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Khaleda Zia, Bangladesh’s first female prime minister, dies at 80
She lost to Hasina in the 1996 general election but came back five years later with a surprise landslide win.
Khaleda Zia, who became Bangladesh’s first female prime minister in 1991 and went on to develop a bitter rivalry with Sheikh Hasina as they spent decades trading power, died on Tuesday after a long illness. She was 80, Reuters reported.
Her opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said that she died after a prolonged illness. She had advanced cirrhosis of the liver, arthritis, diabetes, and chest and heart problems, her doctors said.
She went to London for medical treatment in early 2025, staying for four months before returning home.
Though Khaleda had been out of power since 2006 and had spent several years in jail or under house arrest, she and her centre-right BNP continued to command much support.
The BNP is seen as the frontrunner to win the parliamentary election slated to take place in February. Her son and acting chairman of the party, Tarique Rahman, 60, returned to the country last week from nearly 17 years in self-exile and is widely seen as a strong candidate to become prime minister.
Since August 2024, after a student-led uprising led to the ouster of Hasina, Bangladesh has been run by an interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace laureate and microfinance pioneer.
In November, Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia for her deadly crackdown on the student protests.
Known by her first name, Khaleda was described as shy and devoted to raising her two sons until her husband, military leader and then-President Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in an attempted army coup in 1981.
Three years later she became the head of the BNP, which her husband had founded, and vowed to deliver on his aim of “liberating Bangladesh from poverty and economic backwardness”.
She joined hands with Hasina, daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father and head of the Awami League party, to lead a popular uprising for democracy that toppled military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad in 1990.
But their cooperation did not last long. Their bitter rivalry would lead to the two being dubbed “the battling Begums” – a phrase that uses an Urdu honorific for prominent women.
Supporters saw her as polite and traditional yet quietly stylish, someone who chose her words carefully. But they also viewed her as a bold, uncompromising leader when it came to defending her party and confronting her rivals, read the report.
Hasina, by contrast, was far more outspoken and assertive. Their opposite personalities helped fuel the rivalry that dominated Bangladesh’s politics for decades.
In 1991, Bangladesh held what was hailed as its first free election. Khaleda won a surprise victory over Hasina, having gained the support of the country’s largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami.
In doing so, Khaleda became Bangladesh’s first female prime minister and only the second woman to lead a democratic government of a mainly Muslim nation after Benazir Bhutto, elected to lead Pakistan three years earlier.
Khaleda replaced the presidential system with a parliamentary one, so that power rested with the prime minister. She also lifted restrictions on foreign investment and made primary education compulsory and free.
She lost to Hasina in the 1996 general election but came back five years later with a surprise landslide win.
Her second term was marred by the rise of Islamist militants and allegations of corruption.
In 2004, a rally that Hasina was addressing was hit by grenades. Hasina survived but over 20 people were killed and more than 500 wounded. Khaleda’s government and its Islamic allies were widely blamed.
In 2018, after Hasina had reclaimed Bangladesh’s highest office, Rahman was tried in absentia and sentenced to life for the attack. The BNP denounced the trial as politically motivated.
Although Khaleda later clamped down on Islamist radical groups, her second stint as prime minister ended in 2006 when an army-backed interim government took power amid political instability and street violence.
The interim government jailed both Khaleda and Hasina on charges of corruption and abuse of power for about a year before they were both released ahead of a general election in 2008, Reuters reported.
Khaleda never regained power. With the BNP boycotting the 2014 and 2024 elections, her vitriolic feud with Hasina continued to dominate Bangladeshi politics.
Tension between their two parties often led to strikes, violence and deaths, impeding the economic development of Bangladesh, a poverty-stricken country of about 175 million that is low-lying and prone to devastating floods.
In 2018, Khaleda, Rahman and aides were convicted of stealing some $250,000 in foreign donations received by an orphanage trust set up when she was last prime minister – charges that she said were part of a plot to keep her and her family out of politics.
She was jailed but moved to house arrest in March 2020 on humanitarian grounds as her health deteriorated.
Khaleda was freed from house arrest in August 2024 after Hasina’s ouster.
In early 2025, Khaleda and Rahman were acquitted by Bangladesh’s Supreme Court in the corruption case that resulted in the 2018 jail sentences. Rahman had been acquitted of the 2004 grenade attack on Hasina a month earlier.
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Iran says outcome of Israeli elections ‘makes no difference’
Tuesday’s legislative elections will take place amid mounting threats by Israel and the United States to renew attacks on Iran after they launched their war in late February.
Iran’s foreign ministry said Monday that the outcome of the Israeli elections in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing a tight race will make “no difference”, AFP reported.
“It makes no difference to us who, in these elections, takes the helm of a regime that has brought nothing but violence and massacres to our region,” said ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei in a weekly press briefing.
Tuesday’s legislative elections will take place amid mounting threats by Israel and the United States to renew attacks on Iran after they launched their war in late February.
Netanyahu has in recent days repeatedly said the only way to remove the threat posed by Iran is to topple its government.
On Sunday, he told Israel’s Channel 14 that he had “instructed the Mossad and the IDF to overthrow the Iranian regime”.
Baqaei dismissed Netanyahu’s remarks as “empty threats” and a “sign of desperation”.
Regional
Officials from Mecca pact countries to meet Iranian officials in Tehran
Pakistan’s military media wing and Turkey’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Top officials from Mecca Pact countries Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are to meet Iran’s leaders in Tehran on Monday in their first high-level contact since the kingdom became a pressure point in the wider Iran conflict, Reuters reported.
Saudi Arabia will be represented by Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan by army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Turkey by intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, Saudi and Iranian officials said.
Attacks by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have spiralled in recent weeks and rhetoric between Washington and Tehran has grown more heated. Both countries have also drawn up plans to restart the wider war, possibly after the US midterm elections on November 3.
Monday’s planned talks will be the first high-level contact between Iran and all members of the three-nation bloc since Saudi Arabia was drawn deeper into the conflict. Under the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement signed in August, an armed attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday discussions on regional security would include “Israel’s expansionist policies, developments in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, and the repercussions of US and Israeli military action against Iran.”
Baghaei said the meeting, proposed during a visit by Munir to Tehran last week, could be a first step towards establishing regional security mechanisms based on the interests of countries in the region.
Qatari mediators met Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday in a push to de-escalate regional tensions, Reuters reported. Qatar has, for months, played a mediating role between Tehran and Washington.
A senior Iranian official said the meeting was initiated by Pakistan, during Munir’s visit to Tehran, as he met Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior officials. During the visit, Iranian officials told him there would be no talks with Washington until Tehran’s demands were met, according to Iranian media.
Earlier mediation efforts involving both Pakistan and Qatar helped produce an interim peace agreement in June, but the deal quickly unravelled as fighting between Iran and the United States resumed weeks later.
The deputy secretary of Iran’s top security body, Ali Baqeri-Kani, told state TV that Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid, Pakistan’s Munir and Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin would visit Tehran for consultations with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on regional security.
Saudi Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly said the meeting is part of ongoing efforts by the Mecca Pact countries to de-escalate the current crisis, promote diplomatic solutions, and support mediation efforts led by Qatar and Pakistan.”The visit also underscores the pivotal role of the Mecca Pact states in fostering regional security and stability, and their commitment to working with all nations in the region toward achieving this goal,” Krimly posted on X.
Pakistan’s military media wing and Turkey’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Saudi Arabia intercepted another wave of missiles and drones on Sunday as fighting with the Houthis continued unabated.
Ministers from the Mecca Pact countries held an emergency meeting in Riyadh earlier this month and agreed to ensure the “rapid deployment” of military forces and capabilities in Saudi Arabia.
The Houthi attacks have become an increasingly destabilising element in the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, turning US ally Saudi Arabia into a pressure point in the wider war.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have sharpened in recent days. President Donald Trump said on Friday the US may carry out another military operation against Iran and Iran’s leaders have said that a renewed US military campaign would be met with a stronger response than before.
Iranian security officials have told Reuters that Tehran has drawn up detailed plans to hit Gulf undersea cables if the United States and Israel attack again. A US intelligence memo this week warned that Iranian plots against American personnel had reached “advanced stages”.
The war, now nearly eight months old, has weighed on President Donald Trump’s approval ratings ahead of the midterms.
The Mecca agreement’s first article says the parties shall use “all necessary means” to eliminate threats to one another’s territorial integrity, sovereignty or internationally recognised borders, according to a text seen by Reuters.
Efforts by Turkey’s parliament to ratify the agreement began last week and are still underway, while Pakistan approved the pact last week.
Regional
Iran tells Pakistan army chief no talks with Washington until demands are met
The demands include ending a US blockade on its ports, the lifting of sanctions on its oil exports as well as ending hostilities on all regional fronts.
Iran told Pakistan’s army chief on Tuesday that there would be no talks with Washington until Tehran’s demands were met, Iranian media reported, underscoring its hardening stance despite mediation efforts by key interlocutor Pakistan.
President Masoud Pezeshkian discussed mediation efforts and regional developments with Field Marshal Asim Munir in Tehran, according to Nournews.
Pakistan is a key intermediary between the United States and Iran. Earlier mediation efforts helped produce an interim peace agreement in June, but the Islamabad Memorandum quickly unravelled as fighting between Iran and the US resumed weeks after.
Munir also met Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who said Washington could not regain Tehran’s trust until it fulfilled seven conditions Iran set last month for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, according to an Iranian readout of the meeting.
The demands include ending a US blockade on its ports, the lifting of sanctions on its oil exports as well as ending hostilities on all regional fronts.
Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, delivered a similar message during a separate meeting with Munir, saying there would be no talks with Washington until Tehran’s demands were met, according to Iranian media.
Rezaei also said all enriched nuclear materials would remain in Iran, reiterating Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei’s position that near-weapons-grade uranium should not be shipped abroad.
US Vice President JD Vance said earlier this month that Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity to satisfy US demands and end the countries’ eight-month-old war.
Israel, the United States and other Western states have long accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, including pointing to its move to enrich uranium to 60%, far higher than needed for civilian uses and closer to the 90% needed for a weapon.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons.
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