South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
UK restrictions stay
Prime minister gave a strong hint the next planned reopening in England will be delayed.
Iran held a final presidential debate Saturday that showed the fissures within the Islamic Republic’s politics, as hard-liners referred to those seeking ties to the West as “infiltrators” and the race’s two other candidates brought up unrest that surrounded Tehran’s disputed 2009 election.
Analysts and state-linked polling put hard-line judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi as the clear front-runner in the vote set for Friday, with the public now largely hostile to the relative moderate President Hassan Rouhani after the collapse of Tehran’s nuclear deal.
But that didn’t stop Rouhani’s former Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati from harshly criticizing Raisi, at one point getting up from his chair to hand him a list he described as naming individuals who haven’t paid back huge loans from state banks. He again tried to link Raisi to former President Donald Trump, whose decision to unilaterally withdraw America from Iran’s nuclear deal has seen the country crushed by sanctions.
“Mr. Raisi, you and your friends have played in Trump’s ground with your extremist policies,” Hemmati said.
For his part, Raisi called Hemmati’s move a stunt and said he’d make sure the government returns to the nuclear deal.
The deal “would not be executed by you, it needs a powerful government to do this,” Raisi said.
The election will see voters pick a candidate to replace Rouhani, who is term-limited.
The debate echoed previous ones, with hard-liners focusing their criticism on Hemmati as a stand-in for Rouhani. Hard-liner Alireza Zakani accused Hemmati of committing a “huge treason” by sharing financial information to the International Monetary Fund. Hard-line former Revolutionary Guard chief Mohsen Rezaei described the Rouhani government as being run by “infiltrators.”
Hemmati, who raised eyebrows in recent days after saying he’d be potentially willing to speak with President Joe Biden, said his government would not view Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as enemies. He also warned that without deals with the wider world, Iran’s economy would see no growth.
“What will happen if the hard-liners have power?” Hemmati asked. “I tell you there is going to be more sanctions.”
It remains unclear if the debates will affect voters’ opinions. The state-linked Iranian Student Polling Agency suggested just 37% of Iranian adults watched the second debate.
Unlike the earlier debates, Hemmati and reformist candidate Mohsen Mehralizadeh brought up mass protests that challenged the government. Mehralizadeh asked Raisi to intervene with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to pardon people still held after nationwide demonstrations in 2019 over gasoline price hikes.
Those demonstrations ended with one lawmaker suggesting 7,000 people had been arrested. Amnesty International said the death toll from the violence was at least 208, with the rights group saying security forces killed demonstrators.
The demonstrations were the deadliest since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected in 2009.