Iran’s deepening economic crisis triggers blame game among officials

Iran’s deepening economic crisis triggers blame game among officials

Iran’s deepening economic crisis

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 26, 2019 - A multi-dimensional economic crisis has paralyzed the Iranian regime. While the sanctions’ noose has tightened around the mullahs’ neck, the European mechanism has still yielded nothing of value to compensate for the U.S. sanctions due to the Iranian regime’s unwillingness to pass the FATF anti-money-laundering bills into law.

Just a few days ago it was revealed that a deficit of about hundred thousand billion tomans has been hidden among other items in the budget bill in order to present a healthier face for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Tehran’s Friday prayer Imam Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi Fard described the Iranian government’s budget bill a failed attempt and said: “Let’s look at how many steps have been taken to decrease the country’s dependence on oil income in the budget bill that is about to pass. How many steps have been taken to decrease the amount of energy dependence and management of consumption?”

Referring to the impact of international sanctions and the lack of solutions and the corruption in the regime, he said: “The weak operation of the economy has challenged the country from the outside and the inside. The outside challenges are the sanctions which will become less effective or not effective at all in case the inside operation is amended. The inside challenges are structural deficiencies and managerial weaknesses.”

“With this structure, the 2019-2020 budget could have about hundred thousand billion tomans [about 7 billion USD] budget deficit hidden in it,” he added.

Ahmad Alamolhoda, Khamenei’s representative to the city of Mashhad and the city’s Friday prayer Imam, demanded the government of Hassan Rouhani to hand over the issue to others who will solve it in a “Jihadi way” and said: “Well, you can’t seek help from others. Others should come and help you in management and thinking.”

Referring to the current skyrocketing prices of fresh meat, Alamolhoda said: “They repeatedly say that sheep is being smuggled [out of the country]; They are smuggling but who’s controlling the borders of the country? Who’s controlling the communications of the country? Don’t you have eyes when they smuggle? Don’t you have resources to control? What does the Task Force for Combatting Trafficking do that Mr. minister comes and brings excuses saying that our meat is gone, and they are taking the sheep? So much weakness for real?”

On the other side, Rouhani’s faction blames their rivals for the current economic crisis.

Mostafa Derayati from Rouhani’s faction says: “It’s clear that what we witness in economic conditions today is the result of the works of people like Mr. Mojtaba Zonnour rather than the result of the government’s work.”

Zonnour is a former deputy representative of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and current member of the Iranian parliament.

Earlier, Rasoul Montajabnia, an Iranian cleric close to Rouhani’s faction, said: “All the elite know that the mandate of the president and the government is less than 30 percent.”

In addition to the hundred-thousand-billion-toman deficit, which is one quarter of the total budget, one third of the budget is projected to be covered from income taxes.

With fresh meat prices around one tenth of the monthly minimum wage per kilogram, ordinary Iranians have already a hard time to afford buying it once or twice a month and increasing taxes to cover the government’s deficits is outright inhumane.

Although both major factions in the Iranian political elite try to blame the other side for the current economic crisis, the roots of the problem lie in four decades of corruption, nepotism and kleptocracy.

None of the factions is the major culprit for the current situation. Both are equally in it.

But aside from so-called “pundits” and “analysts” with certain agendas to keep the ruling theocracy in Iran on life support, everybody knows that the competition between so-called reformists and hardliners in Iranian politics is just foul theatrics to fool the public.

Afterall, it was ordinary Iranians who created one of the most famous chants of the 2017-2018 popular uprising.

“Reformist, hardliner! The game is over!” they chanted, setting Iran on a glorious path toward freedom and democracy that the Iran lobby doesn’t like a bit.

Senator Torricelli: There’s a choice for Iran

Senator Torricelli: There’s a choice for Iran

U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli speaks to Iran National Television (INTV)

Reported by PMOI/MEK

 INTV, Feb. 23, 2019 - In the past two weeks, there has been a lot of discussions about the recent ministerial conference in Warsaw and the rallies held by the Iranian Resistance to draw attention to the threats posed by the Iranian regime to global peace and security.

In an interview with INTV, the broadcast channel of the Iranian Resistance, Senator Robert Torricelli, who attended the demonstration in Warsaw held by the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), discussed the importance of the event and the need for a united and firm policy toward the Iranian regime.

“The dictatorship in Iran is not simply a regional problem. And not only the quest for nuclear weapons, but the terrorist activities of the regime in Tehran is a global concern,” Torricelli said, a fact he underlined by Tehran’s numerous terrorist attempts in the past year, including a failed bombing attempt against the great rally of the Iranian resistance in Paris and another foiled terror plot against the New Year celebration of PMOI/MEK members in Albania, among others.

“Iran is a global problem,” Torricelli stressed. “And I think it would have been a mistake just to bring together regional nations. It was important to have a global look, what it is the international community does about first containing and eventually eliminating this regime.”

How does the international community view the Iranian regime and the threats it poses to the world? “I don’t have any doubt that the United States was talking about regime change. My guess is a lot of other nations that may have ambassadors in Tehran also support regime change but they’re more careful with their words,” Torricelli said.

But outside the conference, demonstrators, activists and politicians from various countries were more frank in voicing their beliefs. “We just said what we believed, and that is that time’s up. We’ve lost a generation of Iranian people. Generations have been born who’ve never had a free government. Kids going to school and having no jobs. Children without enough food. People can’t speak their minds, really choose their leaders, in the 21^st century?” Torricelli said.

Detractors of regime change argue that revolutions and regime change in other countries of the Middle East has led to strife and chaos, and therefore there’s no choice but to engage in appeasement and dialog with the regime in hopes that it will tone down its nefarious activities.

“The case we were making is, yes there’s a choice. Look at the streets of the cities and towns of Iran. Look at the young people. Look at the universities. Look at those who are standing up. Look at the NCRI, the diaspora around the world, the NCRI and Mrs. Rajavi. Look at the people who put their lives on the line. They’re not thousands, they’re hundreds of thousands of Iranians around the world, who with the right government would come back and rebuild Iran, bring capital, great jobs,” Torricelli said. “When you watch the demonstrations in Tehran, you look at those young people. There’s your leaders. You see the conference we do in Paris every year. Mrs. Rajavi’s speaks. Look at her and the people around her. There’s your leaders.”

Shocking revelation by Tehran Commerce Chamber

Shocking revelation by Tehran Commerce Chamber

Tehran Chamber of Commerce Industries & Mines

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 25, 2019 - Tehran's Commerce Chamber published a report this week on the Corruption Perception Index of various countries in the Middle East region as well as on the international level.

This is a rare incident, because usually, the figures attesting to the miserable state of Iran's economy are published by international organizations, not the Iranian regime.

This time, an Iranian institution testifies to the record-high level of corruption plaguing the country's economy.

According to the study, which compares the economic behavior of a number of the countries in the region, Iran has scored 28 on the Corruption Perception Index. This puts Iran in the 138^thrank on the global scene. Last year Iran ranked 130, thus having an eight-step deterioration.

Interestingly, the worst and most corrupt economy in the region belongs to the Tehran’s close ally, the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

The new study actually exposes the effort by regime's officials as well as government-controlled media who have long been engaging in what is known as "hope-therapy," which is basically lying to the people and not providing any reliable data.

The Iranian Regime has conducted a huge misinformation campaign to deceive the world and the Iranian people that all Iran’s economic problems arise from international sanctions. However, the Iranian people have shown that they are aware of the source of their problems, namely the dictatorial regime.

The reality is that poverty has far passed critical levels. 33% of the Iranian population (26 million people) are below absolute poverty line and 6% (close to 5 million people) are below starvation line.

Official government figures show 7 million underage workers, 4.5 million drug addicts and 2.5 million families supported by single mothers with unbearable restrictions on women's social and economic activities

19 million residents in shantytowns (with no electricity, no sewage, no hospitals, no schools, no transportation, etc.)

Washington Times wrote on January 24, 2019:

"A veritable mountain of statistical evidence points to the fact that, in the past four decades of clerical rule, the Islamic Republic has experienced a precipitous decline in domestic prosperity and global standing.

“According to the World Bank, per capita GDP in Iran has declined by more than 30 percent in real terms since the mid-1970s, as the purchasing power of the country’s national currency, the Rial, has plummeted. Those same statistics indicate that Iran’s economy has dropped from 17th to 27th place in the world in the four decades since the revolution — one of the steepest declines in modern history."

Mike Pompeo: The sanctions punish corrupt Iranian officials, not the people

Mike Pompeo: The sanctions punish corrupt Iranian officials, not the people

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb.23, 2019 - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington is trying to sanction bad actors in ways that don’t harm ordinary Iranian people.

In response to a question by an Iranian social media user asking why the U.S. doesn’t sanction those Iranian institutions that participate in violating human rights in Iran like the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), or the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Pompeo said: “It saddens me, it saddens hundreds of millions of Americans that the leadership in Iran won’t protect the very human rights to which you refer.”

Mr. Pompeo further said that the U.S. is “trying to do” their “part by sanctioning over 140 some Iranian entities and people.”

Later in the interview he said that the U.S. is trying to impose sanctions “in ways don’t harm ordinary Iranians but penalize bad actors, the leaders of the country that have taken the nation down a path which has had 40 years of failure now after the revolution.”

Addressing Iranians, U.S. Secretary of State said: “We’ll continue to look to find out who the wrongdoers are, find out which organizations are corrupting your country and making your life worse and when we find a way to do that the United States stand ready to partner with the Iranian people on sanctions and all things related to human rights inside of your country.”

Why terrorism won’t save the regime of Iran

Why terrorism won’t save the regime of Iran

Why terrorism won’t save the regime of Iran

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 22, 2019 - It’s been 40 years that the fundamentalist regime ruling Iran has maintained its hold on power through sheer repression, terrorism and banking on the appeasement policy by western states.

During these years, terrorism has been one of the main tools that have prevented the fall of the mullahs’ regime in Iran. Since its rise to power, the mullahs’ regime was devoid of the capacity of responding to the historical, social, and political needs of the Iranian society. That is why instead of solving the problems of the country, the mullahs opted to kick the can down the road by brutally cracking down on any demand for freedom and democracy and better living conditions.

In parallel, the mullahs’ have relied on pushing domestic problems and crises beyond their borders by resorting to terrorism and meddling in the affairs of other countries. Today, the terrorist threat posed by the Iranian regime has turned into an international crisis and has become the focus of international conferences.

In 2013, Qassem Soleimani, the notorious commander of the Iranian regime’s terrorist IRGC Quds Force had said, “No country other than Iran has the capacity to lead the world of Islam.”

The regime uses this argument to justify its violent meddling in other countries and the funding of terrorism and sectarianism beyond its borders.

Where does all the money for these terrorist activities come from? Straight from the pockets of the Iranian people. While every day, people across Iran are protesting to poor living conditions, unpaid wages and high prices, the ruling mullahs have no reservations to spend Iran’s wealth on funding terrorism and proxy terrorist groups in other countries.

The mullahs have spent tens of billions of dollars in Syria to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad against popular uprisings and opposition groups. The mullahs have created terrorist groups such as Fatemioun and Zeynabioun, whose sole purpose is to fight alongside the troops of the Assad regime.

In Yemen, the Iranian regime is arming the Houthis, a terrorist group that has turned into a security threat to the entire region. According to AFP, the regime is providing the Houthis with $30 million worth of oil supplies every month.

The regime is also funding and arming Hezbollah, its terrorist proxy in Lebanon. Hassan Nasrollah, the leader of Hezbollah, has stressed several times that the Iranian regime is sending money, arms and other supplies to his troops.

All of these facts clearly prove that the Iranian regime is a threat to the Middle East. But the terrorist threat of the mullahs is not limited to its neighboring countries. In recent years, the mullahs have stepped up their terrorist and spying activities in Europe and the U.S. In 2018, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark and Albania were among the countries that explicitly stated that the Iranian regime was directly involved in terrorist activities on their soil. The EU recently slapped sanctions against a subset of the mullahs’ Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) because of its involvement in terrorist activities.

The Iranian regime actively uses its embassies and consulates to carry out its terror and spying plots.

In Belgium, one Iranian diplomat is being tried for having been directly involved in a bombing plot against the grand rally of the Iranian opposition in June. Albania expelled the Iranian ambassador from its country because of his involvement in terror plots against members of Iranian opposition group PMOI/MEK.

The U.S., where the Iranian regime has no diplomatic outpost, was not spared of the Iranian regime’s terror plots. In August, U.S. authorities arrested two Iranians who were spying on NCRI and MEK members on behalf Tehran.

But the regime’s terror activities only show the mullahs’ desperate state and their efforts to keep their sinking ship afloat.

The regime’s increase of its terror activities has happened in tandem with the escalation of protests across Iran and increased activities by the Iranian opposition movement inside and outside Iran. Since protests erupted across Iran in late 2017 and continued throughout the year, the regime has been hard-pressed to contain the growing anger of the Iranian people, who are fed up with four decades of tyranny and corruption.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Resistance has underlined that the international community should take the threat of the Iranian regime seriously. In recent conferences and demonstrations, members and supporters of the Iranian Resistance have made the following policy recommendations to counter the terrorist threat of the mullahs:

• The designation of the IRGC and MOIS in their entirety as terrorist entities by the U.S. and EU. All their assets must be frozen and they must be put under complete embargo.
• The expelling of the agents of the MOIS and Quds Force from Europe and U.S. This includes all Iranian regime agents who are operating under diplomatic cover.
• The expelling of the mullahs’ regime from the United Nations and the recognition of the Iranian Resistance as the legitimate representative of the Iranian people.
• The eviction of the mullahs’ regime from Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Afghanistan

Rouhani: We are going through tough days

Rouhani: We are going through tough days

Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 20, 2019 - Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani implicitly admitted to the failure of his "hope-therapy" strategy to neglect the problems of the country. While Rouhani tried hard to deceive the Iranian people and to give false hope to Iran society for a better economy in the near future, he had to confess that the Iranian regime is going through tough days.

Previously, in November 2018, after the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on the regime, Rouhani had claimed that the sanctions have no effect on the regime.

On February 17, 2019, Rouhani attended Hormozgan province’s council meeting and described the ongoing circumstances in Iran as a “war situation,” saying, “We must understand the current tidings in Iran and recognize what the situation is. Some people don’t believe that we are in a war situation. In war, you can be attacked by mortars, artillery firings, bombing and also direct bullets; some get wounded, some get killed, some disappear, but we cannot say that we must give up fighting… This does not mean that our people are not suffering in a war situation. Of course, people have problems, people’s lives are not normal and go through ups and downs. It is true. Yes, we might have problems this year or even the next year.”

Rouhani also described a part of pressure his regime is experiencing, “All superpowers are pressurizing us… you can see that how much trouble we have in delivering cargos in Bandar-e Abbas. Just compare how many ships were berthing in our ports last year and how many are berthing now. We have so many problems due to sanctions. Our days are not easy, we are going through tough days.”

It is worth mentioning that the Iranian Regime has conducted a huge misinformation campaign to decieve the world and the Iranian people that all Iran’s economic problems arise from international sanctions. However, the Iranian people have time and again showed that they are aware of the source of their problems when they chant popular slogans in their daily protests across Iran, “Let go of Syria and think about us,” or when they chant, “Our enemy is right here, they are lying when they say the enemy is the U.S.”

The fact that the Iranian people experience with their flesh and blood every day is that the source of Iran’s problems is the dictatorship that has seized the power and stole the Iranian people’s revolution in 1979 and has dragged Iran from one crisis to another. The mullahs’ regime that its destructive policies, export of terrorism and corruption have made the Iranian people furious crying for regime change, a cause that the Iranian opposition movement NCRI and PMOI/MEK have been pursuing for several decades.

Iran’s regime deeply concerned about sanctions, FATF

Iran’s regime deeply concerned about sanctions, FATF

Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 20, 2019 - On Wednesday, the price of the U.S. dollar soared to 136,500 rials in the currency markets of Tehran, once again raising concerns about the regime’s destructive economic policies and unbridled corruption.

According to the regime’s economic experts, the launching of a new round of talks by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the possibility of re-designating the Iranian regime in this international entity’s blacklist, along with the limbo status of FATF resolutions in the regime’s Expediency Council, are among the reasons behind this price hike.

The Expediency Council decided to halt all evaluations of FATF resolutions and Iranian regime Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif failed to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal during his visit to Munich. As a result, Bahram Ghassemi, spokesperson for the regime’s Foreign Ministry, desperately called on the European Union to understand the regime’s status quo.

“Practical measures are needed and we expect Europe to launch the special purpose vehicle [in reference to INSTEX],” he said on Monday.

All the while, Mostafa Mir-Saleem, a member of the Expediency Council, made this body’s position very clear.

“Evaluating the FATF’s history, and the Palermo and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) documents, we have come to the conclusion that the world arrogance, led by the United States, are using these leverages and political tools to gain control over the [Iranian regime],” he said on Monday.

Asadollah Badamchian, a known regime insider, said INSTEX is targeting the Iranian regime’s economic independence. “Those Expediency Council members who were counting on the Palermo resolution have now concluded to reject this initiative and deliver a correct and logical response to Europe, and prevent the state from further falling into such traps,” he said.

The state-run Jahan-e San’at daily shed further light on this important subject.

“The economic crisis is on the rise. Our diplomacy is on a defensive position and despite all their efforts, they have rendered no results,” the report reads in part. “In our current circumstances, our political apparatus lack any meaningful or specific ideas. The ruling apparatus have provided no ideas on how to exit the current dilemma… The result is further mistrust between the people and the ruling elite. As a result, the people will tend towards following populist, and even dangerous, trends. This is especially true if our economic troubles continue. We have experienced how very dangerous circumstances mushroom from our status quo.”

For the Iranian regime, prospect of FATF is unclear at best

For the Iranian regime, prospect of FATF is unclear at best

The Iranian regime is facing roadblocks in passing FATF laws

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 19, 2019 - Last Sunday, the Iranian regime passed a deadline to pass the necessary bills to conform to international anti-money-laundering laws and standards established by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). At least two of the bills are still in limbo, effectively putting Tehran at risk of being blacklisted by the de facto international money-transaction transparency body.

A day earlier, the Iranian regime’s Expediency Council had a meeting to decide the fate of the bills in question, which were already passed in the Majlis (parliament) but rejected by the Guardian Council, the body which vets parliamentary legislations against the regime’s so-called Islamic laws. Fierce opposition on both sides of the Iranian ruling elites made a successful vote impossible, tossing the issue into the court of Expediency Council, the institution that is tasked with resolving conflicts between the Majlis and Guardian Council.

Ahmad Tavakkoli, member of the Expediency Council, said about the council’s meeting: “In the meeting, 12 members have spoken in favor or against the [Palermo] bill, but considering that the number of members who wanted to talk about this bill was big, not everyone was able to talk. So, it was decided that the review will continue in the next session of the Council, which will take place in two weeks.”

Mohsen Rezaee, Secretary of the Expediency Council, said: “Western and European countries have obstructed our financial provision, but they say let’s have financial transactions.”

“So, when your banks don’t work with us, how do you expect our banks to have financial transactions with you? In fact, this financial channel that the Europeans have created isn’t a financial channel but a goods [exchange] channel. Meaning they take our oil and give us goods in exchange and mistakenly, they have named it financial channel,” Mohsen Rezaee further said in his statements that were broadcasted on state-run national television.

“So, from the dishonesty of the West and coercion of their demands on our country, one can understand that they aren’t even willing to give us our own money and that’s why we are suspicious about these demands in the case of Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Palermo and we asked the government and the parliament to respond frankly to the Expediency Council’s questions,” he added.

Iran newspaper, the official mouthpiece of Hassan Rouhani’s government, published an article titled, “If the JCPOA didn’t exists and if FATF does not,” and gloomily warned about the consequences of not approving the FATF bills.

“It’s clear as day that as much as we talk to Iranian hardliners and expect them to be, not much, but rather a little reasonable and don’t play in Trump’s field and attack the JCPOA, it won’t help, and they will continue their damaging path. They surely think that there is no backing from the path they’ve taken and since they’ve always teared down the steering wheel and went flat out speeding in a one-way road, [they must think] even thinking about backing down from this path must be costly for them,” the newspaper writes.

The absence of Rouhani and parliament speaker Ali Larijani, heads of the executive and legislative branches and two powerful proponents of the FATF bills, in the last Expediency Council session is also very telling.

If the prospect for leaving the current impasse over the FATF bills was clear, the heads of two branches would have attended the meeting.

Last Friday, in an obviously orchestrated manner, many Friday prayer Imams opposed the bills.

Karaj’s Imam said: “Some people should pay attention not to insult the families of the martyrs with their statements. These bills have concrete and obvious damages and it’s necessary that the government puts aside its insistence on this bill and pays attention to increasing the nuclear capabilities and economic capabilities inside [the country].”

Rasht’s Imam said: “After the JCPOA, Europeans have raised FATF and CFT against Iran and put shameful laws on their agenda against us… After the U.S. left the JCPOA, the Supreme Leader said that don’t count on Europeans either, therefore, we must not console ourselves with the apparent smile which hides a sharp and toxic sword.”

Right now, what is clear is that the fate of FATF in Iran is clearly unclear. The consequences of a decision about the fate of FATF will have such deeply rooted effects that not only high-level Iranian officials, but even the Supreme Leader himself, who has the legal last words in all matter of importance to the state, feel paralyzed.

Zarif fuming over escalating global credibility of Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK

Zarif fuming over escalating global credibility of Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK

Iranian regime Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 18, 2019 - The Iranian regime’s atrocious report card of supporting international terrorism and being the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism came to haunt the mullahs’ Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during his visit to Germany for the Munich Security Conference on Sunday.

Reporters asked Zarif about European sanctions against Tehran over the mullahs’ terror campaign on their soil, especially through the course of 2018. Constantly dodging questions over the Iranian regime’s bombing and assassination plots across Europe during the past year, Zarif, as always, resorted to old lies to justify these heinous measures and signaled the source of Tehran’s main concerns.

“The United States is listening to the wrong folks… what is clear is that there are people in Europe who have been on Europe’s terrorism list up until 2012. What happened all of a sudden that they were withdrawn from the terrorism list?... In 1998, the U.S. put the MEK on the terrorism list and in 2012 they took them off the terrorism list,” he said while obviously losing his temper and control.

“[U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyer] Rudy Giuliani spoke yesterday for the MEK. [U.S. National Security Advisor] John Bolton has spoken for the MEK. John Bolton is angry because he promised the MEK that he would celebrate in 2019 in Iran with them. They are still in Paris,” Zarif continued, once again indicating how the Iranian regime is utterly terrified of the growing role of the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

On the same day of the Munich Security Conference, members of the Iranian Diaspora andPMOI/MEK supporters rallied in Munich protesting the presence of Zarif as the top diplomat of the religious fascism ruling Iran and demanding his expulsion.

Zarif is a member of the regime’s Supreme National Security Council and involved in all decision-making processes to carry out terrorist attacks and assassinations abroad. This includes the bombing plot targeting the 2018 Iranian opposition rally in near Paris back in late June.

It has been crystal clear that the Iranian regime is the source of terrorism and warmongering in the Middle East and across the globe.

The protesters called on the international community to take into notice the eight demands raised by the Iranian opposition from the international community. Maryam Rajavi, President of the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) raised these demands recently.

I declare the demands of the people of #Iran and the Iranian Resistance, as the following: #WarsawSummit pic.twitter.com/Ealwdgy283

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) February 14, 2019

A useless message amid increasing quarrels between the ruling elite in Iran

A useless message amid increasing quarrels between the ruling elite in Iran

Iranian regime factions can't find common ground on important state matter

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 17, 2019 - In a lengthy and virtually empty message on February 13, Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei announced the “Second Phase of the [Islamic] Revolution”! And under the disguise of the “Second phase of self-developing and civilization-building,” he addressed everything except for the imminent threats and crises of the Islamic Republic, including but not limited to the Warsaw summit, wide-spread popular discontent and an explosive mood throughout the society, economic fallout, the JCPOA and FATF impasse, etc.

And Khamenei’s blind-eye for his regime’s most important questions comes at a time when FATF’s ultimatum for Iran to pass the necessary bills into law to conform to international monetary transparency standards is just a few days away and the fate of the related bills is stuck in a quagmire of infighting between the different factions of the ruling elite.

The major part of Khamenei’s message was propaganda about imaginary technological, economic, and scientific achievements of the Islamic Republic on the world stage. Khamenei ridiculously claimed that his regime’s fast scientific development has surprised the world and its acceleration is eleven times higher than the global average in scientific development. One can be sure that if anything, Khamenei has at least moved the record for preposterous lies, creating an altogether new league where even Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels must catch up.

Khamenei also used the opportunity to snipe at Rouhani’s faction and said: “Although some misled people in the country sometimes say and write that, it is totally wrong and an unforgivable mistake to believe that economic difficulties solely result from sanctions and the solution is to kneel before the enemy and kiss the paws of the wolf.”

Most importantly, Khamenei dodged the hot issue of the FATF bills and let the opposing factions fight it out, which could have dire consequences for the whole regime in terms of stability and tensions.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Vaezi, chief of staff to Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani, said about today’s session of the Expediency Council, where the fate of the FATF bills will be decided: “In the cabinet meeting some points were raised about this issue and the concerned ministers and officials brought a fundamental line of reasoning forward, saying that the Expediency Council needs to fully understand our current situation in the world and the pressures that the U.S. puts on Iran. This situation needs to be fully explained to the members so that the decision that this council makes does not increase the pressure on the people.”

“Some officials said that considering the climate that some banks have created, if the FATF bills are not passed into law, these pressures will increase. Therefore, if a decision is made, the responsibility for its consequences must also be accepted,” he further said.

Vaezi’s statements ignited a strong response by Khamenei’s faction who considered it a threat against the members of the council who oppose the bills.

“When the Expediency Council believes that a bill’s damages are more than its benefits for the country, it will absolutely act upon the interests of the country, not based on its consequences or the responsibility for its results,” said Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, member of the Expediency Council.

It is worth noting that the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament) has already approved the anti-money-laundering bills. But the 12-member Guardian Council, the body that oversees the conformance of parliamentary bills with the regime’s so-called “Islamic” laws, has disapproved them. Today, the Expediency Council has to take sides and decide which party will have its way.

Keyhan newspaper writes: “Why don’t the president’s chief of staff and the cabinet members in general reiterate the importance of discussion and persuading the [expediency] council’s members, instead of threatening them to be responsible for future problems? Does the government think that this type of literature and actions will impact the opinion of members of the council?!”

It looks like Khamenei doesn’t feel like intervening and saying something, despite the political fallout, and his mandate as the primary decision-maker in all matters of importance to the state.

It’s abundantly clear that Khamenei sees better than anyone else the consequences and costs of the current impasse, but fact is that the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, who regime officials describe as “The Pole of the Regime’s Tent,” just hasn’t enough clout anymore in his tyrannical empire’s latest stage of overextension or decline.

FATF, the incarnation of Iran’s internal dead-end and crisis

FATF, the incarnation of Iran’s internal dead-end and crisis

Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 13, 2019 - While the February 17 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ultimatum is approaching fast for the Iranian regime to pass all the necessary laws to conform by international anti-money laundering and transparency standards, the controversy around the bills and joining the de facto international anti-money laundering body is increasing.

In addition, Europe’s condition for Iran to pass the FATF bills before being able to benefit from INSTEX—EU’s financial mechanism for Iran to circumvent U.S. sanctions which analysts believe is nothing more than a disguised oil-for-food program—has further complicated matters for Iran’s ruling mullahs.

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, chairman of the Security and Foreign Relations Committee in the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament), tried to downplay EU’s conditions on implementing INSTEX.

“In contrast to what has been said, in the E3 [Germany, France, and the UK] statement about INSTEX, there is no condition for FATF and the word ‘expect’ is used which means that the Europeans expect Iran to accept this mechanism. However, they haven’t conditioned the implementation of this financial mechanism to Iran accepting the FATF,” he said.

All the while, Laya Joneydi, Iranian regime Vice President in Legal Affairs, bluntly rejects Falahatpisheh’s reading of the statement.

“This mechanism has a substantial condition, based on which the mechanism works and continues as long as Iran is committed to the 2015 nuclear deal. The formal condition of the mechanism is to completely implement the standards provided by FATF,” she said.

The situation has become so complicated that Iranian officials feel confused about how to choose and what decision to make.

“We were not sure about accepting the FATF, but Europe’s outrageous statement and its condescending conditions for trading with Iran in INSTEX have shown that if you concede in front of bullies, they become bolder and there is no end to it. Experience and reason show that begging the bully makes people’s livelihoods only worse,” wrote Ahmad Tavakoli, a member of the Iranian regime’s Expediency Council.

This confusion about the FATF and the ensuing quarrels between different factions of the ruling elite is rooted in the Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s own indecisiveness.

Back in October 2018, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani read Khamenei’s comments about FATF before the entire parliament, which essentially dodged the million-dollar question and put the decision burden on the parliament.

“I’m not opposed to studying these bills in the parliament so that it can go through their legal process,” Khamenei said.

But after four months of dodging and double talk, Khamenei finally revealed his fears of joining the FATF.

The Asr-e Iran website published a quote on February 9 from Davoud Mohammady, chairman of the Majlis’ Article 90 Commission.

“I have heard with my own ears that the Supreme Leader doesn’t accept the FATF and therefore I didn’t sign,” he wrote.

Europe’s FATF condition for INSTEX puts the Iranian regime at a dangerous crossroads.

Accepting the FATF means self-sanctioning the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and a myriad of other semi-official institutions that make a living by financing terrorism and money laundering.

On the other hand, if the Iranian regime does not pass the FATF bills into law, more international isolation will be awaiting its already-crumbling economy.