Iran opposition weighs election boycott
Iran opposition weighs election boycott
TEHRAN, Iran — In the end, Iran’s presidential election may be defined by who doesn’t vote.
Arguments over whether to boycott Friday’s ballot still boiled over at coffee shops, kitchen tables and on social media among many liberal-leaning Iranians on the eve of the voting. The choice — once easy for many who turned their back in anger after years of crackdowns — has been suddenly complicated by an unexpected chance to perhaps wage a bit of payback against Iran’s rulers.
The rising fortunes of the lone relative moderate left in the race, former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani, has brought something of a zig-or-zag dilemma for many Iranians who faced down security forces four years ago: Stay away from the polls in a silent protest or jump back into the mix in a system they claim has been disgraced by vote rigging.
Which way the scales tip could set the direction of the election and the fate for Rowhani, a cleric who is many degrees of mildness removed from being an opposition leader. But he is still the only fallback option for moderates in an election that once seemed preordained for a pro-establishment loyalist.
“There is a lot of interesting psychology going on. What is right? Which way to go?” said Salman Shaikh, director of The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. “This is what it means to be a reformist in Iran these days.”
Erdogan issues ultimatum
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s prime minister issued a “final warning” to protesters on Thursday, demanding they end their occupation of a park next to Istanbul’s Taksim Square that has ignited the largest political crisis of his 10-year rule.
Despite the ultimatum by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, thousands of activists camping out in Gezi Park dug in for a potential culmination of their two-week standoff with authorities.
Thousands of protesters also converged on Taksim Square, where the atmosphere was festive. A musician played on a grand piano set up in the center of the square as protesters danced, while a heavy police presence stood by.
In a sign that efforts were being made to resolve the situation through negotiations rather than a police raid, Erdogan was meeting late Thursday with some representatives of the protesters occupying the park.
Eight artists and two members of Taksim Solidarity, a group that has coordinating much of the Gezi sit-in, were involved in the meeting in Ankara, the state-run Anadolu agency said.
Hillary Clinton turns toward nonprofit world
CHICAGO — As she considers another White House bid, Hillary Rodham Clinton intends to work in the nonprofit world on issues like improving early childhood education, promoting the rights of women and girls, and finding ways to improve the economy — a set of priorities that could inform a 2016 presidential campaign.
The former secretary of state offered her most extensive description of her post-Obama administration agenda on Thursday since leaving her role as the nation’s top diplomat, basking in loud applause from admirers at a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Chicago. The former first lady, a longtime advocate for women and children, said the foundation would serve as “my home” on a set of public policy initiatives close to her heart.
“What I think we have to be about is working together, overcoming the lines that divide us, this partisan, cultural, geographic (divide). Building on what we know works, we can take on any challenge we confront,” Clinton said. Reflecting the entire family’s involvement, the foundation has been renamed the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Clinton’s speech at the start of a two-day annual conference touched on themes that could be part of a future Democratic presidential campaign.
By wire sources