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** IRAN DAILY
-- Iran’s Foreign Ministry elaborates on seizing South Korean oil tanker
Spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday that the South Korean oil tanker was seized for “technical” reasons and based on judicial order as it was polluting the environment.
Like any other country, Iran is serious about violating environmental protocols, particularly polluting the environment, and acts based on the law against similar violations, Khatibzadeh stressed in statement.
-- Nine-month exports from eastern province fetch almost $ 10m
The cooperatives of the eastern Iranian province of South Khorasan exported products worth $ 9.21 million during nine-month period to December 20.
Director-general of the Department of Cooperative, Work and Social Welfare in South Khorasan Province, Gholamreza Ashrafi, told the media on Monday.
--Non-oil exports from Persian Gulf province up 12%: Official
Non-oil exports from the southern Iranian province of Bushehr during the third quarter of the current calendar year (September 22-December 20) witnessed a 12 percent growth compared to the preceding three-month period, said a provincial official.
Ahmad Rajaei, the chairman of the Foreign Trade Department of Bushehr’s Industry, Mine and Trade Organization, told IRNA on Monday that over 7.3 million tons of non-oil products worth $ 1.89 billion were exported from the province during this period.
In the second quarter of the current calendar year, he added, the province exported 5.91 million tons of non-oil products valued at $ 1.28 billion.
** KAYHAN INTERNATIONAL
-- Iran Launches 2nd Phase of Human Trial of Vaccine
Iran has started the second phase of the injection of its domestically-developed coronavirus vaccine to volunteers, further consolidating its steps towards a better containment of the flu-like pathogen.
Dr. Hamed Hosseini, director of the Clinical Trial Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, made the announcement on Monday, saying the second phase of the injection was approved last night for the volunteers of the first human study of the Iranian vaccine dubbed "Coviran Barekat.”
-- Iran’s National Interests More Important than Flawed Pacts
Iran’s resumption of the uranium enrichment process to 20 percent purity that started yesterday at the Fordow underground complex, although belated, is indeed a welcome decision.
It wasn’t a groundbreaking move, since the Islamic Republic had reached this milestone almost a decade-and-a-half ago as part of its peaceful nuclear project, before being forced to scale it down to a mere 3.67 percent uranium purity when its negotiators were outwitted in Geneva in 2015 to sign the so-called JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action).
-- Judiciary Chief: Trump Will Have to Pay for Assassination
Iran’s Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeisi says U.S. President Donald Trump will ultimately have to pay for ordering assassination of top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.
"Trump will have to pay back, whatever his position,” Raeisi told Lebanon’s Al-Manar television network Sunday night. The chief justice was giving the interview on the occasion of the first anniversary of General Soleimani’s assassination in Baghdad.
"Whether he heads the U.S. administration or not, Trump should face retribution for the atrocity he has perpetrated,” he added.
** TEHRAN TIMES
-- Oman offers visa-free travels to Iranians, other nations but strict rules required
Oman has recently dropped its tourist visa requirement for visitors from 103 countries, including Iran, New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, India, and Turkey, however the Sultanate has set some rules for the potential visitors.
“Although Oman has started accepting foreign tourists, it has made some exceptions and requirements in travel laws. The Royal Oman Police have announced that citizens of 103 countries who have been exempted from entry visas for 10 days must have pre-booked hotel reservations, health insurance, and return tickets, and must pay a fine each day if they stay extra. The amount of the fine has been announced as 10 Omani rials per day.”
-- 2nd Divine Commander Theater Festival honors winners
The 2nd Divine Commander Theater Festival honored the winners of different sections during the closing ceremony of the event held on Monday in the southern Iranian city of Kerman, Commander Qassem Soleimani’s hometown.
The festival was established after the assassination of Commander Soleimani to commemorate the IRGC Quds Force chief.
A number of officials, including the director of Iran’s Dramatic Arts Center Qader Ashena, Revayat Cultural Foundation director Mohammad Yashar Naderi and Kerman Department of Culture and Islamic Guidance director Mohamamdreza Alizadeh, attended the closing ceremony.
-- Caviar museum to be established in Gilan
A caviar museum will be established in Iran’s Gilan province, which lies next to the Caspian Sea, a rich source for sturgeon species of fish such as salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish, and whitefish.
The museum will be made under a memorandum of understanding recently signed between the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts and the Agricultural Services Specialized Holding Co., which is affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad.
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