Over the past four decades, the Iranian regime has been infamous for making false statements. As a result, citizens today no longer even believe the date of state-run papers. Iranian officials continue to spread incorrect data and have launched a misinformation campaign against protests, leaving thousands of citizens in an uproar.
The people of Iran are forced to contend with not only dealing with the regime’s financial mismanagement and failures but also their state-backed propaganda and misguiding statements. However, their perseverance in continuing and extending their protests across the country proves that the mullahs have failed to deceive society. With no other way to quell the unrest, the regime’s officials have resorted to increasing security measures and launching bloody crackdowns on defenseless protesters.
A Great Economic Plan or Starving Citizens?
Since its inception, the regime has exploited international, regional, and domestic crises to refuse people’s rightful demands. As authorities and commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have lined their pockets with national resources, more and more Iranian families have fallen below the poverty line.
Adding to the crisis, systematic corruption has further intensified financial turmoil in the country. Since Ebrahim Raisi—the butcher of 1988—took office in August 2021, the IRGC expanded its domination of Iran’s economy more than ever to compensate for its vast expenditures of fueling extremist entities in the Middle East and launching terror plots across the globe.
Instead of avoiding terrorism, nuclear-bomb-making projects, and meaningless hostility against regional states and the West, Raisi’s government is more focused on offsetting its budget deficits at the expense of citizens by removing subsidies and rationing essential items under ridiculous pretexts, including ‘countering smuggling’ and ‘Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.’
Mocking the regime’s claims, citizens have stated, “Ukrainian officials have yet to ration bread while their country has been invaded, but Iranian authorities rationed bread due to the war in Ukraine. Woe to such amount of glory.”
“The regime falsely advertises removing subsidies and shrinking the food basket of impoverished citizens as a ‘great economic plan.’ However, the only outcome of its lies is starving society,” observers say. “The people of Iran no longer endure starvation and suffering, and the regime’s plundering policies led thousands of people to anti-regime protests across Iran.”
Who Are Profiteering Individuals?
On Sunday, May 13, the Day-news website quoted the State Security Force spokesperson Mehdi Hajian as he expressed his concerns about society’s volcanic situation, saying, “Implementing a ‘great economic plan’ will bring side effects in every country, and profiteering individuals pursue their interests.”
Today, the people of Iran are well aware that IRGC commanders and state-backed mafias are controlling almost the entire financial system. In July 2011, the regime’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described IRGC commanders as “smuggler brothers.”
On July 4, 2011, in a specialized conference on ‘New Strategies in Prevention and Combating Smuggling Commodity and Currency,’ Ahmadinejad stated, “Corruption will be created immediately when several people obtain above-the-law allowances. The figures are not low; the annual revenue associated with smoking in Iran is between $1.3 and 1.48 billion. This figure tempts international smugglers, let alone our smuggler brothers.”
Read More: IRGC Commander Hassan Ra’yat: Profile of a Mafia Leader in Iran
Over recent years, Iranian citizens have repeatedly revealed the locations of the IRGC’s warehouses, where the state-backed mafia was hoarding essential hygienic items and pharmaceutics drugs during the country’s worse health crisis, the coronavirus pandemic.
“Since March 21, we discovered 3.3 million liters of cooking oil, more than 5,300 tons of wheat and flour, 2,700 tons of livestock products, and 3,300 tons of rice, hoarded or smuggled. Meanwhile, we identified and detained 1,284 accused persons and delivered them to the judiciary,” said Hajian.
However, the security official neglected to clarify why these essential goods have been scarce in the markets despite their counter-smuggling and counter-hoarding achievements?
Hajian later implicitly admitted the state-backed mafia’s role in the smuggling and hoarding operations, stating, “This amount of smuggling is definitely impossible to be conducted individually. We should amplify supervising measures at the country’s entrance gates and adopt excessive restrictions. The police should access the data of the Industry, Mine, and Trade Ministry.”
