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.13273 Sunday DECEMBER 9, 2018 Azar 18, 1397 Rabi’ Al thani 1, 1440 U.S. has turned ‘Strengthening rial, Mehdi Taj German director Walter region into supplying working capital nominated for AFC vice Steffen’s “Joy in Iran” to ‘gunpowder store’ 2 top priorities of banks’ 4 president post 15 screen at Cinéma Vérité 16 Iran blames regional spy services for Chabahar attack POLITICS TEHRAN — In- reported. desktelligence Minister “In their view, a terrorism which meets Mahmoud Alavi on Saturday con- their interests is good terrorism,” the min- demned the recent terrorist attack in ister remarked. Chabahar, southeastern Iran, saying On Thursday, a vehicle laden with Iran holds regional sponsors of ter- explosives went off close to a police rorism and spy services accountable headquarters in Chabahar, a port city in for the horrific incident. the southeastern province of Sistan-Bal- Alavi made the remarks in Tehran uchestan. Two soldiers were killed and at on the sidelines of an international least 43 individuals were injured during meeting of parliament speakers of Iran, the attack. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, Chi- In a tweet on Thursday, Foreign Min- na and Russia on peace, connectivity ister Zarif said “Iran will bring terrorists and prosperity in the region, Mehr and their masters to justice”. NIMA supplies €6.8b for imports of goods, services ECONOMY TEHRAN — Since be- (CBI), electrical, electronic and telecom- deskcoming online in early munication products with €353.1 million July, Iran’s domestic Forex Management and auto parts with €205.1 million were Integrated System (locally known as NIMA) the products with the greatest amount of Rouhani: Sanctions equal has earned €6.8 billion of foreign currency to foreign currency supplied for imports at be consumed for imports of goods and services the secondary market NIMA. into the country, IRIB reported on Saturday. The required foreign currency for According to the public relations imports of the following goods has been economic terrorism department of the Central Bank of Iran supplied by NIMA per se: 4 ICH appoints Iran as new observer Mohammadreza Abbasi HEALTH TEHRAN — Iran be- country in the region to join ICH. deskcame the new observer ICH is a project that brings together the See page 2 of the International Council for Harmonization regulatory authorities of Europe, Japan and Parliament speakers of six Asian countries of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals the United States and experts from the phar- for Human Use (ICH), the Health Ministry maceutical industry in the three regions to Tehran Times/ Tehran Times/ condemn chabahar terrorist attack announced in a report published on Saturday. discuss scientific and technical aspects of According to the report, Iran is the very first pharmaceutical product registration. 9 ARTICLE Political squabbles among OPEC members have weakened its efficacy: Entessar REPORT Ebrahim Fallahi By Payman Yazdani countries that account for a significant percentage of A: Qatar’s announcement of its intention to Ramin Hossein Abadian Tehran Times journalist TEHRAN — Touching upon the Qatar’s rea- the world’s oil production was confirmed by Qatar withdraw from OPEC took almost everyone, Mehr News Agency sons to withdraw from OPEC, Prof. Entessar Petroleum, the state oil company, last Monday. including many seasoned observers of Qatari journalist said political squabbles among its members have To know more about the issue we reached out politics, by surprise. Qatari government stated weakened OPEC’s efficacy. to Nader Entessar, Professor Emeritus of Polit- that it would like to concentrate on its natural gas Oil’s love triangle Qatar will withdraw from the Organization ical Science from University of South Alabama. sector, but this reason alone cannot really explain Tel Aviv’s fear of of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Here is the full text of his comments: why the country needed to withdraw from OPEC ends up with the Persian Gulf nation’s Energy Minister Saad What are the reasons behind Qatar’s de- to do so. Qatar already has a robust natural gas Hezbollah reaction Sherida al-Kaabi announced. cision to withdraw from OPEC? Is it politically industry and is the leading exporter of liquefied Trump in tears The decision to quit the bloc of 15 oil-producing and economically right decision? natural gas in the world. 7 against Operation hese days whenever there is talks Northern Shield about oil market three names are Draft national budget bill is based on gasoline populism t seems that Israeli hostility against Tinevitably come to surface, the U.S. By M.A.Saki cial rate) have been allocated for aiding the poor to increase gasoline price by 50 percent, which resistant movement has no end in Gaza President Trumps, Russian President Pu- Some details of the national budget bill for the people and 35,000 billion tomans ($8.3 billion) was rejected by the parliament. nor in Lebanon. Deposit heavy fiasco, tin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed next Iranian fiscal year, which will start on March for the health reform plan. And why this time the budget organization I the Zionist has no intend to give up their Bin Salman. 21, 2018, were released on Thursday by the Man- These are the positive aspects of the budget. has not increased gasoline price for the next year foolish adventure that has clear outcome. This goes to an extent that some even agement and Planning Organization. But, according the draft budget bill, the price of is really unsettling. Most probably, the organ- The Zionist regime recently launched a say OPEC has lost “what control of the oil According to the Iran newspaper, the budget the heavily-subsidized gasoline has remained ization is arguing that since commodity prices new adventure on the northern axis of the market it ever had” and the whole mar- for environment protection has increased 84 untouched. have increased highly due to the reimposition of occupied territories on the Lebanese border ket is being controlled by these three and percent and for tourism industry 100 percent. Even last year, when the government submit- sanctions and the devaluation of national currency, claiming that Hezbollah enters weapons whatever goes on between them would Among other things, the newspaper also said ted the draft budget to the parliament for final an increase in gasoline price will exacerbate the and explosives to Israeli territory through eventually reflect on the oil prices and 7,000 billion tomans ($1.66 billion at the offi- approval for the current year, it had proposed situation. 13 the market in the future. tunnels set up on Lebanese border with This made me to take a look at the events Israel. The Operation Northern Shield of the oil market in the past few months up ‘Optimists see a Indo-Pakistani dialogue in post India’s general elections’ began on December 4, and the Zionist to the OPEC’s 175th meeting in Vienna in By Syed Zafar Mehdi to Tehran Times, she briefly touched upon the A. Relations between India and Pakistan are army has deployed a large number of its which once again the cartel stretched some Relations between India and Pakistan, the two relations between India and Pakistan, the logjam marred all the time, with periodic relief when military equipment and forces on the muscles to leave many in shock, pushing South Asian estranged neighbors, continue to over Kashmir, Modi’s handshake with MBS at governments on both sides exhibit political will. northern borders, and has declared the oil prices up near five percent. fluctuate. Kartarpur corridor project had opened G-20 summit, and what makes Iran important Since the current situation cannot continue for- area a closed military zone. After two days of meeting involving a window of opportunity for the two countries for India. ever, optimists do see a period of dialogue post The Zionist worried about tense discussions and persuasions, OPEC to bury the hatchet and strengthen ties, but the Following are the excerpts: India’s general elections. Lebanese resistant‘s reaction and oil-producing allies known as OPEC+ BJP government in India hasn’t shown much The relations between India and Pakistan Kashmir remains the bone of contention The fact is that the Zionist regime isn’t finally agreed on Friday to cut production enthusiasm. continue to be marred by various issues. Do you between the two countries. What steps need prepared to accept a heavier defeat of Leba- by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) de- Seema Mustafa is a senior journalist and see the possibility of two sides reviving peace di- to be taken by the two countries and the in- non’s Hezbollah on the northern front after spite pressures from Trump to maintain commentator based in New Delhi. She is the alogue after general elections in India, since the ternational community to resolve the logjam its loss against Islamic resistance groups current output levels to keep prices low. founder editor of The Citizen. In an interview BJP government doesn’t seem interested this time? over Kashmir? 6 in the occupied territories of Palestine. Based on the OPEC+ announcement, The political authorities of Zionism and Saudi Arabia will shoulder most of the cut the military commanders of this regime that is 800,000 bpd while Russia, which are well aware of this fact, and of course, has been an important player in global oil Paris like a some of them have confirmed it. markets, and other non-OPEC producers In the same vein, the zeal of the concerns of will bear the rest.