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Iranian Youth Must Wait 100 Years to Become Homeowners

Mehdi Hosseini
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Iranian Youth Must Wait 100 Years to Become Homeowners

Passing the 100-year waiting period for buying a home; becoming homeowners has fallen out of orbit.

In a new report, Etemad newspaper has addressed the issue of housing, stating that workers, employees, retirees, and teachers who receive minimal wages and salaries, along with 12 million Iranian youths on the brink of marriage, are in a situation where the minimum waiting period to buy a home has reached up to 100 years.

On Wednesday, April 3, the state-run Etemad newspaper, has written that the investment slope in the housing sector has been declining since 2021.

The newspaper, referring to a severe decline in housing transactions, has announced that a significant portion of the population is unable to buy homes because with these wages, they have fallen below the poverty line.

The newspaper’s report mentions housing facilities under the title “troublesome loans,” stating that it’s quite strange that one-fourth of housing loans must cover the cost of securities, and the remainder of the loan is subject to a 23% interest rate, and loans that are still unpaid are subject to installments and interest.

Meanwhile, also on April 3, the Donya-e-Eqtesad newspaper, wrote that official data on rent trends indicate a 39.6% nationwide rent increase and a 52% rent increase in Tehran within a year, marking “a new era in the rental market” whose main characteristic is “the possibility of compensating for the landlord’s cost of living increase through rent.”

The newspaper emphasized that the two main reasons for this inflation in rent are the upward change in the general inflation level and the housing inflation in recent years, which have acted as accelerators in the sharp rise in “rental costs.”

Based on this, it has been announced that in the national rental market, general inflation and annual rent inflation have become equal, and in Tehran, annual rent inflation has outpaced general inflation.

These events in the housing market come as Ebrahim Raisi promised to build one million homes per year and curb inflation in this sector, but in the past two and a half years, not only has this promise not been fulfilled, but with the average price of housing in Tehran exceeding 830 million rials (approximately $1,285), people are facing the phenomenon of “housing distress” and “housing poverty.”

Labor experts and activists have also stated that 75% of workers’ wages are allocated to housing, and other needs such as food are excluded from their priorities.

Iran Condemns Pressure on Regional Proxies while Aiming to Expand Malign Influence

Jubin Katiraie
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Iran Condemns Pressure on Regional Proxies while Aiming to Expand Malign Influence

The United States announced new sanctions on Tuesday, March 26, against six firms, two tankers, and a money exchange, all of which are alleged to have engaged in business dealings to the benefit of the Iranian regime and two of its militant proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Separately but on the same day, the US also announced sanctions targeting 11 individuals and entities for helping the Iran-backed Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad to evade preexisting sanctions and raise financing through drug trafficking.

The new measures emerged very soon after 13 Iran-backed militants were killed in Syria, and just days after Iran’s UN ambassador Saied Iravani called for a lifting of all sanctions on the Assad regime, as well as the removal of US forces from Syria, where they have been working to prevent resurgence of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group. Iravani drew an arguably arbitrary distinction between US forces and Iranian forces in Syria, calling the former “uninvited” despite the fact that they work closely with the semi-autonomous government in Syria’s Kurdish region while Iran-backed militias often operate above and separate from the actual Syrian military.

The Iranian regime’s envoy’s comments before the UN reflect a longstanding and far-reaching strategy of trying to supersede Western influence in the Middle East region. This was underscored by remarks delivered around the same time by regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and carried by Fars News Agency. Khamenei either expressed or feigned confidence about the US withdrawing its forces not just from Syria by from across the region, and gave credit in advance to Hamas.

Khamenei’s remarks came just ahead of his meeting in Tehran with Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh, which reinforced the Iranian regime’s embrace of Hamas as a key part of the “Resistance Axis” that also includes Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Syrian militants propping up Assad, and similar Iran-backed militants in Iraq. Khamenei and other leading Iranian regime officials have repeatedly praised the October 7 attack as an “irreparable defeat” for Israel and its Western backers, while also helping to mobilize the Axis to keep pressure on both.

Shortly after war erupted in Gaza, the Houthis have been waging a campaign of attacks upon commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Iranian regime proxies in Iraq and Syria carried out more than 170 attacks on US and US-allied military assets in the region until early February, at which point they shifted focus in the wake of American retaliation for the deaths of three US service members at a border installation in Jordan.

That shift in focus reportedly came in response to appeals from Iran, but has arguably had little real impact on Iraqi and Syrian contributions to regional instability. The regime is by all accounts still providing groups in both countries with a steady supply of arms and logistical support to further carry out attacks in the region.

Iran’s state-run Tasnim News Agency appeared to brag about those threats on Friday via an article that quoted Technology Minister Issa Zarepour as declaring that Iran has become one of the top ten countries in the world in terms of space launch technology, following a recent satellite launch carried out from a Russian launch pad. The report claimed that the Iranian space industry had been “fully indigenized” with help from the policies of President Ebrahim Raisi, who has also empowered the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to expand its presence in a number of fields.

While Zarepour’s comments fell short of direct threats of expanded missile development and trafficking, it is widely understood that space launch technology has a dual purpose as components of military rockets, including potentially nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles. The IRGC is already in charge of the largest stockpile of ballistic missiles in the region, and portions of that stockpile have steadily made their way into the hands of regional militant groups, thus featuring prominently in some of the most recent Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

Those attacks remain largely ineffective but still demonstrate notable escalation, with a French warship having shot down at least three ballistic missiles last Thursday alone. Reports of that engagement emphasized that attacks upon commercial vessels and the coalition guarding them have become a near-daily occurrence, even as joint American and British strikes on Houthi arms depots have become commonplace as well.

Before missile attacks became prevalent, the Houthi relied even more heavily upon Iranian-made one-way attack drones, of the sort that have also been delivered to Russia by the thousands since the start of war in Ukraine. Iran’s drone technology is also reported to be evolving and was recently featured at a military arms exhibition in Doha. Specifically, Iran presented to potential buyers a drone that it had named “Gaza,” claiming it capable of carrying up to 13 bombs over a 1,200 mile operational distance.

These specifications were disputed by at least one competing arms manufacturer, and indeed the Islamic Republic has a long history of overstating its own military capabilities. Nonetheless, there is an underlying fact of ongoing development which threatens to increase the capabilities not only of Iranian forces themselves but also of various proxies and allies. What’s more, these military resources open the door for new trade with those same allies, as indicated by the fact that Tehran recently claimed once again to be on the verge of taking delivery of Russian-made Su-35 jet fighters, which would allow the Iranian air force to make its first truly significant upgrade since the 1979 revolution.

But as much as this potential trade represents a challenge to Western interests and global stability, Iran’s own advancements may also pose an indirect threat to its own allies. This is especially likely if Iran proves to have less control over its military proxies than is generally assumed. That assumption was seemingly reflected last week in a public statement from the Houthis promising not to attack Iranian, Russian, or Chinese vessels. But just days later it was reported that an attack had been launched against a Chinese vessel anyway, signaling a possible loosening of the reins on Houthi operations.

91 Journalists, Media Activists Persecuted In Iran in Past 3 Months

Hoshang Amiri
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91 Journalists, Media Activists Persecuted In Iran in Past 3 Months

An active non-government organization announced in a report on Tuesday, April 2 that 91 journalists and media activists in Iran have come under persecution in the past three months.

The Iranian regime, in the first three months of 2024, has subjected at least 91 journalists, media activists, and media outlets to judicial and security persecution.

“The Organization for the Defense of Freedom of Information” has compiled its analytical-statistical report on violations of the rights of media, journalists, and citizen journalists from January 1, 2024, to March 30.

This report is based on a total of 124 press cases updated from primary sources and reports published in the media and human rights organizations.

The report emphasizes that during this short period, the Iranian regime has registered at least 12 arbitrary detentions of journalists and media activists on its record. Among them, three journalists have been transferred to prison for the execution of the detention order, and nine others have been summoned to judicial and security institutions.

The Organization for the Defense of Freedom of Information says that during this period, the house of one journalist was searched by security forces, and the assets of another newspaper were confiscated.

Meanwhile, a news agency has expelled its photographer for criticizing the government.

The report states that 24 journalists and media directors, including seven women and seventeen men, were collectively sentenced to 14 years and seven months in prison, 990 million rials (approximately $1,564) in cash fines, two years of exile, four years of deprivation from journalistic activities, four years of prohibition from social media activities, and two years of prohibition from leaving the country.

The Organization for the Defense of Freedom of Information adds to this report that the number of judicial persecutions of journalists and media executives in February 2024 has increased by 40 percent compared to the similar period a month before.

This organization notes that this report only addresses data that was possible to collect, verify, and document.

The International Federation of Journalists emphasizes in its report from 2023 that at least 27 journalists were detained in Iran in the past year.

This is while the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, announced on January 19, 2024, that Iran, after China, Myanmar, Belarus, Russia, and Vietnam, is the sixth largest prison for media owners.

IRGC Commanders Dead in Attack on Iranian Regime Consulate in Damascus

Sia Rajabi
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IRGC Commanders Dead in Attack on Iranian Regime Consulate in Damascus

Following an airstrike attributed to Israel on the Iranian regime’s consulate in Damascus, which resulted in the killing of several senior members of the Revolutionary Guards, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the chargé d’affaires of the Swiss embassy as the representative of U.S. interests in Iran.

Hossein Amirabdollahian, the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister, wrote on his X account on April 2, stating that “an important message has been sent to the U.S. government as a supporter of the Zionist regime.”

The Iranian Foreign Minister emphasized that “The US must be held accountable.”

This comes as Israel’s Defense Minister, in the first indirect response to the attack attributed to the country against the Iranian consulate in Damascus, stated that Israel operates “everywhere” to deter its enemies.

Yoav Gallant told the Israeli parliamentary committee on foreign and defense affairs on Tuesday, April 2, that “we are engaged in a multi-front war. Every day, we conduct operations everywhere to prevent our enemies from gaining strength.”

Meanwhile, Axios cited an unnamed U.S. official as saying that the United States had told Iran it had no involvement or precise information about the Israeli attack.

The Israeli airstrike on the building of the Iranian consulate in Damascus, located near the Iranian embassy, resulted in the death of seven Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officers, including Mohammadreza Zahedi, one of its senior commanders and the head of Quds Force operations in Syria.

Hossein Akbari, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, stated that besides the seven Iranian military personnel killed, six others were also killed, whom he referred to as “Syrian citizens.”

Zahedi is a former commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ Air Force and an active member of the Quds Force, responsible for leading this force in Syria and Lebanon.

Reactions of the Iranian regime’s authorities

Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime, praised Mohammadreza Zahedi in a written message on Tuesday and wrote that Israel “will be punished by our brave men, and we will make them regret this crime and similar ones.”

Regime president Ebrahim Raisi also issued a statement calling the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus “blind terrorism” and addressing Israel, wrote, “this cowardly crime will not go unanswered.”

Axios, citing a senior Israeli official, wrote that the country’s military is on standby for potential retaliatory attacks against Iran-backed militias in Syria.

Israel claims the targeted building was a “legitimate military target.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times, citing “Israeli officials” and “a member of the IRGC overseeing the Quds Force,” wrote that Israel’s attack on a building affiliated with the Iranian regime in Damascus targeted a meeting where Iranian intelligence officials and Palestinian militants were supposed to discuss the Gaza conflict.

The New York Times report suggests that leaders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a group of Gaza militants supported by the Iranian government attended a meeting on Tuesday in the destroyed building.

Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the Secretary-General of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was invited from Syria to Tehran last week for talks with Iranian regime officials and coordination regarding the continuation of the Gaza war, simultaneously with the visit of Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, to Tehran.

Four Israeli officials, whose names were not mentioned by The New York Times, said that while their country conducted the airstrike operation, they denied the diplomatic status of the targeted building.

These officials also claimed that the building was under the control of the Revolutionary Guards and their activities, hence was considered a “legitimate military target.”

According to reports from Syrian media, Israeli missiles were fired from the “occupied Golan Heights,” and the Syrian air defense system intercepted some of the missiles, but the ones that hit caused “complete destruction of the building,” resulting in “all individuals inside being killed or wounded.”

Although Israel has been targeting “Iranian-affiliated targets” for over a decade to prevent Iran’s military consolidation and its allies in Syria, this is the first time that buildings affiliated with the Iranian regime’s consulate have been directly targeted by Israel, indicating a noticeable escalation in Israel’s operations against the Iranian government in the region.

Questionable Motives behind Iran’s Death Sentence for Police Officer who Killed Protester

Jubin Katiraie
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Questionable Motives behind Iran’s Death Sentence for Police Officer who Killed Protester

International media including Agence France Presse reported on Wednesday that an Iranian police officer, Jafar Javanmardi, had been sentenced to death over the killing of a protester during the country’s nationwide uprising in late 2022. The victim, Mehran Samak, expressed support for the anti-government protest movement on November 30 of that year by honking his vehicle’s horn to celebrate Iran’s national soccer team losing to the US at the World Cup. In direct response to that gesture, Javanmardi reportedly fired at least one blast of pellets from a shotgun, killing Samak.

Reports of Javanmardi’s sentencing did not make it clear whether or not he was the only officer involved in the incident. Neither did they specify what evidence the court used to ascertain that he alone was responsible for the killing. This is arguably noteworthy because since the end of 2022, a number of protesters have been held responsible for the deaths of security officials, only for questions to arise from defense attorneys and human rights advocates about the fairness of their trials and the veracity of the evidence used in securing convictions.

In many cases, that evidence included confessions that were alleged to have been elicited through torture, while courts have also been accused of suppressing evidence which pointed to the innocence of certain defendants. These practices have even been used to secure convictions for multiple individuals in connection with singular deaths. Dozens of individuals have reportedly been sentenced to death, with at least nine having been carried out so far, although the charges underlying those executions are not technically murder but rather “enmity against God” and “spreading corruption on Earth.”

Javanmardi, on the other hand, was sentenced to death “in accordance with the Islamic law of retribution, known as the ‘qisas’ law, on the charge of premeditated murder,” according to a lawyer for Samak’s family. This indicates that unlawful killings by security forces and protest actions leading to injury or death are considered categorically different by Iran’s judiciary, even if the outcome is the same in certain cases.

Of course, the outcome rarely is the same, and Javanmardi’s death sentence appears to be unique. No other such sentence has been reported for police or other authorities in the 19 months since the uprising began. In fact, Javanmardi is one of very few officers to face any legal repercussions whatsoever for actions taken during the uprising, despite the fact that hundreds of protesters were killed in the streets and in detention facilities between September 2022 and the end of that year.

According to the leading pro-democracy opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, the number of fatalities quickly reached 750, while another 30,000 protesters were arrested. In its recent report, a fact-finding mission on the regime’s crackdown reported to the United Nations Human Rights Council that there were certainly over 550 protester deaths, and that authorities had deliberately aimed to cause permanent injury with practices such as firing pellets directly at people’s eyes.

Tehran has effectively confirmed the PMOI’s arrest estimate, but continues to deny the casualty figures from both it and the UNHRC. 

The announcement of Javanmardi’s conviction and sentencing is likely a consequence of the concerns created among Iranian authorities by international attention to the fact-finding mission’s initial report. A death sentence for one abusive police officer may give the superficial impression of balance and impartiality in the regime’s response to the 2022 uprising. But of course that impression evaporates when Javanmardi’s case is put in context with all of the prosecutions of non-violent protesters and all of the abuse allegations which have been explicitly rejected by regime authorities.

This is not the first instance of those authorities seemingly asking the public to give them credit for protecting the rights of protesters. Soon after the nationwide protests began to calm down in early 2023, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced a broad offer of amnesty to persons who had been arrested during the uprising and had either already received prison sentences or were facing prosecution that could lead to multi-year terms. Iranian state media explicitly cited this as evidence of compassion and patience on the part of Iranian law enforcement, but activist groups were quick to raise doubts about the veracity Khamenei’s offer and the terms of detainees’ possible release.

These doubts were later validated by reports of amnesty recipients being made to sign letters of apology which effectively doubled as confessions to crimes in absence of prosecution. The letters also conveyed a promise to avoid similar activities in the future, thus providing a ready pretense for re-arrest in the event that former arrestees are found to still be advocating for political or social change. In recent months, as the regime’s crackdown on dissent has carried on, there have been a number of reports of amnesty recipients being detained and handed sentences that are clearly still related to the 2022 uprising.

Javanmardi’s death sentence may be intended to distract attention from this phenomenon and from the findings of the UNHRC’s fact-finding mission. But in absence of genuine transparency about his case and others like it, it is more likely that the condemned police officer will simply become a new focus of discussion about the regime’s penchant for politically-motivated sentencing, forced confessions, and scapegoating. This is especially likely in view of the fact that Javanmardi is not the only regime official or well-connected person to be conspicuously held accountable for broader malfeasance at times of political sensitivity for the regime.

 

Average Housing Price in Tehran at 830 million Rials

Jubin Katiraie
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Average Housing Price in Tehran at 830 million Rials

According to the latest report by the Central Bank of Iran, the average housing price in Tehran has reached over 830 million rials (approximately $1,353). The regime’s 90 Eghtesadi website reported a 60% decline in transactions in this sector in 2023.

Iranian media reports indicate that the housing price in Tehran, based on the latest official data released on March 18 by the Statistical Center of Iran, has reached 833.12 million rials per square meter.

Reports suggest that the average price of houses in Tehran has increased to 833.12 million rials after almost a year, precisely an increase of 168.72 million rials (approximately $275) per square meter.

This decline in transactions, according to some experts, indicates the continuation of the upward trend in prices in the market, which could lead to further declines in real estate transactions.

According to reports, based on the Central Bank of Iran’s data, the 11-month transactions (from April 2023 to March 2024) have been the lowest since 2016 and even before that.

Furthermore, a comparison of the statistics of 2023 with the real estate transactions in 2017 shows a 75% reduction in this area.

From the perspective of stakeholders in this field, this decline in transactions is likely to continue. Kianoush Goodarzi, the head of the Tehran Real Estate Consultants Union, stated that the real estate sector is influenced by various factors such as government fiscal policies, inflation, exchange rates, and more. He emphasized that what happens in the new year largely depends on the behaviors and policies of the government.

Goodarzi told “Hamshahri” newspaper that with the increase in the price of each dollar from 500,000 rials to 600,000 rials (the current price is around 61,350), sellers who were looking for buyers and offering discounts withdrew from selling and raised their offered prices by 20% to see what would happen in 2024.

Hossein Rostami, the head of the Mashhad Real Estate Consultants Union, also stated on March 27, “The government and the private sector must reduce the gap between supply and demand so that a change may occur in the housing market, and recession does not dominate the housing market this year.”

Reviewing the developments in the Iranian real estate market indicates that the reduction in people’s purchasing power is the most important factor in the inability of applicants to obtain housing.

Last summer, the Research Center of the Majlis (Parliament) wrote in a report that the lower to middle-income groups, particularly those in deciles one to three, are “absolutely” unable to provide the housing they need for residence.

During the election campaign and after taking office as president, Ebrahim Raisi promised to build one million housing units per year. But more than two years into his government’s term, he has yet to achieve any progress in this area.

Iranian Woman Sara Tabrizi Suspiciously Dies After Arrest by Ministry of Intelligence

Hoshang Amiri
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Iranian Woman Sara Tabrizi Suspiciously Dies After Arrest by Ministry of Intelligence

A few days after the news of the “suspicious” death of a young woman named Sara Tabrizi was published, the Iranian regime’s judiciary confirmed her detention in recent months.

On March 23, reports of the “suspicious” death of Ms. Tabrizi went viral on social media

Some news sources claimed that this 20-year-old girl had died after being summoned again by the Ministry of Intelligence in mid March.

The regime’s Judiciary Media Center confirmed on March 29 that Sara Tabrizi’s father had announced on March 24 “through contact with the local police station in their residence in Shahriar County, Tehran Province, that his daughter did not wake up from sleep and apparently had passed away.”

The judiciary claimed that no summons had been issued by security or judicial authorities for Ms. Tabrizi in mid-March.

However, the judiciary confirmed the detention of Sara Tabrizi in January and claimed that on January 7, she “was detained on charges of using fake documents and passports to leave the country, and after going through the stages of the investigation, she was released on bail from prison on January 14.”

The judiciary announced in its recent report that Sara Tabrizi returned to prison after temporary release on January 14 until the time of her death, and only a “suspended imprisonment” sentence had been issued for her.

The reason for the death of this young woman has not been published yet, but the judiciary report stated that Ms. Tabrizi’s father had announced that “his daughter had been transferred to the hospital the night before her death due to feeling unwell and had been under treatment.”

This is not the first time that news of the death of a prisoner has been published after their release.

During the nationwide protests in 2022 and thereafter, numerous reports about the “suspicious” deaths of some detained protesters after their release were published, including the deaths of Maryam Arvin and Yalda Agha-Fazli, a protester residing in Tehran.

Furthermore, some protesters ended their lives due to physical and psychological pressures resulting from interrogation and torture.

Some of Sara Tabrizi’s fellow inmates say her death “regardless of how it occurred, is the responsibility of the government.”

In this letter, signed by several well-known political prisoners in the women’s ward of notorious Evin Prison, it is stated that during the week Sara Tabrizi was in the women’s ward, she was seen terrified and nervous.

Based on this, Ms. Tabrizi described her loneliness in solitary confinement and “her fear of the realization of interrogation threats,” and according to her, after three nights of detention in solitary confinement in Section 209 of the Ministry of Intelligence in Evin prison, she was transferred to the infirmary due to severe palpitations and nervous attacks but was still under pressure during interrogation that if she did not “cooperate,” she would be returned to solitary confinement.

IAEA Director Warns About Lack of Transparency in Iran’s Nuclear Program

Esmaeil Mohades
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IAEA Director Warns About Lack of Transparency in Iran’s Nuclear Program

The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency has once again criticized the Iranian regime’s further restriction of IAEA inspectors’ access to its nuclear activities, saying that the nuclear deal known as the JCPOA has practically been abandoned and Iran’s nuclear capabilities are no longer the same as they were ten years ago.

On March 30, Rafael Grossi told PBS that despite a recent report by the agency indicating a reduction in Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the overall trend is an increase in nuclear materials with very high enrichment levels.

In February, Reuters reported that the IAEA had informed its members that Iran’s storage of 60% enriched uranium continues to grow, but its pace has slowed in recent months.

Rafael Grossi reiterated his criticism of the agency’s limited access to Iran’s nuclear activities in his new interview with the PBS, emphasizing the complexity of the Iranian issue.

He said that the agency has inspections in Iran, but not at the levels and depths necessary, which is the crux of the problem.

The Director-General of the IAEA continued by stating that the JCPOA has essentially been abandoned and is just an empty shell, adding that the 2015 agreement was based on certain numbers and specific types of technologies, capacities, and capabilities, but that was ten years ago. Iran now has centrifuges that are much faster, more efficient, and more active, he warned.

He added that while parties talk about returning to the JCPOA, the reality is that in 2024, Iran is very different from 2015.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was signed in 2015 between Iran and six world powers.

Less than three years later, in May 2018, Donald Trump, the then-President of the United States, announced the US withdrawal from the agreement, after which Iran gradually abandoned its commitments under the JCPOA.

Iran’s move last year to not renew the visas of some agency inspectors, whom Mr. Grossi had called the “most experienced” inspectors, was seen as part of the rift between Tehran and Western countries.

Rafael Grossi told the BBC that the agency does not want to repeat the sad experience of Iraq. Grossi doesn’t think it’s in anyone’s interest. Therefore, shutting down inspections and expelling inspectors is never a good idea.

The restriction of inspections and the discovery of traces of enriched uranium in undisclosed locations have been among the disputes between the agency and the Iranian regime.

However, Rafael Grossi announced last February his decision to travel to Tehran again and pursue previous negotiations.

Immediately after that, Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said that this trip would take place in May, referring to the “congestion of the schedule in February.”

 Statistics show that New Year accidents’ deaths in Iran reached 585

Jubin Katiraie
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 Statistics show that New Year accidents’ deaths in Iran reached 585

Ahmad Shirani, the head of the Information and Traffic Control Center of the Iranian regime’s police, announced that the number of fatalities in accidents during the new Persian year, which began on March 21, has reached 585. At the same time, the head of the Traffic Police announced an increase in fines.

On March 28, Shirani told the regime’s semi-official ISNA news agency that this number of deaths is related to 484 accidents.

This number of fatalities in accidents comes as, according to this police official, the volume of traffic on Iran’s roads from March 14 to 28 decreased by three percent compared to the same period last year.

Shirani further stated that the number of injury accidents was 12,472 and the number of injured was 15,574.

He added that there have also been 65,083 accidents which resulted in material damage.

In recent days, the regime’s State Security officials have repeatedly identified drivers as the main culprits of fatal accidents.

Siyavash Mahboubi, deputy head of the Traffic Police, said on March 28, “Excessive speed, illegal overtaking, left turns, and opposite direction movements have been the most common violations that drivers have committed and led to the impounding of their vehicles.”

In past years, Iranian regime officials have always cited failure to yield, inability to control vehicles, and excessive and unauthorized speeding as major causes of accidents.

Last year, they said that 82 percent of these road accidents occurred due to inattention, fatigue, and drowsiness of drivers, especially on long routes.

At the same time, numerous reports have been published about the poor quality of vehicles, especially Iranian-made vehicles, and this issue has been cited as one of the main factors contributing to accidents.

Fivefold increase in fines

Attributing drivers as responsible for the high number of accidents in Iran has led to an increase in fines.

Teymoor Hosseini, head of the Traffic Police of the Iranian regime, said on March 28 to the regime’s official, IRNA, “With the recent decision of the Cabinet to increase the amount of fines, the rate of fines has increased fivefold on average.”

According to Hosseini, the highest increase in fines is related to drunk driving, which has increased sevenfold with the recent government decision.

The increase in the rate of fines for drivers comes at a time when the government has not announced any measures to improve the quality of vehicle production.

In addition to the poor quality of domestically produced vehicles in Iran, the aging of cars has also made roads more unsafe.

According to official sources, about 90 percent of motorcycles and 40 percent of passenger cars are in the aging category, and part of the public transportation fleet is also affected by aging.

According to experts, technical problems on Iran’s roads are another contributing factor to fatal accidents.

Last year, the head of the Traffic Police tacitly confirmed this issue and said, “We have 5,200 accident-prone spots on the country’s roads.”

Land Subsidence in Critical Conditions in Isfahan

Mehdi Hosseini
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Land Subsidence in Critical Conditions in Isfahan

Mehdi Toghyani, a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), pointed to the occurrence of land subsidence in various parts of Isfahan and the danger of the city’s history and civilization, said the danger was so serious that “if there is no thought about it in the next few years, we should all leave Isfahan.”

Toghyani told the state-run Khabar Online website on March 28, “The lack of revival of Zayandehrud has emptied the aquifers of Isfahan plain and has caused socio-economic and environmental problems for Isfahan.”

According to this MP, the problem of Zayandehrud is not only the problem of East Isfahan and the farmers, but the whole plain of Isfahan is in danger of subsidence due to the drought of the Central Plateau River of Iran.

A number of experts believe that the subsidence in Isfahan has passed the warning stage and special measures should be taken for it.

In this regard, images of the creation of a sinkhole caused by subsidence on February 28 show that the deepest landfall in Isfahan has been recorded in the neighborhood of Kojan at six meters.

The regime’s official IRNA news agency in response to the subsidence in Isfahan province and the increasing warnings about this phenomenon, has devoted a section to subsidence news and wrote that subsidence has severely affected many plains of Isfahan province and in this situation, subsidence has exceeded the crisis.

According to IRNA, Isfahan Plain as one of the most important plains of this province on average 15 centimeters per year sinks and the population of two and a half million, urban infrastructure and monuments of this “central plateau” are in serious danger.

In July 2023, the Director General of Disaster Management of Isfahan Governorate had announced that surveying and the Center for Road and Housing and Urban Development Research had been evaluated, and the rate calculated in the plains by Geological Survey has been set between 5 and 18 cm per year in different regions.

An official for Iran’s National Cartographic Center also reported the expansion of land subsidence into cities in January 2024, saying that the phenomenon was advancing in Isfahan and in a city like Arak, central Iran.

The Director General of geodesy and National Cartographic Center had announced that the subsidence in Iran is five times the global average, and currently many provinces, including Markazi and Hamedan provinces, as well as 300 plains of Iran, are suffering from a land depletion crisis.

The regime’s Ham-Mihan newspaper also  reported on the crisis of subsidence in Isfahan on January 1, and wrote that there are neighborhoods in Isfahan where all buildings are cracked, and hands pass through them; buildings that are not very old and only 10 or 20 years have passed since they were built.

The newspaper emphasized that the evidence shows that “the subsidence not only affects historical monuments such as Sayed Mosque, Naqsh-e Jahan Square, historical bridges, etc. It has also involved residential, hospitals, schools and urban infrastructure.”

Excessive water harvesting from underground aquifers as well as neglecting the necessity of protecting environmental resources has caused subsidence in most parts of Iran, with Fars news agency reporting in July 2023 that “The dreaded record of land subsidence in some parts of our country has reached 100 times higher than international standards, and conditions in many provinces, including Yazd, are declared critical to the extent that in some regions, the sinkholes have reached within a few hundred meters of people’s homes.”

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