WWW.TEHRANTIMES.COM I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y 12 Pages Price 40,000 Rials 1.00 EURO 4.00 AED 42nd year No.13657 Tuesday MAY 5, 2020 Ordibehesht 16, 1399 Ramadan 11, 1441 Some 70,000 visit German decision Experts unanimous on “The Silhouettes” Iran’s UNESCO sites to ban Hezbollah appointing Iranian coach honored at Visions online in week 8 expected 10 for volleyball team 11 du Réel festival 12 Exclusive: Carlos Queiroz launches Parliament approves slashing attack on former football chief Taj By Masoud Hossein 300,000 bonus had Team Melli finished TEHRAN – Former Iran national football third in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup. team coach Carlos Queiroz has launched a Iran failed to book a place in the compe- scathing attack on Mehdi Taj, accusing him tition’s final after being defeated by Japan of trying to divert attention from contract 3-0, and for the first time there was no with Marc Wilmots. third place play-off; however, FIFA has 4 zeroes off currency According to a clause in the coach’s ordered Iran to honor Queiroz with that contract, Wilmot should’ve been awarded amount. 11 See page 4 Privatization should spur productivity, not just collect capital: expert By Ebrahim Fallahi years ago but hasn’t reached its goals. TEHRAN — Earlier on Sunday, Govern- The privatization program was started ment spokesperson Ali Rabiei announced as a movement aiming for downsizing the that the shares of four refineries, namely government and promoting the private sec- Isfahan, Tabriz, Bandar-Abbas, and Teh- tor’s role in the national economy, however, ran, were due to be offered at Tehran Stock many economic experts and analysts believe Exchange (TSE) on June 21. that the government’s current hasty move The announcement comes as the gov- for offering its assets on the capital market ernment is following a new strategy for is mainly aimed to offset the budget deficit listing most of its companies and assets on which is inevitable due to the low oil pric- the stock exchange aiming to accelerate a es, coronavirus pandemic and unjust U.S. privatization program which was started sanctions. 4 Iran threatens to give ‘firm response’ if U.S. extends arms embargo TEHRAN — Foreign Ministry spokes- is extended,” Mousavi said in a press man Abbas Mousavi warned on Monday conference. that Iran will give a “firm response” if Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States extends arms embargo on April 29 that the United States will not against Iran and take Iran’s dossier to the allow Iran to buy or sell conventional arms UN Security Council. after a UN embargo expires in October, “Iran will give a proper and firm in a move that could prompt Tehran to response if its dossier is taken to the pull out the 2015 nuclear deal and a major IRNA Security Council and the arms embargo nonproliferation treaty. 2 ARTICLE Coronavirus-positive scientist to return home from U.S. jail: Tehran Over $1b spent so Faranak Bakhtiari TEHRAN — Sirous Asgari, an Iranian scientist had had a fever for days. ing inside crowded ICE facilities with substandard far to revitalize Tehran Times journalist imprisoned in the United States who has contracted “He is expected to be tested again for coro- cleaning practices and a lack of supplies. the novel coronavirus, will return home soon, navirus today and tomorrow, and God willing, The professor, who has a history of respiratory Lake Urmia according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry. if his test becomes negative, all necessary mea- problems, was exonerated in a U.S. sanctions During a press conference on Monday, For- sures have been carried out for his return to the trial last year, but ICE has refused to release TEHRAN – Since the beginning of the Coronavirus eign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said country,” Mousavi said. him or allow him to return to Iran. Lake Urmia Restoration Program in the ministry is following up on Asgari’s case both Asgari and his family have been calling for ‘The condition in which Iranian October 2013, a total of 4.6 trillion rials brought healthcare in Iran and in the U.S. his transfer to a medical facility where he can prisoners are held in U.S. is shameful’ (more than $1 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials) has been spent, Masoud Asgari, who has been pleading for weeks to receive proper care. Government spokesman Ali Rabiei also crit- Tajrishi, director of the planning office reforms into sharp be released from a U.S. immigration jail due to “It makes sense to send me to the hospital as icized the U.S. for its violation of human rights of the Lake Urmia Restoration Program, health problems, is in an isolation cell inside an soon as possible. I don’t trust them at all,” the with regard to Iranian prisoners. focus has announced. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 59-year-old said last week amid repeated cough- “One of these individuals has contracted Shared between West Azarbaijan and East jail in Louisiana. ing fits. “If something happens, they are not fast the coronavirus and if that individual’s test he coronavirus outbreak proved that Azarbaijan provinces in northwestern Iran, His lawyers learned last week that his COVID-19 responders … I prefer to leave this dirty place.” becomes negative, he will definitely return to one-dimensional health systems can- Lake Urmia, was once the largest salt-water test was positive, and in a phone call with The Asgari’s story sparked international outrage Iran,” Rabiei said during a press conference not survive from health-threatening lake in West Asia. It was home to many mi- T Guardian, Asgari had a bad cough and said he after he spoke about his fears of COVID-19 spread- on Monday. 3 crises, which occur every few years in the gratory and indigenous animals including form of infectious diseases, a mere view flamingos, pelicans, egrets, and ducks and of treatment is not enough, so that the attracted hundreds of tourists every year who need for healthcare reforms should be Saudi Arabia runs squalid, abusive jails for women disowned by their male guardians had bathed in the water to take advantage of brought into sharp focus. In the second half of 2019, Saudi Arabia passed The centers are called Dar Alreaya. Reasons The Saudi government say the institutions the therapeutic properties of the lake. Now that the globe is dealing with a pan- sweeping reforms for women, scrapping the for being sent there include oquq (disobeying are for women and girls who “stumble and However, decades of long-standing demic of such dimension, with the help of need for male permission to travel and even parents) and khulwa (being alone with a man in deviate from the straight path” under the age drought spells and elevated hot summer transformational measures that have taken allowing women to enlist in the country’s a closed area). The government describes people of 30. temperatures that speed up evaporation place in the country’s healthcare, we have military. sent there as “delinquents.” Insider contacted the Saudi Human Rights as well as increased water demands in the been able to take control of the disease. Both hint at a loosening of the guardianship Insider talked to rights activists, Saudi ac- Commission and Saudi Ministry of Labor and agriculture sector shrank the lake drasti- It is essential to know that as much as system, a long-standing Islamic legal framework ademics, and former inmates of Dar Alreaya Social Development for comment on the facil- cally. In 1999 the volume of water which creating new hospital beds, developing that gives men legal authority over women in to discover what life is like inside some of the ities but did not hear back. The labor ministry was at 30 billion cubic meters drastically hospitals, renovating dilapidated hospi- many areas of their lives, Insider reported. centers, of which there are 11. says on its website that the homes maintain decreased to half a billion cubic meters in tal tissue and upgrading medical centers But Saudi Arabia’s path to a more equal Brutalized and humiliated “suitable social and psychological conditions.” 2013. Moreover, the lake surface area of are important; the establishment of com- society is a long one, and some sectors remain Each woman’s guardian (usually, but not Life inside the jails, euphemistically called 5,000 square kilometers in 1997 shrunk prehensive health centers, health houses, firmly entrenched. always, her father) has wide discretion over “care homes” by the state, is not well-docu- to one-tenth of that to 500 square kilo- health workers training, the launch of The Saudi government continues to main- whether a woman should be sent there after mented. meters in 2013. electronic health records for the people, tain a network of detention facilities — prisons doing something that displeases him. Guard- But former inmates and rights groups In total, $5 billion was earmarked and numerous screening schemes, med- in all but name — for young women who are ians also have discretion over whether to take paint a picture of violence, psychological for the revitalization of Lake Urmia in ical supply, quantitative and qualitative formally disowned by their male guardians, them back. If the guardian refuses, a woman abuse, squalor, forced marriage, and regular the initial plan, of which $1 billion has improvement of medical education, and often for minor infractions. can stay in Dar Alreaya indefinitely. suicide attempts. been spent so far, IRNA quoted Tajrishi medical research are of great importance as saying on Sunday.