Today is the first day of spring and the beginning of Norouz, the Iranian New Year. May the Norouz bring happiness and peace to people around the globe; and as the saying in Persian goes, May your everyday be Norouz!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Iranian New Year 1391
The Iranian New Year 1391 begins at:08:44:27 on Tuesday 20 March - Tehran
05:14:27 on Tuesday 20 March - GMT
01:14:27 on Tuesday 20 March - Washington
22:14:27 on Monday 19 March - Los Angeles
Photo: 7 Seens
Sunday, March 18, 2012
US to Add More Ships in Persian Gulf
U.S. Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the chief of naval operations, has told reporters in Washington that the Navy is adding four more mine-sweeping ships and four more CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters with mine-detection capability in the Persian Gulf to counter threats from Iran to block the Strait of Hormuz and stop the flow of oil [LA Times, 18 March].
Adm. Greenert has also said he plans to assign more patrol craft to the Gulf, possibly armed with Mark 38 Gatling guns. The same kind of guns that could be placed on ships, including carriers, to provide protection for aircraft carriers and other large ships. The guns are regarded as effective defense against any Iranian attempt to “swarm” large U.S. ships with their smaller speedboats. The Iranians are also thought to have been laying mines along the country’s coastlines.
The U.S. needs sufficient capability "to set the theater" in the gulf, Adm. Greenert added.
Inflation at 26.5%
Dollar Reaches 20,000 Rials (Again)
The government’s Statistics Center of Iran (SCI) in a report to the country’s Supreme Council for Labor published this week has put the current rate of inflation in the country at 26.5 percent. Using a basket of 359 goods, the SCI has measured price increases for the 12 months period ending in the last day of Bahman 1390 (22 February 2012). The Majlis Research Center, the parliament’s statistics center, has also estimated an inflation rate of over 30 percent for the current Iranian calendar year that ends on Tuesday 20 March.
Meanwhile, the rial-dollar exchange rate has hit 20,000 rials per dollar in open exchange markets this week. The development is a major setback for the government’s efforts to maintain a unitary exchange rate of 12,260 rials per dollar. The official rate was set in January, coupled with strong interventions by the country’s central bank, when dollar had passed the 20,000 mark in open markets.
Closing SWIFT to Iran is Like Closing the Strait - Fallahian
In one of the first reactions to Iran’s expulsion form SWIFT, Iran’s former intelligence minister Ali Fallahian said on Saturday that closing SWIFT to Iran is like “closing international waterways” to a country and as such is illegal. Fallahian said Iran would use every possible means to respond in kind, including the closing of the Strait of Hormuz in reaction to the mounting pressures by the West.
Iranian Photographer Wins Knokke-Heist Award
Iranian photographer Ramin Mohtasham won the Golden Lens Award at the 2012 Knokke-Heist International Photo Festival in Brussels. The 50-year-old photographer has won many other international awards including the Gold Medal for Creative Photography in Singapore.
Photo: the award-winning photograph by Ramin Mohtasham
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Indian Trade Delegation Visit to Iran “Very Successful”
An 80-member Indian trade delegation ended its five days visit to Iran and called the trip “very successful.”
"The visit was very good and very successful," said Rafeeque Ahmed, president of the government-backed Federation of Indian Export Organizations. "We saw a lot of interest from the Iranians in buying Indian goods… We talked about the excellent opportunities in food grains, food processing, pharmaceuticals, auto parts and other areas," he added [AFP, 17 March].
India buys around $11 billion worth of crude oil from Iran a year but sells Tehran just $2.7 billion in goods. India and Iran have worked out a deal under which New Delhi would pay for nearly half of its Iranian oil imports in rupees, which in turn would be used by the Iranians to buy Indian goods and services.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)