Prominent Critic Calls On Raisi To Step Down Amid Economic Crisis
The editor of one of Tehran's leading pro-regime newspapers has called on President Ebrahim Raisi to step down if he cannot solve Iran's economic problems.
The editor of one of Tehran's leading pro-regime newspapers has called on President Ebrahim Raisi to step down if he cannot solve Iran's economic problems.
While rising bread prices have turned even some of Raisi's supporters against him, Massih Mohajeri, the editor of Jomhouri Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper who usually criticizes the administration's policies wrote in an editorial on Saturday, "Now that it has become clear that you cannot solve the problems, step down bravely and leave the job to those who can do it and save the people from this dangerous quagmire."
The editorial charged that "Media close to the administration label those who criticize you for the problems you have created as counter-revolutionaries who work for Israel and the United States." It went on to say that some of Raisi’s supporters are also protesting the government's policies.
Mohajeri further asked, "The president should say how much time does he need to understand that problems cannot be solved by just talking and the government cannot be run in this way." He added: "Blaming all shortages on smugglers is not a solution,” and if that is the problem, why the government does not stop them.
Ukraine and nuclear talks with the US
"If the problem of flour shortage is caused by the war in Ukraine, why you don’t condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine and not try to stop Vladmir Putin from continuing the invasion, which threatens the livelihood of a major part of the world?" Mohajeri asked Raisi.
He also asked Raisi why he does not do anything to reach an agreement with the United States. "You said you will not tie the country's fate to the [nuclear] negotiations, but by not doing anything, you have created new problems for the nation."
Many in Iran know it is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who decides key foreign policy and other state matters, but semi-official media would not dare to blame the economic crisis directly on Khamenei.
Mohajeri addressed Raisi that "If the instability of the government and the current dangerous situation have not been created by infiltrators, then they must be attributed to the poor management of your economic ministers."
He reminded that the price of bread in Iran did not rise even during the war with Iraq in the 1980s. He warned that raising the price of flour and rationing bread are like setting fire to gunpowder. Further warning that there are several individuals affiliated with the deviant group [jargon referring to those close to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad], Mohajeri charged that these elements could be attempting to unseat the current government and asked Raisi to take this warning seriously.
Economic crisis main topic of media
On Saturday, most newspapers in Tehran which are usually silent about economic problems, covered the shortage of these items in extensive stories, although the government's own newspaper, Iran, and the hardline daily Khorasan claimed that people were happy about the situation and "over 62 percent of Iranians said they were happy about the government's performance in a poll that was conducted before the unusual bread price rise."
At the same time, Mostafa Hashemi Taba, a former presidential candidate, said in an interview published by Didban Iran website that "the Raisi Administration has totally lost its social capital." He said the government wants to be portrayed as a revolutionary government abroad, but it wishes to adopt liberal economic policies inside the country. He said there are only two solutions to the problem: Either the government should be able to distribute all of the people's needs, or it has to resort to rationing essential commodities.
Meanwhile, economist Hossein Raghfar told Khabar Online website that the government's policy over bread is not transparent. He dismissed the official statements about flour being smuggled out of Iran as "fabrication" and maintained that the problem is the falling value of the currency, which he said rose from 10,000 rials per dollar to 35,000 rials in 2011, and from 30,000 rials in Janyary 2018 to 320,000 rials in January 2021. He charged that rich people in power benefitted from all of these changes while they ignored the interests of the ordinary Iranians.
Some clerics and para-military organizations have warned that the sudden rise in the price of items such as bread could lead to protests and riots.
Meanwhile, journalists in Tehran Friday reported on Twitter that the price of bread has risen nearly five-fold in Tehran despite statements by economic officials that higher flour prices would not affect traditional bread bought at neighborhood bakeries and the rise will be limited to baguettes and other western-style rolls.
The Friday Prayer Imam of Tehran, Mohammad Hassan Abutorabi Fard, said in his sermon that the government should focus its efforts on improving the nation's livelihood. He called on the government to explain the reasons of recent price increases and to make sure people understand that the government strives to compensate the higher cost of living by introducing economic reform.
On Tuesday, in Eid al-Fitr sermons, other clerics including firebrand Ahmad Khatami promised that the economic situation will improve but did not say how. Kazem Seddiqi, another prayer leader in Tehran had also expressed concern over the consequences of rising prices.
On Friday, imams in cities including Dayyer, Bojnourd, Zahedan, Shar-e Kord, Bushehr, Kermanshah, as well as many other cities warned the government that people are suffering from rising prices of bread and other everyday necessities.
In Tehran, the commander of the students Basij militia of the IRGC warned President Ebrahim Raisi on Thursday that the situation could lead to a major riot in the country. Meanwhile, prominent reformist cleric Mohammad Taqi Fazel Maybodi also warned Raisi that "if the rise in prices is not controlled Iran should wait for riots more dangerous than a revolution."
Social media users in Iran on Friday shifted from complaints about the scarcity and high price of pasta to more serious complaints and warnings about the possible impact of the rising prices of all sorts of bread in Tehran.
Somaye Naghi, an economic journalist in Tehran wrote that they sent someone from the newspaper’s office to buy traditional stone-baked bread called Sangak, but they were told that the price has increased from 60,000 rials to 250,000 rials ($1) per loaf. She pointed out that's this comes while Raisi's Minister of Agriculture had promised the day before that the price of traditional bread will not rise and it will impact "luxury western-style" rolls.
In the meantime, many Iranian journalists have interpreted Vice President for Executive Affairs Solar Mortazavi's strong defense of doing away with cheap government dollars for importing essential commodities, including flour, as a sign that the living conditions for workers, teachers, pensioners and low wage earners will dramatically deteriorate.
The government has resorted to rationing bread in some cities and the general perception is that the practice is going to be widely introduced all over the country. Journalist Ameneh Mousavi wrote on Twitter that rationing has started in Zanjan.
None of the clerics who spoke about the rising price of bread on Friday talked about the impact of sanctions apparently because they find it difficult to explain why the country is under sanctions and why Iranian officials cannot negotiate with the United States to have the sanctions lifted. They fear this will offend Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who is responsible for major decisions, including the talks with the United States.
While the assumption behind the idea of creating a consolidated conservative government was to make it agile and efficient, even supporters of the government say a hardliner president and parliament have been unable to feed the people.
In recent weeks, prices of essential food items, such as cooking oil, flour and sugar have at least doubled.
According to moderate conservative Khabar Online, what was initially a dream, has become a challenge for the Islamic Republic. The heavy political cost of consolidation, wrote the website, fell on the shoulders of everyone including those who had designed the new system in which the main criterion for appointment of government officials is their loyalty to a single political group.
That group has one single trait and that is loyalty to the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The process started with facilitating a landslide victory for hardliners in the 2020 parliamentary elections and completed by doing the same in the 2021 presidential election, mainly by eliminating all the candidates that were not part of the hardliner conservative camp. Later in 2021, Khamenei appointed a well-known hardliner as Judiciary Chief, completing the handover of all power to loyal hardliners who soon got rid of anyone in the government who was not in their camp.
The keyword throughout the entire process was "change." And what was to be changed was presumably the worsening economic situation. However, ten months later, government officials including the president still blame "those who created the current situation.”
However, few openly say that the economic crisis, reflected in rapidly increasing food prices, is to an extent the result of sanctions imposed by the United States that can only be lifted if Khamenei agrees to resolve Iran’s nuclear dispute with the West.
Analysts coming from various political factions, even those at the IRGC-linked Fars news agency were saying that "the root cause of the country's problems was corruption, coupled with plundering of national resources by a well-connected few." They also thought a consolidated government can put an end to all that by getting rid of political rivalries.
But rivalries did not end. Last week, Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf suggested that the controversy about his family's luxury shopping in Turkey was engineered by his political rivals with the assistance of some intelligence agencies. Later in the week, a letter signed by 233 out of the 290 lawmakers was sent to Khamenei expressing support for Ghalibaf. This week, several lawmakers complained that the letter was supposed to be containing a pledge of allegiance to Khamenei and that they were not told it was to express support for Ghalibaf.
Meanwhile, while Raisi had promised to form a non-factional cabinet, he chose nearly all his ministers from among the ultraconservative Paydari Party and the officials of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's cabinet. The parliament also became divided into at least four factions of Paydari, Ahamdiejad's men, Ghalibaf's neo-con aides and traditional conservatives.
Former lawmaker Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi has said that the government has failed and now those who engineered the consolidated system should be held accountable. Some lawmakers includingMostafa Reza Hosseini Ghotbabadi have gone further and called on parliament to table a motion to unseat the President for incompetence. Ghotbabadi said that the Majles has been mulling the idea of Raisi's incompetency at least twice in recent months.