Death Toll From Region-Wide Floods Rises To 18 In Southeast Iran

According to Arman Melli daily in Tehran, there are at least eight aspirants for the post in the next parliament, including the incumbent Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, former foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki, hardliner cleric Morteza Agha Tehrani, Qom lawmaker Mojtaba Zolnour, outspoken hardliner lawmaker Hamid Rasaei and others.

This is a post that the daily says anyone who held it for a while, ended up in isolation or worse. Nonetheless, seven politicians have been fiercely fighting each other and particularly against the sitting speaker Ghalibaf even before they won their seat in the new parliament. Among them, Arman Melli argued that Ghalibaf and Mottaki have a better chance to sit on the Speaker’s green seat.

Anyone who wins the post will be in a key position to distribute political power, favors and financial resources among his political allies or others close to him in one way or another. The role is also important for the government as the speaker plays a key part in preventing or allowing impeachment motions. That gives him the leverage to have a say in choosing, hiring and firing cabinet ministers and even other government officials.

The first Majles Speaker in Iran was Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who served at the post from July 28, 1980, to 3 August 1989. He was also the chairman of the Expediency Council (for 28 years until 2017), a body tasked with solving problems that the Majles cannot tackle. He was also the chairman of the Assembly of Experts from 2007 to 2011. In 1989 as the deputy chairman of the Assembly, Rafsanjani played a key part in bringing Ali Khamenei to power as the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader when Ayatollah Khomeini died.

After falling out with Khamenei over the disputed 2009 presidential election that reinstated populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he was disqualified from running in the June 2013 presidential election, and finally died in a swimming pool in January 2017. His role at the parliament is best known for mediating between the country's leading political factions in a way that served his own interests!

The next speaker of the parliament was Ali Akbar Nateq Nouri, a conservative politician and Khatami's political rival in the 1997 presidential election. Nateq Nouri served for two terms as the speaker of the Majles from 1992 to 2000. He acted as a moderate politician who later became the Chief inspector at Khamenei's office, but left the politically significant position when he fell out with Khamenei over the latter's all out support for Ahmadinejad.=

Mehdi Karroubi served in the post from 2000 to 2004. Karroubi's presence as Speaker was marked by turbulent sessions during which he defended reformist lawmakers against the hardliner-dominated Judiciary body. When a lawmaker was imprisoned despite his political immunity, Karroubi threatened to leave the Majles and resign his post. Subsequently the lawmaker, Hossein Loghmanian was released immediately.

He was also a staunch defender of freedom of the press when journalists came under pressure by hardliners during the presidency of Reformist Mohammad Khatami.

Gholam Ali Haddad Adel was the first Majles Speaker in post-revolution Iran who was not a cleric. The Majles under Haddad Adel was a predominantly conservative body, after the Guardian Council had disqualified nearly all the reformist candidates. The press remembers him as a speaker who did almost nothing during his tenure from 2004 to 2008. Nonetheless, he was the luckiest and the only one who remained in Khamenei's inner circle thanks to his daughter marrying Khamenei's son Mojtaba.

The next Majles Speaker was Ali Larijani who served in the post for 12 years from 2008 to 2020. He started his speakership as a conservative lawmaker, but he gradually shifted to the center in 2010s. He strongly stood against Ahmadinejad and played a key role in having the nuclear deal with the West approved by the conservative Majles. Later, like everyone else, he was alienated by Khamenei and his credentials for the 2021 presidential election were rejected by Khamenei's Guardian Council.

In 2020, Ghalibaf won the speaker's seat only after he made a lot of compromises with hardliners including Paydari Party and others such as Alireza Zakani whom he helped to appoint as Mayor of Tehran. Although Ghalibaf submitted to every demand by the Raisi administration, the government is still not happy with the way he managed the parliament during the past four years. Most predictions indicate that he cannot keep his post in the new parliament unless his relative, Ali Khamenei intervenes on his behalf.

Leading the Friday prayers in Zahedan, the regional capital of Iran’s southeastern provinces of Sistan-Baluchistan, Abdulhamid also addressed tensions between Israel and Iran, advocating for restraint to prevent further conflict in the Middle East.

Additionally, he discussed Iran's economic challenges, emphasizing the need for expert management. Abdol Hamid has been a fierce critic of the government since security forces killed more than 90 protesters in Zahedan on September 30, 2022.

During his address, he questioned the compliance of the authority's crackdowns on women with Sharia law and urged authorities to consult religious scholars.

“They arrest women and men, they throw them in [police] cars, they interrogate them...they should tell us what happens to the women at the detention centers, and if such treatments comply with Sharia, they should convince us too,” he stated.

He further highlighted discrimination against women in Iran and the obstacles they face pointing out that “during all of these years, there has not been a single female president” in Iran.

Commenting on Friday’s Israeli attack on Iran, although he stated that he did not have enough information on the matter, Abdulhamid emphasized that Israel must not attack Iran to avoid further tensions and war in the Middle East.

"Both Israel and the major countries of the world should know that the Middle East is a special region in which the whole world has interests, and if there is a fire here, all the countries of the world will be harmed”, Abdulhamid added.

The sermons occurred amidst a heavy military presence in Zahedan, reflecting ongoing tensions and past protests in the region.

This follows a report that 15 individuals who were allegedly jailed during the monarchy, prior to the 1979 revolution, filed a lawsuit accusing the US of supporting the Pahlavi dynasty in establishing its security and intelligence service, SAVAK.

The plaintiffs claim that years of torture by the Shah's secret police SAVAK left them with “physical, mental, and social harms.”

However, no details were provided about who those plaintiffs are, and what evidence exists to support for their claims.

Late last year, Iranian exiled prince Reza Pahlavi said that most of those held by SAVAK were agents of the Soviet Union. He also added that Iran's present Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was one of those trained by the KGB in Palestinian camps in Lebanon.

SAVAK was the main secret police from 1957 to 1979 when the Iranian Revolution took place, after which Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar ordered its dissolution.

The Islamic Republic is recognized by UN bodies and rights groups as one of the world's most notorious violators of human rights. Reports of torture have been wide-ranging in connection with methods employed by Iranian intelligence and security forces, especially during recent protests and the resulting crackdown. Amnesty International has reported on cases of sexual violence, physical torture, and other cruel treatments made against detainees, including children. Such actions involve raping, beating, and subjecting to electric shocks.

Other reports have cited the use of pharmacological torture, whereby political prisoners are subjected to psychoactive drugs that produce grave psychic and physical distress. Some reports have indicated that the use of psychiatric torture have increased since the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests.

“Iran’s proxy forces can retaliate to the recent strike on [airbase in] Esfahan and Israel wants to prevent that from happening,” said Masoud Alfak, adding that “Israel now sees the best defense in an offense.”

On Friday, explosions were heard in Esfahan's 8th Shekari Air Base as Israel reportedly launched a widely anticipated strike in retaliation to a large-scale Iranian missile and drone attack over the weekend.

In less than 24 hours, airstrikes hit the headquarters and a major base of Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi militia (Popular Mobilization Forces) in the Babylon governorate of eastern Iraq to the south of the capital city, Baghdad.

According to Alfak, a vast network of hybrid warfare is currently underway between Israel and Iran and its proxies in the region. “Israel considers Tehran-backed proxy groups as part of its conflict with Iran.”

The Dubai-based analyst remarked that as long as the war in Gaza continues and Iran-Israel tensions persist, Tehran-backed proxies will continue their destabilizing actions in the region and will refuse to stay peaceful.

No one has claimed responsibility for the overnight strikes on Hashd al-Shaabi positions in Iraq. In a post on X, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) dismissed reports that Washington had a part in the operation. Citing an unnamed Israeli official, CNN reported that Israel also denied involvement in the incident.

For months after the start of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, the Iranian government avoided direct involvement in the conflict and used its proxies such as Yemeni Houthis, Hashd al-Shaabi, and Hezbollah to target Israeli and American interests in the region.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have risen sharply over the past weeks. On April 1, Israel launched a precision missile strike on Iran's consulate building in Damascus, including Mohammad Reza Zahedi, the highest-ranking commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force (IRGC-QF) in Lebanon and Syria. In retaliation, Iran launched its first ever direct strike against Israeli territory on April 14 with more than 350 drones and cruise and ballistic missiles.

In a post on X, Jason Brodsky, Policy Director at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), attributed the overnight strikes in Iraq to Israel. “On April 17, Iraq’s national security advisor Qasim Al-Araji, a member of IRGC terrorists-backed Badr Organization, said Iran’s regime’s attack on Israel on April 13 created ‘a new deterrent policy’ in the region. And this is Israel’s response to him tonight in Iraq,” Brodsky pointed out.

Since October 7, Iran-backed forces in Iraq have been threatening to target Israel. Their anti-Israel rhetoric intensified after the April 1 attack in Damascus. Following the incident, the Iranian proxies in Iraq claimed two drone attacks on Israeli territory, one in Haifa and another in Golan Heights.

Furthermore, Tehran-backed Iraqi Hezbollah voiced its readiness to arm and equip 12,000 forces of “the Islamic resistance” in Jordan, threatening that country’s stability and the Hashemite kingdom.

“This threat is about opening a broad front against the Zionist regime, which is probably the most dangerous of all fronts because it could geographically threaten all the cities of the occupied territories and could facilitate attacks against many of the most sensitive targets, including Tel Aviv and [Israel’s] nuclear facilities,” Iranian semi-official news agency ISNA reported on April 4.

The new tariffs, which came into force Saturday, would also include an average 28 percent hike for metro services and a 26 percent rise for buses. The changes were implemented after obtaining approval from the Tehran City Council and the Tehran Governorate.

The rise in transportation costs comes at a time when the country is experiencing one of the acutest economic crises in recent Iranian history. Observers caution that the fare hikes may exacerbate inflationary pressures further, as the cost of goods transportation also climbs, leading to higher consumer prices.

The high transport costs might also drive commuters to lower-cost but environmentally unfriendly alternatives like personal vehicles or motorcycles which will escalate traffic congestion further, increase emission levels, and degrade air quality.

This comes as a recent study revealed that one in three Iranians lives below the poverty line. This would mean that a family of three in Iran needs at least $400 a month to come to a level of at least meeting essential needs. However, the new minimum monthly wage has been set at 115 million Iranian rials or about 170 US dollars.

This has led to hard times for citizens, where many people find it difficult to afford some of the most essential dietary requirements, such as meat, fruits, and vegetables. Although authorities have given repeated vows to control inflation, the pledges have frequently fallen short, echoing previous unmet commitments.