President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday said Iran’s vaccination drive will pick up speed starting this week and could reach half a million inoculations per day.
President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday said Iran’s vaccination drive will pick up speed starting this week and could reach half a million inoculations per day.
Iran’s envoy to the United Nations described the US illegal and inhumane sanctions targeting the country as means of endangering the Iranian nation’s health to achieve political goals.
Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi is planning to visit Iran to build ties with its new government led by a conservative, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
The lack of comprehensive studies on cross-border water resources is striking, secretary for economic and financial affairs in the National Committee of Big Dams said.
“The Energy Ministry has recently embarked on extensive research projects into trans-boundary rivers but there is still a long way to go to cover all shared water resources,” Mohammad Ebrahim Raeisi was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
Tehran needs to pursue a more robust water diplomacy at the regional and international level, he added.
Lack of such a strategy can explain why Iran’s share of transboundary water is reducing.
Karkheh and Dez dams in Khuzestan Province, which overflowed two years ago due to torrential and unprecedented rainfall, are now about half empty and considering the sizzling summer temperatures in the southwestern province and high water consumption, the two dams may have difficulty supplying water for drinking, agriculture and power generation purposes.
The decline in precipitation in the current water year (started September 2020) has worsened the drought the country has been grappling with for years, which consequently caused water stress, ISNA reported.
With the rise of temperature and water consumption, the condition of the Karkheh and Dez dams’ reserves has deteriorated.
Iran-Syria Chamber of Commerce, affiliated with Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, is going to send business delegations to Damascus for holding talks on export of Iranian cement to Syria.
The delegation will be holding B2B meetings with their Syrian counterparts and take part in an international conference in Damascus, ICCIMA reported on its news portal.
The Iranian delegations include cement producers and suppliers of raw materials and reconstruction services of cement production line.
The delegations are scheduled to visit Syria from July 26 to 28.
Malls and recreation centers have been ordered to close at 6 p.m. until August 22 to economize on power consumption, the spokesman of Iran Power Generation, Distribution and Transmission Company (also known as Tavanir).
The Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization has released a report on the sales of 74 heavyweight Tehran Stock Exchange-listed mining and mineral companies.
According to the report, the aggregate sales volume of the firms under review stood at 1,352 trillion rials ($5.4 billion) during the first three months of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 21) to register a 160% growth compared with the previous year’s corresponding period.
Their sales volume stood at 552.5 trillion rials ($2.21 billion) during the third month of the year (May 22-June 21) to register a 185% rise compared with the corresponding period of the year before and a 20% increase compared with the previous month.
Mobarakeh Steel Company registered the highest sales volume among the firms under review during the three-month period with 336.6 trillion rials ($1.3 billion), up 166% year-on-year.
The average goods and services Consumer Price Index of “clothing and shoes” in the 12-month period ending June 21, which marks the end of the third Iranian month of fiscal 2021-22, increased by 45.8% compared with last year’s corresponding period.
With a coefficient of 4.78%, the CPI of “clothing and shoes” stood at 371.5 in the month to June 21, indicating a 4.2% increase compared with the month before.
The “clothing and shoes” index registered a year-on-year increase of 57.5% during the month under review.
Trade between Iran and Afghanistan through Abu Nasr Farahi customs terminal, known as Mahirood on the Iranian side of the border, as well as Islam Qala terminal, known as Dogharoun on the Iranian side, in Afghanistan’s Farah and Herat provinces respectively has halted after the Taliban seized control of these two checkpoints on Thursday, according to the spokesperson of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
“We ask traders to avoid Dogharoun and Mahiroud border crossings until further notice,” Rouhollah Latifi was also quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
“There are no Afghan customs personnel working in these two checkpoints so there is no point in sending consignments to these borders,” he added.
Drought and lower-than-average precipitation levels have inflicted losses amounting to 2.22 trillion rials ($8.7 million) on Qom Province’s agriculture sector so far this year (stared March 21), the head of the province’s Crisis Mitigation and Agricultural Disaster Reduction Bureau said.
With the inauguration of Alborz Tunnel along Tehran-North Freeway’s Section-II within a month, travel time between the capital city Tehran and northern provinces will be cut by 45 minutes, a deputy minister of roads and urban development said.
“The tunnel is 6.5 kilometers long and has presently made 95% progress. Along with the tunnel, 2.5 kilometers of roads on both sides of the tunnel will also be launched and a total of 9 kilometers of Tehran-North Freeway will be inaugurated within a month,” Kheirollah Khademi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
The official noted that Alborz Tunnel is the longest in West Asia.
A shipment of 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines arrived at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport on July 10.
The Central Bank of Iran issued an update Saturday on interbank lending rates indicating that the rates are of the declining order.
It said the rate now is 17.95% down from 18.12% registered almost a week ago. The rate dropped by 1.65 percentage points in less than six weeks, from 19.6% on May 20.
Interbank rates fluctuated between 19.56-19.9% from mid-February to mid-May, according to CBI data.
If the trend continues, the downward slope is good news for the stock market as it could render investment in stocks more rewarding for banks and credit institutions. It also can weaken the possibility that the CBI may push up bank deposit rates to attract people’s savings into banks to control the high and rising inflation.
Top economic officials from South Korea and the United States reached agreement over cooperating on the issue of Iran's funds frozen in Seoul, the South Korean Finance Ministry said.
Tehran Stocks opened trading week Saturday under renewed sell-side pressure in most large listed companies while penny stocks traded moderately.
The market-cap weighted benchmark of Tehran Stock Exchange, TEDPIX, lost 11,308.84 points or 0.88% for the day to retreat to 1,270,727.
Sell-off in giant commodity, investment, bank and auto companies pulled down the TSE-30 Index by 1.55%. The index tracks the performance of top 30 TSE-listed companies in terms of market cap.
The TSE’s equal-weighted index closed near the flatline at 0.03% as early hour sell side pressure on small caps eased in the final moments of session.
As per the new tax rules, value added tax on gold trade will be levied only on services, profit and fees, the vice president of Tehran Gold and Jewelry Union said.
According to Mohammad Kashti-Aray, the original value of gold will no longer be taxable. The guild official hailed the decision that was long demanded by the jewelers, IRNA reported.
Jewelers for long had said that VAT should be levied only on fees they charge for “making the jewelry”. Observers say the competitive edge of domestic gold and jewelry producers was undermined under the previous VAT system.
As per law, jewelers charge 9% VAT on sales. One gram of 18-karat gold in the local market Saturday was worth 10.62 million rials, according to the TGJU website.
Urban managers in the capital city of Tehran are building bike paths around the city to embrace the growing trend of citizens opting for cycling as a clean, healthy and safe mode of transportation.
Kambiz Mostafapour, the mayor of Tehran’s District 14, said 19 kilometers of cycling paths will soon be ready in the southeastern part of the metropolis, SNN reported.
“Around 11 kilometers of the trail have already been built and the project will come on stream once the final 8 km are completed,” he said.
“Connecting the district’s roads, sidewalks, walkways and parks, the cycling paths conform to road and traffic standards.”
Mostafapour noted that to make an integrated biking network throughout the city, the new routes will be connected to the adjacent districts 12, 13 and 15, through Basij and Mahallati highways as well as Abouzar Boulevard.
Yaqoub Azadehdel, the head of Clean Transportation Development Office at Tehran Municipality, earlier said the number of bikers has been increasing since the coronavirus outbreak in Iran in February 2020.
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