Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to hold the next Astana format summit in Tehran in February or March 2022, depending on the coronavirus situation, Senior Assistant to Iranian Foreign Minister for Special Political Affairs Ali Asghar Khaji told TASS on Wednesday.
“Yes, it [the summit] is planned. We are preparing to hold it early next year. It will depend on the pandemic situation. But in general, we have agreed to hold the summit. Most likely, we will be able to hold it in February or March,” the Iranian diplomat said.
Khaji said the issue was on the agenda of talks in Nur-Sultan and will be reflected in a separate provision of the guarantor nations’ final statement.
When asked whether the summit will be preceded by a foreign ministers’ meeting, he replied: “Yes, we have agreed on the matter. It will be next year. In January or early February, we will hold a meeting of foreign ministers, and a summit will follow that.”
He also said that the next international Astana format meeting on Syria will be convened within a few weeks after the summit of Russia, Iran and Turkey.
At the end of the 17th Astana conference, Iran, Turkey, and Russia in a joint statement called for preserving Syrian territorial integrity, continued fight against terrorism and separatism, and also condemned Israeli attacks on the Arab country.
Delegations from Turkey, Russia and Iran met Tuesday and Wednesday in Kazakhstan’s capital Nur-Sultan for the two-day meeting of the Astana process that aims to find a solution to the crisis in Syria.
The Astana meeting was initiated by Turkey, Iran and Russia to bring the warring sides in Syria together to find a permanent solution to the decade-long war. The main agenda items have been the constitutional system, political transition, security and resettlement.
The first Astana meeting was held in Turkey in January 2017 to facilitate UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva.

National Desk

At least 22 people were injured in a metro train collision in the Iranian capital Tehran on Wednesday.
The accident occurred on Line 5 of the Tehran metro, which connects Tehran to neighboring Alborz Province.
According to ISNA, an express train derailed after hitting another train bound for Tehran from Karaj, the capital city of Alborz Province.
At least 22 people sustained injuries in the incident – one of them in critical conditions.
An investigation is underway to find out the main reason behind the incident. However, officials believe that the local train mistakenly entered the express train line, which led to the accident.
 

Marking the third day of massive joint military exercises, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s Ground Force employed an advanced homegrown tank dubbed Karrar for the first time.
Karrar, an upgraded version of the T-72m tanks, came into service during the Great Prophet 17 joint drills in the country’s southern coasts on Wednesday.
The new tank is furnished with special coatings to withstand heatwaves and can hide from heat-seeking missiles. It is also equipped with GPS navigation systems, Press TV reported.
The Great Prophet 17 drills kicked off on Monday, covering the coastlines of the southern Iranian provinces of Hormuzgan, Bushehr, and Khuzestan.
The IRGC Ground Force’s special units practiced their defensive skills in Lark Island.
They used new weapons and military equipment as well as new tactics to carry out offensive and defensive operations.
After receiving intelligence on the hypothetical enemy, they hit the identified targets with heavy and semi-heavy weapons.
Iran’s Armed Forces hold routine military exercises throughout the year.
Iranian military experts and technicians have in recent years made great progress in developing and manufacturing a broad range of domestically-manufactured equipment, making the Armed Forces self-sufficient in this regard.
Iranian officials have repeatedly underscored that the Islamic Republic will not hesitate to build up its defense capabilities, emphasizing such abilities are entirely meant for the purpose of defense and will never be subject to negotiations.

 

From Page 1

To what extent have Palestinians been successful in delegitimizing Israeli encroachments in the eyes of the international community?
Every oppressed person has the right to use all means to achieve its rights and enlarge the front of its friends. We, as Palestinian people, are using political and diplomatic mechanisms to gain our deprived rights by all means. The number of our global friends are more than the friends of the enemy. 139 countries have recognized the Palestinian state, our flag has been raised on the buildings of the United Nations, and we are an observer state in the UN, which has helped us show the real face of our enemy.

In recent years, there has been a significant change in global power dynamics, most notably by the rising influence of China, Russia, and India, to the detriment of global US hegemony. Can this fact help Palestinians achieve their cause?
 
As I said before, we are using all means to enlarge and extend the front of our friends in the world including Russia, China and India, which have a clear stand in supporting the rights of our people, and many other international communities in Africa, Asia, South America and all around the world. But we have to maintain our national unity to totally benefit from the support of the others.

Amos Oz says, “Now such a clash between right claims can be revolved in one of two manners. There’s the Shakespeare tradition of resolving a tragedy with the stage hewed with dead bodies and justice of sorts prevails. But there is also the Chekhov tradition. In the conclusion of the tragedy by Chekhov, everyone is disappointed, disillusioned, embittered, heartbroken, but alive.”

How do you envision the possible resolution for the Arab-Israeli conflict?

The Palestinian people in their struggle to achieve their deprived rights have used every means you can imagine. Sometimes we used the Shakespearian way and sometimes the Chekhovian way. Anyhow, the way we chose always depended on the benefits to our people.

Since the start of the negotiations (between Palestinians and Israelis), there has always been the problem of territorial contiguity. The maps clearly indicate segmentation of Palestinian lands with increasingly severed connection to Al-Quds. How could Palestinians resist further segmentation of their land?

We never stopped our struggle to gain our rights with the support of the international community and the United Nations. All ways of struggle are legal for us to stop the segmentation of our land.

A huge propaganda media machine, mainly controlled by the US, has always (and nearly successfully) tried to alter and falsify the truth of almost all incidents between Israelis and Palestinians. What strategies do the Palestinians have to get the facts to the collective mind of the public?

I think I have answered this question before. As I said, we are using all means of struggle to show the rightness of our cause and we have gathered a lot of friends and supporters in this regard all over the world.

How do you see the impact of efforts by former US president Donald Trump in normalizing relations between Arab states and Israel?

I think that normalization with this enemy is useless. We should have been given an independent state on May 5th, 1999, but nothing happened. On the contrary, they are only speaking about improving our life conditions. Regardless, we must remember that any normalization with this enemy is in contravention of the unanimous resolution of the Arab League.

Iran’s Health Ministy reported seven new Omicron cases, bringing the total number of the COVID-19 new variant cases to eight.
Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Kamal Heidari warned about Omicron’s high contagion, advising people to observe health protocols in a bid to prevent the spread of Omicron in the country, according to ILNA.
Iran’s National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus has decided to impose tougher measures to avert the new wave of the coronavirus pandemic caused by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 44 fatalities from COVID-19, bringing the total death toll to 131,211.
The ministry also reported 2,103 new positive cases across the country.
The drop in Iran’s COVID casualties is mainly the outcome of the greater momentum of the public vaccination process on the back of the rise in jab imports and domestic production.
 

From Page 1

He blamed the Trump administration for “the worst decisions made in American foreign policy in the last decade” by withdrawing from the accord in 2018”.
“In getting out of that agreement, we were promised that it would be replaced by a stronger one … Instead, of course, we’ve seen just the opposite,” he said.
Iranian officials have dismissed the wavering change of tone as part of a psychological war against the country.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday that the U.S. and its allies are trying to influence the process of the talks.
“These announcements of optimism and pessimism are part of a psychological operation, and it is quite clear that they are the design of the European and American sides” to influence the negotiations”, he said.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein is scheduled to hold talks with Iranian officials today during a visit to Tehran, Mehr News Agency reported.