DUBAI:Iran’s hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Sunday as a possible candidate for the presidential election, seeking to regain the country’s top political position after a helicopter crash killed the nation’s president.
The populist former leader’s registration puts pressure on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In office, Ahmadinejad openly challenged the 85-year-old cleric, and his attempt to run in 2021 was barred by authorities.
The firebrand, Holocaust-questioning politician’s return comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, its arming of Russia in its war on Ukraine and its wide-reaching crackdowns on dissent.
Associated Press journalists in Tehran saw Ahmadinejad arrive at the Interior Ministry and begin the registration process. Before his arrival, his supporters chanted and waved Iranian flags.
He descended the stairs at the ministry, showing his passport as is custom to dozens of photographers and video journalists on hand for the registration process. As a woman processed his candidacy, he sat, turned to the journalists, nodding and smiling for the cameras. He was expected to give remarks after concluding his registration.
An election is planned June 28 to replace Khamenei’s hard-line protégé President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May along with seven other people.
Ahmadinejad previously served two four-year terms from 2005 to 2013. Under Iranian law, he became eligible to run again after four years out of office, but he remains a polarizing figure even among fellow hard-liners. His disputed re-election in 2009 sparked massive “Green Movement” protests and a sweeping crackdown in which thousands of people were detained and dozens were killed.
Abroad, he became a caricature of Western perceptions of the Islamic Republic’s worst attribute, questioning the Holocaust, insisting Iran had no gay or lesbian citizens and hinting Iran could build a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so.
But Ahmadinejad remains popular among the poor for his populist efforts and home-building programs. Since leaving office, he’s raised his profile via social media and written widely publicized letters to world leaders. He’s also criticized government corruption, though his own administration faced graft allegations and two of his former vice presidents were jailed.
Khamenei warned Ahmadinejad in 2017 that his standing for office again would be a “polarized situation” that would be “harmful for the county.” Khamenei said nothing during Ahmadinejad’s 2021 attempt, when his candidacy was rejected by the 12-member Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists ultimately overseen by Khamenei. That panel has never accepted a woman or anyone calling for radical change to the country’s governance.
That panel could reject Ahmadinejad again. However, the race to replace Raisi has yet to draw a candidate with clear, overwhelming support from Khamenei.
Iran’s hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registers for June 28 presidential election
https://arab.news/wjakb
Iran’s hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registers for June 28 presidential election
Over 50,000 have fled Lebanon for Syria amid Israeli strikes: UN
- Filippo Grandi said “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon“
- A UNHCR spokesman said the total number of displaced in Lebanon had reached 211,319
GENEVA: The UN refugee chief said Saturday that more than 50,000 people had fled to Syria amid escalating Israeli air strikes on Lebanon.
“More than 50,000 Lebanese and Syrians living in Lebanon have now crossed into Syria fleeing Israeli air strikes,” Filippo Grandi said on X.
He added that “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon.”
A UNHCR spokesman said the total number of displaced in Lebanon had reached 211,319, including 118,000 just since Israel dramatically ramped up its air strikes on Monday.
The remainder had fled their homes since Hezbollah militants in Lebanon began low-intensity cross-border attacks a day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, triggering war in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed more than 700 people, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, as cross-border exchanges escalated over the past week.
Most of those Lebanese deaths came on Monday, the deadliest day of violence since Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
“Relief operations are underway, including by UNHCR, to help all those in need, in coordination with both governments,” Grandi said.
Israel army says Nasrallah’s death makes world safer
- “Nasrallah was one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time... his elimination makes the world a safer place,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said
- “We continue, even at this very moment, to strike, eliminate and kill the commanders of the Hezbollah organization “
JERUSALEM: Israel’s military said on Saturday that its killing of one its “greatest enemies” Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah made the world safer, while vowing to go after other senior members of his Iran-backed group.
“Nasrallah was one of the greatest enemies of the State of Israel of all time... his elimination makes the world a safer place,” military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told a televised briefing.
“We continue, even at this very moment, to strike, eliminate and kill the commanders of the Hezbollah organization, and we will continue to do so,” Hagari said of the Lebanese armed movement, an ally of Palestinian group Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, in a statement directed to the people of Lebanon, said: “Our war is not with you.”
“To our enemies I say: We are strong and determined,” Gallant added.
With tensions soaring since the deadly Friday strike on Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold that killed Nasrallah, Israeli authorities have announced new public safety regulations.
The military’s Home Front Command announced that gathering of more than 1,000 people would be banned in central Israel, far from the Lebanese border.
The change is likely to affect weekly demonstrations that have been taking place on Saturdays throughout the war in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, and other locations.
The anti-government protests have sought to highlight the plight of hostages held in the Gaza Strip since Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the ongoing war, urging the Israeli government to agree a truce and hostage release deal.
Yemen’s Houthis mourn slain Hezbollah chief, say resistance will not be broken
- “The resistance will not be broken,” the group said
- Both Hezbollah and the Houthis are part of the Axis of Resistance
CAIRO: The Houthi movement in Yemen on Saturday mourned the death of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, its ally in an Iran-backed alliance opposing Israel, in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut.
“The resistance will not be broken, and the Jihadist spirit of the Mujahideen brothers in Lebanon and on all fronts of support will grow stronger and bigger,” the group said in a statement.
Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s killing after the Israeli military said it had eliminated him in an airstrike in Beirut on Friday.
Both Hezbollah and the Houthis are part of the Axis of Resistance, an alliance built up over years of Iranian support against Israel and US influence in the Middle East.
The Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on ships they say are affiliated to Israel, in the crucial shipping channels of the Red Sea, the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden since November to show their support for Palestinians in the Gaza war.
The group, which controls northern Yemen, also fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly, some of which targeted central Israel for the first time.
Lebanese health minister says 11 killed, 108 injured on Friday
Beirut: A new Israeli strike hit a building in Hezbollah’s south Beirut bastion Saturday, a Lebanese security official told AFP, after Israel earlier said it killed group leader Hassan Nasrallah during intense bombardment.
“A new Israeli strike targeted Beirut’s southern suburbs,” the official said, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The strike hit the second and third floors of a building, the official said.
While Lebanese health minister said that 11 killed and 108 injured on Friday in Israeli strikes across Lebanon.
In addition to bombardment on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon’s south and east, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported Saturday Israeli strikes outside the group’s traditional bastions, including in the Keserwan area north of Beirut.
Earlier Saturday, Israel’s military announced Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut the previous night, but there was no confirmation from the Lebanese armed group.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel one day after Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.
But Israel has in recent days shifted the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon, where heavy bombing has killed hundreds and displaced around 118,000.
Continuing strikes on both sides of the border
On Saturday morning, the Israeli military carried out more than 140 airstrikes in southern Beirut and eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, including targeting a storage facility for anti-ship missiles in Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. Israel said the missiles were stored underground beneath civilian apartment buildings. Hezbollah launched dozens of projectiles across northern and central Israel and deep into the Israel-occupied West Bank, damaging some buildings in the northern town of Safed.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, smoke rose and the streets were empty after the area was pummeled overnight by heavy Israeli airstrikes. Shelters set up in the city center for displaced people were overflowing. Many families slept in public squares and beaches or in their cars. On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, hundreds of people could be seen making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.
At least 720 people have been killed in Lebanon over the past week from Israeli airstrikes, according to the Health Ministry.
Hamas says Nasrallah ‘assassination’ will only strengthen resistance
- “Crimes and assassination by the occupation will only increase the determination and the insistence of the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon to go forward,” Hamas said
- His death marks a heavy blow to Hezbollah as it reels from an escalating campaign of Israeli attacks
CAIRO: Palestinian militant group Hamas said on Saturday it mourned Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah following his killing in an Israeli airstrike, saying his death would only fuel the fight against Israel.
“Crimes and assassination by the occupation will only increase the determination and the insistence of the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon to go forward with all their might, bravery and pride on the footsteps of the martyrs...and pursue the path of resistance until victory and the dismissal of the occupation,” Hamas said in a statement.
His death marks a heavy blow to Hezbollah as it reels from an escalating campaign of Israeli attacks. It is also a huge blow to Iran, given the major role he has played in the Tehran-backed regional “Axis of Resistance.”
The ‘Axis of Resistance’ refers to groups including Hezbollah that are backed by Iran and have been waging attacks on Israel since war erupted between their ally Hamas and Israel on Oct. 7.
“We reaffirm our absolute solidarity and standing with the brothers in Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, who are taking part in the battle of the Al-Aqsa Flood to defend Al-Aqsa mosque, alongside our people and our resistance,” Hamas added.
Islamic Jihad, another Iranian-backed Palestinian group, said in a statement: “Sooner or later, the resistance forces in Lebanon, Palestine, and the region will make the enemy pay the price of its crimes, and taste defeat for what its sinful hands have done.”
Gaza has a population of 2.3 million people, most of whom have been internally displaced by the war, which has killed 41,500 of them, according to Gaza health authorities.
Israel and Hamas have been fighting since gunmen from the Palestinian militant group stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing some 250 hostages, by Israeli tallies.
Asked how Nasrallah’s death would affect the fight against Israel, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters: “The assassination of Hassan Nasrallah will not break the will of the resistance and we are confident that the occupation will lose the battle,” said Abu Zuhri.
