Netanyahu Discusses Iran Threat With Lithuanian PM

The Ecoiran website quoted a Central Bank source last month who claimed inflation in the first Iranian month of the year (March 21-April 20) rose by 68.7%. Just in that one-month prices jumped 5.2 percent, with the previous month witnessing another substantial hike of 6.6 percent.

However, Mohammadreza Farzin, the Head of the Central Bank promised on Monday that inflation will have a noticeable decrease next month.

One year ago, the rial was trading at around 300,000 to the dollar, while in early May it dropped to as low as 550,000 but currently it stands at 490,000.

The rial’s catastrophic drop tells the story of inflation in Iran. The country must import a large part of its food, animal feed, medicines, raw materials, and finished goods it needs. As the local currency loses value, imports become more expensive and higher prices have to be passed on to consumers.

Although large-scale anti-regime protests in the fall of 2022 were driven by social and political oppression, the current economic crisis is also making hopeless young people restive. Also, labor unrest began to rise in 2023, as workers’ real incomes declined in value.

Price inflation is highest in the food sector, which even last year was estimated to have been between 70-100 percent. Recent reports have spoken of lower-income families cutting down on nutritious food and being unable to afford many types of fruits and vegetables.

Ahmad Alirezabeigi told Sharq daily on Monday that the ban imposed on him is illegal and the parliament has not informed him in this regard.

Alirezabeigi revealed in late April that over seventy SUVs were offered to lawmakers at a lower price by the ministry of industry ahead of lawmakers’ discussions of a motion in December last year to impeach former minister of industry, Reza Fatemi-Amin.

The minister was accused by at least 40 members of parliament of “inadequate performance” including failure to control rising prices for domestically produced vehicles, their low quality, preventing competitive imports, and corruption in the industry.

More than 200 members of parliament have sent text messages to the public or told the media that they were never involved in the scheme and did not benefit from it.

The media published a list of others who have not denied receiving the SUVs. These include both supporters of Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and hardliner Paydari Front lawmakers.

The whistleblower MP was indicted for “making a claim without evidence” in May but claims the parliament and its presiding board have violated the law.

He claims to have sent a letter to the judiciary regarding the issue of the SUVs and the authorities told him a "committee from the Prosecutor General's Office" will be appointed to deal with the issue.

“As a result of the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs… 101 Afghan prisoners were transferred again in Nimruz in connection with the agreement reached with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry on Monday.

Fazl Mohammad Haqqani, Chargé d'affaires of the Afghan Embassy in Tehran told Radio Farda, the Persian Service of Radio Free Europe in Prague that “250 to 260 more prisoners will be handed over to the Islamic Emirate at Islam Qala border on Wednesday.”

According to Haqqani, the prisoners were mostly incarcerated on charges of drug trafficking and fighting, but none of them were sentenced to death.

Human rights organizations had earlier announced at least six Afghan citizens were executed in Iranian prisons and some more have received the death penalty.

At least 457 Afghan prisoners were also handed over to Afghanistan by Iranian authorities back in March, amid deep concerns over the Taliban's human rights record.

Despite international pressure not to recognize Kabul's government, Tehran is handing over the inmates to the Taliban which may put their lives in danger.

Afghanistan's embassy was also handed over to the Taliban by Iran, provoking outrage among Afghans.

However, the tensions over the water share of Iran from the Helmand River have strained the ties between Tehran and the Taliban.

Iran has accused Afghanistan's Taliban of violating a 1973 treaty by restricting the flow of water from the river to Iran's parched eastern regions, an accusation denied by the Taliban.

In May, Iranian Deputy Trade Minister Alireza Peyman-Pak made the announcement that VTB would be the first Russian bank with a direct presence in Iran, but this was quashed by Andrei Kostin, the bank's CEO.

“We are not going to open a bank in Iran. We opened a representative office, and two people work there," he said, speaking to Reuters.

The CEO explained that the office is simply a contact point where requests can be submitted, claiming that VTB does not plan to "majorly change" the geography of its presence.

After Russia's war against Ukraine, VTB was one of the Russian banks that was completely sanctioned by the United States and the European Union and banned from operating in European countries.

The bank has subsequently been forced to close its branches in Europe and Africa and has only branches now, in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam.

According to Iranian regulations, representative offices of foreign banks only play the role of liaison between the bank and Iranian organizations and companies.

The boy, Kian Pirfalak died when security forces fired at his family car for no apparent reason. Almost overnight, the child became a symbol of regime brutality on social media and during street protests. 

Sunday was his 10th birthday and the people of his town Izeh, in the oil-rich province of Khuzestan, tried to gather at the cemetery to commemorate him but faced both regular police and forces sent by the Revolutionary Guard which had deployed in the town to prevent possible protests.

Pouya Molaei-Rad, an 18-year-old student and cousin of Kian’s mother was shot and killed by security agents near the cemetery in unclear circumstances. Eyewitnesses say that there was a confrontation with the police. A video showed the multiple gunshot wounds on the chest.

The government immediately alleged that the young man was driving toward the cemetery when he hit three security personnel and was shot multiple times, dying in hospital later. But the wounds on the victim's chest seem like straight shots, which many people see as evidence that he was not shot inside the car.

The circumstances of the shooting are not entirely clear. Some say he was caught off-guard by the sudden appearance of security forces on the road as he was driving, while the government says he intentionally ran over security agents.

Nevertheless, the incident has turned into a rallying cry for all regime opponents in Iran and abroad.

The child victim and his 18-year-old relative come from the large and fiercely independent Bakhtiari tribal people, which have to a large extent become urbanized, but maintain kinship loyalties.

Their killings will for a long time antagonize ethnic Bakhtiaris toward the Islamic regime. In the tribal culture, no one can rest until revenge is exacted for the killing of a blood kin.

As Kian Perfalak was laid to rest on November 18, his mother Mahmonir (Zaynab) Molaei-Rad made a fiery speech at her son’s grave. She conveyed a strong message of protest against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who she seemed to hold directly responsible for her son’s killing.

Iranian opposition figures abroad issued messages Sunday as soon as the news of Molaei’s killing emerged.

Exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi tweeted: “The criminal regime has murdered another of our youth. The name of Pouya Molai-Rad, this young Bakhtiari patriot, has become eternal. This child-killing regime, however, is not eternal.”

He added that the “evil” regime “will be removed and the perpetrators of the murder of Iranian children and youth will face trial. This is a national and unbreakable promise.”

Alireza Akhondi, an Iranian-born member of Sweden’s parliament and an active opposition figure said in a Persian tweet that the day when the “criminal regime will be toppled with the will of the people” is not too far away and vowed that the perpetrators of regime crimes will be held responsible.

US-based opposition figure Masih Alinejad tweeted that even family members of Moalei-Rad and Pirfalak have been arrested after Sunday’s incident.

“The Islamic Republic has become one of the world’s top executioners of its own citizens. The only way the clerical regime has engaged with an educated youthful society is through the muzzle of a gun,” Alinejad said.

Hossein Ronaghi, an opposition activist in Iran and a former political prisoner praised Mahmonir Molaei-Rad, saying that Kian’s mother “is the darling of hearts in Iran…”