Will the Iranian regime commit suicide for fear of death?

Will the Iranian regime commit suicide for fear of death?

The Iranian regime's Majlis (parliament)

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

March 28, 2019 - Amid internal and external crises and the explosive state of the Iranian population, the gloomy prospects of the economy has caused panic among Iranian regime officials more than anything else.

Ali Rabiei, a former Iranian intelligence officer and Hassan Rouhani’s minister of labor until 2018, revealed his horror by saying: “The Persian year ends while very few people expected such an end at its beginning. Fast developments in international relations and global rules, economic uncertainty, and a change in people’s perceptions and values.”

“We started last year with [U.S. President Donald] Trump’s threats and his unilateral sanctions. A lack of readiness for an internal and effective counteraction and some wrong decision made us end the year in a not very well situation,” he added.

Rabiei acknowledged the ruling mullahs’ economic defeat and said: “Some people still don’t believe in the fact of globalization and an increasing and irreversible mutual economic dependency of the world and interpret economic and societal issues with a view limited to internal political competition.”

“Policies and decisions also showed that we lack a structural readiness and sufficient knowledge and experience for crisis situations,” he added.

He then warned Iranian officials about a looming threat of popular uprisings and said: “I believe that if we continue the new Persian year as before, there won’t be a bright prospect in front of us and I very much imagine the possibility of societal movements and turning of conceptual upheavals into the physical realm.”

Mostafa Tajzadeh, an iconic figure for the so-called moderate faction in Iran, reiterated the necessity to concede to the international community saying that “I predict a very difficult year for the country in the economic sector.”

“Especially if the sanctions aren’t lifted and continue, the economic situation will become more complicated and difficult. Rouhani’s government hasn’t much space to maneuver under the sanctions, unless it changes the game of sanctions and instead of chanting that we’ll circumvent the sanctions, finds a way to lift the sanctions and utilizing Iran’s full regional and global potential, starts negotiating with the U.S. and lifts the petro- and banking-sanctions,” he added.

Mohammad Gholi Yousefi, an economist close to Rouhani’s faction, says: “The country’s economy isn’t well, there has been no investments, the country’s manufacturing industry’s production has decreased dramatically, and agriculture isn’t in a good shape. In terms of international issues, we haven’t been able to have wide reaching engagement and solve our issues on the international stage so that we can have a good situation in terms of trading or attracting foreign investments. Unfortunately, we don’t have many friends among world countries and sanctions are increasing.”

“Problems are aggregating and will show themselves one day,” he gloomily warned.

Iranian officials are right about one thing: The economic prospects for the ruling theocracy in Tehran are gloomy and combined with widespread popular discontent, sooner or later, they will present themselves in popular uprisings against the corrupt regime in its entirety, regardless of its supposed factions.

While Iranian regime pundits see no concrete internal potential to fight the crumbling economy, many of them suggest engaging with the international community.

But real engagement comes at the price of forfeiting their hegemonistic ambitions of exporting their corrupt revolution—read death and destruction—to the four corners of the world. This is anathema to the ruling mullahs in Tehran since it cuts to the bone of their philosophy and will have fundamental and far-reaching effects on their mode of behavior and power structure, ultimately resulting in the Islamic Republic’s demise.

So, pundits and politicians who’ve believed in and worked toward real and meaningful reforms in Iran should ask themselves: Will the Iranian regime commit suicide for fear of death?

There is an old and popular Iranian proverb whose literal translation says, “The wolf’s repentance is his death!”

The English analog is, “You may end him but you’ll not mend him,” which doesn’t catch the current political situation in Iran quite as well as its Persian counterpart.

For those of us who’ve experienced the Iranian regime first-hand from day one, this is nothing new. But even we, against all odds, hope that we’ll be proven wrong. Afterall, mending something is much less costly than ending and building it anew.

Iran: Flood victims protesting mullahs’ regime, Rouhani

Iran: Flood victims protesting mullahs’ regime, Rouhani

Flood victims in Aq Qala, Golestan Province, northeastern Iran, protesting to mullahs’ president Hassan Rouhani – March 27, 2019

Reported by PMOI/MEK

Iran, March 28, 2019 - Angry flood victims of a village near the town of Aq Qala in Golestan Province, northeastern Iran, were seen voicing their strong protests on March 27 when the mullahs’ president Hassan Rouhani visited the area after a delay of many days. These angry locals are holding the regime and officials’ incompetence/corruption responsible for the floods.

Aq Qala locals were furious about why no relief aid has been provided after the flood. They criticized regime officials and emphasized how locals were the only individuals actually providing aid to their neighbors. There was no sign of any authorities or state institutions doing their duty, the angry locals added.

The devastation of floods continue across Iran as reports continue to show more people suffering.

Water levels have risen to such an extent that a goal of a football/soccer field in the city of Karoon in Khuzestan Province is seen going completely under water and locals say in irony the field has literally turned into a lake for the athletes.

Floodwaters have also risen very dangerously in the town of Isar of Aq Qala, Golestan Province, northeast Iran. Locals say authorities are not taking any measures and the town remains engulfed in water.

Unfortunately, the hand-made flood dam built by locals of Gomishan in Golestan Province, northeast Iran, was not able to prevent floodwaters from advancing. Water in the city has advanced from the east and into the streets and alleys of downtown Gomishan.

Torrential rains in Khorasan Razavi Province, northeast Iran, have inflicted massive damage to historic monuments. The three cities of Kashmar, Khalilabad and Bardaskan have witnessed major damages in the recent rains.

One individual was announced dead as a result of floods in seasonal rivers, the villages of Emarat near the town of Sirvan of Ilam Province, western Iran. This individual intended to check local farmlands and drowned in a nearby seasonal river.

Two 12-year-olds near the city of Minab, southern Iran, lost their lives after falling into a hole filled with water recently.

Floods claim more than 200 lives, mullahs in Iran cloak the truth

Floods claim more than 200 lives, mullahs in Iran cloak the truth

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

While the number of flood victims in various cities in the country reaches over 200, most of which from Shiraz, the clerical regime hides the real statistics out of fear from the people’s anger.

The delay and procrastination of the regime in helping and rescuing those who are besieged by the flood has increased the number of victims. Hence, the regime wants to portray the damages much less than they actually are by a variety of tricks. For this reason, in many cities, especially Shiraz, repressive forces are preventing people from approaching hospitals.

The contradictions and denials of the regime's agents to cover the real number of the dead have made a mockery for the people.

On March 19, Northern Khorasan Chief of Police announced two deaths. On March 22, the official news agency of the regime reported the deaths of two children in Golestan province. The same day, the chief coroner of Mazandaran announced 5 deaths and a missing person in the province. However, the regime's leaders in the following days denied these figures.

On the other hand, a significant number of people have disappeared in different cities and no information is available on their fate. Eyewitnesses say the bodies of the victims are left in the mud but no effective action is being taken by the regime to find them. People are searching for the victims and the missing with their initial facilities.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, renewed condolences to the affected people and called on the public to cooperate nationally to save the besieged people in flood, to find the missing and help the injured. She called on all people, especially the youth, to confront flood and its catastrophic consequences by creating popular councils in each city, neighborhood and village as the only way to overcome the effects of a devastating flood.

Mrs. Rajavi once again emphasized that the capabilities of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij, the army and government apparatus stolen from our people should be made available to the people in order to repair the destructions themselves and to prevent the spread of destruction.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran

March 27, 2019

Iranian officials offer empty promises for the Persian New Year

Iranian officials offer empty promises for the Persian New Year

Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

March 26, 2019 - In his Persian New Year speech on March 1, Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei described economic difficulties as the most important and imminent of all and said: “The economy is the country’s imminent and most serious problem with the highest priority.”

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, on the other hand, while recognizing the economic crisis, ridiculously blamed problems from past decades as the root of the current fiasco.

Fearing the growing popular discontent and misery and in an attempt to save face and pump hope and enthusiasm into their desperate bases, Iranian officials continued their quest of empty promises and blaming foreign forces and their opponents in the ruling elite.

On March 2, Iranian state-run television quoted Khamenei as saying: “While referring to senior governmental officials’ reports about the ongoing process of coming up with solutions to counter the sanctions, the Islamic Revolution Supreme Leader reiterated that officials need to enter practice and execution more seriously and swiftly and must not delay the process.”

While naming the Persian New Year the year of “Boosting of Production,” Khamenei insisted on his old plan of “resistance economy” where ordinary Iranians pay the price of the regime’s hegemonic ambitions while the few ruling elite enjoy their luxurious lifestyles.

Grandiose-sounding and empty names are nothing new to modern dictatorships and the Iranian regime is no exception. Following are the titles Khamenei has given to the past few Persian years:

• 20122013: Year of “National Production and Supporting Iranian Labor & Capital”
• 20132014: Year of “Economic and Political Valour”
• 20142015: Year of “Economy and Culture with National Determination and Jihadi Management”
• 20152016: Year of “The Administration and the People, Harmony and Unanimity”
• 20162017: Year of “Economy of Resistance; Practical Steps and Action”
• 20172018: Year of “Economy of Resistance: Production and Employment”
• 20182019: Year of “Support for Iranian Products”
• This year (20192020): Year of “Boosting Production”

Looking at all these names and considering how the mullahs managed to destroy virtually every aspect of Iran’s economy and society over the past years, the names sound hilariously right out of a satire.

As if Khamenei and his band of ruling thugs name every single year after the one thing they plan to completely obliterate next—not forgetting a touch of Islamic and Nationalist propaganda added to it.

Last Persian year (2018-2019), many Iranian outlets and officials warned about the dangers of a tsunami of bankruptcies among domestic manufacturing units.

In an interview with state-run ILNA news agency on January 27, Hamidreza Fouladgar, member of the parliament, said: “One third of small economic businesses are inactive and the remaining two thirds are working below their capacity.”

As if empty words and wishful thinking have helped previously, Mahmoud Vaezi, Hassan Rouhani’s Chief of Staff, said on the second day of the Persian New Year on state television: “The development machine of the country must not stop. These sanctions, we shouldn’t allow the country to, sort of like in the past four to five years have been developments in different provinces, numerous projects, numerous programs, these [things] shouldn’t stop. God willing, this needs to continue and generally we are all set to prioritize and focus on the people’s income and expenditure.”

One can see that the hardly comprehensible hodgepodge of dos and don’ts of Mahmoud Vaezi are just an extension to four decades of the Iranian regime’s propaganda under the pretext of Islam.

Meanwhile the U.S. is studying its options to further decrease Iranian oil exports.

Entekhab newspaper, close to Hassan Rouhani’s faction, writes: “Four U.S. officials said that decreasing Iranian oil exports to zero barrels per day is possible in the current year without putting pressure on the global oil supply.”

In a recent interview with CNBC, Brian Hook, the U.S. State Department Representative for Iran, said that said the fact that forecasts show more supply than demand for 2019 should help the U.S. be more aggressive in its efforts to take Iran’s exports to zero barrels. He said Iran is currently exporting from somewhere under 1 million to 1.1 million barrels a day.

“Last year when we did our waivers it was a tight and fragile market, but we were able to successfully balance our interests,” Hook told reporters.

“There are projections that supply will exceed demand, but those are projections. But we will continue to balance our national security and our economic interests,” Hook said.

According to some forecasts supply would exceed demand globally this year by 400,000 barrels.

Past experience strongly suggests that Khamenei naming the New Persian Year as the year of “Boosting Production” is a strong indication that domestic production will go badly south this year.

The reality is, the mullahs’ four decades of kleptocracy, nepotism, economic mismanagement, and blatant corruption, and virtually every other imaginable evil has no other solution than to uproot the very power structure and ideology that caused the mess in the first place.

Flash floods continue to cause devastation across Iran

Flash floods continue to cause devastation across Iran

Flash floods in Lorestan province

Reported by PMOI/MEK

Iran, March 25, 2019 - Floods that began in northern parts of Iran earlier in the month are quickly propagating to other areas in Iran. At least 25 provinces have been affected by the floods. The worst-hit provinces include those on the shores of Caspian Sea, the skirts of the Zagros mountain range, central and southern Iran.

In Lorestan province, heavy rainfall quickly turned into flash floods, submerging large parts of the province, including Khoramabad, the province’s capital. Khoramabad is reported to be in an especially critical condition. The Khoramabad-Pol Dokhtar and Andimeshk-Pol Dokhtar roads have been blocked by flood water. At least 22 vital interstate highways have been blocked by floods.

Shiraz is one of the worst-hit regions. At least 120 people have been reported dead as a result of flash floods pouring into the city. Videos shows cars with passengers being carried away by water torrents. At least 200 vehicles have been destroyed by the floods.

Floods continue in Golestan province, northern Iran. Gorgan Airport has been flooded. In Khuzestan, floods have covered large parts of Arvandkenar.

In Sistan Baluchistan, several vital roads have been submerged by the floods.

So far, the Iranian regime is refraining from declaring official stats on the damages caused by the floods. Mismanagement by the government has exacerbated the situation and relief efforts are mostly being carried out by local activists and the people.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, extended her condolences to the families of the flood victims and called on the courageous youth of Iran to help their disaster-stricken compatriots.

I urge the general public and particularly the courageous youths, in #Iran to rush to the aid of the residents of Fars, #Lorestan, #Golestan and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces hit by flood.

— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) March 25, 2019

Mrs. Rajavi stressed that the mullahs’ regime, its corrupt leaders and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) have intensified the effects of this destructive flood through by destroying the environment. The mullahs have rendered the Iranian cities and villages to ruins by plundering the people’s belongings and wasting them in projects of repression, terrorism and war mongering as well as anti-Iranian nuclear and missile programs, depriving them of the least infrastructure to defend against natural disasters like earthquakes and floods, Mrs. Rajavi emphasized.

Iranian regime Supreme Leader: EU's financial channel is more like a joke

Iranian regime Supreme Leader: EU's financial channel is more like a joke

Europe SPV mechanism

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

March 24, 2019 - In a March 21 speech in Mashhad, northeast Iran, marking the first day of the Persian calendar, the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei criticized Western countries over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the Europe’s so-called financial channel, known as the INSTEX.

“This financial channel is more like a joke. A bitter joke. Like in the past, Europeans have stabbed [us] in the back,” he said.

Khamenei repeated his previous statements that Europe is not trustworthy, emphasizing “Western politicians” are “in essence barbarians”, despite their “stylish appearance and the use of eau de cologne.”

He further complained about Europe saying that they “have practically left the JCPOA, because they haven’t honored their obligations to the JCPOA.”

Khamenei’s statements follow remarks made by officials inside the government of regime President Hassan Rouhani in recent weeks that Europe is not respecting its commitments to the Iran nuclear deal.

Javad Zarif, the mullahs’ foreign minister, and a close ally of Rouhani, said the following during back at the Munich Security Conference: “Launching INSTEX is far less than the commitments the three European countries had made to rescue the JCPOA.”

Disappointed statements by Iranian officials about Europe’s financial mechanism follow a string of diplomatic offense by Rouhani’s government to win over Europe in the face of the Trump administration abandoning the nuclear deal.

European countries promised Iran to set up a “special purpose vehicle” that will shield Iranian trade from U.S. sanctions and will effectively enable the country to circumvent the maximum pressure campaign that U.S. policy makers had in mind.

But months after, Europe has presented Iran with practically an oil-for-food arrangement and a medicaments mechanism called INSTEX that won’t be implemented if Iran doesn’t abide to the Financial Action Task Force’s money transparency and terrorism-combatting standards.

Keyhan newspaper, the semi-official mouthpiece of Ali Khamenei, published interesting words on February 3.

“A Polish diplomat said this about the EU’s special purpose vehicle for Iran: I believe that this is sort of a symbolic gesture for Europe to save face but in reality, it has no place of importance at all.”

A report published on January 31 in Mashregh News writes: “A European diplomatic source who wished to stay anonymous said about the financial channel and why it will focus on humanitarian issues: ‘First, when the issue of the European financial channel with Iran was raised, the U.S. exercised tremendous pressure on European countries. When the U.S. left the JCPOA we witnessed that European companies left Iran out of fear for U.S. sanctions and were not ready to cooperate with Iran. This was a lesson for the Europeans that they can’t influence their own companies!”

Earlier, Ahmad Tavakkoli, a member of the powerful Expediency Discernment Council where the fate of Iran’s position towards FATF is at review, wrote a letter to the council members.

“This derogatory formula isn’t even ‘oil for food’ that was imposed on Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s era. Since the Europeans don’t buy our oil, as a mediator, they only allow us to buy food and medicaments from them with the oil money that they have allowed us, selling for prices that the monopolizing seller designates, in order to save us from starvation and sickness! And this is not the only belittlement!”

Europeans also “directed Iran to create a transparent company that will become the exchange partner. Now, this mechanism, while still not clear when it will be operational, is conditioned to Iran accepting FATF swiftly,” he adds.

This is while the Islamic Republic’s demand from Europe was to create mechanisms that guarantee free selling of oil, free financial transactions for oil income money, and free maritime shipping.

The still not operational European INSTEX has none of that.

The joint statement on the creation of INSTEX clearly says, “INSTEX will support legitimate European trade with Iran, focusing initially on the sectors most essential to the Iranian population – such as pharmaceutical, medical devices and agri-food goods.”

In addition to Europe’s “bitter joke” of linking the financial mechanism with the FATF, on February 4, the European Council expressed its “grave concern by Iran's ballistic missile activity” and called “upon Iran to refrain from these activities, in particular ballistic missile launches that are inconsistent with UN Security Council Resolution 2231.”

Regarding Tehran’s malicious behavior in the region, the statement said, “The Council expresses concern at the growing tensions in the region and Iran's role in this context, including the provision of military, financial and political support to non-state actors in countries such as Syria and Lebanon.”

Regarding the Iranian mullahs’ recent terrorist plots on European soil, the statement reads: “The Council is deeply concerned by the hostile activities that Iran has conducted on the territory of several Member States and, in this context, decided to list two individuals and one entity. The European Union will continue to demonstrate unity and solidarity in this area and urges Iran to put an immediate end to such unacceptable behavior.”

These statements, and others, sound very much like some of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s 12 demands from the mullahs’ regime that he announced in his speech at the Heritage Foundation in May last year.

That is why Khamenei’s accused the European Union that their behavior “shows that you can expect them to conspire and commit treason, and backstabbing at any minute, but you shouldn’t expect help, honesty and cooperation.”

Backstabbing, conspiring, treason and blatant evil has always been the kingdom of Khamenei and his minions’ rule without the slightest signs of viable competition.

While no party whatsoever has asked Tehran anything unreasonable, even if Europe’s behavior amounted to “treason and backstabbing” as Khamenei puts it, it is not bad to have competition for once. Incumbents never like upstarts although it would benefit the common interest.

Two Iranians arrested entering Argentina with fake Israeli passports

Two Iranians arrested entering Argentina with fake Israeli passports

Argentine police broke up a major fake passport ring led by an Iranian regime

Prepared by PMOI/MEK

March 18, 2019 - Argentine intelligence arrested two Iranian nationals carrying fake Israeli passports.  

Two Iranian nationals linked to the Iranian regime were arrested in Buenos Aires traveling on forged Israeli passports, just a day before the 27th anniversary of the March 17, 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.

27-year-old Sajjad Naserani and 30-year-old Mahsoreh Sabzali—were arrested last week after entering Argentina as Netanel and Rivka Toledano, carrying passports replete with mistakes, including the spelling of “Israel.”

The ID numbers the couple used reportedly belong to a real-life French-Israeli couple, according to Argentinian media.

The two Iranians arrived in Buenos Aires from Spain. Authorities are treating the couple as possible terror suspects and have since raised the level of alert in Argentina, local daily Clarin reported.

The passports' numbers had been listed by their owners as lost or stolen, under different names. This was flagged by the Argentinian border authority after the couple, arrived at Ezeiza international airport.

This led to an investigation involving Israeli police, and the eventual arrest of the two Iranians by the counter-terrorism division of Argentina's federal intelligence agency, AFI. Their phones and camera were confiscated.

Authorities initially suspected the passports had been stolen but later concluded they were forgeries after finding numerous Hebrew spelling mistakes on the official documents.

The investigation is especially sensitive as it comes amid commemorations for the March 17th, 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in the Argentinian capital.

The suicide car bomb attack, which killed 29 and injured 242, was carried out by the Iran-backed militant group.

An attack on the AMIA Jewish center just two years later, on July 18, 1994, left another 85 people dead and hundreds injured. Both attacks were attributed to Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah.

Firemen and rescue workers walk through the debris of Israels Embassy after a terrorist in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 17,1992

Read More:

A number of Iranian officials were involved in AMIA bombing:

On July 18, 1994, a Renault utility truck packed with explosives smashed into the AMIA building in the busy downtown area of the Argentine capital, leaving a scene of absolute carnage in its wake. The bombing, which came two years after a nearly identical attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, an atrocity that killed 29 people, was similarly planned and carried out by the Iranian regime and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

Iranian prisoner hanged in public

Iranian prisoner hanged in public

The abysmal situation of human rights in Iran

Reported by PMOI/MEK

On Thursday, March 14, 2019, a prisoner was publically hanged in Jahrom, south of Iran.

Also on Monday, March 11, three prisoners in Birjand Prison, northeastern Iran, charged with killing two armed agents of the regime, were also executed. Two of those executed were father and son.

A day prior to that, the Iranian regime executed another prisoner in Zahedan Central Prison, southeastern Iran. He was married and a father of two children. Some sources have mentioned that he was a former member of Iran's national kickboxing team.

These executions are carried out after Ebrahim Raisi, one of the men in charge of the mass executions in 1988 massacre, was recently appointed as the head of Iran's judiciary by the regime's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

During his speech at the inauguration ceremony, Raisi emphasized on the course of massacre, execution, and suppression to safeguard the regime in the past 40 years. He said that he would consider Khamenei's recent "second phase" statement as his covenant and that the regime's security is his absolute priority and that justice is subsidiary compared to it.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez, and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, have expressed concerns over the increasing number of executions, demanding the regime to stop public hangings.

According to the annual report by Iran Human Rights (IHR), at least 13 public executions have taken place in Iran in 2018.

During the 40^th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Javaid Rehman, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, said, "Many of the Iranian people have voiced their concern through protests, demonstrations, and strikes. People from diverse sections of society - from truck drivers to teachers to factory workers - across the country have protested. It is in this context of increased challenges that concerns are mounting about human rights, including the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and to association in Iran."

"Worrying patterns of intimidation, arrest, prosecution, and ill-treatment of human rights defenders, lawyers, and labor rights activists in Iran signal an increasingly severe State response to protests and strikes in the country," Rahman said, calling on the Iranian regime to release all those detained for exercising theirrights.

Rehman also spoke of the poor conditions of prisoners with dual citizenship, the suppression of ethnic and religious minorities, and the fact that since 2013 at least 33 minors have been executed and 85 are in prison awaiting execution.

Iran: A new and unprecedented record of embezzlement unveiled

Iran: A new and unprecedented record of embezzlement unveiled

Embezzlement and larceny in Iran

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Iran, March 14, 2019 - A record of an extremely high embezzlement case is now taken into a sham court. The case was revealed during factional infighting within the Iranian regime. The 6.656 billion Euros ($7 billion) is now the subject of fighting among various factions, notably the IRGC and the Government.

A state-run TV said, with an ironic tone, "Congratulations, we finally broke Babak Zanjani'srecord." (Babak Zanjani was a corrupt billionaire who collaborated on embezzlement with various factions of the regime and was ultimately sentenced to death as a scapegoat during factional infighting.)

State-run ISNA (News Agency) admitted that this amount of money "is more than the official budget of dozens or maybe hundreds of government institutions."

Javan daily, associated to the IRGC wrote, "The accused received enormous amounts of money from foreign buyers. They established companies abroad with the aim of circumventing the sanctions and then transferred the money to their personal accounts.

The corrupt team is comprised of members of both factions of the regime.

One of the defendants said in his remarks in the court that this case has uncovered some of the regime's elements who were instrumental in circumventing the sanctions.

“Iran” daily that reflects the views of Rouhani's government wrote that the defendants were supposed to inject the money gained from the sales of petrochemical goods to the economy. Given the monopoly of the IRGC over the petrochemical goods, it becomes clear that the infighting is not over corruption itself. It is a fight between the government and the IRGC over the billions of dollars in benefits.

Regardless of what scenario they will choose to end it, the social impact of such a revelation of unbelievable dimensions of corruption in the regime is tremendous. Because according to the regime's own figures, 10 million Iranians are living below the line of absolute poverty, and starvation is rampant and ever growing in Iran. Therefore this only adds to the unprecedented discontent against the regime and fuels the uprisings even more.

Iran: Internal crises increase following Rouhani’s visit to Iraq

Iran: Internal crises increase following Rouhani’s visit to Iraq

Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani seen here with his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih

Iran, March 14, 2019 - Following the three-day visit of Hassan Rouhani, the president of the regime in Iran, to Iraq recently, even members of his own faction back in Iran are questioning the credibility of the claims made about this visit helping Tehran bypass U.S. sanctions.

“If we seek to use Iraq as a tool to circumvent sanctions, the U.S. will read our hand because they have made long-term investments in Iraq and will not easily allow Iran to pull Iraq into its own circle,” said Fereydoon Majlessi, a former Iranian diplomat considered close to Rouhani’s point of views. This former diplomat reiterates, “It is not up to Iraq or others to always act as we wish.”

“Security collaboration leads to confrontations and it may lead to various Iraqi sects revolting and we must not provide them with any excuses,” he added, reiterating the latest interferences by the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force in Iraq.

Ali Bigdeli, known as a regime insider, sheds more light on this matter.

“The current atmosphere, and the circumstance prior to [Rouhani’s visit to Iraq], an Iraqi official made it known in his remarks to a foreign news agency. They are unhappy with [Iran’s] influence in Iraq and are seeking to decrease this pressure… The United States, as seen in previous years, does not wish to see Iraq get any closer to Iran. Therefore, the U.S. strategy in Iraq and Syria is a new strategy with a comprehensive focus on preventing [Iran] from gaining more influence in these two countries,” he explained.

Salman Afshar, the regime’s former diplomat in Azerbijan, portrayed a dark image of Tehran’s future meddling in Iraq, especially considering the United States’ regional policies and a special focus on the mullahs’ threats.

“Washington has reached this conclusion that by remaining in Iraq and preventing their decreasing influence, the central government in Baghdad will be influenced to prevent Iran’s reach in Iraq, and so forth in Syria. In fact, the United States believes the key in containing [Iran] in Syria and the region lies in Iraq, and containing [Iran] in Iraq will lead to its containment in Syria and the entire Middle East… Resolution 598, despite the passage of around 30 years from its adoption and the end of the [Iran-Iraq] war, and also 16 years after the fall of Saddam, remains just in writing and has not been implemented. [Iran] has not been able to retrieve its compensation from Iraq whereas during the past few years Kuwait has received around $47 billion from Iraq in compensation. However, no money has been paid to [Iran] and there have been no discussions in this regard.”