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.13285 Sunday DECEMBER 23, 2018 Dey 2, 1397 Rabi’ Al thani 15, 1440 Zarif says S. Arabia is Baqeri-Darmani, Team Melli want to Iran’s National Orchestra source of problems in corrupt tycoon, win Asian Cup title: to perform Azarbaijan the region 2 executed 2 Beiranvand 15 music concert in Tehran 16 ‘South Pars development phases to be complete by March 2020’ By Mahnaz Abdi divided into 24 standard phases of IRGC holds military TEHRAN — All development phases development in the first stage. Most of Iran’s South Pars gas field, except for of the phases are fully operational phase 11, will be completed by the end of at the moment. the next Iranian calendar year (March POGC is in charge of implementing 20, 2020), Mohammad Meshkinfam, the development phases of the huge offshore managing director of Pars Oil and Gas field, which is estimated to contain a sig- Company (POGC), announced in a press nificant amount of natural gas, account- drills in Persian Gulf conference on Saturday. ing for about eight percent of the world’s South Pars, which Iran shares reserves, and approximately 18 billion General Pakpour says Iran’s ‘operational doctrine is offensive’ with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, is barrels of condensate. 4 See page 2 Tehran: U.S. military presence ‘wrong’ from the outset POLITICS TEHRAN – Irani- been one of the key contributors to in- deskan Foreign Ministry stability and insecurity in the region,” said spokesman Bahram Qassemi has welcomed Qassemi, the Foreign Ministry website U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision reported on Saturday. to withdraw American forces from Syria, “A careful study of the history of the saying the U.S. military presence in the regional developments in recent decades Middle East fuels insecurity in the region. until now shows that the presence of foreign “Basically, U.S. forces’ arrival and pres- elements in this important and sensitive ence in the region was a wrong, illogical, region under different pretexts has only tension-provoking and crisis-inducing resulted in tension and intensification of move from the outset, and has always divisions,” he said. 2 UNSC authorizes truce monitors for Yemen’s Hudaydah Mohammad Khodabakhsh The United Nations Security Council The warring parties in Yemen -- the (UNSC) has voted unanimously to au- country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement thorize the deployment of UN monitors and the armed militia loyal to former Yem- to observe the implementation of a new- eni president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi ly-agreed ceasefire in Yemen’s vital port of -- reached an agreement on a ceasefire Tehran Times/ Tehran Times/ Hudaydah and the pullout of rival forces in the Red Sea Houthi-held port on De- from the flashpoint area. cember 13. 13 ARTICLE The atmosphere is not conducive to sustaining agreements about Yemen: Falk ARTICLE Syed Zafar Mehdi Former United Nations High Com- Martin Love Journalist EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW By Javad Heirannia missioner for Human Rights says “It is Political analyst from from New Delhi likely that on the Saudi side, especial- North Carolina TEHRAN — Richard Anderson Falk, ly in the aftermath of the Khashoggi professor emeritus of international law at murder there was a serious concern Farce of ‘reforms’ Princeton University, believes “the opening about being blamed for another major of the port cities of Al Hudaydah and Sanaa, humanitarian catastrophe if the ports U.S. may be in Saudi: extra- both covered by the Stockholm Agreement, remained closed.” handle up to 80% of humanitarian imports of Following is the full text of the interview: bumping up against judicial executions food and medicine. At this point, according Stockholm talks in Sweden led to a the limit of its to the most reliable international sources, cease-fire agreement in Al Hudaydah and double under MBS 17.8 million Yemenis out of a population of other agreements. What do you think about “empire” schemes 22.2 million are on the brink of starvation.” these agreements? 7 he grandiloquent talk of ‘reforms’ ay Dalio, head of Bridgewater, the in Saudi Arabia had dominated the largest and one of the most most popular discourse in the West af- ‘Yemeni people have had enough of Saudi interference in their domestic affairs’ successful hedge funds in the U.S., terT crown prince Mohammad bin Salman R By Syed Zafar Mehdi making mockery of the ceasefire agreement. Sau- against foreign aggression and he is also a noted and no fool when it comes to finance and (MBS) engineered an unprecedented purge di-led coalition has violated the ceasefire at least 59 commentator on MENA affairs. economic matters, has warned that because of his own family late last year and seized TEHRAN — Following the week-long UN-brokered times since Thursday, launching deadly airstrikes In an interview to Tehran Times, Mr. Agerhus of the expansion of debt both personal control of the palace. peace talks in Sweden, Yemen’s warring parties in the residential areas of Hudeidah. spoke about the ceasefire facilitated by the UN, and governmental the country might be The much-hyped ‘reforms’, which only agreed to an immediate ceasefire in Hudeidah city Rune Agerhus is the chairman of International how Saudi-led coalition violated the truce, hu- facing sooner or later an inflationary debt palace insiders had inkling of, made MBS an and the ports of Hudeidah, Ras Issa and Saleef. Solidarity Committee with Yemen (ISCY) and manitarian situation in the war-ravaged country crisis that could see the value of the dollar overnight ‘darling’ in the West. That was until However, less than 24 hours after the landmark editor-in-chief of Uprising Today Media. His and why the world needs to speak in one voice decline by 30 percent or more. dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi came truce was announced by UN chief Antonio Guterres, work is mainly focused on the Yemeni struggle against the Saudi war crimes in Yemen. 6 This is an ominous warning, and into the picture and punctured the balloon Saudi-led coalition jets again bombarded Hudeidah, from the standpoint of geopolitics, if a of make-believe ‘reforms’. The crown prince crisis ever occurs, it will have immense stands exposed today. His crown has stains The turbulent sea of Europe ramifications for geopolitics – especially of blood. His disgraceful fall from grace was starting point of which has been “France”. It beginning of the economic crisis in Europe) By Hanif Ghafari on the U.S. capacity to project military inevitable but nobody would have possibly might have been supposed that the new wave we have seen severe austerity policies being TEHRAN — As it could be expected, the current power and even apply odious sanctions thought that it would come so soon. of general crisis in Europe would start from adopted in the Green Continent. After 11 years, protests in France against Emmanuel Macron’s on other countries like Iran. In a latest report, demolishing the ‘re- countries such as Greece and Spain (which such policies led to nothing but a rollback of policies didn’t come to an end, but we’re rather Triple-digit inflation has taken hold forms’ charade, a report by a UK-based are the main symbols of the economic crisis the United Europe, and the continuation of witnessing the spread of these protests to other in countries across the globe by storm human rights group has revealed that ex- in the Eurozone). the crisis in the Eurozone. France’s unrests parts of Europe. The anti-capitalist protest of in 2018. Argentina, Iran, Turkey, Sudan, ecutions in Saudi Arabia have doubled during However, we can see that this time, the wave had also affected the Benelux region (Belgium, the French citizens is now spreading to other Zimbabwe and Venezuela and others have the crown prince’s eight months in power. was started from Paris! Undoubtedly, the scope of Holland and Luxembourg). Obviously, some European countries, including the Netherlands all suffered economic and financial blows According to a report by Reprieve, there this crisis is far more extensive than the previous other European countries, including Spain, Italy and Belgium. this year, and in the U.S. virtually every were 133 executions in Saudi Arabia between socio-economic crises in Europe, and Europe- and Greece, will face new upcoming events. According to many European analysts, market – real estate, stocks and bonds June 2017 and March 2018, compared to an authorities are going to have a hard line in These countries continue to pursue austeri- the unrests will also reach other member -- has declined except for the cash dollar. just 67 in eight months prior to that. Among managing the new crisis. ty policies to reduce public spending, reduce states of the Eurozone. In this case, European On top of this, Donald Trump has done those executed have been poor and hapless The fact is that since 2007 (the time for the external debt and etc. officials will face with a massive crisis, the 7 something this month no one predicted migrants forced into smuggling drugs. – announced a withdrawal of some 2000 Almost 150 foreign workers, mostly troops from Syria, which marks a conces- from South Asia, were executed in the sion, if it happens, that the U.S. lost its kingdom during 2018, the report said, Makhmal Kuh: war with its allied and various terrorist bringing into spotlight Saudi regime’s groups on Syria and the Assad government. dismal human rights record.