Week before presidential election, Iranians divided on whether voting will address pressing problems

Week before presidential election, Iranians divided on whether voting will address pressing problems
This handout photo made available by the state television Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News (IRIBNEWS) Show the second debate for the six candidates (L to R) incumbent Vice President Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, conservative presidential hopeful Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the only cleric in the running Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Tehran's conservative mayor Alireza Zakani, reformist candidate Massoud Pezeshkian and Ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili as they sit side-by-side at the Iran State television studio in Tehran on June 20, 2024. (AFP /IRIBNEWS)
Short Url
Updated 22 June 2024
Follow

Week before presidential election, Iranians divided on whether voting will address pressing problems

Week before presidential election, Iranians divided on whether voting will address pressing problems
  • Iranians head to the polls on June 28 to choose from six candidates, five conservatives and a relative reformist
  • Election comes as Iran grapples with economic pressures, international sanctions, compulsory headscarves for women

TEHRAN: With just a week remaining before a presidential election, Iranians are divided over whether voting will address pressing economic issues and mandatory hijab laws.
Iranians head to the polls on June 28 to choose from six candidates — five conservatives and a relative reformist — to succeed Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month.
The election comes as Iran grapples with economic pressures, international sanctions and enforcement of the compulsory headscarves for women.
“They promise change, but won’t do much,” said Hamid Habibi, a 54-year-old shop owner at Tehran’s bustling Grand Bazar.
“I’ve watched the debates and campaigns; they speak beautifully but need to back their words with action,” he said.
Despite his skepticism, Habibi plans to vote next week.
The candidates have held two debates, each pledging to tackle the financial challenges impacting the country’s 85 million people.
“The economic situation is deteriorating daily, and I don’t foresee any improvements,” said Fariba, a 30-year-old who runs an online store.
“Regardless of who wins, our lives won’t change,” she said.

Others, like 57-year-old baker Taghi Dodangeh, remain hopeful.
“Change is certain,” he said, viewing voting as a religious duty and national obligation.
But Jowzi, a 61-year-old housewife, expressed doubts, especially about the candidate line-up.
“There’s hardly any differences between the six,” she said. “One cannot say any of them belongs to a different group.”
Iran’s Guardian Council approved six candidates after disqualifying most moderates and reformists.
Leading contenders include conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and the sole reformist candidate, Masoud Pezeshkian.
Keshvar, a 53-year-old mother, intends to vote for the candidate with the most robust economic plan.
“Young people are grappling with economic hardships,” she said.
“Raisi made efforts, but on the ground, things didn’t change much for the general public, and they were unhappy.”
In the 2021 election that brought Raisi to power, many voters stayed away, resulting in a participation rate just under 49 percent — the lowest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has urged a high voter turnout.
Yet, 26-year-old shopkeeper Mahdi Zeinali said he would only vote if a candidate proves to be “the right person.”
This election comes at a turbulent time, with the Gaza war raging between Iran’s adversary Israel and Tehran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas, along with ongoing diplomatic tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.
Compulsory hijab laws remain contentious, particularly since mass protests triggered by the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, was detained for an alleged breach of Iran’s dress code for women, who are required to cover their heads and necks and wear modest clothing in public.
Despite increased enforcement, many women, especially in Tehran, defy the dress code.
Fariba expressed concern that after the election, “things would go back to where they were,” and young women won’t be able to remove their headscarves.
Jowzi, an undecided voter who wears a veil, regards it as a “personal” choice and opposes state interference.
“It makes no difference who becomes president,” she said.
“What’s important is what they actually do. It’s not important to me whether or not they have a turban. They need to act humanely.”


Yemen rebel leader calls for ‘million-strong’ rally after deadly US strikes

Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis, during a televised speech on the group's Al-Masirah TV channel (Screengrab
Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis, during a televised speech on the group's Al-Masirah TV channel (Screengrab
Updated 22 sec ago
Follow

Yemen rebel leader calls for ‘million-strong’ rally after deadly US strikes

Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Houthis, during a televised speech on the group's Al-Masirah TV channel (Screengrab

SANAA: The leader of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday called for a “million-strong” march of defiance after deadly US strikes hit the capital, Sanaa, and other areas.
“I call on our dear people to go out tomorrow on the anniversary of the Battle of Badr in a million-strong march in Sanaa and the rest of the governorates,” Abdulmalik Al-Houthi said in a televised address, referring to a celebrated military victory by the Prophet Muhammad.
 

 


At least 16 people killed after ordnance from Syrian civil war explodes in port city of Latakia

At least 16 people killed after ordnance from Syrian civil war explodes in port city of Latakia
Updated 27 min 43 sec ago
Follow

At least 16 people killed after ordnance from Syrian civil war explodes in port city of Latakia

At least 16 people killed after ordnance from Syrian civil war explodes in port city of Latakia
  • The group and residents said the explosion occurred in a metal scrap storage space on the ground floor of the four-story building

DAMASCUS, Syria: Ordnance from Syria’s 13-year conflict exploded in the coastal city of Latakia, collapsing a building and killing more than a dozen people, the Syrian Civil Defense said Sunday.
The paramedic group known as the White Helmets said it worked overnight, searching through debris and recovered 16 bodies, including five women and five children, and that 18 others were injured. The group and residents said the explosion occurred in a metal scrap storage space on the ground floor of the four-story building.
Elsewhere, the Syrian Defense Ministry late Sunday accused the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group of crossing the Lebanon-Syria border and killing three Syrian soldiers. Hezbollah denied any involvement in the killing that took place near northeastern Lebanon, where clashes between Syrian forces and Lebanese clans happened last month.
Local Lebanese media have reported Syrian shelling on the northeastern Lebanese border town of Al-Qasr.
“The Defense Ministry will take all the necessary measures after this dangerous escalation from the Hezbollah militia,” a statement from the ministry read.
The United Nations said in February that about a hundred have been killed from exploding ordnance during the last 13 years, adding that since the ouster of Bashar Assad in December, over 1,400 unexploded devices across Syria have been safely disposed of and 138 minefields and contaminated areas identified in Idleb, Aleppo, Hama, Deir-ez-Zor and Lattakia.
Latakia, a key port city, and Syria’s coastal province recently witnessed a surge in violence, after gunmen loyal to Assad ambushed a security patrol. While the government’s counter-offensive, alongside allied factions, crushed the insurgency, it led to widespread destruction and numerous cases of retaliatory attacks against members of the Alawite community, which the Assad family is part of.
The clashes and revenge killings led to the deaths of more than 1,000 people.


Sudanese seek refuge underground in western region of Darfur

Sudanese seek refuge underground in western region of Darfur
Updated 17 March 2025
Follow

Sudanese seek refuge underground in western region of Darfur

Sudanese seek refuge underground in western region of Darfur

EL-FASHER: Beneath the broken earth of the besieged Sudanese city of El-Fasher in the western region of Darfur, Nafisa Malik clutches her five children close.

As shells rain down, the 45-year-old mother tries to shield them in a cramped hole barely big enough to crouch in.

“Time slows down here,” Malik said, from her home near El-Fasher’s Hajjer Gadou market.

“We sit in the darkness, listening, trying to guess when it’s over,” she said.

For almost two years the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and Sudan’s army have waged a war that has killed tens of thousands.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called it a “crisis of staggering scale and brutality.”

El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, is the only major city in Darfur still under army control, making it a strategic prize.

The paramilitary troops have tried for months to seize it.

Malik’s crude shelter, held up by splintered wooden planks and scraps of rusted metal, is one of thousands in the war-battered city, according to residents.

The army regained much of the capital Khartoum this year, but the paramilitary troops have intensified their attacks on El-Fasher.

Desperate for safety from artillery and drone strikes, residents have built makeshift bunkers.

Some are hurriedly excavated foxholes, others are more solid and reinforced with sandbags.

Mohammed Ibrahim, 54, once believed hiding under beds would be enough, “until houses were hit.”


Syria authorities accuse Hezbollah of killing three soldiers

A member of security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government speaks on a cell phone while standing by Mediterranean sea.
A member of security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government speaks on a cell phone while standing by Mediterranean sea.
Updated 17 March 2025
Follow

Syria authorities accuse Hezbollah of killing three soldiers

A member of security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government speaks on a cell phone while standing by Mediterranean sea.
  • Hezbollah in a statement denied any involvement in clashes with Syrian security forces or in Syrian territory
  • Group was a key backer of Syria’s former president Bashar Assad before he was toppled in a lightning offensive

DAMASCUS: Syria’s defense ministry on Sunday accused Lebanon’s Hezbollah group of abducting three soldiers to Lebanon and killing them there, state media reported, as Hezbollah denied any involvement in clashes.
“A group from the Hezbollah militia... kidnapped three members of the Syrian army on the Syrian-Lebanese border... before taking them to Lebanese territory and eliminating them,” the news agency SANA quoted the defense ministry as saying.
“The defense ministry will take all the necessary measures after this dangerous escalation from the Hezbollah militia,” it added of the incident which it said occurred near the Zeita Dam, west of Homs.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah in a statement denied any involvement in clashes with Syrian security forces or in Syrian territory.
The group said it “categorically denies any connection to the events taking place today on the Lebanese-Syrian border.”
It added that it “reaffirms its previous announcements that Hezbollah has no relation to any events within Syrian territory.”
Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported that rockets fired from Syrian territory had landed in the Lebanese village of Qasr near the border.
“A number of rockets, fired from the Qusayr countryside inside Syrian territory, fell on the border town of Qasr,” it said, without providing further details.
Hezbollah was a key backer of Syria’s former president Bashar Assad before he was toppled in a lightning offensive by militants in December.
The country’s new authorities announced last month the launch of a security campaign in the border province of Homs, aimed at shutting down routes used for arms and goods smuggling.
They accused Hezbollah of launching attacks, saying it was sponsoring cross-border smuggling gangs.


Jumblatt calls on Syrian Druze to preserve their Arab identity

Jumblatt calls on Syrian Druze to preserve their Arab identity
Updated 16 March 2025
Follow

Jumblatt calls on Syrian Druze to preserve their Arab identity

Jumblatt calls on Syrian Druze to preserve their Arab identity
  • Lebanese Druze leader emphasizes the need for Israeli forces to withdraw completely from southern Lebanon

BEIRUT: Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt on Sunday warned Syrian Druze against foreign influence, urging them to resist Israeli approaches and protect their heritage.

Jumblatt, former leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, was speaking on the 48th anniversary of the assassination of his father, and party founder, Kamal Jumblatt.

He said that the arrest of Ibrahim Huweija — who was responsible for the assassination — by Syrian authorities a week ago “represents historical justice taking its course, albeit after a while.”

FASTFACT

The commemoration of the 48th anniversary of Kamal Jumblatt’s assassination took place on Sunday in Moukhtara, Jumblatt’s political stronghold and the center of Druze leadership in Lebanon,

Jumblatt urged Druze from Syria’s Jabal Al-Arab region to defend their shared struggle with Syrian and Arab citizens against “occupation, colonialism, and mandates imposed on the Golan Heights.”

“Safeguard your heritage and beware of being used by some to divide Syria under the banner of the ‘alliance of minorities,’ which Kamal Jumblatt opposed,” he said.

The commemoration of the 48th anniversary of Kamal Jumblatt’s assassination took place on Sunday in Moukhtara, Jumblatt’s political stronghold and the center of Druze leadership in Lebanon, evolving into a significant and inclusive political gathering.

On March 16 every year the Progressive Socialist Party gathers at Kamal Jumblatt’s tomb, marking the anniversary of his assassination and those who were with him.

His convoy was ambushed in Deir Dourite at a pivotal moment in Lebanese politics.

Investigations determined that Ibrahim Huweija, a general in the ousted Syrian regime’s army and a senior security officer, was responsible for the crime.

According to the new Syrian authorities, Huweija is accused of “committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the assassination of Jumblatt.”

Jumblatt’s speech on Sunday coincided with his announcement that the annual commemoration of his father’s assassination would be discontinued after the arrest of its perpetrator.

In his speech, Jumblatt said: “For 48 years, we have gathered on March 16 to recite Al-Fatiha and place a red flower on Kamal Jumblatt’s tomb. This occasion symbolizes our defiance and strength to remember, endure, and persevere.

“We have stood in reverence for the blood of the martyrs who fell treacherously on that fateful day. The Lebanese people will remember their sacrifices and the political legacy.”

Jumblatt said that the Progressive Socialist Party looked forward to a new phase of struggle, challenges, and adherence to the most humane form of socialism.

Jumblatt emphasized the party’s position on recent developments, highlighting the need to end Israeli occupation in the south and establish borders under international resolutions to maintain sovereignty.

He emphasized the need to reconstruct the south and other affected areas by establishing a reliable mechanism at both Arab and international levels.

He also underlined the importance of “rebuilding relations between Lebanon and Syria based on new principles. This includes clearly defining land and maritime borders, supporting legitimate Palestinian rights — particularly the two-state solution and the affirmation of the right of return — and upholding the ceasefire agreement.”

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov participated in the commemoration.

Former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin sent a message to Walid Jumblatt, acknowledging the “void left by the assassination of his father.”

He emphasized that his father was an advocate for peace in the Middle East, believing that true peace cannot be achieved without recognizing the Palestinians’ right to establish their own state.

In the meantime, the municipality of the border town of Houla released a statement condemning the ongoing Israeli attacks, especially in the eastern region of the town, where Israeli soldiers are digging a trench extending toward the Al-Abbad site.

The municipality said that Israel’s actions indicated an occupation beyond the five occupied heights.

The municipality urged all relevant officials in the Lebanese government to take immediate action and exert pressure on the UN and the five-member committee responsible for overseeing the implementation of UN Resolution 1701.

The goal is to prevent further aggression and to ensure the return of the occupied territories, it added.

The appeal came as Israeli forces opened fire with bursts of machinegun fire and bombs from the Ruwaisat Al-Alam border site on the outskirts of Kafr Shuba late on Saturday and into Sunday.

The forces also launched a military incursion into Odaisseh, occupying the town square for several hours before withdrawing.

A security source reported that a Lebanese army motorized unit was sent from Taybeh to Odaisseh after the Israeli forces pulled out.