US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that Iran is an “active threat” to American interests due to its activities in the Middle East, but the White House would “of course” welcome the opportunity to negotiate with Tehran.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that Iran is an “active threat” to American interests due to its activities in the Middle East, but the White House would “of course” welcome the opportunity to negotiate with Tehran.
Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif was to start an official visit to Turkmenistan on Sunday with the aim of boosting relations between the two neighboring countries in diverse political and economic areas.
President Hassan Rouhani called on all political factions to join hands to resist the United States' political and economic pressure that he described as a "full-scale and unprecedented war".
"Today, we are in difficult times, but I do not despair and have great hope for the future and believe that we can get through these difficult conditions provided we remain united," he said in an address to a group of political activists in Tehran on Saturday.
He suggested that the current conditions might be even harder that those during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, in which Iran incurred an estimated economic loss of $627 billion.
Egypt's reported withdrawal, fear of increased tensions with Iran and differences of opinion between Arabs and Washington have made it "impossible" to advance the US-led initiative aimed at forging an Arab alliance against Iran, says a political analyst.
In a recent interview with ISNA, Ahmad Fateminejad added that the American initiative is doomed, particularly in light of Cairo's reported decision to pull out of US President Donald Trump's plan to contain Iranian power by formin an "Arab NATO" with key Arab allies.
According to Reuters, Egypt conveyed its decision to the United States and other participants in the proposed Middle East Strategic Alliance, or MESA, ahead of a meeting held in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, last month to discuss the issue.
Energy officials seem oblivious of the fact that domestic companies have the capacity to provide up to 80% of the equipment needed by the oil sector, head of the Iranian Oil Equipment Manufacturers' Association said.
"Locally-produced oil and gas equipment is compliant with international standards. Nonetheless, the same products are imported by state-run bodies namely the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade," Sirous Talari was quoted as saying by ILNA.
Their potential notwithstanding, domestic manufacturers are saddled with self-imposed sanctions as the government is not willing to work with the private sector, he complained.
Over half the electricity in central Yazd Province (53%) is consumed by the industrial sector, managing director of Yazd Electricity Distribution Company said.
Gas projects in western Kurdestan Province are awaiting funds and if the money is not available expansion of the gas network to rural areas will be suspended, the managing director of Kurdestan Province Gas Company said.
Whether it is the US sending military warnings to Iran or tensions in Venezuela, some oil traders have started to gear up for a possible price surge as political risks escalate.
A total of 3,857 tons of rosewater worth $7.8 million were exported from Iran to 40 countries in the last Iranian year (March 2018-19), latest figures released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration show.
Raw silk cocoon production is estimated to reach 1,400 tons in the current fiscal year (March 2019-20) to register a 43.15% increase compared with last year, the deputy agriculture minister for livestock affairs said.
US sanctions will fail to halt Iran’s exports of industrial metals.
This response was echoed by several economic operators from Iran’s metals sector, including iron, steel, aluminum and copper, the country’s largest non-petroleum source of export revenue and the latest target of US President Donald Trump’s sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Deputy Industries Minister Jafar Sarqeini also dismissed concerns about the latest US sanctions, saying high-quality Iranian products have their own international customers.
"Sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump are unlikely to significantly impact Iran’s metals industry," he was quoted as saying by Tasnim News Agency, stressing that he saw no reason for concern due to the excellent quality of Iranian metals that meet international standards.
Iran traded 75,184 tons of non-oil commodities worth $113 million with Canada in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2019) to register a 40.09% growth in tonnage and 30.46% decline in value compared with the year before, latest data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration show.
Iran traded 118.64 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $62.7 billion with member states of the United Nations’ Asia-Pacific region in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2019) to register a 9.2% and 12.76% decrease in tonnage and value respectively compared with last year’s corresponding period.
Latest data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration show Iran’s exports totaled 103.7 million tons worth $37.67 billion during the year, indicating a 6.01% and 1.7% decline in tonnage and value respectively year-on-year.
Imports stood at 14.94 million tons worth $25.03 billion, down 26.53% and 25.4% in tonnage and value respectively YOY.
Iran Social Security Organization owes 400 trillion rials ($2.58 billion) to banks, SSO’s deputy for economic and planning affairs said.
Hossein Amiri said the massive organization borrowed 50 trillion rials ($323 million) from banks on monthly basis in the last fiscal (ended March 20).
Pensions have risen by 36% in the current fiscal (March 2019-20) and the SSO will face new challenges in meeting its financial commitments.
The Central Bank of Iran published a note on its website to clarify ambiguities about the one-time password that will soon be offered by banks.
It covers a range of issues pertaining to the single-use passwords, addressing clients concerns over the fact that the new measure may disrupt their card payment transactions.
CBI says OTP is needed for transactions above 5 million rials ($33) and allows clients to use their current static passwords for transactions below that amount.
Trading in the Tehran Stock Exchange tumbled on Sunday as the negative psychological climate created by political developments continued to batter investor sentiment.
The bearish trends that started in the middle of last week, deepened Sunday with the main index of TSE, TEDPIX, shedding more than 5,000 points.
Hit by the massive selloff, the price of almost 90% of TSE stocks fell in mid-day trading, Donyaye Bourse reported.
In the absence of buying, the selloff pressure on banks and auto stocks extended to a wide-range of other stocks in the early hours of the trading day.
Five Iranian students were awarded at the 47th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva held on April 10-14 in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Iranian award-winning participants were among over 800 exhibitors from 40 countries, which presented about 1,000 inventions and products.
According to the event's website, Innopa.org, an international jury made up of 82 specialists judged the inventions and selected a number of outstanding ones.
Iran's National Cartographic Center has signed an agreement with the University of Hanover in Germany to boost scientific collaboration and promote an exchange of know-how concerning geographical mapping.
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps and conveying spatial information effectively.
On Tuesday, a delegation of German faculty members of the University of Hanover visited NCC’s office in Tehran and discussed ways of improving the effectiveness of cartography practices in Iran.
Iranian news website Digiato, with help from artificial intelligence text analysis service provider Vakavic, has reviewed 1 million tweets posted in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2019) to find the highly trending topics and those with the most followers.
Twitter is officially banned in Iran, but ironically almost all the top Iranian authorities are active on the online news and social networking service.
According to the results published on Digiato, at least 40 million tweets are posted by Iranians annually. On average, 100,000 tweets are published daily by these users.
It is estimated that close to 6 million Iranians are active on the social media platform.
An estimated 2.7 billion cubic meters of water has been released from dams in West Azarbaijan Province, namely Boukan Dam into Urmia Lake since the beginning of the current water year (September), director of the provincial Regional Water Company said Sunday.
"Of the total volume, 1.5 billion cubic meters was released in the past two months following heavy rainfall in the province," Kioumars Daneshjou was quoted as saying by ILNA.
Urmia Lake now holds 5 billion cubic meters of water – up 100% compared to last year when the volume was 2.5 billion cubic meters.
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