Iran: Officials horrified over widening rift between regime, ordinary Iranians

Iran: Officials horrified over widening rift between regime, ordinary Iranians

miracle

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

May 20, 2019 - While one can’t stop hearing Iranian regime officials’ saber rattling these days talking about the strength of their military and an unprecedented national unity! facing a foreign enemy, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

And sometimes, what can be witnessed on the streets of Iran by any impartial observer, shows itself through the cracks of the official rhetoric.

Mostafa Bagheribonabi, Friday prayer imam of Bonab in northwest Iran, describes the root of the popular discontent, especially among the youth, in the enemy’s propaganda. “The enemies are intent to damage the huge capacity of the youth,” he said.

“By spreading corrupt values that are anti-religion, the enemies are waging total war on this country to take the youth from us, and thus obliterate our greatness and pervert the youth,” Bagheribonabi added.

Jalil Jalili, Friday prayer imam of the town of Sardrud in East Azerbaijan Province, described the popular despise for the regime as the enemy’s scheme.

“Among the enemy's plots, these days is to change the calculation of the officials and to create confrontation between the people and the [mullahs’] regime.”

Jalili expressed his concerns about Tehran’s isolation on the internet and called it a killing field for the regime’s values.

Abbas Rahim, the Friday prayer imam of Khomeini Shahr, central Iran, went as far as asking Iranian officials to prosecute and crackdown against dissent on the internet.

“Authorities need to find a solution to confront some behaviors seen on the cyberspace and prosecute decisively,” he said.

Ali Hosseini, Friday prayer imam of ‌Bandar Deyr in Bushehr Province of southern Iran, expressed his fears of decreasing loyalty among the regime’s forces when they confront the popular mood in the cyberspace.

“If cyberspace isn’t managed properly, the beliefs of the young generation will be damaged,” he said.

In contrast to Friday prayer imams, who are traditionally aligned with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s views, elements of the opposing camp find the roots of the problem in the mullahs’ approach, while admitting to the growing rift between the regime and ordinary Iranians.

Alireza Beheshti, son of Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti and a senior adviser to Mir Hossein Mousavi during the 2009 presidential elections, says: “The people of Iran are living in a difficult situation for many years now. This situation is the result of a deep-rooted inefficiency that has led to the spread of corruption. When people see widespread corruption, they will lose their trust in the authorities… This situation continues as we speak and is very dangerous.”

There are still hopefuls inside the ruling elite who suggest that “economic and political” surgeries, as they call it, will open a path for the corrupt elite to exit their current dead-end.

However, as the Iranian people clearly stated in their chants during the popular protests at the beginning of 2018: “Reformist! Hardliners! Game over!”

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."

Senior Iranian official: Corruption is eating away at the establishment like termite

Senior Iranian official: Corruption is eating away at the establishment like termite

Ahmad Tavakoli, member of the Iranian regime's Expediency Council

Analysis by PMOI/MEK

Feb. 6, 2019 - Ahmad Tavakoli, member of the Expediency Council, is the latest senior Iranian official to confess that the endemic corruption that plagues the entirety of the Iranian regime is causing a rift in the society and fueling protests.

In an interview with the state-run ILNA news agency, Tavakoli said, “When systematic and networked corruption is eating away at the bases of the establishment like termite, who would need foreign enemies?”

Tavakoli specifically pointed to the corruption among regime officials, especially after the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988. “In recent years, especially since the [Iran-Iraq] war ended, inclination toward comfort and luxury living started to expand among officials, a fact that caused dissatisfaction among the people. Dissatisfaction gradually turned into hatred,” Tavakoli said, adding that never has the people’s hatred of the Iranian regime been so profound that it is today.

In late 2017, protests erupted in more than 140 Iranian cities over economic woes and government corruption. The protesters, Iranians from every segment of the population, shouted anti-regime slogans and called for regime change. Having been on the losing end of government-run embezzlements and state-run financial corruption, the Iranian people have become fed up with the misery that their life has become.

Protesters bare-handedly confronted security forces that had been dispatched to quell the demonstrations. In many cities clashes ensued and the regimes repressive forces killed several protesters. Thousands more were arrested and dozens were killed in prisons.

But since December 2017, protests have been intermittently continuing in different provinces and reasons by different Iranian communities. The common denominator of all protests are the anti-government slogans which make it clear who the protesters hold to account for the calamities that have engulfing the country.

In his interview with ILNA, Tavakoli said, “When corruption grows, one of its results is the incapacitation of the government. This is how the country currently is.”

In the past year, different Iranian officials have given promises to address the economic problems across the country, including unpaid wages of thousands of workers, demands for better work  and education conditions by teachers, water shortages in agricultural regions, mitigation of disastrous living conditions of disaster-struck regions, job security for truck drivers, refunding of the stolen investments of Iranian investors, and much more.

But so far, the only response that the Iranian regime has given to the demands of protesters across the country is hollow promises, ignorance and crackdown by security forces.

It is clear that a regime that spends billions of dollars on fueling terrorism and sectarianism in neighboring countries if fully capable of solving the country’s economic problems. But the regime’s priorities lie in spending the country's wealth to preserve its rule through the spread of violence in the Middle East and the brutal repression of dissent inside the country. And Iranian regime officials would rather fill their own coffers than solve the people’s problems.

But as Tavakoli warns, the continued corruption at the highest level of the Iranian regime will continue to intensify the hatred toward the regime. And there’s only so much the regime can do to contain that hatred through violence and repression.