Report P3 Will $778 billion P4 Yemenis’ on Christmas P4 P6 ...

1 From Inside8 Pages | Price 50,000 Rials | EURO | AED | 43rd year | No. 14120 | Wednesday | DECEMBER 29, 2021 | Dey 8, 1400 | Jumada Al Awwal 24, Truth Tasnim/ Foad Iran FM: Vienna talks are on right track P2 Russia, Iran prepare contacts at highest level, Kremlin says P2 JCPOA Joint Commission convenes in Vienna P3 Russia-Iran-Turkey summit on Syria to be held in Tehran: envoy P3 Iran unveils new technological achievements in petchem industry P4 Thermal power plants capacity hits 70,000 MW P4 Development of Azadegan oil field to be completed by early 2023 P4 UNESCO-designated Persepolis launches UAV documentation P6 Traces of Seljuk walkway unearthed by unauthorized diggers P6 Some $ allocated to addiction treatment P7 214 travelers suspected of COVID-19 quarantined P7 Expert deems UNESCO decisions insulting to history of Iranian calligraphy P8 Intl.

2 Snow Film Festival screens Israfil , Titi , Sultan , Standing in the Dust P8 New chapter has opened in Tehran-Baku ties: ambassador By Saeed Azimi BAKU, the Republic of Azerbaijan A new chapter has been opened in relations be-tween the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan, Tehran s ambassador to Baku says, noting that the recent tension between the two countries that followed border clashes between Azerbaijan and Ar-menia was unintentional and artificial . Now I can confidently say that a new chap-ter in the relations between the two neighbor-ing countries has begun, Abbas Mousavi tells the Tehran Times also described Iranian For-eign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian s visit to Baku on Dec.

3 22-23 as positive as he held fruitful talks with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Parliament Speaker Saheba a post on his Twitter page on Dec. 22, Bayramov called his talks with Amir Ab-dollahian fruitful in which the sides dis-cussed bilateral cooperation, developments in the Caucus region and efforts to stabilize the region. Page 2 Riyadh-Beijing cooperation to make leaders more suspicious of Saudis: historianBy Mohammad MazhariTEHRAN - Kurk Dorsey, a professor of his-tory at New Hampshire University, tells the Tehran Times that collaboration between China and Saudi Arabia in building ballistic missiles will make leaders more suspi-cious of the Saudis.

4 Some American politicians including Sen. Ed Markey have warned that the Report -ed deal between Saudi Arabia and China to help the former develop its ballistic missile program could spark a new arms race in the reported on Thursday that intel-ligence officials believe Riyadh thanks to help from Beijing is working to produce its own ballistic missiles, where in the past it had only been importing them from foreign is the text of the interview about reaction to the reports of Sau-di-Chinese cooperation:Some critics say the domestic politics affects its foreign policy, especially when it comes to issues like reviving the Iran nuclear deal.

5 For example, they say Joe Biden is de-laying restoration of the agreement in order to avoid infuriating the Republicans. Do you agree with this view? Page 5 Over Iranians donate blood in 9 monthsTEHRAN Over the first nine months of the current [Iranian calendar] year (started March 21), a total of 1,533,582 people do-nated blood across the country, Bashir Ha-ji-Beigi, the Blood Transfusion Organization spokesman, has donation over the aforementioned period has increased by over 7 percent com-pared to the same period last year, he high-lighted, IRNA reported on province with more than 246,000 blood donations has the highest rate in the whole country, followed by provinces of Fars, Khorasan Razavi, Isfahan, and Mazandaran, he stated, adding, Semnan, Yazd, Golestan, Qom, and Mazandaran provinces are the top provinces in the rate of participation of reg-ular donors (with a history of blood donation at least twice a year)

6 Referring to the percent share of women in the overall statistics of blood do-nation in the country, he noted that Lorestan province with about 9 percent share of wom-en blood donation has the highest rate na-tionwide and Sistan-Baluchestan, Kordestan, Qazvin, Golestan, Markazi, South Khorasan, and North Khorasan are in the next ranks of the top provinces in terms of women s blood donation index. Page 7 Esteghlal, Persepolis in AFC waiting room By Farrokh Hesabi TEHRAN - The issue of removing Estegh-lal and Persepolis from the AFC Champions League by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is a hot topic in Iranian football these days.

7 The Iranian popular teams now wait for AFC s decision on their two popular Iranian clubs are on the verge of being banned from the 2022/23 ACL due to non-compliance of their obligations to the AFC s club licensing AFC deadline for the two giant clubs to resolve the two major issues, joint ownership and tax debt, expired on Monday and there are still concerns for their fans as the issues could not be resolved for many years. The seriousness of the matter has led Iran s Ministry of Sport and Youth as the cur-rent owner of the both clubs to resolve the issue of joint ownership as soon as possible. So, the Sport Ministry decided to assign its right as an owner to another Iranian govern-ment bodies.

8 Page 3 Will $778 billion make America safer? TEHRAN - Following the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer after a 20-year military occupation, many had expected President Joe Biden to reduce military spending. Instead, Washington has done the opposite, which will come as a blow to Americans who argued there are greater problems to invest in at home. As it happens, in the aftermath of the Af-ghan exit, Biden himself said the was wasting money with its military spending, telling the nation The American people should hear this: $300 million a day for two what have we lost as a conse-quence in terms of opportunities?

9 Nevertheless, the American President has signed into law a massive $778 billion defense spending bill (a 5% increase from last year), after lawmakers welcomed the administration s original request for funding by adding an additional $25 billion on top of it. In a statement, the White House has an-nounced that Biden officially signed off the legislation formally known as the 2022 Na-tional Defense Authorization Act. Page 5A Saudi Tragic Note for Yemenis on ChristmasReportInterviewOpinionInterview Page 3 TEHRAN - The value of Iran s non-oil trade rose 38 percent during the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year, the acting head of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Ad-ministration (IRICA)

10 Moghadasi said that Iran has trad-ed over million tons of non-oil products worth $ billion with other countries in the mentioned period, IRNA to Moghadasi, the weight of trade in the mentioned period also grew by 11 percent in comparison to the figure for the previous fiscal official put the nine-month non-oil ex-ports at million tons valued at $ bil-lion, with a 40-percent rise in value and eight percent growth in noted that the value of the country s non-oil exports in the first nine months of the current year has exceeded the total val-ue of exports in the previous year and the figure is expected to reach $47 billion by the end of the current calendar year (March 20, 2022).