New Indigenous Satellites Unveiled

Two new satellites, namely Nahid-1 and Payam-e-Amirkabir, developed by the national aerospace industry were unveiled in a ceremony held on the occasion of National Day of Aerospace Technology on Wednesday.

Known as Iran's first telecommunications satellite, Nahid-1 has been developed by the experts of Iranian Space Research Center. 

Nahid-1 uses photovoltaic solar panels in orbit and uses the Ku band for communication, Tasnim News Agency reported. 

Payam-e-Amirkabir has been developed in Tehran's Amirkabir University of Technology with the mission to take surveying images. 

President Hassan Rouhani, in an address to the ceremony, called for boosting the communications sector to expand Iranians' global outreach by facilitating their access to a wide range of information and services on the Internet.

"The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology should provide a platform to convey religious, cultural and political messages of the Iranian people and establish a link between the Iranian society and the international community by offering communications services," he said.

Rouhani added that in order to effectively implement the national development plans, the government needs to draw on the latest foreign technology, besides tapping into the domestic capabilities. 

"It would be wrong to rely entirely on purchases from abroad or reject the world's experience altogether. We ought to use our indigenous capabilities and our scientists as well as the experience of other countries," the president was quoted as saying by his official website.

***Trump a Political Novice 

The Iranian president called his newly inaugurated US counterpart, Donald Trump, a "novice" for his recent executive order to put a 90-day hold on allowing Iranians and six other nationalities into the United States.

Rouhani noted that it would be wrong of a president to think that he can create a wedge between people by imposing a ban on issuing visas for the people of certain countries. 

"After all, one could not expect more from those who are novice in the world of politics. It would take long before he and his team acquire an understanding of such issues, which would inflict huge losses on their own people and other nations," he said of Trump.

The ban has also drawn sharp criticism from other top Iranian officials.

Iran's top diplomat, Mohammad Javad Zarif, denounced the move on Twitter on Sunday as the biggest gift to terrorists and their supporters, saying it shows Washington's claims of only having issues with the Tehran government are baseless. 

Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior adviser to Leader of Islamic Revolution for international affairs, warned that the decision from an "unbalanced" individual would eventually backfire.

"If Iranians travel to a country, their dignity must be respected and such moves will undoubtedly be harmful to the future of the US," he said.

"Iranians have always lived with dignity and do not need Trump or any other person from the government of the United States of America to give them permission to enter or not."

Rouhani reiterated his criticism of a separate plan by Trump to build a wall along the US southern border with Mexico.

"Today's world is a world of communication and linked thoughts. Today, we are long past an era when walls were erected to keep people apart," he said.