It is estimated that the Ahmadinejad government owes about $127 billion to various domestic and foreign institutions.
The situation has exacerbated the already deepening fissures within the regime. The infighting has even engulfed factions tied to Ahmadinejad and the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei. In recent weeks, Ali Larijani, the Majlis Speaker, Mohammad Reza Bahonar, Deputy Chairman of the Majlis Audit Committee, and Hassan Aboutorabi, the Deputy Speaker, attacked Ahmadinejad’s economic policies.
Aboutorabi revealed recently that the regime is so desperate that it had to buy the required equipment for a $1.2 billion project for manufacturing drugs, called Minou Gel, from the United States.
Although Ahmadinejad had planned for an 8 percent economic growth, state-run institutions have confessed that in fact growth did not surpass 1.5 percent by the end of last year.