On June 26, a dissident group called “Ghiam ta Sarnegouni,” meaning “Uprising Until Regime Overthrow,” made public the contents of two classified letters related to the requested budgets of religious and security institutions within the Iranian regime. These letters urged the allocation of substantial funds from the general budget to compensate for the damages resulting from the nationwide uprising that took place last year.
In one of the letters, the Secretary of the National Security Council wrote to the former Head of the Planning and Budget Organization, requesting an allocation of $18 million to cover security expenses. The letter emphasized the need for these funds due to the widespread disturbances across various provinces, ongoing unrest, and the financial resources required to manage the aftermath of the incidents.
The highly classified letter was dated October 15, 2022, only four weeks after the start of the uprising in Iran. While the exact time frame for this requested budget remains unclear, it is likely that further funds were allocated to the Ministry of Interior and other security and military institutions of the government in light of ongoing unrest after the letter’s submission.
The second letter, signed by the Chairman of the Policy-Making Council of Friday Prayer Leaders, was addressed to the regime’s president. It requested an allocation of $600,000 to compensate for damages caused by attacks on the offices and residences of Friday Prayer leaders in 58 locations across 15 provinces on December 13, 2022. The classified letter emphasized the necessity of equipping these locations with surveillance cameras and other security measures.
It is worth noting that the regime views the extensive protests of the previous year, which began after the death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the Tehran Morality Police, as disruptive, alongside numerous other protests against its rule. The regime continues to grapple with the consequences of these events.
Ghiam ta Sarnegouni has recently released a significant number of confidential and highly confidential documents from the security, political, and military institutions of the regime. In one such letter dated November 8, 2022, marked as top confidential, Ali Shamkhani, the former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, warned the regime’s Supreme Leader about the repercussions of the formation of the Committee of Truth Seekers by the United Nations Human Rights Council. This committee was established to investigate the unrest and killing of protesters, and Shamkhani urged the government to prevent its formation. However, the Human Rights Council proceeded with assembling the committee, and the Iranian regime subsequently announced its refusal to cooperate with it.
Although the recent release of documents by the Ghiam ta Sarnegouni group is not unprecedented, it highlights the underlying insecurity and flawed chain of command within Tehran, despite recent reshuffling and dismissals within the regime’s intelligence apparatuses. The regime’s power is being undermined by a discontented society, which has intensified attacks on symbols of the regime, as well as its repressive and propaganda structures.
