WWW.TEHRANTIMES.COM I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y 16 Pages Price 20,000 Rials 1.00 EURO 4.00 AED 39th year No.13291 Sunday DECEMBER 30, 2018 Dey 9, 1397 Rabi’ Al thani 22, 1440 Leader’s post-2009 Al-Amiri thanks Iran’s Khademalsharieh Nine debut films election statements Iran for aiding Iraq wins silver at World get Fajr festival published 2 against terror 2 Rapid Championship 15 premiere 16 Chabahar trilateral agreement to take effect on Feb. 26 ECONOMY TEHRAN— According agreement’s implementation requires at- Palestinian Islamic deskto the deputy head of traction of businessmen and launching Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization direct shipping lines between Chabahar (PMO) for ports and economic affairs, the and India’s port, as well as other ports at trilateral agreement between Iran, India and the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman. Afghanistan on transit of goods via Iran’s “The implementation has been start- Jihad leader meets Zarif southeastern port of Chabahar will be offi- ed since a week ago and of course, some See page 2 cially implemented on February 26, 2019. cargos had been transited from India to As the official portal of the Trans- Afghanistan before that,” he said, “About Iran to continue backing port Ministry quoted Mohammad-Ali 10 ships of wheat and beans, weighting Hassanzadeh as saying in an interview 120,000 tons, have been transported from Palestine, Zarif says in a state-TV program on Saturday, the India to Afghanistan, previously.” 4 Iran builds radars to monitor satellites in low earth orbit POLITICS TEHRAN — Briga- achieved world’s modern technology deskdier General Hossein by relying on domestic capabilities Salami, the Islamic Revolution Guards despite economic, scientific and Corps second-in-command, announced technical boycott.” on Saturday that Iranian experts have He added that Iran has built radars succeeded to build radars to monitor to monitor satellites in low earth orbit, satellites in low earth orbit (LEO). drones to carry out operations pre- Addressing a conference at Su- cisely, and ballistic missiles to destroy preme National Defense University in warships through relying on domestic Tehran, Salami said, “Today, we have capabilities. 2 Saudi cabinet reshuffle: An attempt to avert potential dangers INTERNATIONAL TEHRAN — The has announced former Finance Minister deskcabinet reshuffle Ibrahim al-Assaf would succeed Adel al- carried out by King Salman of Saudi Jubeir as the nation’s Foreign Minister. Mohammad Khodabakhsh Arabia has raised a lot of questions Al-Jubeir, who served as the Foreign Min- about the real motives behind the ister since 2015, was appointed minister changes and future steps taken by of state for foreign affairs. the Saudi regime. In November 2017, Al-Assaf was de- The political structure in Saudi Arabia is tained in Saudi Arabia in a corruption established in a way that the cabinet is led crackdown conducted by a new royal Tehran Times/ Tehran Times/ by the king. In cabinet shake-up the king anti-corruption committee. 13 EDITORIAL Pentagon and CIA are against Trump, reasons of U.S. withdrawal from Syria: Anzour REPORT Mohammad Ghaderi By Mohammad Fatemizadeh Following is the full text of the interview: roles and their implications for international Ramin Hossein Abadian Tehran Times editor-in-chief TEHRAN — After Donald Trump said he would What’s your assessment of Trump’s deci- politics and the future of the United States in Mehr News Agency @ghaderi62 withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria, the Turkish sion about the withdrawal of U.S. troops from international affairs. journalist military operation against Kurdish-led forces Syria and the region? Therefore, real changes have been made in in northern Syria has been postponed. Cur- A: This issue should be analyzed from four all of these cases, all of which are the reason for Independent rently, the main cast in Syria is assessing the points. First there is the resistance and achieve- the withdrawal of American troops from Syria. Cold season comes position of their forces to continue fighting the ment of the Syrian people, second is in the regional How do you evaluate U.S. policies vis- European army: A remaining ISIS presence after the departure dimension where the resistance is strengthen by à-vis the region, in particular in Syria since to an end in Syria of the U.S. our friend, Iran. Third, on the world stage, for Trump took office? Is he just looking at these dream which will The Mehr News Agency conducted an inter- the return of the East from Russia to China, its issues from the point of view of economics and espite the fact that Syrian crisis has view with Syrian Deputy Parliament Speaker political and economic role and its place at the spending for the United States, or are there been going on about eight years, the never come true Najdat Anzour. center of the world. Fourth, because of the U.S. other goals behind it? 7 DSyrian government has achieved valuable triumphs and victories against t has been a rather long time that enemies, and that has made an increasing politicians like the French President No competition between Gwader and Chabahar ports: Pakistan parliament speaker number of Arab states to begin normalizing relations with Syria. IEmmanuel Macron, and German By Banafsheh Esmaeili Following is the text of the interview: any disputes. The new government in Pa- Chancellor Angela Merkel, didn’t speak In 2011, the leaders of the Arab League, TEHRAN – Asad Qaiser, speaker of Pakistan’s Chabahar Port of Iran and the Gwadar Port kistan is determined to expand and deepen of the formation of an “Independent under widespread pressure of the US and National Assembly, believes that “there is no in Pakistan are said to be complementary to each relations with the Iranian government and European Army.” This is doubling the Western countries, voted to suspend Syr- competition” between Gwader port owned by other. What kind of joint venture can take place nation. assumptions on the cross-sectional and ia’s membership in the league. But now, Pakistan and Chabahar port in Iran. between the two ports? The project of Gwadar Port is a great op- reactionary nature of this idea by Eu- with the new developments, the same Gwader is going to be operated by China and A: First and foremost, Iran is our friend portunity for both countries. It is our will to kick ropean authorities. countries are surpassing other states to Chabahar by India. and a brotherly country. Pakistanis love off the cooperation between these ports in a way Countries like Germany, France, and resume relations with Damascus. “It is our will to kick off cooperation between and consider Iranians their best friends. that both Pakistan and Iran would be able to take Spain supported this idea, and, on the The developments throughout these these ports,” Qaiser tells the Mehr news agency. Fortunately, the two countries don’t have advantage of this opportunity. 7 contrary, Britain, Denmark and the Neth- years clearly show that the Arab states erlands have strongly opposed it. However, have played a significant role in inten- the evidences suggest that such this idea sifying and elongating the Syrian crisis has an abstract nature, and it is merely a Pakistan fencing Afghan border to curb infiltration, but Afghans not happy as well as their sudden change of heart minimal and periodic reaction by Macron By Syed Zafar Mehdi the two countries. nize its legality. that indicates their defeat in Damascus. and Merkel against unilateral measures TEHRAN — Pakistan and Afghanistan, the two One of the sources of conflict between them The armies of the two countries have often Head of Syrian National taken by the U.S. President. Meanwhile, estranged neighbors with history of hostility and is the porous 1,500 mile border. The two gov- engaged in cross-border skirmishes, resulting in Security Bureau visited Egypt Germany and France spent 1.2 percent bad blood, have made concerted efforts in recent ernments believe terrorists infiltrate through military and civilian casualties, and escalating at official invitation and 1.8 percent of their gross domestic months to open a new chapter in their bilateral the porous border from both sides and launch political and diplomatic tensions. Ali Mamlouk, head of the National Se- product (GDP) on defense spending under relations. attacks. It also allows drug smugglers to do their Pakistan army, in a bid to seal the border and curity Bureau of the Ba’ath Party, recently the NATO pact. The new government in Pakistan has not illicit trade. prevent influx of terrorists and smugglers, has traveled to Cairo at the invitation of Egyp- Trump called on German and French only pledged its support to Afghan-led and Af- The western border, Durand Line, has been been constructing a fence along the border. The tian intelligence chief. During his trip to officials to increase this amount to 2 per- ghan-owned peace process, but it has also taken the main bone of contention between the two work was inaugurated by Pakistan’s army chief Egypt, he met with senior security officials cent. Britain and four other countries (out initiatives to remove the trust deficit between countries as Afghanistan has refused to recog- Qamar Bajwa in May this year. 6 of Egypt including the head of the Egyptian of the 29 NATO member states) have so intelligence agency, Abbas Kamel. During far been willing to devote 2% of their GDP the meeting, the two sides discussed the se- on NATO defense spending, and 24 other curity developments in the region and ways countries have not yet responded to this to resume the military relations between request.