Bulgarian volleyball club Shumen W completed the signing of Iranian international player Maedeh Borhani.

Borhani, 29, is the first Iranian woman player who joins a European volleyball team. The opposite spiker joined Shumen W from Iranian volleyball club Bank Sarmayeh.

“We agree with the transfer but we have to find a replacement for our player. We will make the final decision about Giveh on Monday,” Azad University coach Maryam Hashemi told the Tasnim news agency.

Shumen W competes at eight-team Bulgaria Superliga Women.

Iran’s Zeinab Ali Giveh on Verge of Joining Shumen W
Iranian woman volleyball player Zeinab Ali Giveh will most likely join club Shumen W.

The opposite spiker joined Shumen W from Iranian volleyball club Bank Sarmayeh. Also, Zeinab Ali Giveh, Azad University player, is allowed to join club Shumen W.

She left Tehran on Thursday to join the Bulgarian club.Shumen W competes at eight-team Bulgaria Superliga Women.

The operator of phases 20 and 21 of the super giant South Pars Gas Field says phase 21’s platform is currently recovering 27 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, saying the platform is faced with no restrictions in supplying gas to onshore refining facilities.
Alireza Ebadi said one third of the gas recovered from phase 21 is being processed at the refining facilities of phases 20 and 21 and the rest is being sweetened at the refineries of phases 15 and 16 of the gas field.

Once the third train of the phase 20&21 refinery comes online, all the gas recovered from the phases will be processed at the facility for injection into the national gas trunk-line.
The second train o the refinery will come online within the next few months, Ebadi said.

Phase 20 and 21 of the South Pars are being developed for production of 50 mcm/d of sweet gas as well as 75,000 b/d of gas condensate, 400 tons of sulfur and 1.5 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas and a million tons of ethane per annul.

Iran says it will need at least 55 billion dollars in investment in its petrochemical sector to bring its annual output to 150 million tons from the current 60 mt/y production capacity within the next 10 years.
Managing Director of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Marziyeh Shahdaei has said Iran will need $20b in fresh investment in order to finish its unfinished projects by the next 5 years, adding the project have made 2 to 30% physical progress so far.

She said based on NPC’s plans, the country’s petrochemical output will reach 150 million tons per year within the next 10 years and for realization of the plans, Iran will need an investment of at least 55 billion dollars.
Iranian petrochemical plants can supply 64 million tons of petrochemicals annually but the capacity is estimated to cross 100 mt/y within the next 5 years.

The country is also planning to more than triple its petrochemical output and bring it to 180 mt/y by 2025.

A delegation of government have attended Mehrabad Airport to celebrate landing of the first Airbus A321, as part of the lucrative deal President Rouhani had signed with European giant of the air industry.

The government encourage had notably Minister of Roads and Urban Planning Abbas Akhundi, Head of AEOI Ali Akbar Salehi, a number of MPs, and other dignitaries from the industry sector, who attended the ceremony to hail the Airbus landing on the airport.

Elaborate ceremony was prepared for the arrival of the much-anticipated Airbus; national anthem was played by a regiment of uniformed staff, with pilots waving hands to the press covering the ceremony.

Head of Iran Air and head of Airbus were onboard Airbus A321 which departed from southern city of Toulouse in France hours ago. The city was hosting a similar ceremony where Iran’s air industry authorities received officially the plane, where Mr. Farhad Parvaresh of Iran Air that the day was the most important day in the history of relations with the Airbus. The first plane houses 190 passengers and is part of the 100 planes signed during Rouhani’s visit to Paris in 2015.

Airbus CEO Fabrice Brégier told the press on Wednesday that the company would provide Iran with 98 brand-new planes, with only 2 others coming from a deal with another airline which was cancelled; “the deal is approved by the US Treasury and according to latest international standards of trade,” he told reporters in Toulouse.

He also added that deal with Iran comprises only one-seventh of the total number of orders the company received in 2016.

The deal to renew Iran’s antiquated air fleet will reportedly improve the passenger capacity to 50,000 seats, with 20,000 jobs directly created by the renewal.

The deal allows Iran to own planes after the country completes the repayment process and receive the certificates necessary to repair and maintenance, and other technical services.

Iran will only pay 15 per cent of the total price, with 85 per cent financed by foreign creditors.

A delegation, comprising senior officials of Poland’s largest oil company, is scheduled to visit Tehran in coming days aiming to ink a contract for developmental of Iranian oilfields.

Poland has begun new cooperation with Iran in the post-JCPOA era over development of oil trade as well as collaborations for investment in upstream sector of Iranian oil and gas industry.

So far, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has signed spot contracts for crude sales to Lotos S.A. and PKN Orlen while negotiations have also begun with another Polish oil giant for investment in Iranian oil and gas industry.

Managing Director of National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) Bijan Alipour, while pointing to the held talks with a Polish firm over implementing developmental projects and boosting recovery factor in southern Iranian oilfields, announced that senior officials of a Polish oil and gas refinery will travel to Iran late January to finalize talks with Iran.

Moreover, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), in a statement released last week, affirmed adequacy of 29 international oil and gas companies willing to put in tenders for Iran’s upstream oil sector with the name of Poland’s PGNiG SA on the list.

What’s more, NIOC and PGNiG have recently signed into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for development of Sumar field in west Iran.

In the same line, Deputy Head of NIOC for Development and Engineering Affairs Gholamreza Manouchehri has described the deal with the Polish over Sumar oilfield saying “PGNiG will conduct studies in the field for six months before making a proposal and a contract will be inked in case both side reach agreement.”

Chairman of Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo SA (PGNiG) Peter Wozniak referred to the age-old history of ties between Iran and Poland stressing that his company had returned to Iran after a six-year hiatus, “given our outstanding experiences in Pakistan and Norway, we will hopefully succeed in development of Sumar field.”

From 2006 to 2010, PGNiG held several talks with Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) for expansion of Lavan gas field in the Persian Gulf and eventually refused to cooperate with NIOC after years of using delaying tactics.

Bordering Iraq in the west of Kermanshah province, Sumar oil field was discovered in 2009 and is believed to hold an in-place reserve of 475 million barrels of which 70 million barrels is recoverable.

Iran Air spokesman had announced that the first Airbus A321 aircraft will arrive at Mehrabad International Airport on Thursday January 12 at 14:30 local time.

Shahrokh Nushabadi made the announcement adding that the airplane had been scheduled to leave Hamburg Airport of Germany for France’s Toulouse Blagnac Airport on Tuesday after going through technical tests.

“According to the timetable, the Airbus A321 aircraft will be guided by Iranian pilots from Toulouse to Tehran on Thursday before landing in Mehrabad International Airport at 14:30,” he continued.

Spokesperson of Iran Air, the Iranian national flag carrier, recalled that a receiving ceremony will be held in Tehran with a number of military and government officials at attendance.

Following implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and removal of cruel sanctions, Airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran managed to sign a contract for purchasing 180 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing and the French company will deliver three aircraft by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 21).

The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus.

Iran Air has announced that the 190-seat Airbus will be exploited in domestic flight routes after delivery.

Millions of mourners turned out in the capital Tehran on Tuesday to bid a final farewell to former president Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

High-ranking state and military officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, stood in rows behind Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei who led the funeral prayer for his “old friend, comrade and ally” at University of Tehran.

After the prayer, the Leader sat at Ayatollah Rafsanjani’s coffin for the last farewell. Other dignitaries and family members followed suit.

In his condolence message, Ayatollah Khamenei said Rafsanjani’s “loss is hard and overwhelming”.

Outside the university, mourners flooded Enqelab Avenue as a truck carrying Rafsanjani’s casket topped with his white clerical turban inched down the iconic thoroughfare along which black banners and posters showing the two-time president were raised. Some of them read “goodbye old combatant”.

The pallbearers yelled slogans in a show of sympathy and unity with mourners weeping and beating their chests in grief.

Officials said more than 2.5 million people attended the ceremony.

The cortege finally made its way through the throngs to reach the mausoleum of Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, the late founding father of the Islamic Republic, in the south of Tehran where the body of Ayatollah Rafsanjani was laid to rest.

Popularly known as a “Pillar of the Revolution”, Ayatollah Rafsanjani played a pivotal role in the course of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the ensuing years. He served as president from 1989 to 1997 and had been the chair of the State Expediency Council since he left office.

The ayatollah died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. Since his passing, condolence messages have poured in both from home and abroad.

The 20 destinations that will be especially hot this year—and the data you need to plan your trip.
Today’s fast-changing, hyper-globalized world has no shortage of incredible travel opportunities. This year, we’ve done all the legwork for you in rooting out the best, pinpointing the biggest hotel openings and cultural events of the year—along with the places you’ll want to see now, before they change forever.

And because it’s not enough to figure out where to go, we’re also helping you decide when to plan each trip, according to hotel price data from Google and insights from our preferred destination specialists across the globe. The cheapest and most expensive times to go are rarely the best and worst.

So get your passport ready—there’s lots of ground to cover in the next 12 months./ Bloomberg

IRAN

For intrepid travelers, the question is not whether to visit Iran; it’s how to get there before an influx of tourists taints the experience. This is no casual undertaking. The visa application process is lengthy and complex; citizens from the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. must be on escorted tours; and travelers have to abide by a government dress code.

Take our word for it, though. The hassle is worthwhile. Since 2015’s historic nuclear deal was brokered, several companies have launched itineraries and major European airlines have resumed their flights.

On trips such as Cox and King’s Heart of Persia, you’ll get to roam the desert bazaar of Kerman, ogle Moorish palaces and mosaic-tiled mosques in Isfahan, and see ancient sites like the royal city of Persepolis, which dates to roughly 500 B.C.

“These are the kinds of sites that you can’t find elsewhere—and which, in places like Afghanistan and Syria, have been tragically destroyed,” said Brian Allen, Asia specialist for Mountain Travel Sobek, which has been leading tours to Iran for four years.

Iran hotel price, by Google

Then there’s the legendary Persian food and hospitality. “There is a cultural norm in Iran that guests are from god,” Allen said. “I frequently hear people say they’ve been all over the world and never received a welcome like they got there.”

As always, please check your government’s travel alerts website (like this one for the U.S.) before going to a country that shares complex diplomatic relations with your own.

When to go: Late October or early November, when the climate is just right for outdoor sightseeing.
When not to go: Iranian holidays clog the streets with traffic, and Ramadan makes a trip extra-complicated; this year, avoid the last two weeks of March and the month of June.

Iran has managed to attract 7.2 billion dollars in finance from three foreign banks, the vice governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) announced on Saturday.

Gholamali Kamyab said attracting $10 billion of foreign finance has been defined as a project for the CBI in the area of Resistance Economy, Tasnim News Agency reported.

He made the remarks in a meeting with CBI officials, which was attended by First Vice-President Es’haq Jahangiri in Tehran.

The measures taken by the CBI in this regard include extensive talks with some foreign banks, such as the Export–Import (Exim) Bank of China, Italy’s Mediobanca and Denmark’s Danske Bank, he noted.

The CBI vice governor added that up to now, 72 percent of the project has been implemented.

There has been a new wave of interest in ties with Iran since Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries – Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany – reached a deal on Iran’s nuclear program in 2015.

The comprehensive nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), terminated all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran.

The Iranian handball player of Romania’s Dinamo Bucuresti’s Sajjad Esteki won ‘ Rookie of 2016’ title of VELUX EHF Champions League in 2016, garnering 62 percent of the votes.

The thrilling Iranian long-range shooter had earlier become the top goalscorer of the European Champions League in 2016, with 68 goals in nine matches — three more than Magnus Bramming from Denmark’s Team Tvis Holstebro club, varzesh3.com reported.

Esteki, 26, who put in brilliant performances in the European tourney, is the first Iranian and Asian handball player to earn these two European honors.

The other nominees for the title were Nedim Remili (PSG), Bramming (TTH Holstebro), Andreas Wolff (THW Kiel), Dika Mem (Barcelona) and Nebojsa Simic (IFK Kristianstad).

Iran handball stars

Many iranian handball stars play in the other countries . Allahkaram and  Sajjad Estaki and Alireza Mousavi playing in Dinamo bucharest also Shaho Nosrati plays in Steaua bucharest in Romania. Mohsen Babasafri who is goal keeper and Sasan Mousakhani  played in Turkey. Amin Yousefnejad joined to Metalurg Macedonian handball club. Afshin Sadeghi plays in Swiss. Daniel komayeshnejad  play in Malemo club in Sweden and

Video