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The Iranian Regime’s Situation in the Past Year

Written by Sedighe Shahrokhi
Video: Iranian regime’s record by facts 
Iranian regime’s record by facts

In February 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini and the mullahs hijacked the Iranian people’s revolution, that had sought freedom and democracy. Khomeini instead established a religious regime. February 11 marks 41 years since the regime seized power.

The 40-year-old reign of the regime has only brought oppression, torture, execution, massacre and destruction of natural resources and the environment for the Iranian people and war, terrorism and Islamic fundamentalism for the Middle East and the world. Yet, this regime has never experienced a strategic stability. The Iranian people have never accepted the regime’s rule, and other nations have recently and constantly risen against the regime’s crimes.

The Iranian regime’s situation within the last year is the essence of its rule. The regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and its president, Hassan Rouhani, have clearly stated that their regime is at the “most crucial situation” and “hardest economic and political situation.” According to the regime’s experts, social accreditation of the regime has reached zero, its economy is destroyed, and unbridled poverty, high prices, unemployment and inflation have forced over 70 percent of the population under the poverty line. The regime has prepared a budget for next year, whose numbers have been described as “imaginary.”

Increasing comprehensive sanctions, the death of Rouhani’s only achievement, the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA), the regime’s rejection of the terms of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and the expulsion of the regime’s diplomats for their involvement in terrorism demonstrate the regime’s deadly international isolation.

These situations have resulted on the one hand in massive defection within the regime’s ranks, and on the other hand in warnings by its analysts and officials over the Iranian people’s uprising, a danger which threatens the regime in its entirety. The infighting and battle over more share of power at the regime’s highest echelons have reached an unprecedented peak. These infightings went as far as some of the regime’s factions describing Khamenei himself as the root of all the regime’s problems.
In an unprecedented approach, the Iranian people rose up to torch the regime in its entirety, and they literally torched and destroyed hundreds of the regime’s plundering and suppression centers. According to credible sources, the Iranian regime killed at least 1500 protesters. Yet the Iranian people’s demand to overthrow this regime is like fire under the ashes. This was demonstrated during the second wave of the Iran protests in January, two months after the November protests, over the downing of a Ukrainian airliner and the death of all 176 passengers aboard by the regime’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

In addition, the uprising by the people of Iraq and Lebanon against the Iranian regime’s indirect reign over their countries seriously threatened the regime’s so-called “strategic depth.”
In such circumstances, the powerful and strategic emersion of a democratic alternative, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI, Mujahedin-e Khalq or MEK), particularly the activities of the MEK’s “Resistance Units,” heralds the downfall of the regime and pictures the future of Iran. Khamenei and other regime officials have repeatedly spoken of this fact.

The facts listed below draw a comprehensive image of the Iranian regime’s political, economic, social, regional and international situation. The result of these facts reveals one undeniable truth: the Iranian regime is no longer stable, and it is on the brink of collapse.

THE CONTENT OF THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH NEW FACT SHEETS IN COMING DAYS

Nationwide Protests, One Year on

 

Iran witnessed a series of protests in November 2019 and January 2020 that were unprecedented in the past four decades. 

Shaking the regime in its entirety, the uprising in November quickly erupted in at least 191 cities. Assessments indicate that it was the most important challenge the Iranian regime has ever faced.  

The protests were sparked by a gas price hike, however, due to the explosive situation of the society, they dramatically expanded all over the country in just 24 hours. Demanding regime change, Iranian people chanted against the Supreme Leader and the regime in its entirety.  

The high volume of the protests forced the regime to dispatch all its suppressive forces, in particular the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), onto the streets, killing people in cold blood.  

The Chairman of the Parliament’s National Security Committee Mojtaba Zolnour admitted that there had been harsh clashes between angry protesters and security forces in 800 locations across the country, including 147 points just in the capital Tehran. 

Senior commanders of the IRGC who had been dispatched to the scenes, later compared the conflicts with the harshest scenes of the Iran-Iraq war saying: “God saved the regime.“ 

Confronting the bloody suppression, the protesters, mainly from the low sectors of the society, defended themselves, setting fire to some 900 gas-stations, 1000 governmental banks, many governorate buildings, and state seminaries. 

One day after the beginning of protests, the top officials of the regime, including the Supreme Leader, stressed on the role of the People’s Mojahedin, or Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK), and its Resistance Units in organizing and leading the protests. 

In order to cover the dimension of suppression and prevent the expansion of the protests throughout the country, in an unprecedented measure, the Iranian regime shut down the Internet for more than a week.  

Relying on its vast social network, the MEK announced the death toll on a daily basis. Based on the MEK’s information, some 1500 protesters were killed, 4000 were injured, and another 12000 were arrested. This death toll was later confirmed by the top officials of the US and Reuters. Reuters referred to three sources in the regime’s Interior Ministry. Iran’s regime not only has not provided any information about the victims of the Iran protests, but has prevented the issue from being raised in public; however, so far the MEK has revealed the names of more than 750 martyrs. 

In fear of a new bout of protests and eruption of the society, the regime prevented the families to hold mourning ceremonies for the victims. 

The November 2019 uprising happened less than two years after the nationwide uprising in January 2018 that erupted in 140 cities across the country. This indicates the deteriorating situation in Iranian society that will result in an end to the mullahs’ rule, inefficiency of suppression as it was before, and uncontrollable situation for the regime.  

Protesting against the downing of a Ukrainian airliner by the IRGC, which left 176 people dead in January 2020, once again Iranian people flooded the streets in Tehran and cities of ninety provinces in Iran. This time, college students representing the middle class in Iran were in the front line. The slogans were focused on the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the IRGC that represent the regime in its entirety.  

Chanting “down with the tyrants, be it the Shah or the Leader (referring to the Supreme Leader)” and “Neither the crown, nor the turban. The mullahs are goners,” protesters showed that the Iranian people see the future in denying the dictatorship in any form and demanding democracy. 

Demanding regime change in Iran is the common point of the protests in Iran.  

By chanting “Reformists! Hardliners! The GAME IS OVER!” in January 2018 protests, Iranian people disavowed the regime in its entirety. In August 2018, a prominent theoretician of the Iran regime, Saied Hajjarian, said: “If there will be a situation like other democratic countries in Iran, holding transparent elections without interference by the government and taking off the cover of greenery, there would be none of us, neither you nor me, there will be neither hardliners nor reformist.” 

Rejecting both the past (monarchy) – and the present (theocracy), Iranian people called for a better and different future in the January 2020 uprising.

Iran’s Economy in Crisis

40 Years of Economic Downfall in Iran 

The following facts reflect the critical condition of Iran’s economy in the past year:

International Energy Agency, December 2019: Iran’s export of crude oil dropped to 300,000 b/d. It was 2.5 million b/d in early 2018.  

Jahan San’at, state-run media on industry, 8 January 2020: To be realistic, the export of crude oil in the next Iranian calendar year starting on March 20 will not exceed 300,000 b/d if the current situation continues.  

World Bank, October 2019: Iran’s GDP dropped by about 8.7% in 2019 compared with 2018. This is the lowest in the world. 

International Monetary Fund, 15 October 2019: Iran’s economic growth in 2019 would be -9.5% and would be second to Venezuela. According to the report, Iran’s economic growth in 2018 was 4.8%.  

Kayhan state-run daily, 1 August 2019: Official figures show that Iran’s economy in 2018 shrunk by about 5%. International institutions predict 6% negative growth for the current Iranian year. In other words, in the past two Iranian calendar years ending in March the economy shrunk by about 10%. 

Iranian people’s state of economy  

Statistical Center of Iran, 22 November 2019: The annual inflation rate by mid-November compared to the same period last year was 41.4%. The price rise for red meat, chicken and fish was more than 80%, food stuff close to 59%, fruit close to 60%, vegetable about 71%, and clothes and shoes about 51%.  

Siasat-e Rouz state-run media, 1 January 2020: The annual inflation rate for food and drinks in December 2019 was 57%. 

Siasat-e Rouz, 30 December 2019: In the previous Iranian calendar year, the annual inflation rate for food and drinks was close to 55%, and some experts estimated the poverty line to be about 3.5 to 4 million Tomans ($1=4,200 Tomans at the government rate). With the start of new sanctions and economic problems these estimates went up to about 5 to 6 million Tomans. By revelation of government evaluations under the condition of subsidies, the poverty line went over 8 million Tomans. In April 2019, the minimum wage for a working-class family of 3.3 reached 1.5 million Tomans.  

Statistical Center of Iran, January 2019: 26 percent of youths between 15 and 24 are unemployed. It is 38.3% among women between 15 and 24.  

Misery Index (unemployment rate + inflation rate): In 2018 = 29% and in 2019 = 39% 

Foreign Trade 

Radio Farda (Radio Free Europe, Persian section), 31 January 2020:  

  • Iran’s trade exchanges with China and South Korea dropped by 34% and 60% respectively in 2018.  
  • Japan’s export to Iran dropped 11–fold, compared with 2018 to $66 million, and its imports from Iran dropped 3–fold to $1.16 billion.  
  • In 11 months of 2019, Europe’s imports from Iran was about 620 million euros which is a 15–fold drop compared to 2018.  
  • In 11 months of 2019, exports from 28 EU nations to Iran dropped by 2.4 folds to 3.577 billion euros. 
  • Trade exchange between Iran and Turkey in 2019 was 40% of that in 2018 and half of that in 2017.  

Budget 

Jahan-e San’at, state-run industrial media, 8 January 2020: The Government’s budget of 485,000 billion Tomans faces a deficit of 224,000 billion Tomans.  

Siasat-e Rouz, state-run media, 11 January 2020: This year’s budget is known to be a fictitious since the government has only tried to balance its income with the expenses. Next year’s budget is an extremely critical one for the system and the government… in the absence of any source, if the budget deficit is compensated by the Central Bank’s sources, the cash rise will whirl more rapidly leading to more inflation. Appropriate economic decisions can help us through this dangerous turn, otherwise the county will fall on dangerous tracks.

Institutionalized Corruption

The Black Hole of Corruption and Embezzlement in Iran’s Regime

Embezzlements and plundering of national wealth are two well-known characteristics of the Iranian regime. All of its officials and affiliates are involved in corruption. The regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who holds the top position in corruption, has even spoken of a “hydra of corruption.” Below are some facts among hundreds of others about the regime’s corruption.  

Every U.S. dollar is equal to 4200 tomans at the government rate and is about 12500 tomans in the free market. 

Radio Farda, September 22, 2019: Behzad Nabavi, [a government minister in several administrations]: “Behzad Nabavi has said four financial institutions linked to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei control 60 percent of Iran’s national wealth. 

Nabavi in an interview with conservative website Alef in Tehran, published September 21 that 60 percent of Iran’s national assets are held by the Executive Headquarters for the Imam’s Decree (EHID), the holy Shrine of Imam Reza in Mashad (Astan-e Qods), and the Mostazafan Foundation which operate directly under Khamenei and his office, and the IRGC’s Khatam ol-Anbia Headquarters which is indirectly supervised by Khamenei as the commander-in-chief of the Iranian armed forces. 

These institutions operate outside the purview of the presidential administration and the Iranian Parliament (Majles), Nabavi told the website. 

 State–run ISNA news agency, August 27, 2019: Ali Rabie [government spokesperson]: “Every Tuesday I meet with all the state organizations that measure the public opinion. The polls obtained by these centers show that 91 percent of the people believe there is corruption [within the regime]. 

State-run ISNA news agency, August 31, 2019: Sadegh Ziba-Kalam [one of the strategists close to the faction of the regime’s president, Hassan Rouhani]: “The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance has a share of only 13% of the 6 billion tomans  allocated in the cultural budget. Some 87% of this budget is for the institutions, organizations and foundations that are completely independent from the government and do not answer to the parliament and the executive branch.” 

July 15, 2019و Saied Namaki, the regime’s minister of health, wrote on his Instagram: “Medical equipment worth 1.3 million dollars have vanished, and it is not even clear who took it and what they imported in return and gave to who.” 

The state-run Khaneh-e Melat news agency, August 25, 2019: 

Iran’s rating in comparison with the last year has decreased by two scores from 30 to 28. The corruption in Iran has increased in 2018, in comparison with the previous year.  Iran’s position in 2017 was 130 out of 176 countries, and in 2018 it has lowered to 138 out of 180 countries in the world.  

State television, August 15, 2019 

Alireza Zakani [former member of parliament] in a conversation with the directors of the regime’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS): It is a matter of billions of toman in money. Let’s talk about this. I have nothing to do with someone who had a moral misconduct. 

State-run Tehran News – July 19, 2017: Abbass Akhundi, Hassan Rouhani’s Minister of Urban Development, dubbed “billionaire minister”: “During the privatization of factories and production lines, 100 billion dollars was wasted on the government’s debts.”  

State-run Jahan-e Sanat daily, December 7, 2019: “ A simple calculation shows that all the damages to the public fund, made by the rioters [during the Iran protests in November 2019], is not even comparable with only one embezzlement out of hundreds, made by those with the top managing and executive ranks within the last few years.”   

BBC website – January 19, 2018: Assadollah Gharakhani, the spokesperson of the parliament’s Energy Commission: “One of the managers at Rouhani’s ministry of oil, who was suspected for having 100 billion dollars of embezzlement, ran away from Iran with his wife, 3 hours after he was summoned [by the court].” 

Radio Farda – July 14, 2019: Political prisoner, Reza Golpour says he shared the cell in Ward 2 of Evin Prison with Rasool Danialzadeh, who told him that he [Danialzadeh] had given a 1,100-meter penthouse in Flora Tower to Akbar Tabari and a 700-meter apartment to Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, the former prosecutor of Tehran. 

Rasool Danialzadeh was charged with having 2600 billion toman debt to various banks. Yet, his name was mentioned in the case of Hossein Fereydoun, Hassan Rouhani’s brother. Danialzadeh had gifted a 16 billion toman apartment to Azar Ghafouri, Hossein Fereydoun’s wife.  

State-run Keyhan daily – November 26, 2019: The fuel smuggling damage is 100 billion tomans a day, 3 trillion a month, 36 trillion a year and around 144 trillion tomans in 4 years. In a nutshell, in four years, fuel smugglers earned as much as the subvention given to the entire population per month.  

The state-run Arman daily – December 19, 2019: Abdolnaser Hemmati, head of the central Bank: We paid $22 billion currency, yet $11 billion of it has not yet returned. Where did the rest of this money go? 

The state-run Mehr news agency – November 22, 2019: Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, Senior Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief in Military Affairs: from 1979 to 1991 there was not even a single misuse of funds in the country. But since then, we have witnessed over 4 trillion dollars of financial abuse, which are unrelated to the sanctions.  

The state-run Farhikhtegan news agency – December 18, 2019: The information available from 15 banks, specified that the number of facilities and huge commitments of 456 individuals or entities is around 363 trillion tomans, which is equivalent to the government’s budget in the upcoming year. Governmental companies, such as the National Iranian Oil Company, Social Security Organization and the Social Security Investment Company hold the record of receiving banking facilities. They do not use these facilities to provide working capital for their production units, but to cover their current and administrative costs. The facilities of most of these banks are mainly about 20 to 30 major corporations and individuals. 

Mahmoud Sadegi, member of the regime’s parliament wrote on Twitter on January 27, 2020:  

 “In this election, mediators [at the Guardian Council] have increased the price of [approving candidates] during vetting to as much as 4 billion tomans. What a parliament we’ll have.”  

The Increasing Regional and International Isolation of Iran’s Regime

Iran Regime’s Economic Suffocation and Global Isolation  

Since the United States withdrew in May 2018 from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement with world powers, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and it imposed serious comprehensive sanctions, especially on oil, against the Iranian regime, the regime has faced an unprecedented wave of sanctions, isolation and international pressure. This process has intensified, especially in the economic and political field, between 2019 and January 2020. Tehran has not experienced such an international isolation for decades.

  • In the early hours of January 8, 2020, the regime shot two missiles and downed a Ukrainian airliner with 176 passengers aboard. Subsequently, with a vast campaign of lying and publishing false information, under the supervision of the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, all the government officials from different faction pointed to a technical defect as the main reason for the plane crash. After the revelation of information by different countries, including the United Kingdom and the U.S., as well as the publishing of footage showing missiles hitting the passenger jet, on January 11 the regime was forced to admit that the airliner was shot down by missiles. The regime’s action and its campaign of misinformation and lying was followed by an international abhorrence towards the regime and its further international isolation. The Foreign Ministers of Canada, Ukraine, UK, Sweden and Afghanistan, that lost their citizens in this incident, demanded “independent and clear international investigations” and said the regime should accept the full responsibility and pay the compensation. Yet regime has been hindering this process by not handing over the airplane’s black box.
  • On January 14, 2020, the Foreign Ministers of three main European countries, France, Germany and the UK, in a statement announced their intention of activating the trigger dispute mechanism of the JCPOA to settle the dispute over the regime’s non-compliance under the terms of the JCPOA. This is while the mullahs’ regime tried for over a year to convince Europe and put it in front of the US, particularly against the increasing sanctions and the U.S. policy of “maximum pressure.”
  • On September 23, 2019, following the attack by the Iranian regime against Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil installations, leaders of France, Germany and the UK jointly condemned the Iranian regime for this attack.
  • Following the regime’s refusal to sign the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Palermo treaties, despite four extension of the deadline, each time for four months, with October 2019 as the last extension, the FATF declared for the last time that the final deadline for the regime to follow international standards is in February 2020. After this time, this institution will request its member states to take necessary measures.
  • In January 2020, the Organizing Committee of the World Economic Forum, which is annually held in Davos, Switzerland, refused to invite the regime’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
  • January 15, 2020 – The Albanian government declared it was expelling two Iranian regime diplomats. Previously in December 2018, the Albanian government expelled the Iranian regime’s ambassador and the station chief of the regime’s the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS), who was operating under diplomatic cover in Tirana. During the same year, some European countries, including the Netherlands and France, expelled the regime’s diplomats for their involvement in terrorist activities.
  • In an exculsive report, Reuters reported that Panama, Togo and Sierra Leone have removed their flags from 60 Iranian oil tankers. Within the last seven months, Panama removed its flag from 55 Iranian vessles, Togo from at least three and Sierra Leone from one Iranian vesel. These vessels created a vast part of the Iranian oil tanker fleet.
  • January 2020 – the U.S. government refused to grant a visa to Zarif for participating in a United Nations Security Council session in New York.
  • February 2020 – Saudi Arabia refused to grant a visa to the Iranian regime’s delegation headed by Hossain Jaber Ansari, deputy foreign minister, to participate in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s session, over Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century.”

Radio Farda’s website – July 8, 2019

The Egyptian Supreme Court has sentenced six people to long prison terms on charges of “espionage” for Iran.”

According to the Arabic-language daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, a professor at Al-Azhar University has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and five others each to 25 years in prison. They gave the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) confidential information about the security, political and military situation in Egypt between 2012 and 2016.

Social and environmental disasters and slum dwellers  

Iran environmental disasters

The social and environmental disasters in Iran are another ominous result of the Iranian regime’s 40-year rule in Iran. The facts listed below shed light on the dimensions of these disasters and the destitution the mullahs’ regime has imposed on the Iranian people.  

State-run ISNA news agency – July 25, 2019  

Alireza Razm-Hosseini the governor of Khorasan Razavi province, northeast Iran: “In the beginning of the revolution, 74% of the Iranian population lived in villages. According to the national polls in 2016, our urban community hosts 74% of the country’s population. The question is why this has happened? Why do we have 25 million Iranian people who are living in the suburbs: and why are 30% of Mashhad’s population slum dwellers?” 

State-run Hamdeli daily – December 8, 2019  

“Suicide in public, even mass suicide has become common. The highest rate of suicide is among people from 15 to 24 years of age. The suicide rate in the country has “slowly increased” from 94 persons out of 100,000 to 125 persons from 2016 to 2019. Over 40% of the population are grappling with psychological problems, and these psychological problems, disappointment and feeling of reaching the end of the road have increased the number of suicides in Iran.”  

Iran Suicide in public

State-run Khaneh-e Melat news agency – December 12, 2019  

Alireza Mahjoob, member of regime’s parliament from Tehran: “We lack classrooms for 70,000 students. This number simultaneously increases with the increase of the slum dwellers population in Tehran.”  

State-run Resalat daily – December 4, 2019  

“According to the statistics announced, over 15,000 homeless people live in the city of Tehran and over 50,000 in Tehran province. Grave dwellers still exist. They have only left their graves and have gone on top of the hills in other places.” 

State-run Ana news agency – March 1, 2019  

Hadi Kiadaliri, Head of the regime’s forestry association: “Forests in northern Iran have had over 52% destruction. With such circumstances we should say all the forest in northern Iran are destroyed, and in a few years, there won’t be any trace of them.”  

State-run Resalat daily – January 18, 2020  

Ali Kord, member of the regime’s parliament from districts of Khash, Marivan, Mirjaveh, Kurin and Nosrat-abad  in Sistan and Baluchestan province: Since 2014, heavy storms, heavy rainfalls, flood, snowfall, cold and frost have caused billions of dollars of damages for the inhabitants of these villages. This is while 95% of them are living under the poverty line.”   

State-run Etemad daily – December 29, 2019  

Mohsen Safaii Farahani [close to the faction of the regime’s president, Hassan Rouhani]: according to the Central Bank’s report, there has been over $20 billion of capital outflow within the first six months of 2017. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs has said there are over 4 million Iranians living abroad with a capital of $1500 to $2000 billion dollars. The statistics of buying property in Turkey and Georgia by Iranians in the last two years is very much high. These are all dangerous and raise the alarm.”  

“Over 35% of the university graduates are rejected by the work environment, and this means crises. This means we have over 300,000 educated people full of hopes and dreams who enter the working environment. Now in 2019, over 70% of the society has difficulties in answering their daily needs,” he added.  

State-run Siasat-e rooz daily – December 30, 2019  

“The minimum wages of a labor family of 3.3 has increased from 1.114 million toman ($92) in 2019 to 1.5 million toman ($125). Yet the poverty line in Iran has reached 8 million toman ($666).” 

Iran slum dwellers

State-run Iran daily- December 15, 2019  

Pirouz Hanachi, the Mayor of Tehran, announced an 18% increase in slum dwellers in the capital. “Over 70% of the inhabitants of Tehran Urban Complex are slum dwellers and have immigrated from provinces such as Lorestan, Ilam, Kermanshah and Khuzestan. Between 2011 and 2015, some 330,000 people have come to Tehran and we should expect the same quantity to come and this population growth to continue. In a nutshell, living in slums will increase in the future.” 

From the speech of Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Ashraf 3 Albania. 14 July, 2019 

“Over 62 percent of women above 10 years old are housewives. Women make up half of the workers of brick kilns in Iran. The average economic participation of women in the Middle East is 22 percent. But this rate is only 12 percent in the cities of Iran.” 

State-run IRNA- July 15, 2019  

The parliament’s Research Center in a report titled “Comparative Study of Environmental Economics from a Legislative and Regulatory Perspective,” estimated that inattention to the environment brings a yearly damage of 8.43 billion dollars for the Iranian economy.  

According to ‌the World Bank reports, in 2002, the water damage to the Iranian economy reached more than $3.2 billion, the damages in land forestry over $2.8 billion, and about $1.8 billion of damage in the weather.  

Deutsche Welle, July 16, 2019  

According to the World Health Organization report of 2016, some 28,000 Iranians lose their lives due to illnesses caused by pollution every year. 

State-run ISNA news agency – July 3, 2019  

Masoud Tajrishi, Deputy Director of Human Environment: “Although the air in Tehran feels clean and the sky is blue, but the index of ozone pollutants has risen terribly, reaching over 130 in two days in Tehran.” 

Ozone gas, with a density above 100, has a very destructive effect on the mucus and respiratory organs of living organisms, causing asthma attack and reduces lung function. About 40 percent of the ozone gas is absorbed into the nose and larynx, but about 60 percent reach the depth of the lung. 

State-run Etemad daily – February 3, 2020  

The number of marriages this year has reached less than 500,000, which is 50 percent less than marriages in 2014. 

State-run Arman daily – February 3, 2020  

According to the report announced by the relevant official organizations, around 120,000 people near the Iranian borders earn their living by working as porters.  

Iran porters

Iranian Regime’s Terrorism

Terrorism is one of the main levers of the Iranian regime’s foreign policy, and it has constantly used it in the past 40 years. The Iranian regime uses terrorism to eliminate dissidents and hostage-taking in its extortion campaign and keeping its balance in its relationship with other countries. The facts below are some examples of the Iranian regime’s terrorist activities in 2019.

January 8, 2019 – The European Union placed Assadolah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat and citizen, born in Tehran, with the passport number D9016657, Said Hashemi-Moghadam, Iranian citizen born in Tehran with the passport number D9016290 and Internal Security Management of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security of Iran, on its terrorist list.

Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung – June 1, 2019

The assassination of the four exiled Kurdish-Iranian politicians in the “Mykonos restaurant” in Berlin in 1992 almost led to the severing of all diplomatic relations between Iran and Germany.

The question is whether this lesson from the past still exists? Germany’s officials as high as the Chancellor have this concern that Iran has dispatched its assassination squads. Everywhere in Europe, the secret services ask: is this the beginning? Is there a threat of Iran’s new wave of assassinations amid tensions between Tehran and Washington?

As the federal government said, in an unprecedented action, six ambassadors, including Germany’s ambassador in Tehran gave a clear warning to the regime at its Foreign Ministry.

 Weekly An-Nahar ol Arabi Magazine – September 9, 2019

Former U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis in an interview with CNN on Sunday said Iran “is a country that uses terrorism, and that killed the former prime minister of Lebanon.

“When I was commander of Central Command, we caught Iran, not armed with a nuclear weapon, trying to murder an Arab ambassador two miles from the White House…,” said Mattis.

He added: “This is a country that uses terrorism, and that killed the former prime minister of Lebanon. They used terrorism trying to sow discord in Bahrain, and they have used terrorism all through the region, and in Yemen.”

Swedish newspapers – 17 October 2019

Swedish newspapers reported an Iranian, who was spying for ten years for the Iranian regime (including in the Netherlands), was arrested seven months ago.

Albania’s Top-channel TV – October 23, 2019

The Albanian Chief of Police revealed the terrorist network of the Qods Force in Albania. Peiman Peiman heads this network and Alireza Naghashzadeh is a member of this network. This network was pursuing a terrorist plot in March 2018.

Terrorist network of the Qods Force in Albania

Albanian media – January 15, 2020

Albania has expelled two Iranian diplomats of the Iranian regime’s embassy in Albania, by the names of Mohammad – Ali Arzpeima Nemati, an agent of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and Ahmad Hossaini Alast, the embassy’s cultural attaché, for having connections to the now-dead chief of the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force, and their participation in preparation for terrorist activities.

The US Department of Justice, January 15, 2020

Ahmadreza Mohammadi-Doostdar, 39, a dual U.S.-Iranian citizen, and Majid Ghorbani, 60, an Iranian citizen and resident of California, have been sentenced to prison terms of 38 months and 30 months, respectively, for their criminal convictions relating to their conduct conducting surveillance of and collecting identifying information about American citizens and U.S. nationals who are members of the group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)..

Council of Foreign Relation interview with Brian Hook, U.S. Special Envoy for Iran, Thursday, December 12, 2019

“Iran has been exporting ballistic missiles and rockets around the regime for many, many years.”

In the Iraq War, Iran is directly responsible for the deaths of 603 American soldiers. And then if you take that number and multiply it by the usual factor that DOD uses, that means thousands and thousands of soldiers who are maimed.

Since 2013 Iran—the regime has spent $16 billion in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen alone. And these money flows destabilize the Middle East, plain and simple.”

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