Iran is among the 5 eading Countries in Nanotechnology, according to the Iranian Vice Presidency for Science and Technology said in a statement on Sunday.

According to the Iranian Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, Iran’s place among the top 5 countries in the field of nanoscience production is one of the significant achievements of the formation of the nanotechnology and innovation ecosystem in Iran, which has been confirmed in an international study. This international study compares countries and scientific and technological institutes according to a new index entitled “Focus on Emerging Areas of Technology”.

The vice presidency stated that Iran is one of the leading countries not only in terms of the volume of nanoscience production but also in terms of the quality of scientific achievements in that field.

This shows that Iran, not only Tehran has ranked fifth in the world in terms of nanoscience production, but also has the greatest focus, along with four other developed countries, on the most emerging and advanced fields of science and technology.

According to the criterion, China is clear at the top while the other countries of the United States, South Korea, India and Iran are in second to fifth places. In the ranking, Iran is higher than all European countries, as well as Japan while they have spent billions of dollars in the field of nanotechnology.

A report released by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in April 2020 highlighted the development of nanotechnology in Iran.

The report identifies Iran as a leading in nano-policy after the United States, China, and the European Union, and cites some of Iran’s nano-development programs, citing Iran’s approach to networking nano-laboratories to provide research infrastructure as a model for African countries. According to the report, Iran, along with developed countries such as the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Russia and the European Union, has the highest number of national standards developed in the field of nanotechnology. /MNA/

The Iranian cheetah named “Iran” gave birth to three cubs two years after she was released in natural habitat.

Head of Iran’s Department of Environment Ali Salajegheh said on Sunday that a veterinary team had been monitoring “Iran” for a week before they concluded that she had completed her pregnancy period.

The team took the cheetah to give birth by C-section in a field hospital because “Iran” couldn’t bear it naturally due to the specie’s physical condition, according to Salajegheh.

He also said that Iran and her cubs are in good condition and under special care.

This is the first Asiatic cheetah labor in captivity, the official said, expressing hope that the endangered species could be protected by keeping the cubs alive and increasing the population in captivity and then in a semi-captivity setting.

Less than 20 cheetahs have so far been spotted in the main cheetah habitats in Iran, mainly Semnan, Kerman, Yazd, Razavi Khorasan, North Khorasan, and South Khorasan provinces.

The number is a wakeup call for the cheetah species, Salajegheh noted, adding that Iran’s Department of Environment has planned to save the species with the help of three cheetahs Koushki (male) and Delbar and Iran (females).

These cheetahs now live in Turan National Park in Semnan Province, northern Iran. /MNA/

The 2022 edition of the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, based on universities’ contributions to delivering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), listed 27 Iranian universities.

There are among 1,524 institutions from 110 countries featured in the Impact Rankings 2022, based on their impacts on the 17 United Nations’ SDGs. Each university was rated on four goals of research, stewardship, outreach, and teaching.

Iran University of Medical Sciences is ranked among the top 200 universities, with a ranking of 82, which is followed by Semnan University of Medical Sciences and Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.

Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Kordestan University of Medical Sciences, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ahvaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences, University of Kashan, Kashan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services, University of Kordestan, Sharif University of Technology, Tarbiat Modares University, University of Tehran, are the next ten universities with the highest rate of global impact.

The 2021 THE Impact Rankings has also listed 27 Iranian universities among the 1,115 most effective institutions worldwide.

Academic quality

Most recently, the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities 2022 has ranked 694 Iranian institutions among 30,000 top universities across the world.

There are among 1,524 institutions from 110 countries featured in the Impact Rankings 2022, based on their impacts on the 17 United Nations’ SDGs.

Also, 59 Iranian universities have been listed among the top 3,000 institutions in the world in terms of academic quality, according to the 2021-2022 report released by University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP).

The Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Graduate Employability Rankings 2022 list has been released, which included three Iranian universities out of a total of 550 institutes worldwide that highlighted graduate employment processes.

Meanwhile, 41 Iranian universities in engineering sciences and 12 universities in computer sciences have made a place among the top 1,188 universities in the world with the announcement of Higher Education World University Rankings 2022 by subject.

It also has introduced 59 Iranian universities among the top institutions in World University Rankings 2022.

The THE Education Young University Rankings 2021 listed 26 Iranian institutions among the world’s best universities that are 50 years old or younger.

Moreover, 34 Iranian universities and institutions were listed among the top 1,000 in the world, according to Shanghai Ranking’s Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) 2021. /T.T/

People aged 70 years and above and people with underlying diseases or immunodeficiency will receive the fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control.

In the last meeting, the National Headquarters for Coronavirus Control approved that in order to strengthen the safety level of at-risk groups, all people over 70 years of age and people with underlying diseases or immunodeficiency are asked to inject the vaccine in addition to the previous doses, Abbas Shiravjen, the Headquarters spokesman twitted on Saturday.

So far, 64,321,868 people have received the first dose, 57,535,805 people the second dose, and 27,14,796 people the third dose of the vaccine. So far, 148,872,469 doses have been injected across the country.

Iran is the sixth country in the world and the first country in West Asia to gain the ability to produce the Coronavirus vaccine. On April 5, Hamid Souri, an epidemiologist warned the seventh wave of Covid-19 may hit the country in mid-May.

Given the genetic changes that have taken place in BA.2 omicron, a more contagious variant; vulnerable people in the community are still at risk, and there is no evidence that the epidemic is disappearing, he further noted.

An epidemic is eliminated when the incidence of the virus in the community is limited and enters the eradication phase, he also added.

no cities in high-risk red zones

According to the latest announcement, no cities are at high risk of Covid infection.

The highest category on Iran’s coronavirus risk scale is the red zone, which reaches lower risk areas by orange, yellow, and blue zones.

Some 33 towns are in the orange zones, 321 in the yellow category, 94 cities are in blue zones, and no cities are red.

Iran is the sixth country in the world and the first country in West Asia to gain the ability to produce the Coronavirus vaccine.

Considering that five coronavirus vaccines have so far been produced domestically, Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said in June 2021 that Iran is one of the few countries that has all vaccine production platforms.

A total of 21 knowledge-based companies are operating to produce 50 million doses of vaccine monthly and 600 million doses annually, IRNA quoted Bahram Daraei as saying on March 9.

Health Minister Bahram Einollahi has said the country is currently exporting domestically-made vaccines for coronavirus to ten African countries. /T.T/

Iranian scientist Mohammad Karamouz has been recognized with the 2022 Julian Hinds Award for his original outstanding contribution to environmental science, mainly water resources development and management.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has honored Karamouz, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE, with the 2022 Julian Hinds Award for original outstanding contribution in hydrology, hydraulics, irrigation and drainage, planning and management, hydroelectric power and reservoir operation, flood and drought, and climate change over a 36-year period of teaching, research, consulting, and leadership.

Karamouz has had a long and illustrious career in water resources engineering. He was the principal investigator of a $3.8 million international project in hydraulics (flood plain, reservoirs/dams, hydropower), hydrological, and water resources planning in arid and semi-arid regions of the Middle East, including Iran.

He worked at New York University (NYU) as a research professor and the director of an environmental engineering program from 2009 to 2014, initiating a major university collaboration effort after Superstorm Sandy among NYU, Stony Brook, Cornell, Columbia, and City College that became The New York State Resilience Institute for Storms and Emergencies (NYS RISE).

Karamouz has contributed to the water field in three very significant areas of education and capacity building, research, and practical applications. He is one of those rare individuals who have bridged the gap between academics and practice in arid and semi-arid regions of the U.S. and the Middle East.

Karamouz served as the key figure in founding and maintaining the first Ph.D. program in water resources management in Iran.

The Julian Hinds Award is given to recognize the author or authors of that paper judged to make the most meritorious contribution to the field of water resources development. The award may also be made to an individual for notable performance, long years of distinguished service, or specific actions that advance engineering in the field of planning, development, and management of water resources./T.T/

Farmers in southern Iranian city of Meimand pick roses and extract rose water in small workshops in May every year. The city is Iran’s main hub and major exporter of rose water. Some 5 tons of roses are produced in Meimand farms each year. / IRNA/

The Silk Road Science Fund (SRSF), an organization operated jointly by the Iranian Vice Presidency for Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has launched the seventh edition of a program to provide support for joint scientific activities by Iranian and Chinese researchers.

The SRSF has issued a call for joint projects from the Iranian and Chinese researchers and technical experts that will receive support from the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) -a department of the Iranian Vice Presidency for Science and Technology- and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The program will sponsor joint research and development projects and hold joint workshops between the two countries’ researchers.

A maximum of six joint research projects will receive approval to benefit from the fund’s support in the fields of water science and advanced materials within the framework of research and development projects.

The call for projects will be open until June 19, as the Iranian researchers can submit their joint proposals in the Silk Road Science Fund’s online system.

The final results on the projects qualified to receive support from the fund will be announced in early October, and the joint research projects will officially kick off in January 2023.

Science diplomacy at highest level

Data from the Scopus International Citation Database show that Iran’s scientific diplomacy has reached more than 34 percent since the beginning of 2021, the highest level in the past 20 years.

Science diplomacy is the use of scientific collaborations among nations to address common problems and build constructive international partnerships. It is a form of new diplomacy and has become an umbrella term to describe a number of formal or informal technical, research-based, academic, or engineering exchanges, within the general field of international relations.

Comparing the rate of 2020 with 2019, Iran with a growth of 12.5 percent and with a slight difference from India has gained second place in the world in terms of the growth of world science diplomacy, Mohammad Javad Dehghani, head of the Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC), said.

In 2011, the share of Iranian articles with international participation was about 16.5 percent, which increased to 19.7 percent in 2016 and gradually in the following years, so that in 2020 and 2021, reached 30.5 and 34.2 percent, respectively, he added.

The share of Iranian articles with international participation has had significant growth of 209 percent during an eight-year period (2013-2020), becoming the Islamic world’s leading country in science diplomacy, according to the Scopus International Citation Database./T.T/

On Tuesday, the Resistance leaders, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, spoke out against the barbarity of the Israeli regime and supported the resistance of the Palestinian fighters, trying to attract the attention of the global community to the Palestinian question.

In his meeting with the university students late on Tuesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei touched on various issues going on in the world, but he dedicated the last part of his speech to international Quds Day, which falls on April 29 this year.

Referring to the forthcoming Quds Day, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution considered this year’s Quds Day different from previous years and said, “This year, Quds Day is different from other years. Palestinians have made great sacrifices both last Ramadan and this Ramadan. The Zionist regime is committing the worst crimes. They commit every crime they want, and the U.S. and Europe support it.”

Ayatollah Khamenei called the Palestinian people powerful while oppressed, and praised the struggle of the Palestinian youth who do not allow the Palestinian cause to be forgotten.

He added, “Quds Day is a good opportunity to express sympathy and solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people and give them a morale-boosting.”

He also strongly criticized the silence of some Islamic countries on the issue of Palestine, noting, “Unfortunately, Islamic states have behaved very badly (in this regard) and are not even willing to talk about the issue of Palestine. Some of them think that the way to help Palestine is to establish relations with the Zionists, while this is a grave mistake.”

Referring to the great mistake made by the Egyptian government more than 40 years ago that established relations with the Zionists, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution asked, “Does the Islamic world want to repeat the same mistake of Anwar Sadat?”

He then critiqued those countries that copied the same strategy of Sadat, saying, “Normalization with the Zionist regime will harm the copycats and the Palestinians.”

Emphasizing that establishing relations with the Zionist regime will not be of any use, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “We hope that with God’s grace, the conclusion of resistance in Palestine will be a happy ending, and that the Palestinians regain domination of their land and Al-Aqsa Mosque soon.”

On the same day, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah gave a key speech about the resilience of the Palestinian fighters.

Nasrallah said, “The most important reason for what we are exposed to in Lebanon, as well as to what countries and resistance movements in our region are subjected to, is everyone who belongs to this movement (of resistance), to this axis, to this idea, to this origin, to this goal, faced siege and sanctions and restrictions. We are subjected to these sanctions at the international, regional and domestic levels, and the sanctions’ main goal is to abandon Quds, Palestine, the logic of resistance, and the culture of resistance.”

Speaking at the “Al-Quds Forum 2022 – the Equation,” Nasrallah said that war in Quds means a “regional war.”

“Today, we’re standing on the verge of great and final victory,” he said, declaring that the axis of resistance is prepared to make whatever sacrifices that are necessary to realize the prospect.

“Quds is our model and goal,” he said and urged that the axis of resistance be rather called “the al-Quds axis” due to the centrality of the holy city to unity among the axis’ members.

Nasrallah, meanwhile, warned that the global arrogance’s strategy on the issue of Palestine rested on “killing time” so the Palestinian and other Muslim nations end up forgetting and despairing of the Palestinian cause.

“However, what is actually taking place is contrary to their desire,” Nasrallah said.

He then concluded his speech by saying that the resistance movement will continue its path regardless of how great the sacrifices, threats, difficulties and dangers will be.

“God willing, we will continue together hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder. All the resistance factions, all the resistance movements, all the peoples of the resistance, and all the countries of the resistance will break all restrictions and nullify all conspiracies. All the daggers that try to stab in our backs and in our chests will fall. Our real battle that will create complete freedom for the holy Quds, and Quds will remain the title, the goal, and the foundation of the axis,” he stressed.

Similarly, Ismail Haniyeh, chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau stated that resistance was the Palestinian nation’s preferred option, citing effective Palestinian operations across the occupied West Bank since the start of Ramadan.

As a result, he argued, issues like the occupation and the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland “cannot be handled at the negotiating table.”

Realizing this, the Zionist regime began restoring relations with several regional powers in order to “legitimize its existence and its objectives for the destruction of the Palestinian cause,” Haniyeh remarked.

According to Haniyeh, Tel Aviv was also attempting to exploit the situation in Ukraine as a smokescreen for its intentions for al-Quds and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

“However, all of the regime’s efforts to manipulate the Palestinian nation have failed,” he said, adding that “our nation does not tolerate distortion of the al-Aqsa Mosque’s identity and the historical realities that apply to it.”

The Palestinian conflict has been ongoing on since World War II, but the global community has chosen to be silent despite flagrant violations of Palestinians’ basic rights. But now the world is turning its attention to Palestine.

In a significant development, UN human rights experts called on the international community to take immediate and effective steps to protect and sustain the six Palestinian civil society groups that were designated as “terrorist organizations” by the Israeli regime in October 2021.

In a press release by the Office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations Human Right body, the UN experts dubbed the Israelis’ move to designate civil society groups as terrorist organizations as a “disturbing designation.”

“Israel’s disturbing designation of these organizations as ‘terrorist organizations’ has not been accompanied by any public concrete and credible evidence,” said the human rights experts. “We note that the information presented by Israel has also failed to convince a number of governments and international organizations that have traditionally provided funding for the indispensable work of these six organizations.”
Recently, a four-year study by Amnesty International partly revealed the true color of the Israeli regime and called on the international organizations to bring the Israeli officials to justice. But the million-dollar question is, will the world listen?

Amnesty International’s rigorous study and legal analysis, conducted in cooperation with other experts, shows that Israel pushes ahead with its malicious behaviors toward Palestinians through enacting laws and practices that ensure continued harsh discrimination.

Specific unlawful acts performed under a totalitarian ideology and supremacy with the goal of preserving it constitute the crime against humanity of apartheid, according to international criminal law. The Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute define these crimes as unlawful killing, torture, forcible transfer, and denial of basic rights and freedoms.

Massive seizure of Palestinian land and property, unlawful killings, forcible transfer, severe movement restrictions, and the denial of nationality and citizenship to Palestinians are all components of a system that amounts to apartheid under international law, according to the comprehensive report titled “Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity.” This system is upheld by transgressions that Amnesty International determined to be apartheid as a crime against humanity, as defined by the Rome Statute and the Apartheid Convention.

Amnesty International has urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to include apartheid as a crime in its ongoing investigation in the OPT, and all governments to use universal jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators of apartheid crimes.

For committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, Israeli authorities must be held accountable.

In this regard, as Iran’s leading international daily, the Tehran Times will host its first online event, dubbed “Remember Palestine.” The event will focus on various aspects of the Palestinian cause as the Islamic world’s number one issue.

The event is aimed to commemorate the chivalrous Palestinian fighters, as well as the free-spirited people around the world who take the issue of injustice done to the Palestinians seriously. It also explores various aspects of Intifadas, as well as the issue of human rights violations in Palestine.

It will also promote awareness on the plight of Palestinians whose land has been under Israeli occupation immediately after World War II. “Remember Palestine” will be held on Friday, April 29, which coincides with international Quds Day, and will end on May 15, known as Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe).

To register and know more about event categories and submission topics, visit event.tehrantimes.com. /T.T/