Raisi’s Claim Of Inheriting An Empty Treasury Prove Unfounded

As a result, some come up with far-fetched conspiracy theories, as one ultraconservative politician said that inflation (at 55 percent) is a plot being directed from outside the country.

Hassan Beyadi, the secretary general of the ultraconservative political group Abadgaran Javan [Young Developers], told Etemad Online news website on July 22, that he has no doubt about "some Iranian gangs" cooperating with foreign-based circles that direct price increases in Iran.

The pro-government politician, however, did not offer any explanation about how he thinks prices could be manipulated from abroad.

The comment by Bayadi was in sharp contrast with a report on the government owned news agency ISNA that explained price rises in Iran are coordinated with President Ebrahim Raisi and endorsed by him before they are announced.

In a report about the government's pricing policy, ISNA, the Iranian Students News Agency quoted the chairman of the Organization Protecting the Rights of Consumers and Producers, Hossein Farhid Zadeh as saying that price increases are first confirmed by special offices at the Ministries of Industry and Agriculture as well as the government's Economic Commission and finally endorsed by President Ebrahim Raisi.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the conservative Nameh News website, Beyadi said that based on feedbacks people are not happy with the performance of the "revolutionary" government and the parliament.

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Explaining Iranian conservatives' assessment of the two bodies' performance, Beyadi added that the executive and legislature lack coordination and fail to take interests of people into account. He argued that the divide between the people and the Iranian establishment is widening in a dangerous and warned that popular dissatisfaction is a threat to the country's security.

Beyadi whose political organization played a key part in bringing former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power in 2005 and 2009, charged that solving people's problems is not the priority of any government ministries.

Beyadi said that not only the people no longer believe what the officials say, but they believe the opposite of official statements. He added that prices are rising in Iran because no government organization is controlling them.

Beyadi’s remarks are an example of unfounded statements Iranian politicians often make. Almost every economist argues Iran’s economy is too much controlled by the government and over-regulated.

Another conservative commentator, Mohammad Mohajeri told Etemad Online that even conservative politicians find it difficult to defend the government. He added that they so confused by the government's weakness they can neither defend, nor support it, or even keep silent.

Mohajeri explained: "Conservatives cannot defend the government because they know that its performance is not defendable, and the public will not accept such a defense. At the same time, they cannot criticize it because they are part of it and share the responsibility for the current situation. The third solution for them is to keep silent."

However, the public is not likely to accept silence as a response. Mohajeri noted, "As we get closer to the [2024 parliamentary] elections, the conservatives in the parliament will intensify their criticism of the government to garner the voters' support." He added: "The elections in 2020 and 2021 were extremelylow-turnout. If the government does not change its behavior, the next election in 2024 will be even more lackluster."

A video from a CCTV camera was released on media showing a car, which apparently was following Majid Abdolbaghi’s vehicle as it went into the parking lot, stopped in front of a building, as one man started shooting with a handgun from the front seat and another one got out of the car and started shooting from behind the car. According to reports Abdolbaghi succumbed to injuries after he was taken to hospital.

The Metropol twin towers collapsed on May 23 burying more than 80 people under the rubble, with about 42 bodies recovered. Soon after the collapse it became apparent that the owner and builder, Hossein Abdolbaghi, was a powerful and politically well-connected businessman who had disregarded regulations and building codes, backed by officials, who might have had their own financial interests.

Following the incident, Iranian media initially reported that Abdolbaghi, who was reportedly connected to Iran’s top security official Ali Shamkhani, had been arrested, but the government later announced that he had died in the collapse. The public did not believe the claim and many said that he escaped and corrupt officials, who had allowed him to violate building regulations, wanted him to disappear.

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In June, reports came out that a physician who refused to cooperate in the alleged coverup had died mysteriously.

Earlier in the week, Iran’s prosecutor general issued an indictment against 20 people accused in the case of the Metropol incident.

Bokharai also warned in an interview with the moderate Rouydad24 news website that excessive restrictions on society is likely to lead to revolts. He further warned that the government-fabricated bipolarity might lead to conflicts between ethnic groups.

The sociologist said the government's strict control over the media leaves no room for critics of hardliners dominating the government.

During recent weeks the government has unleashed its so-called chastity squads to crackdown on women who do not wish to observe compulsory hijab. Patrols and roadblocks by the morality police and vigilante hardliners have led to a series of confrontations in the streets and on public transport with women who are seen as not fully covering their heads and bodies.

In several social media videos men and women are seen confronting each other and pushing one other out of trains and buses as government’s forced hijab enforcers try to intimidate women for their “lose headscarves”.

While Iranian reformists and some well-known regime apologists call these conflicts “social bipolarity” between two groups of people, many Iranians on social media point out that this is in fact a conflict between the government and those who oppose it. They accuse the apologists of portraying a political problem that is occurring because of the despotic and totalitarian nature of the Islamic regime as a divide between two segments of the Iranian society.

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Although the conflict is wider than the issue of hijab, most recent cases, including the one in a video posted by moderate cleric Rahmatollah Bigdeli on Twitter, involved intimidation by government hardliner supporters linked to the IRGC and other parts of the core of the fundamentalist regime. At least in one case a young woman who argued against compulsory hijab with an enforcer was arrested and the woman who confronted her and was pushed out of a bus, was praised by several religious officials and the state television as a hero.

Ahmad Abdollahi a religious official in Esfahan charged that women who are against the idea of compulsory hijab are the same women who keep dogs as pets and get rabies from their dogs!

Reformist activist Majid Tavakoli says, "Bipolar divisions are created by the government to give the sense of power and supremacy to its supporters who fight for the regime's survival." Another Twitter user argued that "A bipolar conflict takes place between two equal forces. But when one side has all the power and the other side is absolutely powerless, what the latter does is resistance."

Bokharaei said that such bipolarity might also occur in economic and cultural spheres as the government highlights and boosts divisions between insiders and the rest of the population. Pointing out that clusters of people are being formed at both ends of this bipolarity, and the government is constantly supporting one of the poles against the other, the sociologist warned that the escalation of these divisions might pose a danger for the clerical regime far more serious and detrimental that it could ever imagine.

Bipolar situations give way to disillusionment and eventually push society toward a quick implosion, he warned.

People in the cities of Darab, Neyriz, and Estahban and about 10 of their surrounding villages in the Fars province were affected by floods.

Hossein Darvishi, the CEO of Red Crescent Society of Fars Province, said 74 people were rescued from the flooded areas.

Estahban’s governor, Yousef Kargar, criticized the province’s meteorological organization for not issuing any warning about the precipitation.

In response to this criticism, the Meteorological Organization of Fars Province said it announced on Wednesday evening, July 20, the possibility of showers and thunderstorms for Friday.

In March 2018, a flash flood in the province led to the death of 44 people.

The director of Crisis Management of the province’s governorate, Khalil Abdollahi, said that at least 15 cars were also stranded in the flood.

Iran has been suffering from drought for at least a decade and this year officials have been warning of a further decrease in precipitation. However, Iran’s metrology department had warned about possibly heavy seasonal rainfall across the country. The dangers of flash floods have been exacerbated by the widespread construction of buildings and roads near riverbeds.

In an interview broadcast on state television Thursday evening, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, "Last week we received a message from Iraqi foreign minister [Fuad Hussein] saying that the Saudi side is ready to move the talks from a security phase to a political and public one.”

"We also expressed our readiness to continue talks at the political level so that it leads to the return of Iran-Saudi Arabia ties to the normal level," he added. 

Late in June, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi traveled to Iran and met with President Ebrahim Raisi after a visit to Saudi Arabia and meeting with the kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aimed at jumpstarting stalled talks between Tehran and Riyadh. 

Iran and Saudi Arabia -- which are locked in proxy conflicts around the region -- have held several rounds of talks mediated by Baghdad since 2021. In April, they finally held the much-anticipated fifth round of negotiations, saying that a clear outlook was reached for the resumption of regular talks. 

However, it was the Islamic Republic that suspended the talks earlier in April a day after Saudi Arabia announced it had beheaded 81 men, for “heinous crimes.” Forty-one were Saudi Shiites, Human Rights Watch reported, apparently convicted over protests.

Saudi Arabia cut ties with Iran in 2016 when mobs attacked its embassy in Tehran after Riyadh executed 47 dissidents including the leading Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.