Iranian Chill Thread

[N_Al40]

So, they have finally come to the realization...

Mattis says no need to step up military posture against Iran

US Defense Secretary James Mattis says there is no need to resort to military option against Iran over allegations that Tehran supplies missiles to Yemen.

Mattis said he does not see the need for a stepped-up military posture against Iran, the day after Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, displayed what she called “concert evidence” that a missile fired last month from Yemen at an airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh had been made in Iran.

She called on the international community to join "a united front in resisting this global threat."

When asked if he thought such “evidence” warranted an emboldened or expanded military action against Iran, Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon, "Not militarily, no."

“It's the reason Ambassador Haley was there and not one of our generals," he said. "This is a diplomatically-led effort to expose to the world what Iran is up to."

Mattis accused Iran of “contributing to the deaths of innocent people” in Yemen.

Standing in front of a display of debris from a recovered ballistic missile at a military base in Washington, Haley claimed they were the pieces of a missile fired from Yemen towards Riyadh on November 4.

These weapons "might as well have had 'made in Iran' stickers,” she claimed.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif once again rejected the allegations, saying Haley’s show was an attempt by Washington “to cover up its presence in the region and measures which can mostly amount to war crimes.”

He said the United States was complicit in Saudi war crimes in Yemen.

He also said in a tweet that back in 2003, when he “based at the UN, I saw this show and what is begat…”

The foreign minister was referring to the faulty claims of former US Secretary of State Colin Powell about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Collin’s speech paved the way for the then administration of President George Bush to begin a war in Iraq.

Powell acknowledged last year that the speech was “a great intelligence failure.”

Courtesy of Press TV: http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2017/12/16/545838/MattisIranwarYemenmissileNikey-Haley

 

[Aramagedon]

Pictures of Saudi before oil :

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/saudia-arabia-before-the-oil.470471

 

[Muhammed45]

LOL

A Qatari fan of our general Soleimani :

 

[AmirPatriot]

LOL

A Qatari fan of our general Soleimani :

I'm really, really surprised... what the hell?

 

[yavar]

 

[yavar]

Iran 41th Nuclear sciences achievements, Najaf Abad چهل و يكمين نمايشگاه دستاوردهاي هسته اي ايران

 

[skyshadow]

Top Iran official says ‘weak and insignificant’ Saudis, Israelis are no threat
Ali Akbar Velyati, aide to Iranian's supreme leader Kohmeni, warns Riyadh against 'collaboration with the Zionists,' which he says has been ongoing since 1948
By TOI STAFF and AGENCIESToday, 5:58 am 0

Screen capture from video of Ali Akbar Velyati, top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khameni. (YouTube)

• 11shares

A top aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Sunday scoffed at the idea of an Israeli-Saudi alliance to thwart Tehran, saying the countries were too puny and inconsequential to post any danger to Iran.

Ali Akbar Velyati told reporters in Tehran that Israel and Saudi Arabia were no threat as both were “weak and insignificant,” the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

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The adviser added that alleged cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia, though only recently highlighted in media reports, has been going on for ever since Israel was established in 1948.

Saudi Arabia does not official recognize Israel, yet the two countries share mutual fears of Iranian hegemony in the region.

“They think that they can move against Iran in collaboration with the Zionists but if the Zionists were powerful at all they would not erect walls around their settlements,” Velyati added.

It was not clear from the report if Velyati was referring to Israel’s settlements in the West Bank that often have security fences around them, or to Israel’s security barrier that roughly follows the so-called Green Line separating the West Bank from pre-1967 Israel.

Velyati also rejected claims made last week by US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley that a missile fired by Yemeni rebels at Riyadh airport on November 4 was “made in Iran.”

Haley, he said, is just like US President Donald Trump who who only utters “baseless and ridiculous” words.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has not supplied Yemen with any missile at all,” he asserted.


US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley points to previously classified missile segments she says prove Iran violated UN Security Council Resolution 2231 by providing the Houthi rebels in Yemen with arms, during a press conference at Joint Base Anacostia in Washington, DC, on December 14, 2017. (AFP Photo/Jim Watson)
Haley said last week Washington had “undeniable” evidence that at least two missiles fired at Saudi Arabia by the Yemeni rebel Houthis as well as other weaponry had been manufactured in Iran.

But her comments went beyond the findings of a UN investigation which reached no firm conclusion on whether the missiles came from an Iranian supplier, saying only that they had a “common origin” to some Iranian designs.

Saudi Arabia, which has led a military intervention in Yemen with US backing since March 2015, on Friday demanded immediate action against its regional arch rival Iran over the alleged missile deliveries. Iran has denied it suppliedthe missiles.

Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Iran in January 2016 after Iranian demonstrators attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in response to the Saudi execution of a prominent Shiite dissident cleric. Tensions spiked again last month after the Houthis fired the ballistic missile that was intercepted near Riyadh.

The IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said last month that Israel and Saudi Arabia were in “total agreement” that Iran was the greatest threat to the Middle East.


◢
MON DEC 18, 2017 / 5:12 AM EST
Iran economy's recovery strengthening but bank reform is urgent, IMF says
Reuters Staff

International Monetary Fund headquarters building is seen during the IMF/World Bank annual meetings in Washington, U.S., October 14, 2017.
REUTERS/YURI GRIPAS

(Reuters) - Iran's economy is starting to recover more rapidly from years of international sanctions but the country urgently needs to shore up its banks, a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Monday.

Gross domestic product growth soared to 12.5 percent in the year through last March 20, but that was almost entirely due to a leap in oil exports, after most sanctions were removed under a deal with world powers on Tehran's nuclear program.

Oil exports are no longer growing nearly as fast. But the economic recovery is now beginning to extend to non-oil areas, said Catriona Purfield, head of an IMF team which held annual consultations with the Iranian government this month.

"Growth has begun to broaden to the non-oil sector," Purfield said in a statement, predicting GDP would expand 4.2 percent in the current fiscal year and that growth could rise toward 4.5 percent in subsequent years with financial reforms.

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Official statistics in Iran are often incomplete and released only slowly, and the policy-making process can be opaque, so Iran's consultations with the IMF provide one of the clearest glimpses into its economy.

The country's recovery has been slowed by tensions with the United States, where President Donald Trump has raised the possibility that sanctions could be reimposed or new sanctions introduced. This has deterred many banks and other foreign companies from operating in Iran.

Purfield said that given such uncertainty and the increasing vulnerability of Iran's financial system, the government urgently needed to restructure and recapitalize banks and credit institutions.

"An asset quality review, related-party lending assessment, and a time-bound action plan to recapitalize banks and address non-performing loans should start immediately," she said, adding that the cost of recapitalizing banks could be covered with long-term government bond issues.

Iranian banks were weakened during the sanctions years by a sluggish economy, government interference in lending decisions, lax regulation and excessive competition with unlicensed financial institutions.

Authorities are now discussing how to deal with tens of billions of dollars of bad debt, but efforts to address the problem have been slowed by its cost and complexity.

The government of President Hassan Rouhani has also submitted to parliament amendments which it says would strengthen legislation against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

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The IMF urged Tehran to pass the amendments by an end-January 2018 deadline set by the Financial Action Task Force, a global body fighting illicit money flows. This would help Iran re-integrate into the global financial system, the IMF said.

Iran's central bank has been intervening in the foreign exchange market to support the rial currency in the face of the international uncertainty.

But the IMF urged the central bank to let exchange rates move more freely and to abolish a dual system of official and market rates, saying this would prevent Iran's foreign reserves from running down and make the economy more competitive.



(Reporting by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

 

[yavar]

 

[skyshadow]

NEWS

DEC 16 2017, 5:18 AM ET
Iran allows German musician Schiller to play first Western concerts since 1979
BY ALI AROUZI

• 
  

advertisement

TEHRAN, Iran — No non-classical Western musician has been given permission to play concerts in Iran since the country's Islamic Revolution of 1979.

This week marked a watershed then, with German electronic musician Schiller bringing his pulsating beats to awestruck audiences in the capital Tehran.

"I couldn’t believe it when I heard Schiller was going to performing in Iran," said Arash, a 22-year-old student who declined to provide his last name. "At first I thought my friend was joking, there is no way they are going to give permission for Schiller to perform here, but they did. This is so amazing!"

Despite the enthusiasm, the event was still a peculiarly subdued affair.

Ali Arouzi
Security officials patrolled the aisles with green lasers to check women's headscarves had not fallen around their shoulders, they ensured there was no fraternizing between the sexes, and the audience was prohibited from any dancing.

Although not widely known in the United States, Schiller, whose real name is Christopher von Deylen, has sold more than 7 million albums worldwide.

He was originally scheduled to play two concerts in Tehran this week but after the $40 tickets sold out within hours, three more nights were added to the trip.

"We heard about it by word of mouth," said Arash's friend, 27-year-old Farhad. "The first three nights were sold out but we managed to get two tickets for the third night."

For Iranians lucky enough to bag a seat it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience live Western music in their strictly conservative society. The decision to allow the event also mirrors reforms by Iran's arch rival, Saudi Arabia, which has recently brought back concerts, movies and other forms of entertainment.

advertisement

But at the performances in Tehran this week not all rules went out the window.

Ali Arouzi
The five concerts took place in a 3,000-seat auditorium at the Ministry of Interior, but the evenings felt more like a trip to the movies than a performance of live electronic music. The audience didn't dance and barely got out of their seats as Schiller pumped out rhythms that spark euphoria across the nightclubs of Europe.

In fact, in Iran there was no dance floor at all.

Kamran, 26, said that when Iranian bands play in the capital, audiences sometimes defy these regulations and stand up to dance. But that didn't happen here, he said, because the crowd didn't want to jeopardize the chances of other Western acts being allowed to come to town.

"It was still a fantastic experience, worth every penny," he said.

Von Deylen, who has been performing as Schiller since 1998, was not put off by the unique reception. He said none of his concerts had sold out as quickly and that he found the entire experience humbling.

“The audience reaction is so pure, genuine and very open," he said. "The energy we get from the audience, now three nights in a row before we even play a single note, is 10 times more intense than we are used to getting after a concert in other places."

Rather than dancing and cheering, the crowd showed its appreciation by breaking out into chants of "well done," "we love you," and "don’t go, Schiller," before giving him a standing ovation at the end of the show.

Ali Arouzi
advertisement

The first Western act to perform in post-1979 Iran was almost the British-Irish singer Chris de Burg, who has an unlikely cult following in the country. In 2008 he obtained a permit to sing here, but conservative clerics vetoed the event and the concert was cancelled at the last minute.

Lots of Iranians who spoke with NBC News said they would like to see hard rock or even heavy metal if there was a repeat of this week's softened rules.

"I hope there will be more concerts in Iran, maybe some hard rock," said 24-year-old Pegah.

Schiller certainly advises anyone to go to the city, even if it's not to play music.

"Go there! Go there even without a concert," he said, adding that concerned messages from his friends and family before he traveled were overblown.

"I got a lot of messages telling me to be careful and, 'I hope you will be safe and please come back in one piece and please don't let them hang you'," he said. "Whatever."

 

[yavar]

Iran IRGCN amphibious military seaplanes ایران هواپیماهای بال ثابت و دوزیست آب نشین سپاه

 

[Zathura]

NEWS

DEC 16 2017, 5:18 AM ET
Iran allows German musician Schiller to play first Western concerts since 1979
BY ALI AROUZI

• 
  

advertisement

TEHRAN, Iran — No non-classical Western musician has been given permission to play concerts in Iran since the country's Islamic Revolution of 1979.

This week marked a watershed then, with German electronic musician Schiller bringing his pulsating beats to awestruck audiences in the capital Tehran.

"I couldn’t believe it when I heard Schiller was going to performing in Iran," said Arash, a 22-year-old student who declined to provide his last name. "At first I thought my friend was joking, there is no way they are going to give permission for Schiller to perform here, but they did. This is so amazing!"

Despite the enthusiasm, the event was still a peculiarly subdued affair.

Ali Arouzi
Security officials patrolled the aisles with green lasers to check women's headscarves had not fallen around their shoulders, they ensured there was no fraternizing between the sexes, and the audience was prohibited from any dancing.

Although not widely known in the United States, Schiller, whose real name is Christopher von Deylen, has sold more than 7 million albums worldwide.

He was originally scheduled to play two concerts in Tehran this week but after the $40 tickets sold out within hours, three more nights were added to the trip.

"We heard about it by word of mouth," said Arash's friend, 27-year-old Farhad. "The first three nights were sold out but we managed to get two tickets for the third night."

For Iranians lucky enough to bag a seat it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience live Western music in their strictly conservative society. The decision to allow the event also mirrors reforms by Iran's arch rival, Saudi Arabia, which has recently brought back concerts, movies and other forms of entertainment.

advertisement

But at the performances in Tehran this week not all rules went out the window.

Ali Arouzi
The five concerts took place in a 3,000-seat auditorium at the Ministry of Interior, but the evenings felt more like a trip to the movies than a performance of live electronic music. The audience didn't dance and barely got out of their seats as Schiller pumped out rhythms that spark euphoria across the nightclubs of Europe.

In fact, in Iran there was no dance floor at all.

Kamran, 26, said that when Iranian bands play in the capital, audiences sometimes defy these regulations and stand up to dance. But that didn't happen here, he said, because the crowd didn't want to jeopardize the chances of other Western acts being allowed to come to town.

"It was still a fantastic experience, worth every penny," he said.

Von Deylen, who has been performing as Schiller since 1998, was not put off by the unique reception. He said none of his concerts had sold out as quickly and that he found the entire experience humbling.

“The audience reaction is so pure, genuine and very open," he said. "The energy we get from the audience, now three nights in a row before we even play a single note, is 10 times more intense than we are used to getting after a concert in other places."

Rather than dancing and cheering, the crowd showed its appreciation by breaking out into chants of "well done," "we love you," and "don’t go, Schiller," before giving him a standing ovation at the end of the show.

Ali Arouzi
advertisement

The first Western act to perform in post-1979 Iran was almost the British-Irish singer Chris de Burg, who has an unlikely cult following in the country. In 2008 he obtained a permit to sing here, but conservative clerics vetoed the event and the concert was cancelled at the last minute.

Lots of Iranians who spoke with NBC News said they would like to see hard rock or even heavy metal if there was a repeat of this week's softened rules.

"I hope there will be more concerts in Iran, maybe some hard rock," said 24-year-old Pegah.

Schiller certainly advises anyone to go to the city, even if it's not to play music.

"Go there! Go there even without a concert," he said, adding that concerned messages from his friends and family before he traveled were overblown.

"I got a lot of messages telling me to be careful and, 'I hope you will be safe and please come back in one piece and please don't let them hang you'," he said. "Whatever."

How the hell did that happen? Are they trying to bring about another earthquake or a natural disaster upon poor people by this immoral acts?

 

[skyshadow]

How the hell did that happen? Are they trying to bring about another earthquake or a natural disaster upon poor people by this immoral acts?

The Sun
MORE NEWS

PALACE ASSAULT
Ballistic missile intercepted over Saudi Arabia capital Riyadh just seconds before it slammed into royal palace


A military source said Saudi air defences intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the city

By Sam Webb
19th December 2017, 11:39 am
Updated: 19th December 2017, 11:39 am
ADD COMMENT

A MISSILE fired at Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh was shot down moments before it hit a royal palace today.

Saudi air defences intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the city, Saudi-owned channel al-Arabiya reported in a news flash quoting a Saudi-led military coalition official.



REUTERS
The missile was fired from Yemen at the Saudi capital Riyadh. File picture

The coalition is battling the armed Houthi movement in neighbouring Yemen.

A ballistic missile was launched at the Saudi capital, a Houthi spokesman said.

Mohammed Abdussalam said on Twitter that a Volcano 2-H ballistic missile was fired towards al-Yamama royal palace.


We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to uploadyours.’

• TOPICS
• SAUDI ARABIA

 

[Muhammed45]

@AmirPatriot @PeeD
Guys, nice missile. Yemeni Borkan H-2

 

[AmirPatriot]

@AmirPatriot @PeeD
Guys, nice missile. Yemeni Iranian Borkan H-2 Qiam

View attachment 443662

Yes, very nice. Qiam is a nice missile indeed.

 

[Muhammed45]

Yes, very nice. Qiam is a nice missile indeed.

lol

Qiam's aerodynamics and it's shape,