Recently, the Iranian regime announced its decision to sell public properties. This procedure, supervised by a delegation of seven top officials, is considered the largest “state corruption” since the clerical regime took power.
The regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has approved the decision, and the parliament is trying to fiddle with laws to legalize this issue, calling it the “productive assets plan.” There is a delegation of seven top authorities close to Khamenei who enjoy impunity over their decisions on what to sell.
The plan comes after nearly two decades of a so-called “privatization plan” and is considered Tehran’s last-ditch effort to compensate for its huge budget deficit. The budget’s lion’s share goes to the regime’s security apparatus, mainly the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). With the privatization plan, IRGC succeeded in dominating the country’s financial streams, and with the new plan, it would literally own the country.
This shady plan has caused much stir in the regime’s ranks, with many officials and state media protesting what they describe as having a “lack of transparency” and would create further problems.
According to the state-run Farhikhtegan daily, an outlet linked to Khamenei’s faction, based on this plan, “government surplus properties and assets, including land and buildings, are supposed to be sold and thereby become the budget resources. This task is supervised by a 7-member delegation consisting of Vice President Mohammad Mokhbar, Minister of Economy Ehsan Khandouzi, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazarpash, head of Plan and Budget Organization Masoud Mirkazemi, one representative constituting the Speaker of the Parliament, and one representative from the judiciary. The Ministry of Economy has appointed the secretariat and the executive for the approvals of this board.”
Mohammad Mokhber, Raisi’s VP and the former head of the “Execution of Khomeini’s Order (EIKO),” Khamenei’s major plundering conglomerate, is the chief of the delegation. Ahmad Vahidi, the interior minister, is another member of this delegation. He is a top IRGC commander, the first commander of the IRGC Quds Force, who is wanted for the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Argentina. Two other members, Bazrpash and Khandoozi, are two close associates of Khamenei.
According to this plan, the delegation auctions all properties which belong to ministries, universities, state institutions, governmental companies, banks, government credit institutions, and insurance companies. Furthermore, the surplus assets of Iran’s national oil, gas, and petrochemical companies, the Central Bank, Iran’s mineral industries, and maritime affairs would be auctioned as well.
According to the state-run Donyay-e Eghtesad daily on February 1, “Economic authorities announced there are one million pieces of government property, which should be determined in the form of selling surplus properties. Meanwhile, 20,000 acres of land belong to some organizations in the first four districts of Tehran. Estimates of the average land value in the north of the capital show that only these 20,000 hectares equal 200 quadrillion rials, which is many times the amount of the entire country’s next year’s budget bill.” Based on the current dollar exchange rate in the market, the regime will earn roughly $445 billion.
This plan was initially introduced during Hassan Rouhani’s presidency. Fearing public reaction, the clerical regime postponed its adoption. Now, as the nationwide uprising persists, and the mullahs see their demise on the horizon, they are rushing to plunder what’s left in Iran by setting a deadline of two years for this plan. Raisi’s government claims that the “Private sector” will benefit from this plan, thus positively affecting Iran’s economy. But there is no “private sector” in Iran. In fact, this is the acronym of the IRGC.
“Instead of looking for illusory incomes to replace oil or revenues related to people’s assets for future generations, the government should reduce its unnecessary expenses and budgets, which were added over the years by influential and interested people. But the government has neither the intention nor the desire to reduce these costs. Therefore, Raisi inevitably goes to find new resources and reaches the point where he starts auctioning the property of the public as well as the next generations. Unfortunately, they do this with impunity,” the state-run Jomhuri-e Eslami quoted Morteza Afghah, a state-affiliated economist, on January 31.
“The government’s role as a private contractor is wrong. In recent years, nothing has been handed over to the private sector. Instead, the semi-governmental institutions [IRGC] have taken matters into their hands. In contrast, governmental institutions were easier to audit. But the semi-governmental institutions answer to no one,” the state-run Setar-e Sobh daily wrote on January 31.
“The production of government assets law, considered by many as the code name for auctioning the country, has caused many MPs to protest, stating that they were unaware of its approval,” the state-run Jomhuri-e Eslami daily wrote on January 31.
“Hossein Raghfar, an economic expert in this domain, said, “privatization in Iran was the mere transfer of public assets to officials’ friends, who ultimately exported the wealth. As there is no one to purchase these assets now, who would buy these assets at a very low price?’”
Raghfar also acknowledges that “corruption equals monopoly. Therefore, the productive assets law is another form of corruption. No one knows whose interests this delegation represents and to whom they will sell the assets in question.”
Conclusion
The ongoing nationwide uprising has rattled the regime’s foundation. Khamenei has sensed his regime’s imminent downfall. So, like Shah in his last days, Khamenei intends to auction the country, keep its vast security apparatus afoot and export as much capital as he and his accomplices are able to.
Moreover, as the IRGC is Tehran’s pivotal force for the oppression and export of terrorism, Khamenei and Raisi tried to increase its official and unofficial income streams so that the organization could preserve the regime in the face of the current revolution and international isolation.
For many years, the Iranian Resistance has revealed detailed reports about how Iran’s economy is being dominated by the IRGC. The course the regime is indicating to take manifests that any hope that negotiations could end Iran’s financial calamity is a myth. The terrorist organization uses every penny to pursue its malign and illicit activities.
The growing calls for regime change inside Iran have created the perfect momentum for the world community, mainly European countries, to side with the Iranian people by proscribing the IRGC and increasing pressure on the regime. The crimes committed by the IRGC are not limited to Iran’s borders. The terrorist entity funds and arms terrorist groups in the Middle East and is indeed a threat to global peace and security. Western powers should not allow this terrorist group to plunder Iran’s wealth further with impunity and effectively create insecurity on their soil and the rest of the world.
