IRAN DAILY

License Holder: (IRNA) www.irna.ir ● Number 4383 ● Tuesday November 20, 2012 ● Aban 30, 1391 ● Moharram 5, 1434 ● Price 2,000 Rials ● 12 Pages ● www.iran-daily.com

Int’l Consensus Against Israel Needed

60 Multipurpose Ports Built Nationwide

Kasparov Handed Iranian Chess Gold Medal

City Theater Plans Ta’zieh

Continued Dialog Among Syrian Parties Urged

Leader: Enemies Seeking to Break Resistance in Mideast

Political Desk

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said arrogant powers are struggling to break ‘the resistance chain’ in the Middle East by toppling the Syrian government and to create a safe haven for the Israeli regime that neighbors the Arab country.
“The reality of the Syrian issue is that the arrogant front intends to destroy the link that connects the resistance chain in the region,” Ayatollah Khamenei said during a meeting with Hajj officials in Tehran on Monday.
Ayatollah Khamenei added that Iran’s stance on the months-long violence in Syria is crystal-clear, noting that the only solution to the crisis is to halt supplying weapons to the insurgents fighting the Syrian government, ISNA reported.
The Leader said if the Syrian opposition lay down their arms, the ground will be prepared for the Syrian government to listen to their demands.
Ayatollah Khamenei stated that it is natural for any government to counter the opposition when they receive arms from outside the country.

Muslim Unity
Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei said the annual Hajj pilgrimage accounts for unity, greatness and collective aspect of the Muslim World.
Hajj ritual constitutes worship, supplication and political and social presence in global developments, the Leader said.

Death Toll Up To 98

Israel Kills More Kids in Gaza

Israel continued bombardment of Gaza Strip on Monday as Palestinian death toll in the besieged territory has climbed up to 98.
As international pressure mounted for a truce, mediator Egypt said a deal to end the fighting could be close.
Twelve Palestinian civilians and four fighters were killed in the air strikes, bringing the Gaza death toll since fighting began on Wednesday to 98, more than half of them non-combatants, local officials said. Three Israeli civilians have been killed.
After an overnight lull, fighters in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip fired 45 rockets at southern Israel, causing no casualties, police said. One damaged a school, but it was closed at the time.
Western Support
The deaths of 11 Palestinian civilians - nine from one family - in an air strike on Sunday - drew more international calls for an end to six days of hostilities and could test Western support for an offensive Israel billed as self-defense after years of cross-border rocket attacks. Medics in Gaza said women and children accounted for most of Sunday’s dead, among them five babies and toddlers, killed in Israeli air strikes.
Echoes of explosions in Gaza mixed with cries of grief and defiant chants of “God is greatest” at the funeral of the four children and five women killed in the attack that flattened the three-storey house. Their bodies were wrapped in Palestinian and Hamas flags and thousands turned out to mourn them. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Cairo to weigh in on ceasefire efforts led by Egypt, which borders both Israel and Gaza and whose Muslim Brotherhood-rooted government has been hosting leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a smaller armed faction in the Palestinian enclave.

Iran Hikes Oil Exports Despite Sanctions

Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi said Iran has increased crude oil exports to foreign countries.
“Iran’s oil sale decreased in the first days of sanctions but as the time goes by, the situation of our oil exports is improving and now we are trying to boost our oil exports,” Qassemi told Fars News Agency in Tehran on Monday.
He also pointed to the rising oil prices, and said the current $100 price for oil is desirable for Iran and other members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), yet ‘we hope that the price will increase in coming days’ as the cold season approaches. Also last week, the West’s energy watchdog said Iranian oil output rose in October after seven months of decline due to western sanctions and its exports rebounded strongly as China and South Korea bought more oil.

Congo Rejects Rebel Demand for Talks

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday rejected a 24-hour ultimatum from rebels in the east of the country to open talks or face an onslaught, accusing neighboring Rwanda of being behind the rebellion.
“M23 is defined by the government as a fiction created by Rwanda to hide their criminal activities against the DRC,” Congo’s government spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters by telephone from Kinshasa, Reuters reported.
“We do not want to deal with them or answer their ultimatums or proposals.
It is an ultimatum from a fictitious group that has no real value to us,” Mende said.

160 Iranians Teaching In German Universities

More than 10,000 Iranian physicians are working in German hospitals. Announcing this, Professor Valiollah Mehrabi, the founder...

New Device for Measuring Medicinal Syrups

Designers at Islamic Azad University’s Faculty of Arts and Architecture have created a device that makes the measuring of medicinal...

Lebanon’s Outlook Upbeat

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh projected a 2-percent growth in Lebanon’s GDP by the end of this year.
“Lebanon is capable of achieving a 2-percent growth in 2012 despite all the difficulties,” Salameh told the participants at the Arab Banking conference in Beirut, Albawaba.com wrote.
“The country is able to finance its economic needs.”
Salameh’s projection was seen as an improvement to the prediction from some that growth would not exceed 1 percent--if not negative growth.
He repeated that the central bank was striving to cement the trust in the Lebanese banking sector by implementing Basel III criteria.
“We will continue to back the capitalization of the Lebanese banks to exceed the ceiling set by Basel III in order to keep our banks integrated in banking globalization,” Salameh added.
He emphasized that Lebanese banks are fully abiding by the international rules to combat money laundering as stipulated by the United Nations and the Arab League.

Issuing Bonds
The governor revealed that Lebanon intended to issue $1.5 billion in Eurobonds soon to finance the public debt. For his part, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Lebanon was one of the countries least affected by the international financial crisis, refusing to exploit the economy for political objectives.

Soltanieh: IAEA Confirms Iran Peaceful Nuclear Program

‘Normal Procedures’ at Bushehr Plant Defended

Political Desk

Iran’s ambassador to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the latest report by the UN nuclear watchdog reiterates the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear energy program.
“Once more, the IAEA report [released on Friday] indicates the peaceful nature of all nuclear activities of Iran including [uranium] enrichment and this sends a significant message to the international community,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh said in Vienna on Sunday.
“This report shows nuclear activities of Iran are all under the supervision of the IAEA, and every gram of uranium is under control and used for peaceful purposes in Iran,” he added.
The Iranian diplomat stated that the IAEA report also proves that the sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe against Iran are only targeting the Iranian people, specifically cancer patients.
Soltanieh said Iran and the IAEA are scheduled to hold expert-level talks in Tehran on December 13 to remove the remaining ambiguities surrounding Iran’s atomic activities.
On November 11, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano acknowledged that Iran’s nuclear energy facilities are used for peaceful purposes.

Obama Urges Deeper Reforms in Myanmar

US President Barack Obama became the first American president to visit Myanmar on Monday, using a six-hour trip to balance US praise for the government’s progress in shaking off military rule with pressure to complete the process of democratic reform.
Obama, greeted by enthusiastic crowds in the former capital, Yangon, met President Thein Sein, a former junta member who has spearheaded reforms since taking office in March 2011, and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Reuters reported.
“I shared with President Thein Sein our belief that the process of reform that he is taking is one that will move this country forward,” Obama told reporters, with Thein Sein at his side.
“I recognize that this is just the first steps on what will be a long journey, but we think that a process of democratic reform and economic reform here in Myanmar ... can lead to incredible development opportunities here,” Obama said, using the country name preferred by the government and former junta, rather than Burma, which is used in the United States.
Thein Sein, speaking in Burmese with an interpreter translating his remarks, responded that the two sides would move forward, “based on mutual trust, respect and understanding”.

US Reward for Killing Muslims

Less than a year ago, the Myanmar regime was considered to be ruled by a brutal terrorist regime and Thein Sein was considered a dictator ruling over terrorists. A brief search on the Internet will reveal what western politicians, led by US, used to say about Myanmar and their dramatic narrations about the situation in that country.
Suddenly everything changed only because Thein Sein claimed loyalty to US policy and began to cooperate with US puppets. Now the US president is not only visiting Burma but is donating millions of dollars in US taxpayers’ money to the regime which they used to call terrorist and dictatorial. Nothing has changed there. No political change is witnessed in that country--nothing except bending to US demands.
This year, President Barack Obama is visiting that country and shaking hands with the last year’s dictator. This reminds us of Libya’s Gaddafi.
Exactly the same thing happened. Most European leaders rushed to Libya and meet the dictator so that they could outdo others in securing concessions.
The US president, who keeps supporting the Israeli regime over its attacks on civilians in Gaza, has also closed his eyes to the killing of Muslims in Bahrain, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan by their proxies or US allies. He shakes hands with the butcher of Muslim. He even rewards him for the killings.
This is the reason why the Americans are hated in the Muslim world. Their leaders’ support for killing Muslims nurtures the hatred and enmity towards the Americans in Muslim world. American citizens should not ask why the Muslims hate them.
They should rather ask their leaders what they are doing to earn the hatred of the Muslims.
This is not a matter of feeling. It is a matter of existence and Muslims are fighting for their existence.

By Emad Abshenass

Chief Editor