In a meeting with the regime’s governors on May 5, Iranian regime president Ebrahim Raisi extensively discussed the problems of Iran’s society. He said, “Regarding the issue of social damages, the leader held seven sessions personally with the heads of the three branches and national officials. Now the responsibility lies with Ahmad Vahidi, the Minister of Interior, and the head of the Social Affairs Organization!”
The fact that regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei personally held seven sessions with the heads of the three branches and other leaders of the regime indicates the severity, intensity, and his deep concern and fear about the current economic and social conditions. However, this does not mean that Khamenei is concerned about poverty, corruption, inflation, and the suffering of the people themselves. Rather, his concern and fear are about the consequences of these issues. Undoubtedly, the corrupt and medieval regime neither wants nor can it address the social damages that it is causing. The regime’s solution to crises is either to create another crisis to divert attention from the existing ones or to suppress and execute more individuals. The regime’s heightened sense of danger is evident from the extremely high number of criminal executions (80 executions in 18 days) and entrusting the task of dealing with social damages to figures like Ahmad Vahidi, the Minister of Interior, and the former commander of the terrorist Quds Force.
Therefore, addressing the issue of “social damage” is not aimed at resolving it and gaining the satisfaction of the people, but rather it is intended to deal with the consequences. It precisely reflects a security-oriented and repressive approach to preserve the regime.
The emphasis of Raisi’s address to the governors, who are all selected from the ranks of the most vicious commanders of the Revolutionary Guards and intelligence-security apparatus, further clarifies this meaning: “We should not delay any action, saying that if we do such and such, our ratings might drop, perhaps the opinions of some of us may not consider these perspectives acceptable… The fundamental principle is that unfortunately, many national issues have been overshadowed by electoral considerations in different periods. If we do not address these matters now, we may lose public support… These are alternative perspectives that we do not approve of.”
The “fundamental principle” in the policy of the regime is that judging and pleasing the people should not be taken into consideration at all. Maintaining hold on power has been and is the main priority of the regime and its supreme leader. That’s why the regime carried out the mass execution of members and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) in the 1980s and ordered the killing of more than 1,500 protesters in 2019 and at least 750 in 2022.
To preserve the regime, it is necessary to oppress and exploit the people, plunder their wealth and pour it into the regime’s weapons industry and its apparatus of suppression.
In terms of systematic looting, according to Abdolnaser Hemmati, the former head of the Central Bank, “Since August 2021, money printing has grown by 115 percent. From the time of the Achaemenid dynasty until August 2021, the entire printed money was 5.19 quadrillion rials. But in the past two and a half years, you have printed 6 quadrillion rials.”
The Raisi government has been actively involved in the suppression and execution of individuals, with the support of the judiciary. From April 20 until now, at least 80 individuals have been executed in prisons across the country. Among them are prisoners who have endured the most grueling conditions for 14-15 years in prison, only to be forcefully taken out of their cells and executed.
The fact that Khamenei has held seven sessions regarding social damages also highlights another important reality: the exploitation of warmongering in Gaza and profiting from the blood of the oppressed people of Palestine to deflect attention from internal crises and prevent inevitable uprisings. But the regime will eventually pay for the suffering it has caused to the people of Iran and the region.