0 shares
Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2021. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran opened registration Tuesday for potential candidates in the country’s June presidential election, kicking off the race as uncertainty looms over Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers and tensions remain high with the West.
President Hassan Rouhani can’t run again due to term limits, yet with the poll just a month away no immediate favorite has emerged among the many rumored candidates. There also appears to be little interest in the vote by a public crushed by sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic.
In a speech this year, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called Israel “not a country, but a terrorist base” and said its downfall was imminent.
“Fighting this despotic regime… is everyone’s duty,” Khamenei said in live televised remarks.
File: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a message for the Iranian New Year, or Nowruz, in Tehran, Iran, March 20, 2021. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
The event takes place on the last Friday of Ramadan and falls close to Israel’s own Jerusalem Day, celebrated this year on May 10, which marks Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem and the Old City during the 1967 Six Day War.
19,295 shares
Iranians set Israeli flags on fire as they step on a US flag during a rally marking al-Quds Day at the capital Tehran s Azadi (Freedom) square, on May 7, 2021 (AFP)
A demonstrator on a motorcycle holds an effigy representing Israel and the United States during the annual Al-Quds Day rally in Tehran, Iran, May 7, 2021 (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Demonstrators burn representations of Israeli and US flags during the annual Al-Quds Day rally in Tehran, Iran, May 7, 2021 (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Demonstrators chant slogans after burning representations of Israeli, US and Indian flags during the annual Al-Quds, or Jerusalem, Day rally in Peshawar, Pakistan, May 7, 2021 (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)
Fallout from Mohammed Javad Zarif s political bombshell
An interview by Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif has provoked outrage in Iran. In it, Zarif criticised the Revolutionary Guards destructive role in both the nuclear agreement and the Syrian war. Ali Sadrzadeh has the details
Since the age of 18, Mohammed Javad Zarif has consistently presented himself as unshakeably convinced, media savvy and power conscious. Even when he was proselytising for political Islam under the California sun during the student movements of the 1970s, nearly 42 years ago.
Mohammed Javad Zarif weathered all the power fluctuations of the past century and has also managed to survive the often life-threatening intrigues of the Islamic Republic. Today, he is 61 years old and has almost reached the end of his march through the institutions. His term as foreign minister is due come to an end in a few weeks.
Iran s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attends a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela, November 5, 2020. (Matias Delacroix/AP)
Iran’s foreign minister apologized Sunday for recorded comments that were leaked to the public last week, creating a firestorm in the country less than two months before presidential elections.
The recordings of Mohammad Javad Zarif included frank comments on powerful late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020. The attack at the time brought the US and Iran to the brink of war. Soleimani’s funeral processions in Iran drew millions of people to the streets.