TEHRAN: Iran’s hard-line parliament on Wednesday approved all members of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian’s Cabinet, the first time in over two decades a leader has been able to get all of his officials through the body.
The approval marks an early win for Pezeshkian, a longtime lawmaker who found himself catapulted into the presidency after a helicopter crash in May killed his hard-line predecessor.
Getting his officials approved shows Pezeshkian picked a Cabinet of consensus with names palatable to all of the power centers within Iran’s theocracy, as opposed to going for controversial choices as well.
Underlining that point, Pezeshkian immediately posted an image online with him standing next to Iran’s judiciary chief, a Shiite cleric, and the country’s parliament speaker, a hard-liner he once faced in the election.
“Consensus for Iran,” he wrote in the caption.
Former Foreign Minister Mohamamad Javad Zarif, who campaigned for Pezeshkian in his election, later resigned as a vice president for the new leader over the Cabinet selections.
Among those in Pezeshkian’s new Cabinet is Abbas Araghchi, 61, a career diplomat who will be Iran’s new foreign minister.
Araghchi was a member of the Iranian negotiating team that reached a nuclear deal with world powers in 2015 that capped Tehran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of sanctions.
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal and imposed more sanctions on Iran. Pezeshkian said during his presidential campaign that he would try to revive the nuclear deal.
The candidate who received the most support from lawmakers was the country’s new defense minister, Aziz Nasirzadeh, who received 281 votes out of 288 present lawmakers. The chamber has 290 seats.
Nasirzadeh was chief of the Iranian air force from 2018 to 2021.
Health Minister Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi received the lowest number of votes with 163.
The only female minister proposed, Housing and Road Minister Farzaneh Sadegh, a 47-year-old architect, received 231 votes. She is the first female minister in Iran in more than a decade.
The parliament also approved Pezeshkian’s proposed Intelligence Minister Ismail Khatib, as well as Justice Minister Amin Hossein Rahimi, both of whom served under the late President Ebrahim Raisi. Pezeshkian also put Raisi’s minister of industries, Abbas Aliabadi, in the post of energy minister.
Dropping proposed ministers has been a tradition in Iran’s parliament, making Pezeshkian’s success that much more striking. Former reformist President Mohammad Khatami was the only president who received vote of confidence for all of his proposed ministers in both 1997 and 2001.
Iran’s hard-line parliament approves all members of president’s Cabinet, first time since 2001
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Iran’s hard-line parliament approves all members of president’s Cabinet, first time since 2001
Saudi Arabia strongly condemns intrusion by Netanyahu into Palestinian Jordan Valley
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs says such violations harm efforts to ease tensions in the region and to provide protection for Palestinian civilians
- It also renews call for the international community to fully live up to its responsibility to do all it can to halt Israeli aggression
JEDDAH: The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned what it described as a blatant Israeli intrusion by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into a Palestinian-controlled area of the Jordan Valley.
It said the incident was a provocative action carried out with the aim of expanding Israeli settlement activity that violates international law and resolutions designed to prevent such actions, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu, accompanied by Israeli army commanders, visited part of the valley close to the border with Jordan and announced his intention to build a wall along the border to prevent what he described as attempts to smuggle weapons and fighters into the West Bank and Israel. It is a revival of a project initially proposed by Israeli authorities about 20 years ago.
The ministry said such violations harm efforts to ease tensions in the region and to provide protection for civilians in the Palestinian territories.
It reiterated the important need for an end to Israel’s aggression in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the territory, the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes, and increased flows of humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.
The ministry also renewed its call for the international community to fully live up to its responsibility to do all it can to halt all Israeli aggression against Palestinians and their territories, and stressed the need for mechanisms to ensure accountability for actions in Gaza and to help end actions by Israeli authorities that threaten security and undermine peace efforts in the region.
Trump rules out new Harris debate as swing state fight resumes
CHARLOTTE: Donald Trump said Thursday he would not take part in another debate with Kamala Harris, as the White House rivals headed back to battleground states that are set to decide a nail-bitingly close US presidential election.
The Republican former president lashed out two days after his first televised clash with the Democratic vice president, when Harris put Trump on the defensive and got under his skin with a series of barbs.
“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” the 78-year-old wrote on his Truth Social platform, including in his tally the earlier debate with Joe Biden in June that drove the incumbent out of the race, and his Tuesday showdown with Harris.
Trump claimed that “polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris” — despite several snap surveys that showed Harris came out well on top in the clash viewed by more than 67 million Americans.
In a rally in the key swing state of North Carolina, Harris insisted that they should debate again before the November 5 election. It wasn’t clear if she was aware of Trump’s statement.
“Two nights ago Donald Trump and I had our first debate and I believe we owe it to the voters to have another,” Harris said to cheers from supporters in the city of Charlotte.
“Because this election and what is at stake could not be more important,” added the Democrat, who heads to a second rally in Greensboro, North Carolina later on Thursday.
The 59-year-old went on to reference several Trump statements on issues including abortion and his widely mocked assertion that he had “concepts of a plan” to reform the US health care system.
The Harris campaign said earlier that she was entering a “more aggressive” phase of her White House bid and was “seeking to capitalize on her decisive debate victory and build on momentum.”
Trump was taking the stage later Thursday in Tucson, Arizona, amid media reports of turmoil in his camp over the way Harris succeeded in goading him into angry responses.
He will focus on “our struggling economy and the rising cost of housing,” his campaign said — indicating an attempt to get Trump to stick to mainstream voter concerns, rather than his penchant for wild conspiracy theories and lobbing of insults.
Trump and Harris remain neck and neck in the polls with just 54 days until the election, with the result expected to hinge on a few thousand voters in half a dozen swing states including North Carolina and Arizona.
Harris has erased Trump’s lead since Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21 but insists she is the underdog in perhaps the shortest and most dramatic campaign in US political history.
The election is also further stoking political tensions in an already deeply polarized nation.
The White House on Thursday condemned a false story about migrants eating pet cats and dogs in Ohio — which Trump pushed during the debate — as “filth” and said it put “lives in danger.”
The US government has meanwhile declared the formal electoral count on January 6, 2025 a “special security event” — amid apparent fears of a repeat of the storming of the US Capitol in 2021 by Trump supporters who refused to accept his defeat by Biden.
The announcement came as Republican Alberto Gonzales, who was attorney general under president George W. Bush, said he backed Harris because of Trump’s behavior on that day made him a threat to the rule of law.
Trump and Harris though have their eyes firmly fixed on the battlegrounds.
Harris returns to pivotal Pennsylvania on Friday for campaign events in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre before attending an awards dinner Saturday with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Trump will deliver remarks in Las Vegas on Friday on the cost of living, as he targets Nevada, yet another key swing state.
Harris’s running mate Tim Walz will travel to Michigan and Wisconsin from Thursday to Saturday as part of the campaign’s New Way Forward swing state tour.
Colombia seeks information on ‘mercenaries’ held in Russia
BOGOTA: Colombia’s government said Thursday it had asked Russia for information about the welfare of three of its nationals held by Moscow on suspicion of acting as mercenaries in Ukraine.
Two of the soldiers who had allegedly been fighting on the side of Ukraine reportedly disappeared in July while on their way home through Venezuela, a close ally of Moscow.
In late August, a court in Moscow said the two men — Alexander Ante and Jose Aron Medina — had been remanded in custody on charges of acting as mercenaries, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison in Russia.
The foreign ministry in Bogota said Thursday it had written to Moscow “seeking information on the legal status, current whereabouts and health status of the Colombian citizens.”
It said a third Colombian named Miguel Angel Cardenas was also being held.
The disappearance of Aron and Ante first became public in late July, when Aron’s family told Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper the two had disappeared just before they were due to board a plane at Caracas airport for Bogota on July 19.
The next time they saw the pair was in a video released by Russia’s FSB security services on July 30, which showed them in Ukrainian uniforms, and then being interrogated in prison.
It was not clear how they had arrived in Russia, which is one of the few countries to have recognized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s claim to have won a second presidential term in disputed July elections.
Venezuela’s opposition claims their candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was the rightful winner, a claim backed by several Latin American countries, the United States and the European Union.
A friend of Ante’s family told El Tiempo the men were in Ukrainian uniform when they went missing in Venezuela, which borders Colombia.
Colombia, where the security forces have been combatting guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug cartels for over six decades, has one of Latin America’s largest armies.
Some retired soldiers have gone on to fight as mercenaries in foreign battlefields, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since 2022, an unknown number has also enlisted with the Ukrainian army, trying to fight off a Russian invasion.
The relatives of several ex-Colombian soldiers have reported their loved ones killed, wounded or going missing in Ukraine recently.
Last month, leftist President Gustavo Petro’s administration tabled a bill in parliament to ban the training, financing and recruitment of mercenaries in the country.
Three police killed in Iran, jihadists claim responsibility
TEHRAN: Three police officers were killed Thursday in southeastern Iran in an attack claimed by a jihadist group that is active in the region, the country’s official news agency said.
“Three members of the police forces were killed and a civilian injured in an attack carried out by armed criminals in Mirjaveh in Sistan and Baluchestan province,” the IRNA news agency said.
Sistan and Baluchestan, one of the poorest regions in Iran, is mostly inhabited by the minority Baloch community, who largely practice Sunni Islam in a country where the theocratic government is staunchly Shiite.
The officers were attacked at a petrol station, IRNA said.
The Pakistani-based Sunni jihadist group Jaish Al-Adl, which means Army of Justice in Arabic, claimed responsibility for the attack in a post on Telegram.
The same group claimed responsibility for an attack last month that killed the head of the criminal investigation department in the city of Khash in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Jaish Al-Adl also claimed two attacks in April in the region that saw 10 members of the security forces killed.
Alvarez aims to stop knockout artist Berlanga in latest title defense
LOS ANGELES: Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez aims to turn the tables on knockout artist Edgar Berlanga on Saturday, saying he’ll be looking for a knockout himself as he defends his three super middleweight world boxing titles in Las Vegas.
“It’s easy to say you’ll knock me out, but it’s much more difficult to do it,” said Alvarez, who puts his World Boxing Association, World Boxing Council and World Boxing Organization belts on the line against the top rated WBA contender in the 168-pound division.
Alvarez was stripped of his International Boxing Federation belt in July when he opted to take on Berlanga rather than IBF mandatory challenger William Scull.
“Saturday night is going to be very difficult for him, for sure. I’ve prepared for the knockout. I love the feeling of a knockout. I’m going to do my best to get it done.”
Alvarez, 34, brings a record of 61-2-2 with 39 knockouts into what promises to be an explosive confrontation at T-Mobile Arena, where he continues his tradition of fighting on the Mexican Independence Day weekend.
“It’s going to be a firefight,” promised Puerto Rico-born American Berlanga. “I’m going to make everyone a believer.”
Berlanga burst onto the professional scene, winning his first 16 fights by knockout.
Five unanimous decision victories followed before he delivered a brutal sixth-round technical knockout of Padraig McCrory in February to take his record to 22-0 with 17 knockouts.
The 27-year-old says he can do it again against the vastly experienced champion.
“I’m a knockout artist,” he said. “Every fighter wants the knockout. We know that he’s a legend and we can’t just go swing for the fences.
“We have to do it the right way. Sixth-round knockout, that’s what we’re going for. But we’re ready for all 12 rounds if we have to.”
Alvarez has delivered some highlight reel knockouts in a career that has seen him win titles in four divisions.
But his last win inside the distance was an 11th-round technical knockout of Caleb Plant in 2021.
Since losing to Dmitry Bivol in May 2022 in an ill-fated step up to light heavyweight Alvarez has notched four unanimous decision victories, the most recent over compatriot Jaime Munguia in May — his fourth defense of the undisputed world title.
Alvarez was dominant if not dazzling against Munguia, weathering an early storm before taking control in the middle rounds and dropping him once on the way to handing him his first defeat.
With the build up to every fight now featuring questions about his future, Alvarez said he doesn’t feel himself slowing down.
“I just want to show everyone that I’m still the best,” he said. “I still love this sport. When I stop loving it, you’ll know.”
On the undercard, World Boxing Association middleweight champion Erislandy Lara will defend his title against fellow American Danny Garcia — a former welterweight and light welterweight world champ — in an intriguing matchup that many would have liked to see sooner.
Cuban-born southpaw Lara, 41, returned from a near two-year hiatus in March to knock out Australian Michael Zerafa in spectacular style and retain his belt, improving to 30-3-3 with 18 wins inside the distance.
The 36-year-old Garcia will be fighting for the first time since a majority decision victory over Jose Benavidez in a super welterweight bout in July of 2022.
That victory took Garcia’s record to 37-3 with 21 knockouts.
