The people of the Gulf urgently need a new political discourse. The previous pan-Arabism discourse of the 1960s constituted an intellectual framework for many people and elites. At the time, an individual’s identity, patriotism and sense of belonging was based on Arabism. This surpassed any other affiliation, such as religion, ethnicity or sect.
During a televised speech to the members of Iran’s parliament last week, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged all citizens to participate in the June 18 presidential election, warning against “those who promote voting abstention” and saying “they do not sympathize with the people.” Khamenei was clearly responding, while naming no one, to widespread criticism of the decision by
Signs of decay
Yassamine Mather looks at Iran’s presidential hopefuls and what passes for their rival programmes
The final round of Iran’s presidential elections are less than a month away, yet we still do not know the list of ‘accepted’ candidates.
Last week the current president, Hassan Rouhani, criticised the latest set of rules decided by Shoraye Negahban (the Guardian Council), insisting that the council had no legal authority to impose new criteria for presidential election candidates - they had barred anyone younger than 40 and older than 75. When the registration started, the ministry of interior ignored the Guardian Council’s decision and registered all candidates who had presented their papers. The current legislation stipulates the candidate qualifications:
Articles & Testimony
Iran-backed armed groups hate being exposed as criminals in the eyes of a populace that cares deeply about rule of law, so they have turned Iraq’s legal sector into a battlespace.
Iraq’s Iranian-backed militias, self-styled as
al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya (“the Islamic Resistance”), are no strangers to legal violations.
Muqawama affiliates frequently target and kill journalists and protesters, and militia-run “secret” prisons have become a concern for activists, human rights groups, and the United Nations. The militias have also engaged in a years-long missile and rocket campaign targeting the U.S.-led coalition forces operating in Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government, killing and wounding both coalition soldiers and local civilians. More recently,
Review on US felony in Bir al Abd, Beirut abna24.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from abna24.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.