DUBAI: Iran holds a parliamentary election on Friday seen as a test of the clerical establishment’s popularity at a time of growing dissent over an array of political, social and economic crises.
The vote will be the first formal gauge of public opinion after anti-government protests in 2022-23 spiralled into some of the worst political turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Critics from inside and outside the ruling elite, including politicians and former lawmakers, say the legitimacy of Iran’s theocratic system could be at stake due to economic struggles and a lack of electoral options for a mostly young population chafing at political and social restrictions.
Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called voting a religious duty. He accused the country’s “enemies” — a term he normally uses for the United States and Israel — of trying to create despair among Iranian voters.
The commander of the country’s elite Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, said on Wednesday that “each vote is like a missile launched at the enemy’s heart.”
But Iranians still have painful memories of the handling of nationwide unrest sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in 2022, which was quelled by a violent state crackdown involving mass detentions and even executions.
Economic hardships pose another challenge. Many analysts say that millions have lost hope that Iran’s ruling clerics can resolve an economic crisis fomented by a combination of US sanctions, mismanagement and corruption.
While establishment supporters will likely vote for hard-line candidates, widespread public anger at worsening living standards and pervasive graft may keep many Iranians at home.
Prices for basic goods like bread, meat, dairy and rice have skyrocketed in past months. The official inflation rate stands at about 40 percent. Analysts and insiders put it at over 50 percent.
The US 2018 withdrawal from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers, and its reimposition of sanctions, have hit Iran’s economy hard. Efforts to revive the pact have failed.
Reformists shun ‘meaningless’ vote
Iranian activists and opposition groups are distributing the Twitter hashtags #VOTENoVote widely on social media, arguing that a high turnout will legitimize the Islamic Republic.
With heavyweight moderates and conservatives staying out of Friday’s race and reformists calling it an “unfree and unfair election,” the vote will pit hard-liners and low-key conservatives against each other, all proclaiming loyalty to Iran’s Islamic revolutionary ideals.
The interior ministry said 15,200 candidates will run for the 290-seat parliament, with a vetting body called the Guardian Council approving 75 percent of initially registered hopefuls.
The unelected Guardian Council, made up of six clerics and six legal experts generally within Khamenei’s orbit, has the authority to scrutinize laws and election candidates.
Ballots will mostly be counted manually, so the final result may not be announced for three days, although partial results may appear sooner.
On the same day, Iranians also vote for the Assembly of Experts, which appoints and can dismiss the supreme leader. The 88-member clerical body rarely intervenes directly in policy but is expected to help choose the 84-year-old Khamenei’s successor.
Parliament has no major influence on foreign policy or Iran’s nuclear agenda. These are determined by Khamenei who holds the utmost authority in the country’s unique dual system of clerical and republican rule.
Polling has projected turnover of about 41 percent, while former lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi said on Monday that surveys showed the participation could be as low as 27 percent, significantly lower than 42 percent in a 2020 parliamentary vote.
Discredited after years of failed attempts at widening political and social freedoms, the pro-reform opposition suffered further unpopularity in 2022 when protesters scorned its mantra of gradual change.
The Reform Front coalition has said it will not take part in the “meaningless” election but has not boycotted the vote.
Iran election seen as legitimacy test for rulers as dissent grows
Iran election seen as legitimacy test for rulers as dissent grows
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called voting a religious duty
- Parliament has no major influence on foreign policy or Iran’s nuclear agenda
France says Tunisian political dissidents did not receive fair trial
The French Foreign Ministry said: “We regret the failure to respect fair trial conditions“
TUNIS: France on Wednesday criticized the lengthy sentences handed down by a Tunisian court against opposition leaders and businessmen on conspiracy charges on the weekend, saying the conditions for a fair trial were not met.
The comments by France, the first country to speak out on the trial, came amid growing criticism of the government of President Kais Saied over its crackdown on dissent.
Rights groups said the mass conviction of dissidents is a disturbing indication of the authorities’ willingness to go ahead with its crackdown on peaceful dissent.
Tunisia’s opposition has said the trial was fabricated and aimed at silencing critical voices and consolidating the authoritarian rule.
“We learned with concern of the harsh sentences...against several individuals accused of conspiring against state security, including French nationals,” the French Foreign Ministry said.
“We regret the failure to respect fair trial conditions,” it added. Journalists, diplomats, and civil society were barred from attending the trial.
The trial highlights Saied’s full control over the judiciary since he dissolved parliament in 2021 and began ruling by decree. He also dissolved the independent Supreme Judicial Council and sacked dozens of judges in 2022.
Forty people were prosecuted in the trial, which started in March. More than 20 have fled abroad since being charged.
Lawyers said the maximum sentence was 66 years for businessman Kamel Ltaif, while opposition politician Khyam Turki received a 48-year sentence.
The court also sentenced prominent opposition figures including Ghazi Chaouachi, Issam Chebbi, Jawahar Ben Mbrak and Ridha BelHajj to 18 years in prison. They have been in custody since being detained in 2023.
Saied said in 2023 that the politicians were “traitors and terrorists” and that judges who would acquit them were their accomplices.
The opposition leaders involved in the case rejected the charges and said they were preparing an initiative aimed at uniting the fragmented opposition to face the democratic setback in the cradle of the Arab Spring uprisings.
Lebanon parliament approves changes to banking secrecy law
- The international community has long demanded major fiscal reforms to unlock billions of dollars in aid to restart the Lebanese economy
- The crash since 2019 has seen the local currency lose most of its value against the US dollar
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament on Thursday approved amendments to banking secrecy legislation, a key reform demanded by the International Monetary Fund, as Lebanese officials hold meetings with global finance institutions in Washington.
A statement from speaker Nabih Berri’s office said parliament passed amendments to “the law related to banking secrecy” and to monetary legislation.
The international community has long demanded major fiscal reforms to unlock billions of dollars in aid to restart the Lebanese economy in the wake of a five-year economic collapse widely blamed on mismanagement and corruption.
The crash since 2019 has seen the local currency lose most of its value against the US dollar and has pushed much of the population into poverty, with ordinary people locked out of their savings.
The recent war between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group has worsened matters, with the cash-strapped country now also needing funds for reconstruction.
Lebanese rights group Legal Agenda said the amendments allow “banking supervisory and regulatory bodies... to request access to all banking information without linking the request to a specific objective.”
These bodies will now be able to access information including customer names and deposit details, and look into possible suspicious activity, the group said.
Lebanon has long had strict rules over bank account privacy that critics have said makes it susceptible to money laundering.
The cabinet had approved the amendment earlier this month, saying it would apply retroactively for 10 years from the date of request.
That means it would apply to the start of the economic crisis, when bankers were accused of assisting influential individuals to transfer large amounts of money overseas.
Parliament’s approval comes with Finance Minister Yassine Jaber, Economy Minister Amer Bizat and new central bank governor Karim Souaid in Washington for meetings with the World Bank and IMF.
Jaber said earlier this week that parliamentary approval of the banking secrecy amendment would give a “boost” to the delegation’s meetings.
In April 2022, Lebanon and the IMF reached conditional agreement on a $3-billion loan package, but painful reforms that the 46-month financing program would require have largely not happened.
In February, the IMF said it was open to a new loan agreement with Beirut following discussions with the newly appointed Jaber.
The new government has pledged to implement other required reforms, and approved draft legislation on restructuring the banking sector earlier this month.
UK ends sanctions on Syria defense, interior ministries
- Sanctions against various media groups and intelligence agencies were also lifted
- New Syrian government is aiming to persuade Western capitals that sanctions should be lifted
LONDON: The UK government announced on Thursday it was lifting sanctions that were imposed on Syria’s interior and defense ministries during the rule of the now-deposed Bashar Assad.
“The following entries have been removed from the Consolidated List and are no longer subject to an asset freeze – Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defense,” the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a notice.
Sanctions against various media groups and intelligence agencies were also lifted, although Syria’s new rulers dissolved the Assad-era spy bodies in January.
Those targeted by the sanctions were “involved in repressing the civilian population in Syria” or had been “involved in supporting or benefitting from the Syrian regime,” said the notice.
The new Syrian government is aiming to persuade Western capitals that the militant origins of the rebels who toppled Assad in December, after 14 years in charge, are confined to the past, and that crippling international sanctions should be lifted.
Amnesty denounces Algeria over ‘alarming’ crackdown
- Amnesty said the 23 were detained “solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights”
- Amnesty singled out accelerated judicial procedures, which it said did not give several detainees time for adequate defense
TUNIS: Amnesty International on Thursday denounced what it called a “crackdown on peaceful dissent” in Algeria in response to an online protest campaign.
“Algerian authorities have intensified their relentless clampdown on peaceful dissent through arbitrary arrests and unjust prosecutions leading to lengthy prison sentences,” the rights group said in a statement.
It said the authorities have arrested and sentenced at least 23 activists and journalists over their purported support for an online protest movement dubbed Manich Radi (which loosely translates as “I do not agree“).
The campaign, Amnesty said, was launched in December 2024 “to denounce restrictions on human rights and difficult socioeconomic conditions in the country.”
Amnesty said the 23 were detained “solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights.”
Its regional director for the Middle East and North Africa Heba Morayef said: “The trajectory of suffocating online activism pursued by the Algerian authorities is alarming and must be reversed.
“Nothing can justify detaining and jailing people solely for having expressed dissatisfaction about political and socioeconomic conditions,” she added.
The crackdown coincided with the lead-up to the sixth anniversary in February of the pro-democracy Hirak movement.
Amnesty singled out accelerated judicial procedures, which it said did not give several detainees time for adequate defense.
Among several cases, it cited the March sentencing of activists Soheib Debbaghi and Mahdi Bazizi to 18-month jail terms for their ties to the “Manich Radi” movement.
Debbaghi was convicted of “publishing content harmful to national interest,” Amnesty said.
It urged the authorities in Algeria to “end their crackdown on peaceful dissent and stop punishing the legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression.”
Yemen’s leadership pushes for unity as political leaders meet to shape post-war transition
- The PLC is working to restore state authority in areas under government control while countering the influence of the Houthis
- The president called for a renewed sense of unity among Yemen’s political forces, urging them to set aside divisions
DUBAI: Yemen’s internationally recognized leadership convened key political figures in Riyadh on Wednesday to rally support for a unified national strategy to shape the country’s postwar transition and rebuild state institutions after nearly a decade of conflict.
Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, President Rashad Mohammed Al-Alimi, met with leaders of the National Bloc of Political Parties — a coalition of major political groups — to discuss how best to coordinate efforts during the transitional period. The meeting was part of consultations with political forces throughout Yemen to prepare for what officials describe as a pivotal phase in the country’s recovery.
The PLC, formed in 2022 to unify anti-Houthi factions and guide the country toward peace, is working to restore state authority in areas under government control while countering the influence of the Houthis, who continue to dominate much of northern Yemen.
During the meeting, the president called for a renewed sense of unity among Yemen’s political forces, urging them to set aside divisions and work together to restore stability, deliver basic services and lay the foundation for long-term governance.
“This is a moment for collective leadership and national alignment,” he said, stressing the importance of shared responsibility in rebuilding the state.
The national bloc reaffirmed its commitment to the PLC’s vision, presenting a political roadmap focused on national cohesion, economic recovery and effective governance in liberated areas. The group also underlined the importance of alleviating humanitarian suffering and accelerating institutional reforms.
