Reza Younesi stated that the judge in this court was Iman Afshari, who, by insulting his father, “practically did not allow him to defend himself through his lawyers.” The lawyers of the case have objected to the Ministry of Intelligence’s failure to present documents, but the judge issued the sentence against Mir Yousef Younesi based on the “reports of the officers,” rejecting the objection. Reza Younesi considered the formation of a judicial case against his father as “revenge seeking” by the Ministry of Intelligence and stated that the court has issued an identical sentence of five years in prison for him and the main defendant and prime suspect in the case who is outside Iran. The prime suspect, whom Reza Younesi refers to by the abbreviation “B,” was released from prison after a short detention, but the temporary detention of Mir Yousef Younesi, contrary to the regime’s own laws, continues after more than a year. The Ministry of Intelligence had accused Mir Yousef Younesi of “financial connection with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq organization (MEK/PMOI).” Mir Yousef Younesi’s son had previously stated that his father was detained for paying 130 million rials (approximately $255) to a person who had been arrested, claiming that he had deposited the money for one of the protesters. Although Mir Yousef Younesi has repeatedly denied making such a payment and no document has been presented regarding the transfer of this amount to the mentioned individual, a case was still filed against him. On the other hand, he told the interrogators that he is an employee of a company that engages in commercial transactions with various individuals every month. Prior to Mir Yousef Younesi, his other son, Ali Younesi, a computer engineering student at Sharif University and a winner of the silver medal in the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2016 and the gold medal in the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2017, was arrested and imprisoned. Sharif University is considered as the nation’s most prestigious and leading institution for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. In April 2020, Ali Younesi, along with Amirhossein Moradi, who was also a physics student at Sharif University and won the silver medal in the National Astronomy Olympiad in 2017, were arrested and each sentenced to 16 years in prison. This sentence, 10 years of which are enforceable, was confirmed directly in the appeals court. These two Olympiad students have been accused of “corruption on earth,” “propaganda against the system,” and “collusion and cooperation with the aim of acting against national security.”حكم "دادگاه انقلاب": پنج سال حبس تعزيرى براى #ميريوسف_يونسی
— Reza Younesi رضا يونسى (@RezaYounesi) January 9, 2024
به دليل امتناع از پوشيدن لباس زندان، وی به جلسه دادگاه برده نشد، موضوعی که باعث عصبانیت "قاضی" ایمان افشاری شد و وی با توهینهایی -که لایق خودش و رهبرش و نظامشان است- نسبت به پدرم، عملا اجازه دفاع به وکلا نداد.
۱/۳ https://t.co/9QZXq7iy2z
Iranian Political Prisoner Mir Yousef Younesi Sentenced to 5 Years in Jail
According to Reza Younesi, the brother of student and political prisoner Ali Younesi, the Revolutionary Court of Tehran has sentenced their father, Mir Yousef Younesi, to five years of imprisonment after more than a year of temporary detention.
Reza Younesi mentioned on the evening of Tuesday, January 9, on the social network platform X, that his father did not obtain permission to attend the court due to his refusal to wear prison attire.
3 Hezbollah Members Killed In Israel Strike In South Lebanon
According to Reuters, on Tuesday, January 9, three Hezbollah members were killed in an Israeli attack on a vehicle in Ghandouriyeh, a municipality in the Bint Jbeil District in southern Lebanon.
Reuters mentioned that no information has been communicated about the identities of these three individuals.
On Monday, January 8, Wissam (Jawad) al-Tawil, a senior Hezbollah commander, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon.
Tawil had recently been appointed as a “field commander” for Hezbollah and played a pivotal role in the organization’s operations in southern Lebanon. It is said that he was the commander responsible for a missile attack on the Maroun airbase in northern Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz claimed responsibility for the attack on this senior Hezbollah commander. This action contradicts the usual practice of Tel Aviv authorities, who often remain silent in response to attacks attributed to Israel.
Israeli media reported on January 9 that prior to the start of Tawil’s funeral procession, a vehicle near the residence of this Hezbollah commander was targeted.
Lebanese sources identified Israel as responsible for this attack.
The Times of Israel reported that this attack has resulted in casualties.
In recent days, there has been an escalation of mutual firing between Israel and Hezbollah following an alleged drone attack attributed to Tel Aviv in the Shia-populated suburb of Dahiyeh in Beirut and the killing of Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy head of Hamas.
On January 9, Hezbollah announced that in response to the killings of al-Arouri and Tawil, it targeted an Israeli military base in the city of Safed with a drone.
Reuters reported that this marks the first time since the start of the ongoing Middle East conflict in October that Hezbollah has attacked Safed, located in northern Israel.
Safed is situated 14 kilometers from the Lebanese border.
Haaretz newspaper reported that after a “hostile” target penetrated Israeli airspace in the north, sirens were sounded in the area.
According to the report, this is the seventh time on January 9 that sirens have been heard in northern Israel.
Tensions between Lebanon and Israel are escalating while Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, is visiting the region and has arrived in Israel for meetings with senior officials.
Reuters reported that the Middle East conflict, the reduction of tensions in the region, and the future of the Gaza Strip are among the main topics of Blinken’s discussions in Israel.
Prior to his departure for Israel, the US Secretary of State warned, “The current conflict can easily expand and cause more suffering and insecurity.”
However, recent events show that Iran’s proxies only tone down their aggressions when met with a firm response. So far, the regime has only made bold claims about responding to attacks on its proxies, but its track record shows that it rarely responds when hit hard.
US Shuts Off Iran’s Route To Bypass Sanctions Through Iraq
Ali Shariati, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, stated that the United States has told Iraqi bank officials that the issue of bypassing the sanctions by Iranian traders must come to an end.
In an interview with the regime’s Entekhab website, Shariati emphasized that the circulation of Iraqi dollars in the economy and the bypassing of sanctions by “semi-governmental traders” of Iran through the transfer of Iraqi tar via swap has prompted the United States to intervene in this matter.
Shariati also commented on the new directive of the Iraqi government regarding the prohibition of financial transactions with Iran for banks and exchange offices. He stated that this event has been happening for several months now and its punitive measures have become more serious since January 1st.
Regarding the impact of restrictions on Iranian traders, this member of the Chamber of Commerce said, “Now, if you are a merchant in Dubai and you do business with Iraq, the Iraqi customer’s currency that they give you is the cheap currency of 1,320 dinars, but for Iran, since we do not have the SWIFT system, we have been excluded from this system. As a result, we cannot take advantage of the opportunity of Iraqi government dollars.”
Shariati claimed that the process of imposing restrictions on dollar transactions in Iraq involved summoning all the heads of Iraqi banks to Istanbul a few months ago, where they were told by the Americans that this issue of bypassing the sanctions needed to be resolved. The Iraqis did not take the matter seriously, and the Americans put pressure on them by “stepping dollar hose,” causing a halt. The supply shortage led to an increase in the price of the dollar in Iraq. According to this member of the Chamber of Commerce of Iran, “The dollar went from 1,440 dinars to 1,600 and even 1,700 dinars from April. The people of Iraq demanded that the issue be resolved, which led to protests.”
Shariati continued his account and said, “They have been giving Iraqi citizens government currency at airports for several months. The Iraqi government’s currency is 1,320 dinars per dollar. The government [of Iraq] encouraged traders to submit their purchase documents to the government. When approved, it goes into the allocation queue, and the customer’s payment is made within two weeks.”
On January 2, Iranian media reported on a new decision in Iraq that created an obstacle in Iran’s access to the dollar. According to these reports, the Central Bank of Iraq, with a new currency law, prohibited official exchange offices and banks in the country from any currency exchange with five countries, including Iran, in order to make it impossible for Iran’s regime to obtain dollars through legal channels in this country.
Shariati also commented on the increase in Iraqi trade with Iran, saying, “An Iraqi who wants to return a Turkish trader’s money and an Iranian trader’s money to Iran must have more money and Iranian goods are about 18% more expensive compared to goods purchased from Turkey and China. In this situation, either I, as an Iranian trader, say it doesn’t matter to me and I want dollars, or the Iraqi says I will buy goods from Turkey and pay less. As a result, Iranian traders are suffering serious losses, and our traders are offering a 15% discount to Iraqi traders. In the meantime, some people are seeking the destruction of the dollar.”
In February 2022, reports were published indicating that the United States had been restricting Iraq’s access to its dollars, which are held in the Federal Reserve Bank, for several months in order to prevent the smuggling of dollars to Iran.
At the same time, Iraqi authorities announced that the United States was trying to eliminate “rampant money laundering for the benefit of Iran and Syria.”
Experts predict that with the new currency restrictions in Iraq, the supply and distribution of foreign currency in Iran will face even more difficulties. This could further destabilize the foreign exchange market and accelerate the pace of inflation in the coming months.
Senior Hezbollah Commander Killed in Israeli Strike on Southern Lebanon
A senior commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah was killed in an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon.
Citing three security sources, Reuters announced on January 8 that the killed Hezbollah commander is Wissam al-Tawil, the deputy of one of the units of the Radwan forces.
According to these security sources, Tawil and another member of Hezbollah were killed on January 8 after their vehicle was targeted in the village of Majdal Selm in Lebanon.
According to Reuters, one of these security sources described the attack as “very painful,” and another source predicted that “everything will now be set ablaze.”
Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, had warned Israel in two televised speeches last week not to “launch a full-scale war against Lebanon.”
Since the border clashes began after Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, more than 130 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in southern Lebanon, and another 19 have been killed in Syria.
Since October 8, 2023, Hezbollah has been launching attacks on Israeli military bases and positions near the northern border of Lebanon, while Israel has been targeting the positions of this Iranian-backed paramilitary group in response.
Tensions between Hezbollah and Israel have escalated following the killing of Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy leader of Hamas, in an Israeli attack in Beirut. On January 6, Hezbollah announced the firing of 62 missiles towards the Israeli aerial surveillance base in Mount Meron as an “initial response” to al-Arouri’s killing.
On Sunday, January 7, the Israeli army warned of the occurrence of another “war” with Hezbollah, stating that Hezbollah had targeted an air traffic control base in northern Israel.
The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, Israel, and several other countries have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Iran-backed militias have been flaring up tensions in the Middle East since the beginning of the war in Gaza. In the past months, Iran’s proxy forces have attacked hundreds of targets in the region. In addition to Hezbollah, the Hashd al-Shabi in Iraq and Houthis in Yemen have played a key role in undermining security in the region. The Houthis in particular have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea, threatening global trade.
More Than 850 Executions in Iran in 2023
Iran has put behind one of its worst years in terms of executions, with at least 864 prisoners put to death, according to to reports from the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). This marks a 34% increase from the previous year and the highest in the past eight years.
Indeed, the death penalty is considered one of the most severe forms of punishment, and it has been abolished or significantly restricted in over 170 countries worldwide. Only around 30 countries still actively use the death penalty. Unfortunately, the Iranian regime consistently remains at the forefront of these countries that continue to implement capital punishment. Julia Duchrow, the Deputy Secretary General, Amnesty International (Germany), has stated regarding executions in Iran, “The leader of Iran is responsible for 65% of the executions carried out worldwide last year.”
The trend of executions continued to escalate throughout 2023, with more than 36% of the executions (313 cases) taking place in the last three months of the year, coinciding with the war in Gaza, which the regime has been using as a smokescreen to ratchet up human rights abuses at home.
The executions have been especially harsh toward ethnic minorities. Among the victims, 191 individuals, or more than 22%, are from the most oppressed and marginalized Baluch citizens.
Notably, among the executed were eight juvenile offenders who were under 18 at the time of committing the crime. Seven executions were shockingly carried out in public.
Also on January 1, 2024, five prisoners were executed in Karaj Central Prison.
On January 4, two prisoners were hanged in Ardabil, and one in Hamedan, while three others were hanged in Ardabil Central Prison in the previous ways. On Tuesday, January 2, the government news agency IRNA reported the execution of nine prisoners in Ardabil.
Six protesters were executed in 2023 and two in December 2022. The eight protesters were sentenced to death and hanged after unfair trials, solely for their participation in the protests.
The Iranian judiciary had issued death sentences for over 100 people who took part in the 2022-2023 protests. Some of the protesters are still in a state of uncertainty, while others remain under the shadow of the death sentences.
In 2023, the death sentences of 693 prisoners were carried out secretly without any media coverage. Most of the data on executions is obtained through independent media and through communication with inside the prison.
Since January 2023, the death sentences of 26 female prisoners have been executed in Iranian regime prisons, showing a 37% growth compared to the previous year.
In the previous year, Iran became the largest executioner of women in the world by executing at least 16 women in 2022. According to Amnesty International’s report in 2022, a total of 24 women were executed worldwide, 16 of which belonged to Iran. In 2023, the regime broke its own record.
Iranian Woman Flogged for Violating Regime’s Hijab Rules
On January 3, the sentence of 74 lashes for Roya Heshmati, issued for not observing mandatory hijab, was carried out at the 7th district court in Tehran. This woman, who opposes mandatory hijab, has written a horrifying account of her sentence.
Heshmati stated that she was summoned to the execution of sentences unit on January 3 for the implementation of the sentence of 74 lashes. She said that she went to the 7th district court accompanied by her lawyer.
Roya Heshmati emphasized that she had removed her hijab since passing through the entrance gate of the court building, and in response to the court staff’s admonition to cover her head so as not to get into trouble, she told them, “I have come here for the sake of Hijab and receiving these lashes, I won’t cover my head.”
According to Heshmati’s account, the officer in charge of carrying out the sentence threatened her that if she did not cover her head, he would strike the lashes harder and open a new case against her for not observing hijab, so that she would be sentenced to another 74 lashes.
Describing the place where her flogging sentence was carried out, she wrote, “They opened the iron gate. The walls of the room were made of cement. There was a bed at the end of the small room with iron shackles welded to both sides. There was an iron device similar to the base of a large canvas with a place for handcuffs, with iron shackles worn-out in the middle of the room, and a small chair and table with whips on top, both behind the door. A medieval torture chamber.”
Roya Heshmati continued by stating that the officer put a scarf on her head, “The man took a black leather whip from the bunch of whips behind the door, wrapped it around his hand twice and came to the bed. The judge said: Don’t hit too hard. The man started hitting. My shoulders, my back, my hips, my thighs, my legs, then start over. I didn’t count the number of lashes.”
Roya Heshmati continued by stating that she muttered a chant under her breath during the execution of her flogging sentence.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights explicitly prohibits the use of degrading and inhumane punishments such as flogging, and Iran is one of the few countries that still employs such humiliating punishments.
Roya Heshmati added, “It was over. We came out. I didn’t let them think I was even in pain. They are more despicable than these words. We went upstairs to the judge in charge of executing the sentence. The female officer was following behind me and made sure my headscarf did not fall off. At the door of the branch, I threw off my headscarf. The woman said, ‘Please cover your head.’ I didn’t cover my head and pulled my scarf back.”
According to Heshmati, the judge told her, “We are not happy about this matter ourselves, but it’s the sentence and it must be carried out. If you want to live differently, you can leave the country.”
She wrote that she told the judge, “This country belongs to everyone. Let the law do its own work, and we will continue our resistance.”
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran strongly condemned this inhumane and medieval act.
In another brutal act, the Iranian regime has sentenced Farzaneh Barzekar, the mother of Erfan Rezaei Navaii, to 24 months of suspended imprisonment.
Erfan Rezaei Navaii, 21, lost his life on September 21, 2022, during last year’s nationwide protests in Amol (northern Iran) after being shot by the state security forces.
Iran’s Former Minister of Intelligence Disqualified from Running for Parliamentary Elections
Two days after the spokesperson of the Guardian Council announced the finalization of the candidate list for the Iranian regime’s upcoming Majlis (parliament) elections, Iranian media published the names of some disqualified candidates.
The regime’s semiofficial ISNA news agency reported on January 6 the names of 26 current parliament members who have been disqualified.
According to the report, many former political activists and officials have also been disqualified. Among them, the disqualification of former intelligence minister Mahmoud Alavi and former MP Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh has attracted media attention.
Mahmoud Alavi served as the Minister of Intelligence for eight years and was involved in the regime’s crimes and suppression of opponents. It is worth noting that the Minister of Intelligence is directly appointed by regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei and is therefore from among the most loyal people to the regime’s leader. Alavi’s disqualification is significant for several reasons. First, it shows that Khamenei is losing support from among his closest circle of loyalists. And second, it shows that the regime is losing its tolerance for even the slightest sign of disagreement with its leader. These further pushes away the facade of democracy that the regime has tried to maintain through its elections.
The state-run Fars News Agency also reported that Fereydoun Hemmati, the former governor of Hormozgan and Qazvin provinces during Hassan Rouhani’s administration, has also been disqualified from running for the Majlis.
The reasons for the disqualification of well-known figures, especially current parliament members, have not been published yet, but Iranian media previously reported that disqualified candidates had criticized certain plans and bills, such as the “Protection Plan.”
Disqualification of election candidates is not exclusive to the parliamentary elections, as there are also restrictions in the presidential elections, Assembly of Experts elections, and city councils.
The disqualification of Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, was one of the most controversial disqualifications in the Assembly of Experts elections.
A few years ago, Sepanta Niknam, a former member of the Yazd City Council, stated that he was disqualified due to his Zoroastrian faith and “non-compliance with Islam in the city council elections.”
In 2021, then–speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani, in a letter to the Guardian Council, criticized the reasons for his disqualification in the presidential elections as “inaccurate and a low-level pretext.” (The Guardian Council, whose 12 members are appointed by Khamenei and a circle of his loyalists, oversee different matters of state, including the qualification of election candidates.)
At the same time, Morteza Agha Tehrani, a Majlismember, told disqualified individuals that they should “reform” themselves.
He added during the previous parliamentary elections, “We should not scare the people. This is not the way to question the system. The system does not allow you to do that. They tolerate you a little and then they deal with you.”
The 12th round of the Islamic Consultative Assembly elections will be held on March 1, 2024, to determine the representatives for the 12th term of the parliament (290 representatives for a four-year term).
These elections have never been democratic, and the qualifications of all candidates must be approved by the regime’s authorities.
Prices of Basic Goods Continue to Soar in Iran
The Iranian regime’s media outlets have reported an increase in the price of livestock in recent days. They announced that the price of each kilogram of sheep in the Tehran market ranges between 2.450 to 2.60 million rials (approximately $4.8 to 5), and the price of live calves has exceeded 2.2 million rials.
The minimum monthly wage of workers reaches 80 million rials (approximately $157)
On January 6, the price of each kilogram of lamb leg has reached 6.6 million rials (approximately $13), sheep’s shoulder is priced at 7.5 million rials (approximately $14.7), lamb fat at 3.46 million rials (approximately $6.8), and lamb stew meat at 9 million rials (approximately $17.6).
The gradual increase in meat prices in recent weeks is happening while on October 27, 2023, the regime’s Fars News Agency quoted Alireza Peymanpak, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, as saying that the price of lamb meat has taken a downward trend due to timely supply of domestic meat and imported red meat.
This claim has been made despite statistics published by the Statistical Center, which indicate a recent decrease in production due to various problems, including animal feed supply.
Based on this, a comparison of the performance of the country’s official slaughterhouses in November 2023 with the same month in 2022 indicates a 30% reduction in the amount of red meat supply in the country’s official slaughterhouses.
The government’s inability to regulate the market has ultimately led to a decrease in demand for this protein. Last week, Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, a member of the Agricultural Commission of the regime’s Majlis (Parliament), said that due to the rising prices and the decrease in people’s purchasing power, “red meat has been removed from 35% of households’ tables.”
The domino effect of increasing bread prices continues while Masoud Nili, an economist linked to the regime, says that the government provides 1,400 trillion rials (approximately $2.754 billion) in annual bread subsidies, but it is unclear how this subsidy is related to price increases and where and how the cost is incurred.
Masoud Nili, the former dean of the faculty of economics at Sharif University, said that “the government in our country is constantly distributing rent,” which in the past was from oil money, and now the government is doing it by creating debt.
According to Nili, the numbers for these rents have also become very large, and this “1,400 trillion rial bread subsidy” is one of these rents.
The distribution of the 1,400-trillion-rial rent under the title of bread subsidy has the least impact on people’s food basket, to the extent that the government has agreed to increase bread prices in various parts of the country.
In the latest case, on January 3rd, Sajjad Mohammadi, a member of the board of directors of the Union of Bakers in Bushehr province (Southern Iran), announced an increase in bread prices in Bushehr, saying, “The adjustment of bread prices in Bushehr is part of the wage gap of bakery workers from 2021 to 2023.”
Sajjad Mohammadi’s emphasis on covering part of the “wage gap” indicates that we should also expect price changes in this sector in the future.
On December 29, 2023, simultaneous with the continuing increase in the prices of many goods in Iran, Fars News Agency reported a 30% increase in the price of bread in Khuzestan.
The review of the changes that have occurred in the bread sector shows that the price of bread has increased regionally by 30% to 60% in different cities, an action that regime’s officials have referred to as “harmonizing bread prices.”
Bread, along with items like eggs, is one of the commonly consumed items among low-income groups in Iran.
Commander of Iran-Backed Militia Group Killed in U.S. Strike in Iraq
According to news agencies, the United States has confirmed an attack on the headquarters of an Iraqi paramilitary organization backed by Iran and the killing of one of its commanders. Prior to this, Iraq had protested to the United States for violating its national sovereignty in this attack.
According to a statement by a U.S. defense official reported by the AFP, the United States, while accepting responsibility for the attack, defended it and stated that this attack was carried out in self-defense.
Prior to the confirmation by the United States, Iraqi police sources announced that in a drone attack on a building in Baghdad on Thursday, January 4, four members of Iraqi paramilitary groups were killed, and six others were injured.
According to the Baghdad police, the attacking drones fired at least two missiles at a building in the eastern part of the city, which is used by the paramilitary group Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, one of the groups affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al-Shaabi) and linked to Iran.
The U.S. strike targeted Mushtaq Jawad Kazim al Jawari, who according to the Pentagon was involved in planning and carrying out attacks against American targets.
“The strike also killed one other Harakat al Nujaba member,” said Major General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesperson. “No civilians were harmed. No infrastructure or facilities were struck.”
The police statement describes this group as a “Iraqi security entity” and states that “Iraqi armed forces consider the international coalition responsible for this unjustified attack on an Iraqi security entity.”
Iraqi police and paramilitary sources have said that the missiles fired on Friday targeted a vehicle inside the headquarters of the Nujaba group, killing a local commander of the group and one of his assistants. Medical sources have confirmed the number of casualties.
Iraqi security sources have said that they are awaiting the completion of government investigations before releasing further details about the attack.
Iraqi paramilitary commanders have accused the United States of carrying out this attack and have threatened retaliatory actions against the United States.
According to Reuters, Abu Aghil Al-Mousawi, a local commander of Iraqi paramilitary groups, said that Iran-backed militias will retaliate against this attack.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October, U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked at least 100 times, usually with rockets and hostile drones. The United States has occasionally responded to these attacks, although critics of the Biden administration have accused him of being soft on paramilitary groups.
Pro-Iranian factions in Iraq and Syria, opposed to Israel’s operations in Gaza, consider the United States responsible for those operations and have identified it as the perpetrator of these attacks.
Last month, the United States initiated several airstrikes in response to a drone attack by Iran-backed paramilitary groups.
In that attack on a U.S. base, three American soldiers were injured, with one of them reported to be in critical condition.
In addition to their attacks on U.S. targets, Iran-backed militias have a long history of terrorist activities and human rights abuses. The PMF, which was formed under the guidance of Iran’s terror master Qassem Soleimani, was responsible for the death of thousands of civilians in Iraq, bombing attacks, and stoking the fires of sectarian violence in the region. The Iraqi population is resentful of Iran’s interference in their country and have on several occasion called for the disbanding of Iran-backed forces and the eviction of Iranian agents from their country.
Iranian Rug Exports Decline by 98%
Iranian rugs, as one of the main symbols of Iranian culture and art, have faced a significant decline in global markets in recent years. This decline has been so severe that the exports of this product have decreased from $2 billion in 1994 to $50 million in 2022.
According to Iran’s media reports, Hossein Salah Varzi, the head of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce, states that the negative impact of the country’s incorrect currency policies on the exports of various non-oil goods, including Iranian hand-woven rugs, has led to a 98% reduction in the exports of this product in 2022 compared to 1994.
In a report, the news website Ensafnews states, “In the 2000s, rug exports were considered one of the important pillars of the country’s foreign currency earnings. However, after 2012, Iranian rug exports steadily declined and reached their lowest level in 2015, when Iran only exported $290 million worth of rugs. While the average rug exports between 2007 and 2017 were around $416 million, since 2019, the volume of rug exports has consistently been less than $73 million, and in the past year, it reached its lowest figure of $50.7 million.”
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, a significant portion of the employment chain of the 2 million artisans involved in hand-woven rugs throughout the country consists of weavers, many of whom have migrated to the outskirts of cities or other neighboring countries during the recession.
Recently, Fathollah Tousi, a member of the Economic Commission of the Parliament, stated that Iranian rugs no longer lead the market, and as a result, competitors are attracting Iranian carpet weavers to Turkey and other neighboring countries.
In previous years, Germany, the United States, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates were among the main customers of Iranian rugs.
