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Iranian President Sworn in With Chants of ‘Death to America, Israel’
Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, speaks during his swearing-in ceremony at the parliament in Tehran, Iran, July 30, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran‘s new president Masoud Pezeshkian was sworn in on Tuesday, after winning an election earlier this month by promising to improve ties with the world and ease restrictions on social freedoms at home.
“We will pursue constructive and effective interaction with the world based on dignity, wisdom, and expediency,” Pezeshkian, an allegedly relative moderate, told a parliament session attended by foreign dignitaries and broadcast live on state television.
His victory has lifted hopes of a thaw in Iran‘s antagonistic relations with the West that might create openings for defusing its nuclear standoff with world powers.
But Pezeshkian takes office at a time of escalating Middle East tensions over Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza and cross-border fighting with Iran‘s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran, which backs the groups which describe themselves as the “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and US influence in the Middle East, has accused the United States of supporting what it calls Israeli crimes in Gaza.
“Those who supply weapons that kill children cannot teach Muslims about humanity,” Pezeshkian said to chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Leaders of Iran‘s Palestinian allies Hamas and the Islamic Jihad as well as senior representatives of Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthi movement and Lebanon’s Hezbollah attended the ceremony. All four groups are internationally designated terrorist groups.
Pezeshkian, who is expected to name his cabinet within two weeks, replaces hardline Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in May.
As the ultimate authority in Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say in all state matters, including foreign and nuclear policy.
He must also approve Pezeshkian’s selections for key cabinet posts, such as the foreign, oil, and intelligence ministers.
As well as mounting pressure from the West over Tehran’s fast-advancing nuclear program, Pezeshkian faces the huge task of breaking Iran free of crippling US sanctions, reimposed after Washington ditched Iran‘s 2015 nuclear deal with major powers.
Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to salvage the nuclear accord with six major powers have stalled since 2022, with both sides accusing the other of unreasonable demands.
“My government will never succumb to bullying and pressure … Pressure and sanctions do not work … and the Iranian people should be spoken to with respect,” said Pezeshkian.
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Rights Group Files Lawsuit to Block Trump Deportations of Anti-Israel Protesters
Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) filed a lawsuit challenging as unconstitutional the Trump administration’s actions to deport international students and scholars who protest or express support for Palestinian rights.
The lawsuit, filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York, seeks a nationwide temporary restraining order to block enforcement of two executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump in the first month of his term.
The lawsuit comes after the detention of a Columbia University student, Mahmoud Khalil, a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, whose arrest sparked protests this month.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Rubio on Friday said the United States will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days.
Trump vowed to deport activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian terrorists.
The ADC lawsuit was filed on behalf of two graduate students and a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who say their activism and support of the Palestinian people “has put them at serious risk of political persecution.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step to preserve our most fundamental constitutional protections. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech and expression to all persons within the United States, without exception,” said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the ADC.
Chris Godshall-Bennett, the group’s legal director, said the litigation seeks immediate and long-term relief “to protect international students from any unconstitutional overreach that stifles free expression and deters them from fully engaging in academic and public discourse.”
The lawsuit centers on three Cornell University plaintiffs: a British-Gambian national and PhD student with a student visa; a US citizen PhD student working on plant science; and a US citizen novelist, poet, and professor in the Department of Literatures in English.
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Netanyahu Informs Shin Bet Chief to Vote on His Dismissal Next Week
Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar speaks at Reichman University in Herzliya on Sunday, September 11, 2022. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security agency, that he will bring a vote before his government to dismiss him next week.
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Houthis Claim to Attack US Aircraft Carrier, Retaliating for Strikes
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Houthis claimed on Sunday that they targeted the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman and other vessels in the northern Red Sea with 18 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone. Military spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the US-led attacks against the Houthis on Saturday comprised of more than 47 airstrikes on seven governorates, with the death toll expected to rise.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to target all American warships in the Red Sea and in the Arabian Sea in retaliation to the aggression against our country,” Saree said, vowing the Houthis “will continue to impose a naval blockade on the Israeli enemy and ban its ships in the declared zone of operations until aid and basic needs are delivered to the Gaza Strip.”
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