It is the first zero daily death toll since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country in early 2020.

Iran’s Health Minister Bahram Einollahi issued a message in which he hailed the zero daily COVID death toll after the country’s 2 year and 100 days of fight against the pandemic.

Bahram Einollahi said that Iran witnessed its first day without any COVID-related deaths while high death tolls are reported in the United States and Europe.

He congratulated Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and the whole Iranian nation on this achievement.

He called on the Iranian nation to observe the health protocols until the country celebrates the end of the pandemic.

Coronavirus figures kept declining in Iran thanks to the government’s mass vaccination campaign. So far, 64,550,043 people have received the first dose of the COVID vaccine, 57,866,919 people the second dose and 27,562,033 people the third dose, and the total number of vaccines injected in the country reached 149,978,995 doses.

Coronavirus and US Sanction against IRAN

Iran has been battling one of the deadliest outbreaks in the world, with the crippling sanctions slapped on the country by the US significantly hampering the country’s efforts to rein in the spread of the virus and provide vaccines from other countries.

The sanctions were imposed by the administration of former President Donald Trump under a “maximum pressure” campaign and have been maintained by the current administration of Joe Biden, which has refused to soften the bans to ease pandemic-related hardship on Iranians.

Iranian officials have described the sanctions as “economic terrorism” and “medical terrorism” for their deadly impact on ordinary people.

The bans, however, backfired and helped the Islamic Republic rely on its own medical and pharmaceutical capacities to develop domestically-manufactured anti-COVID vaccine, so much so that the country’s health experts rose through the ranks and promoted Iran as one of the few exporters of the coronavirus jabs.

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“Iranian director Majid Majidi has made some of the most visually stunning and emotionally stirring films in world cinema about the plight of under-privileged, exploited and abused young people, and Sun Children (Khorshid) is one of his very best. The story of street boys commissioned by a local boss to dig for a treasure unfolds around an urban schoolyard and the clever, freckled face of 12-year-old Ali (Roohollah Zamani), a stereotype-buster of non-stop courage. The movie won best film, best screenplay and best production design kudos at this year’s Fajr Film Festival and should be a frontrunner in Venice competition,” Deborah Young wrote.

“Majidi’s Children of Heaven (1998) was the first Iranian film to be nominated for an Academy Award in the foreign language category. Though Sun Children lacks the visual lushness and poetry that made Children of Heaven so seductive, its condemnation of child labor and the inaccessibility of basic education to the poor comes across with great force,” she added.

“Post-revolutionary Iranian films have often drawn from the well of children’s problems to outflank the censors and score their social critiques. The screenplay written by Majidi and co-scripter Nima Javidi (Melbourne) pins its outrage to a swift-moving, high-stakes plot that undercuts sentimentality and the conventions of the exploited-child genre,” Deborah Young went on to say.

“Sun Children” is one of the 18 feature films selected for the competition section and will compete for winning the festival top prize, the Golden Lion.

The 77th Venice International Film Festival will take place at Venice Lido from 2 – 12 September 2020. This will be the first major international film event to take place physically since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Street kids are ‘whole world’s problem’: Iran filmmaker at Venice

It took Majid Majidi four months and nearly 4,000 auditions to find the dynamic street children stars of Khorshid (Sun Children), the Iranian director’s latest movie premiering Sunday in Venice.

But the five kids lucky enough to be cast – one of whom accompanied Majidi to the prestigious Venice film festival on the Lido – are just a handful of the world’s 152 million street children who face a grim future without society’s intervention, the director said.

“Many of these kids are selling items in the streets, or underground. They have the worst conditions but it’s not limited to Iran, it’s everywhere, unfortunately.”

Despite the heavy subject matter, an adventure story plot and Majidi’s ability to find humanity and humour in the face of adversity help highlight the spirit, intelligence and potential of Majidi’s young subjects.

In the film, 12-year-old Ali [Rouhollah Zamani] and his three friends help support their families through odd jobs, even stealing a tyre or two. One day, they are told a hidden treasure is buried underneath a school for street children. To dig for it, they must enrol.

Majidi said he deliberately sought a light touch, even including unexpected moments of humour that had the audience cheering at a press screening.

“The topics are already very sad, very heavy. So in order to be able to keep the viewers engaged, you don’t need to force them into a heavy, sad situation,” Majidi told AFP, speaking through an interpreter.

“I wanted to do a mixture of light and heavy and play between those so people can stand to watch this misery.”

The film is one of 18 in competition for the festival’s top prize, the Golden Lion.

Working at five

Just before departing for the festival, lead actor Zamani tested positive for coronavirus and could not travel, Majidi said, adding that the youngster was fine, though disappointed.

Actress Shamila Shirzad, 13, made the trip, however. In the film, Shirzad and her younger brother played roles that differed little from their actual lives. As Afghans without papers in Tehran, they worked selling items in the subway while living under the constant threat of their family being sent to a refugee camp.

“I was born in Iran and started working when I was five and went to school,” where Majidi found her, she said at a press conference.

Some three to four million Afghans are currently living in Iran, their situation worsened by their illegal status and the prejudice they face, said the director, whose 2001 film, Baran focused on Afghan refugees in Iran.

Majidi warned that the plight of street children was not limited to one country or region, saying the world could not afford to ignore these kids’ potential.

“These [children] are supposed to be the future of humanity, and what is happening to the future of humanity is disastrous,” Majidi said.

Responsibility goes “beyond the state,” he said.

“The responsibility is to understand and be aware of the children’s situation, and that concerns us all, not just those who govern us.”

Majidi and a number of crew members are on the Italian Lido to promote the film at the major international film event.

“What is portrayed in the film is a global issue that is not limited to one country, but the damage some West Asian countries are facing due to wars is more serious,” Majidi lamented.

“Our country has been under severe sanctions imposed by the U.S. government over the past 40 years, and at present, since coronavirus is a mutual affliction all over the globe, one of our most serious problems is that these sanctions threaten access to certain medicines,” he added.

He said that children and families are most vulnerable to wars and political upheavals, and added, “Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey and our other neighboring countries are always suffering from wars and political crises.”

One of Iran’s serious problems is that people have illegally emigrated from these countries to Iran as a result of the wars and regional crises.

The cast members of “Sun Children”, Shamila Shirzad and her brother, Abolfazl, are two children born to an Afghan family in Iran.

These two, as well as other child members of the cast, were selected through auditions that Majidi held among the children making a living from peddling in the Tehran metro.

“A key topic the film intends to emphasize is the social responsibility people have in their societies,” Majidi said and added, “Governments are not my problem in this film, but I want to say that people should fulfill their own social duties and responsibilities on each issue.”

In their Twitter accounts, Cinema Organization of Iran director Hossein Entezami and Fajr Film Festival president Ebrahim Darughezadeh praised Majidi’s remarks during the press conference at the Venice festival.

“An artist is the voice of the people,” Entezami commented, while Darughezadeh wrote, “Majidi used the opportunity at the Venice festival to condemn the oppression of the Iranian people and violation of their rights.”

Celluloid Dreams, a major French film production and distribution company, is handling international sales. “Sun Children” premiered during February in Tehran at the 38th edition of the Fajr Film Festival, which honored it with the Crystal Simorgh for best film.

Co-written by Majidi and Nima Javidi, the film also won the award for best screenplay.

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The President said that the United States, by withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and violating UN Resolution 2231 with the aim of overthrowing the Islamic Republic, has imposed cruel and unjust sanctions against the Iranian people for the past two and a half years, adding, “History has shown that the Iranian people will not give in to the bullying and coercion of a power”.

Speaking on Monday in a meeting with the Swiss Foreign Minister, Hassan Rouhani said that the relations between countries should be based on international regulations and UN Security Council resolutions, adding, “The United States has been seeking to eliminate the Islamic Republic and interfere in Iran’s internal affairsfor many years, and Mr Trump has made a miscalculation by thinking that he could overthrow the Islamic Republic within three months by putting pressure on Iran and waging an economic war”.

Emphasising that we have been -and will be- committed to international rules and multilateral agreements, Rouhani said, “Any day that the United States decides to admit to its mistakes, make up for its illegal actions and return to Resolution 2231 and the JCPOA, the path is clear for them”.

The President emphasised, “Today, it is clear to the Americans that they have made a mistake and will not achieve their goal through pressure and sanctions”.

The President described US sanctions and economic war against the Islamic Republic, the assassination of a high-ranking Iranian military official in another country, as well as the violation of Iranian airspace as clear examples of economic terrorism, terrorist operations and air terrorism by the country, adding, “We expect all friendly and free countries in the world not to remain silent in the face of terrorism and the illegal actions committed by the United States over the years”.

Dr Rouhani stated that we expected the European countries to take decisive and explicit action against the US economic terrorism, which has even prevented the entry of drugs into Iran during the outbreak of coronavirus, calling for a more active part on Switzerland’s financial channel and its more effective and useful role.

In another part of his speech, the President mentioned Switzerland as an important country in Europe, and referring to the good and friendly relations between the two countries over the past years, emphasised the development of Tehran-Bern relations in various fields of science, health, agriculture, environment, etc.

Dr Rouhani also referred to the outbreak of the global coronavirus in many countries around the world, and expressed hope that the two countries would share their experiences in the fight against COVID-19 and develop their cooperation in this regard.

Referring to the 100th anniversary of the establishment of political and diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis described the relations between Iran and Switzerland very good and sincere, and stressed the development and deepening of these relations in all fields.

“All countries around the world need to know that there is a strong legal system in the world so that they can live in security; therefore, it is important that everyone, especially powerful countries, fully comply with international rules and regulations,” said the Swiss foreign minister.

We are aware of the problems caused by the US sanctions on the Iranian people, said Foreign Minister Cassis, adding, “The Swiss financial channel has been designed and launched to solve these problems and we will try increase the useful role of this channel”.

The Swiss Foreign Minister said that we are still with Iran to solve the problems and we will try to play our part, adding, “During this visit, I had very good meetings with the officials of the Islamic Republic, which can be the basis for developing and strengthening relations between the two countries in different fields”.

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It was in late March and as Iran’s sports community was still reeling from the shock of the pandemic, the suspension of all sporting events and the postponement of the olympic games to 2021 when it received another bitter blow; the country’s lone Olympic track and field medalist, Ehsan Hadadi, had tested positive for the coronavirus.

After recovering from the malicious disease Ehsan recounted his experience battling the virus. He said:
“It was really difficult to breathe but I hadn’t lost hope. Fear is your worst enemy while fighting this disease. If you are afraid, you can not overcome this. My high morale was a great help. This disease is no joke. It can infect anyone. So, whoever you are, stay home and take safety guidelines seriously.”
Aside from finicalical implications, the postponement of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo has also had a ripple effect on the morale of the athletes who saw their childhood dreams put on hold and years of training extended. 52 Iranian athletes who have already qualified for 11 events now have to reset their mental preparations.

The 2020 Olympics – now the 2021 Olympics- are the first ever games to be postponed in peace-time. The event that was initially scheduled to start July 24 is now pushed all the way back to the summer of 2021.
This decision came out of a phone call between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach on March 25 to make sure athletes can compete in their best condition and spectators can enjoy safe games.
The National Olympic Academy of Iran had to – naturally- suspend its activities following an order by Iran’s coronavirus control center. But the Academy continued its consultation services for athletes online or over the phone. It also started offering online courses for PE teachers in Olympics Values Education.

For a period of time, Iran was behind China with the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths. But the country soon recovered from the first wave of the outbreak and assumed the control of the situation despite US economic sanctions that have drastically constrained the ability of the country to finance humanitarian imports, including medicines and medical equipment.

Iranian athletes and champions released a video clip in solidarity with the people of the world which was warmly received by the sports community and was shared on the website of Association of National Olympic Committees.

In recent history, we Iranians have gone through years of war and sanctions. And I am only sure that we will put this new crisis behind us victoriously. So keep your spirits up and never lose hope.

Iran Olympic Review
Episode 1: Iran and Coronavirus covid-19
Reporter: Farbod Khalili
Cameraman: Mohsen Roushandeh
Video Editor: Amirhassan Saadati
Editor in chief and producer: Sadeq Hosseini
Production: Public Relation Of Iran National Olympic Committee & Iran This Way
www.olympic.ir
www.iranthisway.com

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Coronavirus deaths down 70% in Iran

Iran‘s Health Ministry says the country is witnessing a “declining trend” in the number of fatalities and cases of new coronavirus infections as a result of bilateral cooperation between the people and the government.

Iraj Harirchi, the deputy minister of health, announced in Tehran Saturday that more than 50 percent of coronavirus cases, and about 70 percent of coronavirus-related deaths have decreased across the country.

“There is a declining trend in corona disease in most provinces and this has been the result of effective actions by the people and the government,” Harirchi said.

“I would like to emphasize that at a time when smart and gradual social distancing takes place, any violation can have serious and irreparable consequences,” he added.

The deputy health minister also predicted that there would be “two to three outbreaks” over a year in most of the world’s countries before the discovery of corona vaccines and drugs, underlining that people should stick to the stay-at-home slogan and avoid unnecessary commuting.

In a meeting of senior officials in charge of the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus in Tehran on Saturday, President Hassan Rouhani expressed optimism that the chain of transmission would break “to some extent” in the country as long as people continue to follow the guidelines drawn up by the government.

“We are on the path to control the disease but if the level of warnings and awareness of the people decreases, the disease may peak,” Rouhani said. “In this situation, we have to reinstate the restrictions. Of course, we hope that people will continue to take warnings seriously and not leave home except for their livelihood.”

“The path to fighting and controlling this disease definitely cannot be traversed without the support of the people.”

Iran’s Health Ministry announced a day earlier that the country was no longer “in the red” as the daily death toll from the coronavirus had begun to slow.

Kianoush Jahanpour, the health ministry’s spokesman, said on Friday that 93 people had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll since the pandemic first emerged to 5,574.

More than 66,000 people were reported to have recovered from the infectious disease.

Jahanpour said out of 88,194 confirmed cases, 66,596 patients had been released from hospital and recovered from the illness.

“None of our provinces are in the red, but warnings remain, and the situation will not be considered normal at all,” the Health Ministry’s spokesman tweeted on Friday.
Jahanpour called on Iranians to continue to respect social distancing measures, avoid large crowds and frequently wash their hands.

Iran has been doing its utmost to contain the respiratory disease caused by COVID-19 despite the hardships caused by US sanctions.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has not only defied international calls on Washington in recent weeks to halt the draconian sanctions, but has even slapped more such restrictive measures on the Islamic Republic.

Washington re-imposed its sanctions on Iran in May 2018 after unilaterally leaving a historic nuclear accord with the Islamic Republic and other countries that has been endorsed by the UN Security Council.

Washington claims that it has exempted foodstuffs and medicine from the bans, something that Tehran entirely disputes.

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The WSA’s report, which is on steel production by 64 countries, put Iran’s steel output at over 2.8 million tons in March, IRNA reported.

The report also says that crude steel production by the 64 producers has fallen 1.3 percent during the first quarter of this year from the same time span in the past year.

Production by China, the world’s largest steel producer, dropped 1.7 percent in March, while rising 1.2 percent in the first quarter on an annual basis, the same report confirmed.

Iran’s monthly performance was reported as being prominent in the region, as its rival Turkey could achieve a growth of just 4.1 percent in March.

WSA has previously announced that Iran’s crude steel production climbed 30 percent in 2019 while the average global growth in this sector stood at 3.5 percent.

According to the global organization, Iran produced 31.9 million tons of crude steel in 2019, while the figure was 24 million tons in 2018.

The data and reports released by Iranian organizations also show that the country’s steel sector is still experiencing growth in output and export despite the U.S. sanctions.

In early May 2019, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran’s metals and minerals sectors in an attempt to [as the U.S. president Trump put it] “choke off the country’s largest non-petroleum related sources of export revenue”.

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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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Iran coronavirus fatalities drop to double figures for first time in month

Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki says the number of fatalities from the novel coronavirus pandemic has dropped to double figures for the first time in one month.

Speaking to the Iranian people on Instagram live on Tuesday 14 April 2020, Namaki hailed the country’s “proper” fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that 98 deaths from the disease were registered in the past 24 hours.

“We are implementing smart distancing and have announced protocols for it. We want to say that we are currently at a more appropriate situation,” he said.

Namaki, however, warned that the country will face new challenges if health protocols and smart distancing are not observed properly.

Meanwhile, Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the new deaths brought the total number of fatalities to 4,683 since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran in late February.

Jahanpour added 1,574 new infections had been recorded over the past 24 hours, taking the overall number of confirmed cases to 74,877.

He noted that 48,129 of hospitalized patients had recovered and been discharged, and that 3,691 people are in critical conditions.

Iran’s successful response to the virus comes despite the illegal US sanctions, which are hampering the country’s efforts to rein in the virus.

Iran has been employing strict precautionary measures since the virus surfaced in the country. It has heavily ramped up the required health services, including by increasing the number of hospital beds, and shot up the production of disinfectants and relevant sanitary items.

The Health Ministry reported Monday that new cases of coronavirus infections and deaths from the viral outbreak had been declining across most of the country’s 31 provinces.

President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that Iran has handled the novel coronavirus outbreak better than Europe and the United States, assuring that the country’s stocks of basic commodities are replenished better than ever, unlike the scenario unfolding in the US and many other Western states.

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Iran’s largest metals and mining holding, said on Sunday that the value of exports for main copper products reached more than $1 billion over the past year, a senior official at IMIDRO was quoted as saying by Press TV.

Mohammad Aqajanlou said that total sales of the National Iranian Copper Industry Company (NICICO) topped 220 trillion rials, nearly $1.5 billion, a milestone in the 48-year-history of the company.

Aqajanlou added that total turnover for the Iranian copper industry exceeded $4.5 billion over the past year and the NICICO posted a return on investment of 143 percent.

He said another historic achievement for the copper smelters in Iran was to reach a total output of 1.18 million metric tons of concentrate last year while production for copper cathode reached an all-time high of 250,130 tons.

He said that copper cathode accounted for more than two thirds of total domestic consumption for purified copper which was over 160,000 tons over the past year.

That means that copper concentrate, a relatively raw from of the metal, accounted for a bulk of Iran’s exports, an issue which has faced criticism with many believing the NICICO should create more capacity for using copper concentrate inside Iran rather than shipping it in large quantities to countries like China.

Aqajanlou rejected the criticism and said the current supply and demand situation in the Iranian copper industry makes exports of concentrates more preferable.

Some experts also believe that rising exports for raw copper at a time of increased American bans on Iran’s trade of lucrative metals could also help the government access new hard currency resources.

In early January 2020, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Iran on Friday, including penalties on the Islamic Republic’s metals and some senior government officials. Following Tehran’s retaliation for the assassination of Iranian Lieutenant General Qasem Soleimani, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the new measures at a press conference at the White House .

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi lambasted Washington for the new sanctions, saying, “Unfortunately, the Americans have adopted unilateral, illegal and fruitless behaviors and are stressing to repeat them.”

“Such efforts will be to no avail,” Mousavi said, adding, “The American regime will finally be forced to accept its failure.”

He said the new sanctions are a clear violation of UN Resolution 2231 and have targeted the industries that are directly related to the normal life of millions of Iranians.

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Yahya Al Es’haq, who leads the Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce, added exports to Iraq had been affected by the spread of the new coronavirus in Iran, noting, however, that trade between the two countries will grow despite current problems, Press TV reported.

He said total exports to Iraq, which include energy and services, had reached a record high of $13 billion in March 2019.

He said Iran aims to meet a target of $20 billion in exports to Iraq in a matter of few years, adding that Iranian businesses are expected to sell between $13 billion to $14 billion worth of products and services to Iraq in the current Iranian calendar year ending in March 2021.

The businessman admitted that political instability in Iraq was another reason for a slight decline in imports of Iranian products and services over the past year.

“We see these restrictions as temporary because all issues will be resolved,” said Al Es’haq, adding that the Iraqi market is of vital importance to Iran’s foreign trade.

Iran has sought to offset the impacts of the American sanctions on its sale of oil through a series of measures to boost foreign trade, especially with neighboring countries.

Iraq is second to China on Iran’s list of top destinations for exports. The Arab country’s main import items from Iran include food, natural gas, electricity and construction materials.

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