The direct flights between the Iranian and Spanish capitals resumed on September 2, after 17 years, and are currently underway on a weekly basis.

Mohammadreza Karimiyan, the deputy head of the airport operation at Imam Khomeini Airport Company, announced the resumption of weekly flights of Iran Air between Tehran and Madrid this week, saying, “Following a series of measures by the Iranian Embassy in Spain and through the coordination with the Civil Aviation Organization, and the Airlines of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran Air), as well as Spanish domestic institutions, the license for ordinary flights of Iran Air on the Tehran-Madrid route, was received,” IKAC news reported.

“Accordingly, the flights will be operated on Wednesdays each week.”

The flights will depart from Imam Khomeini International Airport at 09:50 a.m. and the return flight will leave Madrid on the same day at 15:30 local time.

Karimiyan noted that currently, many flights operate from Imam Khomeini International Airport to European cities including London, Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Vienna and Manchester

Passengers arriving by air must provide negative COVID-19 test results in English to gain entry to Iran their PCR tests for the coronavirus must have been conducted not more than 72 hours before boarding, he added.

Based on a statement by Iran Air, passengers with Visa C (tourist visa) will not be allowed to take the flight till further notice.

The country has been trying to resume its international flights after the coronavirus pandemic hit the sector since early 2020.

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Sadeq Hosseini, Farbod Khalili: As of the filming of this report, three months have passed since the coronavirus outbreak went from a news story on TV to an everyday reality for Iranians. Schools were closed, businesses shut and people sent home self-quarantining. In the meantime, while urban life as we all knew it, was almost put on hold, there were still some people who were busy working. Not for money. But for kindness and compassion. Thousands of Iranians volunteered to help their fellow citizens and provided these services:

Production and distribution of face masks and other protective gears
Disinfection of public places and cars
Distribution of essential food supplies and cash handouts
Volunteering at hospitals and other medical facilities

Tehran’s Autism Charity distribute over 80,000 packs

Since the early days of the corona covid19 pandemic, the Shokoufeha Charity for children with autism, In one of the Tehran’s eastern neighborhoods halted most of its activities and instead had these volunteers prepare and distribute for free sanitary packages.

Behrouz Khosravan CEO of Shokoufeh Charity for Autistic Children said: “The Charity was founded in 2017. It has taken 70 kids under its wings, providing them with food parcels and medicine. 30 kids receive monthly pensions while we provide rehabilitation services to 45 kids at the charity’s central branch.”

Director of Shokoufeh Charity added: “The activities of the rehabilitation center were halted soon after the start of the outbreak. Therefore, our psychotherapists and occupational therapists provided families of the autistic kids with educational content online. We also prepared sanitary packages and distributed them among the families. We have managed to distribute over 80 thousand packs among supported families and across the city.”
Haniyeh Abbasi is social worker in Shokoufeh Charity for Autistic Children said: “In early February 2020, after the outbreak, the charity decided to prepare and distribute sanitary packages that include a face mask, gloves and a hand sanitizer gel among the needy to help lighten the load for hospital staff and officials alike. We hope the recipients of these packages can use them in good health. We also gave these packages to the families of autistic children under the charity’s protection since most of them are financially challenged. So we decided we could prepare these packages with the help of donors to lighten the load for them.”

Hanieh mention that: “After outbreak we started to reduce the number of the classes and instead offered online sessions. We also pay their families some cash handouts every month to help them with their medical and other daily expenses.”

Retired teacher who is member of Charity member also said: “Whoever has to deal with autistic children inevitably becomes kind and compassionate. Therefore, all these people here have been doing voluntary work without ever once complaining.”

The volunteer who took the corona

Firouzgar Hospital has been one of the main coronavirus treatment centers in Tehran, and also where Meysam Ameri was working voluntarily until he contracted the disease.
Meysam Ameri is a 35-year old graphic designer working out of his home studio in north of Tehran. Since the early days of the outbreak, He began his voluntary work by handing out free face masks and gloves in Tehran subway, and disinfecting the Grand Bazaar.
In early April 2020, he volunteered to help the fight against coronavirus at Firouzgar hospital where he finally contracted the disease 20 days later.

Meysam recounted his story of joining Firouzgar Hospital:
It was 25 of us, men and women, who joined the hospital as the first volunteer group. We had an agreement to take care of all the things left unfinished after receiving initial training. For a while, we only did office work and disinfected the exteriors until we gained the trust of the hospital staff, and were then allowed in the Coronavirus ward after receiving appropriate training.
Aside from carrying out duties like taking test samples to the lab, and taking the results back, and going with patients to get CT Scans, we – as caregivers- also helped the patients getting to, using the toilet or changing their diapers.
We would form emotional bonds with patients to make their hospital experience and their battle with the disease more bearable. We would also help patients video call their family members. Other creative things we would do include giving them haircuts and even massage! We would also make fresh fruit juice. It was a favorite with patients and the medical staff alike!
We were later received training for some more technical nursing tasks like taking blood pressure and body temperature, and reading a pulse oximeter that monitors oxygen levels in the patients’ blood.
About 80 other caregivers joined us in the meantime. Still anyone who desired could leave. So on my last day at the hospital, there were about 20 of us volunteers there.
One other interesting thing we did was to throw a surprise birthday party for one of the nurses whose wedding had been cancelled due to the pandemic. We also held a ceremony to celebrate the birthday of Imam Mahdi on Mid-Sha’ban. Just like our other expenses like the cost of gowns and face masks, the cost of holding the event was paid through donations.

Meysam told us the hospital work was heavy and stressful. He would start working after performing his prayers at dawn, and would not go to bed until well after midnight. He believes his extreme physical fatigue contributed to his disease: One night, after twenty something days at the hospital, I realized I had a temperature and I was breathing heavily. At first, I thought it was just fatigue from working long hours. I went to the emergency department and underwent a CT scan just to realize my lungs were affected. I stayed there for three days until I could breathe easier. Then I spent 20 more days at home self-quarantining.
Coughing was not one of the symptoms. Instead, the symptoms were a high fever, and severe muscle and chest pains. Three weeks after the quarantine, my breaths are still short and heavy.
But none of these pains hurt Meysam as much as the pain of not seeing his family, he mentioned: I could not see any of my family members for 45 days, from the night I was admitted to hospital to the last day of my quarantine. I have a 9-month old son and a 5-year old daughter. My son had started crawling and grown his first teeth when I got to meet him again. Separation from my wife, kids and parents was my toughest experience.

Tehran municipality and volunteer work in Corona pandemic

Tehran Municipality, with extensive coordination, provided the possibility of volunteer groups. Groups that produced and distributed masks and hygiene items, groups that disinfected places, and groups that distributed food packages to the needy were able to provide their services with the help of the Tehran Municipality.

Pirouz Hanachi Tehran Mayor during the visiting thousands of food packages prepared for the needy said: All donors, volunteers, Tehran municipality and Basij forces are working to create a database so that the process of distributing food and health packages could be done fairly.

Faezeh Dolati is cultural deputy of Tehran 7 district municipality mentioned:
The municipality of borough seven, as one of the twenty-two boroughs of Tehran, provides various services to the citizens such as:
⁃ holding entertainment activities like street carnivals in the neighborhoods. In this way, people by respecting social distance, can watch and enjoy from their homes.
⁃ Managing and coordinating voluntary services, for example We produced around 2 million face masks with participation of local volunteers.
⁃ Preparing and Distributing nonperishable food packages for impacted families in collaboration with local businesses In order to participating in social responsibility.
⁃ Transforming neighborhoods centers into covid-19 service centers for monitoring and screening to help health care system
⁃ and finally, identifying vulnerable people and those who lost their jobs due to Corona virus crisis while distributing health packages

Mehdi Shirzad headquarters office of organizing social participation in Tehran mucipality about about Tehran’ voluntary work during the lockdown said: Fairly speaking, they did absolutely great with the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, and with collecting donations. So did mosque Imams and all who do social work there. Youth volunteer groups also helped a lot in the neighborhoods. This proved that urban crisis management is almost impossible without citizens’ help. The municipality’s most important achievement was the creation of a platform to connect NGOs to volunteers. So citizens can upload their resumes on this platform and then join events organized by NGOs, or even hold their own charity events.

Tehran Volunteer group preparing 3500 hot meals every day

Mostafa Foroutan who is Heydaraneh Campaign Manager said:
A number of Volunteer groups joined forces and created the Heydaraneh movement to be able to produce more comprehensive work during the coronavirus outbreak. In the beginning, like many other groups, and since we didn’t know how to exactly combat the virus, we began our activities by disinfecting public places, and later produced and distributed face masks.
In the next phase, and on the recommendation of hospitals, we started making a gravy-like puree from quail meat extract and medicinal herbs.
The movement also managed to prepare and distribute about 4000 essential food parcels for needy families.
We also collected donations for those directly impacted by the outbreak.

Hossein Bolandimonfared director of volunteer group that preparing food said: During the coronavirus outbreak, with the help of other volunteer groups, we have been preparing 3500 high quality hot meals every day.
Making fresh fruit juice for hospitals is another thing our group has done. A supervisor from the health ministry would oversee the whole process 24/7 to make sure the product meets health standards.
I should stress that we received an unprecedented amount of volunteer help for the supply, preparation and distribution of the meals. The level of participation was much higher than during the 2019 floods and Kermanshah’s 2017 earthquake.
Iranians have proven to be people of hard times. While people in other parts of the world were forming long queues outside supermarkets, and even seen fighting, Iranians were standing in line for voluntary work. This is really valuable that people care about one another in this situation.

The 6 months after the coronavirus pandemic, about 360 thousand Iranians have contracted coronavirus, and seven thousands -unfortunately- lost their lives. The first wave of the covid-19 is now behind us.
We, the people of Tehran, have brought this malicious outbreak under control for now, well of course, with the help of the government and municipality. The exact numbers are still to be fully worked out, but estimates show over half a million Tehraners have offered some kind of voluntary service during the first wave of the outbreak.

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Spectacular places can change our minds, and this is the main reason for tourism. In light of the beauty of nature in Iran, we don’t need to go around the world to see spectacular landscapes, Churat Lake in Sari, Mazandaran province located 309 km from Tehran.

Photo: Ehsan Fazli, IRNA

Sari, Mazadaran

Sari is located on the foothills of the Alborz mountain range and the south of the Caspian Sea at the height of 22/7 m above the sea level.

This city has 2 mountains and plain parts. Moderate and humid summers and partly cool and arid winter are the climatic features of Sari. Sari consists of 6 parts naming ”Markazi“, ”Chahardange“, ”Dodange”, ”Kelijan Rastagh”, ”Roodpey”, ”Northern Roodpey”, four cities and 15 rural districts.

Sari is the biggest and the most populous city in Mazandaran province, one of the most significant cities in the northern region of Iran where there are in religious and historical places, various natural attractions as mountain, forest, plains and sea ports addition to vicinity to the margin of Damghan as a desert attraction which turned it into one of the attractive zones in Iran. The economy of this city depends on agriculture and foodstuff based on its natural situation so that it has the highest level of producing the sea products such as Caviar among all regions of Iran and neighboring countries, with the best quality in all around the world. Tourism industry, factories and companies such as Mazandaran wood and paper industries as the biggest paper producer in Middle East, wooden handicrafts and pottery industries are also highly important here People who live in Sari speak in Mazandarani and Farsi. The residents of this city are Muslim and followers of Davazdah Imami religion.

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Wheat harvest in Khuzestan has started on April 10 from 550,000 hectares of land and continues. Wheat harvesting will continue until the end of June and it is expected that about 1.8 million tons of wheat will be harvested from Khuzestan farms.

The province of Khuzestan is 63,213 km2 (24,407 sq mi) in the south-west of Iran, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Ahvaz is the capital of this province and its cities are Abadan, Behbahan, Dezful, Khorramshahr, Bander Imam, Shoush (Susa), Masjed Soleiman, Andimeshk, Mah Shahr, Ramhormoz, Omidiyeh, Shushtar, Izeh, Hoveizeh, Aqa Djari, Shadegan and Soosangerd.

Basically, the province of Khuzestan can be divided into two regions, the plains and mountainous regions. The agricultural lands are fertile and mainly in the west of the province, which are irrigated by the Karun, Karkheh and Jarahi rivers. These three large and permanent rivers flow over the entire territory contributing to the fertility of the land. Karun, Iran’s largest river, 850 kilometers long, flows into the Persian Gulf through this province.

The name Khuzestan, which means “The Land of the Khuzi,” refers to the original inhabitants of this province, the Khuzi people. Khuzestan is situated on the southern part of the Zagros mountain ranges, which covers the north and east of the province. The climate of Khuzestan is generally hot and humid, particularly in the south, while winters are much more pleasant and dry.

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Chief Executive of Isfahan Oil Refining Company (EORC) Morteza Ebrahimi on Mon. said that plans are underway to increase Euro-5 diesel production volume to 20 million liters.

With the commissioning of Diesel Treatment Unit and installing new equipment before the termination of the current year [to end March 20, 2021], 22 million liters of diesel will be produced in the refinery according to Euro-5 standard, he said.

Of total 22 million liters of diesel currently produced in the refinery, 2 million liters is produced according to the Euro standard.

Presently, 12 million liters of gasoline is daily produced in the refinery, observing Euro-5 standard rules and regulations, Ebrahimi stressed.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ebrahimi pointed to the commitments of his company in tandem with the social responsibilities and added, “Esfahan Oil Refining Company has assisted Municipality of Isfahan and Isfahan University of Medical Sciences financially in the fight against coronavirus.”

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Mayor of London Sadiq Aman Khan has said that many of the measures taken in London to counter coronavirus are similar to those taken in Tehran, and Tehran is even ahead.

Khan made the remarks in an online meeting with Tehran mayor Pirouz Hanachi on Friday.

Referring to the conditions imposed on Iran by U.S. sanctions, Khan said: “In meetings with the British government officials, I would tell them about the problems of Tehran in relation to sanctions and I hope that this problem will be solved soon.”

Hanachi for his part noted that Iran is fighting coronavirus and sanctions at the same time, adding “Despite the pandemic, start-up businesses have been activated in Iran and many services were provided in person before the outbreak, are now done online and on virtual networks.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Hanachi said that in the global crisis, countries usually put aside their differences and problems and try to help each other so that the situation does not get worse.

To many of us urban administrators in Iran, the onslaught of coronavirus has underscored an important fact of life: no town, city or nation can be indifferent to global crises, even in far-flung corners of our world, Hanachi told The Guardian on April 4.

Indeed, while the mantra of good governance over the past century has been to “think global, act local”, we must today think and act both locally and globally.

Doubtless, there are things that we could do differently, like every country in the world. But we are operating against the backdrop of the most extreme sanctions regime in history.

The US embargo not only prohibits American companies and individuals from conducting lawful trade with Iranian counterparts, but given that the sanctions are extra-territorial, all other countries and companies are also bullied into refraining from doing legitimate business with Iranians, even the selling of medicines.

This unjust treatment of Iran has come about via the policies of one country – the United States – whose ruling administration does not seem to prioritize even its own national interests, but instead the narrow interests of a governing party. The outcome of such irresponsible policies and behavior is not limited to Iran; they have also inflicted harm on the American public.

In order to better confront these new global crises, there is a need for politicians to realize that the path to pursuing national interests is not separate or contrary to that of global interests and international accountability.

The world cannot go on like this. If global leaders fail to seize the opportunity to embrace change, we will all continue to remain highly vulnerable to communicable diseases, environmental catastrophes, global warming, terrorism, violent extremism and other shared threats.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki has said that the daily death toll and positive cases of coronavirus in Iran have dropped respectively to one third over the course of three weeks, which is a source of honor for the country amid the tough sanctions.

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Tehran Symphony Orchestra invited the musicians of the world to join them for online performances to leave behind the home quarantine and break the chain of coronavirus infection.

After online performance of Iran‘s National Orchestra, Roudaki Foundation has put the performance of Tehran Symphony Orchestra on agenda.

Head of public relations office of Roudaki Foundation Omid Seddigh told IRNA that the invitation is for performing Beethoven’s 9th that will be broadcast in virtual space.

The peace will be led by Italian conductor Paolo Olmi, Seddig said.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, Iran cancelled all the concerts to stop the spread of the virus. Hence, many Iranian artists started to perform online.

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Tehran Mayor Pirouz Hanachi in an online video conference with Muscat and Istanbul counterparts reiterated that the only way for countering coronavirus pandemic is the international consensus.

“No vaccine has indeed been developed for #Corona yet, but l’m sure that there’s only one way to deal with global crises: international interaction,” Hanachi wrote on his Twitter account.

“I talked to Hamdoon Al Harthi and @imamoglu_int today, distinguished mayors of Muscat and Istanbul. We’ll be always together,” he added.

The head of Iran’s Health Ministry’s Public Relations Office said earlier on Tuesday that a total of 84,802 have been infected with COVID-19 in Iran, from whom 5,297 have lost their lives to the virus.

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The Iranian documentaries “Vars” and “Hafez and Goethe” will be competing in the Archaeology Channel International Film Festival in the United States, the organizers have announced.

The festival is scheduled to take place in Eugene in the U.S. state of Oregon from May 13 to 17.

Due to complications from the COVID-19 outbreak in Oregon, the festival’s playlist will be available from May 13 to help viewers around the world see the films selected for screening.

Directed by Javad Vatani, “Vars” is about Veresk Bridge, an over 80-year-old bridge in northern Iran, which played a key role during World War II as it was used by the Allies to deliver aid to the Soviets in their fight against Hitler.

Two screenings have been arranged for the film at the Sheffer Recital Hall and the Shedd Institute on May 15 at 7:19 and 8:12 pm.

Produced at Iran’s Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC), “Hafez and Goethe”, which has been directed by Farshad Fereshteh-Hekmat, explores the impacts of Hafez and Goethe, two of the most prominent poets of all time.

It takes a closer look at how Hafez, a Persian poet writing in the 14th century, came to have a strong impact and influence on Goethe, a German poet writing in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hafez’s influence is best explored through Goethe’s invaluable collection of poems called “West–Eastern Diwan.” This collection can be seen as an early example of the blending of Western and Eastern cultures in art.

The Sheffer Recital Hall and the Shedd Institute will screen the film on May 16 at 1:50 and 3:08 pm.

The DEFC announced on Tuesday that the Iranian film expert Bahman Nurai, who is also the director of the Trade Department of the center, has been selected for the jury of the festival.

The festival intends to showcase the wonderful diversity of human cultures past and present in the exploration of our place in history and in our world, as well to promote the genre and the makers of film and video productions about cultural heritage, the organizers said.

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Director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Exploration Department, Saleh Hendi, says the company has it on the agenda to drill eight new exploratory wells in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021).

As ILNA reported, six of the mentioned wells are going to be drilled in the onshore exploration sites while the other two will be offshore.

“The drilling operations for yet another five exploratory wells which were started in the previous calendar year (ended on March 19) will also continue in the current year,” Hendi said.

Explaining about the two offshore wells, the official noted that one of these wells is located in Siri region, which is being drilled independently by the Exploration Department, and the other in the Yalda field for which the drilling operations started this week in collaboration with Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC).

According to the official, the Exploration Department has identified and prioritized all of the country’s sedimentary basins, and each of these basins is carefully studied and modeled with new methods.

Last year, a total of 18,000 meters of exploratory wells were dug through 60 rigs, meaning that an average of five drilling rigs were active each month, he noted.

Earlier in March, Mohammadreza Hor, the deputy director for technical affairs at NIOC’s Exploration Directorate, announced that the mentioned directorate had seven active drilling rigs in the said month and according to the development plans the number of the rigs was planned to increase to eight in the coming months.

He had also announced the completion of drilling operations of three wells in Forouzan, Mansouri and Deng fields after conducting preliminary tests in February, saying: “Currently, operation trials are underway for Arman exploration well in the region.”

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