Tehran says Iranian, Polish Iran’s Amir Ghafour a Inscription of will continue advisory chambers of commerce doubt for crucial France ornate copy of 21112role in Iraq, Syria 4 ink co-op MOU clash in WOQT Quran completed NATION ECONOMY SPORTS ART& CULTURE WWW.TEHRANTIMES.COM I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y Kuwaiti parliament speaker felicitates Larijani on his post 2 12 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 38th year No.12564 Tuesday MAY 31, 2016 Khordad 11, 1395 Sha’aban 24, 1437 Chomsky: S. Arabia U.S. not serious in fulfilling Indonesia to ‘spreads Salafi doctrine buy 80,000 and funds terrorists’ JCPOA commitments, Zarif says tons of LPG EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW from Iran By Javad Heirannia POLITICAL TEHRAN — Iranian essential to fulfill its commitments under residents in Poland. desk ECONOMY TEHRAN — Indo- Foreign Minister Mo- the JCPOA. The U.S. government should assure desk TEHRAN — Noam Chomsky asserts that Saudi Arabia hammad Javad Zarif said on Monday “Today, the only fear is obstruction the world that it will not fine financial in- nesia inked a con- is not only spreading “Wahhabi/Salafi doctrine” but also that the Western side, especially the of economic interaction with Iran,” Zarif stitutions and companies that do trade tract with Iran to buy 80,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from “funding terrorist groups”. U.S., is not serious to the extent that is said during a meeting with the Iranian with Iran, he noted. 2 In an exclusive and yet short interview with the Tehran Times, the Islamic Republic, the Shana news the renowned U.S. academic also says the claim by Western agency reported. countries that they support human rights values is a “farce”. The contract was signed in the In an interview with Democracy Now in mid-May, presence of Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Chomsky also said the Saudi kingdom is “a source of not See page 3 Namdar Zanganeh and Indonesian only funding for extremist radical Islam and the jihadi out- Iraqi forces Energy Minister Sudirman Said in Teh- growths of it, but also, doctrinally, mosques, clerics and so ran on Monday. on, schools, you know, madrassas, …, is spreading all over Based on the contract, the figure the huge Sunni areas from Saudi influence.” enter Fallujah would reach 500,000 tons in the next year. Following is the text of Tehran Times’ interview with Iran has no limitation in expanding Chomsky: ties with Indonesia, Zanganeh said in Mr. Chomsky you have said that Saudi Arabia is his meeting with Said, adding that Iran a “center of radical Islamic extremism”. What are your opens all doors for the cooperation evidences for such a claim? of Indonesian state-run and private A: The huge literature on Saudi efforts to spread Wah- companies in the country’s oil, gas and habi/Salafi doctrine and fund terrorist groups. petrochemical sectors. Earlier in March, If Saudi Arabia is the main center of radicalism is it Iran and Indonesia inked a memoran- because of Wahhabi ideology? dum of understanding on expanding A: Primarily. That plus huge wealth and missionary cul- cooperation in oil, gas and petrochem- ture. ical industries, among other fields. Why do Western countries such as the An Iranian delegation traveled to In- UUnitednited States claiclaimm support for liberal donesia on February 23 to attend the two vavalueslues bubutt baback a country like Saudi countries’ first joint economic committee, AArabia which you have which was held in Bogor, West Java. sasaid “has one of the An agreement was signed on Feb- mmost grotesque human ruary 24 by Wiratmaja Puja, the oil rirightsg records in the and gas director general at Indone- wworld?o sia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral A: Because their Resources, and Marzieh Riahi, the di- cclaimla of liberal values is rector of Asia and Pacific affairs at the a fafarce. AP Department of International Affairs of Iran’s Oil Ministry. COMMENT Steigenberger Hotel Group set to build 10 hotels in Iran EDITORIAL By Ali Asghar Pahlavan By Hassan Lasjerdi Tehran Times journalist TOURISM TEHRAN try in recent years. Tehran Times editor-in-chief desk— German He said that experts from hospitality company, Stei- Steigenberger Hotels visited genberger Hotel Group, is different cities of Iran includ- Quit smoking today set to build 10 hotels in dif- ing Shiraz, Isfahan and Teh- Fighting back ferent parts of Iran over the ran four times during past six fter more than three decades of smoking, one morn- next ten years. months and explored tour- irrationality with ing I turned up and said enough is enough and de- The CEO of Steigenberg- ism market in the country. toleration Acided to go cold Turkey. er Hotels, Puneet Chhatwal, Steigenberger Hotels signed an agreement with already has 120 hotels in In two weeks’ time, I checked into a nicotine treatment ehran and Riyadh failed to clinch center affiliated to Tehran Municipality for counseling. the deputy director of Iran’s 13 countries and will begin Cultural Heritage, Tourism, building hotels in Iran until a deal on making arrangements The rehab centers provide good exit plans for smokers, favored by the two sides for Ira- who, otherwise, seem bound to fail without them. and Handicrafts Organiza- ending of 2016, he added. T tion (CHTHO), Saeid Shirka- Chhatwal said that they nians to perform this year’s hajj. Sure, it wasn’t an easy task, but as they say, the greater the This resulted in officials of the two hardship, the greater the reward. vand, during a meeting at are searching for an Iranian Tehran’s Espinas Palace Hotel partner to build the hotels. regional powerhouses trading accu- What I needed most, then, was an Iron determination to sations on who was to blame for the respect my body and family, not to mention the environment on Sunday. The Steigenberger Hotels The German group visited has improved investment in impasse. by keeping the air clean. That was history. Today, I delightedly A statement from the Saudi pil- announce to the world that almost 21 months have passed Iran’s hotel building holdings the Middle East during re- and private sector entities cent years. The Steigenberg- grimage ministry said the Iranian gov- since I kicked off the bad habit. Steigenberger Hotels CEO Puneet Chhatwal and CHTHO Deputy ernment “will be responsible in front of At the age of 57, my firsthand experience has taught me on Saturday and decided to Director for Investments Saeid Shirkavand shake hands after signing er Hotel Dubai Business Bay build the hotels under the has been receiving guests Allah Almighty and its people for the that putting aside smoking has nothing to do with age but an agreement for building 10 hotels by Steigenberger Hotel Group inability of the Iranian citizens to per- has all to do with determination. brand name Steigenberger in Iran on Sunday (ISNA/Peyman Yazdani) since November 2015. Hotels or InterCity Hotels in The first InterCityHotel form hajj for this year.” Cigarette smoking on the rise On the other hand, Iranian Culture Unfortunately, Smoking cigarette and hookah have taken the coming years. as road and rail transport “The hotels will be built by outside Europe is sched- CHTHO Director Masoud systems are some tourism Iran’s private sector and in- uled to open in July 2016 and Islamic Guidance Minister Ali Jan- its momentum among Iranian youths. nati slammed Saudis for the cancela- Smoking hookah, water pipes used for smoke, is by far Soltanifar also attended the infrastructures improved by vestors from other countries. in Salalah, the second meeting. During the event, Iran during past years,” he Investors from Turkey and largest metropolitan area tion, saying, “Performing the hajj ritual more dangerous than cigarettes smoking. this year is virtually impossible” be- Despite the fact that developed countries have taken he pointed to measures Iran explained. Azerbaijan signed agree- in Oman and the Inter- has taken to facilitate tour- Soltanifar also explained ments with CHTHO to build CityHotel Dubai Culture cause of the Saudis’ continuous sabo- decisive measures to lower smoking since 1999’s, smoking taging of the process.” in several developing countries like Iran shows an upward ism industry during past two about the plan to increase hotels in different parts of Village and the Steigen- years. the number of 4-star and Iran recently,” he explained. berger Hotel Doha Air- Seen from a pathological perspec- trend. tive, it can be noticed that Saudis have One of the major stumbling blocks on the way of addicts “Facilitation of visa ob- 5-star hotels in the next ten Steigenberger Hotels port Road in Qatar are taining for some nationali- years, saying that “Iran will CEO Chhatwal, for his part, scheduled for completion confronted Iranian decision makers in Iran is teahouses. with difficult decisions through their In recent years, teahouses have offered hookahs to the ties, expanding number and build 25 four- and five-star talked about the improve- in 2017 and 2018 respec- destination of flights as well hotels annually in the future”. ment in Iran’s tourism indus- tively. overambitious dreams. Although Teh- young generation regardless of their age. Once they played a ran has continued to react diplomat- role of cultural centers nationwide, as epic poems of Ferdow- ically, trying to close the gap, Saudis si’s masterpiece Shahnameh were recited there to familiarize Lithuania inclined to invest in Iran’s LNG, shale projects have shown little interest in Tehran’s Iranians with their cultural and national heritage, today, how- peace-making initiatives, giving rise to ever, teahouses have become hotbed for addiction and drug ECONOMY TEHRAN — Iranian Shana news agency that his country is has shown tendency towards buying new challenges.