Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has announced his intention to stand as a candidate in the country’s forthcoming Assembly of Experts elections.
According to his official website, Rafsanjani said in an interview with an Iranian media outlet that he intends to run for a seat in the Assembly of Expert.
Hubo una explosión de esperanza y luego vino la represión y el silencio. ¿Qué ha pasado con el Movimiento Verde que sacudió Irán hace seis años? No sólo ha sobrevivido en los corazones de quienes ansiaban cambios, sus ideólogos han empezado a organizarse para encuadrar el proyecto reformista dentro de la ley, e intentar volver a la escena politica. Su objetivo es participar en las elecciones parlamentarias del año que viene.
Tehran — a metropolis with 7.8 million inhabitants, 22 districts and 354 neighborhoods — conducted its fourth set of neighborhood council elections in March. More than 13,000 candidates ran for office, and according to high-ranking municipality officials, the number is a significant increase compared with 2009 elections. Still, although voter turnout was significant, there are doubts about the effectiveness of the councils in the framework of urban policymaking.
The spokesman for Iran’s Guardian Council has announced the official date for the next legislative elections in the country.Nejatollah Ebrahimian said Wednesday that nationwide elections to elect representatives for the Iranian parliament (Majlis) will take place on February 26, 2016.
Iran’s Interior Ministry, which is charged with organizing the vote, had demanded the Guardian Council to pick a choice between February 26 and March 4 next year, Ebrahimian said.
Addressing a meeting of women attending the National Festival of Women Achievements in Economy and Culture in the occasion of the birth anniversary of Lady Fatima Zahra, daughter of the Prophet of Islam held Sunday in Summit Hall, paid homage to this day as Mother’s Day, almost reciting a panegyric to Lady Fatima Zahra.
“I congratulate all Muslims especially Shiite Muslims on the occasion of the birth of the Prophet’s daughter, Ali’s wife, and mother of all Imams and especially of the heroine of Karbala, Zainab,” Rouhani said.
An Iranian deputy foreign minister has condemned Britain’s renewed sanctions on Iranian individuals as politically-motivated and biased.
The UK Treasury has renewed sanctions against 15 current and former Iranian officials under the pretext of violating human rights.
“The sanctions are unilateral, biased, politically-motivated and totally unacceptable,” Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi said on Tuesday.
A senior Iranian official has slammed a recent anti-Iran resolution by the European Parliament (EP), stressing that the Islamic Republic sees no value in such “baseless judgments.”
The recent EP resolution is merely aimed at exerting political pressure on Iran, said Ali Akbar Velayati, who is a top advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
“These kinds of unjust and groundless judgments are of no value to the Iranian nation,” he said.
Iran's Majlis plans to discuss the recent resolution by the European Parliament (EP) about the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic.
The National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Iran’s Majlis will examine the issue at its first session in the Persian New Year and adopt the required decisions, said committee spokesman Seyyed Hossein Naqavi-Hosseini on Friday.
An Iranian lawmaker says a resolution recently adopted by the European Parliament (EP) on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic is an act of interference in the country’s internal affairs.
“The move by the European Union is [an instance of] meddling in Iran’s domestic affairs,” said Nozar Shafi’ee, a member of the Majlis Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, on Thursday.
The 15th Summit of Iran’s Assembly of Experts has kicked off in the capital, Tehran, with the country’s senior officials in attendance.
The two-day event opened in Tehran on Tuesday with a speech by Chairman of the Iranian Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, both members of the Assembly, are among the participants of the meeting.
The Rohani administration has announced that the newly drafted Carter of Citizens’ Rights will be finalized by the end of February.
IRNA reports that the public still has the opportunity to submit ideas regarding the draft, adding that more than a thousand emails about the charter have been sent in so far, and they will be processed and incorporated in the final draft.
He added that more than 120 legal experts have also submitted their review of the draft along with their respective recommendations.
by Jalal Yaghoubi
Last week, the ministry of interior published the bill on the establishment and activities of parties in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Prior to this, the minister of interior Rahmani Fazli had announced during a meeting with representatives of various political parties and groups that a draft had been in the works. “We shall reexamine the political party law and present our final bill to the full cabinet,” he had said.
Nine reformist figures have called for the release of political prisoners and an end to the house arrest of MirHosein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi.
The Etemad daily reported on Tuesday December 10 that their letter refers to the election of 2009, saying: “During the 2009 election, many committed errors, and as Mr. Khatami has said, we must forgive each other and try to build Iran’s future hand in hand.”
Iran's Student Day was marked in Tehran by students chanting slogans in support of the release of political prisoners.
An Iranian government spokesman has announced that the Rohani administration is working to end the house arrest of reformist figures and bring about the release of political prisoners.
In an interview with Etemad Newspaper on Thursday, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said the public should maintain its confidence in Hassan Rohani’s promises to open up the political scene, adding that the administration prefers to work hard at matters rather than merely make statements.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has met the country’s senior religious figures and discussed with them key domestic issues as well as developments in the Muslim world.
The Iranian presidency’s legal advisors have published the first draft of the Charter of Citizen Rights, as promised earlier by President Hassan Rohani.
The President’s Office reports that the charter was prepared with “input from universities, seminaries, thinkers and scholars across the country” and was published together along with the 100-day report of the government.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Araqchi said on Tuesday that leaders and officials from across the world, except for the United States and Israel, have been invited to Rohani’s swearing-in ceremony scheduled for August 4, one day after his endorsement ceremony by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon will travel to Iran to participate in the ceremony.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has reappointed three Islamic jurist members of Iran’s Guardian Council and appointed a new jurist to the legislative and electoral supervisory body. In a decree issued on Tuesday, the Leader cited article 91 of the Iranian Constitution to reappoint Islamic jurist members Ayatollah Mohammad Mo’men, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi and Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi to another six-year term in the supervisory body.
