What Is Happening in Iran?

Jubin Katiraie
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What Is Happening in Iran?
Following the brutal killing of Masha Amini, the Iranian people have once again united to fight and defeat the theocratic mullahs’ regime that is ruling Iran. The protests began to fight against the compulsory hijab rules, but have now extended to tackle the Iranian regime’s many forms of repression against its people, from censorship, discrimination, looting, deception, and abusing religion, to torture, human rights violations, poverty, etc. All these factors have united the people and showed the world that the Iranian people, from all walks of life, have decided that they wish to overthrow the regime. Iran is in the midst of coordinating a new revolution. Masha Amini, as the people say, has become a symbol and a spark for a new revolution and the people’s final round to defeat the regime. It has reached a situation where there is no more ambiguity among the people about the rule of mullahs. No faction within the regime can play the role of an ‘opposition’ and so-called ‘reformist’ to deceive the people and divert their real will, which is for a free and democratic country. Only nationwide solidarity with the common goal of overthrowing the Islamic Republic is what lies ahead. The political challenge of each person and trend is to be in harmony with this common national interest. If not, they are playing in the same court as the regime. After nine days of protests in over 130 cities across the country, three main factors have been realized:
  1. All the cities are targeting the totality of the regime, which is symbolized by the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei as a common enemy.
  2. Emphasis on national unity and solidarity.
  3. The leadership and decisive roles of women in advancing the movement against the entire sovereignty.
In anger, people are revolting against the armed forces, fighting them with bare hands, and in most cases, the regime’s forces are then forced to retreat. Most of them have lost their motivation to fight the people in fear of the fury brewing within society. After 41 years, the Iranian people are controlling the streets, and in contrast to the protests in November 2019, the people have the upper hand as they continue attacking the regime’s forces. Among the cities that have risen so far to fight against the regime are Tehran; Karaj; Mashhad; Qazvin; Zanjan; Shiraz; Rasht; Hamadan; Arak; Kerman; Ilam; Kermanshah; Sanandaj; Qorveh; Tabriz; Urmia; Ardabil; Qom; Kish; Gorgan; Sari; Amol; Sabzevar; Fardis Karaj; Naqadeh; Izeh; Bushehr; Marivan; Bandar Abbas; and Rafsanjan etc. Hossein Saffar Harandi, the adviser to the head of the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) revealed the extent of the situation in an interview with the state TV channel Ofogh on September 20. He said, “Well, sir, if you want to express your loyalty to a person whom you think is oppressed, express your sympathy, well, this will be not fulfilled with destruction and obscenity and with gestures that attack national interests.” He added, “But they responded that this is just an excuse, and our main target is the principle of the system, that means we will deal with the entire system.” The Fars news agency published a fearful statement from the regime’s supporters in the universities and wrote, “We condemn the abuse of recent events by the adversaries, our main red line is the values ​​and ideals of the system.” It is true, the people are attacking the regime’s red lines, values, and ideals in their slogans. They are doing so to get their message across and reverberate their fury to the so-called leaders of their country. Among these slogans are:
  • “Death to Khamenei”
  • “Khamenei is a murderer and his rule illegitimate”
  • “Khamenei you murderer, we will bury you”
  • “This year Khamenei will be overthrown”
  • “Khamenei shame on you, let go of the country”
  • “Down with oppressor, whether Shah or (supreme) leader”

Iran Regime’s Ministry of Culture’s Decision To Eliminate Children’s Intellectual Centers

Mehdi Hosseini
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Iran Regime’s Ministry of Culture’s Decision To Eliminate Children’s Intellectual Centers
With the so-called ‘Cultural Revolution’ which took place between 1980 and 1983, the Iranian regime tried to purge the country’s academic world of Western and non-Islamic influences. At that time, the regime used extreme violence to take over the university campuses. Following this decision, many of the country’s prominent academics left the country and the result is that today, we are seeing Iran as one of the countries with the highest brain drain. On September 13, the state-run daily Salamat news confirmed the regime’s decision to eliminate the academic structure of the country. They wrote, “The issue of the escape of brains and elites has now reached mass migration of doctors and medical staff. According to statistics, 160 cardiologists have migrated in the last year. In the same period, 30,000 medical staff applied for a certificate of good average from the faculties of medical sciences, whose destination was Oman. Also, 16,000 general doctors have emigrated from the country in the last four years.” It seems that this was not enough for the regime in destroying the most valuable resource of the country, which is its specialists and intellectuals. Recently, the regime’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has decided to hand over the libraries of the intellectual development center for children and teenagers to the country’s public libraries. This is following the regime’s major plan to inject its intellectual, ideological, and political principles into the content created for children and teenagers. Publicizing this news, the regime called the libraries of the country ‘public, non-governmental, coordinated with the Islamic principles and influent on the society’ and announced that children and teenagers are at the center of the ‘major policies’ of the regime. The latest statistics of the reading time per capita for 2020, as announced by the regime’s Ministry of Culture, is two minutes. This indicates that the regime’s plan is nothing more than an injustice to the children of Iran, erasing the opportunity for them to have access to books and libraries. The regime’s Ministry of Culture suggested this plan according to Article 1 of the law on the establishment and management of public libraries in the country. This dictates that the establishment, construction, equipping, development, management, and supervision of the country’s libraries should be under the supervision of the Public Libraries Institution. This is despite the libraries of Astan Quds Razavi, the Shrine of Hazrat Masoumeh, the Shrine of Hazrat Abdol Azim, Shahcheragh, National Library, the Ayatollah Marashi Najafi Library, the Islamic Council Library, and other appropriative libraries, being exempt from this law. The regime has ridiculously claimed that libraries for children are not profitable and are harmful to the country’s economy. The profitability of a cultural and educational center, such as a library, can never be measured by commercial criteria and perspective. The profitability of libraries and cultural centers, especially for children, in any country will show itself in the promotion of the next generation. In addition, we should mention that the current high prices of books have brought educational resources out of the reach of most Iranian children. Families even have problems purchasing notebooks for their children, as the price of a single notebook has increased from 60,000 rials to 150,000 rials.

Water Shortage Crisis and the Destruction of Iran’s Water Resources

Hoshang Amiri
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Water Shortage Crisis and the Destruction of Iran’s Water Resources
Iran is currently suffering from a number of dangerous natural disasters. One of the most worrying is the drying up of nearly almost water resources across the country. Many of the regime’s environmental experts have been warning about the critical situation of the Mazandaran Sea (Caspian Sea) which is witnessing a rapid water regression, on average around 20 cm annually. This situation not only is endangering the indigenous mammal life, but also the businesses and livelihoods of the Iranian people, while many ports are becoming practically useless. Masoumeh Banihashemi, the director of the Mazandaran Sea National Research and Studies Center stated in June, “As a result of the 170 cm decrease in the water level of the Mazandaran Sea since 1995, there has been a great retreat of the sea and an increase in the coastal area in the northern coasts of Iran.” She added, “Only from 2014 to 2021, with a decrease of about 50 cm in the water level, about 10 to 100 meters of retreat of the Mazandaran Sea have taken place on different coasts.” Behzad Layeghi, the Director General of the Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Center in the regime’s Meteorological Organization, said that during the last 26 years, the sea level of Mazandaran has decreased by 1.5 meters. The decrease in the water level of the Mazandaran Sea further adds to a similar situation at Lake Urmia, which has also dried up, with environmental experts being left disappointed as they try to revive it. Local reports have also alluded to talk of the drying up of the Sarab Niloufer lake in Kermanshah; while in Sistan and Baluchistan province, concerns about the dryness of the Hamon lake have also increased. The Anzali, Hawizeh, and Miankaleh wetlands are also not in a good condition. The same conditions govern the permanent and seasonal rivers of Iran. One of the most affected rivers is the famous Zayandeh Roud River in Isfahan. The expansion of occupations on the river’s coasts, agricultural lands, and villa constructions in the boundary and bed of the Zayandeh River, as well as the drying up of this river, has turned this vital artery of the country into a depot for construction debris and pasture for livestock. The Zayandeh Roud river revival plan was implemented in 2013 but, due to the regime’s benefits and budget deficit, none of the plans were implemented. The drying up of the Zayandeh Roud is heavily affecting the land subsidence in Isfahan. It is estimated that when the Zayandeh Roud River was flowing, an average of 130 cubic meters of water entered the Isfahan aquifer, but now due to the lack of river flow, the aquifer is not being fed, while withdrawals from underground water sources in the area are extremely high. Annual water harvesting in the plains downstream of Zayandehrud, including Lanjanat and Najaf Abad, Segzi, and Isfahan-Barkhar, is around 1.2 billion cubic meters which are moving this region towards water bankruptcy. Even provinces like Mazandaran are suffering from great water shortages. Officials of the Mazandaran Water Company have said that the level of underground aquifers in this rainy province has decreased, and the lack of proper infrastructures and the high population of the area, as well as unrestrained tourism, have disrupted the water supply of this province. Dehydration and the lack of water have already taken over most of the provinces of Iran, just months after the residents of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, the people of Hamadan, and West Azerbaijan, protested the water scarcity. In Hamedan, according to the reports of the regime’s media, the Ekbatan Dam has dried up and the people of Hamedan must use soft drinks instead of water to quench their thirst. Drought and the lack of rainfall, apart from directly affecting the water crisis in the country, increase the risk of land subsidence. This issue, along with the lack of planning by the regime’s officials, will cause an even greater water crisis that may cause some regions of the country to become unhabitable in the future.

Economic Freedom Under the Rule of the Mullahs in Iran

Pooya Stone
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Economic Freedom Under the Rule of the Mullahs in Iran
The Fraser institute published its annual report of the index of economic freedom on September 8, which measured the economic freedom of 165 countries around the world in 2020. According to this report, Iran’s economic freedom score has reached its lowest level in the past 20 years. Iran’s score in this index was 4.96 out of a maximum of 10 points, causing them to fall to the rank of 159 out of 165 countries. This report has highlighted the slow economic growth of Iran in the last five years. This has led this country to be in the last place among 14 countries in the Middle East and the North Africa region, in terms of economic status, despite having huge oil and gas reserves. This is in a situation where the average annual economic growth of Iran is 1.2%, the Iranian regime is registered on the FATF’s blacklist, and the country has experienced a sharp drop in health and financial transparency. Economic freedom scores from 2017 to the date of publication of this report indicate a loss of 8.1 points, resulting in the country falling to the bottom of the table of economic freedom in the world. Each country is given a score from 0 to 10 in each of the 5 sub-indexes. In these five main areas, there are 24 components in total to reach each of these indicators. Many of these components themselves consist of several sub-components. The economic freedom index measures the degree of support for economic freedom by the policies and institutions of each country. The cornerstones of economic freedom include personal choice, free exchange, freedom to compete and enter markets, and the security of personal assets. This index is designed to measure the compatibility of countries’ institutions and policies with economic freedom. A country must consider many things and avoid others in order to achieve a higher rank in this index. The criterion of economic freedom can be considered as a measure of the allocation of scarce resources based on personal choice with the coordination of markets. Governments can increase economic freedom by creating an infrastructure for the voluntary exchange of people, and protecting people and their property from intruders who seek to take what is not theirs by violence, coercion, and fraud. This is one thing that simply does not exist in Iran, due to the regime’s massive acts of corruption, and an economy controlled by the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), as well as the companies and economic entities under the control of the house of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei. In this context, the legal system is of particular importance. A country’s legal institutions must protect its citizens, and their property, against the aggressive actions of others and implement contracts uniformly. In the case of the regime, this is an ideal that looks more like a bitter joke, given their long list of various human rights violations, abuses, and discrimination in favor of the ruling people. Governments should also refrain from actions that restrict personal choice, interfere with voluntary exchanges, and hinder access to markets. Economic freedom is reduced when taxes, government spending, and regulation, replace personal choice, voluntary exchange, and the market, which is exactly what has happened in Iran over the past four decades. The five areas of economic freedom measured in the Fraser Institute report are government size, the legal system and property rights, strong money, international trade freedom, and regulations. Regarding the government size in Iran, due to the regime’s corruption and a mafia-led economy, the expenses of the government have increased and reduced and replaced private decisions with government decisions and reduced economic freedom. Where the legal system is concerned, it is considered that the government of a country must protect and support the people and their private properties. This is one of the most important functions of a democratic government. The index of economic freedom also includes gender equality. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021 was published on March 31, which ranked Iran, under control of the clerical regime, 150 out of 156 countries with an index of 0.582. Regarding strong money, inflation completely destroys the value of earned wages and savings. Therefore, strong money is necessary to protect property rights. When inflation is high and unstable, it becomes difficult for people to plan and thus effectively use economic freedom. According to Professor Steve Hanke, Iran’s rial has depreciated against the USD by 57.58% since January 2020, which is why Iran takes 8th place in this week’s Hanke’s Currency Watchlist. The rial is a central bank ‘junk’ currency. Discussing the disastrous situation of the Iran economy, on June 23 he tweeted, “Iran is embroiled in an economic DISASTER. Today, I accurately measure inflation in Iran at 43.66%/yr. No wonder pensioners are taking to the streets! The RIAL IS TOAST!” The freedom of international trade, or freedom of exchange (in its broad sense, including buying, selling, contracting, etc.), is essential for economic freedom. This is reduced when the freedom of exchange does not include businesses and people of other countries. Due to the IRGC’s control over Iran’s imports and exports, customs, airports, and ports, the freedom of exchange for ordinary people and private entities has been diminished. Governments not only use some tools to limit the right to exchange internationally, but they may also impose heavy regulations that limit the right to exchange, obtain credit and facilities, hire, and work, and freely conduct business. Nearly all economic regulations in Iran are in favor of the regime.  

Iran’s Regime Continues Its Internet Restriction Project

Hoshang Amiri
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Iran’s Regime Continues Its Internet Restriction Project
This is part of the outlook of a document by the Iranian regime’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace, which has been delivered to its supreme leader Ali Khamenei and approved by him. On August 30, the Supreme Council of Cyberspace finally unveiled the ‘Strategic Document of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Cyberspace in Horizon of 2031’ and notified all the institutions of the regime of its implementation, including the President, Ebrahim Raisi. The purpose of this document has two goals. First, to get rid of the dangers that virtual space has created for the regime. The second wish of the regime is the formation of the ‘Islamic Republic of the Internet’ to clone a ‘semi-Islamic Republic’ on the internet. With this, the regime will have much freer rein to collect people’s private and public information, and, in case of any protests, it will be easier for them to repress the people. The ‘consolidation and strengthening of governance, the exercise of sovereignty and national authority over all dimensions and layers of the country’s cyber space’ has been declared as the first and most important goal, which must be implemented in less than eight years. The regime hopes to create a ‘space along the reality’ of the country, which it described as “healthy, useful, safe and relying on the country’s endogenous capacity.” Another perspective of the regime is ‘to be among the top cyber powers and the first place to provide virtual space services in the region of West and Southwest Asia’ and to end the ‘domination of powerful countries on the global Internet network’. To achieve this goal, several major actions should be considered. The first step is to ‘complete and update the national information network with the priority of providing basic services of virtual space such as social messengers, search engine, operating system, and data center services’. This means that the regime would consider creating its own internet, separated from the global internet. Earlier, Rasoul Jalili, a member of the Supreme Council of Cyber ​​Space, revealed that the regime will issue a ‘passport’ to access the global Internet and create a ‘virtual border around the country’. He said, “For the people entering the virtual space, there should be rules and laws. Since this is not done through real gates, such as in an airport, the immigration police have no control, therefore different regulations are required for virtual entry. Here, we must understand the problem and formulate a solution for it.” In the macro measures of this plan, the regime has considered a ‘judiciary for cyberspace.’ Three military and security agencies, i.e., the IRGC, Ministry of Information, and Police, are supposed to form the ‘Cyberspace Police System’ or security monitoring and response network. The plan has ordered the collection of the private information of the Iranian people. All security institutions, along with the judiciary and several ministries, have been mandated to design a ‘data governance’ system to store, process, exchange, share, exploit, regulate, secure, possess, and classify private and big data. The regime is considering monitoring the people’s activity, even on the domestically created internet. In other words, each user’s identity and location would be clarified for security and judicial apparatuses before connecting to the domestic or the international Internet. Another goal that the regime has prepared precise measures for it, is ‘promoting the discourse of the Islamic revolution, expanding the strategic depth of the system and realizing the new Islamic civilization in the virtual space.’ For this purpose, both the Ministry of Labor and the Organization of Administrative and Employment Affairs have been required to employ active hackers, as the ‘labor force of the Islamic Republic in cyberspace’. On the day the document was unveiled, Hossein Salami, an IRGC commander, announced the existence of 2,000 cyber battalions active on the internet. The regime’s Radio and Television (IRIB), the Ministry of Information, the Supreme National Security Council, and the General Staff of the Armed Forces each have their own cyber forces. The decision-making and supervision of the Internet in Iran have been entrusted to the ‘High Commission for the Regulation of the Cyberspace of the Country’. This commission will consist of representatives of security and intelligence institutions, including the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards, as well as the police command, the ministry of communication and information technology, culture and Islamic guidance, and relevant deputies. The regime’s internet experts have said that one of the consequences of the implementation of this plan is the reduction of the internet bandwidth and speed, and the loss of 9 million jobs. With this plan, it has been considered that the ratio of 70 to 30 internet traffic should be observed. As a result, the regime’s Ministry of Communications must spend 70% of the traffic on the domestic network, leaving the remainder for the foreign internet.

Iran’s Human Development Index Dropped Sharply

Pooya Stone
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Iran’s Human Development Index Dropped Sharply
One of the most common questions asked in primary schools by teachers all over the world is, “wealth or science? Which one is better?” By proposing this topic, a class is divided into two groups, each of which discusses the advantages and disadvantages of these two options. After four decades of the Iranian regime’s rule over Iran, however, this question has lost its color, because science and education have become a class-divided issue in Iran. Those who can afford education are able to realize their dreams, and those who cannot, find their destiny working as waste collectors, porters, street vendors, etc. Today, Iran has hundreds of thousands of children who do not have the chance to choose between science and wealth, and instead are forced to yield to the most difficult, exhausting, and corrupt works to make minimum ends meet for survival. Zahedan is one of the most deprived areas in the country. After school, boys are forced to work as porters at the border of Pakistan, while the girls mostly work at tailor shops or provide water from pits for a minimum wage, because most of the settlements lack piped water. On January 23, the state-run news agency ILNA quoted Mohammad Riggi, a school director, in their article, writing, “Most of the children from poor families go to the border and do things whatever they can do on the or work as porters. When female students reach the sixth grade, they cannot continue studying because secondary school is not provided for them here.” Contrary to the regime’s constitution, education is no longer free. With the establishment of non-governmental schools of various types, the rich, mostly the regime’s officials and supporters, have access to extraordinary facilities while public schools struggle with poverty and deprivation. In regards to the critical situation that has arisen from this decision, even the regime’s officials are forced to regret what they have done to the country’s future. On December 10, 2019, the state-run news agency Tasnim wrote, “The deputy of elementary education of the Ministry of Education says, I wish, we never started the path towards non-governmental education, but now by separating students in different schools, we have implemented the ‘Sassanian class system’ in a different way.” This has created huge discrimination between the children. Tasnim added, “In feudalism systems, we witnessed class divisions, but when children went to school, the style of education had a clear message, that they are all equal.” In the whole of Iran, there are more than 55,000 government primary schools and 100,000 non-government schools. These are not only separated in terms of social class but students are also separated based on intelligence. Separation based on people’s intelligence is more dangerous than class separation. Children can accept that they are born into a low-income family, but when they are divided in terms of intelligence, this destroys their self-confidence. On August 23, 2021, the state-run daily ICNA quoted an educational expert and wrote, “It is unfortunate that we have done this with 85% of the country’s student population who attend public schools, and we only pay attention to 15% of the population with intelligence and family financial capabilities.” The university entry exam statistics of 2022 reveal this catastrophe. The share of the top 40 ranked schools was as follows:
  • Schools of brilliant talents: 72.5 percent.
  • Special non-profit schools: 22.5 percent.
  • State talent schools: 2.5 percent.
  • Public schools: 2.5 percent.
72.5 percent of the top ranks are from the so-called ‘Sampad’ schools, while the share of Sistan and Baluchistan schools in the top ranks of the entrance exam is 0.16 percent. It is not without reason that the human development index of Iran is dropping annually. In 2021, this index decreased for the fourth consecutive year and approached the level reached back in 2014.

Narcotics Iran Regime’s Income Source for Terrorism

Shahin Mahmoudi
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Narcotics Iran Regime’s Income Source for Terrorism
Besides Iran’s malign activities, such as its regional interference, and missile and nuclear projects, drug trafficking plays a major role in the Iranian regime’s dangerous behavior against other nations. This regime accounts for about 74 percent of the world’s opium smuggling and 25 percent of the world’s heroin and morphine trafficking. The regime spends millions to keep international drug smuggling alive, including facilitating the construction of many facilities and factories in Syria to produce narcotics. In addition to opium and heroin trafficking, the regime is also involved in the production and trafficking of Amphetamine-Type Stimulants (ATS). In recent years, the production of these types of drugs has suddenly increased. This trafficking has largely spread to Europe from East and South-East Asia, with maritime routes playing a major role in the regime’s drug trafficking activities. The money gained by drug trafficking is mainly used for the support of its proxy terrorist groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, etc, with the network being managed by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the terrorist Quds Force. In a report on September 9, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) wrote about the regime’s drug activities in Syria, stating, “As Iranian forces and their proxy militias are exerting tenacious efforts to entrench their presence in Syria, they have tried every possible way to increase their resources. Recently, the ‘drug business’ has become the major source of income for Iranian-backed militias in Syria, especially in areas under their control in the Deir Ezzor countryside, namely the west Euphrates region which has been turned into Iran’s “autonomous colony” in Syria.” Discussing the location of the factories that are producing narcotics, the report added, “Through ongoing monitoring of the manufacture of narcotics in Dier Ezzor, SOHR sources have been able to identify the locations of seven illicit drug-manufacturing laboratories in areas under the control of Iranian-backed militias in Deir Ezzor city and countryside.” According to the SOHR these sites are as follows:
  • A villa in Al-Qusour neighborhood in Deir Ezzor city.
  • A primitive plant near Bahrat Afrah in the Al-Qusour neighborhood in Deir Ezzor city.
  • A building near the headquarters of the electrical and mechanical engineering institution in “Port Said” street in Al-Ommal neighborhood in Deir Ezzor city.
  • A primitive plant near Al-Mu’alimeen park (the Teachers’ Park) in Deir Ezzor city.
  • A primitive plant in the Al-Khanat area on the outskirts of Al-Mayadeen city, east of Deir Ezzor.
  • A primitive plant in the Al-Hezam area in Al-Bokamal city, east of Deir Ezzor.
  • A primitive plant in Al-Villat street in Al-Bokamal city, east of Deir Ezzor.
Finally, the report named the regime’s proxy groups who are involved in drug production and trafficking, which are:
  • Lebanese Hezbollah.
  • Iraqi Hezbollah.
  • Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
  • Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haqq militia which is affiliated with the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces.
  • Harakat Al-Abdal militia (Al-Abdal Movement) which is affiliated with the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces.
  • National Defence Forces (NDF).
  • The 4th Division.
  • Militias of “Jaysh Al-Ashayer” which comprises tribesmen from Al-Bakarah, Al-Bosaraya, and Al-She’aytat tribes.
The German media recently reported that the country has seized around 700-kilos of heroin that has been smuggled in, which is an unprecedented event in the country’s history. On September 10, the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote, “This is the largest quantity of this drug [heroin] ever seized in Germany.” A day earlier, Focus wrote, “According to this, five suspects were arrested against whom investigations are being carried out on suspicion of importing narcotics in large quantities by gangs. They are said to have smuggled heroin from Iran to Germany on a large scale to distribute it from here throughout Europe.” A 40-year-old Iranian has been considered an accomplice in this crime, in addition to a 35-year-old Iranian, who is said to have helped organize the transport of the narcotics in the Netherlands.

Iran’s Resistance Campaign Against Raisi’s Company in the UNGA77

Jubin Katiraie
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Iran’s Resistance Campaign Against Raisi’s Company in the UNGA77
The 77th United Nations General Assembly will convene on September 19, as the coronavirus pandemic has finally been contained in many countries around the world. World leaders are expected to participate and address the UNGA. In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the session was held online for the first time in the history of the United Nations. In 2021, world leaders were free to choose whether to participate directly in the summit or send a video message. Ebrahim Raisi, the Iranian regime’s president decided to send a video message. By sending a video message to the summit, Raisi and the regime showed that two significant factors had played a role in such a decision.
  1. The first factor was the progress and achievements of the Iranian Resistance in the case of Hamid Noury, who was convicted during that time in Sweden due to his involvement in the 1988 massacre. Raisi was one of the members of the so-called death commissions at the time, who were tasked with sending thousands of political prisoners to the gallows. In fear of judicial consequences because of his involvement, the regime decided not to send his president to the UN.
  2. The extensive activities of the supporters of the Iranian Resistance caused some US senators to ask US president Joe Biden not to grant a visa to Raisi. Using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse, Raisi did not travel to New York. He later participated in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tajikistan and coronavirus did not stop him there.
He is expected to travel to New York this year, even though he is sanctioned by the US and the EU because of his human rights violations. Since he took office, Raisi has not yet traveled to any Western countries, which is understandable given the fact that he is one of the main officials responsible for human rights violations, genocide, and crimes against humanity. Once again, the Iranian Resistance has decided to take action to prevent his participation in the UNGA77. One of the most important actions is filing a complaint in the US Federal Court against Raisi by a group of political prisoners who witnessed the massacre of 1988, along with the families of the victims. This complaint was filed under the ATS (Alien Tort Statute) and TVPA (Torture Victim Protection Act). To shed light on the complaints of political prisoners and the families of the massacre, a conference was held on August 25 by the US Representative Office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. At that conference, Judge Michael Mukasey, former US Attorney General said, “Raisi has not denied his participation [in the 1988 massacre] and in 2018 he was quoted as saying that the murders were committed at the direction of the Death Commissions were ‘one of the proud achievements of the system. Diplomatic immunity does not mean diplomatic impunity. Even diplomatic immunity has its limits.” Professor Steven Schneebaum, a prominent American jurist and lawyer for the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), also said, “It is beyond doubt that as a deputy state prosecutor for Tehran province, Ebrahim Raisi, was a member of that death commission. Raisi is not a diplomat… and is not eligible for the privileges extended under the Vienna Convention. Nor is he a head of state.” Due to the regime’s constitution, the actual head of the Iranian regime is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The next action to prevent Raisi from entering US soil is the letter from 52 US House of Representatives members. A bipartisan group of House members, led by Rep. Young Kim of California, asked Biden not to grant an entry visa for Raisi and his delegation to attend the upcoming 77th United Nations General Assembly in New York, because of their history of supporting terrorism and human rights violations. The letter said, “We write to strongly urge you to deny entry visas to the United States for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his delegation to attend the United Nations General Assembly’s 77th session in New York this September. The United States cannot overlook Ebrahim Raisi’s direct involvement in gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including the 1988 organized mass murder of thousands of political prisoners, among whom were women and children, by the Iranian regime.” Further action includes a letter signed by over 500 Iranian-American Scientists, Academics, and Professionals calling on President Biden to prosecute Ebrahim Raisi and deny him an entry visa. They wrote, “We, the Iranian-American scientists, academics, and professionals, echo the cry of our families and our colleagues in Iran, to ask for your administration’s strong and immediate actions to reflect that Raisi does not represent the people of Iran and therefore must be denied an entry visa to the United States.”

The Drying Up of Lake Urmia Will Destroy Millions of Lives and Hectares of Land

Mehdi Hosseini
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The Drying Up of Lake Urmia Will Destroy Millions of Lives and Hectares of Land
The Iranian regime’s management of political, social, economic, and environmental affairs should be compared to a prison that has captured the Iranian people, through the regime’s incompetence, thievery, embezzlement, looting, and rent-seeking. The avarice of the regime’s officials has destroyed the country and is the main root of all the country’s crises. Analyzing the various crises, it is impossible to overlook the involvement of the regime’s officials. This avarice has been interpreted by the regime’s media as, ‘Mismanagement’, ‘instrumental use of the ministry and government’, and ‘scientific and expertise incompetence‘. There are no signs left of the concept of life, dignity in society, and blooming nature. One of the victims, which has created a dangerous environmental crisis, is the drying up of the historical lake of Urmia, once the world’s biggest salt lake. While investigating the reason behind why 95 percent of this lake has dried up, we discover the warnings from environmental experts years ago, warnings that were all ignored by the regime. They have routinely warned about the dangers to the lives of millions of people and the destruction of millions of hectares of cultivated land. Salt storms caused by the drying up of Lake Urmia will displace 6 million people. The state-run news agency ISNA, on July 25 wrote: “If the drying process of Lake Urmia continues, its problems will not be the only problem of Urmia. After drying up, due to the presence of 8 billion tons of salt in the lake, with seasonal winds, all the lands of West Azerbaijan province and 5 neighboring provinces turn into salt marshes.” Then ISNA, discussed one of the reasons for this environmental crisis, writing, “In the 90s when Iran was busy with construction projects, the main cause of the drying up of the lake was realized. It means building a bridge in the middle of the lake. With the construction of this bridge, the circulation of salt and fresh water between the river was interrupted.” Other factors reported by many other of the regime’s outlets and state TV are as follows:
  • Countless dam constructions along the rivers flow into Lake Urmia. About 44 dams have been built during the last three decades, which has reduced the amount of water entering the lake.
  • The drilling of about 48,000 unauthorized wells around Lake Urmia has caused a reduction in the underground water level in this area.
  • The unprofessional construction of a road through Lake Urmia has divided it into two parts and disturbed the process of the natural mixing of salt and fresh water in the lake.

Iran: Raisi’s Economic Promises Increased Poverty

Pooya Stone
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Iran: Raisi’s Economic Promises Increased Poverty
During the presidential debates last year, the main promise of the Iranian regime’s latest president Ebrahim Raisi was to solve the country’s countless economic crises and the Iranian people’s back-breaking livelihood challenges. Raisi’s administration was later donned the ‘young Hezbollahi’ government by the regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Raisi’s weak and catastrophic performance over the past year has shown that this government is anything but a young and progressive administration. When he rose to the presidential role, Raisi introduced his inflation reduction program as follows:
  • The reformation of management and governance systems, and the carrying out of important economic plans, without any clear schedule.
  • Plans to create a million jobs annually.
  • The annual construction of one million houses.
  • Not linking the country’s economy to foreign policy
In the review of Raisi’s promises, the Etemad newspaper wrote, “Now that one year of this government has passed, we have unfortunately witnessed an increase in the inflation rate due to various reasons such as untimely and inappropriate price correction, lack of liquidity control, failure to reach the agreement of the JCPOA, weak economic management of the government. And as a result, we are increasing the price of some goods and services.” According to the official statistics announced by the regime’s Statistics Center, the point-to-point inflation in June 2022 equaled 52.5 percent, and by July it had reached 54 percent. In July, the annual inflation rate increased to 40 percent in urban areas and 43.2 percent in rural areas, whereas the annual inflation rate at the end of July 2018 and July 2019 was 34.8, 36.4, 40.2, and 40.5 respectively. Households in Iran have spent an average of 52.9 percent more than in June 2020 to buy a set of goods and services, the inflation rate of June 2022 was also the highest rate among the monthly inflation rates since 1979 and hit a record of 12.2 percent. There is no doubt that the main source of inflation, which continuously assaults people’s livelihoods, is caused by the regime’s budget deficit and the disproportionate increase in liquidity with the GDP. Etemad added, “There has been a contradiction in the government’s plans from the beginning. On the one hand, promises of fighting inflation are given, and on the other hand, mega-projects such as million housings, which have been proven by experience, provide them with resources, cause a huge budget deficit and inevitably increase liquidity. The printing of money is inevitably included in the government’s plans.” According to Etemad, the increase in average wages has always been much lower than inflation, and it goes without saying that the result of this equation has been the catalyst for the increase in poverty, the continuous decrease in purchasing power, and the shrinking of the livelihood basket of the Iranian people, especially among the deprived and middle classes of the country. According to the investigations of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, the inflation rate in Iran during April and May 2022 was 16 times the inflation rate of Saudi Arabia, 6.7 times of Iraq, and 2.7 times of Pakistan. The continuation of the high inflation rate will further affect the weak and less privileged sections of society more than anyone else, and contrary to the regime’s claims and promises, it will lead to the impoverishment of everyone. As far as the economic performance of the regime is concerned, it can be concluded, that in the past year, not only the promise of single-digit inflation has not been fulfilled, but the middle and poor classes of the society have also become poorer than before, and every day as time passes, this will add to the population of the waste collectors on the streets of Iran’s cities and towns.
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