Iran’s air pollution crisis is making the coronavirus outbreak much deadlier and is being made worse by the state’s inaction, which the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) says is a deliberate move to quash protests and make profits.
Not only that, but the government actually cut off electricity to various provinces, including Qazvin, Golestan, and Qom, at midnight on Sunday without notice, leaving millions without heat as temperatures reached -6 degrees C.
On Monday, officials said that people would have to suffer through long power outages on a regular basis, with the Qazvin Electricity Company announcing a daily power cut from midnight to 4.30 am and claimed that the power cut on Sunday was planned.
Money for Tackling Air Pollution Wasted on Iran’s Global Terrorism
The government blamed both the power cuts and the pollution on the people’s high gas consumption, which has left them without the gas needed to run power plants.
“If the people’s consumption of electric heating devices is reduced by one degree, the needs of the industries for gas that caused them to cut off their gas will be compensated,” said Tehran Governor Anushirvan Mohseni Bandpey.
So, the mullahs say that either the power plants reduce the amount of electricity they produce or they burn Mazat fuel (also known as black oil), which pollutes the air. A choice between freezing to death or being suffocated.
Dissidents say that it is “a blatant lie” that Iran is out of gas because the reserves are currently 33.2 trillion cubic meters, with Iran holding 17.2 percent of worldwide gas supplies. In fact, Iran exports a large amount of gas daily, which could certainly stop if national supplies were low
“The officials’ real goal is to pursue the regime’s policy of plundering the national wealth for funding their illicit activities. To have further benefits, the regime wants to export more gas, which requires the transfer of less gas to domestic power plants,” the NCRI wrote.
Not only does the government seek more money, according to the NCRI, but also to keep people from protesting because they fear that they may die if they spend too much time out in the polluted air. But this is a catch 22 because the Iranians have proved time and again that they are willing to sacrifice their lives for freedom.
“On the one hand, the inhuman clerical regime squanders the Iranian people’s wealth on the unpatriotic nuclear, missile, and terrorism projects. On the other hand, it kills people through the consumption of fuel oil,” NCRI President Maryam Rajavi said.
The mullahs’ only concern is to preserve their regime. For them, the lives, health, and well-being of the people are worthless. As long as this regime is in power, there will be no attempt to buy vaccines, no clean air, and no solutions to contain the damage caused by floods and earthquakes,” she added.
