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.13334 Thursday FEBRUARY 21, 2019 Esfand 2, 1397 Jumada Al thani 15, 1440 U.S. pressures Pakistan’s intelligence Team Melli one Top artists of amount to agency backs win away from 2019 post-revolution Iranian ‘terrorist act’ 2 terrorists 2 FIBA World Cup 15 theater honored 16 Non-oil exports to Russia up Xi stresses ‘comprehensive 8.5% in 10 months on year TEHRAN— Iran’s value of non-oil modities worth $219 million to exports to Russia has risen 8.5 per- Russia during the mentioned cent during the first ten months of the ten-month time. current Iranian calendar year (March Iran’s non-oil export to the 21, 2018- January 20, 2019), Mehr neighboring country was 370,817 strategic ties’ with Iran news agency reported on Wednesday. tons valued at $201.9 million in the As reported, Iran exported same period of time in the previous 371,629 tons of non-oil com- year. 4 See page 2 Medical tourism fetches Iran $1.2b in last fiscal year TEHRAN— Medical tourism made an year (started March 21, 2018), IRNA re- economic contribution of around $1.2 ported on Tuesday. Iran has set its goals billion to the country in the last Iranian to exceed its yearly medical travelers to calendar year (March 2017-March 2018), around 2 million in [calendar year] 1404, said the head of Medical Tourism Depart- he added. ment at the Ministry of Health. “We have the potential to be top medical According to Saeid Hashemzadeh, tourism destination in the region, but at Iran attracted around 300,000 medical present we are among the top three lead- tourists last year and the number nearly ing destinations of such tourists in West doubled over the current Iranian calendar Asia,” he further noted. 9 Zarif slams U.S. hypocrisy in Saudi-related issues TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mo- been the real concern of the U.S. First a hammad Javad Zarif has slammed dismembered journalist; now illicit sale of U.S. hypocrisy in dealing with Saudi nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia fully Arabia’s human rights and nuclear pro- expose #USHypocrisy,” Zarif tweeted on gram, saying neither human rights nor Wednesday. Mohammadreza Zarandoosh a nuclear program have been the real According to a new report, the concern of the U.S. Trump administration sought to rush “Day by day it becomes clearer to the the transfer of American nuclear tech- ICANA/ world what was always clear to us: neither nology to Saudi Arabia in potential Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a meeting in Beijing on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019. human rights nor a nuclear program have violation of the law. ARTICLE An odyssey of Iranian-American Islamic scholar Laleh Bakhtiar ARTICLE Hanif Ghaffari She is co-author of A Sense of Unity: The Sufi given Bakhtiar the enormous privilege to become Syed Zafar Mehdi Political analyst EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Journalist By Maryam Qarehgozlou Tradition in Persian Architecture (University of a well-known author. Chicago Press) and author of SUFI Expressions of Abol Ghassem of Tus from New Delhi TEHRAN — Laleh Bakhtiar is an Iranian-American the Mystic Quest (Thames and Hudson), as well Her father, Abol Ghassem Bakhtiar (1872-1971), Muslim author, translator and clinical psychologist. as a three volume work, God’s Will Be Done, on was the first Iranian who obtained a degree in Complicated puzzle She is also the first American woman to present a Moral Healing and some 15 other books on vari- medicine from a university in the United States, MBS tours South critical translation of holy Quran in English. ous aspects of Islam. She is the leading authority Syracuse University, 1926. in the UK! Born on July 29, 1938, in Tehran, Iran, to an on spiritual chivalry, most clearly expressed in Abol Ghassem was born to a poor family in Asia, seeks to Iranian father and American mother, she grew the Sufi Enneagram, also known as the Greater Borujen, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, ritain’s withdrawal from the Eu- up in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Struggle. She has also translated over 30 books and learned how to read and write by attending improve his ropean Union has become a ma- Bakhtiar has a BA in History from Chatham on Islam and the Islamic movement into English. Maktab (old-fashioned elementary schools pri- battered image with Bjor riddle in the country. Many College, MA in Philosophy and Counseling Psy- Bakhtiar is presently Director of the Institute marily used for teaching children in reading, English citizens do not have a complete chology and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology of Traditional Psychology and Resident Scholar writing, grammar and Islamic studies) from the petrodollars understanding of the EU, the British from the University of New Mexico. at Kazi Publication. age of 5 to 10, however, despite his deep fondness government and the UK Parliament’s Bakhtiar is a Licensed Professional Psycho- Coming from a prominent family and a mixed for acquiring education and becoming a doctor audi Arabia’s crown prince Moham- move to leave the European Union. therapist in the State of Illinois. She also taught Iranian-American background as well as her true he failed to attend school or university until he However, the British authorities seem mad Bin Salman is touring South Asia courses on Islam at the University of Chicago. desire to learn and her pure natural genius have became a middle-aged man. 12 to have planned a tentative game. Sthese days to brush up his battered Recently, some western news sources image following the global outcry over are speaking of an issue called “repeat- diabolical murder of journalist Jamal ing the Brexit referendum”, and name Khashoggi. it as a possible option! An option that Pakistan PM offers cooperation, demands ‘actionable evidence’ from India The famously infamous ‘butcher of had been previously denied by British By Syed Zafar Mehdi intelligence agency of sponsoring the attack and On Tuesday morning, PM Khan, in a 10-minute Riyadh’, who has faced blistering crit- icism over Khashoggi’s cold-blooded authorities, including Theresa May, the TEHRAN — Almost a week after a deadly attack providing sanctuary to anti-India militant groups video message addressed to the Indian govern- murder and the ongoing genocide in Prime Minister of the country. According in Indian-controlled Kashmir killed at least 44 like JeM. ment, said Islamabad will take action if Delhi shares Yemen, is doling out billions of petro- to the France news agency, regarding the members of India’s central reserve police force, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed a any “actionable evidence” linking Pakistan with dollars to keep his friends and foes in increasing doubt about the British Prime Pakistan’s premier finally broke his silence on “befitting reply” and federal minister Arun Jaitley last week’s suicide bombing in south Kashmir. good humor. Minister’s efforts to conclude an agreement Tuesday. said New Delhi would take all diplomatic steps He said he wanted to respond to India’s al- His first stop on the three-nation tour with the United Europe, the possibility of The deadliest attack in the disputed Him- to ensure “complete isolation of Pakistan” in the legations earlier, “but we had a very important was understandably Pakistan, the cash- holding a second referendum on Brexit alayan region since the insurgency broke out international community. visit from the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, we strapped South Asian ally of Riyadh. With has multiplied. in late 1980s sparked widespread outrage and Responding to the tirade, Pakistan’s Foreign had an investment conference happening that a massive entourage and billions of dollars, However, one of the goals of the Eng- protests in India, with some politicians calling Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the threat we had been preparing for a long time,” said the MBS was given red carpet welcome in lish authorities is to complicate the exit for ‘retaliation’. to diplomatically isolate Pakistan was “a dream cricketer-turned-politician. Islamabad and driven from the airport process of the European Union. Accord- The responsibility for the attack was which will never come true”. Khan offered to cooperate with India and by the prime minister himself. ingly,”Brexit” continues to be an implicit claimed by Jaish e Mohammad (JeM), head- Amidst this hullabaloo, one important voice again extended an olive branch over Kashmir While the Pakistan government left term in the Britain’s political equations. the ed by Masood Azhar, which reportedly has was silent, that of Prime Minister Imran Khan. issue, but he also warned India against any act no stone unturned to appease its guest, British government, with its widespread bases in Pakistan. He was busy with his guest from Riyadh who of aggression, saying Pakistan will not hesitate even conferring him the highest civilian negative propaganda against the Brexit, Following the attack, India accused Pakistan’s came with investment worth billions of dollars. in retaliating. 6 is seeking to re-arrange a referendum. In award of the country, people in the streets other words, the European authorities are protested against the visit of the ‘mur- trying to direct the public opinion about derer’ and denounced the government the Brexit. for putting the country’s sovereignty at It should not be forgotten that both 3 music stake in lieu of petrodollars. Labor and Conservative parties in the UK News reports said almost 750 hotels in the 2016 referendum were opposed to industry rooms and luxury cars had been hooked withdrawal from the European Union.