DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s parliament re-elected hard-liner Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf on Tuesday as its speaker, reaffirming its hard-right make-up within the wake of a helicopter crash that killed the nation’s president and overseas minister.
Of 287 lawmakers voting, 198 backed Qalibaf to retain the place he first took in 2021. He initially grew to become speaker following a string of failed presidential bids and 12 years because the chief of Iran’s capital metropolis, wherein he constructed onto Tehran’s subway and supported the development of contemporary high-rises.
Many, nonetheless, know Qalibaf for his assist, as a Revolutionary Guard common, for a violent crackdown on Iranian college college students in 1999. He additionally reportedly ordered stay gunfire for use in opposition to Iranian college students in 2003 whereas serving because the nation’s police chief.
In Tuesday’s vote, challenger Mojtaba Zonnouri, a hard-line Shiite cleric who as soon as led the parliament’s nationwide safety fee, received 60 votes. A former overseas minister to hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Manouchehr Mottaki, acquired 5 votes.
Qalibaf referred to as on lawmakers to discover a method to deal with their constituents’ calls for after being re-elected.
“To be able to create hope within the individuals, we should attain a standard understanding and act in a converging and empathetic approach, and we should agree on prioritizing the answer of the individuals’s issues, no matter our political inclinations and tastes,” he stated.
The March parliament election noticed the nation’s lowest turnout since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Of these elected to the 290-seat physique, hard-liners maintain over 230 seats, in line with an Related Press survey.
A educated pilot, Qalibaf served within the paramilitary Guard throughout the nation’s bloody Eighties struggle with Iraq. After the battle, he served as the pinnacle of the Guard’s development arm, Khatam al-Anbia, for a number of years main efforts to rebuild.
Qalibaf then served as the pinnacle of the Guard’s air pressure, when in 1999 he co-signed a letter to reformist President Mohammad Khatami amid pupil protests in Tehran over the federal government closing a reformist newspaper and a subsequent safety pressure crackdown. The letter warned Khatami the Guard would take motion unilaterally until he agreed to place down the demonstrations.
Violence across the protests noticed a number of killed, a whole bunch wounded and 1000’s arrested.
Qalibaf then served as the pinnacle of Iran’s police, modernizing the pressure and implementing the nation’s 110 emergency telephone quantity. Nonetheless, a leaked recording of a later assembly between Qalibaf and members of the Guard’s volunteer Basij pressure, included him claiming that he ordered gunfire be used in opposition to demonstrators in 2003, in addition to praising the violence utilized in Iran’s 2009 Inexperienced Motion protests.
Qalibaf ran failed presidential campaigns in 2005, 2013 and 2017, the final of which noticed him withdraw in assist of the hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi. Raisi later grew to become president and died within the Could 19 helicopter crash that additionally killed International Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and 6 others.
Iran’s parliament performs a secondary function in governing the nation, although it may well intensify strain on a presidential administration when deciding on the annual funds and different essential payments. Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 85, has the ultimate say in all essential state issues.
Iran will maintain presidential elections on June 28 to exchange Raisi. On Thursday, a five-day registration interval for candidates will open.
