Iranian mullahs’ Fear of General Uprising

Source: American Thinker, May 18, 2016

Reports from inside Iran indicate a mounting economic crisis, despite a windfall of billions pouring into Iran following the nuclear deal sealed with the P5+1 following negotiations in which the international community bent over backwards in the mullahs’ favor.
After waves of spurious promises, which ultimately failed to provide or allow the people to reap any form of benefit from this deal, the government of Hassan Rouhani -- with a faux pas catchphrase of “moderation” -- is engulfed in a series of major calamities, with fears simmering among the leadership of growing dissent that can only possibly be construed as the roots of general uprisings in the making across the country.

Dismal Report Card for Rouhani

During the past few years, Iran’s economy has experienced skyrocketing inflation rates, which according to a parliamentary report is running alongside an unemployment tsunami. Politicians are pressuring the banks to decrease profit rates (to numbers lower than inflation rates). Moreover, the banks have taken their own action to safeguard resources, by investing in financial markets of real estate and production lines.
Various governments in Iran, especially that of Rouhani, have throughout the years issued specific instructions to the country’s banks, aimed at decreasing their profits. As this trend continued, the banks gradually failed to live up to their duties as financial mediators and liquidity directors.

The Liquidity Plight

The main problem – as was the case internationally in the 2008 slump -- in this regard is lack of liquidity. Liquidity is running at 20% in Iran, and has plagued the economy for many years now. On the other hand, the true portion of Iran’s economy is suffering from liquidity shortage. Despite the fact that Iran’s economy is based on banks, it appears the issue of diverting liquidity and its quantity have raised startling concerns.
“The main reason behind liquidity shortage lies in unpaid bank loans, and the government -- as the main party in debt to banks -- must take action on this matter,” said Mohammad Mehdi Reiszadeh, an advisor in Iran’s Chamber of Commerce.

The Banking Scapegoat

Whenever governments face any type of shortages, they focus pressure on the banking system and the country’s central bank. The remaining unpaid bank loans belong largely to the regime’s senior elite, with a list of 30 individuals said to be controlling a large portion of such unpaid bank loans. If this money was actually recoverable, the banking system would have been able to provide investment for production units. There is no such thing occurring in Iran today.

Doomed Policies

Media outlets associated with the camp of former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and Rouhani, are pointing fingers at the government of firebrand Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for squandering oil revenues -- made available to him through years of oil prices in the range of $100+ a barrel -- in the housing and construction industry.
With this industry facing major problems, it had its toll on Iran’s now parched economy, as more than 200 to 300 industries linked to road and construction now face major rollbacks, with the entire economy threatened by recession. A collapse of the real estate industry that provided profits for the banks resulted in an effective lockup of bank funds.
Such counterproductive plundering adopted by the mullahs’ regime have spiked anger amongst the people, surfacing especially among the youth. Mardom-Salari, a newspaper affiliated to the Rafsanjani-Rouhani camp, has conveyed a similar message over the breadth of escalating public unrest.
“… two issues that can enormously destroy the Rouhani government, and may even deliver a significant defeat in the 2017 presidential elections, is the continuing state of economic recession, and no improvements in the lower class’ daily living conditions… the economic recession, developing from 2014 onward to this day, has yet to provide room for any positive signs.”
In fact, indications show that in the present fiscal climate, an effective recession will continue into 2016 and early 2017.
Another challenge for Rouhani’s government will is the lower class’ lack of participation in politics and support for government policies, especially in Tehran and other large cities. This should ring alarm bells for Rouhani’s government.
Iran is a country where a significant percentage of the economy is all but monopolized by the Revolutionary Guards, a military force running parallel to the regular army, while in other sectors of the country, desperate people are resorting to “street-vendoring” to make ends meet, and families have become so poor they are literally renting out their children for $5 a day, or even selling them for less than $700.
As long as the regime in Iran is established on the central tenets of domestic crackdown, plundering the people’s wealth, and exporting terrorism and fundamentalism across the globe, the ruling mullahs in Tehran and their military/security top brass will continue to rule in a state of paranoia, forever terrified at the possibility of nationwide uprisings brewing under the ashes of a failing economy in a nation where the seeds of revolt are fast beginning to materialize after years of violent repression. With the mullah’s grip beginning to loosen, galvanized dissent within Iran is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

ISIS, Tehran Regime, Two Sides of the Same Coin

Soona Samsami is the NCRI representative in the United States

By: Soona Samsami
Just during these past few days, Iranian officials, large and small, have come up and said their missile programs is not up for negotiations. For a country that has gone through months, if not years of on and off negotiations to be relieved from the noose of economy that was chocking it to death, what is the meaning of developing another program that would send it through the same path of strangled economy. The answer is simple, the term moderation for mullahs in Iran is nothing but delusion.

The barbaric terrorist attacks in Brussels were a clear reminder of the growing threat of Islamic extremism. This vicious ideology continues to take new forms - once Al-Qaeda, now ISIS, both with the shared goal of creating an “Islamic state' capable of enforcing Sharia law and undermining the achievements of the civilized world.
While the Sunni version of fundamentalism desperately seeks to achieve this objective, the Shiite version in Tehran has been in place for nearly four decades. It should be confronted, not appeased.
Syria, Iraq, and Yemen have become breeding grounds for ISIS, a blessing in disguise for Tehran because it conveniently justifies the mullahs’ extraterritorial maleficence.
Some in the West continue to pin their hopes on elusive “reforms” within the clerical establishment, despite the fact that the Iranian regime’s regional agenda is, in the words of its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, “diametrically opposed” to that of the international community. Their optimism is fueled by the misguided expectation of political reform in the aftermath of the nuclear deal. Neither the facts nor the evidence support this contention.
Rather than changing course, Tehran is ever more adamant that others should follow its destructive regional policies. It recently conducted several missile tests in brazen defiance of UN Security Council resolutions. And if improved human rights are a sign of moderation, the situation has gotten much worse under supposedly “moderate” president Hassan Rouhani .
Just this month, an independent United Nations human rights expert voiced serious concerns about the “extremely high rate of executions” in Iran, “especially for juvenile offenders.” The human rights organization Amnesty International has called Iran one of the last remaining executioners of children in the world. That is hardly a sign of reform.
In addition, women continue to be treated as second-class citizens. Last year, dozens were victims of acid attacks by government-organized thugs for violating the regime’s strict veiling laws. 
The fact is the Iranian regime is controlled by an un- elected cleric - equivalent to the 'caliph' in the fabled 'caliphate'- accountable to no one.
A few days after the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) last year, Khamenei warned, “We will never stop supporting our friends in the region and the people of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon. Even after this deal our policy towards the arrogant U.S. will not change.”
He reiterated this radically anti-U.S. position in his Nowruz remarks on March 20 . The eighty-five-minute address focused on the complexity of Western, and especially American, animosity against Iran, casting the United States as Iran’s 'enemy par excellence.' He characterized recent post-deal rhetoric as a U.S. plot to inject the idea of political change into the minds of Iranians and the elite, and criticized Iran’s nuclear negotiating team for violating some of his redlines. 
The attacks in Brussels this week should send a message to western capitals that the Iranian regime’s funding of terrorism and extremism will continue to threaten and destabilize the Middle East region and the world. The ruling theocracy cannot be reformed, because any retreat from its current policies would inevitably loosen its grip on power and open the door to fundamental change.
Many observers agree that the real hope for reform lies within the larger Iranian society and the ranks of the real opposition, and not within the shrinking confines of a decaying theocracy.
The curtain of communism finally fell in Eastern Europe when pulled down by that region’s restive population; so can the curtain of fundamentalism in Iran.
The international community and U.S. government, for that matter, can only solve the Iranian problem by focusing on the problem itself – the regime. Otherwise, efforts to instigate genuine change will fail. Removing Assad from power, and thus ending the Iranian regime’s involvement in Syria, would be a good starting point. It would also stop ISIS in its tracks.
Ultimately, the answer to Islamic extremism lies in the hands of the people, specifically the Iranian people and their organized opposition, who should be supported in earnest. The removal of the epicenter of fundamentalism in Iran will go a long way toward ensuring that the world is free of the vile threat of extremism.
 

Solidarity of France’s Elected Representatives with the Iranian Resistance against Extremism under

Maryam Rajavi : Helping false claimants of moderation in Iran, Fuels Machinery of Suppression and Export of Terrorism

National Council of Resistance of Iran

Sunday, January 24, 2016, a conference was held at the office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Auvers-sur-Oise (north of Paris) with political personalities and elected representatives of France participating. The conference was entitled, 'Solidarity of France’s Elected Representatives with the Iranian Resistance against Extremism under the Banner of Islam.'

In her remarks to the conference, Mrs. Rajavi noted: During the regime’s presidential elections, Rouhani promised to promote moderation. However, he is coming to Europe in a few days’ time with an ominous record of 2,000 executions, consecutive executions of political prisoners, rocket attacks on Camp Liberty, rampant poverty, unemployment and economic stagnation in Iran, stepped up deadly interferences in Syria and Iraq, warmongering in Yemen, terrorism in Kuwait and Bahrain, testing new missiles, etc.

Rajavi pointed out: Rouhani is travelling to Europe to cover up the regime’s weakness and isolation. He is trying to put up a moderate face to cover up the executions in Iran and the mullahs’ role in the massacre of Syrians.

She added: The Iranian people expect France not to give ground to Rouhani’s deceptions and stand by the people of Iran. This is defending both humanity and the values of France, and it is the right policy.

Rajavi asserted: To justify supporting the mullahs, some claim that Rouhani disapproves of these policies but Rouhani approves them. He defends the executions. He supports Bashar Assad’s dictatorship. He tries to expand the Revolutionary Guards’ missile program and he advocates religious tyranny.

A number of political personalities, mayors and elected representatives of the people of France including Rama Yade, former minister of human rights; Dominique Lefevbre, French National Assembly Deputy; Yves Bonnet, former Governor; Jean Paul Jeandon, Mayor or Cergy; Bruno Macé, Mayor of Villiers Adam; Claude Krieguer, maire d’Asnières sur Oise ; Khelid El Fara; Jean-Pierre Béquet, former Mayor of Auvers sur-Oise; Jacques Feyte, former Mayor of Neuville sur Oise, Gilbert Marsac, former Mayor of Joy le Moutier, Sylvie Fassier, Mayor of Le Pin, Armand Jacquemin, Mayor of Moussy Le Vieux, Hervé Touguet, Mayor of Villeparisis, and Souad Ancelot  representing elected members of the province of  Seine et Marne; Dominique Bailly, Mayor of Vaujours; Mohammed Cherfaoui, Boualem Benkhalouf,  representing elected members of Seine Saint-Denis et Jacky Duminy, Mayor of  Ors addressed the conference.

In another part of her speech, Maryam Rajavi noted the Iranian regime’s reluctant compliance with the nuclear agreement last week and added: Under the pressure of the Iranian Resistance’s revelations and sanctions by the international community, the Iranian regime had to give up its ominous nuclear project. This was a very important experience because it proved that the Iranian regime is sensitive to pressure.

Mrs. Rajavi emphasized: Now is the time to compel the Iranian regime to stop executions, free political prisoners, stop attacks on Camp Liberty and halt its missile program.

She reiterated that the only road to peace and stability in the region is eviction of the Iranian regime from the region, namely from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, and compelling it to stop the massacre of defenseless people of Syria.

Expressing her abhorrence over the dreadful tragedy of November 13 in France, Maryam Rajavi described the cancerous growth of Daesh as one of the destructive consequences of the mullahs’ hegemonic ambitions in the region. She said: When Iran’s ruling mullahs helped their puppet governments in Iraq and Syria to suppress the people of these countries, the opportunity emerged for Daesh to grow and spread.

Mrs. Rajavi pointed out: The Quran says there is no compulsion in religion. For this reason, we decisively reject the mullahs’ Sharia laws that are contrary to Islam. We reject despotic regimes whatever their names, Velayat-e Faqih, Islamic Caliphate or Islamic State. The genuine Islam promotes freedom and women’s equality, and calls for popular sovereignty and tolerance.

The NCRI artists, conductor and composer Mohammad Shams and musician Hamidreza Taherzadeh, had a beautiful musical performance in the gathering.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 24, 2016