Region

TEHRAN — Two Iranian political heavyweights, ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi and moderate conservative Ali Larijani, on Saturday launched what may be the main battle in next month's presidential election.

Hopefuls have been registering ahead of June 18 polls to select a successor to moderate President Hassan Rouhani, who is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term.

First to throw down the gauntlet on Saturday was Larijani, a long-time parliament speaker and now adviser to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, submitting his name at the interior ministry early on the final day of registration.

Then it was the turn of judiciary chief and one-time presidential hopeful Raisi, who was Rouhani's leading rival in 2017 elections, to announce his own candidacy.

While several other hopefuls have thrown their hats into the ring, "the main clash will be between Mr Raisi and Mr Larijani", Masoud Bastani, a Tehran-based journalist told AFP.

"The first represents the ultraconservative faction and part of traditional conservatives ... and the second the traditional conservatives and moderates, and by proxy, reformists," he added.

Since registration to run in the election began Tuesday, more than 300 hopefuls have submitted bids to stand, according to the interior ministry.

Others who registered on Saturday included secretary of the Expediency Council and ex-commander of Revolutionary Guards General Mohsen Rezai, Iran's ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, and Rouhani's first vice president Eshaq Jahangiri.

All the hopefuls will be vetted by the conservative-dominated Guardian Council, who will publish a list of approved candidates by May 27, after which campaigning begins.

‘A rival to corruption'

Larijani threw the first jab at Raisi and at several other candidates with military backgrounds, in a press conference after registering.

“The economy is neither a garrison nor a court that would be managed with shouts and orders,” he told reporters.

He said he had put his name into the race because he felt that other presidential hopefuls were not capable of solving the country’s “main problem” — the sanctions-hit economy.

Larijani is a supporter of the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which had offered Iran relief from sanctions in return for limitations on its nuclear activities.

The deal has been on life-support since former US president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew Washington from it in 2018, and reimposed punishing sanctions on Tehran.

Larijani also accused anyone “promising paradise” of “speaking falsely”.

Raisi, in comments seemingly aimed at Rouhani’s camp and allies like Larijani, said those responsible for Iran’s “current situation cannot be those who change the current situation”.

He told journalists he was “a rival to corruption, inefficiency and aristocracy” and urged “even those who feel hopeless” to vote.

In a statement, Raisi also said he came forward because of “public demand”, and aims to run “independently in order to bring about a change in the executive management of the country”.

‘Smart relations’

Raisi was deputy prosector at the Revolutionary Court of Tehran during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war that broke out shortly after the Islamic revolution.

Human rights organisations, exiled opposition members and dissidents have accused the tribunal of overseeing the execution of political prisoners without due legal process during his tenure.

Raisi was appointed by the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2019 to lead the judiciary, taking over from Sadegh Amoli Larijani, Ali’s brother.

This is Larijani’s second run for the presidency. He ran in 2005, which saw a surprise victory by the ultraconservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has also put his name in to run this year.

Seen today as a prominent establishment figure, Larijani was at the time in charge of Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the West, a post he quit two years later over serious disagreements with Ahmadinejad.

He then went on to be parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020.

Larijani proved to be a key ally of Rouhani, elected in 2013 on a platform of ending Iran’s international isolation by reaching a nuclear agreement — something eventually signed two years later.

Larijani’s candidacy comes as Iran and world powers hold in talks in Vienna, seeking to revive the deal.

Voicing hope that the talks give Iran’s economy “breathing space”, he called for “smart relations with the West, strong and constructive relations with the East, and brotherly relations with our neighbours”.

The nuclear accord has been a constant target of criticism by Rouhani’s opponents, and its fate is expected to one of the major issues in the June poll.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel and the Palestinians have been mired since early May in one of their biggest flare-ups in violence in recent years, after weeks of tensions in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

A timeline:

Palestinian eviction threat 

On the evening of May 3, clashes erupt in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, sparked by a years-long bid by Jewish settlers to take over Arab homes.

On May 6, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain call on Israel to end its settlement policy in the occupied Palestinian territories and expulsions from East Jerusalem.

Clashes at Al Aqsa Mosque compound 

Major clashes break out on May 7 as tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers pack the revered Al Aqsa Mosque compound — holy to Jews as the Temple Mount — to pray on the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

According to Israeli forces, Palestinians hurl stones, bottles and fireworks at officers, who fire rubber-coated bullets and tear gas.

Video footage shows Israeli forces storming the mosque’s sprawling plaza and firing sound grenades inside the building.

New clashes took place over the following days in other parts of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.

On May 10, hundreds of Palestinians and 32 Israeli police officers are wounded in renewed clashes, mainly in the mosque compound.

The violence coincides with what Israel calls “Jerusalem Day”, marking its 1967 seizure of the city’s eastern sector.

Israel-Hamas escalation 

On the evening of May 10, the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, launches volleys of rockets towards Israel, which responds with deadly strikes on the Palestinian enclave.

The next day, Hamas rains rockets down on the Israeli city of Tel Aviv after an Israeli air strike destroys a 12-storey building in Gaza City housing the offices of senior Hamas officials.

Israel and Hamas are heading “towards a full-scale war”, according to the UN envoy for Middle East Peace, Tor Wennesland.

Riots in mixed towns 

On the evening of May 11, unrest flares in mixed Jewish-Arab towns.

Israel declares a state of emergency in Lod, near Tel Aviv, after police report rioting by some Arab residents after the death of an Arab Israeli.

Violent scenes also take place in other Israeli-Arab localities.

Up to 1,000 border police are called up as reinforcements. More than 400 people, Jews and Arabs, are arrested.

Build-up near Gaza 

Washington on May 12 says it is rushing an envoy to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

Russia calls for an emergency meeting of the Middle East Quartet — the European Union, Russia, the United States and the United Nations.

The next day, Israel masses armoured vehicles and troops along the border with the Gaza Strip. The defence ministry gives the army the green light to mobilise thousands of reservists if needed.

On May 14, Israel continues its air and artillery strikes on the Palestinian enclave.

The next day, an Israeli air strike flattens a 13-floor building housing Qatar-based Al Jazeera television and the US news agency the Associated Press in the Gaza Strip.

Since May 10, strikes on Gaza and rockets fired at Israel have killed dozens of people, most of them Palestinians, and wounded hundreds.

Palestinian armed groups have fired more than 2,000 rockets at Israel. Many of them have been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system.

West Bank clashes 

Demonstrations across the occupied West Bank have led to clashes with the Israeli forces. On May 14 alone, Israeli fire kills 11 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

ADLOUN, Lebanon — Hundreds of people brandishing Palestinian flags and the yellow colours of Hizbollah gathered in south Lebanon on Saturday for the funeral of a Lebanese protester killed by Israeli fire a day earlier.

Mohamad Kassem Tahan, a member of the Iran-backed Hizbollah movement, had been protesting at the Lebanese border against Israel’s latest assault on the Gaza Strip when he was hit by Israeli shellfire.

That came after a number of young demonstrators had tried to cross into the northern Israeli border town of Metulla, according to Lebanese state media.

On Saturday, Tahan’s hometown of Adloun held a funeral that coincided with the anniversary of the Nakba — the “catastrophe” of the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.

Hizbollah fighters in military fatigues carried the 21-year-old’s coffin, wrapped in the movement’s yellow flag, through a crowd of mourners to the sound of pro-Palestinian chants and sporadic gunfire.

“Death to Israel!” they chanted.

“To Jerusalem we will go, and the martyrs will be in the millions!”

Hizbollah, a key enemy of Israel, had declared Tahan a “martyr” on Friday and Lebanese president Michel Aoun condemned a “crime committed by Israeli forces”.

Speaking to AFP at the funeral, Tahan’s friend Karim called him “a very loving young man”.

“He was loved in Adloun. He used to help everyone, even if he was busy,” the 17-year-old said.

Beside him, a group of Tahan’s friends cried on a sofa, while outside, copies of his portrait lined roads leading to the funeral venue.

The funeral came as dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered along the southern frontier to commemorate the Nakba and denounce Israeli violence in Gaza and Jerusalem.

Brandishing flags and wearing chequered Palestinian scarves, they gathered at several locations including the Lebanese border towns of Maroun Al Ras and Adaisseh, according to AFP correspondents in the area.

They were surrounded by Lebanese soldiers who had erected checkpoints and blocked roads leading up to the frontier to avoid any escalation, according to state media.

The ANI state news agency said Palestinian protesters had clashed with security forces blocking their way to the border in the Marjayoun area.

Protesters in the Kfar Kela district near the border climbed a separation wall and hung a Hizbollah and a Palestinian flag from a watchtower, an AFP correspondent said. He also saw them throwing rocks at the wall and heard gunfire from the Israeli side.

Ahead of Saturday’s protest, an Israeli army spokesperson had warned Lebanon against allowing “rioters” to approach the frontier.

His statement came as the Israeli army claimed it foiled an overnight attempt by a group of Lebanese infiltrators to cross the border near the town of Metulla.

The army said the infiltrators had planted objects believed to be explosives before fleeing back into Lebanon under Israeli fire.

Earlier on Thursday, three rockets were fired from southern Lebanon near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rashidiyeh toward Israel, a Lebanese military source said.

Israeli forces said the rockets had landed in the sea.

A source close to Hizbollah said the Shiite group had no link to that incident.

Israel occupied much of southern Lebanon from its 1982 invasion until its withdrawal in 2000, seen as a victory for Hizbollah’s “resistance”.

BAGHDAD — Thousands of supporters of firebrand Shiite Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr on Saturday rallied in the capital Baghdad to denounce deadly Israeli assaults on Palestinians in the occupied territories.

“Jerusalem is ours. Death to Israel,” read signs they held up as they flooded Baghdad’s iconic Tahrir Square, holding a huge Palestinian flag above their heads.

“The world is against Palestine but God backs it,” read another sign carried by the protesters who also waved the Iraqi flag and held pictures of Sadr.

The rally came as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip on Saturday with air strikes, killing 10 members of an extended family and demolishing a 13-storey building housing international media outlets.

That coincided with clashes in the occupied West Bank as Palestinians marked the Nakba, or “catastrophe” when more than 700,000 of them were expelled or fled from their land during the 1947-1948 conflict surrounding the creation of Israel.

“We stand with the Palestinian people for better or worse,” Sadr said in a statement delivered by his Baghdad representative Sheikh Ibrahim Al Jabari.

“Israel is trying, by every means possible, to reconcile with Arabs and Muslims through the normalisation of ties with countries who are only guided by economic and financial interests,” Sadr’s message said.

He was alluding to the US-brokered normalisation agreements Israel struck last year with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

Experts said Saturday’s rally was a show of force by Sadr supporters ahead of early parliamentary elections expected to take place in October.

The vote is a central demand of an anti-government protest movement which erupted in 2019 and involved Sadr’s partisans.


WASHINGTON — The Associated Press said on Saturday it was "shocked and horrified" by an Israeli air strike that destroyed a building housing the US news agency's Gaza bureau and those of other international news media.

"This is an incredibly disturbing development. We narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life," AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement about the attack on the building, which also housed Qatar-based Al Jazeera.

A dozen AP journalists and freelancers had been in the building but were able to evacuate, Pruitt said.

The White House, which has kept a relatively low profile on the Israeli-Palestinian flareup, said on Saturday it has cautioned Israel about the importance of protecting independent media.

"We have communicated directly to the Israelis that ensuring the safety and security of journalists and independent media is a paramount responsibility," White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted.

Israeli defense officials said the building housed not only news bureaus but offices of Hamas militants.

AFP journalists watched the building collapse after the air strike, sending up a huge cloud of dust and debris.

Al Jazeera television was among the tenants of the building.

Walid Al Omari, that news agency's Jerusalem bureau chief, vowed the network will not be silenced.

"Clearly there is a decision not only to sow destruction and killing, but also to silence those who broadcast it," he told AFP, adding in an on-air interview shortly afterward that "this is impossible".

Pruitt, in his statement, said, "The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today."

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists also demanded an explanation from the Israeli government.

"This latest attack on a building long known by Israel to house international media raises the specter that the Israel Defence Forces is deliberately targeting media facilities in order to disrupt coverage of the human suffering in Gaza," said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon.

"We demand that the Israeli government provide a detailed and documented justification for this military attack on a civilian facility given the possible violation of international humanitarian law," Simon said.

GAZA CITY — Israel's army destroyed in an air strike Saturday the 13-floor building housing Qatar-based Al Jazeera television and American news agency The Associated Press in the Gaza Strip, AFP journalists said.

Israel "destroyed Jala Tower in the Gaza Strip, which contains the Al Jazeera office and other international press offices," Al Jazeera said in a tweet, with an AP journalist saying the army had warned the tower's owner ahead of the strike.