150+ Workers Buried Under the Rubble of Metropol Building
In the 10 days since the Metropol building collapsed in Abadan, Iranian regime officials are continuing to refuse to give the exact number of victims that were buried under the rubble of the building. Reports so far have indicated that 39 bodies have been extracted
One sad story that has made headlines is that of a newly married couple who fell victim to the regime’s corruption.
Maryam Ghorbani and Ramin Masoumi, a young couple married for less than two years, opened the Mary Café in the Metropol building hoping to improve their life. On the third day following the building’s collapse, rescuers discovered their bodies.
One of Maryam’s relatives said, “Maryam’s father has gone crazy. He raised Maryam alone. Maryam’s mother died when she was 9 years old.”
According to a person close to the family of Maryam Ghorbani, until the evening of the second day after the incident, they were still able to call Ramin’s cellphone. Ramin was still alive then and managed to answer the phone, but Maryam did not respond.
Another victim, beloved by Abadan’s people because of his chivalry, was Payman Bavandi. He was buried in the presence of many people who bid their last farewell. Peyman worked with his father for years selling iron, but after his father retired recently, Peyman began to run a single warehouse in the Ahmadabad area.
According to the Khuzestan General Directorate of Education, five students from Khorramshahr also lost their lives in this tragic incident. Different people from all walks of life and various age groups were buried under the rubble, with the highest number of victims being students and workers.
The latest reports by some of the regime’s media have estimated that at least 150 to 200 workers were buried below the rubble and that the regime has not only done anything to save them but has also refused to extract their bodies.
The state-run website Emtedad quoted a witness as saying, “I was 50 meters away from the Metropol Tower when this tragedy happened. The weather was very hot, maybe over 40 degrees. Suddenly we saw a woman and a Metropol worker in completely dirty clothes running in our direction, frightened. The worker entered the shop in fear and shouted that Abadan has no supporters. We gave him glass water and when he could concentrate, he said that more than 200 people are buried. He shouted constantly that they all died.”
He then added, “A person working as the food courier said that he had delivered 150 meals to the workers a few minutes before the accident. On Mino Island, everyone said that 90 workers from this area worked in the Metropol Tower. The Salehian family also said that many young people on Mino Island had found work in the Tower.”
In a tweet, Dariush Memar, a journalist from Abadan, wrote, “Some workers whose names have been identified and to this day are still under the rubble of the Metropol are Mansour Taghipour, Manzar Motavari, Karim Bandari, Mohamad Hamidian, Amir Behbahani, Rahman Behbahani, Hamid Falipour, and Mansour Eidani. There are workers whose names we do not know.”
https://twitter.com/darushmemar/status/1532436416961073385?s=20&t=hLuwEWmzu437KdSC-97MxQ
Quoting another citizen in another tweet, he wrote, “Message of a citizen from Abadan: “My brother is in the fire department and has just arrived home. He says that after taking out Maryam’s body, they don’t care about the others. They dismiss all the teams. They want to demolish the building. He says you can’t breathe because of the stench.”
https://twitter.com/darushmemar/status/1532260336912502785?s=20&t=3PLOoTh_42ba70_nh5dUEg
This incident will not be the first nor the last, as many buildings are often built and sold without adhering to the necessary standards.
The head of the Khuzestan Building Engineering System Organization said, “There are similar buildings and structures in Abadan like the Metropol building and a lot of correspondence has been done in this regard. The Engineering System Organization is only responsible for issuing warnings and informing about the unsafe structures.”
Referring to the issuance of 5,000 warnings for non-standard structures in Khuzestan last year by this organization, he said, “This organization does not have the executive power to stop problematic projects. With this number of warnings issued last year, some projects were stopped, but others continued to be built for some reason.”
As Public Protests Escalate, Khamenei Steps Up Executions
On the morning of Tuesday, May 31, a Baluch prisoner was hanged in Damghan Prison. This is the latest blood that the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has shed. The victim was a 33-year-old married man from Zahedan, in the southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, who had previously been arrested on drug charges.
On Saturday, May 28, a prisoner named Hamidollah Sahraei (Koohi), the son of Abdul Razzaq, was hanged in Chabahar Prison, south of Iran. Sahraei, a resident of Sarbaz city, Nute village, had been charged with ‘murder’. Having been detained in Chabahar prison since 2020, two days prior to his execution, he was transferred to solitary confinement before being hanged.
The same day, a prisoner named Nader Gargij, the son of Naeem was hanged in Zabul prison, also in the southeast. This victim, who was from Jerikeh village of Zahak city in Sistan and Baluchistan, had been charged with a drug offense.
Gargij and his cousin were arrested in February 2020, in the Jazinak area of Zahak city, after being wounded by direct fire from the regime’s intelligence agents, before being detained in Zabul prison. Nader had been shot in the leg and abdomen, while his cousin, Hamid Gargij, died of his injuries on the spot.
On Wednesday, May 25, eight prisoners were hanged en masse in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj. Six of the men executed were identified as Ramin Arab, Abbas Bitarfan, Gholam Hossein Zeinali, Ali Nosrati, Ali Montazeri, and Vahid Miyanehabadi. The groups of prisoners had been transferred to solitary confinement in a group of ten from ward 2 of Dar al-Quran. Two were later returned to the ward.
Ramin Arab was charged with ‘moharebeh through armed robbery’, while the other seven detainees had been charged with ‘premeditated murder.’ Arab attempted to commit suicide before his death sentence was implemented and was taken to hospital. However, the regime’s officials later took him straight from the hospital to the gallows. The hanging of the eight prisoners was not reported by the state media.
Also on May 25, a female prisoner named Laden Molla Saeedi was hanged in Qarchak Prison in Varamin on charges of ‘premeditated murder.’
On Sunday, May 29, the death sentence of a 27-year-old prisoner named Shahab was carried out in Mashhad Central Prison In the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi. Shahab had also been charged with ‘premeditated murder.’
On Sunday, May 22, 2022, a 29-year-old prisoner, Elias Gh, was hanged in Vakilabad prison in Mashhad, having been originally arrested on October 9, 2016.
On the same day, two prisoners were hanged in Adelabad Prison in Shiraz, in the southern province of Fars. A female prisoner was executed for charges of ‘premeditated murder’, while a Baluch prisoner named Abdolbari Rigi was executed charged with ‘possessing drug’, while a 37-year-old prisoner named ‘Mohammad Morad Fazeli’ was executed in Shirvan Prison on charges of premeditated murder.
On Monday, May 23, one woman was executed in Amol Prison in the northern Province of Mazandaran on unknown charges, while Mohammad Sorkhrou, Abbas Kamali, and Mossadegh Mallahi were executed in Minab Prison in the southern province of Hormozgan, on the charge of drug possession. A prisoner was also executed in Zanjan Prison, western Iran, charged with ‘murder.’
Referred to as Black Monday, May 23 saw a total of at least 30 prisoners hanged at the Minab, Shirvan, Urmia, Zanjan, and Amol prisons, in total.
In the last 10 days alone, from May 22 to May 31, over 46 people have been executed across the country. According to experts, the unprecedented increase in the number of executions during May is precisely due to the current political instability of Iranian society and the recent increase in public protests.
“Death to Khamenei,” Protesters Chant Following Metropol Collapse
Protests and mourning in various cities across Iran occurred after the Metropol twin towers collapse in Abadan that happened on May 23, footage has been broadcast, showing citizens chanting various slogans aimed at the Iranian regime.
Among the chants were: “Death to [Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei”; “Khamenei is a murderer; his rule is invalid”; “Death to the dictator”; “Our enemy is right here, [the mullahs] lie when they say it is in America”; and “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Basij must get lost.”
https://twitter.com/IranNewsUpdate1/status/1531011303766212609?s=20&t=k4beyorJ-61zVac6Hh5Lqg
The regime’s inadequate response to the catastrophe, which has claimed the lives of at least 37 victims—as of this report—has outraged the public. At the same time, Iranian authorities have been stunned by the ongoing protests in Abadan, which have also spread across the country.
The mullahs expected that there would be mourning ceremonies for the victims; however, the regime’s 43-year resume of corruption, deception, and failure has led the grieving families to vent their anger against the entire regime with slogans such as “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to [regime President Ebrahim] Raisi.”
The ongoing and expanding protests prove that Iran’s society is in a volcanic situation, and the people’s frustration and disappointment may erupt at any given moment. In recent months, Iran’s state media has repeatedly sounded alarm bells about the gap between the state and society. These latest demonstrations have proven that their predictions were correct.
Brutal Crackdown Shows the Regime’s Vulnerability and Weakness
It appeared that the regime had seemingly recognized society’s readiness for an upheaval. As a result, authorities immediately dispatched anti-riot forces to the Metropol site following the incident, rather than sending relief personnel and equipment to rescue survivors. State media also downplayed the disaster, seeking to ease the people’s hatred and anger. In an interview with Entekhab daily on May 24, the state-run propaganda chief Peyman Jabelli said, “We dispatched the News Channel to the Metropol. We received appeals and requests from everywhere, demanding that we cover this issue for even one or two hours. Then we received orders, saying, ‘That’s enough.’” In response to the organization’s failure to cover the news and report the disaster, citizens were heard chanting, “The state-run radio and TV organization is a disgrace” Videos of the aftermath of the collapse have shown anti-riot units, Basij paramilitary forces, and plainclothes agents, using lethal force to disperse citizens’ peaceful gatherings. Not only did authorities fire teargas and birdshot against the defenseless protesters, but they also resorted to using live ammunition to quell the people’s rightful demands for justice against corrupt officials. https://twitter.com/IranNewsUpdate1/status/1530991587454554114?s=20&t=k4beyorJ-61zVac6Hh5Lqg Reports have also indicated that the regime transferred armored vehicles and oppressive equipment to Abadan, countering unarmed citizens. Snipers were also reportedly placed on the rooftops, and then targeted several citizens. https://twitter.com/IranNewsUpdate1/status/1531735854519140353?s=20&t=X-I_2vusaP8W_mj0t1eRxg Observers have suggested that such a cruel approach towards the unarmed citizens greatly signifies the regime’s vulnerability and weakness, and shows that the mullahs neither can, nor want to address people’s demands. “They are all cuts of the same cloth,” citizens say. According to another citizen, “Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani, Vice-President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezaei, Arvand Free Trade Zone director-general Esmail Zamani, Assembly of Experts member Abbas Ka’bi, the governor, judiciary officials, security forces, and municipal managers are all in a mafia, dominating Khuzestan.”Protests Extend and Aim Dictator Ali Khamenei
Despite the regime’s brutality, the latest protests have engulfed the country. On the sixth consecutive night of protests, defiant youths in the Naziabad district of Tehran chanted, “Death to Khamenei,” boldly pointing to the source of Iranian citizens’ difficulties and problems. In Bushehr, in the south of the country, citizens chanted anti-regime slogans, such as, “Death to the dictator” and “Our enemy is right here, [the mullahs] lie, saying it is America.” In Abadan, a number of Arab tribes joined the mourning ceremonies. These tribes were armed and terrified security forces, pushing them to ease their oppressive measures. Fearing the further expansion of protests, the regime disrupted the Internet in order to silence protesters. However, Iranian netizens called upon tech companies and satellite-owner incorporations to ensure protesters still had access to free internet. Concurrent with the domestic protests, the Iranian diaspora, mostly supporters of the main Iranian opposition – the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) – also rallied outside local administrative offices in various countries in Europe.Ebrahim Raisi and a Record Full of Zeros
Before Ebrahim Raisi took office as president he made many promises and ‘predicted’ progress in dealing with Iran’s miserable economic situation, ensuring the Iranian people that their living conditions will improve. He was also trying to assure the regime’s supporters that his presence will save the regime from a collapse.
Despite his efforts, many people refused to believe the hollow promises and the country witnessed the most widely boycotted election in its history.
Addressing one of Raisi’s lies, the state-run Donya-e Eghtesad daily wrote, “The claim of creating one million jobs by the head of the judiciary of the Islamic Republic and the candidate for the 2021 presidential election provoked many reactions. Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi considered single-digit inflation possible and claimed that ‘70% of the country’s economic capacity is inactive. By activating these capacities, we can create one million jobs a year’.”
The question remains as to how the regime would rewrite and improve the economy, which is a victim of the regime’s massive corruption, plunder, and theft?
Following the implementation of the government’s new plan to remove the preferred currency from basic items, one of the regime’s so-called reformists admitted, “The economic situation is not good. Even today we must admit that we are in a state of war, and we have no choice but to ration the goods. If this does not happen, then there would be famine, followed by public discontent and even riots, in which case, the system will also be threatened.”
These warnings are no longer just about what might potentially occur. Every day, the Iranian people are taking to the streets to protest the regime, with most of their slogans aimed at the regime’s leaders.
This situation has become so intense that it has created a society where the people are increasingly getting ready for a new revolution. This is not just a political analysis; the economic statistics of the regime also confirm this fact. During his election campaign, Raisi had promised that he would decrease the exchange rate for each dollar to 15,000 rials. In one quick move, he would lower the inflation by 50 percent, lowering the figures to a single digit.
He claimed that no one in his government would speak about money printing and that the people’s food baskets would not be tight with the sanctions. He also claimed that creating one million jobs annually would be as easy as a pie, as would creating four million housing units. Marriage loans and large amounts of money to set up bankrupt factories would also be easily provided.
However, less than a year after he took the office, none of those promises were delivered. The protests all over the country represent a damning rebuke. Although it has been repeated many times, it should be noted that the average income of the Iranian people is not only much lower than the minimum wages of countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, but it is also less than the minimum wages of small countries such as Azerbaijan and Oman.
The state-run daily Shargh wrote, “Reports from the Ministry of Labor show that about 60% of Iranians do not have sufficient income and suitable jobs. About 14,200 million Iranians have low-income jobs and are without insurance.”
It further explained, “About one-fifth of Iranians are taxi drivers! (3.4 million SNAP drivers and 1.4 million Tepsi drivers, about 300,000 taxi drivers and private taxi drivers). About 35 to 40 percent of Iranians are tenants and about 20 million are slum dwellers and homeless. About 25 percent, or one-fourth, of the population, are slum dwellers and homeless.”
While the regime claimed and advertised that with the help of subsidies the lives of the Iranian people would improve, the reality of the situation shows that they are continuing to loot the people of their much-needed incomes.
The state-run daily Arman wrote, “The volume of cash subsidies until the electronic card is provided, has caused problems for the government with some banks accusing the government of withdrawing funds from banks to provide cash subsidies. In this regard, Vahid Shaghaghi Shahri, an economist, said that ‘Governments have been taking money from the banks for many years.’”
Budget Deficit and Khamenei’s Fear of Collapse
In a meeting with the Iranian regime’s parliament members, supreme leader Ali Khamenei suggested some actions to improve the country’s economy, as though Iran’s economy is normal, and everything is on the right track. In reality, the economy is in pieces and the regime is facing a huge budget deficit.
According to the state-run media, Khamenei claimed, “The composition of the budget is still not corrected, while the government is the one that has been addressed.”
The question that remains is whether the regime knows that there are many errors in the regime’s budget and why have they neglected to correct the mistake.
The answer is very simple. They are fully aware of the situation, but they are no longer able to correct the budget because of the corruption and theft that has engulfed all parts of the ruling system.
On December 22, 2021, the state-run daily Afkar News wrote, “The 2022 budget was presented without much change in the budgeting system and like previous years. This is a budget that has fundamentally major drawbacks and is not compatible with upstream laws.”
The budget is based on the export of oil and gas, and any shortage is compensated for by borrowing from the central bank and the fiat money.
In the budget of 2022, it was discovered that more than half of the budget had a deficit, with the general budget deficit amounting to close to 300 trillion rials, which was supposed to be supplemented y revenues from the sale of oil and the sale of government bonds and companies.
At the time, Khamenei warned the regime’s parliament that they should not increase the budget deficit by increasing expenditures, for which there is no revenue.
However, in the case of wasteful expenses, there are many examples in which the traces of Khamenei and the Iranian parliament are obvious.
Hassan Khoshpour, the former senior director of the Planning and Budget Organization, said, “The conduct of the 2022 Budget Consolidation Commission made it clear that not only it is futile to expect efficiency when the legislature and the executive branch are unified, but the budgeting process is merely a list of expenditures (mostly current expenditures) with no long-term development perspective, regardless of the possibility of their realization.”
It has recently become clear that the regime gave hollow promises in the budget circular, and that there is no programmed budget. Under the supervision of Khamenei’s office, the budget program has been converted into a traditional budget program that fails to support any progression and the country’s primary necessities and instead is giving free rein to the officials to partake in even more corruption.
An example of this is the decision of the regime’s Parliamentary Integration Commission, which increased housing and marriage deposit loans and allocated resources for the housing sector amounting to 440 trillion rials. It also compelled banks to provide resources amounting to 200 trillion rials for employment and implemented inefficient and harmful programs.
These actions were carried out with Khamenei’s full knowledge and coordinated with the government and the parliament. The growth of liquidity and inflation by such harmful programs, which has now increased to between 40 and 50 percent, is crushing the Iranian people. This is the real reason for the increase in more and people suffering from starvation.
From the very first days of the 2022 budget discussion, it was stated many times that one of the major parts of the budget expenditure, ‘ whose the bitter fruits the poor have tasted’, is the unaccounted money that has been flowing into the regime officials’ pockets in the name of cultural institutions. Yet, Khamenei orders the parliament not to approve unaccounted expenses!
The official news agency, IRNA, showed the reality of the situation. “At first glance, it seems that dozens of cultural institutions have been excluded from receiving the budget, while an inquiry from the Program and Budget Organization showed that there has been no change in the total number of institutions receiving the cultural budget and all cultural institutions have been merged into 10 main institutions. In fact, it is a budget that should be divided between these institutions and many other institutions whose names are not mentioned in the bill,” it wrote.
A recent analysis has shown that the budget of the seminary service center has increased by 100% compared to last year.
The state-run daily Tejart News wrote, “The budget of the seminary service center is 28 trillion rials. In 2021 it was 14 trillion rials. As stated in this bill, the budget share of the seminary service center is more than the Environmental Protection Organization.”
IRNA added, “The budget of the Environment Organization in the budget bill of 2022 is 21 trillion rials. Forty-three religious’ organizations in the budget of 2022 received 72.52 trillion rials, some of which received alone more than the budget of organizations such as the General Staff of the Crisis.”
Another example of this corruption belongs to one of the regime’s institutions, known as the Culture and Guidance of Qom. In talking about the regime’s support for the Institution, its director-general said, “In previous years, the concern of the Public Culture Council was that we need credit to support cultural activities. Fortunately, last year, a row under Table 17 was seen in the country’s budget to support cultural activities, and six trillion rials were distributed among cultural institutions. This year, 6.5 trillion rials have been allocated in the budget to support cultural activities.”
Why is Khamenei due to speak this month about the budget, when the regime is not due to draft a budget bill and review it in parliament?
It appears that after the many protests in recent weeks, due to high prices and starvation, Khamenei is keen to warn the officials to ‘steal’ less. Regardless of his intentions, it is far too late to attempt to rectify the situation as none of them can affect any changes.
Iran’s Regime: We Have Lost the Momentum of the JCPOA
The Iranian regime expected that they would be able to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) after a two-month deadlock, but with the decision of the US president Joe Biden to keep the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) on the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list, their hopes were dashed.
Before this decision was made, a draft agreement had been reached, and the only obstacle to finalizing it was the regime’s demand to pull out the IRGC from the US government’s FTO list.
While facing many financial problems, the regime had hoped that this progress would allow it to gain access to its frozen money and assets in many overseas accounts blocked due to the US sanctions.
During European Union official Enrique Mora’s visit to Tehran, Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, announced that the EU had prepared a package of proposals under which the United States would remove the Revolutionary Guards from the FTO list but would maintain the sanctions against the organization.
At the same time, Western media outlets had claimed that during Mora’s visit, the regime had agreed to resume talks on issues other than the removal of the IRGC from the US list of terrorist organizations, which was the focus of the last round of Vienna talks.
Concurrent with this news, which shows clearly the regime’s weakness exacerbated in the aftermath of the recent protests, regime president Ebrahim Raisi made the groundless claim that “we will not postpone the progress of the country until the lifting of sanctions so that others can decide for us, and we have shown this in practice and announced in the official forums that our strategy is the strategy of the leadership, but at the same time, we pursue the issue of lifting sanctions.”
US State Department Spokesman Ned Price stated that the Vienna talks are only focused on nuclear issues and if the regime wants to discuss issues that are outside the JCPOA, the US government is more than ready to participate in these talks, provided that the regime is prepared to make concessions.
Mehdi Zakerian, the regime’s international law expert, gave an interview with ISNA about the regime’s refusal to back down and its costs. He said, “Unfortunately, it seems that the other side, the United States, has long been reluctant to resolve the issue. In the US view, it has been able to manage its other issues and problems in the region and other parts of the world with the presence of other countries. And this is not good for Iran’s reputation and future, especially at the regional level. Unfortunately, in the analysis, news, and reports, the disagreement with Iran and the revival of the JCPOA do not do much harm to the international community.”
The situation has become so difficult for the regime that its Foreign Minister and his political deputy chose not to discuss the JCPOA in public and took the matter behind closed doors in the regime’s parliament. As for the news media, they only made some general remarks. Since the last deadlock, regime officials have avoided attending any live programs.
This reaction shows that the regime is terrified of the exposure of its weakness and the Iranian people’s reaction.
In recent months, the regime had hoped to gain concessions from the Ukrainian war, which explains why many officials and media outlets started to support Russia’s invasion. But as always, the developments did not turn out as the regime had wished.
In an interview with ILNA, Sasan Karimi, one of the regime’s experts, said, “When we reached the end of 2021 after Russia delayed the invasion of Ukraine, there were changes in Iran’s policy, and some analysis was that our oil would be sold to energy carriers in the world at a higher price. Russia will not pay attention to sanctions against us.”
He added, “The second issue was that the West would refrain from dealing harshly with Iran because of the protracted JCPOA process and would try not to push Iran further toward Russia in the context of Russia’s war with Ukraine. As a result, Iran’s case was unlikely to go to the Security Council. Regardless of the support or non-support of Russia and China, the return of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran does not require the vote of these two countries.”
Karimi further stated, “These two points caused Iran to slow down the pace of the negotiation and ultimately stop it. I called this process of reviving the JCPOA ‘a small victory, but the prelude to a great defeat.’ We missed the chance of reviving the JCPOA. That is, we missed the opening that was created to provide the opportunity to invest and sell oil in the world, and on the other hand, we were able to sell 800,000 barrels of oil.”
Corruption Main Cause of Accidents in Iran
The release of a painful video of an abandoned baby in a bin in Tehran coincided with the collapse of the Metropol building in Abadan. These two events show the depth of the effects of the regime’s corruption and looting on a rich country like Iran, and more importantly, its people.
The truth of the matter is that Iran has more than enough resources to prevent such bitter episodes from happening, but thanks to the Iranian regime’s politics, none of the wealth is reaching the Iranian people. As a result, people are forced to live their life constantly confronted by dangers created by the regime. No one is excluded, from an abandoned baby to those who seek to gain a little more wealth by investing their property in businesses such as the Metropol building in Abadan.
This is a bitter, painful, breathtaking, and unfortunately, believable story that highlights the hidden cruelty under the skin of Iran’s cities.
In reference to this widespread corruption, the regime’s state-run daily Arman-e Meli wrote in its publication, “We should not lose sight that in fatal accidents with a high number of casualties there is a footprint of corruption. We must now understand more than ever that corruption, selfishness, and personal and group utilitarianism threaten people’s lives besides they are plundering them.”
It added, “These corrupt relations and disregarding rules and regulations are suddenly becoming evident in places such as the Metropol building in Abadan which create disasters. Weak managements that are determined solely based on political, familial, and acquaintance relationships, even if they are not tainted with corruption, create the ground for corruption, and corruption spreads like a thousand-headed cancer and keeps no place safe from pollution.”
Highlighting the need to learn from these tragedies, the Arman-e Meli also stated, “Let’s learn for once, at least from the suffering of the survivors and victims of the Abadan Metropol, that there is no compliment and that problems cannot be solved by a few administrative orders. We need big and courageous changes in structures and decisions to define everything around national interests, security, and safety.”
The collapse of the Metropol building happened despite promises from the regime’s officials, after a similar accident in Tehran concerning the Plasco building, that construction projects would be fundamentally overhauled and strict regulations will be enacted, with controls and oversight to prevent accidents, but this did not happen.
Now the 10-story building in Abadan has collapsed, killing 28 people so far, and even worse, no one knows how many people are left under the rubble. The possibility of the rest of the building collapsing, just like in the Plasco incident, is a danger to rescuers, who are mostly civilians. Videos on social media have routinely shown that during similar accidents, and even during natural disasters, the regime does not provide any aid to those affected, and the people are left to deal with the aftermath on their own.
In Iran, all accidents have an unusual number and occurrence. No one can ever give you the exact number of the people dying, or better said killed or injured, due to the regime’s policies on the streets, factories, or construction sites, and the regime’s penchant for hiding the truth.
The Untold Story of Iran Regime’s Assassinated Qods Force Commander
On the evening of May 22, IRGC Colonel Hassan Sayad Khodai, one of the senior commanders of the Iranian regime’s Quds Force, was shot dead in Tehran.
Khodai was born in 1972, growing up in Miyaneh city in East Azerbaijan province. He joined the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) in his teens in 1987.
The state-run Nasim news agency reported that ‘Colonel Khodai was responsible for transferring missile technology to the Hezbollah in Lebanon.’
According to the ‘Defa Press (Defense Press)’ website, affiliated with the regime’s Ministry of Defense, Khodai was formerly the Deputy Minister of Research and Technology Development of the Defense Industries Organization.
The ‘Quds’ telegram channel, heavily affiliated with the regime’s Quds Force, announced, “Colonel Khodai had just returned from his mission in Syria a few days ago.” The regime’s media have also reported that he was close to Qassem Soleimani, the eliminated commander of the Quds Force.
Quoting Israeli media, the regime’s state media also claimed, “Colonel Khodai was also responsible for planning terrorist attacks and kidnapping Israelis.”
Without giving details, in a statement by the Revolutionary Guards, the incident was attributed to ‘counter-revolutionary and global arrogance’ groups, which could refer to countries such as Israel.
The IRGC also said that Khodai was a ‘defender of the sanctuary’, a term used for Iranians who are active on behalf of the state in Syria or Iraq. Iran is a key ally of Bashar al-Assad in his bloody campaign against the people of Syria.
Khodai is the most prominent IRGC official to be killed in Iran since the elimination of leading nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrisadeh in November 2020, known as the father of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Tehran had blamed Israel for the attack on Fakhrisadeh’s convoy near Tehran. It later came to light that he had been acting in the role of Deputy Secretary of Defense.
In January 2020, Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq. Soleimani had commanded the Quds Force of the IRGC, which is responsible for the regime’s foreign operations, warmongering, and global terrorism.
With a great deal of fanfare, the regime vowed to take revenge for these killings but has never actually followed through with such hollow announcements.
The Twitter account of Noornews, which is said to be close to the Supreme National Security Council of the regime, wrote, “The killing of Sayad Khodai is crossing the red line without calculation, which changes many equations. The perpetrators of this crime will pay a heavy price.”
IRGC’s Commander-in-Chief Hossein Salami, also claimed, “The blood of Martyr Sayad Khodai will not go unanswered.”
Not Even India Invests in Iran’s Ports
Over the past few years, India has been expanding Iran’s port of Chabahar, seeking to send goods through this route to markets in Afghanistan, Central Asia, Northern, and Eastern Europe. However, India has now changed its decisions and abandoned the Iranian regime, in favor of joining the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council’s Rail Network (GCC) instead.
This railway starts in Muscat, Oman, and connects all six Gulf Cooperation Council member states in Eastern Arabia. The project, which has been under construction since 2009, is 2,177 km long and will be operational by 2025. It is worth mentioning that these countries have the largest and most advanced ports in the Persian Gulf region.
The ports of these countries, including the one in the UAE, are among the five largest ports in the world, and the countries bordering the Persian Gulf have now decided to connect their transport infrastructure by creating a common railway from Israel to Turkey, and then connecting to Europe from there.
This has been a huge hit on the Iranian regime, especially the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which intended to take advantage of handing over the port of Chabahar to India to assist in their smuggling operations.
In addition to the losses for the regime’s organizations, this decision will have disastrous consequences for Iran’s economy in the future, because it will lose a significant source of revenue as the country with the longest coast and many ports in the Persian Gulf. Needless to say, the regime has not improved any of Iran’s ports since the beginning of its reign.
On Tuesday, May 17, the state-run daily Shargh quoted Ali Ziaei, a regime’s transport industry analyst, as saying that India had turned a blind eye to Iran’s Chabahar port for the transit of its goods.
According to the newspaper, the railway network will reach the port of Haifa in Israel and then extend to Turkey. Following the normalization of relations between the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf and Israel, the completion of this railway network has gained astonishing speed as The UAE and Israel have invested heavily in building and upgrading their current infrastructure. It has come to light that India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel have been pursuing a joint economic project called the India-Middle East Food Corridor for a long time.
India, as one of the world’s food giants and, of course, a large economy, is seeking to manage its water resources and modernize agriculture with this project, and Israel, as one of the most advanced countries in the world in the field of industrial agriculture, is helping India in this regard.
Ziaei explained, “In my opinion, India and the United States deceived Iran. While the US exempted the Chabahar port from the sanctions and India demonstrated a passive presence in this port, they caused the development of Chabahar port to be postponed and now India has left Chabahar port and joined the Persian Gulf railway project.”
He emphasized that the regime’s passivity in developing its trade infrastructure has eroded golden opportunities for transit through Iran’s borders and that it any hope of reviving them or creating new opportunities is practically lost.
Khamenei’s Wrong Decisions and Its Poisoning Result
In recent days, many demonstrations have taken place across Iran, protesting the Iranian regime’s decisions to increase the price of some of the most basic goods, like bread and chicken. Following this decision, the regime took many security measures to prevent a scene of nationwide protests, akin to those in November 2019 which began soon after the regime announced a price hike for gasoline.
During the protests, the slogans chanted by the people were directed at the regime’s highest officials, from its supreme leader to its president. This alone shows that the people’s main demand is no longer economic, but rather that they seek a regime change, as their tolerance of the regime has reached its threshold.
Looking back, it is clear to see just how big of a mistake the regime Supreme Leader Khamenei made in his decision to appoint Ebrahim Raisi as president.
In his opening remarks in 2022, Khamenei referred to the appointment of Raisi as ‘the great sweetener of 2021’. However, since Raisi became President, there have been failings after failings. Khamenei is desperate to defend Raisi’s policies; after all, he is the one who put him in charge in the first place.
The fact is that Khamenei has tied the regime’s destiny with a gordian knot which will only intensify the people’s protests. It has gotten to the point that a state-run media outlet, the Jomhuri Eslami, called for the resignation of Raisi in an article titled ‘Declaration of Serious Danger’, referring to the total collapse of the ruling body and the explosive conditions of the society.
The paper wrote, “Now even your pro-government forces are protesting your actions, and we know that the efforts of a group of pro-government forces to justify the opposition of their forces are like milking the ram. Now that you cannot solve the problems, bravely step aside, and leave the work to skilled people to save the people and the country from this dangerous vortex.”
Khamenei knew very well what crises he would face when he assembled candidates for high positions within the regime. By picking totally incompetent people, men well known for their crimes and other atrocities, Khamenei has revealed his evil intentions.
Ebrahim Raisi, infamous for his role in the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, took the position of the presidency. Many IRGC officers, incumbent or retired have been appointed to the cabinet as ministers or their deputies.
Most local officials and governors of the country have also been chosen from among the former and present commanders of the IRGC. Even the regime’s judiciary, by order of Khamenei, is under the control of one of the most criminal clerics e, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, who once bit off the ear of someone who had disagreed with him.
The regime’s parliament is under the control of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, former State Security Force Commander who has bragged about being a club-wielder on the streets, and members of parliament have, once again, been selected mostly from the members of the Basij and IRGC officers. The only reason for such an arrangement is the regime’s fear of the people and its main opposition group the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), as well as the National Council Resistance of Iran (NCRI).
A few months ago, Khamenei stated that a ‘foreign enemy’ was threatening the regime’s existence but could not specify who or what this enemy was. In the months since his remark, it is apparent that that ‘foreign enemy’ is none other than the MEK and its resilient and expanding Resistance Units.
