عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Khamenei’s Military Adviser Runs for Iranian Presidential Elections

Khamenei and his military advisor Hossein Dehghan. Photo: Khamenei’s website
Khamenei and his military advisor Hossein Dehghan. Photo: Khamenei’s website
TT
TT

Khamenei’s Military Adviser Runs for Iranian Presidential Elections

Khamenei and his military advisor Hossein Dehghan. Photo: Khamenei’s website
Khamenei and his military advisor Hossein Dehghan. Photo: Khamenei’s website

A military adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has officially announced running for the presidential elections, scheduled for June 2021.

Iranian news agencies circulated on Tuesday a video recording in which Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan, a commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said he will run for the elections.

Khamenei has repeatedly stressed the importance of having a young president to run a revolutionary government.

Dehghan was the first to announce his candidacy to fill the post of the eighth Iranian president after the 1979 revolution, which toppled the Shah's regime.

The elected president will assume his duties after the incumbent’s second term ends in August 2021.

Few days before his announcement, Dehghan, who has been sanctioned by the US Treasury since November 2019, held an exclusive interview with the Associated Press in which he warned against any potential US attack on Tehran.

He said any negotiations with the West could not include Iran’s ballistic missiles, which he described as a “deterrent” to Tehran’s adversaries.

“The Iranian government will not negotiate its defensive power ... with anybody under any circumstances,” he stressed. “Missiles are a symbol of the massive potential that is in our experts, young people and industrial centers.”

Dehghan held several positions before being appointed as the Supreme Leader’s advisor for defense affairs in 2017.

He served as defense minister under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and during President Hassan Rouhani's first term (2013-17) and as deputy to the then defense minister, Ali Shamkhani, during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami from 1997 till 2003.

The senior official described himself as a “nationalist” with “no conventional political tendency.”

Among former senior IRGC commanders to run in previous presidential elections are Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, currently parliamentary speaker, and Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Expediency Council since 1997.

In the first response to Dehghan’s candidacy, former Minister of Culture and Information Ali Jannati tweeted that given the multiple problems facing the country, such as the sanctions, economic pressures and public discontent from living conditions, as well as the president’s limited powers to decide on foreign and domestic policies, “we must doubt the mental health of those who want to run for the presidential elections.”

Most Viewed

 
 
World

7.0 Earthquake Hits in Remote Wilderness Along Alaska-Canada Border

Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP)
Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP)
TT
TT

7.0 Earthquake Hits in Remote Wilderness Along Alaska-Canada Border

Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP)
Hubbard Glacier, located near Yakutat, Alaska, is seen on Aug. 1, 2024. (AP)

A powerful, magnitude-7.0 earthquake struck in a remote area near the border between Alaska and the Canadian territory of Yukon on Saturday. There was no tsunami warning, and officials said there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

The US Geological Survey said it struck about 230 miles (370 kilometers) northwest of Juneau, Alaska, and 155 miles (250 kilometers) west of Whitehorse, Yukon.

In Whitehorse, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Calista MacLeod said the detachment received two 911 calls about the earthquake.

“It definitely was felt,” MacLeod said. “There are a lot of people on social media, people felt it.”

Alison Bird, a seismologist with Natural Resources Canada, said the part of Yukon most affected by the temblor is mountainous and has few people.

“Mostly people have reported things falling off shelves and walls,” Bird said. “It doesn’t seem like we’ve seen anything in terms of structural damage.”

The Canadian community nearest to the epicenter is Haines Junction, Bird said, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) away. The Yukon Bureau of Statistics lists its population count for 2022 as 1,018.

The quake was also about 56 miles (91 kilometers) from Yakutat, Alaska, which the USGS said has 662 residents.

It struck at a depth of about 6 miles (10 kilometers) and was followed by multiple smaller aftershocks.

World

Japan and Australia Urge Calm after Chinese Radar Locks on Japanese Jets

Printed Chinese and Japanese flags are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights
Printed Chinese and Japanese flags are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights
TT
TT

Japan and Australia Urge Calm after Chinese Radar Locks on Japanese Jets

Printed Chinese and Japanese flags are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights
Printed Chinese and Japanese flags are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights

Japan and Australia urged calm on Sunday after Chinese military aircraft locked radar on Japanese fighter jets, a month after the Japanese leader’s recent remarks on Taiwan that stirred tensions between Tokyo and Beijing.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said Japan formally protested the incident, calling it “an extremely regrettable” act and “a dangerous" one that "exceeded the scope necessary for safe aircraft operations.”

“We have lodged a strong protest with the Chinese side and demanded strict preventive measures,” Koizumi said.

Japan’s Defense Ministry said China’s military aircraft J-15 took off from the Chinese carrier Liaoning near the southern island of Okinawa on Saturday and “intermittently” latched its radar on Japanese F-15 fighter jets on two occasions Saturday, for about three minutes in the late afternoon and for about 30 minutes in the evening. It was not made clear whether the radar lock incident involved the same Chinese J-15 both times.

Japanese fighter jets that had been scrambled to pursue Chinese jets that were conducting aircraft takeoff and landing exercises in the Pacific. They were pursuing the Chinese aircraft at a safe distance and did not take actions that could be interpreted as provocation, Kyodo News agency said, quoting defense officials, when the radar lock happened. There was no breach of Japanese airspace, and no injury or damage was reported from the incident.

Senior Colonel Wang Xuemeng, spokesperson for the Chinese navy, defended China’s flight training near the Miyako island Saturday, saying Beijing announced the exercises beforehand and accused Japanese aircraft of “harassment.”

“We solemnly asked the Japanese side to immediately stop slandering and smearing, and strictly restrain its frontline actions. The Chinese Navy will take necessary measures in accordance with the law to resolutely safeguard its own security and legitimate rights and interests,” Wang said in a statement posted Sunday on the Chinese Ministry of Defense website.

Relations between Japan and China have worsened after Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said in early November its military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own.

Japan and Australia, whose defense ministers held their scheduled talks in Tokyo on Sunday, expressed worry over the development.

“We are deeply concerned by the actions of China in the last 24 hours,” Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles told a joint news conference Sunday after holding talks with Koizumi. “We expect those interactions to be safe and professional."

Australia does “not want to see any change to the status quo across the Taiwan Straits,” Marles said, adding that China is his country's largest trade partner and he wants to have productive relations with Beijing.

“We continue to advocate to China about these issues again, in a very calm, sensible and moderate way,” he said.

Japan and Australia, during Sunday talks, agreed to bolster military ties to lead the region’s multilateral defense cooperation. The two ministers agreed to form a comprehensive “framework for strategic defense coordination” and discuss further details.

Tokyo has been accelerating its military buildup while expanding its defense ties beyond its only treaty ally, the United States. It now considers Australia to be a semi-ally.

Marles also visited a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries shipyard in Nagasaki on Saturday to observe production of the upgraded Mogami-class frigate that his country chose in September as a replacement for its aging fleet.

Saturday's radar lock is believed to be the first involving Japanese and Chinese military aircraft. In 2013, a Chinese warship targeted a radar on a Japanese destroyer, Kyodo said.

Fighter jets use radars for search operations or fire control ahead of a missile launch.

Elsewhere in the Pacific, the Philippine coast guard said China fired three flares toward a fisheries bureau plane on patrol in the South China Sea on Saturday. Chinese forces fire flares to warn planes to move away from what they consider their airspace over the disputed waters.

World

Sri Lanka Issues Landslide Warnings as Cyclone Toll Hits 618

A Sri Lankan flood victim sorts out his belongings by railway tracks in Kandy. The authorities have issued fresh landslide warnings as monsoon storms make hillsides unstable. AFP
A Sri Lankan flood victim sorts out his belongings by railway tracks in Kandy. The authorities have issued fresh landslide warnings as monsoon storms make hillsides unstable. AFP
TT
TT

Sri Lanka Issues Landslide Warnings as Cyclone Toll Hits 618

A Sri Lankan flood victim sorts out his belongings by railway tracks in Kandy. The authorities have issued fresh landslide warnings as monsoon storms make hillsides unstable. AFP
A Sri Lankan flood victim sorts out his belongings by railway tracks in Kandy. The authorities have issued fresh landslide warnings as monsoon storms make hillsides unstable. AFP

Sri Lankan authorities issued fresh landslide warnings on Sunday with rains lashing areas already devastated by a powerful cyclone, as the death toll rose to 618.

More than two million people -- nearly 10 percent of the population -- have been affected by last week's floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah, the worst on the island this century, said AFP.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said monsoon storms were adding more rain and making hillsides unstable, including the central mountainous region and the north-western midlands.

Helicopters and planes were being used on Sunday to supply communities cut off by landslides in the center of the country.

The Sri Lanka Air Force said it had received a planeload of relief supplies from Myanmar on Sunday, the latest batch of foreign aid.

The government has confirmed 618 dead -- 464 from the lush tea-growing central region -- while 209 people remain unaccounted for.

The number of people in state-run refugee camps had dropped to 100,000 from a peak of 225,000 as floodwaters receded across the island by Sunday, the DMC said.

More than 75,000 homes were damaged, including close to 5,000 that were completely destroyed, it added.

The government on Friday unveiled a major compensation package to rebuild homes and revive businesses wiped out by the natural disaster, which hit the island as it was emerging from its 2022 economic meltdown.

A senior official earlier said recovery and reconstruction might cost up to $7 billion.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday it was considering Sri Lanka’s request for an additional $200 million to help with rebuilding.

The money is on top of the $347 million tranche due later this month, part of a four-year, $2.9 billion IMF bailout loan agreed in 2023.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake told parliament on Friday that Sri Lanka’s economy had made a significant recovery, but was not strong enough to withstand the latest shock alone.

Survivors will be offered up to 10 million rupees ($33,000) to buy land in a safer location and build a new house, the finance ministry said in a statement late on Friday.

One million rupees is being offered in compensation for each person killed or left permanently disabled.

The government did not say how much the package would cost, raising concerns given the country's recent economic turbulence.

The central bank has ordered commercial lenders, both state-owned and private, to reschedule loans.