Russia-Iran cooperation increasing – Lavrov

MOSCOW. Sept 12 (Interfax) - Trade and economic cooperation between Moscow and Teheran is developing successfully, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"We have many projects which allow us to increase trade turnover and the first six months' results show a rate of increase," Lavrov said at a meeting with Iranian Vice-President and chairman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Gholamreza Aghazadeh.

The Russian Foreign Minister said that the Iranian official had had meetings with various organizations and that he hoped "this will provide for discussion on a broad complex of Russia-Iran relations."

Ex.6 Translate the following text into English in writing.

Российско-иранские отношения

Первые контакты между Россией и Ираном (до 1935 г. официальное название страны – Персия) были установлены в XV веке. Начало регулярных дипломатических связей между двумя странами относится к 1586-1588 гг. Советская Россия и Иран подтвердили намерение продолжать дипломатические отношения 20 мая 1920 г.

В настоящее время Иран является важным региональным партнером России на Среднем Востоке и на азиатском континенте в целом. В основе нашего взаимодействия – совпадение или близость позиций по многим актуальным международным и региональным проблемам современного мира.

Москва и Тегеран поддерживают регулярный политический диалог по актуальным вопросам мировой и региональной политики, развивают взаимовыгодное сотрудничество в торгово-экономической, военно-технической, научной, культурной и других областях.

Активно развиваются прямые связи отдельных регионов России с провинциями Ирана.

Основными направлениями торгово-экономического сотрудничества между нашими странами являются энергетика, в том числе и атомная, металлургия, нефтегазовая и химическая промышленность, черная и цветная металлургия, транспорт, мирное использование космоса.

Ex.7 Read the text. Use the words below to complete each sentence:

Politics of Afghanistan

currently; constitution; the transitional government;

bicameral legislature; peacekeeping force; Administration; reinstated;

to keep; held; evidence; inaugurated; outcome; boycotted

Afghanistan is 1) ___________ led by president Hamid Karzai, who was elected in October of 2004. Before the election, Karzai led the country after having been hand-picked by the 2) _________ of United States' President Bush to head an interim government, after the fall of the Taliban. His current cabinet includes members of the Afghan Northern Alliance, and a mix from other regional and ethnic groups formed from 3) ______________ by the Loya jirga (grand council). Former monarch Mohammed Zahir Shah returned to the country, but was not 4) ____________ as king, and only exercises limited ceremonial powers.

Under the Bonn Agreement the Afghan Constitution Commission was established to consult with the public and formulate a draft 5) ____________. The meeting of a constitutional loya jirga was held in December 2003, when a new constitution was adopted creating a presidential form of government with a 6) ____________.

Troops and intelligence agencies from the United States and a number of other countries are present, some 7) _________ the peace, others assigned to hunt for remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda. A United Nations 8) _________________ called the International Security Assistance Force has been operating in Kabul since December 2001. NATO took control of this Force on August 11, 2003. Some of the country remains under the control of warlords.

On March 27, 2003, Afghan deputy defense minister and powerful warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum created an office for the North Zone of Afghanistan and appointed officials to it, defying then-interim president Hamid Karzai's orders that there be no zones in Afghanistan.

Eurocorps took over the responsibility for the NATO-led ISAF in Kabul August 9, 2004.

National elections were 9) _______ on October 9, 2004. Over 10 million Afghans were registered to vote. Most of the 17 candidates opposing Karzai 10) __________ the election, charging fraud; an independent commission found 11) ______________ of fraud, but ruled that it did not affect the 12) __________ of the poll. Karzai won 55.4% of the vote. He was 13) ____________ as president on December 7. It was the country's first national election since 1969, when parliamentary elections were last held.

On September 18, 2005, parliamentary elections were held; the parliament opened on the following December 19. On December 20 Karzai's close ally and president of the first mujahideen government, Sibghatullah Mojadeddi, was picked to head the 102-seat upper house. On December 21, Yunus Qanuni, Afghan opposition leader and Karzai's main opponent was chosen to lead the 249-seat lower house of parliament with 122 votes against 117 for his closest challenger.

Ex.8 Give the translation to the missed words from the text and make up your own sentence using all of them.

Ex.9 Write a question to each paragraph of the text.

Ex.10 Translate the following text into English in writing using the words and phrases below.