For over 40 years, the mullahs’ regime has plundered Iran’s oil and underground and surface resources, but the looting has not ceased, and they continue to plunge the Iranian people into deeper darkness and misery. Even now, instead of abandoning this path, they are asking economic experts to find a way to sustain this misguided course.
The lack of foresight and planning in Iran’s economy is so obvious that experts and analysts speak of it frequently. They admit that for years, the regime has been wandering between contradictory economic schools without scientifically committing to any of them. Perhaps this is why conflicting voices emerge from the regime’s economic leaders. According to the head of the parliamentary Economic Committee, “The economic imbalance stems from governance imbalance, and until this is resolved, we cannot address the issues in sectors such as energy, pension funds, and the budget through technical fixes” (Source: Asia news website, October 6).
Confusion in Economic Governance Strategy
Many independent and even regime experts, having witnessed decades of intellectual chaos and the actual plundering of the country’s resources by mafia gangs, acknowledge this disastrous trend.
On June 2, Jahan-e Sanat news website quoted economics professor Heidar Mostakhdem Hosseini as saying, “The most significant structural deficiency in the country today is the lack of a comprehensive and unified strategy for economic governance. This deficiency is evident in all aspects of governance, from economic to social, cultural, and diplomatic areas.”
These warnings were issued in the lead-up to the regie’s sham election, where regime officials were warning the public that “in such circumstances, greater vigilance is needed. Many candidates enter the arena with empty slogans. The governance illness in Iran is very severe and deep. Healing these wounds requires expertise and a comprehensive plan.”
The Vicious Cycle of Economic Governance
In the past, when a tyrannical ruler was overthrown, his entourage would blame the betrayal of officials and the ignorance of the king, but this is not true for regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei. Recently, a former official from the Planning and Budget Organization said in Khamenei’s presence: “The people’s livelihoods have severely worsened, and the result of this vicious cycle is the spread of injustice and the rise of powerful government and private stakeholders” (Source: Jahan-e Sanat, October 5).
He added: “I am talking about governance. The control of liquidity growth, reduction of inflation, budget deficit reduction, banking imbalances, and targeted subsidies have not been achieved. The persistence of low economic indicators and the deviation from policymaking despite the change of various governments raises the question of why the governance system in the Islamic Republic cannot solve these issues, and why they are even getting worse… The dominant approach in our economic system has become based on distributing various production-related rents, such as energy, raw materials, foreign exchange, and bank loans… The country has lost its ability to solve problems. The expansion of injustice and the rise of powerful public and private stakeholders are the result of this vicious cycle.”
The misery index and the role of the children of regime officials
As the Statistics Center reports that “the country’s misery index reached 49.1% in 2023, and Iran is among the top 20 countries in terms of economic misery” (Source: Eco Iran news website, October 1), poverty and inequality are on the rise.
On October 3, Arman news website wrote, “Meanwhile, the Aghazadehs (children of regime officials) who have dominated key production and trade sectors during the years of sanctions, hold a large share of the country’s economy, but their footprints are hard to trace. Society perceives these individuals as central to the distribution of rents and the abuse of power and wealth.”
“The influence of the Aghazadehs has expanded, and now the sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, nieces, nephews, and even the sons and daughters of mid-level managers of economic organizations are involved as well” (ibid).
Khamenei and the mafia gangs around him no longer have the ability or will to reform. Their repeated recklessness and widespread corruption have made the downfall of the clerical regime inevitable.