The price of each pack of eggs in Tehran has reached 350,000 rials [$1.16]; meanwhile, the government-approved rate is over 300,000 rials.
The government has no plans to distribute [eggs] at the approved rate, and poultry farmers are reluctant to sell their produce at the approved rate, the state-run Tasnim news agency wrote on 27 September.
The Minister for Agriculture of Hassan Rouhani’s government had also promised that the price of this product would be offered cheaply at the approved price from the beginning of the week, but this has not happened yet.
The situation of other goods and commodities is similar to that of eggs, And prices have not come down yet. The minister in charge of market regulation is still behind the door of the parliament to get a vote of confidence, the poverty line has reached 100 million rials [$333] and the salaries of workers have remained unstable.
Now Iran’s government is talking about granting food stamps to those below the poverty line, But it is not clear where the source of it comes from? In this chaos, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) also wants to move the capital.
The environment due to over-harvesting of freshwater aquifers, pastures, and forests, which is due to low productivity and poverty of the villagers is severely damaged. This will lead to the destruction of small villages with a population of about three million in the near future.
Informal settlements are expanding; The index (unemployment plus inflation) in 2019 or before the coronavirus in Iran was one of the highest figures in the world.
No one really knows how many immigrants from the cities and the countryside live on the outskirts of cities. There are estimated to be two million vacant homes in the cities, but tax collection has sparked a dispute between officials and the regime’s Guardian Council.
The death carriage named Pride, which was supposed to be taken off the production line due to its fatalities has now reached a price of over one hundred million rials.
An economic analyst in the regime says about the performance of governments in these decades:
“Because they despair of making history and find it easy to make geography; Because in their view, building geography is nothing but ‘masonry’.
“Masonry does not need a model of development, nor does it need a social policy, nor does it need to build institutions of democratic decentralization, nor does it need free elections and the authorization of trade unions. Like the claim of money-free management of cities, the absurdity of such a claim about the transfer of capital is clear:
“Estimates show that building a well-equipped city of 500,000 like the capital of Iran requires $300 billion, three times Iran’s total capital formation or exports (oil and non-oil) at its peak during the non-sanctions period. It is impossible for a contractor, apart from being military or private, internal, or external, to have such a reserve. (Shargh, 27 September)
Looking around, we can clearly see that various occupations and classes have been closed for more than eight months due to the high risk of the coronavirus conditions, and with the increase in coronavirus infestation, not only is there no prospect of opening them, but a number adding to the coronavirus conditions, have been shut down due to high prices.
The head of the Tehran Chamber of Trade Unions says in this regard: “Unfortunately, with the re-emergence of the disease, there is a possibility that the initial instructions will be re-enacted, and more classes will be closed.” (ILNA, 28 September)
While government factions are attacking each other about the economic situation, Tasnim in an interview with Hossein Ayvazlou, Director of the Department of Political Economy at Imam Sadegh University, wrote: “From the very beginning of the government’s work, seven years ago, and especially in the second round, we have stated in several statements, which we wrote with a group of economists that this government has no plans to solve economic problems, but it has had no effect.
“I believe that in general, in the country’s decision-making system in the theoretical field, we do not have a comprehensive plan to solve problems within the framework of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is not for today, but it starts from the meetings four or five years ago in which they had no plans or ideas. (Tasnim, 27 September)
Khosh Chehre, one of the opponents of Rouhani’s government, attacking him, while Rouhani claimed that, “The cause of all problems is America, and Washington DC should be cursed”, while mocking the regime’s governments that this behavior is becoming a stereotype of their standard reaction. He added, “In the last year of their work, they have pointed out all the shortcomings abroad and introduced the root of the problems to the United States and its allies, and Rouhani’s remarks about the US being the cause of all the country’s problems is incorrect, immature and extravagant. (Tasnim, 27 September)
While the government made the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) accountable for the economic disaster, ILNA wrote: “The main reason for the increase in the monetary base is the increase in the net foreign assets of the Central Bank, which was also due to the fact that the Central Bank took the unusable and inaccessible currency of the National Development Fund and gave the equivalent in Rials.
“If the central bank wants to continue this accompaniment, it must also respond to inflation. Right now, the government is somehow stepping aside and blaming the central bank for the problems.
“So, this bank should not have been so supportive so that we reached such a state. It should be noted that when inflation rises, government spending increases and the budget deficit intensifies again, so it looks like next year the problems in terms of compensating for the budget deficit will double. (ILNA, 28 September)
By Jubin Katiraie
We Are Facing A Catastrophe in The Third Wave of the Coronavirus, But Still the Government Is Dragging People onto the Streets
“We are repeatedly warning people to avoid unnecessary traffic, but the government and the Ministry of Education are dragging people into the streets in any way,” said Minoo Mohrez, a member of the National Coronavirus Taskforce, on 27 September.
“Iran is on the wave. We can no longer say the first or third wave. Unfortunately, the country is constantly on the coronavirus wave”, she added.
The Treatment Staff Is Very Tired and Weak
“Despite all the lies of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani so far about the adequacy of hospital beds and medical requirements, Minoo Mohrez said, “There is no empty bed in the hospital. In many hospitals, patients have to be treated with oxygen capsules in the hallway or yard. Due to the fact that the treatment staff is very tired and weak. If we follow the same procedure, the country will face a catastrophe. From the outset, the National Coronavirus Headquarters opposed the reopening of schools. On the contrary, they opened schools two weeks earlier, which is completely wrong.”
Coronavirus Is Circulating in All Provinces of the Country
“Currently, the coronavirus epidemic is circulating in almost all provinces of the country,” said Ali Akbar Haghdoost, deputy education minister and head of the Corona headquarters’ epidemiology committee.
He added: “And it can almost be said that a third wave is beginning in the country. September travels, gatherings and Muharram ceremonies are the main reasons for the resurgence of the coronavirus in the country.”
High-Risk Jobs Must Be Shut Down
The president of Qom University of Medical Sciences said: “Qom hospitals are saturated and about 800 beds are full. We are witnessing the peak and severe coronavirus spread in Qom. The virulence of the virus has increased and about 75% of the samples taken in Qom are positive. We want to impose some restrictions, including distance learning, reducing working hours and closing high-risk jobs.”
The Drip Method Resulted in the Death of A Number of Sweet Souls
Nahid Khodakarami, chairman of the Tehran City Council’s health committee, said: “The drip control of COVID-19 resulted in the deaths of about 12,000 Tehran residents and 25,000 defenseless Iranians (these are not just numbers, these are sweet souls that are lost). While the social, psychological and economic consequences of this horrific tragedy have not yet been revealed.”
Rouhani Again Blamed the People
However, Rouhani on 27 September 2020 at the Coronavirus headquarters again blamed the people for the Coronavirus outbreak, saying: “Just 48 to 53 percent of the people observed, but this is a small number. We ask the people to increase this cooperation so that we can go through these stages. Insufficient observance of the people causes problems. So, we are announcing today that we have to tighten regulations and we have to tighten controls.”
20,000 Imported Feipiravir Tablets Were Spent on Government Officials and Nothing Reached the People
On Sunday, September 27, Mahmoud Sadeghi revealed that 20,000 imported Feipiravir tablets had been consumed by government officials. Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of the 10th parliament, admitted that 20,000 Feipiravir pills were smuggled in the latest days of the 10th parliament. He said that most of these pills have been taken by the authorities.
He said the pills were supposed to be given to hospitals for clinical work and licensed for production, but it was not clear what happened to them.
The abuse of power in the Velayat-e-Faqih (supreme religious rule) is not limited to the financial and economic sectors. These corrupt officials use rent-seeking to endanger people’s lives so that they do not harm themselves.
One Death in Every Seven Minutes
Iraj Harirchi, Deputy Minister of Health: “The number of deaths in some provinces is unprecedented and much higher than the previous quorum. According to last week’s statistics, on average one person dies because of the coronavirus in every seven minutes.”
The head of the Tehran Thousand-Bed Hospital said: “ICU sections of the hospital are completely full, and we use normal wards to hospitalize coronavirus patients.”
He added: “Our clients are about 3 to 5 times more than in previous weeks and the condition of patients is deteriorating more.”
120 Students Have Died Because of The Virus
“In the last seven months, the number of students patients infected with the coronavirus has exceeded 10,000, 120 of whom have died,” said Harirchi.
The Deputy Minister of Health confessed to the death of students, while many parents demanded that schools not be reopened. But Rouhani and his health minister ordered the reopening of schools, regardless of the dangers, and endangered the lives of students.
After the faction affiliated with Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei took over two branches of power, the legislature, and the judiciary, now the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) is seeking to participate in the 2021 presidential election and take power over Iran’s executive branch.
Hossein Dehghan, one of the IRGC commanders who is one of the Supreme Leader’s advisors, on September 28, announced that he will participate in the election and will nominate himself. Referring to his decision he said: “I will come with power and I believe that people should be saved from this current situation.”
The Most Important Concern of the Government
There are about eight months left until the 2021 presidential election. But the country’s political circles are already preparing to participate, and this has become their main concern.
Last year, Khamenei expressed his desire for the next government, saying he wanted a “young Hezbollahi government.” But before considering the youthful character that Khamenei has named, it is a characteristic of being Hezbollahi. Khamenei, by engineering the parliamentary elections and brought in a large number of IRGC officers into the parliament as representatives, showed that he has decided to have a complete contraction in the country.
Khamenei and his faction have so far been in charge of the country’s main affairs as a shadow government. As the contradictions in society become more complex, they can no longer deal with government affairs from behind. For this reason, Khamenei and his faction have decided to take over the affairs of the country and appoint a military government to rule the country by appointing an IRGC member to the presidency, Iran watchers say.
The arrival of Hossein Dehghan in the elections and the announcement of his candidacy sooner than any other candidate is a sign that the so-called conservative current affiliated has already made its decision. In fact, it is Khamenei who has made such a decision and will try to pull his candidate out of the ballot box by engineering the 2021 elections, Iran experts argue.
Dehghan and Head of the Ministry of Defense
Dehghan has a history of leading the Ministry of Defense in the tenth government. He is known among the IRGC commanders as a so-called moderate who will be able to strike a balance between the reformist and conservative forces in the governing body.
However, the upcoming U.S. elections are very important for the current rulers of Iran. Current President Hassan Rouhani and Khamenei are hoping that U.S. President Donald Trump will not be re-elected and with the arrival of Joe Biden, the wall of the sanctions will crack. But on the other side, Khamenei knows very well that even with the arrival of Biden, he will not be able to easily overcome the sanctions barrier. And unlike Barack Obama’s era, he will not be able to sign another treaty and get planes full of dollars.
Weakening Economy
The Iranian government has become so economically weak over the past two-and-a-half years under sanctions that they expect daily that the deprived and poor people, who live under the burden of poverty, hunger, and coronavirus, will rise up and ignite a nationwide and subversive protest. Khamenei has clearly realized that he will not get rid of this national uprising. So, he has tried to consolidate the government as much as possible. Experts say he has decided, if necessary, to free himself from any popular uprising by establishing a military government.
By Pooya Stone
There are 45 Sunni prisoners infected with coronavirus in Rajaei Shahr Prison, Karaj, but they are being denied appropriate medical care, including medicine and oxygen capsules, or transfer to hospital.
Only one of the ill prisoners in Hall 11 of Ward 4 – Abdol Wakil Rahmani – was taken to a hospital outside prison, but even this was only because his condition deteriorated so much and other prisoners launched a protest.
Seven of those placed in solitary confinement on the “Safe Ward” in the past few days have now been returned to Hall 11.
Meanwhile, there are reports that other prisoners in the prison have also contracted the disease, including two in ward 7 and one in ward 12.
This is especially worrying because there are several political prisoners with serious illnesses held in this prison who would be in grave danger of contracting coronavirus, which combined with pre-existing conditions could mean they are more likely to die.
Those, especially at risk, include Arash Sadeghi, who has bone cancer, and Afshin Bayemani and Abolqassem Fouladvand, both of whom have heart conditions. All of whom have been denied adequate medical treatment for their existing health problems by Rajaei Shahr Prison warden Allah Karam Azizi and the supervisor for political prisoners Amin Vaziri, who are notorious for using this as a form of torture against detainees.
In 2019, Iran Human Rights Monitor wrote that human rights defender Sadeghi was at severe risk due to an untreated infection on his shoulder that developed after surgery in 2018, which developed because Sadeghi was removed from the hospital against doctors’ advice by prison authorities. He has also been prevented from monthly hospital visits to check on a tumor, which led him to lose motion in his right arm.
At the best of times, conditions in Iran’s prisons are nowhere near international standards because they are overcrowded with not enough beds, have poor ventilation, no hot water, inedible food, and insect infestations. The situation is much worse now, with Amnesty International reporting in July that the government ignored repeated requests from senior prison officials over the resources needed to control the coronavirus, including medicine, medical equipment, cleaning products, and personal protective equipment.
Amnesty wrote: “Overcrowding, poor ventilation, lack of basic sanitation and medical equipment, and deliberate neglect of prisoners’ health problems, are making Iranian prisons a perfect breeding ground for COVID-19. The Iranian authorities must stop denying the health crisis in Iran’s prisons and take urgent steps to protect prisoners’ health and lives.”
By Jubin Katiraie
A Kurdish political prisoner was moved from the Central Prison of Kerman, southern Iran, to the notorious Dieselabad Prison in Kermanshah, western Iran, on September 24.
Zeinab Jalalian spent three months in solitary confinement on Kerman’s quarantine ward following a weird and probably unnecessary trip around several prisons in April and May, which led her to contract coronavirus.
On April 28, Jalalian was moved out of the Prison of Khoy without prior notice, handcuffed and shackled, before being taken to the prisons of Urmia, Kermanshah, the Evin Courthouse, and finally Qarchak Prison, without being given the needed food or water.
It is not known why she was moved. When her family asked, after turning up at Khoy to find out that she wasn’t there, prison officials said that a new case was being opened against her and she was being transferred to a Tehran prison for questioning.
In Qarchask, she contracted coronavirus but was not given medical care. Instead, they moved her to the quarantine ward in Karman prison, where she went on a hunger strike. Her father, Ali, said that on June 3, she was taken to the prison for severe breathing problems and tested positive for coronavirus, but prison authorities refused to transfer her to the hospital.
Jalalian has been in prison for 13 years and is currently suffering from several severe ailments and infections, none of which help when you are recovering from coronavirus. This includes, but is not limited to:
Pterygium
Oral thrush (oral candidiasis)
Intestinal and gastric diseases
Severe hypertension
This treatment of Jalalian has been going on for a long time. In June 2018, Amnesty International made a call for urgent action over her access to appropriate medical care being stopped.
Amnesty International wrote: “Zeinab Jalalian also has heart, intestinal, and kidney problems, as well as an oral thrush condition that has caused painful white bumps on her tongue and interferes with her ability to eat and swallow. She is at risk of losing her eyesight in prison as she is being denied surgery for a worsening eye condition called pterygium, which is impairing her vision and causing her severe discomfort.”
They continued: “She has repeatedly asked the prison authorities to take her to a hospital outside the prison for specialized testing and treatment for her health problems but the authorities have either rejected outright her requests or have accepted them on the condition that she makes videotaped ‘confessions’.”
In an interview with Shahrvand daily, Minoo Mohraz, member of the National Covid-19 Task Force, shed light on Iran’s dire health condition
By Jubin Katiraie
Iran’s state-run daily Shahrvand interviewed Dr. Minoo Mohrez, a member of the National Anti-Coronavirus Headquarters. Her remarks showed the extra-severe situation in Iran, in the sense of the coronavirus epidemy. Below are parts of this interview:
On this pretext, we have a conversation with Dr. Minoo Mohrez, an infectious disease specialist and a member of the scientific committee of the National Anti-Coronavirus Headquarters. Someone who believes that part of the current problems is due to the inattention of policymakers to the opinions of experts of the Scientific Committee of the National Anti-Coronavirus Headquarters. She speaks candidly about these challenges and believes that people need to take extra care of themselves, as the cost of a day hospitalization for a patient with coronavirus infection is much higher than the figures quoted by some media outlets. Someone who says she has not seen so many deaths during her 45 years of professional work.
Q: Why, despite the warnings of you and other experts about the third wave, and given that you have repeatedly warned of the danger, strictness was not done as it should be?
A: A big problem all over the world is that people still do not think COVID-19 is real. At first, they were scared, but then it became normal for them. Quarantine was practiced in many countries from the beginning, but its social, psychological, and economic effects were far worse than those of COVID-19, because in these conditions’ unemployment, poverty, and anxiety pile up.
Q: You mean, you know the people responsible?
A: People look at their rulers; Naturally, when telecommuting is abolished and schools and universities are reopened, it has consequences and makes people think that the situation is commensurate.
Q: How effective have the recent reopening and cancellation of telecommuting been?
A: During this period, wrong decisions were made in many countries, as well as in our country. The reopening of schools on September 5 was a mistake. Schools were also closed during the Iraq-Iran war. The children studied on the radio and television all the time. The same thing can be done now, my children studied in the same way at that time. Now the number of visitors has increased from March and April. In one major hospital, 60 people were hospitalized in one day. See how bad they were when they were hospitalized because we treat many people on an outpatient basis. I call on the people not to gather, even if they (the government) have a plan for them, not to participate in it and to protest. My residency was when diphtheria and tetanus were rampant but were not so deadly.
Q: You mentioned the dead and the sick above. Sometimes there are rumors that the statistics announced by the Ministry of Health every day are not true. what is your opinion?
A: The World Health Organization will accept your statistics when you have a positive PC. False positives are rare, but we have a false negative of 30 percent to 40 percent in tests, so 30 percent to 40 percent of our patients are not reported. Doctors should tell patients that if someone’s test is negative and they still have symptoms, it means that they have the coronavirus.
Q: Given the fact that the hospitals are full, what are the consequences of this situation?
A: The designated hospitals for the coronavirus are currently full. Even in the corridors of the hospital and on the couches of the hall, some patients have been given oxygen. Our doctors and staff are tired. We are used to working hard physically, but we are really stressed. The epidemic of no disease has never been so severe. They show that they are disinfecting school classrooms with pumps, but that is not enough. The virus is not transmitted through doors and walls. Most parts of Iran were red when education decided to reopen schools. They said the color of the areas does not matter! But is it important, now after this incident, all of Iran turned has red?
Q: Given that the incidence of familial infections has been reported to be higher than before, if a person in a family has symptoms, does the whole family need to have a PCR test?
A: Due to the high cost and limited nature of PCR testing, I do not recommend doing this as usual. In other parts of the world, where there are more possibilities, as soon as a person becomes ill, all those who have been in contact with him are tested, and if their test is positive, they are quarantined. But currently, such a possibility does not exist in Iran. The PCR test is expensive and costs about 7 to 8 million rials [$28-32]per test.
Given the quasi-explosive situation in Tehran, which accounts for two-thirds of the victims and about 60 percent of the infected, why not consider a special program for the capital?
A: I am a scientific member of the National Anti-Coronavirus Headquarters and I am not a decision-maker there. The Scientific Committee opposes any kind of gathering in these super-red conditions. Our views are reflected; however, the final decision is not our responsibility.
Q: That is, the decision-makers in the headquarters are indifferent to your opinions and those of other members of the scientific committee? Because what we hear from you is completely different from what we see in action.
A: Feedback from our talks will be provided by the Minister of Health at the Anti-Coronavirus Headquarters. As a rule, the opinions of the Ministry of Health and the scientific ommittees should be considered before making a decision. Finally, I do not know what happens when making a decision! I know that the Minister of Health is also worried about this situation and the advisers to the Minister also say that they cannot do anything more. Yes, it seems that decisions are made elsewhere. Health officials who specialize in this field express their views. But policymakers’ positions are different. Policymakers should take the recommendations of the Ministry of Health seriously because the science of treating infectious diseases is in this area, not in other ministries.
Iranian authorities apply more pressure on political prisoners and issue harsh sentences to silence any opposition voice
By Pooya Stone
An Iranian prisoner of conscience began a hunger strike yesterday in protest to being moved to a psychiatric hospital and injected with a substance against his will.
Behnam Mahjoubi, 33, a member of the Gonabadi Dervish religious minority was transferred to Aminabad Mental Hospital on Sunday, not given any information about his supposed treatment and his family was not told where he was.
An informed source said that Evin Prison officials told his relatives that he was taken to the hospital for treatment, but his family later found out that he was illegally taken to a place for psychiatric patients. They said that after Mahjoubi found out that a judge ordered his transfer, he went on a hunger strike.
Mahjoubi is one of the 300 Dervishes arrested for taking part in protests in February 2018 in Tehran. He was released, but in August 2019, Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court sentenced him to two years in prison for “assembly and colluding against national security by communicating with others and providing illegal gathering”. As usual, a bogus charge to intimidate dissidents.
Mahjoubi began serving his sentence in June 2020, but prison authorities stopped him from accessing the necessary medication that his family brought in for him. The prison doctor actually told him to take sleeping pills instead. As a result, Mahjoubi had a seizure on Saturday, fell, and is now paralyzed down one side of his body.
His wife, Saleheh Hosseini, wrote in an open letter: “My husband was transferred to Aminabad Hospital while he was paralyzed due to stopping his medication. Why? Why didn’t you give him his medicine? We prepared his medicines ourselves every month, while it was your duty to prepare and deliver his medicine.”
The regime routinely used denial of medical treatment in order to put pressure on prisoners of conscience, in direct violation of international and Iranian law.
In related news, Tehran University student Mostafa Hashemizadeh was summoned to Evin Court on Friday to start serving his six-year prison sentence for protesting the regime’s intentional downing of a Ukrainian airliner in January.
The civil engineering student was sentenced to 5 years in prison for “assembly and collusion to disrupt national security” and an additional year in prison for “disrupting public order”. He has also been sentenced to three months of forced labor, 74 lashes, and a two-year ban on entering the university dormitory.
Hashemizadeh was forced to make false confessions after an interrogator threatened to kill him at least twice.
Iranian authorities’ psychological and mental pressures on the father of death-row political prisoner Amir Hossein Moradi pushed him to commit suicide
By Jubin Katiraie
The father of a jailed Iranian political prisoner on death row has died from suicide, according to state-run News Agency ROKNA.
Mohammad Moradi, 60, the father of protester Amir Hossein Moradi, died at home on Monday morning, having been under severe pressure following the confirmation of his son’s death sentence, something confirmed by his son’s lawyer Babak Paknia. His wife said that he talked constantly about his son, showing extreme concern.
Following Moradi’s death, the so-called“reformist” Telegram channel Emteded said that security forces and people with cameras descended on the house and stayed “for a few hours”, while “reformist” journalist, Mehdi Mahmoudian said they were trying to extract “forced confessions” from the family.
Amir Hossein, 26, was arrested for taking part in the November 2019 protests over the authorities’ decision to triple gas prices overnight and was sentenced to death, alongside fellow protesters Saeed Tamjidi and Mohammad Rajabi. Reports indicate that he was tortured after being arrested; namely beaten, subjected to electric shocks, and forced to endure an agent standing on his chest. He was told that his torture and solitary confinement would continue until he confessed.
The trio’s death sentences were confirmed in June, but Iranian launched a social medical campaign that resulted in the sentences being reviewed after the hashtag Do Not Execute was used over 10 million times, including by the President of the United States. Despite this Amir Hossein’s family were put under “mental pressure” and kept in limbo about the death sentence, which indicates that the review was never really going to result in their lives being spared. As the government usually does, they intended to delay the execution until the heat had passed, but they never wanted to stop the execution altogether.
An informed source said that following his father’s death, Amir Hossein’s mother and brother were summoned to the Intelligence Agency and threatened with arrest if they spoke to the press.
The source said: “Since Amir Hossein’s arrest and death sentence, his parents have been in poor mental health. His father was under severe mental pressure.”
At least nine Iranian protesters are on death row, but the true number may be much higher due to the state’s secrecy around things that make them look bad.
In August, Iranian authorities hanged protester Mostafa Salehi, a father of two from Isfahan, central Iran, and in early September they hanged protesters and wrestling champion Navid Afkari from Shiraz, southwestern Iran.
The Iranian people face a tsunami of poverty, but the leaders’ concern is how to fill their pockets
By Jubin Katiraie
Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani claimed that the Iranian people’s bad livelihood situation is because of U.S. and global sanctions. On 12 September Rouhani cried out that world powers are not allowing them to buy medicine with their own money and tried to connect all the country’s problems to the sanctions.
His remarks were by and largely untrue since U.S. officials have on many occasions announced that there are no sanctions imposed on the import and purchase of medicine, food, medical equipment, and facilities and of course agriculture products, but Iranian officials struggle to show something else.
The truth is that the people’s livelihood problems and high costs are rooted in corruption, theft, and embezzlement by the government officials, Iran watchers argue.
To contour a real picture, we will show here some of the examples of these thefts and embezzlements.
In April 2020, it was revealed that $4.8 billion of government currency had been lost. (State-run Mashregh website, 15 April)
Aftab-e-Yazd daily wrote that $18 billion was wasted last year. This Rouhani-affiliated daily wrote that the currency was given to those who did not import goods at all, and if they did, they sold them in the open market, considering the price of the dollar in the open market. (Aftab Yazd, 11 November 2019)
Abdolnaser Hemmati, the governor of the Central Bank, admitted that in the last two years, $27 billion in foreign exchange has been given to exporters and in return, no good and currency has entered the country. According to him, these people must be held accountable. (Tabnak website, 14 July 2020)
Regarding the $27 billion figure mentioned by Hemmati, Hariri, the head of trade between Iran and China, explained that small businesses export $8-9 billion annually and that 50 percent of non-oil exports are gas and petrochemical condensates, which are in the hands of state-owned companies. (Kayhan, 20 July)
The family of Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, former Minister of Industry, has embezzled €6.6 billion from petrochemicals. (Khabar online website, 21 July)
Iranian Vice President Eshagh Jahangiri, Rouhani’s chief deputy, acknowledged that $22 billion in foreign exchange was taken to Dubai and Istanbul to reduce the price of the currency, but the fate of the money is unclear. (Aftab website, 23 October 2019)
According to Karimi Qodusi, a member of Iran’s parliament, more than $36 billion was given to smuggling bands of goods, currency, and drugs by the order of Rouhani. (Mehr news agency, 4 October 2020)
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, said that we had to give $35 billion to those which are not clear how they squandered the money and where they took it. (Shargh daily, 2 May 2020)
In 2018, the ILNA news agency reported that $30 billion had been lost in the banking network in the past 10 months. (ILNA, 29 November 2018)
In an unprecedented move, who has decided to allocate $20 billion of the country’s foreign exchange resources to various groups, some of which even do not exist, the state-run news agency IRNA wrote on 2 August 2018.
Yousefian Mollah, a former member of parliament, said it was unclear what had happened to the $9 billion and where it had gone. (Bahar website, 15 April 2020)
Saeed Leylaz, a government economist, also said that the unaccounted distribution of the 4,200 tomans currency, by wasting currency and gold resources, led to the loss of $30 billion and 80 tons of gold. (90 Eghtesadi website, 26 August 2020)
If we consider gold at the current price of $1945 an ounce, this amount of gold is equal to $5.5 billion, and in fact, it is $35.5 billion in sum, which the state has squandered in this way.
Leaving aside embezzlement by officials’ children, Omid Assadbaygi the managing director of the Haft Tapeh sugarcane factory, embezzled 2.5 trillion tomans, and Abas Irvani, economically active in the automotive industry and its affiliated group named Ozam, embezzled nearly 764 million tomans.
Ali Abedzadeh, the former head of the airline, bought the King Air 2000 for $2.5 million, but invoiced $11 million and stole $8.5 million for the aircrafts.
Theft and embezzlement are taking place in a way that it is very difficult to calculate the numbers. The figures revealed by the media or admitted by both members of the factions have something in common. The common denominator is that the leaders of the government and their affiliates are looting every moment.
From the above figures, it can be concluded that at least $50-60 billion has been looted in the last two or three years. With this amount, each Iranian receives at least 20 million Tomans, with the same amount of money, the meat consumed for seven years in Iran can be provided. With this money, 18 years of wheat consumption in Iran can be provided and two million sustainable jobs can be created by international standards.
With this money, more than two million standard hospital beds, five million standard classrooms can be built, and this money is equivalent to the national budget with a population of 30 to 40 million people.
Iran-backed terror squads attempt to subvert regional states to create chaos and instability across the Middle East
By Pooya Stone
In a statement on September 28, the Saudi State Security announced that it managed to disband a terrorist cell linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to the statement, security forces arrested ten individuals who had received training by the IRGC in Iran.
Saudi authorities have also discovered large quantities of weapons and explosives hidden in a house and on a farm. Security forces seized “electrical components used in the making of explosives such as capacitors, transformers and resistors, gunpowder, chemicals, Kalashnikov rifles, guns, sniper rifle, live ammunition, machine guns, blades, military clothes, and wireless communication devices,” reported al-Arabiya.
Previously, Bahraini authorities declared that they managed to foil a terrorist attack backed by the ayatollahs in early 2020. On September 20, the Ministry of Interior Kingdom stated the IRGC was behind the attack. According to the ministry’s investigations, a new group called the “Qassem Soleimani Brigade” had planned to attack several public and security structures in Bahrain.
On September 24, German officials imposed a ban on the sale of model aircraft engines to Iran after a shipment ended up in drones used by the Houthis in Yemen to sophisticated drones and cruise missiles in attacks targeting Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities Aramco on September 14, 2019.
Notably, two weeks after the attack, Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) U.S. Representative Office revealed details proving that high-ranking Iranian officials had ordered the strike. Detailed planning began after Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s initial approval of this operation and the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) referred a plan to Khamenei for final approval. Khamenei ordered IRGC Major General Rashid and Brigadier General Hajizadeh to begin the operational implementation of the plan, the NCRI statement explains.
On the other hand, for decades, Iranian authorities are funding extremist groups across the Middle East such as the Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Kataib Hezbollah, and Houthi rebels in Yemen. These groups have acted as arms of the IRGC’s Quds Force in the regions and across the globe to create chaos in these mentioned countries and prevent political stability.
“It’s hard to find a conflict or terror group in the Middle East that does not have Iran’s fingerprints all over it,” said the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (2017-18) Nikki Haley said back in December 2017.
In this context, Iran-backed Hezbollah has taken hostage the fate of the Lebanese people and paved the path for the ayatollahs’ meddling in this country. The group has stockpiled a large amount of weapons and ammunition in different areas around the country in order to carry out orders from Tehran.
“Our goal, which we have no choice but to adopt due to our ideological beliefs, is the project of the Islamic State of Lebanon… Not as a separate Islamic Republic but as a part of a ‘Great Islamic Republic,’ ruled by the Vali-e Faqih [former Iranian supreme leader Ruhollah] Khomeini,” said Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in 1982.
Also, Iran-backed militias in Iraq have frequently announced their loyalty to Khamenei. On September 15, 2011, Iranian state-run TV aired a video showing Hadi al-Ameri, then minister of transportation in Iraq and head of the Badr Corps kissed Khamenei’s hand showing his allegiance to him and the Iranian government’s projects in Iraq.
Forces under the command of al-Ameri and other Iran-linked politicians in Iraq are the source of instability and insecurity in this country. “Iran-backed militias fostered sectarian and violence by providing training and equipment to the Shiite militia organizations by mid-2006. I can tell you there is no question that they were doing this. I firmly believe that Iran bears responsibility because their training and equipping of the Iraqi militia groups was the major factor in sustaining the sectarian violence that swept Iraq in 2006 and 2007. And to me that makes Iran directly responsible for the death of hundreds of coalition forces and thousands of Iraqis,” said Gen. George Casey, Commander of Multi-National Force – Iraq (2004-07), in June 2018.
Back in January 2007, the NCRI held simultaneous press conferences in Paris, London, and Berlin revealing the identities of tens of thousands of Iraqi officials with strong ties to Iran. The document consisted of the names, specifications, monthly salaries, addresses, and personal codes of around 32,000 politicians and military personnel literally implementing Iran’s policies in Iraq.
All these facts obviously underscore the imperative of adopting a firm policy against the Iranian government’s malign behavior. As Iranian authorities suppress any opposition voice at home, they severely jeopardize the peace and stability in the region and across the globe.
For 40 years, the ayatollahs have extended their terror attacks from Tehran to Buenos Aires, Mecca, Baghdad, Benghazi, Paris, Berlin, Rome, and Washington DC. Now, that is the time for the international community to hold them accountable and spare them on respecting human rights and international law. The world must prevent the Iranian government to obtain even a single bullet, which will shot against either peaceful protesters inside Iran or innocent people in other countries.
