Iran Presidential Poll Campaign Makes Low-Key Kick-Off

Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi submits his candidacy for the country’s presidential election in Tehran on May 15, 2021. (AFP)
Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi submits his candidacy for the country’s presidential election in Tehran on May 15, 2021. (AFP)
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Iran Presidential Poll Campaign Makes Low-Key Kick-Off

Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi submits his candidacy for the country’s presidential election in Tehran on May 15, 2021. (AFP)
Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi submits his candidacy for the country’s presidential election in Tehran on May 15, 2021. (AFP)

Iran's presidential election campaign officially kicked off on Friday, without fanfare and in an atmosphere of indifference as many say the result is a foregone conclusion.

On the streets of the capital Tehran, for now just occasional posters urge Iranians to vote on June 18 with a "single voice", for the future of an "eternal Iran".

Hamidreza, a 41-year-old engineer, said he was hesitant about voting for the moment.

"I don't even know if I'll vote or not," he said.

Like others AFP spoke to, he declined to provide his surname.

The vote comes amid widespread discontent over a deep economic and social crisis, and after the violent repression of waves of protests in the winter of 2017-18 and in 2019.

Only two reformist candidates, neither with broad national appeal, are facing five ultra-conservative runners.

Hamid, a 52-year-old insurance agent, indicated he had already made his choice: ultraconservative judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi.

Raisi "really worked well in the justice system and did a good job at fighting corruption", Hamid said.

Iran’s candidate-vetting Guardian Council this week approved seven candidates to run in the election from a field of about 600 hopefuls.

The council -- a conservative-dominated, unelected body -- disqualified moderate conservative Ali Larijani and first vice-president Eshaq Jahangiri, as well as firebrand former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The move appears to have cleared the way for a strong run by Raisi.

But it also unleashed a flood of criticism of the Guardian Council and is expected to lead to an increase in voter abstention.

"I prefer not to vote than to make the wrong choice, or to have to choose between bad and worst," said Arezou, a private sector worker.

Larijani, an adviser to supreme leader Ali Khamenei and former parliamentary speaker, was seen as the only person capable of challenging Raisi, according to local media.

Raisi won 38 percent of the vote in the 2017 presidential election but was defeated by incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, who is constitutionally barred from running for a third consecutive term.

Rouhani, a moderate who has governed with the support of reformists and also moderate conservatives like Larijani, has been an advocate of detente with the West and of ending Iran's international isolation.

Instead, Iran was plunged into a deep recession after former US president Donald Trump torpedoed Rouhani's signature achievement, the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers which offered sanctions relief in return for Tehran's pledge never to acquire an atomic weapon.

The deal galvanized ultra-conservative opposition.

But with negotiations underway in Vienna on reviving the accord, it is not expected to be the focus of the election campaign.

Khamenei, who has endorsed a continuation of the nuclear talks to secure the lifting of sanctions, has taken the issue out of the equation for the candidates, urging them instead to campaign on economic issues such as youth unemployment.



Israel's Netanyahu Arrives in Hungary, Defying ICC Warrant

FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters next to the US house speaker at the US Capitol in Washington, US, February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters next to the US house speaker at the US Capitol in Washington, US, February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo
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Israel's Netanyahu Arrives in Hungary, Defying ICC Warrant

FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters next to the US house speaker at the US Capitol in Washington, US, February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to reporters next to the US house speaker at the US Capitol in Washington, US, February 7, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Budapest early Thursday on his first trip to Europe since 2023 and in defiance of the International Criminal Court (ICC)'s arrest warrant against him.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban extended an invitation to Netanyahu last November, a day after the ICC issued the arrest warrant over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Orban vowed the EU member would not execute the warrant, despite being an ICC member, saying the court's decision "intervenes in an ongoing conflict... for political purposes".

"Welcome to Budapest, Benjamin Netanyahu!" wrote Hungary's Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky on Facebook as Netanyahu began his visit, and after greeting him at the airport in capital Budapest.

Netanyahu was welcomed with military honors, after which he will hold talks with Orban.

A joint news conference is expected around 12:30 pm (1030 GMT).

'Legal obligation'

Experts say the Israeli premier, who is scheduled to stay in Hungary until Sunday, is trying to diminish the impact of the court's decision, while hoping to drive attention away from tensions at home as he meets like-minded ally Orban.

"His ultimate goal is to regain the ability to travel wherever he wants," Moshe Klughaft, an international strategic consultant and former advisor to Netanyahu, told AFP.

"At first, he's flying to places where there's no risk of arrest, and in doing so, he's also paving the way to normalize his future travels."

Germany's chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz in February vowed to make sure Netanyahu can visit his country.

The Hungary trip "goes hand in hand with US sanctions against the ICC," Klughaft said, referring to the punitive measures US President Donald Trump imposed in February over what he described as "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel".

The ICC, based in The Hague, stressed it would be Hungary's "legal obligation" and "responsibility towards other state parties" to enforce the court's decisions.

"When states have concerns in cooperating with the court, they may consult the court in a timely and efficient manner," ICC spokesman Fadi El-Abdallah said.

"However, it is not for states to unilaterally determine the soundness of the court's legal decisions," he added.

Hungary signed the Rome Statute, the international treaty that created the ICC, in 1999 and ratified it two years later during Orban's first term in office.

The ICC, set up in 2002, has no police of its own and relies on the cooperation of its 125 member states to carry out any arrest warrants.

However, Budapest has not promulgated the associated convention for constitutional reasons and therefore asserts it is not obliged to comply with the decisions of the ICC.

Hungary has also repeatedly floated leaving the ICC -- like Burundi and the Philippines -- and has already decided to do so, Radio Free Europe reported on Wednesday, citing diplomatic sources.

Increasing pressure

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes -- including starvation as a method of warfare -- in Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

The war was sparked by the militant Palestinian group's attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

After Orban invited him, Netanyahu responded by thanking his counterpart for showing "moral clarity".

During the visit, Orban is expected to support Netanyahu on Trump's proposal to relocate more than two million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan.

Netanyahu's trip comes as he faces increasing pressure over his government's attempts to replace both the domestic security chief and attorney general, while expanding the power of politicians over the appointment of judges.

"One of Netanyahu's methods is controlling the Israeli agenda," Klughaft said, adding that the Hungary visit gives him a chance to set the conversation for days.

"In such a turbulent period, that's worth a lot to him."

In the past, some top leaders wanted by the ICC have thumbed their noses at the court and travelled to member states with impunity.

Mongolia ignored an ICC warrant last year when it welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin for a state visit.

Putin is accused of war crimes for the alleged illegal deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children since the Russian invasion in 2022.