Iran's president decries public distrust as critics highlight decades of failures

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has addressed the public's growing distrust in the government amid an economic crisis and energy shortages that have fueled widespread despair among the population.

"People will not trust us if we lure them into traps and fabricate legal cases against them," Pezeshkian said. "We can only understand the people's concerns when they trust us," the centrist Entekhab news website quoted him as saying.

In another speech on Thursday, during a visit to Iran's southeastern shores near the Sea of Oman, Pezeshkian said, "In other countries, people are exploring ways to reach Mars, while we are still struggling to build a simple road. We need to set our sights on greater ambitions."

Tehran Province completely shut down its schools and government offices on Saturday due to a natural gas shortage, with similar closures reported in two-thirds of the country. Since September, Iran’s currency has lost 33% of its value following serious setbacks in Lebanon and Syria.

Addressing the challenges in Sistan-Baluchistan, one of Iran's poorest provinces in the southeast, Pezeshkian stated, "Here, we need to address the health and education needs of 1.5 million people. We require so many classrooms."

He expressed regret that many of the province’s public health issues remain unchanged, noting that they existed even 46 years ago when he served his compulsory military duty there.

Pezeshkian said that he avoids meetings and gatherings to refrain from making promises that cannot be fulfilled. "I cannot promise something I cannot do," he said. This comes while his government is planning to move Iran's capital to this province.

The reformist website Rouydad24, in a report published the same day, drew a comparison between the ambitions of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who over a decade ago spoke of "managing the world," and a recent statement by parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. He highlighted how, within a decade, declining oil revenues due to sanctions and international tensions have left Iran struggling to meet its energy needs and even to manage basic services like urban waste collection.

Ghalibaf seemed to overlook the fact that he served as the Mayor of Tehran from 2005 to 2017, a period when Iran's oil revenues were based on prices exceeding $100 per barrel, yet he failed to address the capital's persistent problems.

Officials are not oblivious to the problems, as Iranian media frequently report on public grievances about pollution, poverty, and resource shortages. Many officials openly acknowledge these crises, often sounding more like opposition figures than leaders who have been at the helm of the country for decades.

Tehran’s major challenges, including water shortages and pollution, have led the Pezeshkian administration to propose relocating the capital to the shores of the Sea of Oman. During his visit to the region on Thursday, Pezeshkian noted the complete lack of infrastructure in the area.

Iranian ecologist Hossein Akhani, writing on the Khabar Online website, criticized the government’s plan to relocate the capital, arguing that Iran has failed to build even a single livable small town in the past half-century. He questioned, "Who is going to build a capital for you? You have alienated all the experts and academics. A prominent economist who campaigned tirelessly to encourage people to vote for you is now barred from expressing his views."

Akhani also warned that the proposed location for the new capital faces severe environmental challenges, including freshwater shortages, rising temperatures, and declining rainfall. He emphasized that the area's fragile ecological state makes development unfeasible. Observing broader issues, Akhani noted, "None of Iran's existing cities meet the conditions required to serve as the country’s capital. They lack standard transportation systems, proper garbage collection and recycling facilities, and efficient energy management systems." He concluded emphatically, "The capital is not going anywhere."