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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 3:23
Sunrise: 5:05
Noon: 12:11
Evening: 19:37
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Weather Guide
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SAT |
SUN |
Tehran: |
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High: |
38oC |
39oC |
Low: |
27oC |
27oC |
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Athens |
31 |
32 |
Ankara |
31 |
34 |
Cairo |
36 |
37 |
Copenhagen |
26 |
25 |
Frankfurt |
37 |
32 |
Karachi |
34 |
37 |
Kuwait City |
46 |
48 |
London |
29 |
27 |
Madrid |
36 |
37 |
Moscow |
23 |
20 |
New Delhi |
34 |
34 |
Paris |
32 |
29 |
Riyadh |
43 |
45 |
Rome |
37 |
37 |
Vienna |
36 |
37 |
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Identification
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Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Address:
Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran/Iran
Executive Editor: Amin Sabooni
Editorial Dept. Tel: 88755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 88761869
Advertising Dept. Tel: 88501499, 88737250
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
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Call for Emergency OIC Meeting
Ahmadinejad Contacts Erdogan, Merkel
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
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TEHRAN, July 21--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference to put an end to Israeli aggressions against Lebanon.
Ahmadinejad, who was talking to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the phone, added that it is necessary to hold intensive negotiations among the OIC member-states, especially the regional countries, IRNA reported.
The president deplored the silence of international bodies, especially the UN Security Council, on the Israeli atrocities and the support of Western countries for the Israeli crimes against innocent civilians.
Ahmadinejad emphasized that the regional countries are growing more furious over the indifference of some global powers vis-ˆ-vis the Middle East crisis.
“If this trend continues, it is possible that relations between regional countries and Europe would be seriously jeopardized,“ he said.
Erdogan, for his part, emphasized that OIC must become active and hold intensive negotiations to prevent further Zionist aggressions.
“Humanitarian aid should be dispatched to the people of Lebanon and a ceasefire must be established immediately to restore peace and calm to the region,“ he said.
Also on Friday, Germany rejected parts of a letter from Ahmadinejad to Chancellor Angela Merkel which called into question Israel’s right to exist, a government spokesman said on Friday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had delivered the letter to the German Embassy in Tehran earlier this week. A German government official who saw the letter told Reuters it criticized Israel and said Germany and Iran should cooperate in dealing with Zionism and solving the Palestinian problem, Reuters reported.
“It includes many statements that are unacceptable to us, especially regarding Israel, the right of Israel to exist and the Holocaust,“ said German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm.
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SNSC Urges Return to Negotiations
Rafsanjani: West Seeking Submission
TEHRAN, July 21--Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) issued a communiquŽ on Thursday urging the Group 5+1 to return to the negotiating table for discussing Iran’s nuclear program.
The statement, signed by SNSC Secretary Ali Larijani, noted that any restriction on Iran’s legitimate nuclear rights will leave no alternative for Iran but to revise its policies, stressing that Aug. 22 is the date for Iran’s response to the package of incentives offered by the five veto powers plus Germany, ISNA reported.
In this statement, SNSC reiterated that Iran only intends to generate 20,000 megawatts of electrical power by utilizing nuclear technology.
It pointed out that Iran has so far adhered to all its international commitments based on the Non-Proliferation Treaty and is not asking for anything more than its NPT rights.
“There is evidence to indicate that the US is specifically trying to hinder negotiations and send Iran’s dossier to the UN Security Council, while the course of negotiations with Europe is quite transparent and can eventually produce results,“ the statement said.
Meanwhile, Tehran’s substitute Friday prayers leader Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday that accepting West’s precondition for suspending Iran’s uranium enrichment activities is akin to Tehran’s submission to the West.
Addressing worshipers at Tehran University, Rafsanjani said the West’s effort to urge the United Nations Security Council to approve a resolution against Iran’s nuclear programs was a “crucial act“.
“Setting the suspension (of uranium enrichment) first for negotiations as a precondition by Westerners is like a time bomb and a destruction point“ which marred the process of finding a practical solution for the nuclear dispute,“ he said.
He added that the precondition means achieving the Western goal before any negotiations.
Rafsanjani added that although Tehran has repeatedly voiced its readiness for talks, the Westerners have deliberately Rafsanjani, also the former president, said, “In view of the present circumstances, we need unity, solidarity and cooperation. We have to prevent our society and nation from being exposed to the threat of division or enemy’s influence.“
Criticizing those who act against the interests of the Iranian nation inside the county, Rafsanjani expressed hope that Iranians would successfully pass through the current difficult stage as it did during the Iraq-imposed war.
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Israel Warns of Invading Lebanon
BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 21--Israel has waged deadly strikes against Lebanon for the 10th day and mobilized more troops after warning it could launch a full-scale ground invasion--despite mounting international calls for a ceasefire.
“The army called up several thousand reserves in order to strengthen our forces against Hezbollah,“ a military source said Friday after the army again warned residents of bomb-hit southern Lebanon to flee, AFP reported.
Beirut said its army was ready to go into battle if Israel invaded, an action that would sharply raise the stakes in a conflict that has killed close to 340 people in Lebanon and raised fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Waving white scarves, residents of the south streamed to safer havens in the north as buses and boats continued to ferry thousands of foreigners out of Lebanon in one of the biggest mass evacuations since World War II.
Two Israelis were also seriously wounded when rockets fired from Lebanon exploded in the northern port city of Haifa, the latest salvos in a deluge of nearly 1,000 rocket attacks since cross-border violence flared on July 12.
Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah issued a defiant new message that Israel’s firepower was failing to dent his fundamentalist Shiite movement and vowed he would only release the soldiers in a prisoner swap.
“Even the whole universe would not be able to secure the release of the two Israeli soldiers unless there are indirect negotiations and an exchange of prisoners,“ he said.
Israel is pushing on with its air, sea and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, where at least 106 people have been killed in two weeks and warned civilians that homes storing weaponry were now targets.
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EU Should Adopt
Fair Mideast Stance
TEHRAN, July 21--Foreign Ministry in a communiquŽ on Thursday lambasted the European Union for its stance over the Middle East crisis, urging the EU to adopt a fair standpoint.
In the communiquŽ, the ministry responded to the statement issued by the EU Council of Ministers in Brussels on July 17, Mehr News Agency reported.
The ministry stressed that the EU’s stance regarding the Mideast crisis indicated its negligence of the inhumane aggressions of the Zionist regime against the innocent Muslims of Palestine and Lebanon.
“The EU should respect human rights, shun prejudices and adhere to its ethical and humane duties for establishment of peace on the basis of justice and to confront the atrocities and state terrorism of Israel against innocent human beings,“ it noted.
In its statement, the EU council described the massacre of the innocent people of Palestine and Lebanon as well as the destruction of their infrastructures as the legitimate right of the Zionist regime in defending itself.
The Iranian ministry deplored that this stance essentially provides the Zionist regime with a green light to continue its aggressions and further kill innocent people.
The Foreign Ministry urged the EU to learn from the defeated experience of the US in unilaterally supporting the Zionist regime and to adopt a fair stance regarding the Middle East crisis.
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Miscalculation
By Mohammad Reza Erfanian
Recent incidents in the occupied Palestinian territories and Lebanon herald changing regional equations that will become more evident with the passage of time.
The very nature of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon shows that Tel Aviv had planned these operations in advance.
The calculated Zionist raids on roads, highways and bridges as well as economic, residential and military centers of Lebanon demonstrate that Tel Aviv is acting in accordance with a premeditated plan to realize its vested goals in the occupied territories and Lebanon.
Although the occupying Zionist regime has attacked Lebanon on the basis of advanced plans, the trend of events shows that it has been incapable of predicting the outcome of raids.
The fact that Israel’s industrial and economic hubs have been attacked proves that the Israeli authorities miscalculated the Lebanese people’s support for the resistance and might of Hezbollah.
Israel is currently facing a serious problem in quelling the crisis created within its territories by the response of Hezbollah.
Some experts believe Hezbollah is capable of attacking up to 200 km within the Israeli territories with its missiles. This means that the entire occupied territories are unsafe for the Zionists.
Let us recall how Israeli authorities earlier claimed that they are capable of neutralizing missile attacks launched against it, given its state-of-the-art equipment and huge military arsenal. This is while recent incidents have proven the opposite.
Although it is an open secret that Israel carried out the recent onslaught with the backing of certain Western powers, particularly the US, Hezbollah has been able to withstand the Zionist raids alone in an unexpected manner.
In the past few days, Israel witnessed attacks on its territories, which were unprecedented in its 60 years of illegitimate history. This reveals that Israel deep within is very vulnerable.
The recent developments compelled Tel Aviv to face up to two bitter realities. First, Israel is vulnerable more than ever conceived or perceived. Second, Hezbollah is capable of countering aggressions far beyond the capacity imagined for a resistant group.
In the meantime, one reality can and will change around the balance of power in the occupied territories as well as in the regional equations.
The US and Israel fomented the new crisis in Lebanon based on a simple miscalculation that underestimated Hezbollah’s military strengths. They forgot that Hezbollah, more than being a military outfit, manifests the outcry of popular resistance against foreign aggressions and machinations in the region.
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