TEHRAN (AFP) – Thousands of Iranians drove through Tehran yesterday to mark the 43rd anniversary of the country’s Islamic Revolution, staying in vehicles rather than marching on foot amid COVID restrictions.

Due to the pandemic, state television said this year, as the previous year, there should be “no gathering or marching” by those celebrating the 1979 overthrow of the shah’s regime.

Instead, people travelled by car, motorcycle and bicycle, to converge on the capital’s iconic Azadi Square, despite chilly temperatures.

Some had painted their cars in the red, white and green colours of the Iranian flag, while others chanted slogans from windows as they drove by.

State television broadcast footage of similar rallies in other major cities, including Isfahan, Mashhad, Tabriz and Shiraz.

Demonstrators bore portraits of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as well as the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic, and revered general Qasem Soleimani, killed by a United States (US) air strike at Baghdad airport in January 2020.

This year’s anniversary is the first since ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi took office in August last year.

The celebrations mark the day that cleric Khomeini returned from exile and ousted the last government of the US-backed shah.

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had already fled Iran after months of protests against his rule.

The coronavirus has infected over 6.7 million people in Iran and killed more than 133,000, according to official figures.

Iran, which has a population of around 85 million, is the Middle East country hardest hit by the pandemic. Nearly 55 million people have so far received two doses of anti-Covid vaccines.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) – Africa is moving to the “control phase” of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased vaccination rates will be crucial in helping the continent live with the disease, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said on Thursday.

“Although COVID-19 will be with us for the long term, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Moeti said. “This year we can end the disruption and destruction the virus has left in its path, and gain back control over our lives.”

Africa is heading towards “what might become a kind of endemic, living with the virus… I believe that we are transitioning from the pandemic phase and we will now need to manage the presence of this virus”, she said, addressing reporters at a virtual media briefing.

“Over the past two years, the African continent has gotten smarter, faster and better at responding to each new surge in cases of COVID-19,” said Moeti. “Against the odds, including huge inequities in access to vaccinations, we’ve weathered the COVID-19 storm with resilience and determination… But COVID-19 has cost us dearly, with more than 242,000 lives lost and tremendous damage to our economies.”

Moeti’s optimism contrasts sharply with the warnings from WHO Geneva’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who has said repeatedly the pandemic is not over and that it is premature for countries to think that the end might be imminent.

“Wherever you live, COVID isn’t finished with us,” Tedros said this week. He has cautioned that new coronavirus variants are likely and could undo the progress made so far, saying populations in Africa are among the most at-risk.

CAIRO (AP) – Libya’s east-based Parliament on Thursday appointed a new prime minister, a development that counters United Nations (UN) efforts to reconcile the divided country and will likely produce two parallel administrations.

The House of Representatives said its decision followed the incumbent premier’s failure to hold national elections in December, something that was agreed to under a UN-mediated peace process. The delay has been a major blow to international efforts to end a decade of chaos in the oil-rich North African nation.

East-based lawmakers named on Thursday former interior minister Fathi Bashagha to replace Abdul Hamid Dbeibah as head of a new interim government, according to the Parliament spokesman, Abdullah Bliheg.

In an television interview late on Thursday, Dbeibah maintained that his government would not leave power without first overseeing national elections. He repeatedly warned against what he called attempts to reignite the country’s conflict.

At the UN, reporters pressed spokesman Stephane Dujarric, about the appointment and which Libyan prime minister the UN recognises. Dujarric confirmed that it was still Dbeibah but that UN special advisor on Libya Stephanie Williams was “back in Tripoli, where she is engaging with critical stakeholders in Libya to facilitate an agreement on a path forward”.

“We are trying to get details of the decision made by the other legislative body,” Dujarric said.

Thursday’s appointment is expected to deepen divisions between rival factions in the country. Libya has been wrecked by conflict since the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-backed uprising toppled then killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

The country has for years been split between rival administrations in the east and west, each supported by militias and foreign governments.

Arriving at Tripoli’s Mitiga Airport late on Thursday, Bashagha thanked Dbeibah for having taken “responsibility in sensitive times”.

“Today we begin a new national page titled peace and love, there is no place for hatred,” he said.

A former air force pilot and businessman, Bashagha submitted his candidacy for the presidency last year. The 59-year-old politician stands as a powerful figure in Libya.

During his tenure as interior minister from 2018 until early 2021, he cultivated ties with Turkey, France and the United States, but also with Egypt and Russia, which backed his nominal rivals in the intra-Libyan conflict.