On Monday, Iranian regime president Masoud Pezeshkian, after a meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, provided a report in an impromptu interview with state television that warrants reflection. According to Khamenei’s remarks, the meeting addressed the regime’s concerns, ranging from inflation and rising prices to the value of the national currency, from poverty alleviation and people’s livelihood challenges to internal regime conflicts and political issues. However, Pezeshkian’s response to a specific question about the energy crisis was shocking.
Pezeshkian said, “You see, the first step was when we discussed this with the Leader. The second time I came, I noticed that he had reduced the lighting in his room by half. He said, ‘Look, we reduced the lighting by two levels! This is very important because if everyone in the country turns off two of their lights and lowers the temperature by two degrees, we can allocate the money saved to livelihoods, jobs, wages, and wheat…’.” Pezeshkian continued in this vein, simplifying the solutions to everything—from completing the Astara-Rasht railway to wage reforms and controlling inflation—by merely turning off two lights and lowering home temperatures by two degrees.
These absurdities should not be attributed solely to Pezeshkian’s ineptitude. Such ridiculous claims are a stark manifestation of the regime’s profound contradiction, helplessness, and comprehensive lack of solutions.
Regime experts describe the current situation as so dire that conventional terms like “crisis” and “deadlock” fall short. They are compelled to use phrases like “super crisis,” “quagmire,” or “on the edge of a cliff,” and sometimes resort to surreal imagery. For instance, regime insider Abbas Abdi compared the state of the regime to a car that “has no driver—or if there is a driver, he lacks control over its parts. Most importantly, the destination is unclear, or there’s no consensus about it. The number of passengers exceeds the car’s capacity, and there’s not enough fuel. In short, this car cannot be driven safely to any destination” (Etemad Newspaper, December 30).
Regime-affiliated economist Masoud Nili warns of the “frostbite of rulers,” stating: “… Fundamentally, there is no designated platform or accountable body for policymaking and decision-making… The decision-making system has long been in a coma, lost amidst dozens of high councils and commissions. It has been a long time since any decisions have been made in this country” (Etemad Newspaper, December 31).
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the regime’s Parliament, stated: “It’s unacceptable that our country, ranked first in the world for oil and gas reserves, is in such a state as we are today… Why are we incapable of fixing it?” (Regime television, December 21).
Pezeshkian, who now claims to solve all issues by turning off two lights, admitted 10 days ago: “After 40 years, we should not have ended up in a situation where we cannot provide services to many parts of the country” (Ibid).
The clerical regime, by the admission of its highest officials, is incapable of managing the country’s day-to-day affairs and providing even the most basic necessities—gas, electricity, heating, water, and bread. Corruption and embezzlement have reached astronomical levels, cargo ships go missing, the dollar exchange rate is out of control, and the Iranian rial has become the world’s least valuable currency, and so on.
This paralysis and failure are described by regime officials and media with terms like “frostbite of rulers” and “decision-making system in a coma.” In reality, the rulers are incapable of governing and attempt to compensate for this by intensifying repression and increasing the daily number of executions.
However, the failure of governance is only one side of the coin. The other side is the millions of oppressed people who refuse to bear the yoke of this regime any longer, chanting in the streets: “Poverty, corruption, high prices—we’ll fight until the regime is overthrown!” This situation fits the classical definition of a “revolutionary situation,” with Iranian society being on the brink of a revolution.