New Iranian parliament convenes after demise of Ebrahim Raisi

Tehran: A new Parliament convened in Iran's capital, Tehran, for the first time following a tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian. The State radio reported that the lawmakers in the Islamic Consultative Assembly began the first session of the legislative period with a Quran recitation.

A new Parliamentary Speaker is set to be elected in the coming days. Incumbent Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is running for re-election against religious hardliner Mojtaba Zonnour and former Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. Elections in Iran are widely seen as neither free nor fair, as the country's Guardian Council, a supervisory body of Islamic clerics and lawyers, must approve all candidates before they can run.

Hardliners won this year's parliamentary elections, which were held over two rounds in March and May amid a historically low turnout of under 40 per cent. Many Iranian citizens have become disillusioned in the face of political repression, an economic crisis and failed attempts to reform the country's political system.

A wave of protests in September 2022 following the death of a young Kurdish woman, Masha Amini, was violently suppressed by authorities. Political power in Iran is concentrated in the hands of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were killed in a helicopter crash near the border to Azerbaijan more than a week ago.

The state news agency IRNA said more than three million people attended Raisi's funeral in the north-eastern city of Mashhad on Thursday after days of national mourning.

Source: IANS