NCRI – On the brink of Iran’s presidential election, senior officials are making significant remarks regarding the regime’s dire economic conditions.
“The people are witnessing how the economic conditions are not fixed. Unemployment has increased significantly amongst educated youths and the economic recession has worsened. People are wary and they will most definitely not vote for the status quo to continue,” MP Naqavi Hosseini said in remarks aimed at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
“One of the pledges Rouhani made was to provide such welfare and success for people that they no longer seek subsidies. Four years later, when people look at his slogans and evaluate how much has truly been accomplished, they see Iran’s economy, 100 days after this president came to power, remains a mess; unemployment has especially skyrocketed amongst the youth; and the economic recession has deepened,” he said, also referring to how Rouhani’s victory four years ago was due to only 250,000 votes more than his rival.
“People are fed up with Rouhani’s government… People see that their demands have not been met under this government,” said Ranjbarzadeh, a member of Iranian Parliament Board of Directors.
“When this government started its work, there were criticisms, and they would say the government is still weak. When we raise criticisms these days, they say don’t say anything,” said Mohammad Mehdi Zahedi, chair of the parliament’s Higher Education Commission. “We were not supposed to create jobs for foreign companies… today, however, we are even importing pencil sharpeners and gravestones from China.”
“No one should have any hope at all in Rouhani and his government to resolve the unemployment issue,” he recently said in his Telegram social media channel.
“We are suffering from a deadly spread of recession. Those in charge have been able to create jobs for foreigners abroad. 28 billion tomans ($8mn) in companies’ revenue was taken by government companies,” said MP Hamid Reza Haji Babaie.
“The continuation of such bad economic conditions is not good for society. We are on the verge of a cliff. Major action is needed and there is no time to check or test anything. The government must answer as to why the $5 billion they were supposed to unfreeze after the Lausanne is now frozen in Oman… 70% of the people’s demands,” Iran’s former oil minister said.
(State-run Fars news agency – March 29)