Iranian, Tajik Presidents Discuss Afghanistan

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi (R) greets his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon (L) during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, 30 May 2022. (EPA)
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi (R) greets his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon (L) during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, 30 May 2022. (EPA)
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Iranian, Tajik Presidents Discuss Afghanistan

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi (R) greets his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon (L) during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, 30 May 2022. (EPA)
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi (R) greets his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rahmon (L) during a welcome ceremony at the presidential palace in Tehran, Iran, 30 May 2022. (EPA)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi held talks in Tehran on Monday with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

Discussions focused on the situation in neighboring Afghanistan.

Raisi said both countries want stability and security in Afghanistan and throughout the region and consider the presence of terrorists in this country very worrying.

The two parties signed cooperation agreements in various fields less than two weeks after the inauguration of an Iranian factory for military drones in Tajikistan.

Iran and Tajikistan agree on the issue of Afghanistan and that an inclusive government should be formed, said Raisi.

He stressed that Iran and Tajikistan "believe that the outsiders and the evil hands of arrogance that strengthen ISIS and terrorist groups in the region do not even think about the security of the people of Afghanistan and the region, and they are only pursuing their own political goals and interests."

"Evidence of this was the 20-year presence of NATO and the United States in Afghanistan, which resulted in nothing but war, bloodshed, and destruction for the country," he added.

Raisi had traveled to Dushanbe in September on his first foreign visit.

Raisi said his visit helped increase trade relations between the two countries fourfold.

During Rahmon's visit, senior Iranian and Tajik officials Iran signed 17 documents of cooperation in politics, economy, trade, transportation, investment, new technologies, environment, sports, energy, judiciary, education and research, and tourism in the presence of the two presidents.

Raisi said the agreements are a "turning point in strengthening and deepening relations between the two countries."

On May 17, Iran's Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri visited Dushanbe and inaugurated a drone factory, "Ababil 2," to produce UAVs capable of flying for about 90 minutes with a range of 150 km.

It was the first time Iran publicly announced the manufacture of weapons and drones outside its territory, which is seen as an attempt to establish a balance of power in the region, especially after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

In January, Pakistan's "The Frontier Post" revealed that the US is trying to persuade the governments of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to set up military bases in their territories for possible special operations in Afghanistan, including drones and units to assess intelligence data.



Israeli Air Force Deploys First Laser Interception System

FILED - 26 March 2024, Israel, Jerusalem: Israel Katz attends a meeting at a hotel in Jerusalem. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
FILED - 26 March 2024, Israel, Jerusalem: Israel Katz attends a meeting at a hotel in Jerusalem. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
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Israeli Air Force Deploys First Laser Interception System

FILED - 26 March 2024, Israel, Jerusalem: Israel Katz attends a meeting at a hotel in Jerusalem. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa
FILED - 26 March 2024, Israel, Jerusalem: Israel Katz attends a meeting at a hotel in Jerusalem. Photo: Christoph Soeder/dpa

Israel's defense ministry said on Sunday it had deployed a new "Iron Beam" laser system for the air force to intercept aerial threats.

The laser system's main developers, the ministry's research and development department and defense contractor Rafael, delivered it to the air force at a ceremony in northern Israel.

"For the first time globally, a high-power laser interception system has achieved full operational maturity, successfully executing multiple interceptions," Defense Minister Israel Katz said at the ceremony, according to a statement.

"This monumental achievement... delivers a critical message to our enemies, near and far alike: do not challenge us, or face severe consequences," AFP quoted him as saying.

The handover marks a major milestone in a project more than a decade old.
"Israel has become the first country in the world to field an operational laser system for the interception of aerial threats, including rockets and missiles," said Yuval Steinitz, chairman of Rafael.

The laser system seeks to enhance and slash the cost of Israel's interception of projectiles, and will supplement other aerial defense capacities such as the more well-known Iron Dome.

Iron Dome offers short-range protection against missiles and rockets. The David's Sling system and successive generations of Arrow missiles are Israeli-American technology built to bring down ballistic missiles.

The defense ministry announced in early December that the laser system was complete, and would be deployed by the end of the month.

During the 12-day war launched by Israel against Iran in June, the country's missile defense system failed to intercept all the projectiles fired by Tehran toward Israeli territory.

Israel has since acknowledged being hit by more than 50 missiles during the war with Iran, resulting in 28 deaths.


Trump Says Had 'Productive' Call with Putin Ahead of Zelensky Meeting

US President Donald Trump takes part in a Christmas Eve dinner in the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
US President Donald Trump takes part in a Christmas Eve dinner in the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
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Trump Says Had 'Productive' Call with Putin Ahead of Zelensky Meeting

US President Donald Trump takes part in a Christmas Eve dinner in the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak
US President Donald Trump takes part in a Christmas Eve dinner in the ballroom of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, US, December 24, 2025. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak

US President Donald Trump said he had a productive telephone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Sunday ahead of a planned meeting in Florida with Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

"I just had a very good and productive telephone call with President Putin of Russia" before the planned talks with Zelensky at Trump's Florida estate at 1:00 pm local time (1800 GMT), the US leader said on Truth Social.

Putin said Ukraine was in no hurry for peace and if it did not want to resolve their conflict peacefully, Moscow would accomplish all its goals by force.

Putin's remarks on Saturday, carried by state news agency TASS, followed a vast Russian drone and missile attack that prompted Zelensky to say Russia was demonstrating its wish to continue the war while Kyiv wanted peace.


Russia Sends 3 Iranian Satellites into Orbit, Report Says

In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
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Russia Sends 3 Iranian Satellites into Orbit, Report Says

In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)
In this photo released by Roscosmos space corporation on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket blasts off at the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from the city of Blagoveshchensk in the far eastern Amur region, Russia. A Russian Soyuz rocket successfully put an Iranian satellite into orbit along with 18 Russian satellites on Thursday. (Roscosmos space corporation via AP)

Russia on Sunday sent three Iranian communications satellites into orbit, the second such launch since July, Iranian state television reported.

The report said that a Russian rocket sent the satellites to circle the Earth on a 500-kilometer (310-mile) orbit from the Vostochny launchpad in eastern Russia. The three satellites are dubbed Paya, Kowsar and Zafar-2.

The report said that Paya, weighing 150 kilograms (330 pounds), is the heaviest satellite that Iran has ever deployed into orbit. Kowsar weighs 35 kilograms (77 pounds), but the report didn't specify how heavy Zafar-2 is.

The satellites feature up to 3-meter resolution images, applicable in the management of water resources, agriculture and the environment. Their life span is up to five years.

Russia occasionally sends Iran's satellites into orbit, highlighting the strong ties between the two countries. In July, a Russian rocket sent Iranian communications satellite Nahid-2 into orbit.

Russia, which signed a “strategic partnership” treaty with Iran in January, strongly condemned the Israeli and US strikes on Iran that came during a 12-day air war in June and killed nearly 1,100 Iranians, including military commanders and nuclear scientists. Retaliatory missile barrages by Iran killed 28 people in Israel.

As a long-standing project, Iran from time-to-time launches satellite carriers to send its satellites into space.

The United States has said that Iran’s satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and called on Tehran to undertake no activity involving ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN sanctions related to Iran’s ballistic missile program expired in 2023.