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Afghanistan
Faryab Residents Fear Clashes Will Intensify as Spring Nears
2021-02-27
[ToloNews] Faryab residents on Friday said they are concerned about increasing insecurity in the northern province as many districts have witnessed festivities over the last week and that the fighting will intensify on the arrival of the spring season.

Faryab police said seven out of 14 districts of the province have witnessed deadly festivities between the security forces and the Taliban
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
 over the last week.

"People are concerned because the spring season is near and they fear that the festivities will intensify, more people will displace and more people are killed," said Asadullah Jamali, a resident of Faryab.

"Many residents have shifted to the center of the province from other districts, and they are in a bad situation," Faryab resident Rauf Andar said.

A member of the provincial council in Faryab, Mohammad Saeedi, said that hundreds of families have been displaced in the province following the classes.

"The big problem is that the government takes action after an incident happens," Saeedi said. "Sometimes they have information about the Taliban's intention to launch an attack, but they wait and watch so that something happens and then they will take."

Qaisar, Almar, Khwaja Sabz Posh, Shirin Tagab, Dawlat Abad, Pashtun Kot and Gerziwan districts have witnessed attacks by the Taliban on security forces over the last week. Police said casualties were inflicted on both sides.

"At least 17 armed Taliban have been killed in the last week and 24 others were maimed. Many of their group leaders are among those killed and maimed," Faryab police front man Abdul Karim Yurish said.

He said that five security force members were killed and seven more were maimed in the festivities.
Related:
Faryab: 2021-02-18 Taliban Keeps Close Ties with Al-Qaeda: Report
Faryab: 2021-02-17 340 Killed, Wounded in Attacks Since February 1st
Faryab: 2021-02-17 Six Policemen Killed in Taliban Attack in Zabul: Sources
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Watch Iranians Shrine Orgy - Lick and Kiss Shrines to beat Virus
2020-03-01
[OpIndia] A dangerous trend has emerged in Qom, a city near Tehran.
Whatever you wanna do to it, Gromgoru... Gawd can do better.☺
Calamity has struck Iran in the form of the Coronavirus. At least 210 are speculated to have died in the Covid-19 outbreak in the country thus far. The figure is much higher than the official figures provided by the Ministry. Most of the victims are believed to be from Iran's capital, Tehran, and the city of Qom, where cases of Coronavirus first emerged.

Meanwhile, a dangerous trend has emerged in Qom, a city near Tehran. Pro-regime citizens of Qom are visiting religious shrines in Qom and licking them in an apparent effort to prove that there's nothing to be concerned about. "I'm licking this I don't care whatever happens," a man says, "I am not scared of Coronavirus."

While the city of Qom is the epicentre of #CoronaVirus in Iran, authorities refuse to close down religious shrines there.

These pro-regime people are licking the shrines & encouraging people to visit them.

Iran's authorities are endangering lives of Iranians & the world pic.twitter.com/s9o6zYhzNQ

- Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 29, 2020

"There are people who say that this shrine spreads the Coronavirus, I'm here to lick the tomb so that I can fall ill. This way, I have removed the viruses," says another. Crowded gatherings are at the greatest risk of spreading the Coronavirus and as such, shrines could be particularly vulnerable as sites to spread the virus. However, Iran's authorities haven't yet shut them down yet and people licking the shrine are encouraging others to visit it.

Even children are being coerced and encouraged into kissing and licking the shrine.

"Bravo to this young child for licking all the doors. He's kissing it, licking it, He licked all the doors. We’re the ones who will get the virus and our children," a person can be heard saying in the video shared by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and activist. Alinejad has also said that the World Health Organization needs to intervene immediately.

World Health Organisation @WHO needs to intervene urgently.

Videos of pro-regime people urging even their own children to lick the #CoronaVirus infested shrines are surfacing.

Not only is this child abuse, but it’s also helping the virus spread Iran and to other countries. pic.twitter.com/CDDYzSuxMF

- Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) February 29, 2020

The head of the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom, meanwhile, has called upon Iranians to keep coming to the shrine, which could spell disaster for the country and also spread it to other countries. "We consider this holy shrine to be a place of healing. That means people should come here to heal from spiritual and physical diseases," Mohammad Saeedi, who is also the representative of Iran' Supreme Leader in Qom, has said.

Earlier, only a day after Iran's Deputy Health Minister had announced that the government has the Coronavirus outbreak under control, he tested positive for the virus. Vice-President for Women's and Family Affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar, and Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi are among several senior officials who have been infected.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Representative of Khamenei in Qom urges Iranians to visit
2020-02-27
[PUBLISH.TWITTER] More Islam will surely save the nation from the plague.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iranian cleric blames Trump for coronavirus outbreak in Qom
2020-02-24
[JPost] Saeedi claimed that the outbreak was Trump's way of fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites if the Islamic Republic took revenge for the killing of Soleimani.

The Friday Prayer Imam of the religious city of Qom, which has been struck with a coronavirus outbreak that has left 29 infected and six dead, blamed US President Donald Trump on Saturday for targeting the city with the virus in order to "make Qom look like an unsafe city and to take revenge," reported Radio Farda.

"The enemy wants to instill fear in people's hearts, make Qom look like an unsafe city and to take revenge for all its defeats," said Hojjat ol-Eslam Seyyed Mohammad Saeedi, the Friday Prayer Imam and Custodian of the Shrine of Masoumeh. "Trump will die frustrated in his wish to see Qom defeated."

The cleric added that Trump targeted the city because it is a "shelter for the Shi'ites of the world, the center of religious seminaries and the city where Shi'ite sources of emulation live."

Saeedi claimed that the coronavirus outbreak was Trump's way of fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites if the Islamic Republic took revenge for the killing of former IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, according to Radio Farda.

In January, Trump warned in a tweet that if Iran strikes any Americans or American assets, the US had targeted "52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture."
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India-Pakistan
Iran says U.S.-India nuclear deal violates NPT
2008-10-06
Deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Saeedi on Sunday expressed concern about the U.S.-India nuclear deal saying the deal has violated the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Talking to IRNA, he said the countries which are not members of the NPT cannot make use of the privileges of the treaty. The method used by several nuclear states to transfer the technology to non-members of the NPT, will create new crises for the international community, he added.

According to the NPT, only signatories to the treaty can make use of the rights mentioned in the treaty, Saeedi noted.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in India Saturday to showcase a historic bilateral nuclear deal, but last-minute hitches raised doubts that the pact would be signed on her trip. A signing delay would be another bump in a three-year rollercoaster for an agreement aimed at lifting a ban on U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear trade imposed after India's first nuclear test in 1974.

Both houses of the U.S. Congress voted in favor of the landmark nuclear deal this week, but President George W. Bush has yet to sign it into law.

The deal offers India access to sophisticated U.S. technology and cheap atomic energy in return for New Delhi allowing UN inspections of some of its civilian nuclear facilities. Military nuclear sites will remain closed to international inspections.

Critics say it undermines global efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons, because India has refused to sign the NPT.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Tehran: New Iran sanctions 'harm' West
2008-08-10
Iranian Parliamentary Deputy Alaeddin Boroujerdi says imposing new EU sanctions against the Islamic Republic will 'damage' the West. "Any measure by the European Union ahead of the end of talks between Iran and the five Security Council veto holders plus Germany (5+1 Group) will be unacceptable," the Head of the Majlis (Parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, told IRNA Saturday.

The EU issued a decree on Friday enacting the imposition of fresh UN Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

The EU presidency decreed that its financial institutions must exercise 'restraint' on export credits to Iran and that its 27 member states inspect Iran-bound cargoes.

It also urged the countries to exercise vigilance in dealing with 'all banks domiciled in Iran, in particular Bank Saderat'.

The Iranian MP said that Iran and the EU enjoy a high level of trade and economic cooperation and added that sanctions would have adverse consequence on their positive mutual ties.

Boroujerdi called on EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana and the 5+1 Group to hold the second round of talks with Iran to receive a clear response from the Islamic Republic to a package of incentives they have already presented to Tehran calling for a suspension of enrichment activities.

The Deputy Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Olli Heinonen, held talks in Tehran on Thursday with senior Iranian nuclear officials including Deputy Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Mohammad Saeedi and Iran's permanent representative to the IAEA, Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh.

Iran on Tuesday sent a letter to the 5+1 Group (the five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council and Germany) demanding additional clarification over their package of proposals and clear answers to its questions.

The West accuses Iran of making efforts to develop nuclear arms. Tehran, however, argues its enrichment activities are aimed at electricity generation and further peaceful applications of nuclear technology.

Under US pressure, however, the UN Security Council has intervened in Tehran's nuclear case and has so far imposed three rounds of sanctions against the country.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran nuclear chief due in Vienna
2008-04-13
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Chief Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh is due in Vienna for talks with IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei. Aghazadeh will be accompanied by Mohammad Saeedi, the IAEO deputy for international affair, for the meeting, which comes only days after the Iranian nation celebrated Tehran's nuclear achievements.

Last week Iran's President Mahmood Ahmadinejad unveiled Tehran's plan to install 6,000 new centrifuges at a key nuclear plant in the current year.

However, Washington has cast doubt over Iran's capability to install the centrifuges. Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at a press conference on Thursday that "Iran has not yet mastered the ability to enrich uranium, although they are obviously working very hard to do this."
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran’s nuclear reactor not ready until end 2008
2007-12-21
MOSCOW - Russia dampened on Thursday Iranian hopes of an imminent launch of the Bushehr nuclear power station Moscow is building in the Islamic republic, saying it would not be launched earlier than the end of 2008.

A spokeswoman for the Russian contractor on the flagship project, Atomstroiexport, confirmed that it would take at least a year to start the power station. “We can predict that the Bushehr station will be launched no earlier than the end of 2008 due to the current situation,” Irina Yesipova told AFP.

On Tuesday the deputy head of Iran’s atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, said he hoped the 1,000 megawatt plant in the southern city of Bushehr could come on line within three months at up to 200 megawatts before being cranked up to full capacity nine months later.

Yesipova said the Russian timeframe was not a question of delays, but of the amount of time needed to deliver fuel and carry out tests on the station. Yesipova said it would take nearly two months to complete the delivery of nuclear fuel to Bushehr. Six months after that tests would start on launching the station itself, she said.
I wouldn't short-cut the testing, Mahmoud, given Russian quality and all. Of course, this raises all sorts of interesting possibilities for a sneaky, quiet CIA, assuming we had one of those handy ...
“Six months after the end of deliveries of fuel we will start tests with the fuel. When the tests are successfully completed we can launch the station. I can’t say how long the tests will last. “A deviation from the schedule risks having a negative effect on the security of the power station,” she said.

Referring to the Iranian side’s expectations of a faster launch, she said “the official who made this statement was probably not appraised of the technical issues. There is a technical schedule of work and we cannot deviate from it.”
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran's nuclear negotiator to meet ElBaradei Friday
2007-06-21
Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, will meet the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency this week as part of a push for a new round of talks over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, an Iranian nuclear official said Wednesday.

Larijani will meet Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, on Friday, according to the deputy head of Iran's atomic energy organization, Mohammad Saeedi.

Earlier this month, Iran abruptly canceled talks with ElBaradei, dashing hopes that Tehran is ready to end its secrecy about past suspicious nuclear activities.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran dismisses ElBaradei's latest report on its nuclear program
2007-05-24
Iran on Wednesday dismissed International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei's latest report on Tehran's nuclear program as "devoid of any new points" and insisted there is no obstacle for the agency's inspections of its nuclear sites.

"The latest report of UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Iran's nuclear program is devoid of any new points," Ali Soltanieh, Iran's permanent representative to the IAEA, told the official IRNA news agency in Vienna. "This report is meanwhile an international document that once again confirms the legitimacy of our nuclear activities, and that Iran has not breached any of its international commitments, and that our activities have no deviation from peaceful objectives." His remarks came just after a confidential report of the international nuclear watchdog saying that Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment activities in defiance of UN demands to scrap its nuclear-related program. The report also expressed concern about its "deteriorating" understanding of unexplored aspects of the program.

The report, which was posted on the IAEA internal website, blamed Iran for blocking IAEA efforts to probe its nuclear activities. It was handed over to the UN Security Council president for distribution among its members.

Deputy chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Saeedi also said on Wednesday that there is no obstacle for legal inspections of its nuclear sites by the international nuclear watchdog. IAEA's inspections of the nuclear facilities are based on Iran's legal commitments, Saeedi told IRNA. He also defended Iran's move earlier this year when it decided to limit its cooperation with the IAEA after the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions against the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani on Wednesday was quoted by the state television as saying that Iran continues to cooperate with the IAEA and abide by its commitment to carry out the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted on March 24 a new resolution with tougher sanctions to pressure Iran to suspend uranium enrichment activities.

Iran has refused to heed the Security Council's demand, insisting that its nuclear programs are for peaceful purposes only.

The United States and some other Western countries have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian nuclear programs.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran-Russia talks on Busher nuke generator end in confusion
2007-03-09
Russian point of view:
Work on Iran's Bushehr atomic energy plant will be delayed further unless Tehran resolves a dispute over payment to the Russian contractors building the plant, a Russian official said on Friday.....
Iranian point of view:
"...Right now [Russian state-owned] Atomstroiexport had a little bit of financial problems and Iran is ready to remove and eliminate all the problems for the Russian side," said Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's nuclear energy organization. "We are ready to charge additional money to Atomstroiexport to build the nuclear power plant according to the schedule," said Saeedi, speaking on Russia's Vesti-24 news channel.
Perhaps: December check was undated, Jan check was unsigned, Feb check had the digital amount mismatch the alphanumeric amount.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Russia Wants To Be Paid For Bushehr Nuclear Plant Before The US Blows It Up
2007-02-19
Iran has rejected claims by Russian officials that it has failed to meet payments for work on the Bushehr nuclear plant in southern Iran.

Russian officials had warned the $1bn (£513m) deal might be delayed.

Moscow last year backed limited UN sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment after objections to the Bushehr deal were dropped.

BBC correspondents say Moscow may be wary of delivering nuclear fuel next month, as scheduled in the deal.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful purposes but the US suspects it of seeking nuclear arms.

Under the Bushehr deal, Russia would have started the fuel shipments by March, launched the plant in September and begun to generate electricity by November.

Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency spokesman Sergey Novikov said the "launch schedule definitely could be affected" by the reported delay in payments.

One unnamed Russian official told Associated Press Iran was blaming "technical reasons" for the delay.

But Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, said: "Iran has had no delay whatsoever in making payments for the Bushehr nuclear power plant to the Russian company."

A UN Security Council deadline is due to expire on Wednesday for Iran to stop the enrichment of uranium.

The United States is pushing hard for the international community to take tough action.

BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says it would be uncomfortable for the Russians if they began to supply nuclear fuel to Tehran before the International Atomic Energy Agency had given the country's nuclear programme a clean bill of health.

He says many analysts see the reports that Tehran is falling behind on its payments as a pretext to delay the delivery.

The fuel amounts to approximately 100 tonnes of partially enriched uranium.

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says experts believe Iran has a shortage of uranium and this fuel could be diverted and enriched to weapons-grade material.
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