Iran's former parliament speaker Ali Larijani delivers a speech after registering his candidacy for Iran's presidential election at the Interior Ministry in capital Tehran on May 15, 2021. AFP
Iran's former parliament speaker Ali Larijani delivers a speech after registering his candidacy for Iran's presidential election at the Interior Ministry in capital Tehran on May 15, 2021. AFP
Iran's former parliament speaker Ali Larijani delivers a speech after registering his candidacy for Iran's presidential election at the Interior Ministry in capital Tehran on May 15, 2021. AFP
Iran's former parliament speaker Ali Larijani delivers a speech after registering his candidacy for Iran's presidential election at the Interior Ministry in capital Tehran on May 15, 2021. AFP

Iran elections: former parliament speaker Ali Larijani to run for president


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Former parliament speaker Ali Larijani registered on Saturday to run in Iran's coming presidential election, becoming the first high-profile candidate to potentially back the policies of the departing administration that reached Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

Mr Larijani, long a prominent conservative voice who later allied himself with Iran's relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani, filed his papers on the last day of registration for the June 18 election.

Although all candidates must be approved by a panel overseen by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mr Larijani has maintained close ties to the cleric over his decades in government.

Mr Larijani, a former commander in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, previously served as the minister of culture and Islamic guidance and as the head of Iran's state broadcaster.

Under hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he served as secretary of Iran's powerful Supreme National Security Council for two years, and as a senior nuclear negotiator. He later became speaker of the Iranian parliament for about 12 years, stepping down in May last year.

Mr Larijani's family includes prominent members of Iran's theocracy, with his cleric brother once serving as the head of the Iranian judiciary. His father was a prominent ayatollah.

Within Iran, candidates exist on a political spectrum that broadly includes hardliners who want to expand Iran’s nuclear programme, moderates who hold on to the status quo, and reformists who want to change the theocracy from within.

Those calling for radical change find themselves blocked from even running for office by the Guardian Council, a 12-member panel that vets and approves candidates under Mr Khamenei’s watch.

“Like outgoing President Rouhani, Larijani is someone Khamenei trusts to represent Iran without compromising the regime’s basic tenets of religious supervision over society and independence from foreign powers,” Barbara Slavin, the director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council, wrote recently.

A clear candidate has yet to emerge within the reformists. Some mentioned Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who later said he would not run after a scandal about a leaked recording in which he offered frank criticism of the Revolutionary Guard and the limits of the civilian government’s power.

Hardline contenders 

The most prominent candidate to register on Saturday was Iran’s judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi, a prominent hardline cleric who also took part in a panel involved in the mass execution of thousands of prisoners in 1988.

He ran against Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and lost in the 2017 presidential election, though he still garnered nearly 16 million votes.

Mr Raisi has been named as a possible successor to Mr Khamenei, 82, leading some to suggest he would not run in the race.

However, his registration shows he still has interest in the office he failed to obtain in 2017.

Hardliners have increasingly suggested that a former military commander should be president given the country’s problems, something that has not happened since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and the purge of the armed forces that followed.

Mr Ahmadinejad, the former hardline president, registered to run on Wednesday. His attempt to contest the 2017 election was blocked after Mr Khamenei criticised him, but the supreme leader has not warned him off this time.

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Six tips to secure your smart home

Most smart home devices are controlled via the owner's smartphone. Therefore, if you are using public wi-fi on your phone, always use a VPN (virtual private network) that offers strong security features and anonymises your internet connection.

Keep your smart home devices’ software up-to-date. Device makers often send regular updates - follow them without fail as they could provide protection from a new security risk.

Use two-factor authentication so that in addition to a password, your identity is authenticated by a second sign-in step like a code sent to your mobile number.

Set up a separate guest network for acquaintances and visitors to ensure the privacy of your IoT devices’ network.

Change the default privacy and security settings of your IoT devices to take extra steps to secure yourself and your home.

Always give your router a unique name, replacing the one generated by the manufacturer, to ensure a hacker cannot ascertain its make or model number.

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Director: Jesse Armstrong

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'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'

Rating: 1 out of 4

Running time: 81 minutes

Director: David Blue Garcia

Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham

BIOSAFETY LABS SECURITY LEVELS

Biosafety Level 1

The lowest safety level. These labs work with viruses that are minimal risk to humans.

Hand washing is required on entry and exit and potentially infectious material decontaminated with bleach before thrown away.

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RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP FIXTURES

September 30
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SERIE A FIXTURES

Saturday (All UAE kick-off times)

Cagliari v AC Milan (6pm)

Lazio v Napoli (9pm)

Inter Milan v Atalanta (11.45pm)

Sunday

Udinese v Sassuolo (3.30pm)

Sampdoria v Brescia (6pm)

Fiorentina v SPAL (6pm)

Torino v Bologna (6pm)

Verona v Genoa (9pm)

Roma V Juventus (11.45pm)

Parma v Lecce (11.45pm)

 

 

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Defence review at a glance

• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”

• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems

• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.

• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%

• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade

• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels

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Strait of Hormuz

Fujairah is a crucial hub for fuel storage and is just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond.

The strait is 33 km wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is just three km wide in either direction. Almost a fifth of oil consumed across the world passes through the strait.

Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait, a move that would risk inviting geopolitical and economic turmoil.

Last month, Iran issued a new warning that it would block the strait, if it was prevented from using the waterway following a US decision to end exemptions from sanctions for major Iranian oil importers.

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Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi​​​​​​​
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BIG SPENDERS

Premier League clubs spent £230 million (Dh1.15 billion) on January transfers, the second-highest total for the mid-season window, the Sports Business Group at Deloitte said in a report.

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
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Main camera: quad 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 108MP wide f/1.8, 10MP telephoto f/4.9, 10MP telephoto 2.4; Space Zoom up to 100x, auto HDR, expert RAW

Video: 8K@24fps, 4K@60fps, full-HD@60fps, HD@30fps, super slo-mo@960fps

Front camera: 40MP f/2.2

Battery: 5000mAh, fast wireless charging 2.0 Wireless PowerShare

Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC

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Price: Dh4,699 for 128GB, Dh5,099 for 256GB, Dh5,499 for 512GB; 1TB unavailable in the UAE

COMPANY PROFILE

Company name: Blah

Started: 2018

Founder: Aliyah Al Abbar and Hend Al Marri

Based: Dubai

Industry: Technology and talent management

Initial investment: Dh20,000

Investors: Self-funded

Total customers: 40

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