IRAN'S ECONOMY IN FREEFALL

ECONOMY IN FREEFALL AS MULLAHS’ CORRUPTION DENIES IRANIAN PEOPLE PROTECTION FROM CORONAVIRUS

The Iranian economy is in a plummeting decline. Spiralling inflation and a collapsing currency have combined with the coronavirus crisis to bring the country to a virtual standstill. The active Iranian work force is 26 million, of whom at least 10 million were jobless even before Covid19 struck. Youth unemployment was at a staggering 40%. At least 33 percent of the population were already living under the absolute poverty line unable to meet their essential daily needs. Now the country is in virtual lockdown, but the fascist, theocratic regime is doing nothing to help.

Even before the coronavirus struck and before the Trump administration re-imposed tough sanctions, Iran’s descent into economic chaos could be traced directly to the ruling clerical regime and their tyrannical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Their policy of aggressive military expansionism across the Middle East has seen them consistently pour men and resources into backing Bashar al-Assad and his murderous civil war, while they simultaneously drove the genocidal campaign against the Sunni population of neighbouring Iraq through their outright support for the brutal al-Hashd al-Shaabi, the so-called Shi’ia popular mobilization forces. They have openly financed and supplied the Houthi rebels in Yemen and continue to provide vast funding for the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Combined with the mullah’s own predilection for corruptly lining their own pockets, Iran has now become an international pariah, its religious fascist regime condemned for human rights abuse and the export of terror, while its 80 million beleaguered citizens, over half of whom are under thirty, struggle to feed their families as the Covid19 virus rages across the nation. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) – the regime’s Gestapo, controls over 80% of the economy, corruptly funnelling money stolen from the people into private banks and using the rest to finance their burgeoning nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. It is reckoned that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, controls a financial empire worth an estimated $200 billion, resources which could readily be made available to alleviate the suffering of the Iranian people. But Khamenei has instead tried to blame Iran’s enemies for what he calls “a biological attack.” 

When the virus first appeared in the holy city of Qom, Khamenei declared that there was no danger and that news of Covid19 was a plot to deter people from voting in Iran’s parliamentary elections. Now the lies, stupidity and incompetence of the mullahs have allowed the virus to spread to 199 cities in all of Iran’s 31 provinces. It is known that the real death toll from the virus has exceeded 8,800, although the mullahs pretend that just 1,500 have died. Dr Rick Brennan, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Director of Emergency Operations, following a visit to Iran last week, said coronavirus cases in the country were five times greater than what was being reported. The only reliable information available is being provided by resistance units of the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the democratic opposition to the theocratic regime. Now, as their own ineptitude has become exposed and the real death toll has been widely shared on social media, the mullahs are beginning to panic. A month ago, President Hassan Rouhani said that the coronavirus would fade away in a matter of weeks. But this weekend, he admitted in a TV interview that 70% of the Iranian population would be infected by the virus, stating that he hoped they would be infected gradually, because the health care system could not cope with a sudden escalation in the infection rate!

Rouhani, for once, was telling the truth. He and his fellow mullahs, with their IRGC cohorts, have diverted almost all of the available face masks, sanitizers, protective clothing and other key medical supplies, for their own personal use in their own exclusive private hospitals, leaving Iran’s beleaguered doctors and nurses with little or nothing to protect themselves or to treat the public. This is why the coronavirus death toll in Iran is now accelerating ahead of China and Europe. Rouhani even told his cabinet on 21st March that the virus was a conspiracy by Iran’s enemies aimed at destroying the economy. He claimed that American sanctions were preventing aid from entering the country, although US sanctions specifically do not affect medical or humanitarian aid. Rouhani then farcically said: “the process of production must go on as usual, in order to confront the conspiracy.” Ayatollah Khamenei compounded the farce by stating in his Nowruz (New Year) message that the coming year will be a year of “surge in production in Iran.” His fatuous comment led one courageous young Iranian to post an observation on social media saying: “This is nonsense; which surge? What production are you talking about? This is the year you will all be brought to trial.”

The 80 million Iranian citizens are fed up with their corrupt, fundamentalist rulers. They are fed up with living in poverty and deprivation, as the mullahs siphon off the country’s wealth to fill their coffers and to finance conflict and terror throughout the Middle East. They demand the release of Khamenei’s stolen billions to pay for proper health care and for financial support for workers who have been forced to stay at home. The Central Bank of Iran has asked the International Monetary Fund for $5 billion in emergency loans to help contain the virus and mitigate its effects on the already struggling economy. But Iranians are demanding that any such loans will have to be carefully monitored to ensure they go to helping the population and not into funding terror or into the mullahs’ pockets. Most of all, the people of Iran are asking the UN Security Council to investigate the theocratic regime for its ongoing crimes against humanity.