US Coalition Condemns Iran-Backed Attacks On Bases In Iraq, Syria

While Iranian officials claim there is no scarcity of medications, several Iranians from across the country have expressed their concerns about a lack of foreign medicines.

A citizen of Sardasht in West Azerbaijan told Iran International that the prices of a simple painkiller has increased over four times in recent months.

Another Iranian has talked about the sharp rise in the prices of simple cold medicines that increased about six times in recent weeks.

According to another citizens, most of the drugs which are not available in pharmacies are sold with higher prices in the black market.

In an audio file sent to Iran International, a citizen stressed that the Islamic Republic "has taken patients hostages."

This woman said that after six months since she registered her case with the Food and Drug Administration and the Red Crescent, now the medicine she needs is available, but at a price significantly higher than the normal price.

Last week, an official of Iran’s drug importers union saidgovernment claims of being self-sufficient in production of raw materials for medicines and pharmaceutical products is not true.

He also criticized government policies that led to the decrease in imports, warning that medication prices may rise dramatically in the coming months because of restrictions by the health ministry, not foreign sanctions. His comment referred to the fall in the value of Iran’s currency and the need for the government to provide subsidized dollars to importers.

The director-general of Drugs and Controlled Substances Department of Iran’s Health Ministry, Heidar Mohammadi, said in mid-December that if foreign currency is not provided for imports, shortages of medications will reach an alarming level in the upcoming months.

Noting that the number of unavailable drugs is about 40, he warned that unless the government provides cheap dollars, the list of unavailable drugs would hit 400 to 500 soon.

Iranian officials periodically try to blame United States' sanctions for shortages of medication, but in fact, food, health and humanitarian products are not sanctioned. Iran imports around 100 million euros of medicines a month just from Europe and also large quantities from China and India.

Just before the US pulled out of the 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA) in May 2018, the former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani decided to offer dollars at 42,000 rials for essential imports to keep food and medicine cheap. Current free market rate for dollars is 290,000 rials.

However, the subsidized dollars did little to keep prices low, simply due to the corruption ingrained in Iran’s supply chain. There are numerous exposed cases of companies applying to receive the cheap dollars to import essential commodities but pocketing huge profits by importing luxury goods, such as thousands of foreign cars.

Hundreds of social media posts scorned Zeinab Soleimani for brandishing a phone that costs more than ten times the monthly salary of an ordinary employee in Iran while the Islamic Republic based its propaganda on Qasem Soleimani’s modest lifestyle.

To make matters worse, pictures of Zeinab's cell phone surfaced on social media on the same day the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader called on the nation to avoid buying expensive American cell phones.

Both opponents and loyal supporters of the Islamic Republic asked why Soleimani's daughter should buy a cell phone which is expensive and manufactured by a major US company. A new iPhone is an item that most young Iranians should wait years before they can afford it, wrote moderate Rouydad24 website in Tehran.

In a bipolar situation on cyberspace, some Iranians criticized Zeinab for undermining her father's ideals and the regime's anti-US slogans. "If America is bad, why do you buy their cell phones,” they asked. Those at the other political extreme argued: "Iranian people have nothing against the people of America. US government's policies are bad, but the companies are privately owned."

Zeinab has kept silent about the controversy, but some hardline supporters tried to argue that the picture was photoshopped. Others proved them wrong in a matter of minutes using pirated cutting-edge software.

Some hardliners said the handset was a gift from Zeinab's husband, a Lebanese Hezbollah member. Opponents said if the husband could afford that, it means Iran’s money to the militant group is spent on personal luxuries.

Some other hardliners responded that Zeinab should nonetheless respect her father's ideals, adding that the picture has deeply disappointed the supporters of the Islamic revolution. Still others tried to defend her by claiming that the phone belonged to the young lady standing next to Zeinab in the picture.

Some social media users published pictures of Zeinab in other locationswith the same handset to prove that the phone belonged to her. However, most of those who criticized Zeinab, had nothing to say against the expensive phone. It was the hypocrisy and double-standards of some Iranian hardliners they were criticizing. Some people still remember that Iranians on social media lashed out at the hardlliner editor of Kayhan newspaper Hossein Shariatmadari a few months ago in his office where he wrote articles against the United States using the latest Apple computer.

Some Iranian social media users highlighted the luxurious lifestyle prevalent among the clerical community of Iran. This group of users mentioned the affluent lifestyle of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's family and others, including owning expensive phones

Some other social media users asked if there is nothing wrong with purchasing US-made productss, why Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned COVID-19 vaccines from the United States last January.

Observers say Zeinab and her sister Narjess are certainly controversial figures to watch and follow. Narjess stirred controversy with her candidacy for Tehran City Council, although her father had barred her from running for political office when he was alive. Zeinab also created another controversy recently by reportedly donating $2 million to promote temporary marriage among Lebanese Shiites.

The loud blast was first reported on Wednesday afternoon by the residents of the town of Shahr-e Qods (formerly known as Ghal‘eh Hasan Khan) west of Tehran.
It was labeled as an incoming missile explosion by twitter users which was rejected by a security official from the governor's office of the Tehran province.
The rumors prompted Iran’s Revolutionary Guards to issue a statement on the incident.
The public relations office of one of IRGC’s local bases announced that the explosion was the result of a “controlled rocket launch” that took place during a “regular training session” in the base.
The statement urged people to stay calm and no to trust the news from the social media.

There are no independent reports yet about the source of the loud explosion. The area is mainly residential and a missile or rocket test by the military seems strange. There are no known large military bases in the area suitable for a missile test.

Sounds of explosions lead to speculations of possible foreign attack, given several mysterious sabotage acts at Iran's well-defended nuclear and other sensitve targets since July 2020.

Iraqi Electricity Ministry spokesman Ahmed Moussa said on Tuesday the reduction of gas supplies by Iran has caused widespread electricity shortages especially in central and southern parts of the country.

According to Moussa, Iran has reduced its gas exports to Iraq from 50 million cubic meters per day to about 8.5 million, cutting about 4,000 megawatts from the national grid, which now carries only 13,000 megawatts.

Iraq, which depends on Iran for about one third of its electricity, needs about 35,000 megawatts of power during peak winter demand, with only about one-third available now.

The reason for the drop is attributed to billions of dollars of unpaid bills by Baghdad, due to US banking sanctions against Iran. But the drop in Iran’s gas supplies may also be the result of a recent accident in a pipeline in Iran that shut down one of the units of South Pars gas field, reducing at least 15 million cubic meters of daily production, which Iran desperately needs.

Last winter, Iran experienced large power cuts in major cities. Protests broke out on a few occasions. When authorities started burning mazut, a dirty unrefined fuel to generate electricity, it led to heavy pollution in cities adding to the popular anger.

The lawyers ended the Zoom call and restarted it without further incident. The briefing was held after a Canadian court this week awarded C$107 million ($84 million) to the families of six people who died when Iranian Revolutionary Guards downed the jet near Tehran two years ago.

The interference started shortly after Mark Arnold, one of the lawyers, said "if anybody from the Islamic Republic of Iran is on this call ... we're coming after your assets."

Images of a doll with sharp teeth and a dog with shining eyes then popped up on the screen, followed by a clip of a man singing a rap song with obscene lyrics and then repeated images of a man running towards a camera and pretending to kick it.

"I cannot speculate on who hijacked the call, but it was indeed interference," Jonah Arnold, another lawyer on the call, said by email when asked whether he thought Iranian actors were responsible.

No one has claimed responsibility. The lawyers had sent out a news release to the media with the dial-in details and password for the call.

Iran shot down the airliner in January 2020. All 176 people onboard were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.

The six family members awarded compensation by the court had filed a civil lawsuit against Iran and other officials they believe were to blame for the incident.

Report by Reuters