Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening left for Washington, where he was scheduled to discuss issues concerning Iran with US President Donald Trump.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening left for Washington, where he was scheduled to discuss issues concerning Iran with US President Donald Trump.
The French foreign minister's scheduled visit to Iran will create a proper platform for further consultations and cooperation between the two countries on bilateral, regional and international issues, says Abolqasem Delfi, Tehran's ambassador in Paris. Jean-Yves Le Drian is due to meet with high-ranking Iranian officials in the capital on Monday, according to the Foreign Ministry.
In an interview with IRNA published on Sunday, the ambassador said the minister's visit would include talks with President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.
"The relationship between Iran and France as two powers in their respective regions is based on an old, historical bond and mutual interests and is at a good level," Delfi noted, adding that direct bilateral contacts have increased since the 2015 nuclear agreement.
A recent US congressional bill calling for broader sanctions on the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps would definitely face Iran's firm parliamentary and diplomatic responses, a lawmaker warned.
The measure was proposed on Thursday by Ed Royce and Eliot Engel, the top Republican and the top Democrat on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee respectively.
It would remove the 50% threshold for IRGC ownership that currently makes companies eligible for sanctions.
The Russian ambassador said stronger relations between Moscow and Tehran would help ease regional tensions. "Expansion of relations between the two countries, in particular parliamentary ties, would in turn strengthen the role the two sides could play in regional and international arenas, eventually paving the way for the reduction of regional tensions," Levan Dzhagaryan was quoted as saying by IRNA on Saturday. The Russian diplomat made the remarks during a meeting with Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian parliament speaker's special aide on international affairs. Amir-Abdollahian called for the two sides' parliaments to improve their relations, describing it as a "necessary move".
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Iran has been open to talks with Europe but dismissed reports that a recent bilateral meeting was focused on Iran's regional role that US President Donald Trump wants to be curbed.
"Despite what has been recently claimed by western media based on their own subjective and desired interpretation, Iran and Europe can hold discussions and consultations—not necessarily negotiations in the political and legal sense of the word—on various bilateral and international issues in line with the Islamic Republic's principled, wise policy," Bahram Qasemi said.
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, which has been assigned the task of tackling commodity smuggling in the Persian Gulf, will support the administration in the broader war on smuggling, the IRGC spokesperson said.
Following the meddlesome stance adopted by France on Iran's military and missile power, a senior official said the Islamic Republic's defense program is none of foreigners' business.
Close to 1.8 billion kilowatt hours of electricity have been generated from renewable sources since June 2009. According to state-owned Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Organization, aka Satba, this electricity has helped the country save 412 million liters of water in the last nine years, of which 13 million liters were saved between Nov. 22 and Dec. 21, 2017, ILNA reported on Sunday. Thermal plants turn water into steam and spin a steam turbine to produce more than 80% of Iran's installed power capacity of about 77,000 megawatts. The share of renewables stands at a meager 458 MW, yet 597 MW of new renewable power capacity are being developed. Satba noted that between Nov. 22 and Dec. 21, 2017, the country curbed its greenhouse emissions by 41,000 tons. According to the report, the electricity generated since 2009 has helped the country save as much as 531 million cubic meters of fossil fuels, which are the main cause of air pollution.
All commitments on supplies and transit of Russian gas to the European Union are being implemented in full, European Commission spokesperson, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, told TASS on Saturday.
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The oil and gas industry regulator has raised its forecast of what can be recovered from the waters around the UK over the next three decades.
The application of modern enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and improved oil recovery (IOR) techniques are crucial to help the industry increase its extraction rate, research and technology director of the National Iranian Oil Company said.
"The current oil market entails us to shore up average oil recovery rate … A significant approach to reach the goal is the implementation of modern EOR and IOR methods in oilfields, which has been on NIOC's agenda for years," Mohammad Ali Emadi was also quoted as saying by Shana on Saturday.
The official was addressing a conference on "challenges and solutions to boost oil recovery" on the sidelines of the Second Iran International Exploration and Production Congress and Exhibition held in Tehran.
"Lack of clear approaches has hampered the drive to reach the envisaged target, which requires the responsible bodies to adopt efficient methods," Emadi added.
A delegation from the National Iranian Drilling Company and Iraqi Drilling Company's officials explored grounds for increasing cooperation in oil and gas drilling activities.
According to NIDC's website, the two sides met in Basra on Saturday and called for increasing cooperation.
"NIDC is pursuing two major targets in the neighboring country, namely cooperation in oil and gas drilling projects and sharing expertise," NIDC Managing Director Sepehr Sepehri said, the National Iranian Oil Company's news portal reported.
The official noted that "if the grounds are prepared, NIDC will also devise training courses, including the international well control forums for Iraqi experts".
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh underlined on Saturday the importance of competitiveness and research in the oil industry’s development.
“With competition and research, products should be manufactured at lower price and higher quality,” he was also quoted as saying by Shana, the Oil Ministry’s news agency.
Referring to some brands, such as Nokia, that have lagged behind in the global market’s rivalry, Zanganeh noted that “serious and ruthless” competition is the development’s engine.
The latest report by World Economic Forum titled “The Global Competitiveness Report 2017–18” shows Iran’s Global Competitiveness Index has moved up by seven notches.
As a result, the country now ranks 69th out of the 137 countries surveyed. Iran’s rankings in 2014, 2015 and 2016 were 83rd, 74th and 76th respectively.
Trade between Iran and France exceeded €3.69 billion in 2017, registering a 79.64% surge compared with 2016. This makes the country Iran’s second biggest trade partner from among the 28 member states of the European Union over the period after Italy.
Iran exported more than €2.28 billion worth of commodities to France last year, indicating a 67.62% increase year-on-year, based on the latest Eurostat figures reviewed by the Financial Tribune.
The exports mainly included mineral fuels, mineral oils...
Out of the 22.67 million employees in Iran in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2017), 97.6% were Iranian and around 2.4% were foreign nationals living in Iran.
The total population of Iran last year stood at 79,926,270, of which 97.8% were Iranians and the rest amounting to 1,759,448 people were foreigners, Fars News Agency reported.
A cargo train from Russia loaded with 330 tons of wood worth around $132,000 arrived in Iran’s northern border city of Astara on Saturday, the governor of the city, Younes Ranjkesh, said.
“The train traversed over 4,300 kilometers to reach Astara where it unloaded its cargo at the dock,” he was quoted as saying.
This is the second such train to take the route.
A delegation of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture will accompany Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a visit to Pakistan from March 11 to 14.
A business forum as well as a set of bilateral meetings have been planned during the visit of the Iranian mission to Islamabad and Karachi. ICCIMA’s news portal has called on interested economic players from the Iranian private sector to register with the chamber, ahead of the visits.
Last Iranian year’s (March 2016-17) data show Iran exported more than $795 million and imported around $365 million worth of commodities to and from Pakistan.
Iran exported over $400 million worth of commodities to Turkmenistan and imported $600 million in return during the 11 months to Feb. 19.
The statement was made by the commercial attaché of Iranian Embassy in Ashgabat, Rahmatollah Khormali, during the closing ceremony of the 14th Iran Exclusive Exhibition in Turkmenistan’s capital on Saturday.
The three-day exhibition was attended by over 60 Iranian companies in the fields of construction, oil & gas, petrochemicals, technical and engineering services, food, irrigation systems and agriculture.
Iran’s Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari visited Ashgabat on the occasion of the expo and attended the Iran-Turkmenistan Business Forum, which was held on Friday at Turkmenistan’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
More than 8.1 million tons of sugarbeet have been produced in Iran so far this year, of which 1.95 million tons of sugar have been extracted, the manager of Sugar Beet Project carried out by the Agriculture Ministry said. “We have achieved 84% self sufficiency in sugar production this year. With the launch of new sugar factories within the next two to three years, we will become totally self-reliant in this respect,” Alireza Yazdani was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency. Some 1.65 million tons of sugar were produced in Iran last year (March 2016-17), which are unprecedented in the past 120 years. A ceremony was held at the headquarters of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture in Tehran last July to celebrate the record high production, which met 75% of the domestic demand that year.
Trade between Iran and Sweden stood at over €456.77 million in 2017, registering an 86.15% rise compared with 2016.
This makes the country Iran’s ninth biggest trade partner from among the 28 member states of the European Union over the period after Italy, France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Greece, Belgium and Romania.
Bank Melli Iran and Iran Khodro Diesel are planning to undertake two of the capital market’s final and sizable block sales in the current fiscal year (March 21, 2017-18).
BMI seeks to sell a 70.68% stake in its investment arm, Tosee Melli Group Investment Company, on Tehran Stock Exchange’s First Market on March 18, according to TSE’s Saturday announcement.
The sale includes 16.25 million shares with a base price of 3,701 rials (about 8 cents). At least 30% of the sale figure must be paid in cash, with the rest offered in installments.
Bank Melli is the first national Iranian bank established in 1927 on the order of the Iranian Majlis (Parliament) and since then has consistently been one of the most influential Iranian banks.
Since the launch of the gold coin presale by the Central Bank of Iran on Feb. 17 to cool the market, some 600,000 coins worth 8 trillion rials($175 million) have been sold, the head of Banknote and Coin Issuance Department at CBI announced.
As part of its recent measures to stop the forex rally, CBI has issued one- and two-year certificates of deposit based on rial, but with a value linked to the euro or dollar, and has been offering gold coins with six-month and one-year maturities at fixed and preferential rates.
Masoud Rahimi was also quoted as saying by ISNA that the coins have sold at the price of 13 million rials ($291) for one-year maturity and 14 million rials ($313) for six-month maturity. He predicted that as the deadline for the sale of 20%-yield certificates of deposits comes to an end, demand for gold coins would increase.
The Central Bank of Iran has prepared a set of policies for the monetary and foreign exchange markets, which will act as a blueprint for regulating these markets, the bank's deputy governor announced on Sunday.
Akbar Komijani also told reporters on the sidelines of CBI's annual general meeting that the policy package consists of 19 sections and encompasses the entire set of monetary and foreign exchange policies, IBENA reported.
The announcement comes in the wake of recent volatility that shook the forex market and saw rial sink to record lows against the US dollar. Analysts attribute the occasional currency disturbances to a lack of clear monetary policy.
The Central Bank of Iran’s next regulatory framework document for fintechs dealing with personal finance and account information management will be publicly disclosed early next fiscal year that begin on March 21, the deputy for development and supervision at Shaparak announced. “All companies that have wallets will be subject to this document,” Mohammad Reza Roshanzadeh was also quoted as saying by IBENA at a FinTalk event on Sunday.
The 57th annual general meeting of the Central Bank of Iran was chaired by President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday, at which the president spoke of economic achievements during his tenure and what is to come in the next fiscal year (starting March 21).
“Based on economic indicators, the collective economic policies of the government and the central bank have been successful in the past four years until the end of the 11th administration [marking the end his first term in August 201]),” Rouhani was quoted as saying by the website of the central bank.
The president referred to the achievement of lowering runaway inflation rate of over 40% to single-digit levels as a great achievement and said the general rate for the current fiscal year will remain in the same territory.
Germany’s Stiftung Bildung and Handwerk (Education and Craft Foundation) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Technical and Vocational Training Organization and Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture on Saturday. Based on the MoU, Iranian educators and teachers of vocational schools will be trained by German experts in the field. Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development will finance the project and the Iranian side will provide the facilities and required personnel, ICCIMA’s news portal reported. The MoU stipulates that SBH will transfer its dual education system methods to the Iranian side over three years to encourage Iranian industries and private sector to train their workforce.
The government successfully sold its shares in Alborz Insurance Company on Saturday to a consortium made up of pension funds and an investment company.
A total of 693.6 million shares, constituting a 17.14% stake, were offered by Iranian Privatization Organization on behalf of the government with a base price of 1,275 rials (about 3 cents) per share, 30% of which were to be paid in cash and the rest in four-year installments.
The consortium, made up of Civil Servants Pension Fund, Agricultural, Rural and Nomadic Pension Fund, and Social Security Investment Company, purchased the stake at a rate of 1,301 rials per share and increased its total stake in Alborz Insurance Company to 51.27%.
The two funds and SSCI already had a 33.93% stake in the insurer, Bourse 24 reported.
The number of Iranian art galleries has been rising in recent years, a member of the Faculty of Art and Architecture of Islamic Azad University said.
In an exclusive interview with Financial Tribune, Vahid Sheykhian added that this is mainly because of two reasons.
“One is rooted in the growing focus on art galleries’ business and financial aspects, i.e. buying and selling artworks. The other is that quantity has overcome quality and the number of permits issued daily for the establishment and operation of art galleries is increasing. The artistic value is not appreciated like they used to be,” he added.
In Iran, the Visual Arts Office at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is in charge of issuing permits for art galleries.
Close to 79.2 million tons of commodities were loaded and unloaded in Hormozgan Province’s Shahid Rajaee Port during the first 11 months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2017-Feb. 19), showing an 8% increase compared with the similar period of last year, the director general of Hormozgan Ports and maritime Organization said.
“Nearly 54.3 million tons of the total sum were non-oil and 24.9 million were oil products, the loading and unloading of which registered an 11% and 3% growth respectively year-on-year,” Allah-Morad Afifipour was also quoted as saying by the news portal of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.
The official added that 35.23 million tons of non-oil products were exported from Shahid Rajaee Port over the period, indicating an 8% increase YOY.
Imports into the port amounted to 8.92 million tons.
Tehran Stock Exchange’s main index lost 34.39 points or 0.04% to end Sunday trade at 97,354.3.
About 1.36 billion shares valued at $58.78 million changed hands at TSE for the day.
Trading at TSE and Iran Fara Bourse starts on Saturday and ends on Wednesday.
Shirin Sugar Factory was the biggest riser, going up 4.93% to 29,100 rials per share.
Hafez Tile Company incurred the biggest loss among all TSE-listed companies, as it went down 4.98% to 3,113 rials per share.
Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines Company gave the biggest boost to the benchmark index, followed by Parsian Oil and Gas Development Group and Ghadir Investment Company.
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In recent months, the number of cellphones entering Iran through legal channels has more than doubled.
There has been a 160% year-on-year increase in the number of handsets entering the country during March-December 2017, an official at Iran’s Headquarters for Combating the Smuggling of Commodities and Foreign Exchange was quoted as saying by IRIB News.
Hamid Reza Dehqaninia added that the introduction of the Registry Scheme is responsible for the sudden increase in imports, as it disconnects contraband phones from the local mobile operators’ network and therefore renders smugglers powerless.
Aimed at curbing cellphone smuggling, the Telecoms Ministry, Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, the Communications Regulatory Authority and the Industries Ministry introduced the Mobile Registry Scheme that bars local operators from offering services to contraband phones.
Mobile phones are now the 15th biggest Iran import, as 2.6 million cellphones worth $419 million have been brought into the country in the past 11 months.
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The latest statistics on Iran's inbound and outbound travelers during the nine months since the start of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2017) indicate that the balance between the two figures is swinging further in favor of outgoing travel.
Close to 8.5 million Iranians left the country for foreign destinations during the period, of which over 4.5 million were pilgrims and about 3.8 million were non-religious travelers.
The figure registers about 15.5% increase compared with the same period of last year with ...
Hotel room rental fees will not see an increase until September 2018, the head of Iranian Hoteliers Association said.
According to Jamshid Hamzehzadeh, not only will not accommodation prices go up until the end of the upcoming summer but also hotels in a number of provinces are expected to offer significant discounts on booking fees, ISNA reported.
Based on the recent amendments to hotel pricing policies, hotels are allowed to raise booking fees only once a year in mid-September, the official noted.
Hundreds of flights were canceled on Saturday in the US as a storm dubbed as potent nor'easter disrupted air travel in the Northeast for a second consecutive day.
Nationwide, 585 flights had been canceled and another 1,350 delayed, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. Fliers faced flight disruptions Saturday at hubs like Boston, New York and Philadelphia, USA Today reported.
But the problems were a far cry from the problems a day earlier. On Friday, airlines canceled a whopping 3,423 flights in the United States and more than 4,700 of those that did fly were late.
Combined, nearly 4,000 flights have been canceled in the US since the storm began grounding flights on Friday.
Iran's flag carrier IranAir transferred over 400,000 passengers during the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2017), which shows a 7% growth compared to the previous year, an official at the airline said.
Speaking at the anniversary of the airline, held at Mehrabad International Airport on Friday, Mohammad Reza Ranjbar, director of an IranAir regional office, said 40% of the passengers were carried by the new aircrafts purchased following the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions.
One of the saltmen discovered in the Chehrabad salt mines of Zanjan Province was inscribed on the National Heritage List following a meeting at the headquarters of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization on Saturday.
A number of bodies were discovered in 2004 during the first phase of excavations at the site. Dating back 2,300 years, the bodies have been well-preserved due to the effects of salt and later referred to as saltmen.
The inscribed saltman was the fourth and the most intact discovered body and is now kept at Zolfaqari Museum of Zanjan.
Etihad Airways, a flag carrier and the second-largest airline of the UAE, has launched its first scheduled flights between Abu Dhabi and the Azerbaijani capital Baku, the airline announced on Saturday.
Laleh Art Gallery is hosting the ‘Seventh Expo of Generations of Iranian Contemporary Artists’.
The gallery has hosted earlier editions of the exhibit and over the years seen an improvement in both quality and quantity of the featured works, Mehr News Agency reported.
The expo is displaying 200 visual arts by 76 artists. The works include paintings, print arts, drawings and photography all created with a modern approach.
Ceramic artist Azadeh Shooli has set up an exhibition of ‘1001 Plates’ at Surface Art Space of Hadish Mall.
The venue is located on Mousavi Street near Heravi Square. On display are underglaze plates created by a number of known as well as amateur artists.
Revenues of the event will go to the Tehran-based charity institute of Sobh-Rouyesh that hosts labor children in special schools.
Painter Siavash Talaei is holding an exhibition of his statuesque paintings in O Gallery in Tehran. On display are nine artworks created using acrylic on primed canvas that helps hide the brushstrokes. The use of muted palette also helps the depicted figures look as if they have been carved from stone. “Many mistake my works for statues,” Honaronline reported Talaei as saying. The works depict fictional figures.
‘Mirror’, a theatrical work produced in collaboration between Iranian theater company Zendegi and France, went on stage for three nights at the theater of the University of Lyon.
The piece, directed by Jafar Mahyari, the head of Zendegi Company, is about a couple who are running a company. The many disagreements they have at work bring about a tragic end for both, Honaronline.com reported.
On stage from March 1-3, the cast features Razieh Alipour, Andre Cortes, Sahar Qaderi-Moqaddam, Claire Varichon, Arash Masoudi, Lilia Melle, Camilla Espoinosa and Leila Reveret.
Portrait of Saskia sitting in an armchair, painted by Rembrandt, is among the 56-item collection borrowed from the Louvre Museum that are to go on show at an exhibition in Iran National Museum in downtown Tehran from March 5.
The painting is the portrait of Rembrandt’s wife Saskia and is drawn wholly in red lines. During her short life, Saskia served as the muse for many of Rembrandt’s works, ISNA reported.
Considered the greatest painter in European Art, Rembrandt (1606-69) was a Dutch painter and etcher of the Dutch Golden Age.
Works and thoughts of Albanian poet and writer Naim Frasheri (1846-1900) is the topic of a meeting scheduled for Monday at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran.
Starting at 9 a.m. at the university, the meeting is the first round of Iran-Balkan Cultural Discourse, organized by Culture Ministry’s Islamic Culture and Relations Organization in collaboration with the varsity, ISNA reported.
Former president of Albania, Rajab Maydani, the head of ICRO, Abouzar Ebrahimi-Torkaman, members from the Science Academy of Albania and other scholars are expected to attend the event.
Topics associated with cultural dialogues between Iran and the Balkans, as well as thoughts of Frasheri, will be discussed at the meeting.
Sotheby’s released its fourth-quarter and 2017 overall earnings on March 2. The auctioneer notched up $5.5 billion in consolidated sales last year, up 12% from 2016.
The Second Malaysia International Film Festival & Malaysia Golden Global Awards, held on Feb. 25-March 3, granted its award for best leading actor to Iranian actor Hamed Behdad for his role in ‘Blockage’.
The film was also nominated in five other categories for best direction (Mohsen Qaraei), best script (Saeed Roustaei), best film, best supporting actress (Giti Qasemi) and best supporting actor (Nader Fallah), ISNA reported.
‘Blockage’ narrates the story of Qasem, a temporary worker at Tehran Municipality, who cracks down on illegal street vendors in Tehran. His temper tantrums always invite trouble. Once he is caught extorting money from some stall owners, which spoils his prospects of renewing his work contract.
A series of calligraphic paintings by Hamedeh Mashiyati are on view at Vali Art Gallery.
Running through March 11, the exhibition features a series of abstract calligraphies with deep intergalactic spaces in the background, Honaronline reported.
With his works, Mashiyati is trying to convey the concepts of infinity and the unending cycle of life.
“My works reflect the dark distortions of my unconscious mind. They are painted in a quest for light and self-knowledge,” she said in a statement.
Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) voted decisively for another coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives on Sunday, clearing the way for a new government in Europe’s largest economy after months of political uncertainty. Two-thirds of the membership voted “yes” to the deal—a wider margin than many had expected—meaning Merkel could be sworn in for a fourth term as early as the middle of the month in a repeat of the grand coalition that has governed since 2013, Reuters reported.
Congratulating the SPD for its “clear result”, Merkel said using her CDU party's Twitter account that she was looking forward to “further cooperation for the good of our country”.
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Total SA bought Marathon Oil Corp’s assets in Libya for $450 million, a rare expansion in the war-torn North African nation by a major international company, Bloomberg reported.
The Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a statement that the country’s trade deficit fell by 11% year-on-year in January.
Ministers from 16 East Asian countries negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership made progress at a meeting in Singapore Saturday but many gaps remain.
Donald Trump’s debt-fuelled spending and tax cut plans are a growing risk to the US and world economies, as a short-term boost threatens to turn into a bust next year.
The Finnish economy is gaining momentum after a long period of sluggish performance, driven by a strong revival in exports and renewed competitiveness. Further reforms will be needed to boost employment, stabilize public finances and ensure that high levels of well-being are maintained for future generations, according to a new report from the OECD.
From cloud computing to artificial intelligence, technology is beginning to revolutionize how the world economy functions. But while these shifts are enriching many in the advanced economies, the developing world is at risk of being left behind.
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