The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), reported that months before the regime’s sham presidential election on June 18, it was evident that Ali Khamenei, the regime’s supreme leader, was attempting to consolidate his hold on power by appointing Ebrahim Raisi, a known mass murderer, as the regime’s next president.
Other than the benefits to Khamenei from appointing one of his close allies as president, there are fundamental issues that have still to be addressed.
A huge percentage of the Iranian public is unable to meet their most basic necessities, and the regime’s corrupt structure is unable to address these issues.
The regime’s executioner president now has to deal with the impoverished and hungry, the unemployed, underpaid labor, enraged farmers, teachers, students, and pensioners.
“Although a clear economic plan has not yet been drawn up, the government has to fix the economic gaps quickly, otherwise, the government will be in turmoil. This will make the government more and more dependent on the support of its loyalist base. And this dependence will antagonize the relationship between government loyalists and the underprivileged segments of society. And anything that is hard and inflexible will soon be broken.” Sharq newspaper wrote in an editorial, on June 19.
The so-called reformist faction also warns that unless Raisi starts rectifying the economy’s policies and practices, the country will perish.
On June 19, the daily Jahan-e Sanat published an article, “looking at the very chaotic economic situation in the country that everybody agrees on, we must say that the main challenge for the 13th government is the rising inflation rate, the main starting point of which was a 300 percent increase in the price of gasoline and other oil products in 2019 that led to a major social crisis, a crisis whose negative consequences are still evident in various ways and continue to remain a thorn in the side of the government.”
“There are structural and infrastructural problems… the economy is closed… it will not be reformed at all with the coming and going of individual… extremists who benefit with internal crises do not allow calm to return to the country’s economy… they make big money by circumventing sanctions… many of these people, knowingly or unknowingly, are dragging the country into chaos.” Jahan-e Sanat continued.
The gap between the rich and the poor is larger than it has ever been. This divide has an impact on people’s lives, further polarizing society and making the struggle for survival more difficult. Women and children, of course, suffer more than others in such situations.
Every day, rampant inflation makes people impoverished. The price of 30 basic items has increased by an average of 80% in the last year.
According to a June 19 report by the Eghtesad-e Pooya daily, poultry was the most expensive of the 30 commodities, with a price increase of 140 percent. Vegetable oil (137 percent), imported rice (132 percent), butter (112 percent), eggs (106 percent), chickpeas (105 percent), lentils (99 percent), homegrown oranges, and cotyledons had the second to tenth largest price increases (93 percent each).
These numbers, together with the loss of jobs, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the mistreatment of the people, are more confirmation of the regime’s endemic corruption, which will not be addressed by a political change.
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