#Qalibaf

[dtpnews]

La llegada de Iraqi y Qalibaf a la cabeza de una delegación senior iraní a Beirut para participar en el funeral de los dos mártires

Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores iraníes, Abbas Iraqi, a su llegada, aeropuerto de Beirut, el domingo (agencias) El ministro de Relaciones Exteriores iraní, Abbas Iraqi, llegó a la capital, Beirut, el domingo por la mañana, para participar en el funeral del Sr. Hassan Nasrallah y el Sr. Hashem Safi al -Din. En una declaración para él, el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores iraní dijo: “Hoy llegué…

[vyorei]

The Iranians are PISSED

[beardedmrbean]

A court in Iran has sentenced the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi to an additional year in prison, her lawyer says.

The 52-year-old human rights activist was convicted of spreading “propaganda against the system” by a branch of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, Mostafa Nili wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He said the reasons cited by the court included “comments about Ms Dina Qalibaf”, a student who alleged she was tortured and sexually assaulted by security forces, as well as her call to boycott March’s election and letters to Swedish and Norwegian MPs.

Ms Mohammadi had refused to attend the trial, denouncing it as “unjust and farcical”.

There was no immediate confirmation from the Iranian judiciary.

Narges Mohammadi's family said in a statement that she had now undergone six trials over the past three years and been convicted four times for “protesting, exposing, and narrating sexual harassment and abuse by government officials”.

This had resulted in a “cumulative sentence of 13 years and three months in prison, 154 lashes, exile, and four months of street cleaning”, they added.

Ms Mohammadi was already serving a 10-year sentence at Tehran’s Evin prison, handed down in 2016, when she was awarded the Nobel prize last October for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran”.

Last month, she had demanded that her latest trial be held in public so that witnesses and survivors could testify to what she alleged were "the sexual assaults perpetrated by the Islamic Republic regime against women”.

She said the propaganda charge was a result of a statement she had made in support of Dina Qalibaf, a student at Tehran’s Beheshti University and a freelance journalist.

In April, as authorities intensified a crackdown on women flouting Iran’s mandatory hijab laws in the wake of the 2022 nationwide protests, Ms Mohammadi had urged Iranians to stand against what she called the “war against women”.

In an audio recording released by her family, she called on women not to stay silent about abuse by security forces, but send their stories of "arrest, rape, harassment, humiliation and beatings" to her Instagram account.

The appeal, she said, was prompted by the “bruises and experience of sexual abuse” she had observed when Ms Qalibaf was brought to the women’s ward of Evin prison.

Ms Qalibaf was arrested a day after she posted an account on social media alleging that she had been subjected to electrical shocks by security forces and sexually assaulted by one officer at a Tehran metro station.

The judiciary-run Mizan news agency rejected Ms Qalibaf’s claims at the time. She was released on bail after two weeks in detention.

In December, a revolutionary court handed Ms Mohammadi an additional 15-month prison term after she was convicted in her absence of another charge of “propaganda against the system”, her family said.

She was also banished from Tehran for two years, and banned from travelling abroad, owning a mobile phone, or being a member of political and social groups for the same period.

[head-post]

Iran announces final list of approved presidential candidates

Iran’s election official Mohsen Islami announced on Sunday the final list of candidates approved to run in the upcoming presidential election.

Iran’s 14th presidential election will take place on 28 June. The list, endorsed by the Guardian Council for the snap general election, follows the death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in May in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan.

Among the six qualified candidates were Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, Masoud Pezeshkian, Saeed Jalili, Alireza Zakani, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, and Seyyed Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi. The registration of potential candidates lasted for five days, with a total of 80 people registering.

However, the council again barred other high-profile candidates, including former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ali Larijani. All female candidates were also barred from running for the office, as it has been an exclusively male position since its inception.

After the announcement of the final list of candidates for the 2024 presidential election, social media users reacted differently. Some expressed satisfaction with the Guardian Council’s vetting process, whereas others criticised the disqualification of candidates. Several users lamented the lack of diversity and new faces among the candidates.

The final list of candidates generally evoked a wide range of opinions in Iran, from satisfaction to criticism and resignation.

Read more HERE

[elixir]

Veiled Female Police Squad, Iran

“During Qalibaf’s time as police chief,” Kowsari said, “policewomen performed many martial arts and chase routines, including climbing walls and jumping out of the windows of moving cars. But after he stepped down, that training was eliminated. Last year’s ceremony was limited to a parade, speeches, target practice, and the loading of revolvers by blindfolded policewomen graduates. No photographers were allowed.”

[news365timesindia]

[ad_1] Hezbollah continued to fire into Israel. | File Photo: Bloomberg4 min read Last Updated : Oct 12 2024 | 10:31 PM IST Palestinians in northern Gaza described heavy Israeli bombardment Saturday in the hours after airstrikes killed at least 22 people, as Israel continued to tell people there and in southern Lebanon to get out of the way of its offensives against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups. In Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force said its headquarters in Naqoura had again been hit, with a peacekeeper struck by gunfire late Friday and in stable condition. It wasn't clear who fired. The shooting occurred a day after Israel's military fired on the headquarters for the second straight day.   Click here to connect with us on WhatsApp  Israel, which has warned the peacekeepers to leave their positions, didn't immediately respond to questions. Hunger warnings emerged again as residents in northern Gaza said they hadn't received aid since the beginning of the month. The UN World Food Programme said no food aid had entered the north since October 1. An estimated 4,00,000 people remain there. Israel's military renewed its offensive in northern Gaza almost a week ago while escalating its air and ground campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in the Zarout coastal area on the edge of Barja south of Beirut, and the Health Ministry said four were killed. The ministry said another airstrike on the village of Maisra northeast of Beirut killed five. Hezbollah continued to fire into Israel. We will keep standing with the Lebanese people during these difficult circumstances and also with the Palestinian people, the speaker of Iran's parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Saturday while touring the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Gaza residents are trappedIn northern Gaza, residents told The Associated Press many were trapped in their homes and shelters with dwindling supplies while seeing bodies uncollected in the streets as the bombing hampered emergency responders. Those who rushed to the scene of the latest deadly airstrikes in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya found a hole 65 feet deep where a home once stood. At least 20 bodies were recovered as of Saturday morning, while others likely were trapped under the rubble, emergency service officials said. Elsewhere in Jabaliya, a strike on a home killed two brothers and wounded a woman and newborn baby, the officials said. Another strike in the afternoon hit a Jabaliya home and killed at least four people including a woman, said Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the emergency service. Israel's military did not immediately respond to request for comment on the strikes. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told people in parts of Jabaliya and Gaza City to evacuate south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone as Israel plans to use great force and will continue to do so for a long time. Israel has repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza as Hamas and other militants regroup. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 per cent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times. It's like the first days of the war, said a Jabaliya resident, Ahmed Abu Goneim. The occupation is doing everything to uproot us. But we will not leave. The 24-year-old said Israeli warplanes and drones struck many neighbouring houses in the past week, He counted 15 relatives and neighbours, including four women and five children as young as 3, killed in neighbouring homes. He said there were dead in the streets and no one is able to recover them because of the bombing. Hamza Sharif, who stays with his family in a school-turned shelter in Jabaliya, described constant bombings day and night. He said the shelter has not received aid since the beginning of the month. Families depend on what they have stored, but they will run out of supplies very soon, he said.

Food is running outThe World Food Programme said it was unclear how long the limited food supplies it distributed in northern Gaza earlier will last. The UN's independent investigator on the right to food last month accused Israel of carrying out a starvation campaign against Palestinians, which Israel has denied. Israel's offensive in Gaza started after Hamas' October 7 attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. Israel's offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not specify between combatants and civilians. Gaza's Health Ministry said hospitals had received the bodies of 49 people killed over the past 24 hours. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)First Published: Oct 12 2024 | 10:31 PM IST [ad_2] Source link

[news365times]

[ad_1] Hezbollah continued to fire into Israel. | File Photo: Bloomberg4 min read Last Updated : Oct 12 2024 | 10:31 PM IST Palestinians in northern Gaza described heavy Israeli bombardment Saturday in the hours after airstrikes killed at least 22 people, as Israel continued to tell people there and in southern Lebanon to get out of the way of its offensives against the Hamas and Hezbollah militant groups. In Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping force said its headquarters in Naqoura had again been hit, with a peacekeeper struck by gunfire late Friday and in stable condition. It wasn't clear who fired. The shooting occurred a day after Israel's military fired on the headquarters for the second straight day.   Click here to connect with us on WhatsApp  Israel, which has warned the peacekeepers to leave their positions, didn't immediately respond to questions. Hunger warnings emerged again as residents in northern Gaza said they hadn't received aid since the beginning of the month. The UN World Food Programme said no food aid had entered the north since October 1. An estimated 4,00,000 people remain there. Israel's military renewed its offensive in northern Gaza almost a week ago while escalating its air and ground campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in the Zarout coastal area on the edge of Barja south of Beirut, and the Health Ministry said four were killed. The ministry said another airstrike on the village of Maisra northeast of Beirut killed five. Hezbollah continued to fire into Israel. We will keep standing with the Lebanese people during these difficult circumstances and also with the Palestinian people, the speaker of Iran's parliament, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said Saturday while touring the scene of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut. Gaza residents are trappedIn northern Gaza, residents told The Associated Press many were trapped in their homes and shelters with dwindling supplies while seeing bodies uncollected in the streets as the bombing hampered emergency responders. Those who rushed to the scene of the latest deadly airstrikes in the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya found a hole 65 feet deep where a home once stood. At least 20 bodies were recovered as of Saturday morning, while others likely were trapped under the rubble, emergency service officials said. Elsewhere in Jabaliya, a strike on a home killed two brothers and wounded a woman and newborn baby, the officials said. Another strike in the afternoon hit a Jabaliya home and killed at least four people including a woman, said Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the emergency service. Israel's military did not immediately respond to request for comment on the strikes. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee told people in parts of Jabaliya and Gaza City to evacuate south to an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone as Israel plans to use great force and will continue to do so for a long time. Israel has repeatedly returned to parts of Gaza as Hamas and other militants regroup. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 per cent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times. It's like the first days of the war, said a Jabaliya resident, Ahmed Abu Goneim. The occupation is doing everything to uproot us. But we will not leave. The 24-year-old said Israeli warplanes and drones struck many neighbouring houses in the past week, He counted 15 relatives and neighbours, including four women and five children as young as 3, killed in neighbouring homes. He said there were dead in the streets and no one is able to recover them because of the bombing. Hamza Sharif, who stays with his family in a school-turned shelter in Jabaliya, described constant bombings day and night. He said the shelter has not received aid since the beginning of the month. Families depend on what they have stored, but they will run out of supplies very soon, he said.

Food is running outThe World Food Programme said it was unclear how long the limited food supplies it distributed in northern Gaza earlier will last. The UN's independent investigator on the right to food last month accused Israel of carrying out a starvation campaign against Palestinians, which Israel has denied. Israel's offensive in Gaza started after Hamas' October 7 attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others. Israel's offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not specify between combatants and civilians. Gaza's Health Ministry said hospitals had received the bodies of 49 people killed over the past 24 hours. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)First Published: Oct 12 2024 | 10:31 PM IST [ad_2] Source link

[indiaepost]

Iran's Parliament Speaker says response to Hamas chief's assassination will be 'crushing, smart'

Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday that the country’s response to the assassination of Hamas Politburo Chief Ismail Haniyeh will be “crushing and smart.” The response would make Israel and its supporters regret their action, forcing them to revise their system of calculations to refrain from making another “mistake” detrimental to their own security and regional…

[newsssc]

Haniya's murder pushes back the possibility of resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal | International

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniya was assassinated in Tehran on Wednesday, after attending the inauguration of the new Iranian president, Masud Pezeshkian. On Thursday, at a funeral in the Iranian capital that official media have described as “state-like”, the speaker of parliament, Mohamed Baqer Qalibaf, deplored how “difficult” it is for his country that a “guest” has been killed on its…

[warningsine]

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/moderate-pezeshkian-makes-it-iran-presidential-run-off-2024-06-29/

DUBAI, June 29 (Reuters) - In an election campaign dominated by hardliners, Iranian presidential hopeful Massoud Pezeshkian stood out as a moderate, backing women's rights, more social freedoms, cautious detente with the West and economic reform.

Pezeshkian narrowly beat hardline Saeed Jalili for first place in Friday's first round vote but the two men will now face a run-off election on July 5, since Pezeshkian did not secure the majority of 50% plus one vote of ballots cast needed to win outright.

Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old cardiac surgeon, lawmaker and former health minister was up against candidates who more closely reflect the fiercely anti-Western stance of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's ultimate decision-maker.

And yet the mild-mannered Pezeshkian narrowly won Friday's vote and made it to the run-off in the election to pick a successor to Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May.

His chances hinge on attracting votes from supporters of current hardline parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who finished third in the first round, and encouraging a young disillusioned population hungry for change but disenchanted with the country's political, social and economic crisis to vote for him again in the run-off.

Although he advocates reforms, Pezeshkian is faithful to Iran's theocratic rule with no intention of confronting the powerful security hawks and clerical rulers.

His views offer a contrast to those of Raisi, a Khamenei protege who tightened enforcement of a law curbing women's dress and took a tough stance in now-moribund negotiations with major powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.

Pezeshkian's election campaign gained momentum when he was endorsed by reformists, led by former President Mohammad Khatami, and when he appointed former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a key figure in crafting the nuclear deal, as his foreign policy adviser.

Implicitly referring to the appointment of Zarif, who hardliners accuse of selling out Iran in order to reach the deal, Khamenei said on Tuesday: "Anyone who is attached to America will not be a good colleague for you".

In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump ditched the pact and reimposed sanctions on Iran, calling it "a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made." His move prompted Tehran to progressively violate the agreement's nuclear limits.

If Pezeshkian does go on to win, this would hinder Iranian hardliners who are opposed to the revival of the pact.

However, under Iran's dual system of clerical and republican rule the power to shape key state policies including foreign and nuclear affairs ultimately rests with Khamenei.

As a result, many voters are sceptical about Pezeshkian's ability to fulfil his campaign promises.

"Pezeshkian's power as the president to fulfil his campaign promises is zero," said Sholeh Mousavi, a 32-year-old teacher in Tehran, before Friday's first round of voting.

"I want reforms but Pezeshkian cannot improve the situation. I will not vote. "

Pezeshkian, the sole moderate among the six candidates who were approved by a hardline watchdog body to stand, has pledged to foster a pragmatic foreign policy and ease nuclear tensions with the West. Two hardline subsequently candidates pulled out.

A CRITIC LOYAL TO KHAMENEI

At the same time, Pezeshkian promised in TV debates and interviews not to contest Khamenei's policies, which analysts said risks further alienating the urban middle class and young voters. These groups no longer seek mere reform and instead now directly challenge the Islamic Republic as a whole.

As a lawmaker since 2008, Pezeshkian, who is an Azeri ethnic minority and supports the rights of ethnic minorities, has criticised the clerical establishment's suppression of political and social dissent.

In 2022, Pezeshkian demanded clarification from authorities about the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who died in custody after she was arrested for allegedly violating a law restricting women's dress. Her death sparked months of unrest across the country.

But at a Tehran University meeting earlier this month, responding to a question about students imprisoned on charges linked to anti-government protests, Pezeshkian said "political prisoners are not within my scope, and if I want to do something, I have no authority".

During the Iran-Iraq war in 1980s, Pezeshkian, who held roles as both a combatant and a physician, was tasked with the deployment of medical teams to the front lines.

He was health minister from 2001-5 in Khatami's second term.

Pezeshkian lost his wife and one of his children in a car accident in 1994. He raised his surviving two sons and a daughter alone, opting to never remarry.

[3lub]

https://apnews.com/article/iran-presidential-election-jalili-pezeshkian-qalibaf-189a89c3a9c04be1af83ab684e213558

Iran goes to a runoff election between reformist Pezeshkian and hard-liner Jalili

[cinquecolonnemagazine]

Iran al voto: chi sono i sei candidati?

Sei candidati, cinque conservatori e un riformista, si contendono la presidenza dell'Iran per il voto alle elezioni anticipate del 28 giugno, convocate dopo la morte dell'ex presidente ultraconservatore Ebrahim Raisi in un incidente in elicottero a maggio. Solo loro sono stati approvati dal Consiglio dei Guardiani, l'organo che supervisiona le elezioni nella Repubblica Islamica. Iran al voto ed i candidati: Said Jalili 58 anni, è considerato uno dei politici più estremisti del Paese. Ex segretario del Consiglio Supremo di Sicurezza, ha guidato i negoziati sul nucleare e si è opposto alla ripresa dei colloqui per ripristinare l'accordo del 2015, dal quale gli Stati Uniti sono usciti unilateralmente sotto la presidenza di Donald Trump. Nato a Mashhad come Khamenei, ha conseguito un dottorato all'Università Imam Sadegh, fucina ideologica del regime. Soprannominato il "martire vivente" per aver perso una gamba nella guerra Iran-Iraq come membro dei basij, la forza paramilitare iraniana sotto il controllo dei pasdaran, è membro del Consiglio per il Discernimento, principale organo consultivo della Guida Suprema. Ha fallito la corsa alla presidenza nel 2013 e nel 2021, ma potrebbe contare sul sostegno di alcuni dei collaboratori più stretti di Raisi. È uno dei due favoriti alla presidenza. Alireza Zakani Nato nel 1966, ha tentato di candidarsi nelle elezioni del 2013 senza successo, venendo poi ammesso nelle presidenziali del 2021, che hanno visto la vittoria di Raisi. Critico dei negoziati sul programma nucleare iraniano quando era parlamentare, è noto come il "carro armato rivoluzionario" per la sua retorica aggressiva e gli attacchi ai riformisti. Questo stile combattivo lo ha mantenuto anche come sindaco della capitale, ruolo che ha iniziato nel 2021, ottenendo notevoli risorse finanziarie e una certa indipendenza dal governo. Ha guidato la recente campagna di repressione per imporre l'hijab alle donne ed è soggetto a sanzioni dal Regno Unito per gravi violazioni dei diritti umani. Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi 53 anni, medico di formazione, è un ex membro del Parlamento ed ex primo vicepresidente. Esponente della destra radicale, si è candidato alla presidenza nel 2021 senza successo. Raisi lo aveva poi nominato vicepresidente e capo della Fondazione per gli Affari dei Martiri e dei Veterani, una fondazione parastatale soggetta a sanzioni per aver indirizzato risorse a organizzazioni come Hezbollah. Tra i conservatori pragmatici o moderati sono inclusi Ghalibaf e Mostafa Pourmohammadi, come notato dal sito Amwaj. Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf Nato nel 1961, è alla sua quarta candidatura a presidente ed è il grande favorito di queste elezioni. Ex sindaco di Teheran, ex comandante dei pasdaran durante la guerra Iran-Iraq e capo della polizia, Qalibaf si è vantato di aver represso manifestazioni con la violenza nel 1999 e di aver ordinato di sparare sui manifestanti durante le proteste del 2003. Appoggiato dai pasdaran, ha legami con la cerchia ristretta della Guida Suprema, Ali Khamenei, e gode del sostegno anche tra i centristi. È coinvolto in vari scandali per corruzione. Mostafa Pourmohammadi 64 anni, nato nella città santa sciita di Qom, è l'unico religioso ammesso alle presidenziali e ha poche possibilità di vittoria. Membro del "Comitato della Morte" che ha approvato l'esecuzione di migliaia di prigionieri politici alla fine degli anni '80, è stato ministro della Giustizia sotto Ahmadinejad e Rohani. Vanta un notevole pedigree nell'apparato, dalla burocrazia all'ufficio di Khamenei, passando per la magistratura e l'esecutivo. È stato squalificato quest'anno dalle elezioni per il rinnovo dell'Assemblea degli Esperti. Massoud Pezeshkian L'unico riformista ammesso alla corsa alla presidenza, 70 anni e di origine azera. Ha cresciuto tre figli da solo dopo la morte della moglie in un incidente. Parlamentare da due decenni, oltre a moderati e riformisti, la sua candidatura si rivolge anche ai circa 18 milioni di azeri. Pezeshkian si è espresso contro la mancanza di trasparenza del governo durante le proteste innescate dalla morte di Mahsa Amini nel 2022, mentre era in custodia della polizia morale. Medico esperto, è stato ministro della Sanità sotto il presidente riformista Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) e ha criticato esplicitamente il governo sulla questione dell'hijab obbligatorio. Foto di jorono da Pixabay Read the full article

[celebritygossip-news]

Hard-liner Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf re-elected as speaker of Iran's parliament

http://dlvr.it/T7V2jV

[head-post]

Everyone on alert for Iranian strike on Monday night

The Middle East was again close to a sharp escalation and development of the regional conflict on Monday night. Iranian troops were as active as they were before the April strike on Israel, Axios correspondent Barak Ravid reported, citing unnamed Israeli and US officials.

The retaliation will be decisive

A Hamas spokesman in Tehran said Iran’s response to Israel’s assassination of the head of the Palestinian resistance group’s politburo would be “definite and decisive” and would be carried out at a “substantial level.”

Khaled Qaddoumi made the statement on Monday, stressing that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian assured Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of the Hamas politburo in Gaza, that nothing but decisive action can be considered as retaliation for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

He added that Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, during meetings with Hamas representatives over the past few days, also emphasised that Iran’s response would be definite, decisive and different in nature and manner. Qaddoumi said:

Experience has proven that the Zionist regime will press ahead with its crimes in case it does not receive an answer… The most important reason why a criminal like [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is forging ahead with its genocide is the absence of diplomatic pressures from the United States. He does not feel such strains.

The senior Hamas official emphasised that Iran will definitely respond to Israel’s killing of Haniyeh on a substantial level, and regretted that “the occupation regime” in Tel Aviv does not feel pressure from any other party, in West Asia or anywhere else.

It is very difficult to comment on the extent of the retaliation, Qaddoumi said, but noted that the legitimacy of Iran’s response to Haniyeh’s assassination is not in doubt.

Iran’s retaliation is an issue whose necessity is emphasised even by Iranians themselves, he said, adding that Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, President Masoud Pezeshkian and all Iranian authorities have placed special emphasis on it.

Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s newly elected President Pezeshkian along with other leaders of the Resistance Axis, was killed in a terrorist attack on July 31.

Ayatollah Khamenei warned the Israeli regime of a “severe response” for Haniyeh’s murder, calling it the Islamic Republic’s duty to avenge the blood of the Palestinian resistance leader. He said:

The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our homeland and left us bereaved, but it also set the ground for a harsh punishment for itself.

Read more HERE

[mariacallous]

On March 1, Iran held elections for its parliament and the Assembly of Experts, the influential body responsible for overseeing and appointing the supreme leader. The Iranian public showed little interest—there was a historically low turnout of 41 percent, with only 25 million out of more than 61 million eligible voters participating—but Iran’s political landscape nevertheless experienced an important shift.

The elections, it’s important to note, were neither free nor fair. They were marked by the disqualification of many prominent figures by the Guardian Council, which vets candidates for their loyalty to the Islamic Republic. Among those barred from running for the Assembly of Experts were moderate former President Hassan Rouhani and former Intelligence Ministry chief Mahmoud Alavi, both current members of the assembly. The main political organization of reformists and other critics of the system either did not participate or advocated for a boycott. To the extent there was diversity in the elections, it was the product of new competition among Iran’s conservative factions.

There are no formal political parties in Iran, but influential movements, groups, and leaders publish lists of their preferred candidates. In Tehran, for example, the city’s 30 parliamentary seats—the most influential in the country—were contested by a collection of candidates appearing on lists from various conservative factions. (The lone moderate list—called the Voice of the Nation and led by Ali Motahari, a dissenting conservative voice—failed to secure any seats due to the low voter turnout and the relative obscurity of its candidates.)

The showdown between conservatives in the capital city saw the rise of some candidates who were newcomers to electoral politics and did not toe the mainstream conservative line. They challenged the establishment conservative list, known by the acronym SHANA, which was led by Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of the parliament and a former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander with a long political career that includes running for president and serving as Tehran’s mayor.

The nonestablishment conservative lists were predominantly composed of hard-line figures. Unlike the reformists and moderate conservatives, who have shown some willingness to adapt and compromise on certain issues, they seek a rigid and purist version of Islamic law, reject any reforms that might threaten their power or ideology, and are more skeptical or opposed to engagement with Western powers. For instance, the hard-line winners in Tehran this election were fervent opponents of the 2015 nuclear deal, unlike the current speaker Ghalibaf, who was more supportive and pragmatic about the talks.

The hard-line lists included Amana, led by politician Hamid Rasaee; the United Front, headed by Manouchehr Mottaki, the former foreign minister under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; and Morning of Iran, aligned with Ali Akbar Raefipour, a controversial thought leader who has propagated antisemitic conspiracy theories, and Saeed Mohammad, the former head of the IRGC’s engineering arm.

While some of the lists had common candidates, the most establishment one, SHANA, suffered significant losses, and the more hard-line and nonmainstream groups, namely Morning of Iran and Amana, made gains. The triumvirate of top vote-getters in Tehran comprised of hard-line clerics Mahmoud Nabavian and Hamid Rasaee, who clinched first and third places respectively, and Amirhossein Sabeti, a young conservative activist and news show host who came in second place. Most notably, the election brought a stunning reversal of fortune for the current parliamentary speaker, Qalibaf. Once the top vote-getter—with 1,265,287 votes in the 2020 parliamentary elections—he experienced a precipitous fall to fourth place this time around, securing only 447,905 votes.

The election results in Tehran reflected a notable shift in the voting behavior of the electorate. Instead of voting uniformly for the list of candidates from a single faction, many voters made their own choices from the different lists. The reformist newspaper Etemad described this as a sign of increasing “political maturity,” saying, “They did not surrender their intellect to anyone else and picked their own mix of candidates from the available options.”

Out of the 14 candidates in Tehran who secured their seats in the first round, seven belonged exclusively to SHANA, while the other seven came from different factions or had multiple endorsements. The most notable among them was Nabavian, who topped the vote count, as he was part of several lists.

The reformist Shargh newspaper analyzed the implications of SHANA’s underperformance, saying, “While all media affiliated with official institutions were behind the SHANA list, organized online networks were in the hands of SHANA’s rivals. This network was essentially formed around the discourse of ‘anti-Qalibaf.’ … This election was essentially the victory of the Sharyan (the rival coalition) over SHANA, or the victory of online activists over the official media of the conservatives.”

But who are these rising conservatives? The three top vote-getters in Tehran are all members of the Front of Islamic Revolution Stability, which is the most fundamentalist political group within the Islamic Republic’s political spectrum. Its politicians have track records of opposing both moderate conservatives and reformists and were the loudest critics of the moderate Rouhani administration.

The top vote-getter in Tehran, Nabavian, is a former parliamentarian known for his hard-line stance on foreign policy, especially his fierce opposition to the nuclear negotiations that resulted in the 2015 nuclear deal. He even claimed in June 2017that Washington had demanded Iran hand over Qassem Suleimani, the Revolutionary Guards general who would be assassinated by a U.S. drone strike in 2020, as a condition for establishing banking relations, and that Iran had agreed to do so. Nabavian’s claim was swiftly denounced by the foreign ministry spokesperson at the time as “fanciful lies, an insult to the Iranian nation, and delusions that have crossed the boundaries of religion and ethics.” Then-Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif himself threatened to take legal action against him.

The second- and third-place finishers, Amir Hossen Sabeti and Hamid Rasaee, also have a history of clashing with moderate conservatives over their criticism of them—and even facing legal repercussions for doing so. In 2012, Sabeti was sentenced by a Revolutionary Court to a suspended prison sentence for protesting the actions of Ali Larijani, then the moderately conservative speaker of parliament, over university policies. Rasaee, on the other hand, is a prominent hard-line figure who runs the Nine Dey newspaper, which was shut down several times during the Rouhani era over its content against his administration, and Rasaee himself was disqualified by the Guardian Council for a past parliamentary election.

As the Islamic Republic’s most hard-line factions gain more power, the system as a whole faces an ever-growing crisis of legitimacy. The majority of the electorate boycotted the election, while those who voted, mostly from the government’s loyal base, expressed their discontent with the status quo by either spoiling their ballots or rejecting the main establishment candidates, such as Qalibaf.

One prominent voice that did not participate in this election was that of Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former president who still has some clout among a part of society and the government. He played an important role in mobilizing public turnout in previous elections, even as he himself had long been sidelined from official positions. During the 2022-23 protest movement, he said the “overthrow [of the political system] is neither possible nor desirable” and did not echo the call for a referendum proposed by former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, the reformist leader of the 2009 Green Movement.

The Reformist Front, the main political organization of the reformists, also decided to sit out the election after months of deliberation, saying it “cannot take part in an election that is meaningless, noncompetitive, unfair, and ineffective in governing the country.” It is not clear what the reformists’ next step will be. They are reportedly working on a new document that will be released soon, aiming to change both the way the system works and the way the elections are held. The document is said to be partly the work of Khatami’s office and the Reformist Front.

The election also marked the decisive decline of the old conservative establishment. Figures such as Qalibaf, Larijani, and the latter’s younger brother Sadegh Larijani, who lost his seat in the Assembly of Experts election, are marginalized. It is a new era of conservative politics in Iran.

Yet, while Iran’s elections have been important in the past, especially for the presidency, this one is not likely to make a major difference, at least for the parliament. The new parliament is expected to be aligned with the administration of incumbent President Ebrahim Raisi and support its main policies, including on foreign affairs.

However, it’s not unlikely that 84-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei will not live to see the end of the next Assembly of Expert’s eight-year term, which means that the members elected on March 1 could have the responsibility of choosing his successor.

Ultimately, the ascension of fundamentalist factions can further erode prospects for urgently needed reforms. A harbinger of potential discord lies in the widening schism among conservatives on societal issues.

A recent incident serves as a case in point: The Raisi administration sanctioned a concert in Isfahan featuring Ali Ghorbani, a traditional music singer. Yet it was abruptly canceled by local authorities due to the involvement of female musicians. That may be a precursor to an escalating series of conflicts between conservatives within a system that is in dire need of reform.

[decaffeinatedfirelover]

International update: Global Covid infections pass 44 million – cases in India near 8 million

Global: The number of infections caused by the coronavirus has reached 44 million around the world. Johns Hopkins University researchers estimate that 1,167,634 people worldwide have died as a result of the coronavirus.

US: According to Johns Hopkins University researchers, the number of US coronavirus deaths is 226,722, while the number of US Covid-19 infections exceeds 8.7 million.

The phrase “Ending the pandemic” is one of the “highlights” that can be found in a 62-page report from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s news release.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday night recognized that Covid cases are ascending in “certain regions” of the Midwest, an uncommon confirmation during the last seven day stretch of the official mission. When making his final argument to voters, Trump has frequently downplayed the virus, and opinion polls indicate that voters have given his pandemic response a poor rating. On Tuesday, the president asserted once more that the nation is “turning that corner.”

A tally from the US Elections Project on Tuesday showed that more than 70 million Americans had cast ballots in the US presidential election, which is more than half the total turnout of the 2016 election with one week to go until Election Day. As the pandemic regains strength heading into winter, the figure demonstrates voters’ desire to reduce their exposure to Covid-19.

France: On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean Castex told MPs that if nothing is done to stop the country’s epidemic, hospital intensive care units will be overflowing with Covid-19 patients by November 11.

India: The federal health ministry’s data showed that 43,893 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours, putting India’s total of cases of the virus less than 10,000 away from 8 million. On Tuesday, the total number of coronavirus infections in India was 7.99 million.

China: China’s health authority reported on Wednesday that an increase in infections in the northwestern Xinjiang region had led to the confirmation of 42 new infections — the highest daily number in more than two months. The everyday cost denotes the most elevated since 44 affirmed contaminations were accounted for on 10 August.

Iran: According to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf has tested positive for coronavirus and is currently self-isolating.

Africa, South: According to an email statement, President Cyril Ramaphosa has begun self-quarantine following a positive Covid-19 diagnosis at a dinner he attended on October 24. Ramaphosa is not experiencing any symptoms at this time, but in the event that he does, he will be tested.

Global vaccine news: The experimental Covid vaccine that Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline Plc are co-developing will be made available to Covax, a global effort to provide vaccines to developing nations, in 200 million doses, the companies announced. According to a statement, the drugmakers signed the supply agreement with Gavi, also known as the Vaccine Alliance. Gavi is one of the organizations collaborating with the World Health Organization to make vaccinations available to everyone.

According to a statement, Novartis AG and Molecular Partners AG announced a partnership for Molecular Partners’ Covid-19 program, which includes two experimental therapies. With the potential to be manufactured on a large scale and to avoid cold storage, the potential medicines aim to treat as well as prevent Covid-19.

Japan: According to Kyodo, a bill that would cover the costs of any serious side effects and make any potential coronavirus vaccine available to residents of Japan free of charge was approved by the Japanese government on Tuesday.

Germany’s lockdown updates: In crisis talks with regional leaders on Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to demand a “lockdown light.” According to the Bild daily, which is a best-seller, the new restrictions that are being proposed would keep schools, daycares, and shops open while simultaneously closing restaurants and bars and imposing stringent restrictions on both private and public gatherings.

US: The Associated Press reported that after a member nation reported five cases among its staff, the United Nations has canceled all in-person meetings for this week.

Turkey: Turkey has banned specialists, medical caretakers and other wellbeing laborers in the public area from withdrawing, leaving or resigning to guarantee continuous battle against Coronavirus, Hurriyet paper revealed Wednesday, refering to a request from the wellbeing service. The move comes as the number of coronavirus cases in Turkey rises.

Pakistan: In a televised briefing on October 28, Pakistan’s special assistant on health to the prime minister, Faisal Sultan, stated, “Pakistan is evaluating some actions and restrictions for hotspots to contain a second wave of the virus.”

Europe’s economic updates: Due to a decline in air travel, nearly 200 UK and European airports could fail. “Insolvency in the coming months if passenger traffic does not start to recover by the year-end,” according to estimates provided by Airports Council International Europe, which represents airport operators.

Denmark: After imposing new restrictions to stop the spread of Covid-19, the government of Denmark is providing businesses with additional support in the amount of 8.3 billion kroner, or $1.30 billion.

Korea, South: As he sought a budget increase to assist the pandemic-ravaged economy in its recovery, President Moon Jae-in asserted that his nation has contained the coronavirus. Moon urged a budget increase of 8.5% next year to strengthen the government’s fiscal role in parliament on Wednesday.

US: As coronavirus cases continue to rise worldwide, California Governor Gavin Newsom stated that he is hesitant to allow theme parks, such as Disneyland, to reopen. Since Florida’s theme parks reopened in June, Walt Disney Co. and other theme park operators have been pleading with the state for permission to resume operations.