The Iranian regime unveiled two new ballistic missiles on Thursday. This development, as the Iranian people grapple with poverty and COVID-19 and the region burns in the flames of war and terrorism, underlines the need to reimpose the international arms embargo on Iran’s regime.
Since the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, the regime’s President Hassan Rouhani and other officials have been whining about the sanctions, identifying them as the reason for the high COVID-19 mortality rate.
Yet, building these two missiles and Rouhani’s remarks on Thursday, after the two ballistic missiles were unveiled, shows the regime has the necessary funds to help people but gives priority to its malign terrorist activities over people’s lives.
“Cruise missiles are of special importance to us. Today we must mobilize all of our powers to build cruise missiles. A cruise missile has many advantages and can disguise itself, take a safe route, and can hit the target more accurately,” Rouhani said on Thursday.
A glance at the current situation in Iran
Due to the Iranian regime’s institutionalized corruption and wasting national wealth on terrorism, the Iranian people have been grappling with poverty. The regime’s economy is a failing structure.
In this regard, the state-run Eghtesad (Economy) online, in an article entitled “Paradox of Iran’s economy” while using the words “Revolution” and “Islam” to describe the regime, wrote: “The emergence of neoliberal behaviors and practices in the Fifth Government and their intensification under subsequent governments, especially the Eleventh and Twelfth Governments, such as encouraging materialism and self-interest, taxation (sudden emergence of private banks and financial institutions, and overproduction of productive activities) along with full freedom of speculative activities such as brokerage, speculation, expropriation (commodification of social services such as education, health, housing, public transport, energy and nature, and the transfer of large amounts of government assets to the quasi-governmental sector and quasi-private affiliates) and cheapening of labor (unemployment, the devaluation of wages through the devaluation of the national currency and insecurity and temporalization of the labor contracts) under the deceptive and false pretext of ‘free economy’ are all in contradiction with the principles of Islam, the constitution and the values of the revolution.”
This article further adds that the regime’s economic policies “promote huge illicit profits, justifying macroeconomic destabilization and price shocks under the pretext of price liberalization.”
In addition, the state-run Arman daily, while rejecting recent claims by Rouhani about upcoming economic relief, wrote: “There wouldn’t be an economic relief. An economic relief does not happen with just one event. We must deal with it wisely and with prudence and awareness. Iran’s economy cannot have an economic opening without basic operations, measures, and making tough decisions.”
The two major Iran protests in 2018 and November 2019 were due to the current economic hardship that people have been enduring. In 2018, when the price of eggs and other basic needs increased, people poured onto the streets, and in 2019, protests erupted following a sudden gas price hike. But both uprisings quickly turned political with people identifying the regime and its warmongering policies as the real cause of the extreme poverty in Iran. People chanted slogans such as “Let go of Syria, think of us,” “No to Gaza, no to Lebanon, my life for Iran,” and “Death to the dictator.”
COVID-19 crisis
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) announced on Thursday that the novel coronavirus has taken the lives of over 91,700 people. This is primarily due to the regime’s deliberate cover-up and inaction.
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/#MEK) announced on Thursday, August 20, 2020, that the #Coronavirus fatalities in 394 cities across #Iran are, unfortunately, more than 91,700. #Covid_19
https://t.co/qoC4CfaGGV— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 20, 2020
The regime deliberately announced the existence of the virus with a one–month delay after it had arrived in Iran. In this regard, The state-run Setareh Sobh (Morning Star) daily, in its editorial published on August 4, wrote: “Some studies show that the novel coronavirus was transmitted from China to Iran in early January, at least a month before the official announcement by the country’s officials. For some reasons or lack of information, this issue was not announced. It was announced when nothing could have been done and the virus had vastly spread in locations such as Tehran, Qom, Gilan, and Mazandaran, and many were either infected or had died. In fact, a wrong policy and having no transparency in giving the information to the public from the beginning created inconsistency and confusion in the government health department.”
Meanwhile, many of the regime’s health officials have acknowledged that the medical staff and equipment are worn out. Reza Malekzadeh, Deputy Health Minister, told the state-run Setareh Sobh daily on August 18: “The transmission of the virus has increased three to nine times, and the medical staff and equipment are worn out and cannot deal with the third wave of the virus outbreak in autumn.”
Instead of helping people, supporting medical staff, and combatting the coronavirus crisis, the regime produces ballistic missiles and continues funding terrorism. The mullahs’ terrorism abroad is in line with its domestic oppression. In fact, the regime intends to export chaos abroad and use terrorism to blackmail the international community.
