IRAN: PAKISTAN RESUMES ORANGE EXPORTS TO IRAN
(InfoProd)According to Tehran Times, Pakistan has formally resumed kino (orange) export to Iran after over 26 years. A chartered vessel, carrying 50 containers with 1,000 tons of cargo booked by three exporters, left Karachi Port for Bandar Bushehr seaport. The export was resumed following the signing of a protocol between Pakistan and Iran few months back. The daily pointed out that Pakistan used to be major exporter of kino to Iran over two decades ago. This development could be seen in the context of Pakistan-Iran pledge to increase bilateral trade to U.S. one billion dollars. Presently, the trade volume is over $700 million.
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Turkey Denies Cooperation with US Against Iran
Cihan News Agency 26/12/2005 07:15
Turkey has ruled out any cooperation with the United State against Iran.
Turkey Denies Cooperation with US Against Iran
Cihan News Agency 26/12/2005 07:15
Turkey has ruled out any cooperation with the United State against Iran.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Saturday dismissed the reports that the US had offered the PKK terror organization in return for Iran.
German news agency (DPP) had claimed on Friday that CIA director Peter Goss requested support from Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Ankara last week for an aerial attack to Iran's nuclear plants.
Gul said that the top level visits from the US to Turkey were not related to third countries including Iran and Syria.
"Those claims are pure imagination," Foreign Minister Gul told the reporters on Saturday in the city of Bursa.
The DPP had claimed in the news that Goss, in return for Turkey's support, promised that Turkey could hold raids against PKK camps in Iran, by letting Ankara know that the US offensive to begin in a few hours on the same day.
Turkey has long strategic relations with USA; however, the relations between Turkey and neighboring Iran have also improved in remarkable ways in recent years following reciprocal trust boosting steps.
http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=15523
Half of Rhum gas field in UK belongs to Iran
Archived Picture - Iran and the United Kingdom have already started a joint venture project in the largest offshore gas field of Rhum in the North Sea for production and export of gas, deputy minister of Oil in International Affairs Seyyed Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian said.
LONDON, December 25 (IranMania) - Iran and the United Kingdom have already started a joint venture project in the largest offshore gas field of Rhum in the North Sea for production and export of gas, deputy minister of Oil in International Affairs Seyyed Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian said.
According to MNA, the NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) holds 50% of the share in this 350 mlnpounds venture and it is expected that by drilling two new wells the production to increase by 170 mlncubic ft. from the current 130.
Moreover, the methods used in this project by the assistance of Iranian experts are of considerable technical complexities due to high pressure and temperature of the field.
Rhum Gas Field, discovered in 1977, is 109 meters deep below the sea and is located 240 miles offshore from northeast of Aberdeen.
http://story.irishsun.com/p.x/ct/9/i...65b944045da4a/
Ahmadinejad invited to Tajikistan
Tehran, Dec 25 - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan should further strengthen their cultural bonds given that Farsi is the common language spoken in the three states.
The transportation networks among the three Persian-speaking countries would strengthen their cultural bounds and bring about economic growth, he noted in meeting with President of Tajikistan's Assembly of Representatives Saidullo Khairullayev.
The Tajik official, heading a parliamentary delegation, arrived in Tehran on Saturday on a six-day visit. Ahmadinejad added that the presidents of Iran, Tajikistan and Afghanistan are to hold a joint meeting in a near future aimed at preparing the ground for cultural development of the three countries.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes any plan that can expedite development of cultural, economic, political and sport relations among the three countries."
He expressed hope that all the potentials will be utilized to draw up a long-term cooperation plan.
Khairullayev for his part hailed the personality of Iran's president and termed him as a great politician in the world of Islam.
He conveyed the greeting of the Tajik president to his Iranian counterpart, stressing that the government and nation of Tajikistan would not forget the assistance Iran has rendered to them in recent years.
He invited President Ahmadinejad to pay an official visit to Tajikistan. He attached importance to cultural and political ties between Iran and Tajikistan and termed the construction of Anzab Tunnel as well as Sang Toudeh power plant as good examples of extensive cooperation between the two states.
President Ahmadinejad held a meeting with Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York in September. The two presidents also held another meeting on the sidelines of the OIC heads of state summit held in Mecca, Saudi Arabia early December.
http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=204277&n=34
UNCTAD on ship building in Iran
Tehran, Dec 25 - The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said that Iran had recieved 27 ship-building orders by the end of October 2005, thus putting the Islamic republic on top of Middle East ship building list.
The United Arab Emirates and Egypt with 10 and 8 orders ranked second and third in the Middle East.
The UNCTAD announced that South Korea, Japan and China are among the biggest countries in ship-building industry in the world.
http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=204262&n=32
Stand up to Iran
By Abraham Foxman
The widely publicized and condemned remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about Israel and the Holocaust reflect the range of anti-Jewish thinking in the post-Holocaust era.
It has often been said that after 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, it was not respectable to be openly anti-Semitic. Often hatred of Jews manifested itself in hatred of the State of Israel, not merely legitimate critiques of Israeli policy, but denial of Israel's right to exist and seeing the Jewish state as the source of all evil in the Middle East, if not the world. In recent years, however, in some circles there has been more of a willingness to express hatred of the Jews directly, without the mark of anti-Zionism.
The statements by Ahmadinejad in recent weeks reflect the evolution of several of these approaches. Take his words on the Holocaust and its relationship to the State of Israel. They contain within them the mode of anti-Israeli thinking that has existed in the Arab and Islamic world for decades. In their struggle against Israel's very existence, Arabs and Muslims for a long time acknowledged that the Holocaust happened and was a terrible event, but, they asked, why should we Middle Easterners pay the price for what the Europeans did to the Jews? In other words, they saw Israel's existence as an illegitimate imposition on the Arab Middle East by Europeans who felt guilty over the annihilation of the Jews. Of course, this reasoning ignores the fact that the Jewish claim to Israel rests on thousands of years of connection to the land and to the concept of return and not on the Holocaust. Still, this anti-Israel speech did not deny the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad's comments that the Europeans ought to set territory in Europe as a homeland for the Jews follows that long-standing approach.
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At the same time, he brings into play the more recent view of the Holocaust that has grown in Arab and Muslim circles. According to this view, the Holocaust never really happened; it is a myth perpetrated by the Jews in order to gain sympathy and support for a Jewish state. Here Ahmadinejad makes a mockery of the idea that it is only Israel, not Jews, that is the problem. After all, denial of the Holocaust has at its core two anti-Semitic elements. By denying the greatest tragedy of the Jewish people, it demonstrates profound hatred of the Jews even during their most difficult moments. And, it suggests the old and potent anti-Semitic concept - that Jews control the international media and sources of power - for how could this myth of the Holocaust be seen as fact by everyone around the world if not for the notion that Jews manipulate and control sources of communication throughout the world?
The fact that Ahmadinejad's two basic points - that Israel should be wiped out and the Europeans should give territory to the Jews on the one hand, and that the Holocaust never happened on the other hand - are contradictory does not bother him at all. For after all, if the Holocaust never happened, then why should the Europeans owe the Jews anything?
Of course, when dealing with hatred of this kind, looking for logic and consistency is a waste of time. What is apparent and critical is the willingness to elide the line between anti-Israel and anti-Jewish expressions. This trend in parts of the Arab world has been visible for a number of years, where the conflict has devolved from a political-national one to an anti-Semitic one. Ehud Ya'ari, the Israeli commentator, has pointed out that too often the problem is now seen not as Israel being the source of all problems, but Jews and Judaism itself. Both are insidious approaches, but the latter is particularly so. It has one virtue: illuminating the fact that to a large degree the claim of being anti-Zionist and not anti-Semitic has little weight.
The only positive note in all of this is the broad condemnation by the international community of the Iranian president's posture. It is a shame that it takes such extremism to wake up the world if indeed it has awakened, but better late than never. Now the test is whether words of condemnation will be translated into actions - sanctions and isolation - against the regime in Tehran.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/662110.html
Ahmadinejad felicitates Pope on Christmas
Tehran, Dec 25, IRNA
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad felicitated Pope Benedict XVI on the birth anniversary of the Great Prophet Jesus Christ who is the messenger of love, friendship, justice and spirituality.
In a message to the leader of the world's Roman Catholics as well as heads of Christian states, he noted that the present world which is filled with violence, discrimination and injustice is in dire need of guidelines of the divine prophets more than any other time in the history.
He said efforts to revive basic spiritual values of life will definitely lead to justice, equality and dignity for all human beings.
The Iranian president further wished that the new Christian year will bring peace and tranquility to the international community on the basis of justice and spirituality.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line...6484102458.htm
Shalom: Diplomatic Efforts Won’t Stop Iranian Nuclear Program
16:26 Dec 25, '05 / 24 Kislev 5766
(IsraelNN.com) Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, during Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, discussed concerns regarding Iran’s nuclear program.
Shalom stated the European community is continuing diplomatic efforts to halt Iran's nuclear enrichment efforts, and said he does not think the efforts will produce the desired results.
http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=95417
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