Analysis by PMOI/MEK
March 27, 2019 – At the beginning Persian New Year, new crises showed the Iranian regime’s blatant incompetency and dark future.
In their New Year speeches, both the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and its president Hassan Rouhani acknowledged the crumbling economy as the single most important problem.
Abdolnaser Hemmati, president of the Central Bank of Iran, warned the corrupt elitists from both political factions in Iran and said: “Considering the climate in the society where people have difficulties to buy meat and chicken, why do you have to import cutting-edge vehicles for two billion (tomans) into the country. Even if it’s available, you shouldn’t do that. People can bear many things, but they can’t bear these things.”
Ahmad Miremadi, Khamenei’s representative in Lorestan province and the Friday prayer Imam of the province’s capital, Khorramabad, warned about the failed quest of raising the morale of the people and said: “When we say we should raise the morale of the people so they are not desperate; You can’t forcibly make people enthusiastic. When people face difficulties, when there is inflation, hardships, what hope should they have?”
Another controversial issue among the crises that the Iranian regime faces is the fate of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) bills.
In order for FATF to whitelist Iran, the ruling theocracy must conform to the organization’s anti-money-laundering and financial transparency standards. This may sound a reasonable proposal to any sound mind in the 21st century, but for the ruling mullahs in Tehran who built their corrupt empire on the ashes of transparency and human decency, it’s a hard pill to swallow with serious risks of fatal side effects for their power structure, its nervous system, lifeblood, and circulation.
Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, chair of the National Security and Foreign Relations Committee in the Majlis (parliament) and an ally of Khamenei’s faction, acknowledges the continuous infighting about the FATF bills and says: “The enemies of the Islamic Republic are trying to prevent the regime from accessing the global mechanism and to choose the path of isolation. Therefore, we can work with a series of reservations about protection, including five reservations in Palermo and CFT [bills].”
“There are some who have different opinions. They say everything is related, meaning that if there is no impact regarding the JCPOA with the European countries, we also shouldn’t join these conventions,” he added.
He also warned that “If the Palermo and CFT [bills] are not approved, [other] countries won’t work with us and we can’t use the European financial mechanism.”
On another front, in his New Year speech, Khamenei criticized the parliament and said: “Over the past two years, the [U.S.] Congress has passed or presented 226 bills and resolution against the Islamic Republic. So, we should ask and complain to our own parliament how many bills or resolutions the Islamic Consultative Assembly [formal term for the Iranian parliament] has passed until now against American malice?”
Both Ali Motahari, deputy spokesperson of the parliament, and Falahatpisheh responded and declared the parliament not responsible for foreign relations.
“Decision making about foreign relation policies are made in the Supreme National Security Council, headed by the president and the secretary of the supreme national security council and in major matters the decision is made based on the opinion of the Supreme Leader,” Falahatpisheh said, clearly deflecting the responsibility.
“In recent years, one of our complaints here in the parliament has been that we are on the sidelines of the country’s foreign relations and in practice no place is defined for the parliament. Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the supreme national security council, has been repeatedly invited to attend the sessions of the National Security and Foreign Relations Committee of the parliament but he has never accepted the invitation of the commission,” Falahatpisheh added.
Ali Motahari also said: “the Supreme Leader expects more but the Guardian Council has disapproved the parliament’s plan to pass a resolution.”
