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Iran and Venezuela “much ado about nothing”

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Iranian Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hit the record with a total of 119 foreign trips during his eight years presidency by attending to Latin America, six times to Venezuela, three times to Bolivia and two times to Brazil, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador. Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez who called Ahmadinejad the "gladiator of the anti- imperialist battle" also had visited Iran nine times since 2005 and signed more than 100 contracts worth tens of billions dollars, of which almost all of them have been canceled. Venezuela, after China (with $45 billion worth of contracts) ranks first in term of the number of contracts with Iran, but these contracts mostly faced delay or cancellation. After all of these agreements, Iran's exports to Venezuela were only $19.4 million, during Ahmadinejad's last year as president and the figure increased by 5.2 times and reached $120 million during Iran's last fiscal year, ended on March 2014, according to Iran...

Europe's share in Iran imports halved since 2005

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Iran is going to appoint five new commercial attaches in Europe in a bid to boost its trade ties. Five new commercial attaches will be dispatched to Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain, and Switzerland, Miraboutaleb Badri, Deputy Director of Iran's Trade Promotion Organization told Mehr news agency on May 4.. Iran and EU faced a significant drop in trade turnover during Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads' time in office due to Tehran's disputed nuclear program and hard-liners' aggressive foreign policy. According to Iran Custom Administration and Iran Commerce Chamber's official statistics, Europe had about 50 percent share in Iran's imports in 2005, as well as some 15 percent of Iran's total non-oil exports. Iran's main European partners in 2005: Rank Country Exports to Iran Share in Iran's total imports Imports from Iran Shares in Iran's total exports Rank 2 Germany $5,118,934,175 13.158 $342,778,805 3.665 ...

Huge increase in Iran's previously banned export

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Exports of Iran's previously banned cargoes, including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), condensate and petrochemical production experienced a huge increase year-to-year. According to the Custom Administration's new monthly report, published on May 5, the country's exports and imports increased significantly, especially those that had been banned since November 2013. Iran and Sextet Powers in November 2013, including the U.S., the UK, France, Germany, Russia andChina, achieved an interim nuclear accord, which led to lifting some western sanctions against Iran, including restrictions over Iran's petrochemical exports. The accord was implemented in Jan. 20. Sanctions on Iran's LPG exports, as well as gas condensate exports remained unchanged, but statistics indicate that the export of these cargoes also increased after the implementation on nuclear accord. According to the statistics of the Custom Administration, Iran exported 846 million tons of gas condens...

Shakespeare and Rumi, kings with same crown

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By Dalga Khatinoglu What a great thing, saying "I am adoring" in response to someone who asks "what do you do?" How pleasant to become "nobody" to possess a beloved. For me and everyone with knowledge of Persian and Azerbaijani neoclassic literature, deeply influenced by Platonic thought, understanding William Shakespeare's works are relatively easy because we are already acquainted with this world by poets like Hafez Shirazi, Saadi Shirazi, Attar Neishabouri, Omar Khayyam, Nizami Ganjavi, Mahammad Fuzuli, and above all of them, Jalal al-Din Rumi whose spiritual legacy and general theme can be summed up in one word: Passion. However, identifying with Shakespeare's plays and poems is very easy for anyone from any nation, because he didn't paint any portrait in spite of 34,895 speeches spoken by 1,223 characters in his plays. Rather, he presented a clear mirror in front of us, without any judgment either about his characters or us. W...