Government Is At An Impasse, Iranian Politicians Say
Reports in the Iranian media show that an increasing number of politicians believe the government’s inaction in the face of serious economic crisis cannot continue.
Reports in the Iranian media show that an increasing number of politicians believe the government’s inaction in the face of serious economic crisis cannot continue.
This week has been the most challenging for the government of President Ebrahim Raisi as the national currency is in freefall against the US dollar and the government seems just bewildered and confused.
A seasoned politician and political analyst has asserted that President Raisi’s administration is simply incapable of solving the country’s problems, and it is best for everyone that he resigns.
Former lawmakers Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi has said in an interview with Rouydad24 news website that Raisi should resign his post before he discredits himself even more than the credibility he has already lost. Imanabadi further charged that Raisi understands neither politics nor the economy.
“What he says about his ‘popular government’ insults the nation’s intelligence,” the politician said, adding that Raisi’s performance has even discredited his father-in-law Ahmad Alamolhoda, a firebrand cleric, who is Ali Khamenei’s representative in Khorasan Province.
He said the Raisi administration has imposed a huge cost on the nation by doing nothing and simply chanting slogans. Imanabadi added: “The best thing he can do is to resign at once and disband the government.” At the same time, he said, the Guardian Council should allow more popular candidates such as former Presidents Mohammad Khatami and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and former Majles Speaker Ali Larijani to run for president.
Imanabadi claimed that while Khamenei had allowed negotiations with the West, Raisi and his team refused to make an agreement to revive the nuclear deal and imposed a high cost on the nation. He also criticized Raisi for going to China this month, while the Chinese President has not apologized for making a comment that undermined Iran’s territorial integrity.
Imanabadi predicted that because of Raisi’s performance, protests will start once again in the spring when angry people take to the street against the government.
Meanwhile, Khabar Online wrote on Wednesday, February 22, that before February, Iranian lawmakers often talked about questioning the government about its economic policy, but now the situation is so serious that no one at the parliament wants anything less than impeaching the ministers and the President. Khabar Online quoted lawmaker Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini as having said: “Majles [parliament] can impeach the ministers and the government. The situation is worse than ever.”
Meshkini said that the Majles is planning to impeach up to 9 of Raisi’s cabinet ministers. The president’s economic team is incompetent although some of Iran’s problems are the result of its foreign policy and flaws in the country’s political structure.
He added that the Majles held a two-hour long closed-door session on Monday during which lawmakers resolved to hold the government accountable and he reiterated that the current situation cannot continue any further.
Meshkini explained that some lawmakers believe impeachment is a time consuming process and maintain that a better solution is to convince Raisi to change his cabinet altogether. On the other hand, some lawmakers prefer to keep silent to ensure their electability next year by remaining loyal to the hardliner camp.
In another development, prominent reformist analyst Abbas Abdi wrote in Etemad newspaper that Raisi is not fit for the presidency.
He said one month after Raisi promised to the parliament that the rial will regain value, we have seen a 15 percent rise for the dollar. Abdi charged that the government has no economic plan and measures such as replacing the Central Bank governor will not solve the problem.
Unfortunately, this government cannot stand up to the job of solving the country’s problems and no positive change can be expected. Iran is going to miss opportunities and even positive measures such as releasing political prisoners cannot bring back people’s trust, Abdi said.
The Secretariat of the Assembly -- also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts – issued a statement on Wednesday, reiterating obsequious remarks about Khamenei.
In their statement, the members of the assembly described Khamenei as a force of “solidarity and national unity," and decried the slogans and slurs that are chanted against him during popular protests for over five months.
Members of the Assembly are elected from the inner circle of the regime and people very close to the Khamenei, which explains their full loyalty. The assembly – which is in charge of supervising, dismissing and electing the Supreme Leader – can run for election after being vetted by the Guardian Council, whose members are, in turn, appointed either directly or indirectly by the Supreme Leader.
The Guardian Council is composed of six Islamic law experts, selected by the Supreme Leader, and six jurists, nominated by the Chief Justice, who in turn, is also appointed by the Supreme Leader. Therefore, it is a self-serving closed-circuit system that ensures all key constitutional position are occupied by loyalists.
Interestingly enough, the head of both bodies is hardliner cleric Ahmad Jannati, who turned 96 on Wednesday, a day after he was re-elected as the chairman of the Assembly of Experts for another two years. First Deputy Chairman of the assembly is President Ebrahim Raisi.
The assembly’s statement repeatedly glorified Khamenei, claiming that the "unprecedented large volume of propaganda and insults" against him indicates that the enemy understands his important role in “guidance and management of society.”
The statement also reiterated calls for the preservation of "hijab" -- or Islamic dress code -- as a clear message of the Islamic revolution and one of the "elements of the identity of the Islamic Republic of Iran". The current wave of protests, the boldest the regime has ever faced in the 43 years of its existence, was ignited when hijab enforcement patrols arrested Mahsa Amini violently that led to her death at hospital due to severe trauma on her head.
In a meeting with the chairman and some members of the Assembly of Experts in Tehran on Thursday, Khamenei said that the Islamic establishment “opposes those who believe in the Western secularism and opposes the leaders of liberal democracy, who have hatched a plot to dominate over and plunder the world’s resources behind the false flag of freedom and democracy,” he said.
According to a confidential letter obtained by Iran International in recent days, the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has asked the government not to disclose the budget of institutions such as the Hijab police, which are criticized by the people.
The regime has heavy-handedly suppressed protesters, executing four young men, killing well over 500, including more than 70 children, and arresting around 20,000 in the past five months.
On Monday, an estimated crowd of about 20 to 30 thousand people held a rally in Brussels outside the European Council to call on EU countries to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization. Thousands of Iranians from all over Europe held a massive rally in Strasbourg in January for the same purpose. Also on Monday, the EU sanctioned 32 Islamic Republic officials, including culture and education ministers, deputy IRGC commander, and several MPs. The move can be seen as a measure to justify the fact that the EU is not yet ready to designate the entirety of the IRGC.
As the national currency dropped to historic lows this week, conservative lawmaker Javad Nikbin said that President Ebrahim Raisi should be accountable for the chaotic situation and the parliament should put questioning the President on its agenda. He said the Raisi and his economic team are responsible and they should not blame others or the previous government for the country's economic crisis.
Meanwhile, Kamal Hosseinpour, a lawmaker from Piranshahr, who also criticized Raisi and his government for "simply watching the situation rather than trying to solve the problem," warned that a new wave of inflation is on its way.
Hosseinpour charged that the government's economic team has given up trying to solve the country's economic crisis as the national currency is in a downward spiral, triggering higher inflation.
It is not clear why the government has not changed its inefficient economic team, he complained, and introduced new officials who would know how to tackle the problem. He added that while the government is turning a blind eye, the automobile industry’s “mafia” is increasing car prices and has an insatiable appetite for money.
The car manufacturing industry is largely owned by the state and inefficient managers have plunged companies into debt and keep increasing car prices.
On Monday, the government banned a leading newspaper for reporting the rising price of meat in Iran and saying that government policies have deprived both the middle and working classes of meat. On Tuesday the government acknowledged a shortage of red and poultry meat.
Iranian journalist Ali Mojtahedzadeh wrote in an article in Etemad newspaper that "it is not the media's fault that prices in Iran have reached a record high under the Raisi administration." He pointed out that by banning a newspaper for reporting the problem, the government is fighting the truth. He added that last year, even before the first anniversary of Raisi’s presidency, the prosecutor of Tehran reported a more than 50 percent rise in the number of complaints made against the media by the government.
He pointed out that the media should not be punished for publishing reports that politicians do not like. The problem of rising prices is the politicians' fault, and they should be criticized by the media, he said.
In another development, prominent economist Morteza Afghah said in an interview with Didban Iran website that it is highly unlikely the government can control the markets before reaching a nuclear agreement that would lead to the lifting of US and international sanctions against Iran. Even then, he said, Iran should accept the terms of the FATF, an international financial watchdog, to facilitate international trade without causing any concern about money laundering or international terrorism.
Afghah added that rising liquidity and the government's attempts to make up for its budget deficit are the main causes of rising inflation. Referring to rial’s fall, Afghah said that some economist believe the government benefits from it by selling its foreign currencies at a higher rate.
He also pointed out that the most important problems that lead to rising prices in Iran are sanctions and Iran's international isolation. He added that because of these problems Iran is currently selling oil at a discounted price and takes huge losses to repatriate the revenue.