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Iranian Regime Unprepared and Unable To Deal With Aftermath of Major Earthquakes in Iran

Hoshang Amiri
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Iranian Regime Unprepared and Unable To Deal With Aftermath of Major Earthquakes in Iran

As the world acknowledged the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction on October 13, while other countries have been making efforts to try and control natural disasters and reduce the numbers of casualties, the people of Iran have fallen victim to a natural disaster of their own in Khuzestan province, with the regime failing to help those affected.

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake hit the Andika county in eastern Khuzestan on October 9. According to the Vatan-e Emrooz daily, of the 600 villages in Andika, 330 have suffered heavy damage while another 30 have been almost destroyed. Houses are destroyed, roads are blocked, and getting relief aid to the citizens of the region is proving difficult.

Iran has 6% of the world’s natural disaster casualties, while it has only 1% of the world’s population. According to the official IRNA News Agency, the economic damage caused by natural disasters in Iran averages $5 billion annually.

As Iran sits on two major tectonic plates, the Eurasian Plate and the Arabian plate, and several active faults run through the country, Iran is prone to frequent seismic activity.

In 2017, Kermanshah province was hit by a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake which killed over 600 people, and left 70,000 people homeless, with many having to live in tents for almost two years. Then-president Hassan Rouhani later falsely claimed that ‘almost everybody’ had managed to rebuild their homes and returned to them, which was far from the truth.

The former director of the Earthquake Research Department within the regime’s Ministry of Roads, Housing and Urban Development, Ali Beiollahi, said in 2017, “If an earthquake as powerful as the one in Kermanshah province happens in Tehran, 200,000 buildings will be totally destroyed and collapse. The collapse of this many buildings will definitely leave one million casualties, a real disaster indeed.”

A year after the Kermanshah earthquake, the IRNA News Agency reported that many citizens still lacked basic shelter after the destruction of their homes, and those that had tents had to contend with flooding from the rain and streets covered in mud. Many people resorted to using plastic sheets to keep themselves clean and dry.

Another 5.9 magnitudes rocked East Azerbaijan province in northwest Iran. Five people were killed, and at least 520 people were injured. Again, the regime delayed helping locals, and many people have not recovered from this earthquake even after two years.

The President-elect of the NCRI, Maryam Rajavi urged people to help the victims of a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that hit West Azerbaijan. Over 100 villages were damaged as a result and the regime was reportedly covering up the damages sustained.

She said, “I request help for those affected, especially in Khoy and Salmas, and urge vigilance by fellow compatriots in the province about subsequent aftershocks.”

In the case of earthquake fatalities, the cause is usually the collapse of buildings that have been extensively damaged. By adhering to modern building codes, and taking example from other countries, like Japan, which often has high-magnitude earthquakes but minimal amounts of major damage or loss of life of its citizens, Iran would be able to have better control of minimizing future impacts.

The regime could have helped people if it had an effective provincial emergency response system. And finally, countries vulnerable to major earthquakes, like Iran, must invest in research to enhance their knowledge of the hazard, the potential impacts, and seismic safety.

Iran’s Official to People: Our Properties Are Not Your Business

Jubin Katiraie
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Iran’s Official to People: Our Properties Are Not Your Business

Corruption in Iran is institutional. One of the main aspects of this issue is the transparency over the sale and ownership of the properties of the regime’s officials which is now for a long time a debate in this regime. This issue was raised in the regime’s Expediency Council, then it was passed over to the tenth parliament and now to the eleventh.

In the tenth parliament, many of the regime’s principlists called for the transparency of the properties of the officials, but suddenly in the eleventh parliament they have changed their minds, and they are now insisting on the secrecy of the officials’ properties, and they are now taking a step further and calling this issue a security issue in the country’s interests.

Following the approval of the Expediency Council years ago, it was noted that the judiciary should consider a system to register the properties of the regime’s officials. The regime decided to implement such a system in the hope of gaining the people’s lost trust, which was the result of four decades of corruption, plunder, and repression.

Nonetheless, the properties of the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the financial empire affiliated with his office were not included.

The system was called, “Executive Regulations of the Law on Investigation of Assets of Officials and Agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and it was approved by the regime’s judiciary in 2019. Until now, this system has not had any outcome. And there is no information about how many of the officials or institutions have registered their properties in this system.

This is while this system has emphasized that officials and institutions who do not cooperate will be charged. Meanwhile, this system speaks about the properties of authorities and has listed 23 titles that include up to the rank of macro-directors in governmental and non-governmental institutions, as well as up to the rank of Brigadier General and heads of police stations and the armed forces.

It also includes a group of members of the Assembly of Experts on Leadership and members of the Expediency Council.

However, like many other worthless rulings related to the regime’s officials and ruling body, there is no real and serious observation about the execution of this law, and it has just an artificial face.

So far, not a single report or news has been published about an official who has been punished for not entering his property information into the system.

The ironic part which is allowing the regime’s officials to circumvent this law is, that this law has pointed that the registration of the officials’ properties must be done by observing security mechanisms, maintaining privacy as well as the accuracy and integrity of the data.

It seems that the officials’ refusal to include information is also because of the alibi of observing confidentiality and the security debate, which will put damage on the regime.

What makes all the commotion around this subject even more worthless is that in 2015 the members of the Expediency Council emphasized that the information of the officials’ properties should not only become public but everyone who made this information public inadvertently or deliberately will be punished and charged.

At the same time, the judiciary spokesperson responded to the question of whether the authorities’ assets were to be communicated transparently to the public or whether they were merely supposed to be in the hands of the judiciary and confidentially. He said: ‘According to the law, the list of officials’ properties is confidential.’

It is obvious that the regime’s fear of being transparent about its officials and their properties is due to its fear of the people’s reaction to their four decades of corruption and plundering the country’s wealth and accumulating it in foreign banks. Therefore, such a thing will never happen in this regime, and its announcement is just to silence the restive people.

Protests in Iran and Abroad for Raisi To Be Held Accountable for His Crimes

Hoshang Amiri
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Protests in Iran and Abroad for Raisi To Be Held Accountable for His Crimes

Ahead of the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference next month, the spokesperson for the Iranian regime’s Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that the regime’s president, Ebrahim Raisi will not be attending the event in Glasgow, Scotland.

The spokesperson claimed that there were never any plans for Raisi to attend in the first place, despite previous reports that he would be attending.

Once it became evident that Raisi would likely attend the COP26, the Iranian regime’s victims and a former MEP, Struan Stevenson, made a formal request for Raisi’s arrests. This formal request was made due to Raisi’s dark history of human rights violations.

Raisi was heavily involved in the 1988 massacre in Iran, during which over 30,000 political prisoners were executed for being allied with the Iranian Resistance.

Speaking of the request for Raisi’s arrest, the Times newspaper reported that human rights campaigners, victims, and families of the victims of the regime’s crimes against humanity have called on Police Scotland to launch an investigation of Raisi under the powers of universal jurisdiction for his human rights abuses.

There have been amplifying calls for holding Raisi accountable for his role in the 1988 massacre, as well as the crimes he committed as the regime’s Judiciary Chief from 2019 to 2021, mainly during the major Iran protests.

Ongoing protests continue to take place across the world to call for the regime to be held accountable for its crimes. On October 9, the day before the 19th World Day Against the Death Penalty, a series of protest rallies were held in 21 cities across the United States, Canada, and 12 different European countries. In attendance were Iranian expats and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), who all condemned the regime’s human rights violations and the increasing number of executions in Iran and called on the international community to hold Raisi and other regime officials accountable for their crimes against humanity.

The public hatred toward the regime of mass murderers is growing daily. While Raisi could hardly travel to a country where he would not be under scrutiny for his crimes against human rights, Iranians reject him wherever he goes.

Last Friday, Raisi made a visit to the Bushehr province in Iran in order to help find solutions to the problems faced in the region, however, despite reports from state media that he was warmly welcomed upon his arrival, instead he was met with protests and angry citizens.

Locals marched toward the airport, chanting ‘Justice is a lie’, as they projected their frustrations at the hollow promises that regime officials have been giving them.

Another trip Raisi made, this time to the province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad also resulted in protests upon his arrival. Locals blocked Raisi’s path as his car reached the Tang-e Sorkh region of Boyer Ahmad. According to the official IRNA News Agency, the locals were outraged and chanting angry slogans.

These protests show how Iranian people hate the regime. It also shows that Khamenei has failed in its ultimate goal of suppressing any voice of dissent by appointing Raisi as president and handpicking a cabinet of thieves and terrorists.

The JCPOA Has Become a ‘Stinking Corpse’ for Iran’s Rulers

Mehdi Hosseini
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The JCPOA Has Become a ‘Stinking Corpse’ for Iran’s Rulers

Hossein Shariatmadari managing editor of Iran’s Kayhan daily, the main mouthpiece of the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, in an article about the regime’s nuclear negotiations and mainly the JCPOA frustratedly said:

“With the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal) and Europe’s failure to live up to its commitments, the JCPOA does not exist and has become a stinking corpse, and if we want to go back to it in such a situation, we won’t get anything.” (Kayhan, October 11, 2021)

At the same time, some of the regime’s media and elements try to cover up the regime’s weakness and pumping up vitality to the regime’s disappointed forces by speaking about storing low enriched uranium to the excess allowed by the JCPOA, and producing 20 percent uranium, to have a strong lever for bargaining in the negotiations.

Mohammad Esmi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Ebrahim Raisi’s government, also claimed: “We need to accelerate the advancement of nuclear energy and manifest its effects on people’s lives and show the manifestations of national authority influenced by nuclear energy.” (State TV Channel One, October 9, 2021)

These speeches are expressed while the regime’s new government is begging for the continuation of the negotiations.

“We said the other parties that our intentions were serious and that we were a man of negotiation and a man of action, and that the new Iranian government is pragmatic and from negotiations which its outcome would be a cup of coffee, our people would not benefit. If Mr. Biden is serious, release $10bn of our money.” (State-TV Channel One, October 3, 2021)

This internal crisis which is showing the regime’s poor situation is reflected very clearly by the state-run website Khabar Fori quoting a regime’s journalist:

“Since the signing of the JCPOA, several principlists have insisted that the agreement is against the interests of the Islamic Republic in every way, and in return, Rouhani’s administration executives and reformist supporters have emphasized that it serves the interests of the system in every way.

“At all, I say that the right is entire to the side of the principlists! The JCPOA is not only bad in every way, but it’s basically a hell of a poison! It is an expensive pain! Is a pure damn thing!

“So now these principlists should answer, why didn’t they rid themselves of this poison when Donald Trump signed the order to withdraw the United States from the JCPOA?

“Maybe they say that the government of Hassan Rouhani and his foreign minister did not allow, all right! But now that there is neither a sign of Rouhani’s government nor from his foreign minister, why don’t they take this agreement off their agenda once and for all explicitly?

“As bad as the JCPOA is it has only two solutions! Formally canceling it to say goodbye to negotiations and to continue the nuclear program as much as possible or to cancel it to renegotiate negotiations to reach a new agreement that is desirable in all respects.

“All right, they have full and undisputed authority.” (State-run website Khahar Fori, October 11, 2021)

Truly, what is the necessity of the Raisi government to negotiate a JCPOA that does not have any benefits and which Khamenei’s mouthpiece has said has become a stinking corpse?

The answer should be considered in the regime’s impasse on the one hand, and on the other hand, the reduction in the importance of the JCPOA compared to 2015 for the United States and other Western countries negotiating the JCPOA.

After the formation of the new U.S. administration, it was expected that the U.S. government would quickly return to the JCPOA, and even the regime’s government had a vague expectation that the U.S. government would accept the 2015 JCPOA without raising new demands, something that didn’t happen, and the new U.S. administration pursuing another JCPOA in which the regime must take from a new poison chalice in addition to nuclear weapons on its missile program and regional policy.

The impasse means that the mullahs’ rule, on the one hand, cannot completely ignore the JCPOA and declare its withdrawal from it, because it has dangerous consequences, and the prospect of the regime’s case going to the UN Security Council and subsequent heavy consequences, and on the other hand, accepting the conditions of the Western parties negotiating, especially the United States, to revive the 2015 JCPOA means withdrawing, that according to Khamenei would be tantamount to an ‘endless degradation’.

Raisi Will Not Be Travelling to Scotland for the UN Climate Change Conference

Jubin Katiraie
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Raisi Will Not Be Travelling to Scotland for the UN Climate Change Conference

In an official request, a former Scottish MP, along with the families of five political prisoners executed in Iran, called on the country’s police to detain the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi if travels to Glasgow to attend a climate change summit.

The Times of London newspaper reported Friday (October 8) that the petition was signed by former Scottish MP Struan Stevenson, as well as a number of human rights activists, victims of torture, or relatives of those executed in Iran, and handed over to Police Scotland, to arrest Ebrahim Raisi if he travels to Glasgow.

Following this event, the spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry announced on Monday that despite claims in previous reports, the Iranian regime president Ebrahim Raisi will not be attending the United Nations’ upcoming climate change conference in Scotland.

The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is due to be held between November 1 and November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland, but in a regime press conference, the spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Saeed Khatibzadeh announced that Raisi will not be in attendance and said that there were never any plans for him to travel to Scotland.

Ironically, in June, the regime’s own media had widely publicized that Raisi had been invited to take part in the conference, giving the impression that he would be taking part.

As Iran is not a member of the Paris Climate Accord, there was never any need for Raisi to attend the conference, but it would have been an opportunity for him to build up his profile as the regime’s latest president by posing for photos and meeting with some of the world’s top leaders.

The truth that Khatibzadeh did not acknowledge in his remarks is the efforts spearheaded by the Iranian resistance to hold Raisi to account for his crimes against humanity.

Due to Raisi’s history of brutal human rights violations, exiled Iranians have held protests around the world in recent weeks. In the summer of 1988, Raisi was one of the main officials involved in the mass execution of over 30,000 political prisoners, serving as a judge on the ‘death commission’ tasked with processing prisoners through minute-long trials and sending them to the gallows if they refuse to denounce their affiliation with the MEK.

In an Iranian Resistance conference held this summer, several legal experts and academics argued that the 1988 massacre should be classed as an act of genocide, and its perpetrators should be tried accordingly in international criminal courts.

Human rights organizations and UN rapporteurs have called for an impartial investigation into the 1988 massacre, and former political prisoners and families of the victims of the 1988 massacre have testified in court about the role of Raisi and other regime officials in the brutal torture and execution of dissidents in Iran’s prisons.

Perhaps the decision for Raisi not to travel to Glasgow is in his best interests as there has been a formal complaint that was filed to Scottish authorities calling for his arrest if he ever sets foot in Scotland. The plaintiffs behind the complaint include the former Scottish MEP Struan Stevenson, and human rights activist Tahar Boumedra, as well as many witnesses of the 1988 massacre and the families of the victims.

All of this has put a heavy burden on the newly sworn president of the regime, who now finds himself entangled by his own crimes. In September, Raisi canceled his trip to New York for the annual UN General Assembly.

No official explanation was given by the regime for the cancellation of the trip, and instead, Raisi sent a pre-recorded message. Iranian state-run media speculated that the regime feared that Iranian expats might have put Raisi’s safety in jeopardy.

Raisi’s appointment has come at a heavy price for the regime, and his bloody past—which symbolizes four decades of the mullahs’ rule—follows him wherever he goes.

Iran’s Super Crises: ‘Cruel Realities’ Leave Raisi Without Options

Pooya Stone
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Iran’s Super Crises: ‘Cruel Realities’ Leave Raisi Without Options

These days many Iranian officials admit to the country’s many problems and emphasize that the government does not have the ability to solve them.

Problems that according to many of its experts are converted to ‘super crises,’ and while the rule is itself responsible for them, it neither can nor will solve them while profiting from many of them.

The regime’s new president Ebrahim Raisi, despite his many claims, has been taken hostage by these problems, end even his provincial trips to calm down the country’s situation and the frustration of the people will not solve any of them.

The situation is so bad, that in every trip the regime’s president is facing the frustration and angry shouts of the people and is just increasing the people’s anger.

These trips are so repulsive that even clerics like Reza Taghavi, an MP, attacked Raisi and said:

“I suggest Raisi decrease the provincial trips, the conditions of the country are not the conditions of promise, of course, we might say that promises will create hope, but if we face with problems because we were not able to fulfill these promises, people’s opinions will change.” (State-run daily Aftab, October 9, 2021)

This daily while quoting the Kayhan daily, the supreme leader’s mouthpiece, wrote that Raisi should not give promises which “are not consonant with the country’s situation.”

Hossein Ansari, a former MP, said that Raisi’s government is unable to change the country’s situation and added: “The conditions of the country are not such that young and inexperienced people can manage crises. The conditions of the country are such that even people with sufficient knowledge cannot easily solve problems.

“The policies adopted so far are the same policies that the principlists have pursued over the past forty years. Those in different positions of the country today are in favor of the same policies that have passed their exams for the past 40 years and have been responsible for the current situation in society. The result of these policies is that today the Iranian people are facing many crises and super crises.” (State-run daily Arman, October 4, 2021)

Finally, the Arman daily fired the coup de grace in an article entitled, ‘The problems are worse than that’ and added: “The facts are far more brutal than that and show that no, with this brief change that the statesmen have made so far, the problem will not be solved.

“If you look at the trend of inflation, it has continued. What has been so far, has not changed so positively. If Raisi can really take a serious step in foreign policy and in resolving the sanctions issue, it will certainly have very positive effects. Of course, again, we say it won’t be a miracle.”

About the country’s social, cultural, and political crises which are even worse than the economic crises this daily begged the government to, “create political, cultural and social openings at the desired level,” but hopeless continued, “and if they don’t create new obstacles, we should be thankful to God.”

Dissidents say the mission of Raisi’s government is not a ‘political, cultural and social opening’, but that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has brought him to the fore to contract further the country, with the mission of blocking Iran’s political, cultural, and social environment.

Therefore, even if, it is intended that a government will end the unsolvable internal and international super crises, it should end its contractionary and plundering policies at home and aggressive and expansionist policies outside its borders. Something that is impossible for this regime as the past 42 years suggests.

Iranian FM Visit to Lebanon Further Supports Escalation of Terrorism Under Raisi Administration

Esmaeil Mohades
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Iranian FM Visit to Lebanon Further Supports Escalation of Terrorism Under Raisi Administration

Remarks made by the Iranian regime’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on his trip to Lebanon last week have confirmed yet again that the regime’s terrorist activities would only increase under Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency.

During his trip, Amir-Abdollahian met with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, the regime’s Lebanese terrorist proxy group. Lebanese media reported that the visit highlights how the regime has made the spread of terrorism one of their top priorities.

Amir Abdollahian has proudly represented himself as a ‘field agent’ who had close relationships with the regime’s top terrorist, Qassem Soleimani. During a meeting between members of the Majlis and nominees for the foreign, interior, and health ministries, Amir Abdollahian underlined he would ‘continue the path of Soleimani’.

Soleimani was the head of the Quds Force, the terrorist branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which routinely spread terrorism outside of Iran via the regime’s proxy groups.

Amir-Abdollahian acknowledged that the regime will continue to export fuel products to Lebanon as the country is facing fuel shortages amidst their economic and political crises, all the while the regime continues to fund Hezbollah and its activities.

Hezbollah has been in charge of coordinating the fuel shipments from Tehran, despite the regime being sanctioned on their oil sales by the United States. Even worse, Amir-Abdollahian has stated that the regime is prepared to provide further aid to Lebanon and is ready to build power plants in the country.

These remarks come at a time when Iranian people sell their organs for a living and could hardly make ends meet. Over 450,000 people have died due to the Covid-19 outbreak and the regime’s negligence. In summer, thousands of Iranians who were in intensive care units passed away due to the recurring power outages.

In reference to the regime’s plans to build power plants in Lebanon, the state-run Barkat News wrote last month that the money for this project is ‘coming out of the Iranian people’s pocket’ while they already have to suffer under Iran’s current crises.

The crises in Iran are already making society restive, but the regime is adamant about funding foreign terrorist groups to ‘export domestic crises abroad’. According to the regime’s top officials, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria are described as the regime’s ‘strategic depth’.

The regime’s ongoing shipping of fuel to Lebanon through Hezbollah aligns with the regime’s strategy to export terrorism.

With the mounting crises in Lebanon, the Lebanese people have taken to the streets in dozens of protests, blaming Hezbollah for the crises the country is facing. The current issues include a dramatic drop in the local currency, as well as severe fuel and medicine shortages.

With the regime’s involvement in Lebanon, the threat is that the United States could extend the regime’s sanctions to the country, a possibility that the Al-Akhbarieh daily stated that Lebanon could not endure.

The regime’s need to support Hezbollah is because of the proxy group’s involvement in the Syrian war and other conflicts across the Middle East on behalf of Tehran.

The regime’s former president, Hassan Rouhani, also acknowledged on April 8 that ‘the frontline and diplomacy are two arms’ of the regime. As long as the mullahs’ regime stays in power, the international community should expect Tehran to increase its malign activities.

Iran’s Middle East Policy Is Turning Against It

Shahin Mahmoudi
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Iran’s Middle East Policy Is Turning Against It

It may not have been initially thought that after the death of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Qods Force commander Ghasem Soleimani, the regime’s export of terrorism and its adventure in the Middle East would face a severe blow. But this is an undeniable reality.

The regime’s maneuvering and establishing a defensive line behind its northern borders to confront what it calls Zionism is a clear sign of the regime’s retreat and defeat in its aggressive foreign policy.

War in Kermanshah and Hamedan

Previously, the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei made a famous speech to justify his interference in other country’s affairs. He said:

“They [Qasem Soleimani’s militias and Qods Force] went to fight an enemy that if they didn’t fight, this enemy would come inside the country.

“If it had not been stopped, we would have fought and stopped them here in Kermanshah and Hamedan and other provinces.” (Khamenei.ir, September 27, 2015)

Khamenei’s remarks clearly indicate that the regime’s foreign policy and its export of terrorism are the other face of the coin of repression inside Iran.

Now if we consider the policy of repression inside Iran and the export of terrorism abroad as two communicating vessels, the decline in one is a show of decline in the other, and vice versa. And this is what the regime fears most and not the attack of any foreign country or enemy.

Worst conditions and the most serious danger

Ahmad Movasaghi, an expert of political studies, admits to the failure of the regime’s aggressive foreign policy and its terrorism:

“As for Iran’s political geography, the malfunction of our foreign policy, which is not limited to the executive branch, caused that all the Arab countries to be thrown to Israel’s side. It’s a lot of our mistakes in foreign policy that brought these countries together.

“Instead of engaging them with each other, we united them against ourselves. That is, we must follow a set of international norms and rules. The constitutional definition of supporting liberation movements is not feasible when we have contact with an official government, supporting the forces fighting against it (the opposition) because this behavior is incompatible with international law. (Mostaghel, October 6, 2021)

Listing Iran’s neighbors and the regime’s failures to attract them, this expert said:

“The danger is really serious and we’re in the worst situation.”

‘This really serious danger’ even includes the regime’s traditional playing ground, Iraq:

“Even in Iraq, which has now become OPEC’s second-largest oil producer instead of Iran. Kazemi’s government in Iraq has the most ties to the West, and detailed contracts with Total are closed to avoid Iran’s electricity and gas, while not fulfilling Iran’s demands.

“Israel is easily hitting Iranian bases in Syria in coordination with Russia, even in Iraq, which is a serious problem for us.”

He added: “Iran [i.e. the Velayat-e Faqih regime] is now in a very fragile situation, and the more internal weaknesses, the more indulgences elements are ambushing. From now on, we face more like these risks to national security. Domestic dissatisfaction in their place and the greed of aliens through their neighbors instead.

It seems that the era of ‘ablution in the Euphrates and praying on the Mediterranean coast’, ’24 hours production of weapons for the Hashd al-Shaabi, as well as giving them the keys to weapons caches and ammunition arsenals’, is facing its end.

The dream of capturing the ‘Shiite crescent’ or in other words ‘Islamic Badr,’ under alibis such as ‘unity of the Islamic World,’ ‘fighting the arrogance’ and ‘Islamic revolution conversation’, all have become nightmares. Now the winds that the regime has planted in the countries of the region have returned to him in the storm. Now the winds that the regime has sowed in the region are turning back to it as storms which it must reap.

While Iran Is in Crisis, the Regime Funds Terrorist Proxy Groups Drone Attacks

Esmaeil Mohades
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While Iran Is in Crisis, the Regime Funds Terrorist Proxy Groups Drone Attacks

As a conference was held in Washington, United States last Wednesday to discuss the Iranian regime’s investments in drone technology, the question remains as to why the regime is funding domestic and international militants and weapons, instead of using the money to solve Iran’s current social and economic crises.

Earlier this year, between April and June, militants who were backed by the regime, launched six drone attacks in Iraq, with American officials taking the threats seriously and stating that they were developing plans for defense against these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Luckily, no casualties were reported during the strikes.

During the conference in Washington, the government institutions and private businesses that are involved in the manufacturing, testing, and training of the regime’s drones were identified. Satellite images of key facilities and details of operations were provided by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said, “While work at some of the featured facilities reportedly dates back at least to 1995, one major complex at Semnan was reportedly established as recently as 2019, while several others underwent significant changes in personnel, organization, or mission around the same time.”

The investments of the drone technology have meant that the Iranian regime has had to redirect their assets for the investments, instead of using the money domestically, especially as Iran is suffering from many crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

The MEK has frequently reported on how badly Iran has been affected by the pandemic. Official figures from regime authorities for the current death toll from the coronavirus are being reported as just over 120,000, however, the MEK and the NCRI have both said the actual figure is around 451,400, as highlighted by leaked hospital records and surveys from health professionals.

The NCRI said, “According to the regime’s critics, its undercount of infection and mortality rates reflects the persistent influence of early, official disinformation, plus an urgent impulse to cover up the severity of Tehran’s mismanagement of the situation.”

One of the major factors of the mismanagement was the decision by Ali Khamenei, the regime’s supreme leader, to ban American and European vaccines from being imported, instead of being in favor of producing domestic vaccines or importing them from elsewhere. These vaccines, however, have been less readily available and are much less effective than the leading, reputable vaccines.

In a statement from the NCRI at the conference, they said, “The regime is spending billions of dollars on its missiles and UAV programs while 80 percent of the Iranian people live under the poverty line and the budgets for health care, education, and other national requirements are abysmally lower than military expenditures.”

They placed some of the blame on Western powers and stated that with the sanctions eased under the 2015 nuclear deal, little to no benefit was provided to Iranian citizens, and the regime managed to get away with their corrupt activities.

The latest drone operations in Iraq have shown just how much the regime is in alliance with other countries, to smuggle equipment and share technical knowledge, as well as to train proxy terrorist groups on how to work the drones. While the regime is selective about who they train to use the UAVs, within the existing networks of terrorist proxy groups, smaller, specialized groups are forming, causing further fear of the technology getting into further wrong hands.

The NCRI said, “None of the sanctions against the regime should be lifted until it has stopped all its rogue behavior and intransigence in the region.”

Iran: Loss of Human Resources, Damage Which Cannot Be Undone Anytime Soon

Hoshang Amiri
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Iran: Loss of Human Resources, Damage Which Cannot Be Undone Anytime Soon

In the current situation, according to global statistics, Iran ranks at the top of the list of the 10 countries with the highest inflation growth and is ranked fourth on the list after countries such as Venezuela, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

According to many government experts, if the trend of economic conditions and inflation continues like this, it will lead to triple-digit inflation and the beginning of a ‘Venezuelan economy’ after a short period, and simply put, Iran’s economy will be thrown into the valley of collapse.

On this, Masoud Daneshamand, a member of Iran’s chamber of commerce, said:

“If Iran’s economy continues this trend, the country’s economy will become a Venezuelan economy. Venezuela’s economy is a collapsed one. If we are not able to solve our problems in these fields, we will pass the same path as Venezuela and the devaluation of the national currency, inflation, unemployment, etc. will increase.”

He predicted: “Inflation will rise like now if it is now 40 percent, it will reach 55 percent at the end of the year. The number of 55 or 60 percent for inflation is too much.” (State-run daily, Setareh-e-Sobh, 5 October 2021)

The result of such a catastrophic economy would be an increase in immigration among the country’s youths, especially students and educators. A government expert about the shocking numbers of Iran’s immigration said:

“Iran’s resident population is about 70 million. Because according to official IMF statistics, 500,000 people migrate from our country every year. Iran’s statistics center in 2019 put the figure at 700,000.” (State-run daily Jamaran, August 7, 2021)

According to today’s statistics, more than 250,000 Iranian engineers and physicians and more than 170,000 Iranians with higher education live in the United States and more than 15 percent of Iran’s human capital has traveled to the United States and 25 percent to Europe. Currently, the total number of physicians in the country, including general practitioners, specialists, and dentists is 108,000.

Many of the country’s elite have also emigrated due to domestic restrictions and the regime’s repression of individual freedoms. They now live abroad, killing any hope and motivation in them to help their country’s progression. Without a doubt, if these elites were inside the country, they could help solve the country’s problems. But that is the latest concern of the regime, which is converting the country to burned ground.

“Statistics show that along with the migration of scientific experts of physicians and engineers, we are witnessing a growing migration of teenage figures from among the Olympiads and those accepted in different academic disciplines in the privileged ranks of the entrance exams, which at the discretion of families to continue their education and map the horizon of a bright future,” said the state-run daily Jahan-e-Sanat on October 4, 2021, about the migration of the country’s specialists especially the elite youths.

The economic crises of the last few years and unfavorable social and welfare conditions have significantly increased the immigration statistics of Iranian students, and this growth continues, which means the loss of human and financial capital for a country that is not well developed.

Social and economic crises did not only lead to the immigration of the country’s elite and students but have also ignited domestic migration, and many poor people from small villages and counties are pushed to the metropole margins. Something that has increased social crises, especially among the youths.

“Misguided economic policies (read marauding politics) have demonstrated their effects by flooding migration from rural and deprived areas to metropolises. The consequences of this discussion are the phenomenon of marginalization for metropolises such as Mashhad, which consequently increases the cost of city services and doubles management difficulties.

“The city already has one of the largest marginal textures in the country. The Head of Iran’s Chamber of Chamber said: ‘If today some social problems such as addiction, begging, etc. have distorted the image of our cities, one of the factors affecting it should be sought in the economics.’”

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