Author: Boris Nahapetian

Iker Casillas’s own goal earned Borussia Dortmund a 1-0 win over Porto and confirmed their UEFA Europa League round of 16 place, according to UEFA’s official website.

Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, the home side started at breakneck speed, but as the heavens opened in northern Portugal, their hopes of progressing were all but extinguished. Casillas produced a wonderful save from Marco Reus’s volley, yet the ball cannoned off him and into the net after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s follow-up had crashed off the crossbar.

Away goal secured, Dortmund sat back. Evandro fired wide following a mazy run before Silvestre Varela’s header forced visiting keeper Roman Bürki into a full-length save just before the break. Vincent Aboubakar’s impish flick was well smothered by Bürki as Porto continued where they left off, though Dortmund menaced on the counter, Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan both having efforts disallowed for offside.

Bürki produced another smart stop late on to deny Porto a consolation before home substitute Yacine Brahimi rattled the crossbar and Mkhitaryan saw his attempt smash against the post.

Chef Benoit Violier, whose Swiss restaurant was named the best in the world in December, has been found dead at his home, the BBC reports.

Mr Violier, 44, ran the Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville in Crissier, near the city of Lausanne.

It earned three Michelin stars and came top in France’s La Liste ranking of the world’s 1,000 best eateries.

Swiss police said Mr Violier, who was born in France, appeared to have shot himself.

The Swiss news website 24 Heures said (in French) that Mr Violier had been due to attend the launch of the new Michelin guide in Paris on Monday.

His death comes some six months after that of Philippe Rochat, his mentor and predecessor at the Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville.

Having worked at the restaurant since 1996, Mr Violier took it over along with his wife Brigitte in 2012, before obtaining Swiss nationality.

A keen hunter, he was known for signature dishes including game and produced a weighty book on game meat last year.

Photo: Getty Images

 

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has arrived in Rome on the first European visit by an Iranian president in almost two decades, following implementation of a landmark deal on curbing Iran’s nuclear activities, the Associated Press reports.

Rouhani, eager for foreign investment after the lifting of international sanctions, started the four-day trip to France and Italy on Monday. The trip was originally planned for November but postponed by the attacks in Paris.

He met first with Italian President Sergio Matterella, and is scheduled to meet later with the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Pope Francis at the Vatican. In France, he is to be welcomed by French President Francois Hollande.

In Rome, Mr Rouhani is expected to sign agreements with Italian firms worth some $18bn, according to the BBC.

On his second stop in France, he will sign a major plane deal with Airbus.

The Iranian president is leading a 120-member delegation that includes government ministers and businessmen for the five days of meetings in Rome and Paris.

“This is a very important visit,” a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

“It’s time to turn the page and open the door to co-operation between our countries in different areas,” the official added.

The European Union Delegation has issued the following statement in agreement with the EU Members States Heads of Mission in Armenia:

“The EU has been following the constitutional reform process launched in 2013, including the two largely positive preliminary opinions of the Venice Commission, which the EU supports as standard bearer of constitutional norms in Europe.

We take note of the preliminary results of the constitutional referendum held on 6 December 2015.

We also take note of the concerns expressed by independent observers regarding the conduct of the referendum. We urge the Armenian authorities to fully investigate in a transparent manner credible fraud allegations.

Without a transparent investigation of the alleged frauds as well as remediation if these are confirmed, the referendum would be a missed opportunity to increase the confidence in, and the integrity of, electoral processes in Armenia.

Should the results of the referendum be officially confirmed, we underline that it is important to implement the new constitution, in particular the human rights chapter, the new checks and balances and minority rights for the opposition.

We reiterate the need to adopt a new Electoral Code, in line with OSCE ODIHR recommendations, in an inclusive manner and one year before the next round of ordinary parliamentary elections.

The EU will continue to assist Armenia on its internal political, social and economic reform processes, based on the future new legal framework for bilateral cooperation and within the larger perspective of the Eastern Partnership.”

The Russian energy giant Gazprom is in talks with Iran over gas exchange operations for gas supplies to Armenia, CEO Alexey Miller said, Sputnik News reports.

On Tuesday, Miller met Georgian Energy Minister Kakhaber Kaladze for negotiations.

“Yes, we did discuss this issue, currently we are working on the issues of exchange operations with our Iranian colleagues,” Miller said, when answering a question whether he and Kaladze discussed supplies of gas to Armenia from Iran.

At the moment, the Russian gas is supplied to Armenia via Georgia.

In November, Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh said Tehran was already in talks with Moscow on oil and gas swaps agreement.

US President Barack Obama has made a rare Oval Office address after the San Bernardino shootings that left 14 dead.

He said the killings were “an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people,” the BBC report.

But “freedom is more powerful than fear,” said President Obama, warning that falling prey to divisiveness in American society would play into the hands of extremists.

He also said the US must make it harder for potential attackers to obtain guns.

Mr Obama vowed that the US would overcome the evolving threat of terrorism, but warned that Americans “cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam”.

Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad says Russia’s involvement in his country’s war has led to significant changes, including the “shrinking” of the Islamic State (IS) group, the BBC reports.

Mr Assad told Czech television that US air strikes on Syria had not slowed IS, but that Russian bombing was doing so.

He also condemned the recent shooting down of a Russian warplane by Turkey.

Assad said that funds and arms for terrorists come mainly via Turkey with support of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, according to Sputnik News.

Funds and arms for terrorists come mainly via Turkey with support of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the Syrian President  said.

“If you really want to fight them [terrorists] and defeat them, you must prevent the supplies of arms, finances and recruits, which mainly goes through Turkey with support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar,” Assad told the Czech Television.

“This is the first step, which is necessary to take, when starting to fight terrorism. Otherwise you fight them, while they have unlimited supplies [of arms] from different countries, primarily of other region with support or the blind eye of the West. More precisely some of its states,” Assad added.

French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that a broad coalition with the participation of Washington and Moscow should be formed to fight against ISIS, Sputnik News reports.

By Alireza Ramezani

If one thing is certain about Iran’s recent move to step up relations with Armenia, it’s that it’s for very good economic reasons. On Oct. 14, Tehran took the opportunity of impending sanctions relief under the nuclear deal signed in July to send First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri to Armenia to see about expanding bilateral economic relations. Armenia is the sole Eurasian Economic Union member state that shares a land border with Iran, and could thus be a “gateway for Iranian goods” to the 5 billion-strong markets of Eurasia and Europe, according to Jahangiri, the most senior Iranian official to have visited Yerevan since 2011.

Iran and Armenia have already signed agreements that could keep their ties close for years. For instance, Armenia is providing Iran with electricity in exchange for natural gas imports. The swap is set to continue for the next 15 years, with the electricity generated from power plants built by Iranian engineers on the Armenian side of the border. Under the 2007 gas pipeline contract, Armenia generates and sends to Iran three kilowatt-hours per cubic meter of natural gas. When this contract expires, Iran will get paid for its natural gas exports, and Armenia will be free to use the generated electricity entirely for domestic consumption. It should be noted that Armenia’s political disputes with Azerbaijan and Turkey have left it with Georgia and Iran as the best options for meeting its energy needs.

Jahangiri’s recent visit was mainly aimed at reviving Iranian projects suspended due to sanctions and a shortage of financing. The delayed projects include a high voltage transmission line, connecting the Armenian power grid with that of Georgia and a third transmission line between Iran and Armenia worth around $120 million. The latter is set to come on stream in 2018, increasing the transmission capacity from Armenia to Iran from 300 to 1,000 megawatts. Among other matters raised by Jahangiri during his visit was an ongoing project to connect Iran’s rail network to that of Armenia, a plan that would provide Armenia with access to the southern Persian Gulf states through the International North-South Transport Corridor.

Jahangiri’s call for a focus on bilateral trade cooperation during his stay in Yerevan appears to have been welcomed by Armenian entrepreneurs, as soon after, a group of them announced that they will visit Iran on Nov. 9. According to the Iran Chamber of Commerce’s website, Armenia’s minister of economy will lead the delegation, which consists of about 50 top managers in banking, IT and agricultural businesses. This could be in line with a proposal offered by Jahangiri to create a trade hub in Armenia, from where Iranian goods could be re-exported not only to Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, but also to Europe and the United States.

The head of the Iran-Armenia Chamber of Commerce, Levon Aharonian, believes the new effort to facilitate trade could help curb corruption and cut import duties from Iran significantly. In an article in the leading Iranian Tejarat-e Farda economic magazine, Aharonian argued that Jahangiri’s proposal — if accepted by the Armenian government — could be a “great opportunity” for Iranian traders looking for broader markets. However, he wrote, traders and officials from both sides should first help come up with a new trade mechanism to make the idea feasible. Many of the 6,400 items the European Union allows to be imported from Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan at very low tariffs can be supplied by Iranian manufacturers, Aharonian noted.

Iran is currently Armenia’s fourth largest trading partner after the European Union, Russia and China. Moreover, the Islamic Republic’s annual trade with Armenia is set to increase to $1 billion in the near future, up from $300 million now. Earlier this month, Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan agreed with a proposal offered by the Iranian side to revive Armenia’s factories built during the Soviet era. Iran says the factories can be used as a base to process semi-finished goods imported from Iran to eventually be exported to third countries.

But the Islamic Republic is not alone in its interest in Armenia. The United States has provided millions of dollars in assistance to Yerevan since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Moreover, Washington has long been negotiating with the Armenian government to expand bilateral trade and investment relations. Lastly, the United States has — as is also largely the case with Iran — supported the Armenian government in its political and territorial disputes with neighboring states since its independence. These parallel efforts by Tehran and Washington to court Yerevan could end up in a potential clash of interests, even in the aftermath of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which has repaired US-Iran relations to some extent.

The US 2015 budget provides $24.7 million in assistance to Armenia. Washington has also reached several economic agreements with Yerevan, including the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (2015), Joint Economic Task Force (1999), Investment Incentive Agreement (1992), Agreement on Trade Relations (1992) and Bilateral Investment Treaty (1992) — all of which provide platforms for deeper economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. According to the Armenian National Committee of America, the two countries have several options to improve their trade relations — including adoption of the Double Taxation Treaty, which is needed to replace the outdated US-USSR Double Tax Treaty from 1974. The committee believes this treaty is an impediment to US investment in Armenia and hinders economic relations between the two countries.

Iran sees Armenia as a regional strategic trade partner, while the United States has been investing in the Caucasian country for an extended period. A potential clash of interests between Iran and the United States thus appears as a serious challenge on the distant horizon. However, if this challenge is addressed wisely and in a timely manner, conflict can be avoided and the American market could even be accessible to Iranian manufacturers through Armenia in the medium term.

The guitar The System Of A Down played during the tour has been auctioned off for $27,000.

“Amazing News!! The one of a kind custom Wake Up The Souls guitar I played on the tour, signed by all band members got auctioned off for $27,000 in support of the non-profit Orran children’s charity,” Tankian said in a Facebook post.

Tankian played the guitar in Los Angeles, Yerevan, Moscow and all through the historic Wake Up The Souls tour aimed at raising awareness about the Armenian Genocide.