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 39th year No.13605 Sunday FEBRUARY 16, 2020 Bahman 27, 1398 Jumada Al thani 21, 1441 %26 managerial posts U.S. looking for a Team Melli need UNESCO screens went to women in first guilty to hide defeats to feel positive energy: “Rona, Azim’s Mother” half of current year 2 in Yemen 2 Skocic 11 12 Iranian banks’ foreign assets See page 2 Nation’s resistance up over 17% TEHRAN — The total value of Iranian The total value of the banking sys- banks’ foreign assets by December 21, 2019 tem’s foreign assets had stood at 8.81 stood at 10.034 quadrillion rials (about quadrillion rials (about $209.76 billion) $246.19 billion), registering a 17.3-per- for the last year’s same time span, the against ‘wild cent rise compared with the corresponding data showed. period of last year. As reported, the figure for December 21 has According to the latest data published by registered a 12.8-percent rise in comparison the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), 47.8 percent to the 9.171 quadrillion rials (about $218.35 of the mentioned assets belong to the central billion) recorded at the end of the last Iranian American monster’ bank, IRNA reported on Saturday. calendar year (March 20, 2019). 4 Trump was misled to believe U.S. could get has surprised away with Soleimani assassination: Zarif TEHRAN — Iranian Foreign Minister U.S. presence in the region, and we were Mohammad Javad Zarif says U.S. President very close to a war, because the United Donald Trump was misled to believe his States initiated an act of aggression against country would get away with the assas- Iran in a very, excuse the language, cow- world sination of General Qassem Soleimani. ardly way,” Zarif said. Trump believed that the assassination “They couldn’t confront Soleimani in would augment U.S. security but it worked the battlefield so they hit him during the the other way around, Zarif said in an dark of night through a drone attack on a interview with NBC News’ Richard Engel car carrying him on a peace mission, which in Munich on Friday on the sidelines of is beneath any dignified way of dealing the Munich Security Conference. with this, and it came very close to war,” “It was the beginning of the end of the he added. 3 U.S. under pressure as Russia, Syria step up efforts to counter occupying U.S. troops U.S. troops occupying parts of northeast- sian helicopters are flying closer to U.S. ern Syria have come under increasing troops as part of an “intensifying pressure pressure as Russia and Syria step up their campaign”. military presence in the region, according According to the report, a notable to the New York Times. presence of Syrian and Russian drones The U.S. daily reported that American and other aircraft in the region has military and diplomatic officials have said also “eroded American air superiority” leader.ir that Russia has been intensifying patrol in the regions where U.S. forces are “run-ins” with U.S. troops and that Rus- present. 10 EDITORIAL Italian musicians Aquino, Giachino happy to be at Fajr festival ARTICLE Mohammad Ghaderi By Manijeh Rezapoor have visited Iran. here in Tehran,” he asserted. Tehran Times editor-in-chief TEHRAN — Italian jazz trumpeter Luca Aquino Giachino said that they wanted to represent Aquino praised a performance by the Tohid Raeisi @ghaderi62 and pianist Fabio Giachino has said that they are their native culture and music at the Fajr Music Art and Culture Orchestra, an Iranian Analyst happy to be taking part in the 35th Fajr Music Festival. ensemble that was conducted by Nader Munich Security Festival underway in Tehran. “Some musicians were afraid to attend be- Mashayekhi at the Rudaki Hall on Fri- The two are members of a trio that includes cause of the recent events in Iran and decided day, and said that he does not know any How Trump has Conference duty double bassist Dario Miranda, which gave a per- not to come. They were worried and decided to Iranian musicians and is not familiar formance during the festival at Vahdat Hall in cancel their performances, however, we didn’t with Iranian music. violated Iranian regarding the Tehran on Saturday. have any plans to change our minds and we are However, he is interested in listening to Irani- “We’re very happy to have been invited to happy that we are taking part,” said Aquino an music and organizing a concert with Iranian the festival, for me and for Fabio it was a dream who along with his colleagues arrived in Tehran musicians in the future. human rights assassination on Thursday. Aquino said that he cannot compare the Fajr to be here; this is one of the most beautiful hile in 2015 the U.S. Mission of commander places in the world,” Aquino told the Tehran “Iran is full of history. You have a beautiful festival with other musical events in the world city, an amazing mountain with beautiful snow. and added, “However, I know that there are lots to the United Nations (USUN) Times in an interview ahead of the concert had requested that the Joint on Saturday. Musicians travel a lot in the world and we were of audiences and musicians interested in jazz in W Soleimani Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) able to understand and feel the mood of the place here.” 12 This is the first time the Italian musicians and its annexes be circulated as a doc- his year’s Munich Security Confer- ument of the Security Council, three ence is being held for the fifty-sixth years later the Trump administration Ttime from 14 to 16 February. The Yemeni missile shoots down Saudi-led fighter jet in Jawf claimed the JCPOA is a political agree- meeting is held annually to discuss the ment and unilaterally withdrew from it. Yemeni army forces have shot down a fighter Saudi-led combat or surveillance drones as well Yemen’s Health Ministry said aid workers world’s security problems and to come Since that time, the U.S. has launched jet belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition as a number of helicopters. could not reach the site of the attack due to con- up with a unified solution to them. a wave of economic sanctions against in retaliation for the alliance’s military aggression The Yemeni army has devised and manufac- tinuous flights by Saudi warplanes over the area. Significantly, to date, these meetings the Iranian people. against their conflict-stricken country. tured its own ballistic missiles and combat drones, The al-Masirah TV cited difficulty in confirm- have not been able to function effectively In response to the U.S. moves, in Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah televi- which has changed power balance against the ing the number of victims as body parts were in resolving global security problems. January 2020, the members of the Ira- sion network, citing an unnamed source in the failing Saudi-led coalition. scattered over the targeted area. The chaotic situation in today’s world is nian parliament presented a bill that Yemeni missile defense units, reported that the The spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces the reflection of this inability. Now the 30 civilians killed in fresh Saudi obliges the government to study U.S. country’s air defense units managed to target said on Friday that they had downed a tornado question is that how this year’s summit airstrikes on Yemen inhuman measures against Iranian and shoot down a fighter jet of Tornado type in warplane belonging to “enemy forces” in Jawf can achieve the goals proposed by its At least 30 civilians have been killed and many citizens and present a report every six the skies of Yemen’s northern province of Jawf Province. founders, namely global security and others injured in fresh air raids conducted by Saudi months. Nevertheless, the Office of Leg- late on Friday night, Press TV reported. Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the war- stability. warplanes on Yemen’s northern Jawf Province, islations has asserted the bill is similar It also quoted spokesman for Yemen’s Armed plane was brought down by an advanced air-to- To answer this question, it is im- Yemeni media report. to the one that requires the government Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree as saying ground missile. portant to consider the key issues of The al-Masirah TV channel reported Saturday to pursue compensations arising from that the multi-role combat aircraft had been shot The spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi Ansarul- global security and stability. A look at that the Riyadh regime carried out eight aerial U.S. measures and crimes against Iran down with an advanced surface-to-air missile. lah movement on Saturday condemned the Saudi the process of developments shows that assaults on Jawf’s al-Maslub district. and Iranian citizens. But it seems that Back in January 2018, the Yemeni missile massacre in Jawf, saying, “As usual, when the most the world is facing a series of terrorism, The strikes, it added, targeted people who this view is not correct. Because in com- units managed to shoot down a Tornado fight- brutal U.S.-Saudi aggression receives painful strikes each of which poses many security risks. had gathered near the wreckage of a Saudi jet parison to the previous law, the core er jet and an F-15 warplane.