Page 47 - IRANRptOct20

location. That vessel is also bound for Venezuela, according to the Reuters sources, but the route it took is yet unknown.
9.1.5​ Tourism sector news
Iran is set to launch a 10-language advertising campaign to attract tourists. The languages would include Russian and Chinese, Mehr News Agency reported.
Prior to the US leaving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and reintroducing heavy sanctions, Iran was working on plans to become a regional tourism and transit hub. Those efforts have largely been mothballed, while the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic now poses another huge hurdle to reinvigorating the country’s efforts to draw tourists, but some initiatives are proceeding.
Mohammad-Ebrahim Larijani, a marketing professional in Tehran, reportedly said videos about the country's attractions, historical monuments and resorts would not only be available in Persian but also in English, Arabic, Russian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, German, Chinese, French and Japanese.
Iranian embassies in several countries are also set to play a part in turning potential tourists’ attention to the wonders of ancient sites in Iran including two dozen UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Despite the stringent head covering rules for all women, the country saw a huge spike in visitors to its cities and tourist sites prior to the election of US President Donald Trump in late 2016.
Other countries that like Iran are on routes of the ancient Silk Road have benefitted from the Islamic Republic falling out of favour. They include Uzbekistan, which boasts several ancient Persianate cities including Bukhara and Samarkand.
Iran’s Health Ministry spokesman Sima-Sadat Lari has said 12 provinces
out of 31 in the country are counted as high-risk “red zones” in terms of
coronavirus (COVID-19) delivery, IRNA reported on July 14.
The spokeswoman said 173 patients had died of the coronavirus in the past 24
hours, increasing the overall death toll to 13,211, a decline on the previous
day, which saw more than 200 people die from the virus, according to official
statistics.
Provinces including Khuzestan, West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Khorasan
Razavi, Zanjan, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Golestan, Hormozgan, Ilam, Bushehr
and Mazandaran are now under “Red Zone” status, with travelling to and from
those areas severely restricted.
Thirteen other provinces, including: Tehran, Fars, Ardabil, Isfahan, Alborz,
South Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad,
Lorestan, Hamadan, Yazd, Kerman and North Khorasan are also considered
“amber zones”.
Another 2,521 new cases of COVID-19 infection have been reported in the
country, raising the total number of infections to 262,173.
9.1.6 ​TMT sector news
FBI serves warning that Iranian hackers are using “the BIG-IP exploit” to attack US networks
Iranian hackers, most likely employees or affiliates of Iran’s government, have been running a vast cyberespionage operation equipped with surveillance tools that can outsmart encrypted messaging systems—a capability Iran was not previously known to possess, according to two digital security reports released on September 18, as cited by ​The New
47​ IRAN Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com