Iran’s Department of Environment deputy chief, Masoud Tajrishi, and Spanish Secretary of State for Environment, Hugo Alfonso Moran Fernandez, discussed ways to expand environmental cooperation.

The two officials met on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 25th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25), which is being held in Madrid on December 2-13.

Tajrishi explained Iran’s plans and actions toward environment protection such as improving energy consumption patterns and enhancing efficiency and productivity of industrial units while criticizing the U.S. sanctions on Iran’s access to green technologies.

He called on Spanish officials to cooperate in waste management in industrial and mining units, reducing air pollution and tackling sand and dust storms.
The Spanish official for his part welcomed Iran’s environment protection plans and announced his country’s readiness to cooperate with Iran’s public and private sector projects. / T.T/

“Hava, Maryam, Ayesha”, a co-production between Iran and Afghanistan by Afghan director Sahra Karimi, was screened at the Iranian Artists Forum on Tuesday with the producer Katayun Shahabi and director Karimi in attendance.

Karimi’s debut movie is about three pregnant Afghan women from different social backgrounds living in Kabul, each of whom is facing a big challenge in her life and must solve her problem by herself for the first time.

Speaking at the ceremony, Shahabi expressed thanks to the participants, and said that cinema requires teamwork and that no one can do it on her/his own, the public relations team of the film announced in a press release on Wednesday.

“I must also thank the Art and Experience Cinema which provided an opportunity to screen this movie,” she added.

Shahbi added that after screening the film at the Art and Experience Cinema halls, the film will also be available on Filimo, an online VOD service on which users can stream videos online.

Karimi, a filmmaker born and raised in Tehran but living in Afghanistan since 2012, also thanked Shahabi, who invested in her movie, Mastaneh Mohajer, who edited the film, and the sound engineer, Mohamamdreza Delpak, who collaborated in the project.

“I must also thank my fellow Iranian citizens. I was born and raised in Iran, Iran is my homeland and I am happy you are here to see my movie tonight,” she added.

“‘Hava, Maryam, Ayesha’ does not claim to be a good movie abut we are proud that we could make a feature in the unsafe land of Afghanistan despite all the problems in the country,” Karimi, who is the head of the state-run Afghan Film Organization, added.

“We tried to introduce a new narration of Afghanistan to the world. The film was not possible without the assistance of Iranian colleagues. This is film is the joint language of cooperation between Iran and Afghanistan. This shows that we can show our unity to the world through art and cinema,” she concluded.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei, the former director of the Research Institute of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Mohammad Beheshti, and Shafiq Sharq, the Cultural Attaché of Afghanistan were among the participating guests.

Photo: A scene from “Hava, Maryam, Ayesha” by Afghan director Sahra Karimi. / T.T/

An exhibition of photos by Javad Qarai, the director of the popular documentary series “Irangard”, will open Friday at the Niavaran Cultural-Historical Complex in Tehran.

Entitled “Incredible Iran”, the exhibition will feature a collection of photos taken by Qarai of different Iranian landscapes and people during his travels around the country to produce his documentary series.

“Irangard” was produced in three seasons from 2010 to 2018 and was aired on several TV channels.

The series, highlighting Iran’s natural and cultural attractions, has received several awards in different festivals including best documentary award at the Jame Jam Television Festival in March.

Qarai is a graduate of tourism management and has been traveling for over 20 years.

The “Incredible Iran” photo exhibition will be running until December 18. / T.T/

According to a report released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), during the first eight months of the present Iranian calendar year (ending on November 21), Iran exported $27 billion of non-oil products.

Non-oil exports in this period were 88,000 tons, registering a growth of 16 percent in terms of weight compared to the same time span in the year before.

As the same report confirms, level of imports stood at $28.3 billion in the said time, showing a decrease of 4.8 percent.

Iran imported 22,000 tons of good in the said time, showing a growth of 1.5 percent in terms of weight year-on-year.

As reported, China, Iraq, the UAE, Turkey and Afghanistan were the top importers of Iranian products in these eight months while China, the UAE, Turkey, India, and Germany were the main exporters to Iran. /MNA/

Iranian men’s national goalball team suffered a devastating defeat against China in the final of IBSA Goalball Asia-Pacific Championships, failing to win the Olympics quota.

Team Melli was beaten 0-10 by the reigning champion China in a game held in Japan’s Chiba on Tuesday and did not qualify for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.

Iranian men’s team had defeated Japan in the semifinal of the event on Monday. Iran gained a 3-1 win over Japan on Monday in the semifinal of the event underway in.

Iran, in the group stage, had overpowered Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Australia, and Japan to reach the finals.

The final match of the 2017 edition was also held between Iran and China and the East Asian team gained a 10-2 victory.

Seven teams in the men’s and six teams in women’s categories competed to win the Asian trophy and qualify for the 2020 Paralympics. / MNA /

Iranian short ‘Slaughter’, directed by Saman Hosseinpour and Ako Zandkarimi, has made it into the competition program of the 14th Lecce Film Festival in Italy.

The film narrates the story of a family that has to sell their only cow to live through a tough winter. The family’s son, however, is not happy with the deal so he lets the cow escape.

‘Slaughter’ will be competing at the 14th Lecce Film Fest with 58 other titles from Italy, South Africa, India, Russia, France, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Slovakia, Brazil, Finland and Poland.

The film had won the Best Short film award at the 18th Villammare Film Festival in Italy, held this August.

Lecce Film Fest aims to promote the cinematographic culture in Italy through the best independent films of the world, according to the event’s organizers.

The 14th edition of the festival will be held on December 28, 2019 to January 4, 2020./ /MNA/

The official draw of the 2020 AFC Futsal Championship was carried out on Friday and the 16 participating teams, including the defending champion Iran, knew their rivals.

Iran was drawn in Group D along with South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand.

The event will be held in Turkmenistan from February 26 to Match 8.

Iran is the most decorated team of AFC Futsal Championship with 12 titles out of 15 editions of the games. The team defeated Japan in the final of the 2018 edition to claim the trophy.

The AFC Futsal Championship is Asia’s flagship international futsal competition, also serving as the final stage of FIFA Futsal World Cup qualifying, with the top five sides in Turkmenistan to represent the Continent at Lithuania 2020. /MNA/

Some 6.7 million foreign nationals have visited Iran since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21), IRNA reported.

“Since the beginning of this year, 6.7 million foreign nationals holding visas have arrived in the country,” said Mojtaba Karimi who presides over Foreign Ministry’s visa and passport department.

He made the remarks in a two-day national conference on ecotourism which kicked off in the city of Mashhad on Wednesday.

Iran welcomed some 7.8 million foreign nationals last year, achieving 52.5 percent increase year on year. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, Iraq was the main source of tourism for Iran in 2018, constituting 24% of all inbound visitors. Azerbaijan with (17%), Turkey (8%), Pakistan (4%) and Bahrain (2%) constituted other major sources while the remaining 46% came from the rest of the world. / MNA/

Iran’s goalball team beat Thailand at the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Goalball Asia-Pacific Championships on Thursday.

The Iranian players beat Thailand 16-10, at their first game of the competitions, which was held at the Chiba Port Arena in Chiba, Japan.

Iran will take on South Korea on Friday.

In the men’s event, seven teams will be in action until Dec. 10, while six women teams will compete against one another.

The winners of each of the men’s and women’s competitions, if not already qualified, will secure a ticket to Tokyo 2020. / MNA/