Iran’s Guardian Council allows 6 candidates to seek presidency, bars former president Ahmadinejad
Iran’s Guardian Council allows 6 candidates to seek presidency, bars former president Ahmadinejad/node/2526891/middle-east
Iran’s Guardian Council allows 6 candidates to seek presidency, bars former president Ahmadinejad
Update
Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a firebrand populist known for the crackdown that followed his disputed 2009 re-election, was not given a go signal in his presidential candidacy. (AFP)
Iran’s Guardian Council allows 6 candidates to seek presidency, bars former president Ahmadinejad
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a firebrand populist known for the crackdown that followed his disputed 2009 re-election, excluded from list
Updated 09 June 2024
AP
DUBAI: Iran’s Guardian Council on Sunday approved the country’s hard-line parliament speaker and five others to run in the country’s June 28 presidential election following a helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others.
The council again barred former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a firebrand populist known for the crackdown that followed his disputed 2009 re-election, from running.
The council’s decision represents the starting gun for a shortened, two-week campaign to replace Raisi, a hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once floated as a possible successor for the 85-year-old cleric.
The selection of candidates approved by the Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists ultimately overseen by Khamenei, suggests Iran’s Shiite theocracy hopes to ease the election through after recent votes saw record-low turnout and as tensions remain high over the country’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, as well as the Israel-Hamas war.
The Guardian Council also continued its streak of not accepting a woman or anyone calling for radical change to the country’s governance.
The campaign likely will include live, televised debates by the candidates on Iran’s state-run broadcaster. They also advertise on billboards and offer stump speeches to back their bids.
So far, none of them has offered any specifics, though all have promised a better economic situation for the country as it suffers from sanctions by the US and other Western nations over its nuclear program, which now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
Such matters of state remain the final decision of Khamenei, but presidents in the past have leaned either toward engagement or confrontation with the West over it.
The most prominent candidate remains Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf, 62, a former Tehran mayor with close ties to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. However, many remember that Qalibaf, as a former Guard general, was part of a violent crackdown on Iranian university students in 1999. He also reportedly ordered live gunfire to be used against students in 2003 while serving as the country’s police chief.
Qalibaf ran unsuccessfully for president in 2005 and 2013. He withdrew from the 2017 presidential campaign to support Raisi in his first failed presidential bid. Raisi won the 2021 election, which had the lowest turnout ever for a presidential vote in Iran, after every major opponent found themselves disqualified.
Khamenei gave a speech last week alluding to qualities that Qalibaf’s supporters have highlighted as potentially signaling the supreme leader’s support for the speaker.
Yet Qalibaf’s role in crackdowns may be viewed differently after years of unrest that have gripped Iran, both over its ailing economy and the mass protests sparked by the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who died after being arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf, or hijab, to the liking of security forces.
The Guardian Council disqualified Ahmadinejad, the firebrand, Holocaust-questioning former president. Ahmadinejad increasingly challenged Khamenei toward the end of his term and is remembered for the bloody crackdown on the 2009 Green Movement protests. He was also disqualified in the last election by the panel.
The election comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over its arming of Russia in that country’s war on Ukraine. Its support of militia proxy forces throughout the wider Middle East has been increasingly in the spotlight as Yemen’s Houthi rebels attack ships in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
Raisi, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others were killed in the May 19 helicopter crash in the far northwest of Iran. Investigations are continuing, though authorities say there’s no immediate sign of foul play in the crash on a cloud-covered mountainside.
Raisi is the second Iranian president to die in office. In 1981, a bomb blast killed President Mohammad Ali Rajai in the chaotic days after the country’s Islamic Revolution.
Israeli troops fire warning shots as Palestinians overwhelm new Gaza food center
The UN and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new system, saying it won’t be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people
Updated 28 May 2025
AP
MUWASI, Gaza Strip: Chaos erupted on the second day of aid operations by a new US-backed group in Gaza as desperate Palestinians overwhelmed a center distributing food on Tuesday, breaking through fences. Nearby Israeli troops fired warning shots, sending people fleeing in panic.
An AP journalist heard Israeli tank and gunfire and saw a military helicopter firing flares. The Israeli military said its troops fired the warning shots in the area outside the center and that “control over the situation was established.”
At least three injured Palestinians were seen by The Associated Press being brought from the scene, one of them bleeding from his leg.
The distribution hub outside Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah had been opened the day before by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been slated by Israel to take over aid operations. The UN and other humanitarian organizations have rejected the new system, saying it won’t be able to meet the needs of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and allows Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population. They have also warned of the risk of friction between Israeli troops and people seeking supplies.
Palestinians have become desperate for food after nearly three months of Israeli blockade pushed Gaza to the brink of famine. Palestinians walk miles for food, finding chaos
Palestinians at the scene told AP that small numbers of people made their way to the GHF center Tuesday morning and received food boxes. As word spread, large numbers of men, women and children walked for several miles from the sprawling tent camps along Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. To reach the hub, they had to pass through nearby Israeli military positions.
By the afternoon, hundreds of thousands were massed at the hub. Videos show the crowds funneled in long lines through chain-link fence passages. Two people said each person was searched and had their faces scanned for identification before being allowed to receive the boxes. Crowds swelled and turmoil erupted, with people tearing down fences and grabbing boxes. The staff at the site were forced to flee, they said.
The AP journalist positioned some distance away heard gunfire and rounds of tank fire. Smoke could be seen rising from where one round impacted. He saw a military helicopter overhead firing flares.
“There was no order, the people rushed to take, there was shooting, and we fled,” said Hosni Abu Amra, who had been waiting to receive aid. “We fled without taking anything that would help us get through this hunger.”
“It was chaos,” said Ahmed Abu Taha, who said he heard gunfire and saw Israeli military aircraft overhead. “People were panicked.”
Crowds were seen running from the site. A few managed to secure aid boxes — containing basic items like sugar, flour, pasta and tahini — but the vast majority left empty-handed. US-backed group says they ‘fell back’ to ensure safety
In a statement, GHF said that because of the large number of Palestinians seeking aid, staff at the hub followed the group’s safety protocols and “fell back” to allow them to dissipate, then later resumed operations.
A spokesperson for the group told the AP that no shots were fired from GHF. Speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the group’s rules, the spokesperson said the protocols aim at “avoiding loss of life, which is exactly what happened.”
GHF uses armed private contractors to guard the hubs and the transportation of supplies. The hub is also close to Israeli military positions in the Morag Corridor, a band of territory across the breadth of Gaza that divides Rafah from the rest of the territory.
GHF has set up four hubs around Gaza to distribute food, two of which began operating on Monday — both of them in the Rafah area.
The UN and other humanitarian groups have refused to participate in GHF’s system, saying it violates humanitarian principles. They say it can be used by Israel to forcibly displace the population by requiring them to move near the few distribution hubs or else face starvation – a violation of international law. They have also opposed the use of facial recognition to vet recipients.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday commented on the turmoil at the Rafah center, saying, “There was some loss of control momentarily … happily we brought it under control.”
He repeated that Israel plans to move Gaza’s entire population to a “sterile zone” at the southern end of the territory while troops fight Hamas elsewhere. UN says it has been struggling to transport aid
Israel has said the new system is necessary because it claims Hamas has been siphoning off supplies that reach Gaza. The UN has denied that any significant diversion takes place.
Throughout the war, the UN and other aid groups have conducted a massive operation distributing food, medicine and other supplies to wherever Palestinians are located. Israel says GHF will replace that network, but the past week has allowed a trickle of aid to enter Gaza for the UN to distribute.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of coordinating aid, said on Tuesday that 400 trucks of supplies, mainly food, was waiting on the Gaza side of the main crossing from Israel, but that the UN had not collected them. It said Israel has extended the times for collection and expanded the routes that the UN can use inside Gaza.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office OCHA, told reporters in Geneva that agencies have struggled to pick up the supplies “because of the insecure routes that are being assigned to us by the Israeli authorities to use.” He said the amount of aid allowed the past week was “vastly insufficient.”
Israeli strike on south Lebanon kills one: ministry
The ministry said an “Israeli enemy strike” on a motorcycle killed one man in Yater
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack
Updated 27 May 2025
AFP
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike on south Lebanon killed one man on Tuesday, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
In a statement, the ministry said an “Israeli enemy strike” on a motorcycle killed one man in Yater, in south Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack, which came after it said it killed a Hezbollah member in south Lebanon’s Majdal Zoun on Monday.
Israel has continued to launch strikes on its northern neighbor despite the November truce that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, including two months of full-blown war.
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal, only UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese army should be deployed in southern Lebanon, though Israel has kept its forces in five areas it has declared strategic.
Lebanon has called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its attacks and withdraw all its troops.
UN says it has no information over Gaza aid group deliveries
Updated 33 sec ago
AFP
GENEVA: The United Nations said on Tuesday it had no information on whether the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed aid group, had actually delivered any supplies inside the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
The little-known group, which has stirred controversy since surfacing in early May, announced on Monday it had begun distributing truckloads of food in the Gaza Strip.
But officials from the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, and UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said they were unaware whether any aid had actually been distributed.
The UN and international aid agencies have said they will not cooperate with the GHF, amid accusations it is working with Israel without any Palestinian involvement.
“It is a distraction from what is actually needed, which is a reopening of all the crossings in to Gaza; a secure environment within Gaza; and faster facilitation of permissions and final approvals of all the emergency supplies that we have just outside the border that need to get in,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told a press briefing in Geneva.
UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told journalists aid to Gaza was still “very, very far” from what was needed: a minimum of 500 to 600 trucks per day loaded with food, medical aid, fuel, water and other basic supplies, she said, speaking via video-link from Amman.
Israel, which recently stepped up its offensive against militant group Hamas, drew international condemnation after implementing a blockade on March 2 that has sparked severe food and medical shortages.
Humanitarian aid has begun trickling back into Gaza in recent days after Israel lifted the 11-week blockade.
Touma said no UNRWA supplies had gone in since March 2, while Laerke said he had no information on how many UN trucks had passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the last 24 hours, partly because Israel does not allow them to have a fixed presence there.
Israeli forces raid foreign exchange stores across West Bank
One killed, eight other people were injured by Israeli forces during a raid in Nablus
Updated 27 May 2025
AFP
RAMALLAH: Israeli forces raided foreign exchange stores in several West Bank cities including Ramallah and Nablus on Tuesday, accusing their parent company of “connections with terrorist organizations,” according to an army closure notice.
“Israeli forces are taking action against Al-Khaleej Exchange Company due to its connections with terrorist organizations,” a leaflet left at the company’s Ramallah location read.
An AFP journalist present at the scene reported several army vehicles at the store’s entrance while soldiers came out carrying items covered by a cloth.
Two army vehicles escorted one of the store’s employees away from the premises.
In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli forces raided a second foreign exchange store belonging to the Al-Khaleej company, as well as a gold store, according to another AFP journalist.
Some Palestinian residents of Nablus were seen clashing with the army during the raid, throwing objects at troops.
The Ramallah-based Ministry of Health said one man was killed and eight other people were injured by Israeli forces’ live ammunition during a raid in Nablus on Tuesday.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated 20 people for tear gas inhalation and three others who were injured by rubber bullets.
The Palestinian movement Hamas condemned the raids on foreign exchange shops.
“These assaults on economic institutions, accompanied by the looting of large sums of money and the confiscation of property, are an extension of the piracy policies adopted by the (Israeli) government,” the group said in a statement, adding that the targeted companies were “operating within the law.”
Can Lebanon succeed in disarming Hezbollah when Israeli troops still hold territory?
Lebanese army says it has dismantled more than 90 percent of Hezbollah’s infrastructure south of the Litani River
Updated 27 May 2025
ANAN TELLO
LONDON: Lebanon’s armed forces say they have taken control of several villages near the border with Israel that had long been held by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. But behind these official declarations is a more complicated reality — and a fragile peace that may not hold.
On April 30, the Lebanese army announced it had dismantled more than 90 percent of Hezbollah’s military infrastructure south of the Litani River, near the Israeli border. The operation followed a ceasefire in late November between Israel and the militia.
That same day, President Joseph Aoun told Sky News Arabia that the army had deployed across 85 percent of southern Lebanon.
Residents walk amid the rubble of destroyed buldings as they return to the southern Lebanese village of Meis Al-Jabal. (AFP)
He emphasized that efforts to remove weapons not under state control were taking place nationwide, although the “priority is the southern part of the country” — Hezbollah’s stronghold.
“The army, despite its limited resources, is deployed across the entire Lebanese territory, inside the country as well as at the east, north, northeast, and south borders,” Aoun said.
About two weeks later, at the Arab League Summit in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam reaffirmed Lebanon’s commitment to implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701 — the framework for the current truce.
But enforcing that commitment comes with its own set of challenges.
“The president and prime minister’s affirmation of Lebanon’s monopoly on force is a step in the right direction,” Fadi Nicholas Nassar, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Arab News. “But its promise fades the moment Hezbollah’s open defiance goes unchallenged.”
He said the ceasefire offered a prime opportunity to disarm Hezbollah, which continues to resist full disarmament during Israel’s ongoing occupation of parts of Lebanon.
Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese village of Khiam. (AFP)
“The ceasefire agreement that ended the war must be framed, not as a de-escalation, but as a decisive window for Lebanon to complete Hezbollah’s disarmament — anything less risks another military confrontation Lebanon cannot afford,” he added.
Israel continues to occupy five hilltop positions it deems strategic, despite a Feb. 18 deadline for withdrawal. Aoun said this has prevented the Lebanese army from fully deploying along the border.
Aoun said Lebanon had asked the US and France, the ceasefire’s guarantors, to pressure Israel to pull out. In a recent interview with Egyptian channel ON E, he said Israel’s occupation of the five sites is a major obstacle to border control.
“We are in constant contact with the US to urge it to pressure Israel,” he said, stressing that Lebanon is seeking a durable truce — not normalization of ties.
While Hezbollah has avoided further escalation, its deputy leader Naim Qassem said in February that Israel must withdraw completely, saying “there is no pretext for five points nor other details.”
“Hezbollah has taken serious hits,” Nassar said. “It’s lost much of its arsenal and key figures in its leadership, both vital to its ability to adapt and survive.”
UN peacekeepers drive in vehicles of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) past destroyed buildings while patroling in Lebanon's southern village of Kfar Kila. (AFP)
Despite this, “it’s still a disciplined, ideologically driven force that can threaten to derail the progress unfolding across the Levant,” he added.
The recent conflict was triggered by the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage. After Israel retaliated by launching airstrikes and ground incursions against Gaza, Hezbollah began rocket attacks on Israel from the north.
By autumn 2024, the cross-border exchanges had escalated into full-scale war. Over the course of the conflict, Israeli airstrikes killed more than 3,800 Lebanese, injured about 15,700, and displaced nearly 1 million, according to Lebanese health authorities.
The World Bank put Lebanon’s economic losses at $14 billion. Hezbollah, meanwhile, suffered heavy losses to its leadership, fighters, weapons, and public support.
Children hold the Lebanese flag amidst rubble of a destroyed building after families returned with the Lebanese army to the southern village of Marwahin. (AFP)
A ceasefire was reached on Nov. 27, brokered by Washington and Paris. Anchored in UN Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, the deal called for Israel’s full withdrawal and for Hezbollah to relocate fighters north of the Litani River and dismantle all military sites in the south.
However, six months on, Israel still occupies Jal Al-Deir and Jabal Blat in Bint Jbeil district, Labbouneh and Alma Al-Shaab in Tyre, and Hamames Hill and a newly built outpost along the Markaba-Houla road in Marjayoun.
An Israeli military spokesperson said their troops “need to remain at those points at the moment to defend Israeli citizens, to make sure this process is complete and eventually hand it over to the Lebanese armed forces,” Reuters reported.
The UN high commissioner for human rights raised the alarm in April over the increase in Israeli offences since the ceasefire began. At least 71 civilians have been killed and critical infrastructure destroyed, according to a preliminary OHCHR review.
Aoun also reported nearly 3,000 Israeli ceasefire breaches.
Meanwhile, Israel said at least five rockets, two mortars, and a drone have been launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel since the ceasefire.
“Israel should stop carrying out strikes in Lebanon immediately,” David Wood, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, told Arab News. “The whole point of the ceasefire deal was to empower the Lebanese army to exert control over all Lebanese territory, to the exclusion of Hezbollah.”
He said that continued Israeli attacks risk undermining state authority and bolstering Hezbollah’s narrative.
“Israel’s continued attacks on Lebanon, even as the army makes progress on implementing the agreement, threaten to undermine the state’s authority,” he said. “Especially in areas facing constant assaults, locals might increasingly view Hezbollah’s armed resistance as their only effective defense against Israeli aggression.”
While Hezbollah has cooperated with army efforts south of the Litani, it refuses to disarm elsewhere until Israel leaves Lebanese soil. Hezbollah chief Qassem insists only his forces can defend Lebanon.
Makram Rabah said Lebanese authorities are failing to meet their obligations under Resolution 1701. (Reuters)
“Lebanese officials are satisfied that Hezbollah is cooperating with the disarmament process in the area south of the Litani River, which is next to the Lebanese-Israeli border,” Wood said.
“However, Hezbollah refuses to surrender its weapons in the rest of the country, at least until Lebanon’s various political factions have entered into dialogue concerning a new national defense strategy.”
Disarmament is a key demand from the US, Qatar, and other foreign donors. But Lebanese authorities prefer dialogue to confrontation, wary of igniting civil conflict or scaring off badly needed investment.
“Lebanon’s new president and government have made clear that, when it comes to Hezbollah’s disarmament, they prefer cooperation over confrontation,” Wood said.
“They want to achieve the state’s monopoly over arms yet also avoid a potentially dangerous clash between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah.”
FASTFACTS
• Lebanon’s army has taken control of most Hezbollah-held areas in the south, dismantling 90% of its military infrastructure. • Despite army gains, Hezbollah refuses full disarmament until Israel withdraws from all occupied positions in Lebanon.
Last month, Aoun said the decision to limit the monopoly on weaponry to the state “has been made” and will be carried out “through dialogue, not force.”
Still, international pressure on Lebanon is mounting.
“Lebanon faces growing pressure — chiefly from the US, Israel, and some of Hezbollah’s domestic opponents — to accelerate the disarmament process, even without Hezbollah’s approval,” Wood said.
Last week, Morgan Ortagus, the deputy US special envoy to the Middle East, said Lebanon has “more work to do” to fully disarm Hezbollah, despite making more progress in the past six months than in the previous 15 years.
“We in the US have called for the full disarmament of Hezbollah. And so that doesn’t mean just south of the Litani. That means in the whole country,” Ortagus told the Qatar Economic Forum.
Disarmament is a key demand from the US, Qatar, and other foreign donors. (AFP)
Aoun, however, cautioned against moving too quickly. He reiterated in his interview with Egypt’s ON E that Hezbollah’s disarmament should proceed through dialogue, not confrontation.
Makram Rabah, an assistant professor at the American University of Beirut, said the army is not expected to “engage in a physical clash with Hezbollah.” Even so, he warned, the state must stop clinging to the notion that disarmament depends solely on Hezbollah’s cooperation.
“The government should stop promoting the idea that disarming Hezbollah requires dialogue — that it only requires coordination with Hezbollah for them to hand over their weapons,” Rabah told Arab News. “If they refuse to do so, they will have to deal with Israel.”
He said Lebanese authorities are failing to meet their obligations under Resolution 1701. “The president of the republic was elected on a platform of establishing full sovereignty, and up until now, he has failed to do so.”
Elaborating, Rabah said the core problem lies in the government’s reliance on consensus — a strategy, he argued, that plays directly into Hezbollah’s hands.
“It’s clear that Hezbollah’s weapons — which are Iranian in nature — have exposed and devastated Lebanon,” he said. “Once the government starts acting like a real government, there will be no justification for Israel to maintain a physical presence in Lebanon.
International pressure on Lebanon is mounting.(Reuters)
“Israel’s continued airstrikes serve as a reminder to the Lebanese authorities that they are failing to do their job,” he added, stressing that “it’s not a question of capability — it’s a question of will.
“Frankly, I don’t think the Lebanese leadership is even serious about confronting the issue, because they expect Israel to handle it for them. And that, ultimately, is deeply damaging to Lebanon as a sovereign state.”
