The White House said on Monday it was seeing indications Iran is cooperating with inspectors from the UN’s nuclear watchdog a, according to Reuters.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest was asked about the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) inspection of the Parchin military complex and its report of “significant progress” in its investigation of Iran’s past nuclear activity.
He said, it “disproves the claims of our critics,” who said Iran would be conducting self-inspections, AP reported. Earnest said that as time goes forward, there will be “many opportunities” to show that the warnings of those who opposed the deal “are eventually disproven based on the way the agreement is implemented.”
Meanwhile, the spokesman repeated accusation that “For a long time Iran had resisted to IAEA request to cooperate.”
Head of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, paid a ceremonial visit Sunday to the Parchin site. The opponents of Iran deal baselessly claimed that the site may have been used to develop explosive triggers for nuclear weapons in the past.
As part of the recent nuclear deal Iran on Monday handed over to the UN nuclear body samples from the Parchin military base.
The samples were taken by Iranian scientists on Monday, reports AFP. The “environmental sampling from some specific parts within the Parchin complex” was conducted in the past week, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi told state media.
“It was done by Iranian experts, in the absence of IAEA inspectors,” Kamalvandi said. The transfer of the materials comes in the framework of the IAEA work to determine possible military aspects of Iran’s nuclear program by the end of the year, as part of a classified side deal between Iran and the IAEA. That side deal stipulates that Iran will inspect Parchin itself, with no international inspectors allowed in.
Amano hailed the “significant progress” made in the implementation of a roadmap signed between Iran and the nuclear monitoring body in July. “Significant progress has been achieved,” Yukiya Amano told reporters in the Austrian capital city of Vienna on Monday, a day after visiting Iran. The IAEA chief, however, stressed that “much work remains” to be done so that the agency could complete its investigation of Iran’s nuclear program before the December 15 deadline set in the roadmap.
During his short stay in Iran, Amano met with several high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani.
 

Rouhani: Iran Armed Forces biggest anti-terror force

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are the biggest anti-terrorism force in the world.
“We tell the world today [that] the biggest anti-terrorism force is the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic,” Rouhani said.
He made the remark in a Tuesday ceremony marking Shahrivar 31 (according to the Iranian calendar), the day when the regime of slain Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Iran back in 1980 and which marks the beginning of the Sacred Defense Week in Iran, Press TV reported.
 “Just as we have helped the governments of Syria and Iraq against terrorism, upon requests from their governments, if, heavens forbid, terrorism emerges in other neighboring countries, the governments of those countries will pin their hopes on the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Rouhani said.
‘War proved who had sought to invade’

Pointing to the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, the president said Iranian people displayed unprecedented unity during the eight-year war. After the 1979 Revolution that led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Rouhani said, the country was accused of being a fundamentalist system and of seeking to impose its will on its neighbors and other countries.
“In the [Iraqi-]imposed war [on Iran], it was proved who the invader was, which ideology sought to invade and meddle in the internal affairs of other countries, and who those people are who have no mercy not only on neighboring nations but also on their own people,” the president said.
Strong faith in God was a prominent feature of the Iranian soldiers and commanders, he said.
Iran did not have an intention to invade another country; it sought peace with neighbors; but, hegemonic powers convinced a neighbor to invade Iran in the hope that they could defeat the Islamic Republic, which had just emerged from a revolution, the Iranian president said.

‘Rights established’

Referring to Iran’s recent nuclear negotiations with the P5+1 group, he said the unity of the people, the expertise of the Iranian diplomats and the guidance by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei led to the agreement that secured the rights of the Iranian nation.
Following Rouhani’s speech, various divisions of the Iranian Armed Forces staged military parades to honor the 35th anniversary of the Iran-Iraq War and showcase their latest capabilities. Military top brass, the military attachés of foreign countries and a number of families of the war’s martyrs and veterans were also present at the ceremony.
 

Muslim Americans responded with a mix of frustration, exasperation and anger to what many see as a growing wave of Islamophobia fueled by two of the Republican Party’s presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Ben Carson.
At the Islamic Institute of Orange County, which houses a mosque and a school in Anaheim, in southern California, tensions were already mounting since a group of white men screamed at mothers and children arriving at the center on this year’s anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, calling them cowards who did not belong in America, Reuters reported.
Many of the country’s 2.8 million Muslims say such tensions could become uglier during a presidential race that they fear is already tapping a vein of anger and bigotry.
“It’s pretty troubling that someone running for president would make those claims,” Zuhair Shaath, Palestinian-American, said of Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who on Sunday said Muslims were unfit for the presidency of the United States.
The remarks by Carson, who is near the top of opinion polls for the crowded field of Republican candidates for the 2016 election, followed billionaire Trump’s failure to challenge comments made on Friday by a supporter who labeled US President Barack Obama a Muslim.
Some Muslims say they fear that the remarks could strengthen the appeal of Carson and Trump, who have cast themselves as non-politicians in a race in which blunt comments laced with misogyny and xenophobia have done little to derail the popularity of Trump, who is leading in opinion polls of likely Republican voters.
The comments also come after a 14-year-old Muslim boy from Texas was taken away in handcuffs last week for bringing to his Dallas-area school a homemade clock that staff mistook for a bomb. Ahmed Mohamed’s arrest sparked allegations of racial profiling and turned his school into an object of online outrage that culminated with Obama inviting Mohamed to the White House.
 

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas warned Tuesday of the “risk of an intifada” if clashes over the Al-Aqsa mosque compound continue, after a meeting with French leader Francois Hollande in Paris.
“What is happening is very dangerous,” Abbas said, calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “stop” the chaos at the flashpoint holy site, AFP reported.
Abbas warned against “an intifada (uprising) which we don’t want”.
Tensions are high after days of clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque site during the Jewish New Year last week.
The mosque is located in East Beit-ul-Moqaddas, which was occupied by the Israel regime in the 1967 Six Day War.
Al-Aqsa is also the third holiest site in Islam and is believed to be where the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) made his night journey to heaven.
Muslims have been alarmed by an increase in visits by Jews to the site and fear rules governing the compound will be changed. Jews are allowed to visit but not to pray, to avoid provoking tensions.
Netanyahu has said repeatedly he is committed to the status quo at the site.
Israeli authorities fear further trouble ahead when the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha coincides on Wednesday with the solemn Jewish fast of Yom Kippur. Hollande called for “peace, calm and the respect of principles.”
“I expressed our attachment to the status quo over the mosque compound,” he said after the talks with Abbas.
Abbas’ visit to France comes shortly before the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he will oversee the raising of the Palestinian flag at the UN.
On the same day as the flag-raising, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will host a meeting of the Middle East Quartet seeking a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The so-called peace process slipped into a deep coma after a failed US diplomatic effort in April last year.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, along with the secretary general of the Arab League, will attend in a bid to broaden the search for a way back to the negotiating table.
 

        By Farzam Vanaki

The prospect of an opening in Iran is triggering a nascent gold rush for access to a market of 77 million people with oil resources and pent-up demand — with companies from all over the world, specially, Europe and US, clamoring for access.
Many delegations have already visited Iran and made deals while several others are scheduled to visit the country to explore opportunities and clinch deals on joint ventures, investment and cooperation in many areas. European giants have not missed the time. France was quite well aware that any delay may be a red carpet for its rivals; hence Paris did not even wait for the finalization of the deal and top French officials were among the first to visit Iran after the deal was concluded on July 14 in Vienna.
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Denmark’s Novo Nordisk is investing 70 million euros in Iran for the production of a new generation of insulin drugs, officials from the two countries say.
The company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Food and Drug Organization of Iran (FDO) to build a manufacturing plant in the next two years, FDO head Rasoul Dinarvand said on Tuesday, Press TV reported.
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