Just a few days ago, the Iranian regime’s president Ebrahim Raisi made a ridiculous claim that the absolute poverty engulfing the country will be eradicated within two weeks. With such a preposterous remark, it is no wonder that the regime’s officials and Iran’s state media have responded with sarcastic and cynical reactions.
On March 8, Ali Ghanbari, a professor at the Tarbiat Modares University, wrote in the state-run Etemad daily, “Public opinion and university professors are still stunned by such a remark. Is the president jokingly expressing these speeches?!”
Ghanbari’s question highlights a reality that the regime fears most besides the growing resistance of the Iranian people, especially the youths: Revolt by a hungry and starving nation. This is all the more a likely possibility because the number of the poor living under the poverty line has surpassed 70 percent, completely exterminating the middle class of the country.
The Arman newspaper echoed comments by Mostafa Eghlima, a social worker expert of the regime, who warned the regime about the possibility of a revolt by starving people. He wrote, “In recent months, every day a section of the community has been protesting their living conditions. Teachers and retirees were among the groups protesting their living conditions. The same is true for other occupational groups. People are unable to tolerate this situation, and if this situation continues, you will have to wait for the explosion of the starved. Do not doubt that if this situation continues, if the explosion of those starving does not happen this year, it will happen next year.”
Raisi is not the only one who expressed his fear about the growing number of starving people and its danger to the regime. One of the most infamous, cruel, and corrupt mullahs, The Guardian Council Chairman Ahmad Janati spoke about ‘the miracle of satisfying the hungry’, in his recent speech in the regime’s Assembly of Experts. He went on to add that his sovereign state cannot satisfy the starving people after 40 years.
Raisi’s remarks faced much criticism by the regime’s media too, which attacked him as one of the main officials responsible for this situation, reminding him of his problematic conduct over the past 40 years.
On March 9, the state-run daily Hamdeli wrote, “While Janati’s recent remarks can be simply ignored, one should, nevertheless, ask that what role is he playing in this? Which element of the system is to blame for this situation? Except that a group of officials with any name and title must be responsible for this situation.”
In another article titled ‘Who is responsible for the starved?’, the same daily wrote, “Jannati, as an influential cleric in the government and among the Iranian clergy, has had unparalleled power and influence for forty years in approving the qualifications of those present at the highest levels of law-making and expanding the cultural and political discourse of the Islamic Republic.
“What role does he ascribe to himself? And how much of the blame is he willing to take? The third point is that ultimately where and which institution of the government has had fundamental flaws that are country this rich, we cannot feed the hungry?”
The same day, the state-run daily Jahan-e Sanat, affiliated with the regime’s so-called reformist faction, wrote, “The gentlemen were voted and took the office with the promises of resolving the economic and livelihood problems, and finally nothing is changing in the miserable situation of the people.
“Finally, the problems have become so acute that it would not be a bad thing if the officials’ preoccupation were to feed the people. On the other hand, saying that the resolution of this issue requires a miracle is worth pondering about given that every day the media outlets of the principlist faction write about an improving situation, facilitating the sale of oil, gaining revenue, and in a word, not needing the JCPOA and the removal of the sanctions.”
The paper quoted Abbas Abdi, who was among the occupier of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, who said sarcastically, “The bigger miracle was to starve the people, and this happened.”
