6 Established 1961 International Tuesday, May 11, 2021 List of military candidates stirs unease over vote Possible militarization of country’s politics ignites fears : A string of military figures on the list of former Guards member, and General Hossein Iranian presidential hopefuls is stirring unease over Dehqan, who was defense minister in outgoing a possible militarization of the Islamic republic’s President Hassan Rouhani’s first government. politics. Registration for the June 18 poll runs from Moderate daily Jomhouri-e Eslami has warned the Tuesday to Saturday, after which names will be election of a “military figure to head the govern- handed to the conservative-dominated Guardian ment” could have “negative consequences” for the Council for vetting. State news agency IRNA has country. And Ali Motahari, a former lawmaker from pointed to “the longest-ever list (of potential candi- the reformist camp who has announced he plans to dates) in a presidential election with a military run, has said the long struggles to end military rule background”. in Turkey and Pakistan should serve as a warning. The participation of candidates with a military But General Dehqan has rejected any sugges- background “is not new”, said Ahmad Zeidabadi, an tion that “military figures would bring in martial independent journalist in Tehran. However, none of law or restrict freedoms”. “In Iran, there’s no them were serving members of military forces dur- chance of militarization of the state,” said Dehqan, ing their candidacy, said Habib Torkashvand, a jour- currently an adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah nalist with the Fars news agency which is close to Ali Khamenei. Iran’s ultra-conservatives. This time around, hopefuls include Saeed No military ‘interference’ Mohammad, an adviser to Guards commander The Islamic republic’s late founder, Ayatollah Major General Hossein Salami, and former oil minis- Ruhollah Khomeini, repeatedly urged the military ter Admiral Rostam Ghasemi, an economic affairs “not to interfere in politics”. But under his successor aide to the head of the Guards’ elite Al-Quds force. Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guard Corps has Two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps- expanded its economic and political influence to TEHRAN: In this file photo taken on February 26, 2016, Iranian candidate Ali Motahari (right) casts his ballot at a parliament speaker such an extent that analysts regard it as a state polling station in Tehran. The high number of presidential hopefuls from the ranks of the military for Iran’s June and his predecessor -have both run for within a state. 18 election is stirring unease over a possible militarization of the Islamic republic. — AFP president in the past. So has Admiral Ali Shamkhani, The military’s influence on Iranian diplomacy has secretary general of the Supreme National Security been at the centre of a furor in recent weeks after commander of the elite Republican Guards and for- Kadkhodai, spokesman for the Guardian Council Council. The three have been touted as possible an audio leak in which Foreign Minister Mohammad mer presidential hopeful, criticized Zarif as he electoral body, has told to AFP that Iranian law candidates for this year’s race too, although they Javad Zarif complained of having “sacrificed diplo- announced his candidacy. does not ban members of the military from running have yet to declare their intentions. macy for the military field rather than the field serv- Revolutionary Guards chief Salami has since for election. icing diplomacy”. said that only “personal initiative” motivated any It does however forbid military “interference”, ‘No chance of militarization’ Zarif said he regretted his comments were member to run for office, and said his organization such as announcing a candidate or changing the The field also includes Ezzatollah Zarghami, a leaked. Shortly after, General Mohsen Rezai, an ex- did not instruct members how to vote. Abbas-Ali outcome of a poll. — AFP

News in brief Iraqi reporter Norway may drop AZ, J&J jabs seriously shot OSLO: An expert committee set up by Norway’s KARBALA: An Iraqi journalist was in intensive care government to evaluate AstraZeneca’s and after being shot in the head early yesterday, doctors Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccines said said, only 24 hours after a leading anti-government yesterday that both should be abandoned over risks of rare but serious side effects. In order to activist was killed. Anti-corruption campaigner Ihab avoid a slowdown of the vaccine rollout the com- Al-Wazni was shot dead early Sunday in Karbala, mittee recommended that the two jabs should be sending protest movement supporters onto the made available for people on a voluntary basis. streets to demand an end to such bloodshed and offi- The committee’s head Lars Vorland said they did cial impunity. “not recommend the use of adenoviral vector Wazni had led protests in the Shiite shrine city of vaccines in the national immunization program”, Karbala, where pro-Tehran armed groups hold major as he handed in their report. — AFP sway. He was shot overnight outside his home by men on motorbikes using a gun equipped with a silencer, in an ambush caught on surveillance cameras. His Case over agent Orange use dismissed death was confirmed by security forces and activists. Hours after his death, reporter Ahmed Hassan was in KARBALA: Mourners pray by the body of Iraqi anti-government activist Ihab Al-Wazni (Ehab Al-Ouazni) during his EVRY, France: A French court yesterday dis- intensive care after receiving “two bullets in the head funeral at the Imam Hussein Shrine in the central holy shrine city of Karbala Sunday. —AFP missed a case by an elderly French-Vietnamese and one in the shoulder,” a doctor said. woman against several agrochemical companies, “He was targeted as he got out of his car to go incompetence in October 2019. Watani (National Bloc) party born out of the anti- including Monsanto and Dow Chemical, over the home,” in Diwaniya in the south of the country, Around 600 activists from the movement have government protests also said they would boycott use by the US military of Agent Orange during been killed, whether on the streets during rallies or Iraq’s October parliamentary elections in protest. the Vietnam War. The court in the Paris suburb of according to a witness. Wazni had narrowly escaped targeted on their doorsteps. Protests broke out in In a video recording in the morgue where Wazni’s Evry ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction to death in December 2019, when men on motorbikes judge a case involving the wartime actions of the used silenced weapons to kill fellow activist Fahem Karbala, Nassiriya and Diwaniya in southern Iraq in body was initially held, a fellow activist blamed US government, according to the ruling seen by Al-Tai as he was dropping him home in Karbala. Both reaction to Wazni’s killing, as people called for an end pro-Tehran groups for the killing. “It is the Iranian AFP. Tran To Nga, who was born in 1942 in what were key figures in a national protest movement that to the bloodshed and to rampant corruption. militias who killed Ihab,” said the activist, who was was then French Indochina, accused the chemicals erupted against Iraqi government corruption and The Iraqi Communist Party and the Al-Beit Al- not named. — AFP firms of causing grievous harm to her and others by selling Agent Orange to the US government, town northeast of the capital Port-au- which used the toxic chemical to devastating Fear of execution: Prince on April 11, has become the most effect in the war. — AFP visible example of the country’s recent Haiti kidnap spike in kidnappings for ransom. Italian woman gets 6 doses of vaccine Briand, and nun Agnes Bordeau, 80, victims tell told AFP they were en route to a ROME: A 23-year-old Italian woman was under priest’s ordination when their group observation in a hospital in Tuscany after came upon a dozen armed men who receiving six doses of the Pfizer vaccine in of ordeal had blocked the road on the outskirts of the capital. “We were in the wrong error, news agency AGI reported yesterday. The PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Living in woman was in good condition after receiving place at the wrong time,” said Briand, fluids and paracetamol following the injection squalid conditions, fearing execution who believes the gang members had Sunday, AGI reported. Instead of injecting just and constantly being shuffled to new not planned their kidnapping. one dose into the arm of the student, a nurse locations-a nun who was among a “As I entered the forest I saw a fire,” mistakenly injected the entire vial, the equiva- group of 10 people captured in Haiti Bordeau told AFP. “And I thought, ‘Oh lent of six doses. Previous studies to test over- told AFP she believed their bodies that’s it, they’re going to kill us and then doses of the Pfizer vaccine were limited to four would be burned or dumped into a they’re going to burn us.’” “Very quick- doses, AGI wrote. —AFP mass grave. But Michel Briand, a 67- ly too, I heard the sound of pickaxe year-old priest also in the abducted strikes against the ground. I said to Sister Agnes Bordeau poses for a photo in the gardens shared with the Priests of group, said he does not blame his cap- myself, ‘Well, they are in the process of St. Jacques, located at the Fleur Ducheine in Port-au-Prince. — AFP Spain parties mark curfew’s end tors for the ordeal. He faults Haiti’s pub- making a mass grave and they are lic authorities. going to throw us in there and kill us,’” was able to interact with the gang. He Bordeau said. Throughout the entire MADRID: Spain’s government called yesterday Undermined by extreme poverty she said, now able to laugh at how very said in the first minutes, the men “did ordeal, no one in the group, which for “responsibility”, insisting health restrictions and political instability, Haiti has seen a not know where to put us,” and later included French and Haitian clergy plus were still in place after weekend images showed dark her assumptions were. recent increase in violent gangs in its While Bordeau has worked in Haiti threw cardboard on the ground, which lay people, was ever attacked. “The people celebrating the state of emergency’s end third place was the most terrible without masks or social distancing. “The end of poorer neighborhoods, which the since 2019 after spending decades in became the captives’ home for five because it was unsanitary, really small, the state of emergency does not mean the end country’s meager public investment Central Africa, Briand has been a mis- days. The captives were moved con- of restrictions. Far from it. The virus threat still efforts have passed over. The abduction sionary in the Caribbean since 1986 stantly, with each change eliciting hope and they decreased our food,” Bordeau exists,” Justice Minister Juan Carlos Campo of the 10 in Croix-des-Bouquets, a and speaks fluent Creole, meaning he of release and fear of execution, said calmly. — AFP wrote in an opinion piece in El Pais daily. “That’s why the authorities will continue to take action in a press conference yesterday, including the India variant worries and the public must keep on behaving responsi- Britain to ease reopening of indoor seating in pubs and restaurants. India, suffering from one of the worst outbreaks bly.” After more than six months of curfews and a ban on travel between Spain’s 17 regions When asked during a BBC interview Sunday if hug- in the world, reported nearly 370,000 fresh infec- under a state of emergency which was imposed lockdown; India ging would be allowed, senior minister Michael tions and more than 3,700 new deaths yesterday. in late October, Spaniards were afforded new Gove said: “Without prejudice to a broader review The devastating wave has overwhelmed India’s freedoms when the measure expired in the early variant worries of social distancing... friendly contact, intimate con- healthcare system, and experts have said the official hours of Sunday. —AFP tact between friends and family is something that figures for cases and fatalities are much lower than LONDON: Britain yesterday was set to announce a we want to see restored.” Cinemas are also expect- the actual numbers. further easing of its coronavirus lockdown, joining ed to reopen, as well as some large indoor venues The situation in India has been worsened by a Worker dead in New Caledonia blast several European nations in gradually reopening after the government held several pilot events- new variant, which is more contagious and there their economies, but India remained in the grip of a including a rock concert-to test safety measures. are fears it could potentially dodge some vaccine NOUMEA, France: An explosion rocked a devastating outbreak. Rapid vaccination programs This follows Spain’s lifting of a state of emer- protections, the World Health Organization’s power plant supplying electricity for a metals have allowed a number of wealthy nations to start gency in place since October, allowing people to chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told AFP on processing site in France’s Pacific territory of taking steps towards normality, but the virus is still travel between regions. “It’s like New Year’s,” said Saturday. New Caledonia yesterday, killing one employee, 28-year-old Oriol Corbella in Barcelona, where the The Indian outbreak has spread to some of its its operator said. Investigations are underway surging in many countries and concerns are grow- to determine the cause of the blast in the capi- ing about global vaccine inequality. end of the curfew was met with shouts, applause neighbors, with Nepal reeling from a worrying spike tal Noumea, which occurred during testing to The pandemic has claimed close to 3.3 million and music. in cases. Because of the outbreak in the Himalayan bring a boiler back online after maintenance lives worldwide and Britain has the highest death In Germany, people fully vaccinated against nation, China will set up a “separation line” on the work. “All technical precautions have been tak- toll in Europe, but its successful vaccination pro- COVID-19 were exempt from many restrictions summit of Mount Everest-which straddles the en to secure the site,” Nicolas de Cointet, oper- gram has allowed the authorities to start relaxing from Sunday after the government passed new leg- China-Nepal border-to avoid possible infections by ations director at the Enercal plant, told a press curbs. islation. And Cyprus exited a third partial lockdown climbers from Nepal, state media reported. Dozens conference. — AFP Prime Minister Boris Johnson was due to with a new coronavirus “safety pass” system to have been taken ill from the Everest base camp in announce the latest measures-effective May 17 — allow people to move freely. recent weeks. — AFP