by all EU member states, Georgia can, in agreement with Brussels, change the rules for the transit of Russian gas to Armenia, which, in turn, may become a reason for denunciation of the agreement. And then Armenia will have nothing left but to start negotiations with Iran.

Armenia, Iran look to benefit from cooperation in tourism

July 12, 2014 By administrator

By Sara Khojoyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

Armenia and Iran are going to sign a memorandum on cooperation in the field of tourism. On Thursday Armenia’s government approved the memorandum that will enable both countries to coordinate and promote tourist visits between the two countries as well as international tours to both neighboring countries as a package.

The number of Iranian tourists visiting Armenia had been steadily on the rise for years, but the international sanctions against Tehran somewhat reduced the tourist flow to Armenia from the neighboring country in the past three years.

Head of the Department of Tourism at Armenia’s Ministry of Economy Mekhak Apresyan said that already in the first quarter of 2014 the number of Iranian tourists began to rise again, which is due to the reduction of the scale of sanctions against Iran after Hassan Rouhani’s becoming president of the Islamic Republic.

“Iran is an important market for us. This country is not only our neighbor, but we have good neighborly relations with it, which is important for the sphere. Armenia is more accessible and affordable for them and with this new memorandum we will expand and intensify our cooperation in the sector,” said Apresyan.

Another direction of cooperation, according to the official, is to promote the number of regional tourist visits to Armenia-Iran. “By signing this memorandum we will conduct more intensive work in this direction,” he said.

As part of the memorandum the government plans to put exchange of studies and statistics in the related sphere as well as mutual provision of information materials on Armenia’s and Iran’s historical and cultural heritage, traditions, celebrations, nature, etc on a more coordinated basis.

These activities as well as exchanges of upcoming scheduled tourism events, according to industry representatives, will provide an opportunity for mutual promotion of tourism.

By its rate of development and results tourism is one of Armenia’s most dynamically growing sectors that showed growth even in conditions of the global economic crisis when the country’s economy as a whole registered a double-digit decline.

According to the official statistics, in 2013 more than 950,000 tourists visited Armenia, which is by 13.5 percent more than in 2012.

In the first quarter of 2014, which is not the most intensive period of tourist visits, the growth was even higher. Thus, as compared to January-March 2013, Armenia saw a 20.5-percent increase in the number of tourists (more than 150,000).

“There is the potential, and our policy is aimed at getting ensuring the growth of the number of tourists and revenues from their visits that will also create new jobs and thereby will contribute to the country’s economic growth and sustainable development,” said Apresyan, adding that the tourism development concept envisages bringing the number of tourists annually visiting Armenia to 3 million in the next 30 years.

According to the representative of the Ministry of Economy, 98 percent of those who visit Armenia leave the country satisfied, which is due to the efficient cooperation between the State and the private sector.

Tourism expert, Armenian Institute of Tourism Rector Robert Minasyan believes that tourism development in Armenia is possible only after the creation of a special cadastre. Last month at a meeting with reporters he said that such a structure should identify problems in the field of tourism and offer solutions to them on the basis of research.

“One cannot develop the tourism sector with closed eyes. We need to think about creating a cadastre that will examine the amount of means received by the State from travel agencies,” said Minasyan, according to arka.am.

Alternative Power: Iran shows interest in Armenian solar energy device

July 10, 2014 By administrator

By Gayane Mkrtchyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

The Akhtamar solar device invented by the Armenian scientist is the alternative for Armenia, which has limited energy resources of its own, and for solving future energy-related problems. The Armenian government, however, does not seem to pay due attention to the device, meanwhile, Armenia has to rely on Russian natural gas.

“I personally started solar technology development 21 years ago, hoping to solve emerging energy and ecology problems in the world,” says the inventor of Akhtamar, doctor of technological sciences, Professor Vahan Hamazaspyan.

The scientist mentions that the energy problem in the country will be impossible to solve in 50 years, but with the help of Akhtamar it is possible to get a large amount of cheap electricity. The device costs a $1,000 and can provide electricity for 50 years.

On July 7, Iranian Ambassador to Armenia Mohammad Raiesi visited Hamazaspyan to see Akhtamar. After the meeting the ambassador mentioned that there are a number of companies working on solar energy in Iran, these companies want to cooperate with Armenian companies. He mentioned that oil- and gas-rich Iran realizes that that the future belongs to this branch, it has a big potential and currently Iran realizes wide-scale research in the field.

“Considering depleting sources of oil and gas we pay special attention to the development of alternative, especially solar energy sources, and in that sense this device is interesting and has a good future,” the ambassador said. “We will follow up so that one of Iranian companies visits and discusses an investment program.”

Hamazaspyan, also the co-chief of the Armenia-Iran Scientific and Industrial Cooperation Organization, mentioned that he has worked with around 1,000 scientists along the way of creating the device, Akhtamar has been ready for mass production for already a year, but it still cannot get the government permission and Armenian officials’ statements about alternative energy development are not put to practice.

“I’ve turned to the government several times, and I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan recently, trying to display the results of my invention, but instead of the PM someone from the Ministry of Economy met me and the meeting came down only to a conversation,” he said.

The scientist mentioned that if Akhtamar is put into wide use it will firstly impact electricity producing and gas importing companies’ work – they will be deprived of the most part of their incomes, thus alternative energy is ignored.

With the solar batteries of Akhtamar it will be possible to receive solar energy, heat flats, create thermal stations, run various agricultural programs as a result. The serial production cost is estimated to be $100/1kW/hour. Hamazaspyan mentioned that a base factory will cost eight million dollars.

Ambassador Raiesi’s visit, as well as the agreement of future cooperation was evaluated by some media as a political step with which Iran keeps on sending ‘messages’ to Armenian officials.

“In the given case the problem is out of the mere scientific-technological scope, it is already political, when the scientist is visited by the Iranian ambassador. And especially the Iranian ambassador, a country that is tired of sending political ‘messages’ to Armenia recently, sending indirect but quite transparent and clear invitation of regional economic-political partnership of a new quality to Armenia,” lragir.am writes.

Hamazaspyan mentioned that the news circulating in the media, as if Iran wants to create solar devices because it is fighting against Russian gas, are ungrounded, and the Iranian Embassy was worried that this case is given a political coloring.

“We spoke about creating solar devices. We agreed with the ambassador that we will build a solar device producing factory due to joint efforts of the two countries – for Iran with our technologies, with their money in Armenia, Spitak, with our technologies and their money,” the scientist said. “We also discussed the problem of cultivating agricultural products by solar technology. Iran has a huge potential in agricultural field, and if we are able to cultivate agricultural products by Armenian solar technologies and export it to the Russian, American and European markets, Armenia will profit a lot.”

Let’s remember that at the end of last year the Iranian Ambassador announced that according to barter agreement, Iran is ready to sell gas to Armenia by a special, not international price.

“Iran sells gas to other countries by functioning international prices, however there are other prices for friend and neighboring countries,” the ambassador mentioned.

According to the Iranian INSA agency in May the Iranian Deputy Minister of Energy, Ali Majedy stated that Iran is ready to export gas to Europe through Armenia, mentioning that there are three routes for exporting gas – first, through Turkey, second – Armenia, Georgia and the Black Sea and finally, through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Earlier, Iranian Minister of Industries and Mining Mohammadreza Nematzadeh said that recently Turkey and Azerbaijan try hard not to allow the gas routes from Iran to run through Armenia. Russia helps them in this question who is interested in preserving the gas burden on Armenia.

Armenia is practically deprived of energy independence. The government handed over to Russia several major energy facilities of strategic significance – Hrazdan HPP’s 5th unit, the remaining 20-percent stake in ArmRosgazprom was handed over to Russian Gasprom on account of debts, AEN, a new NPP is going to be built by Russian loans.

By 2018 Russian gas on the Armenian border will cost $189/1,000 cubic meters, although consumers pay $385. According to the latest data from the State Revenues Committee, for example, during the third quarter of last year the gas imported from Iran (within the project of ‘gas in return for electricity’) cost $181.7/1,000 cubic meters.

ZOROASTRIANS IN IRAN

July 1, 2014 By administrator

June 16, 2014 — AP Images Team

Adherents of the Zoroastrian religion from around the world gathered at a mountain shrine in central Iran this week to celebrate their Persian roots, praying in remembrance of a princess who fled the seventh century Arab invasion. At Chak Chak, some 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran,

believers gathered to remember Nikbanou, a heroine of the faith who according to tradition took shelter in the mountain and prayed for help. Miraculously, the mountain was said to have opened up and given protection to the princess, the youngest daughter of the last king of the Persian Sassanian empire. A spring slowly drips from the ceiling of the shrine, built into a cliff-side cave, giving the site its name, which means “drip drip” in Persian.

Tradition says the spring is the mountain shedding tears in remembrance of Nikbanou. An immense tree stands nearby, which is said to have grown from Nikbanou’s cane. “We’ve all gathered here to remember Nikbanou and celebrate our deep Persian roots,” said priest Ardeshir Khorshidian who was dressed in white to symbolize purity. Many pilgrims stay overnight at pavilions set up at the base of the mountain. Families sitting on rugs had picnics while children played.

President of Iran has not complied with Turkish protocol and has refused to attend Ataturk’s mausoleum

June 10, 2014 By administrator

“Iran’s president has refused to attend mausoleum of Ataturk,” Iranian office of the BBC news agency reports.

Yesterday the Iranian President had left for Turkey for a two day visit after 18 years of break. There he has conducted meetings with the president Abdullah Gul and the PM of the country Rejep Tayyip Erdogan.

The article reads that although according to the Turkish protocol the foreign officials have to visit Ataturk’s mausoleum, the founder of Turkish Republic, however both Iranian presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani in 1996 and the current president Hasan Rouhani have refused to attend the mausoleum.

The author of the article notes that the authorities of Iran compare Ataturk with Reza shah who has also struggled against Islam.

Iran to restore 3 Armenian churches

June 3, 2014 By administrator

June 3, 2014 – 16:37 AMT

Iran is ready to launch works for restoration of 3 Armenian churches in the Tghmut river basin.

The Primate of the Armenian Diocese of Atrpatakan, Supreme Archimandrite Grigor Chiftchyan addressed the Aras economic zone department for protection of cultural and religious monuments with a request to observe the norms of Armenian church construction, Blagovest-Info reported.

Iran has 7 free economic zones, with the Republic’s government planning to use them for development of economy and tourism. Extensive grounds owned by Armenian Church, as well as 3 churches – St. Gregory the Illuminator, St. Sargis and St. George are situated in Aras.

As Iranian authorities are preparing for restoration, Armenian Eparchy suggested involvement of Armenian experts, with the offer to be taken into consideration.

As agreed with Armenian side, upon completion of restoration, the churches will be included into the Aras tourist routes.

Currently, there are 25 Armenian churches in Iran, with 11 of them operating mainly in Tehran, Tabriz and Isfahan.

Source: PanARMENIAN.Net

West alarmed by Iran-Russia-China arc: Analyst

June 1, 2014 By administrator

The Western governments, led by Bilderbergers, are worried about a growing alliance between Iran, China and Russia, an analyst writes for Press TV.

“The Bilderbergers’ first concern… is the rise of Iran, Russia and China,” Kevin Barrett wrote in an article for the Press TV website referring to this year’s Bilderberg conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, which ended on June 1.

He highlighted a significant gas deal recently signed between Russia and China and “Iran and Russia’s successful defense of Syria against NATO-led aggression” as factors having “raised grave questions about whether the Bilderberg-led West can continue its world-domination scheme.”

Barrett said other developments causing concern for the Bilderbergers include Russia’s initiative to form the Eurasian Economic Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan, and China’s call for an “Asian Security Alliance” with Russia and Iran.

“All of this, on top of the Russia-China gas pipeline deal, suggests that the world is spinning out of the Bilderbergers’ control,” wrote Barrett.

Last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the creation of a new Asian organization for security cooperation with the participation of Iran and Russia.

Last Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a treaty with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev for the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union.

Barrett said the Bilderbergers may now seek to “opt for a gradual, peaceful transition to a multi-polar world by making peace with Iran and refraining from excessive aggression towards Russia and China.”

“Or,” he added, “Will they give the nod to the neocons, who will then set off a huge 9/11-style false flag attack to launch the next round of bloody imperial conquest?”