Prominent Politician Warns Iran's Raisi Of Disillusioned Voters
A prominent conservative politician has warned of disillusioned voters and lamented Iran’s past annual oil income of $100 billion.
A prominent conservative politician has warned of disillusioned voters and lamented Iran’s past annual oil income of $100 billion.
Expediency Council member Mohammad Javad Bahonar said in an interview on Didban Iran website on Sunday, August 14, that it is normal for 30 percent of voters not to show up at the polls, as they might think their participation may not make a difference, but 49 percent was a bad record, and an indications that all doors must be opened for political activity in Iran.
Meanwhile, Bahonar criticized the current Iranian government, which is the outcome of the low-turnout election in 2021, for continuing to make promises although it knows it does not have the capability to fulfil them. Also, in an apparent criticism directed at President Ebrahim Raisi's frequent provincial visits, Bahonar said the president should not think that visiting various regions and expressing sympathy with the underprivileged will solve his problems.
According to Didban Iran, several members of the parliament have also criticized Raisi for his provincial visits and warned that he could be accused of populism. They warned that when the promises made during these visits remain unmet, people will no longer believe what the government says in other instances.
Amid a worsening economic situation since his election, Raisi has made a big show of his provincial visits and has advertised the effort on government media as an important accomplishment. Another public relations tactic has been blaming the economic crisis on his predecessor, while publishing sometimes unsubstantiated and contradictory figures on the economy.
On Sunday, lawmaker Sodayf Badri, said at the parliament that the people are under economic pressure and they no longer trust the lawmakers. Some even accuse the parliament of undermining the people's interests to protect the government, he said.
Explaining the country's economic situation, Bahonar said, "We consume 300 billion euros worth of energy in Iran every year. Consuming energy should eitherlead to welfare or to increasing production. But none of these happen in Iran. We might be able to save 30 percent of this energy without doing any harm to the people's welfare. This 30 percent saving means 100 billion euros can be added to the economy."
Although the figure cited by Bahonar seems exceedingly exaggerated, Iran does provide around 50-60 billion dollars in energy subsidy to citizens, by selling gasoline, natural gas and electricity extremely cheap.
Bahonar reiterated his idea about a bicameral parliament in Iran, a system in which one of the houses would exclusively prioritizes national interests. Currently, he said, various occupational and ethnic groups follow their interests at the Majles.
He regretted that Iran as a country that used to sell $100 billions of oil every year, now has $15 billion per annum through circumventing US sanctions and by selling oil under the counter. “Just imagine that the income of a country with a population of 80 million has dropped from $100 billion to $15 billion.” All the country's economic problems are due to the fact that the government spends 1.5 times the amount of its income. At the same time, we are a 100 billion Euro country that wishes to live like a 500-billion-euro country.
Bahonar criticized the way the government is managing the affairs of the country. He said: "Japan with a population of 160 million has 600 thousands government employees, while Iran has a population of 80 millions and 4 million government employees.
Iran’s government and top officials have not reacted to the attack in New York on Friday on the Indian born author of Satanic Verses, but hardline media have openly welcomed the act, praising the assailant and calling it “divine vengeance”. They have also suggestedthat the attack maybe a US or Israeli plot to discredit Iran and spread Islamophobia.
Jam-e Jam, a newspaper run by the state broadcaster IRIB on Sunday bore the headline “Devil’s Eye Blinded” with a graphic on its frontpage, showing Rushdie’s head with devil’s horns. Kayhan, a hardline newspaper, ran the headline “Salman Rushdie Smitten by God’s Vengeance: Trump and Pompeo Next in Line”.
The head of the state broadcaster and the managing director of Kayhan are both Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s appointees.
Kayhan argued that the attempt on Rushdie’s life was a “Sharia-based execution” for apostasy and claimed that world powers “are cunningly trying to prevent the execution of divine commands” by calling them “acts of terror”. “The United States, Israel, and the West will not be able to stop the Muslim umma (nation) [from carrying out divine commands] no matter how much noise they make about Rushdie's execution.”
The reformist Arman-e Emrouz newspaper, however, focused on what it called “New Round of Iranophobia Codenamed Salman Rushdie”. It interviewed two commentators who said “US Republicans and the Israeli lobby” are blaming Iran for the attack to prevent Tehran and Washington from resolving the nuclear issue. “We should be expecting a new wave of damage to Iran as well as the Democrat administration in the US,” Ali Bigdeli, one of the commentators said.
US President Joe Biden, in a statement Saturday, called the attack “vicious”. “Salman Rushdie—with his insight into humanity, with his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced—stands for essential, universal ideals. Truth. Courage. Resilience ...we reaffirm our commitment to those deeply American values in solidarity with Rushdie and all those who stand for freedom of expression,” the statement said.
Biden’s critics have pointed out that nowhere in the statement has he mentioned Iran or its bounty on Rushdie. “Finally, POTUSweighs in with a statement on Salman Rushdie, as he should. But again, there is no addressing of Iran's incitement or policy consequences. The question remains: How will the US deter Tehran-directed or inspired attacks against Americans?” Policy Director at United Against Nuclear Iran, tweeted Saturday.
“That Rushdie should be attacked in America no less is especially chilling, coming as it does just weeks after an assassin was arrested on the doorstep of prominent dissident Masih Alinejad and just days after revelations that Iran commissioned a terror attack on John Bolton,” Kylie Moore-Gilbert, British-Australian academic previously held hostage in Iran for over two years, said in a tweet.
Rishi Sunak, one of two conservativecandidates seeking to become Britain's next prime minister, said Saturday that the attack on Rushdie should be a “wake-up call” for the West about the threat which Iran still poses.
Sunak also suggested that the response by Iranian politicians and senior figures strengthens the case for designating the IRGC as a terrorist organizationwhile warning about the futility of attempts to restore the nuclear deal. "We urgently need a new, strengthened deal and much tougher sanctions, and if we can’t get results then we have to start asking whether the JCPOA is at a dead end."
Rushdie who was hospitalized on Friday with serious injuries after being repeatedly stabbed at a public appearance in New York state, is off a ventilator and his condition is improving, his agent said on Sunday.
The economic failure of President Ebrahim Raisi’s government has become clear to most Iranians, including the ultraconservatives or hardliners who fully backed him one year ago as he took office. Mokhber is Raisi’s economic czar who can be easily blamed for a 54-percent inflation rate and rising poverty with its political implications.
The economic crisis did not start with Raisi. Iran’s situation quickly deteriorated when the United States withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear agreement in 2018 and imposed crippling sanction. It was a repeat of early 2010s, when the United Nations imposed sanctions on Iran for pursuing a dangerous nuclear program. However, the Raisi government is being blamed for a high degree of inefficiency, lack of planning and highly questionable appointments.
Proreform daily Arman Melli wrote in a report on its Saturday that a demand to fire Mokhber is a message the conservative camp has been lately sending to president Raisi. According to the daily, this group of Iranian conservatives are determined to prove that the Raisi administration is inefficient.
The paper wrote that some Iranian conservatives wanted a hardliner politician as vice President last year, but Raisi chose to work with Mokhber, who was a key official in the business conglomerates operating under the aegis of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
One year after his appointment as vice president, it is still not quite clear whether it was Raisi who asked Mokhber to join his cabinet or Khamenei, who knew Raisi did not have any executive experience, planted Mokhber in the government to make up for Raisi's shortcomings.
The report says that some ultraconservatives such as Javad Karimi Qoddousi: "I wish to tell the President that Mr. Mokhber lacks the capabilities required for his post. His staying in this position even for one hour will lead to losses for the government."
The ultraconservatives have also mentioned the discord between Mokhber and the other members of Raisi's economic team, particularly Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezaei, as another reason for Mokhber's dismissal.
Last week, a big gaffe by Mokber led to a lot of public ridicule. A lookalike of American actor Johnny Depp showed up at a religious mourning ceremony and Mokhber tweeted, praising Depp for taking part in a Shiite religious event. When social media users and politicians reminded him that the person was only a lookalike of the US actor, Mokhber's office claimed that his tweet was somehow fabricated.
All these could be more meaningful with a report in reformist Shargh newspaper that went viral on Saturday. The report by its editor Ahmad Gholami said that "the Raisi administration is a continuation of the government of populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and that it will inevitably sink in the same quagmire that Ahmadinejad's administration faced."
Gholami argued that both Ahmadinejad and Raisi started their terms of office by promising they would change everything, but Ahmadinejad gradually failed as economic conditions worsened in the early 2010s with UN sanctions.
Shargh's editor predicted that the Raisi administration will eventually suffer the same fate. However, to be fair and on the safe side, Gholami observed that the Raisi is shouldering a heavier burden of all sorts of economic problems that have accumulated during his predecessors and it is highly unlikely that he could find a way out of those problems as all roads ahead inevitably lead to the same quagmire.