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G5+1 Would Gain From Unbiased Discourse DoE Responsible For Poor Air Quality Drone Attacks |
هایپر مدیا | مرکز جامع خدمات رسانه ها / نگارش روزنامه |
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G5+1 Would Gain From Unbiased Discourse
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday welcomed the messages sent by G5+1 regarding its willingness to meet Iran for cooperation talks , and said Tehran is ready to meet the group in Istanbul, Brazil and Tehran.
“All parties to the talks should accept the rights of the Iranian people so that the ground could be paved for meaningful cooperation. It is not acceptable that states send message of cooperation and continue on the path of malice and hostility,” the president said at a public rally in Karaj during a provincial tour, IRNA reported.
He recalled that the West exerted huge propagandistic pressure and pushed for several sanctions against Iran to obstruct the country’s access to nuclear technology… But all that was in vain and Iranians emerged as victors in that political battle.
“The other side (G5+1) has two alternatives. First is continuing on the path it has taken so far, i.e. issuing sanctions resolutions and making threats. The outcome of such approach is apparent. When we did not have access to nuclear technology, they could not hinder Iran’s forward march.
“Now that we have acquired nuclear technology they cannot take away nuclear technology from the nation…Hence continuation of the previous path will produce nothing but a deadlock.
“The second alternative is that the West recognizes Iran’s rights. They (Western powers) have not gained anything (positive) from confronting Iran…and Iranian have fulfilled their goals,” he told his supporters in Alborz province, 30km west of Tehran.
Ahmadinejad said if the West decides to continue on the previous destructive course of action, it should realize that the nation would give it a fitting response.
He urged the six powers to enter into frank talks with Iran and emphasized that when the West recognizes Iran’s legitimate rights and comes to the negotiating table for cooperation, all will benefit.
The sanctions and threats have produced little (for the West), but motivated Iranians in large numbers to amplify their pace of growth and development and increase the country’s power.
Elsewhere, Ahmadinejad predicted that by the Iranian yearend (March 20) between $14-15 billion dollars in oil revenues would be deposited in the National Development Fund (NDF).
“The money saved in the National Development Fund will be used to expand and develop agricultural and industrial sectors and create new jobs. For the first time in the country’s history, the government managed to deposit 20 percent of total oil earnings in the fund. In other words, the government is managing economic affairs with 20 percent less income,” he noted.
Earlier, Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi said that Iran has established the energy fund backed by the Central Bank and other Iranian banks to help finance investments in the oil sector.
“The National Energy Fund, with the help of the resources of four local banks and the Central Bank, has been established to help finance major parts of the oil industry’s activities,” IRNA quoted Mirkazemi as saying.
“Several rounds of talks were held in this regard and it was approved by the president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” he said.
Analysts say Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude exporter, needs inflows of capital and more foreign investment to help expand and modernize its all-important energy sector.
DoE Responsible For Poor Air Quality
Deputy Head of Tehran City Council (TCC) Hassan Bayadi said Tuesday the Department of Environment (DoE) should accept responsibility for the dangerous air pollution that has hit the capital for several weeks.
“The devices for measuring air pollution levels provide more dangerous information and we seem to be doing little if anything. If we only stick to issuing warnings, what will it achieve? How do we respond to the people about this pollution?
“True, we all regret the pollution levels in the mass media…But nothing happens after that. The city council only issues warnings and does not deliver anything. This is a weakness of the council,” Bayadi told a TCC meeting, IRIB reported.
Elaborating on the troubling air quality in the sprawling metropolis, he said, “We only complain. Somebody should eventually be held accountable for these complaints. By doing so, we have only increased the people’s concern and disappointment. When we talk about the problem of pollution, they (relevant officials) define air pollution, healthy air and oxygen for us. We have no need for definitions…We want them to deliver.”
He noted that the council had long been warning about old and dilapidated textures in sections of the city and the dangers associated with natural disasters, in particular earthquakes.
“But, the problem is that Tehran Renovation Organization is not doing anything in this regard. It has become used to organizing conferences, spending money…It does not even pay its contractors!” he said.
Tehran’s air quality index was at the alert level for more than four consecutive weeks during the past month.
This led to increase in emergency medical assistance to patients suffering from heart and respiratory problems by a huge 60 percent due to the air pollution in Tehran. Some positive measures, such as designating odd-even days for car plates, closure of polluting factories and strong emphasis on upholding standards, had been taken to help curb the dangerous pollution.
The main pollutants of Tehran’s air are particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Tehran’s air pollution is measured on the basis of it being pure, healthy, unhealthy, very unhealthy and alert, emergency and critical levels.
Drone Attacks
As another US drone attack killed
more than 20 people on North
Waziristan on Monday, all leading
political parties of the country unanimously declared that these attacks were tantamount to compromising the sovereignty of Pakistan and the government and the Pakistan Army should take immediate measures to stop them.
As another US drone attack killed more than 20 people on North Waziristan on Monday, all leading political parties of the country unanimously declared that these attacks were tantamount to compromising the sovereignty of Pakistan and the government and the Pakistan Army should take immediate measures to stop them.
Leaders of these parties said the government and authorities should sort out the matter in accordance with parliament’s unanimous resolutions and take action against the extremists by itself wherever it is needed, The News newspaper reported.
Senior leaders of these leading political forces said that compromising the sovereignty of the country would lead to making Pakistan a banana republic and foreign forces will keep on extending their targeted areas of attacks which consequently will damage the unity of the already troubled nation.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Pervaiz Rashid said that PML-N chief has taken up the issue of drone attacks with every visiting US official in last two years and made it clear to them that these attacks are hurting Pakistan’s sovereignty.
Pervaiz Rashid said that government and defense establishment should devise a clear policy to get rid of drone attacks. “PML-N will be standing behind the federal government and armed forces of Pakistan on whatever strategy they adopt against the drone attacks,” said the spokesman for the second biggest political party of the country.
Professor Khursheed Ahmad, senior leader of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), while talking to The News gave a complete strategy for the government and Pakistan Army to tackle the issue of drone attacks.
Prof Khursheed suggested a three-phase strategy saying that first thing is to adopt a firm resolve by the government as well as Pakistan Army that drone attacks are unacceptable. He pointed out that this resolve is not there and instead there is collaboration and assistance. Air chief and chief of army staff is on record that they were following orders of the political leadership so the whole responsibility will fall on the government.
Final Step
Prof Khursheed said that the final step would be to shoot the drones if the attacks continue. “I don’t think so that there will ever be need of this final steps as I believe that US will accept the sovereignty of Pakistan if we follow initial two steps,” he said.
The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan gave detailed insight of US war on Afghanistan and its repercussions in Pakistan. Imran said Pakistan’s rulers are unable to understand that US needs Pakistan’s help. He said: “US is stuck up in Afghanistan. Obama’s policy is headed for a disaster. This was purely a military policy and nine years of military action in Afghanistan has deteriorated the situation.”
“It is because, US is fighting against Taliban which are not an ideological group but their fight against Americans has been changed into a Pashtoon resistance. And this shows US is fighting against a population which simply means that it is a never-ending-war. So US is fully stuck in Afghanistan,” the PTI chief said.
Deceiving People
Another major problem with us, Imran said, is that Pakistan is having the duplicity at home and its government is deceiving the people. He said that Bob Woodward’s book Obama Wars has quoted Zardari as telling CIA director: “Collateral damage worries you Americans. It does not worry me.” On Tuesday, three suspected US missile strikes targeting a militant-riddled tribal region near the Afghan border killed 17 people, including at least two who were retrieving bodies from the first attack, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The strikes come in the final days of a year that has seen an unprecedented number of such drone-fired attacks as part of a ramped-up US campaign to take out Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters seeking sanctuary outside Afghanistan.
Around 115 such missile strikes have been launched this year--more than doubling last year’s total.