Insurance Coverage for All Ships

Deputy roads and urban development minister and managing director of the Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) has announced a plan that will provide insurance coverage for all Iranian and foreign ships entering the country’s waters.
“In line with providing marine insurance coverage for ships and defying [the US-led] sanctions, we accept responsibility to insure any ship … that enters Iranian territorial waters,” said Seyyed Ataollah Sadr on Tuesday in the Caspian Sea Port of Amirabad, Press TV reported.
He added to avert maritime insurance limitations devised by the enemy, the Islamic Republic has taken measures in collaboration with Iranian insurance firms to provide the required coverage for all ships that gain entry to the country’s waters.
Sadr further announced the investment of 5,000 billion riyals ($410 million) in the Amirabad commercial harbor on the sidelines of an inauguration ceremony of a new 25,000-ton grain transit silo at the port, adding that its current capacity stands at 4.5 million tons, which will climb to 10 million tons during the next phase of its development plan.

President Attends Fin Garden Commemoration Ceremony

Top Syrian Defense Officials Killed

Middle East Desk

A suicide bomber struck the National Security building in the Syrian capital on Wednesday, killing the defense minister and President Bashar Al-Assad’s brother-in-law--the harshest blow to the Syrian government since the unrest began.
Syrian state-run TV said the blast came during a meeting of Cabinet ministers and senior security officials in Damascus, AP reported.
So-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
Defense Minister Dawoud Rajha, 65, a former army general, was the most senior government official to be killed in the Syrian unrest. Gen. Assef Shawkat, the deputy defense minister also was killed. He was married to Assad’s older sister, Bushra.
Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar was wounded and in stable condition, state TV said.
Republican Guard troops surrounded the nearby Al-Shami Hospital, where some officials were taken for treatment, witnesses said.
Hours after the incident, Bashar Al- Assad appointed Fahd al-Freij as the new defense minister.
Wednesday’s attack was a nearly unheard-of strike on the inner circle.

Invention Festival In Karaj

The Alborz Invention Festival is underway at Karaj’s Seed and Plant Improvement Institute during July 17-19.

Iranians Discover New Species of Acanthophyllum

Researchers at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi province, have discovered a new species of Acanthophyllum...

Americans Prefer Diplomacy on Iran

Americans overwhelmingly prefer that the US deal with Iran nuclear program diplomatically rather than resorting to military measures, according to a fresh study of US opinion from the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR).
The massive report, which is based on hundreds of surveys taken from a large number polling sources, found that Americans favor a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear drive by ‘about 3.7 to one’, according to CFR’s Stewart Patrick, GlobalPost reported.
The new analysis comes at a time of heightened concern of possible military activity by the US or Iran as the two nations conduct war games in the Persian Gulf. The Islamic Republic has also been hit with a raft of new sanctions over its nuclear program.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday dismissed the latest nuclear proposals from Iran, calling them ‘non-starters’, reported Reuters. Also on Tuesday, Iran objected to the sanctions as a violation of its sovereignty, with Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps spokesman Ali Ashraf Nouri saying the real purpose of the ‘crippling’ sanctions is ‘to break people’s tolerance threshold and force them [to take to the streets] like during the 2009 sedition’, referring to the protests that broke out following President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s re-election.

Iranians Discover New Species of Acanthophyllum

Researchers at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi province, have discovered a new species of Acanthophyllum...

Enemies’ Naval Moves Under IRGC Surveillance

Islamic Revolution’s Guards Corps is closely monitoring all naval movements of the enemies, a senior IRGC commander said, while downplaying the United States’ recent naval buildup in the region.
“We are witnessing some little movements in the region, all of which are, of course, discussable from the viewpoint of defense,” Commander of the IRGC Navy Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said on Wednesday, adding, “And all enemy movements are fully monitored by the IRGC warriors.”
The commander said that a major part of the movements by US naval forces in the Persian Gulf should be deemed as ‘media propaganda campaign’, Fars News Agency reported.
He added that the US movements in the region indicate the enemies’ fear of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran if, of course, the country’s national security comes under threat.
The remarks by the IRGC commander came following media reports about the US Navy using underwater drones, known as the SeaFox, to find and destroy sea mines as part of the effort to keep Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz.
The unmanned craft, which cost $100,000 per unit, are four feet long and weigh just 88 pound, but they also include honing sonar, TV cameras, and explosive charges. Iran has threatened to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the oil-rich Persian Gulf if its nuclear program is targeted by air strikes that Israel and the United States reserve as an option.

Opposing Resource Expropriation

The Chilean government’s decision to invite companies to tender offers for mine lithium resources has been widely rejected by mining trade unions and legislators of the opposition.
These sectors demand that lithium be nationalized to reverse--at least symbolically--what they refer to as the process of natural resource expropriation of the last two decades, IPS wrote.
“Mining is one of the key elements that Chile has for financing social programs, which is why we are concerned over how governments have acted since the return to democracy in 1990, renouncing our sovereignty in favor of multinational corporations that leave next to nothing in the state’s coffers,” Jedry Velis, general secretary of the Confederation of Copper Workers (CTC), the union of outsourced copper workers, told IPS.

Potential
Lithium, a soft and light metal, is found in abundance in the salt flats of northern Chile, in the Atacama Desert, the world’s driest desert.
It has long been used in the manufacture of lubricants and heat resistant glass, as well as in the pharmaceutical industry. In the last 20 years, it has also been a key component of rechargeable batteries for cellphones, portable computers and digital cameras, and it has a great potential in the development of electric cars.

Liberals WinLibya Polls

Libya’s liberal coalition outscored Islamist parties in preliminary results unveiled by the electoral commission on Tuesday--but it remained unclear who will dominate the next congress.
The National Forces Alliance, a liberal coalition led by wartime prime minister Mahmud Jibril, gained 39 of 80 seats open to parties in the General National Congress, the first elected body since Muammar Gaddafi’s ouster, AFP reported.
The Justice and Construction Party, which was launched by Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood, took only 17 seats. The remainder of party seats went to a constellation of smaller, lesser-known parties.
This complete tally, however, does not paint a clear picture about who will dominate the incoming congress, where the majority of seats--120 of 200--were reserved for individual candidates.
The two leading parties are likely to court independents and smaller entities in a bid to form a dominant bloc within the congress, where major decisions and legislation require a two-third majority to pass.

Presidential Advisor: Western Sanctions Illegal

President’s Press Advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr said that the use of peaceful nuclear energy is Iran’s natural right and the imposition of sanctions by western countries against Iran is illegal.
In an interview with the Russia Today TV, Javanfekr said, Iran considers unilateral sanctions imposed by US and its European allies on its oil industry and banking system as an opportunity as the country has been able to overcome similar challenges in the past three decades.
The EU sanctions against Iran’s oil and financial sectors came into effect on July 1.
The sanctions prevent all EU member states from purchasing Iran’s oil or extending insurance coverage for tankers carrying Iranian crude.
The US administration in late March approved sanctions on Iran’s crude oil sector, which penalize other countries for buying or selling Iranian crude oil. The sanctions were scheduled to come into effect on June 28. The sanctions have been imposed based on the allegation that Iran is seeking to acquire a military nuclear capability.
Tehran rejects such allegations, noting that frequent inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency have never found any diversion in Iran’s nuclear energy program toward military purposes.
Javanfekr added that Iran’s nuclear program is based on international laws, and Iran, as a member of the global community, is committed to its obligations and expects others to respect its nuclear rights.

US Navy Under Strain

A well known American journalist quoting a high ranking US Marine officer, once told me US radars are so sophisticated and precise that they could recognize a mosquito in the air. I told him that the officer was exaggerating, but he didn’t accept my view and stood behind his military official’s story. Ironically, after a civilian Iranian plane was shot down by US Navy over the Persian Gulf, they said that it was a ‘mistake’. I phoned my fellow American Journalist and asked him how was it that your navy can spot a mosquito but cannot recognize a civilian airliner. He told me in his view he was certain that it was not a mistake but a ‘message’ for Iranian leadership! US officials were lying and all the world knew they were but accepted their story just because they were stronger and richer and this was the message they wanted to send to Iran.
Iranians got the message. They recognized that they should start building their own defense means and get stronger to be able to stand against foreign threats. They focused on building weapons that any enemy would count twice before trying to think of attacking them. There is a proverb that goes: “If you want your strong neighbor to fear you, beat the weak neighbor so that the strong one will not think of standing against you.” It appears that US Navy is so scared of Iran that it preferred to beat the weakest neighbor just to show its muscles. I tried to examine the motive behind targeting a fishing boat in UAE waters by the US navy, and I couldn’t come to a different conclusion. Deprived people had to pay the bill for big players. A poor Indian fisherman had to pay the ultimate price so that the US war machine shows that it is trigger happy.
I would like to attract your attention to another story. While I was in Lebanon, many Hezbollah fighters used to narrate stories about their attacking Israeli positions and finding dead bodies who had died of heart attack. The tension and fear among these troops were so high that they were unable to face Hezbollah fighters and died just before any encounter.

HSBC Conceals $16b in Iran Transactions

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