Critic Says Iran’s Raisi 'Most Inefficient' President In Four Decades

On the sidelines of an exhibition titled Achievements and Capabilities of the Jihadi Management on Sunday, Mohsen Rezaei told reporters that the biggest obstacles the economy faces are not imposed from the outside but stem from the internal problems, which he called “domestic sanctions.”

Rezaei described cumbersome and bureaucratic regulations, contradictory and inefficient laws and corruption in the country’s administrative system as the domestic sanctions that are “10 times more detrimental” to Iran’s businesses and industries.

He noted that economic reforms are the only way to get past these hindrances, adding that the current administration has started with trade reforms and then will pursue monetary reforms.

Rezaei added that the people should not feel the pressures of government’s budget deficit while they are also suffering from high tax rates as well as inflation.

The long process to get government permits to do business, lack of a good legal framework in the country, and unfair taxation are the main elements leading to unfavorable conditions in the country’s production sector.

Iran faces serious problems in three major indicators: Economic growth, the rate of inflation and the unemployment rate.

The 50-minute audio-file includes a conversation between the former Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Commander Mohammad-Ali Jafari and his Economic Affairs Deputy Sadegh Zolghadr in 2018 about corruption involving IRGC's Qods Force and Tehran municipality and Ghalibaf, a former IRGC commander himself, who was Mayor of Tehran from 2005-2017. The corrupt dealing took place during Ghalibaf’s tenure as mayor.

The audio recording was published by Radio Farda, the Persian service of US-funded Radio Free Europe, on Thursday.

Some Iranian media have only cautiously reported the comments made by a member of the Parliament's National Security Committee, Mahmoud Abbaszadeh, and tweets by Ghalibaf's media advisor, Mohammad-Saeed Ahadian, both of whom tried to undermine the importance of the audio recording and its contents. The social media, however, is abuzz with hundreds of tweets about the leaked file the authenticity of which has far not been contested by anyone.

Abbaszadeh said Saturday that the publication of the recording was "enemy's psychological war" and warned about "infiltration" in the IRGC which resulted in the publication of the audio file. "We should admit that there is infiltration and that's a sad reality."

Ahadian, on the other hand, in several tweets claimed that the recording was leaked by Ghalibaf's enemies, he had been proven to be innocent by the Judiciary, and criticized hardliners close to former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili who are known as the Justice Seekers (Edalatkhah) of using the recording to attack Ghalibaf.

The discussion in the recording directly involves Ghalibaf, former Qods Force Commander Ghasem Soleimani, IRGC Coordination Deputy Jamaloddin Aberoumand, and Chief of the IRGC Intelligence Organization Hossein Taeb in covering up the embezzlement of 80,000 billion rials (around $3 billion at the time) between Tehran municipality and a firm controlled by the IRGC.

In the recording, Zolghadr tells Jafari that Ghalibaf suggested the IRGC and Tehran Municipality sign a false contract for the same amount to justify the disappearance of the money. "I told him [Ghalibaf[ that this would be a crime," Zolghadr says in the recording, claiming that Ghalibaf met him at a mosque near his house and demanded that he sign the memorandum but he did not agree. "It will harm me, it will harm Jafari, I will not sign it," he tells his boss in the recording.

Jafari tells Zolghadr that Soleimani who was well aware of the corruption, which prevented the funds from reaching the Qods Force, spoke to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei about it. In the recording Zolghadr says Khamenei had ordered 90 percent of the money earned by Yas Holding to be used to finance Qods Force and the remaining 10 percent to go to the IRGC for its general needs. He also says Taeb who has close ties to Khamenei's office and his son Mojtaba supports Ghalibaf in the matter.

Taeb has been accused of corruption in the past and is part of an inner circle of war veterans who served with Mojtaba Khamenei and have an influential network.

The money was mainly intended for funding the activities of Qods Force but somehow disappeared in the dealings between the municipality and Yas Holding, a subsidiary of IRGC's Cooperatives Foundation active in services, dealership, and subcontracting in the housing sector.

Yas Holding was officially dissolved in 2018, two years after its establishment, following the arrest of some of its officials. Four of the accused, including Ghalibaf's deputy in Tehran municipality, Isa Sharif, were put on trial and were sentenced to long prison terms and returning some of the huge sums they had embezzled.

Although the speech was about the political ideas of 10th century philosopher Avicenna, Larijani's speech was full of modern political jargon including job creation, economic development, political participation and competitiveness. As Iranian journalist Amir Reza Nazari of Mostaghel daily wrote in a tweetin an apparent analogy with the current Iranian government, "Larijani warned that the continuation of the current situati

on in Iran will lead to the decline and collapse of the regime."

Larijani and other candidates were barred from running in last June’s presidential election, ensuring the election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi. At the time many predicted the end of “the end of the Larijani era.”

In the speech posted on Larijani's official Telegram channel, he said "The theory of the Islamic revolution was based on rationality and Islamic philosophy, but gradually the Islamic Republic became a populist government."

Larijani made frequent analogies between Avicenna's theory of governance and the current clerical political system. Quoting Avicenna, Larijani said that "a desirable government is one that can create jobs for citizens." Explaining how human societies fail, Larijani added that "only a lawful government that respects the law will not face collapse. In such a government, there is solidarity among citizens and the government operates based on rationality."

He explained that collapse takes place within societies. "It is not foreign invasion that destroys societies. A foreign invasion always takes advantage of flaws within the system." Larijani said in another part of his speech that "Governments that are too strict or too negligent lead to corruption and chaos in society. If leaders cannot convince citizens, then they will not trust the government and the society will collapse."

According to Rouydad24 news website, political observers interpret the appearance as a signal that Larijani wishes to take the lead in the revival of Iran's moderate and reform camp. The website added that the speech was part of Larijani's political manifesto.

As part of his new vision for a political society based on Avicenna's theory, Larijani said that "There should be political participation [in Iran] and economic activities should be based on competition." Meanwhile he stressed that "The existence of a middle class is necessary for restoration of justice in every society." Economists in Iran have recently accused hardliners of destroying the country's middle class and bringing the elites face to face with the underprivileged working class in a hostile confrontation.

According to Rouydad24, a figurehead has been missing in the reform and moderation camp in Iran following the death of Former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Larijani is now trying to fill the political vacuum left by the pragmatist figurehead.

Larijani's background as the son of a grand ayatollah, a former IRGC officer, a man who has studied pure mathematics and philosophy in the United States and Iran and a career politician who made sure of parliamentary approval for the 2015 nuclear deal, makes him an ideal candidate for the position. Those who are considered reformists and moderates would welcome the appearance of a leader after being repeatedly locked out of the political system by hardliners since 2020.

His weak point, however, is the involvement of his brothers in lang grabs and financial corruption which was revealed by Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the very parliament Ali Larijani chaired in the 2010s.

Rouydad24 website also said that Larijani's reference to how the political system might collapse is a serious warning to Iranian leaders, who have lost popular trust.

“We estimate based on our evaluations that we need to remove around 1,000 individuals,” he told the official news agency (IRNA). “So far 350 of them have been removed or replaced but this will take time.” The minister suggested the ministry was top heavy in noting that there were 2,000 people “at the rank of director general and above in this organization.”

Abdolmaleki said that the administration of President Hasan Rouhani had hired people in the ministry with “connections to the media” and on the basis of their politics rather than qualifications.

The minister told Iran newspaper that security forces had supplied him with the names of over 100 journalists and social-media activists given jobs in entities under the ministry's control as board members or executive managers. He told the newspaper these included some found guilty by courts over the 2009 “sedition" – unrest following the disputed presidential re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – while others had been involved with a parliamentary ‘sit in’ by reformist deputies after the disqualification of around 4,000 candidates by the Guardian Council in the 2004 parliamentary election.

Abdolmaleki, who served as an economic adviser to Ahmadinejad when president, said those removed would inevitably stir up media controversy. "One of our investigations revealed the corruption of 92 percent of those who were in in managerial and higher positions," he said, adding that 120 cases had been prepared for the judiciary.

Hardliner media often refer to the populist Abdolmaleki, an alumni of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Imam Sadegh University, as a "theoretician of resistance economy" and "expert in Islamic economy".

Abdolmaleki has proved a controversial minister. On January 15, the parliament’s presidium for the second time in less than a month blocked a motion to impeach him, brought from within the conservative camp that generally backs the Raisi administration. Lawmakers behind the two motions accused him of giving top jobs to political allies, mis-using ministry resources, and failing to deliver on promises of creating jobs.

State broadcaster IRIB has confirmed that Abdolmaleki allocated ministry money to a program on its Channel 3. The issue had been raised by parliament member Ahmad Alirezabeigi and some media outlets, who said this had come about after the minister had been invited to speak on the program several times.

There have been rumors of the Raisi administration intending to purge non-hardliners from government jobs. Last month, three university professors were fired for no real cause.

Most photos and videos published by government-controlled media on Friday, the main day of celebrations for the 43rd anniversary of the 1979 revolution, showed no sign of hundreds of thousands of people that filled the streets in years past.

It has been common knowledge for Iranians for a long time that the government spends tremendous efforts to ensure a large turnout on revolution day, by forcing tens of thousands of state employees, students, soldiers, and paramilitary personnel to attend street marches. But this year, citing the danger of the Covid pandemic people were encouraged to come out with cars and motorcycles. As a result, participation dwindled.

But government-controlled media and officials praised the “epic” celebration of the revolution, a claim which is vitally important for regime insiders to show that the Islamic Republic is still relevant.

Videos published on social media showed Tehran residents shouting anti-regime slogans from their windows Thursday night, one day before the government-sponsored celebrations.

Critics of the Islamic Republic took this as a sign of the regime’s weakening legitimacy, especially considering last June’s presidential election, which had the lowest turnout in the 43-year history of the clerical government.

Persian social media became abuzz with posts mocking the regime for the sparse crowds at revolution day events, with photos and videos shared to show well-known venues being almost empty.

One Twitter user posted a photo of a crowd gathered to meet an Instagram celebrity in Kerman, next to a photo of a Tehran street on Friday and quipped that the crowd in the small provincial city was larger than the number of marchers in a main Tehran thoroughfare.

Another user tweeted the video of an imported sports car participating in the convoy of cars displaying flags on Friday and said that “Children of clerics are showing off their cars,” and added that they are displaying the fruits of their corruption and thievery.

A man sent a video to US-financed Persian broadcaster Radio Farda showing convoys of cars driving by and saying that regime loyalists are showing their expensive cars while people are hungry and look for food in garbage containers.

Ehsan Sam-Rajabi, an international judo champion tweeted that when he was a young member of the national team, the government bussed them to revolution day rallies to show numbers and that is what they do with all athletes, who are under the control of Revolutionary Guard personnel. Sam-Rajabi emigrated to the United States more than a decade ago and campaigns for athletic freedom as the Islamic Republic bans Iranians to compete against Israelis in sports.