TUNIS: Tunisia’s highest court on Saturday ordered the electoral commission to reinstate two candidates for a presidential poll in October, warning that failure to do so could jeopardize the legitimacy of the election.
The move by the Administrative Court comes amid growing political tension in the North African country and fears from the opposition and civil society groups about a rigged election that would lead to President Kais Saied winning a second term.
Thousands of Tunisians took to the streets on Friday in the country’s biggest march in two years, protesting against restrictions on freedoms and the undemocratic electoral climate.
The protesters chanted slogans including “Out with dictator Saied.”
Tensions mounted after the electoral commission earlier this month rejected the court’s decision to restore the candidacy of Abdellaif Mekki, Mondher Znaidi and Imed Daimi ahead of the Oct.6 race, citing alleged irregularities in their candidacy filings.
Major parties and civil society groups said that the commission, whose members were appointed by the president himself, had became a tool in the hands of the president against his rivals.
The head of the commission Farouk Bouasker has denied the accusations and said that “the commission is the only constitutional body entrusted with the integrity of the election.”
But the court said on Saturday that the commission is obligated to implement its decision and, if necessary, to review the electoral calendar. It is not clear if this means postponing the election or extending the campaign timeframe.
“Otherwise it would lead to an illegal situation that conflicts with the electoral law and the transparency of the electoral process,” it said.
The court asked Znaidi and Mekki to be included in the race, after they filed a new complaint against the commission’s decision. The third candidate, Daimi, has not filed a second appeal yet.
Saied was democratically elected in 2019, but then tightened his grip on power and began ruling by decree in 2021 in a move the opposition has described as a coup.
Tunisian court orders electoral commission to reinstate presidential candidates
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Tunisian court orders electoral commission to reinstate presidential candidates
- The move by the Administrative Court comes amid growing political tension in the North African country
- Thousands of Tunisians took to the streets on Friday in the country’s biggest march in two years
Two children among 12 dead in Lebanon pager blasts: minister
Hundreds of the wireless devices exploded simultaneously across Lebanon on Tuesday, hours after Israel said it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hamas ally Hezbollah.
Israel has yet to comment on the unprecedented attacks.
On Wednesday, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said 12 people were killed and between 2,750 and 2,800 others were wounded, revising the tolls up from nine dead.
“After checking with all the hospitals,” the toll was revised to “12 dead including two children,” Abiad told a news conference.
The dead included a girl and a boy as well as four health workers from private hospitals in Beirut’s southern suburbs, he said.
The pagers went off in the Iran-backed Hezbollah group’s main strongholds of southern Beirut and Lebanon’s east and south.
Some cases in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley were transferred to Syria, while other cases would be evacuated to Iran, he added.
About 750 wounded people were in the south, about 150 were in the Bekaa Valley and some 1,850 were in the Beirut and its southern suburbs, he said.
Iran accuses Israel of ‘mass murder’ after pager explosions
- Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani was among the wounded
- Iranian Red Crescent dispatches “rescue teams and eye surgeons” to Lebanon to treat the wounded
TEHRAN: Iran accused Israel on Wednesday of “mass murder” after paging devices belonging to the Tehran-aligned Hezbollah group in Lebanon exploded, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others.
Foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement he “condemned the terrorist act of the Zionist regime... as an example of mass murder.”
Among those wounded in the pager blasts on Tuesday was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani, with Iranian media reporting he suffered injuries “to the hand and the face.”
State television said that Amani was only lightly injured.
The Iranian Red Crescent said on Wednesday it had dispatched “rescue teams and eye surgeons” to Lebanon to treat the wounded.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the wave of explosions that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around 2,800 others.
The blasts came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks to include its fight against the group’s ally Hezbollah along the country’s border with Lebanon.
In his statement, Kanani expressed solidarity with the families of those killed and wounded in the explosions including the Iranian ambassador.
“Combating the terrorist acts of the (Israeli) regime and the threats arising from them is an obvious necessity,” said Kanani.
“It is necessary for the international community to act quickly in order to counter the impunity of the Zionist criminal authorities.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah swears in new government led by Jaafar Hassan
- The reformist government was tasked with accelerating IMF-backed reforms and pushing through political and economic modernisation plans
- Under the new government, Ayman Safadi will serve as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and expatriates
AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Wednesday swore in a new government led by Jaafar Hassan as prime minister and minister of defense, state news agency PETRA reported.
The reformist government was tasked with accelerating IMF-backed reforms and pushing through political and economic modernisation plans.
Under the new government, Ayman Safadi will serve as deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs and expatriates.
Earlier this week, Bisher Khasawneh’s government submitted the resignation of his government to King Abdullah II after parliamentary elections saw some gains for the Islamist opposition.
Hassan, a widely respected technocrat, replaced veteran diplomat and former palace advisor Al-Khasawneh, who is considered the longest-serving prime minister during King Abdullah II's reign.
The new prime minister was Jordan’s former planning minster. He recieved his education at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is also the head of King Abdullah's office.
Hezbollah vows to punish Israel after deadly pager blasts
- The attack came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks
- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will make a previously unscheduled speech at 5:00 p.m.
Beirut, Lebanon: Hezbollah vowed on Wednesday to punish Israel for a deadly attack in which hundreds of paging devices used by the militant group’s members exploded almost simultaneously across Lebanon.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the wave of explosions that killed nine people, including the 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member, and wounded around 2,800 others.
The attack came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks to include its fight against the Palestinian militant group’s ally Hezbollah along the country’s border with Lebanon.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression,” the group said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that Israel “will certainly receive its just punishment for this sinful aggression.”
On Wednesday, the group vowed in another statement on Telegram it would continue its fight in support of Gaza while reiterating it would avenge Tuesday’s blasts.
“This path is ongoing and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday,” the group said in a statement on Telegram.
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah will make a previously unscheduled speech at 5:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday, the group said.
The wave of blasts killed nine people, including a girl, and wounded 2,800 others, 200 of them critically, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said Tuesday.
“This was more than lithium batteries being forced into override,” said Charles Lister of the Middle East Institute.
“A small plastic explosive was almost certainly concealed alongside the battery, for remote detonation via a call or page.”
Israel’s spy agency “Mossad infiltrated the supply chain,” he said.
The influx of so many casualties all at once overwhelmed hospitals in Hezbollah strongholds.
At one hospital in Beirut’s southern suburbs, an AFP correspondent saw people being treated in a car park on thin mattresses, with medical gloves on the ground and ambulance stretchers covered in blood.
“In all my life I’ve never seen someone walking on the street... and then explode,” said Musa, a resident of the southern suburbs, requesting to be identified only by his first name.
The 10-year-old daughter of a Hezbollah member was killed in east Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley when his pager exploded, the family and a source close to the group said.
A son of Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar was also among the dead, a source close to the group told AFP, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Tehran’s ambassador in Beirut was wounded but his injuries were not serious, Iranian state media reported.
The blasts hit Hezbollah strongholds across Lebanon and dealt a heavy blow to the militant group, which already had concerns about the security of its communications after losing several key commanders to targeted air strikes in recent months.
A source close to Hezbollah, asking not to be identified, told AFP that “the pagers that exploded concern a shipment recently imported by Hezbollah of 1,000 devices” which appear to have been “sabotaged at source.”
After The New York Times reported the pagers had been ordered from Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, the company denied any link to the products.
Early Tuesday, Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the Gaza war to include its fight against Hezbollah along its border with Lebanon.
To date, Israel’s objectives have been to crush Hamas and bring home the hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attacks.
“The political-security cabinet updated the goals of the war” to include “the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Since October, the unabating exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon have killed hundreds of mostly fighters in Lebanon, and dozens including soldiers on the Israeli side.
They have also forced tens of thousands of people on both sides of the border to flee their homes.
On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that failing a political solution, “military action” would be “the only way left to ensure the return” of displaced residents to the border area.
Major airlines Lufthansa and Air France on Tuesday announced suspensions of flights to Tel Aviv, Tehran and Beirut until Thursday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived back in the region at dawn on Wednesday to try to revive stalled ceasefire talks for the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
After months of mediated negotiations failed to pin down a ceasefire, Washington said it was still working with mediators Qatar and Egypt to finalize an agreement.
US officials have expressed increasing frustration with Israel as Netanyahu has publicly rejected US assessments that a deal is nearly complete and has insisted on an Israeli military presence on the Egypt-Gaza border.
The October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,252 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
On Tuesday, UN member states were debating a draft resolution demanding an end to the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian territories within 12 months.
General Assembly resolutions are not binding, but Israel has already denounced the new text as “disgraceful.”
The UN will vote on a Palestinian resolution demanding Israel end its occupation
- The resolution is being put to a vote in the 193-member assembly as Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza approaches its first anniversary
UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly will vote Wednesday on a Palestinian resolution demanding that Israel end its “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within a year, withdraw its military forces and evacuate all settlers.
The resolution is being put to a vote in the 193-member assembly as Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza approaches its first anniversary and as violence in the West Bank reaches new highs. The war was triggered by Hamas attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, opened the assembly meeting Tuesday by saying Palestinians face an “existential threat” and claiming Israel has held them “in shackles.” He demanded an end to Israel’s decades-long occupation and for Palestinians to be able to return home to live in peace and freedom.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, urged member nations to reject the resolution, describing it as “an attempt to destroy Israel through diplomatic terrorism” that never mentions Hamas’ atrocities and “ignores the truth, twists the facts and replaces reality with fiction.”
“Instead of a resolution condemning the rape and massacre committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, we gather here to watch the Palestinians’ UN circus — a circus where evil is righteous, war is peace, murder is justified and terror is applauded,” he said.
If adopted, the resolution would not be legally binding, but the extent of its support would reflect world opinion. There are no vetoes in the General Assembly, unlike in the 15-member Security Council.
The resolution is a response to a ruling by the top United Nations court in July that said Israel’s presence in the Palestinian territories is unlawful and must end.
In the sweeping condemnation of Israel’s rule over the lands it captured during the 1967 war, the International Court of Justice said Israel had no right to sovereignty over the Palestinian territories and was violating international laws against acquiring the lands by force.
The court’s opinion also is not legally binding. Nonetheless, the Palestinians drafted the resolution to try to implement the ruling, saying Israel’s “abuse of its status as the occupying power” renders its “presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.”
Mansour stressed that any country that thinks the Palestinian people “will accept a life of servitude” or that claims peace is possible without a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “not being realistic.”
The solution remains an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side in peace and security with Israel, he said.
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield told reporters that the resolution has “a significant number of flaws,” saying it goes beyond the ICJ ruling. It also doesn’t recognize that “Hamas is a terrorist organization” in control of Gaza and that Israel has a right to defend itself, she said.
“In our view, the resolution does not bring about tangible benefits across the board for the Palestinian people,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “I think it could complicate the situation on the ground, complicate what we’re trying to do to end the conflict, and I think it impedes reinvigorating steps toward a two-state solution.”
The resolution calls for Israel to pay reparations to Palestinians for the damage caused by its occupation and urges countries to take steps to prevent trade or investments that maintain Israel’s presence in the territories.
It also demands that Israel be held accountable for any violations of international law, that sanctions be imposed on those responsible for maintaining Israel’s presence in the territories, and for countries to halt arms exports to Israel if they’re suspected of being used there.
Mansour said an initial Palestinian draft demanded Israel end its occupation within six months but that it was revised in response to concerns of some countries to increase the time frame to within a year.
Most likely, he said, Israel won’t pay attention to the resolution.
