The US needs to exercise “maximum restraint” to avoid escalating its dispute with Iran over the nuclear deal, EU foreign ministers in Brussels told US Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo on Monday.
The US needs to exercise “maximum restraint” to avoid escalating its dispute with Iran over the nuclear deal, EU foreign ministers in Brussels told US Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo on Monday.
Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif held talks with his Indian counterpart, Sushma Swaraj, in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss ways of preserving mutual trade relations as well as other areas of shared interest.
Zarif described the meeting as useful, saying such dialogue would certainly be helpful in sustaining the Asian countries' ties.
The two sides discussed a range of subjects, including trade and energy relations, Chabahar Port, Afghan security issues and the latest developments with regard to Iran's 2015 nuclear deal that was violated by the United States last year.
"Trade between Iran and India stands at a high level at present and the two countries are trying to sustain it," Zarif told reporters after the meeting.
Chinese Foreign Ministry's Special Envoy on Afghan Affairs Deng Xijun met with Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi in Tehran on Monday to discuss Afghanistan's peace efforts.
Tehran wastewater network development is making reasonable progress (77%) and is planned to be launched by 2021, the technical and engineering deputy manager of the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company (Abfa) said Monday.
"Close to 7,000 kilometers of pipelines have been laid in and around Tehran to connect the network to wastewater plants under construction in the south and west of the city," the Persian-language economic newspaper Donya-e-Eqtesad quoted Alireza Sadatifard as saying.
Expansion of wastewater network has been a priority, but lack of funds plus rapid expansion of urban areas has slowed the process.
Russia’s crude oil production averaged 11.16 million bpd in the first twelve days of May, Oil Price reported on Tuesday, citing two industry sources, which means that Moscow is finally within its cap under the OPEC+ deal.
Oil production capacity could fall to under one percent of global oil demand by the end of the year if OPEC compensates falling production from Iran and Venezuela, leaving oil prices exposed to sharp swings in the event of unplanned outages, analysts say.
Iraq will remain dependent on Iran for power at least for the next three years, IRNA quoted the country's Electricity Minister Luay al-Khatteeb as saying on Monday.
Close to 4 gigawatts (roughly one-third of Iraqi consumption) comes directly/indirectly from Iran -- either in the form of direct electricity export or through natural gas supplies that provide feedstock for Iraqi power stations, Khatteeb said.
"As for now this has no alternative in terms of price, volume and delivery.”
Four dams supplying Tehran, namely Taleqan, Latyan, Mamlou and Karaj, are either full or on the verge of overflow, and only one has less water, Seyed Hassan Razavi, managing director of Tehran Regional Water Company said.
Heavy rainfall since the start of the current water year, last September, which reached record levels in the past two months plus melting of snow in the catchment area of the dams, have increased the water in dams to levels unseen in decades.
Tehran dams together can hold 1.93 billion cubic meters of water. With the recent rains and floodwaters entering the huge structures, there is now 1,000 mcm of water stored in the five dams. This volume is up 34% compared to 660 mcm last year.
Iran imported 26.7 million tons of intermediate goods worth $27.4 billion in the last Iranian year that ended on March 20, 2019, according to the latest report of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
Intermediate goods accounted for 83.3% and 64.3% of all Iranian imports during the same year in terms of weight and value respectively.
Intermediate goods constituted 77% of all imports in terms of tonnage and 60% in terms of value during the Iranian year that ended in March 2018.
Each ton of intermediate goods was valued at $1,026 last year, indicating a year-on-year decline of 16.61% in terms of weight.
Iran traded 2.17 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $776.04 million with the member states of African states in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2019) to register a 21.93% and 26.26% decline 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 2.08 million tons worth $642.94 million during the year, indicating a 20.88% and 17.05% decline in tonnage and value respectively year-on-year.
Imports stood at 90,384 tons worth $133.09 million, down 40.25% and 52.01% in tonnage and value respectively YOY.
The government earned 1,090 trillion rials ($7.26 billion) in tax revenues during the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2019).
Caretaker of the Iranian National Tax Administration Mohammad Qasem Panahi said the earnings had been estimated to stand at 1,130 trillion rials ($7.53 billion) as per the fiscal 2018-19 budget law, suggesting that INTA met 97% of the target, ILNA reported.
The government’s tax revenues consist of returns from direct and indirect taxation. Direct tax revenues, including “tax on legal entities”, “income tax” and “wealth tax”, stood at 640 trillion rials ($4.26 billion) during the period to register an increase of 15% compared with the year before.
Iran is estimated to have produced 2.8 million tons of barley during the fiscal 2018-19 (US local marketing year) to indicate a 9.67% decrease compared with the year before, the United States Department of Agriculture's latest report shows.
In a report analyzing drawbacks of the allocation of subsidized currency to import essential goods, the Majlis Research Center says the policy is inefficient and a new mechanism is needed to support the low-income strata.
Drawing parallels between the inflation rate at the end of 2017-18 and the month to February 20, using the Consumer Price Index, it said the CPI for essential goods shot up over 53%. This is while the figure for non-essential goods jumped 85%.
In a rather sarcastic manner, the influential think tank says, this “achievement has come at the expense of spending over $14 billion on importing essential goods” at a time when the country is facing chronic shortages of foreign currency due to the new US sanctions.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran criticized European governments for the procrastination over launching the trade mechanism know as Instrument in Support of Trade Exchange (INSTEX).
In an Instagram post late Monday, Abdolnasser Hemmati censured European officials repeating old and tiring statements like “[we] are trying to launch the mechanism,” calling the remarks “lip service and “threadbare.”
France, Germany and the United Kingdom (E3), party to the landmark Iran nuclear deal, announced in February the creation of a financial mechanism for non-dollar trade with Iran.
INSTEX is aimed at facilitating trade with Iran by circumventing sanctions re-imposed by the United States after President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal a year ago.
The Communications Regulatory Authority said on Monday that it has blocked close to 127,000 phone numbers of advertisement senders since November 2017 to curb annoying and unwarranted text messages.
CRA's website (Cra.ir) shows that the fight against ad senders is still underway and 126,894 SIM cards have so far been blocked for bombarding people with advertising text messages.
Six marine technology startups are to receive support from the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology to expand the sector through smart solutions.
The establishment of science and technology parks and innovation factories has gained momentum across Iran.
Tehran University of Medical Sciences has announced plans to establish a tech park in District 9, southwest of the capital.
“In collaboration with the Vice Presidential Office for Science and Technology, the tech park will be implemented over 8 hectares in Tehran’s Yaftabad neighborhood,” Abbasali Karimi, dean of the university, said.
According to the university's website Tums.ac.ir, during a meeting held at the university on Saturday, Karimi announced that preliminary studies are underway and a map is being designed for the tech park.
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