PERSIAN GULF

IRAN’S TOP LEADER: RECONSIDER BARRING REFORMIST CANDIDATES

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s supreme leader ordered the hard-line constitutional watchdog council to reconsider its decision to bar senior reformist candidates from running in next month’s presidential elections, state-run television reported yesterday.

The Guardian Council, which vets the election candidates, on Sunday rejected all the reformists registered to run in next month’s presidential elections. The council rejected all but six of the 1,000 hopeful candidates. Among those rejected were all the female candidates.

“It’s appropriate that all individuals in the country be given the choice from various political tendencies,” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in his decree addressed to Guardian Council chief Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati.

“Therefore, it seems that [the] qualification of Mr. Moin and Mr. Mehralizadeh be reconsidered,” the television quoted Mr. Khamenei’s decree as saying, referring to the two most prominent reformists disqualified, Mostafa Moin and Vice President Mohsen Mehralizadeh.

Mr. Khamenei made the statement after parliamentary speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, also a hard-liner, called on the supreme leader to intervene in the growing dispute over the disqualification of Messrs. Moin and Mehralizadeh to encourage more Iranians to vote June 17.

Mr. Moin, a former culture minister and the top presidential prospect for reformists, had said he would not vote in the elections and called his disqualification “illegal, unfair, and illogical.”

Mr. Khamenei made no mention of the 89 women hopefuls who have been barred from running because of their gender, and it is not expected that women would be allowed to run.

The Guardian Council’s decision to disqualify all reformists prompted an outcry and calls for an election boycott. None of the six candidates whose participation was approved came from the reformist camp.

– Associated Press

MIDDLE EAST

PALESTINIANS ANNOUNCE DELAY IN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

The Palestinian Election Commission said yesterday that parliamentary elections scheduled for July 17 will be delayed because it needed more time to prepare for the vote – a move threatening to inflame a dispute between the militant group Hamas and the ruling Fatah Party.

The election commission said it would need at least two months from the time a new election law was ratified to prepare for the vote. The law is being held up by a dispute between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and parliament over how many legislators should be chosen in district elections and how many from party slates.

Hamas, which hopes to gain after strong showings in three rounds of municipal elections since December, has insisted the parliament vote be held as scheduled. Before yesterday’s announcement, Hamas spokesman Mohammed Ghazal accused Fatah of using logistics as a pretext to delay the vote.

The commission said it could carry out the election on time, but only based on the old law. It called on Mr. Abbas to issue a presidential decree with a new election date as soon as possible.

Mr. Abbas has said he supports holding the election July 17. However, he also is holding up final approval of the new election law.

Also yesterday, Israeli security officials said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz planned to meet with the Palestinian security chief, Interior Minister Nasser Yousef, to discuss Israel’s planned withdrawal from Gaza this summer and the recent flare-up of violence in Gaza.

Prime Minister Sharon, speaking during a visit to New York on yesterday, said Israel will turn the Gaza-Egypt border over to the Egyptians if they stop Palestinian arms smuggling.

– Associated Press