Outspoken Politician Says Iran Involved In Killing Half A Million Syrians

In a new interview published Monday in the reformist newspaper Shargh, Zahra Majd and her husband Hossein Asadi-Lari, who lost their children when flight PS752 was shot down January 8, 2020, disclosed their family had sued Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).

Iran has said the Ukrainian Airways plane was shot down because a of “human error” at a time of high alert due to a possible United States attack, leading to the civilian airliner being misidentified. The lawsuit brought against Shamkhani claims the SNSC was responsible for not closing Iran’s airspace on the day of the incident and was involved in the deliberate downing of the plane.

The IRGC Aerospace Commander Amir-Ali Hajizadeh took overall responsibility for the downing of the plane three days after the incident.

Monday’s interview came a day after the publication of the family's two other interviews with Ensaf News and the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), when the family, breaking a silence of two years, alleged the missiles were intentionally fired at the plane to prevent US retaliation against Iran for a missile attack on US bases in Iraq just hours earlier, itself in response for the US killing Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and nine others in Baghdad.

Majd told Shargh that over a month after the incident, when visiting to express condolences, a visit implying he expected the family to accept their loss with stoicism, Salami had said the incident had prevented 10 million from being killed in a war with the US, making her children martyrs.

The family believes Salami's remarks, which he asked them to keep confidential, proves the flight was downed intentionally and not through human error.

This is the first time that one of the victims' families living in Iran has made such allegations in press interviews. Mohsen Asadi-Lari is a former high-ranking health ministry official.

Majd and her husband said that for three days after January 8 they had refused to believe that the plane had been targeted by Iran’s defense forces. Majd complained that the state broadcaster (IRIB) never talked to victims' families even though they had shunned foreign media, which she alleged would distort their remarks.

But she told Shargh that she would not talk to IRIB even if asked. “They will manipulate it to get what they want even if they talk to us," she told Shargh, accusing authorities of rigidly controlling the trial and court sessions, as well as private memorial ceremonies held by families and inscriptions on victims' gravestones. "We are not free to do and talk as we want."

Majd and her husband insisted that the ten low-ranking military personnel on trial are not the real culprits. Her husband claimed the person named as the operator of the air-defense system, referred to by the initials M.KH, was an expert in the Tor-M1 surface-to-air system that shot down the plane and that it was unbelievable that he had made such an error.”

"Hajizadeh [the IRGC aerospace commander] was indicted but his prosecution was prohibited,” Majd told Shargh. “This is very important. He has been indicted but [will not be prosecuted] no matter how much we shout… We found out about this in our private meeting [with the judge presiding the trial].”

With 174 in favor and 76 against, the bill proposed for the Iranian year starting March 21 will go through further examination in the budget committee tasked with reconciling differences and improving details.

The major issue expected to impact the population is the elimination of an indirect subsidy the government pays to make imports of essential foods and medicines cheaper amid high inflation for the past three years. Importers of essential goods receive US dollars at roughly one-seventh of the free market rate.

The scheme was launched as Donald Trump’s administration prepared to leave the Obama-era nuclear agreement (JCPOA), throwing Iran’s economy off the hinge by threatening sanctions. As the national currency began to fall in early 2018, the government fixed the rate for US dollars at 42,000 rials for importers of essential goods. The rial kept falling to the current level of around 280,000 to the dollar.

The government spent at least $10 billion dollars a year to finance the subsidy and when President Ebrahim Raisi came to office last August his administration began signaling that it would stop the subsidy.

As talks to restore the nuclear agreement and lift US sanctions dragged on in 2021, Iran’s economic crisis worsened to the point that financing the subsidy apparently became a problem.

In the meantime, annual inflation reached almost 50 percent despite the subsidy. Many now fear that lifting it would further fuel price rises for the very commodities that ordinary people need most.

Many lawmakers in the Sunday session opposed the move, but it seems the die is cast. However, opponents fear that removing the subsidy will especially fuel inflation in food prices, which have already topped general inflation. In recent months the cost for food increased between 60-70 percent compared with last year.

Politicians inside the regime and pundits fear that people will not tolerate any further price increases, and that can lead to unrest and threaten the regime. Even if US sanctions are lifted in the next few months, it would take a long time to bring inflation down. Salaries have woefully lagged behind inflation and workers from all sectors are demanding substantially higher wages. Salaries must be at least doubled to save the middle class from poverty.

A typical worker gets around $120 to $200 a month, while rents and other daily necessities have risen with the fall of the national currency, keeping pace with the value of the US dollar. Mehdi Asgari, a lawmaker warned during debate that “Ten million families have fallen below the poverty line” and stopping the subsidy will bring about a shock to many who would not be able to afford even “bread and cheese.”

At the same time the budget bill proposes to raise taxes for generating 62 percent more revenues. Lawmakers warned that this would stifle whatever production is left in the country.

President Ebrahim Raisi who attended Sunday’s parliament session said, “It is not possible that we would eliminate the preferred exchange rate without finding a way to ensure people’s livelihood.”

The government has been promising cash handouts to lower classes to help them cope, but the amounts mentioned are a few dollars a month.

Asgari, the lawmaker who opposed eliminating the subsidy, gave a “serious warning” to the president, saying that people cannot afford “such a high inflation.”

The rial fell to around 305,000 against the US dollar in early December as prospects for an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program dimmed in Vienna. Tehran has been negotiating with world power since last April to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA) that limited its uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting international sanctions.

On Sunday the US dollar was trading at 278,000 rials in Tehran’s non-official currency exchanges which reflect the street value of the currency.

Since the United States withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and imposed its own sanctions, the rial began falling with little support, as Iran lost most of its oil exports. It fell from 34,000 in late 2017 to 305,000 one month ago against the dollar.

It is not clear if rial’s partial recovery is supported by government intervention in the market or is purely psychological due to more optimistic statements by diplomats that the Vienna talks are making headway. If an agreement is reached, most US economic sanctions will be lifted providing Tehran with desparately needed foreign currencies.

Voters on Chess.com, an internet server, news and networking website with 77 million global users, chose him as the ‘Rising Star’ of 2021, and ranked him second as ‘Player of the Year.’ Firouzja’s game against Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport was judged the third best game of 2021.

Magnus Carlsen, the 31-year-old world chess champion, was voted Player of the Year. In December, Carlsen in a blog post wrote he was unlikely to play another match defending his title unless against someone from the “next generation,” which was taken to mean Firouzja, second in world rankings.

Firouzja won the Iranian championship aged 12 and was a grandmaster at 14. He is the second-youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2700, which he did at 16. In December 2019 Firouzja became the first-ever Iranian male chess player to come second in the World Rapid Chess Championship in Moscow.

Firouzja renounced his Iranian citizenship in 2019 over pressure to forfeit matches with Israeli competitors, and now competes as a French citizen at international tournaments.

Iran is among states that do not recognize the state of Israel, a refusal that goes back to the pronouncement by 1979 Revolution leader Ruhollah Khomeini that Iran could have formal relations with any state in the world other than Israel or apartheid South Africa. Tehran prohibits sportspeople from playing against Israeli competitors or pressures them to intentionally lose games so as to avoid competing with Israelis.

Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, has often praised Iranian athletes who refuse to play against Israelis, and in September 2021 said they should continue to do so even if facing punishment by international sports bodies.

In November 2020, vice-President of the International Chess Federation Nigel Short warned Iran's Chess Federation that it could be banned from international events if Iranians were not allowed to compete against Israelis.

There have been other sporting and cultural boycotts of Israel in recent years. In 2018 Argentinian soccer players including Lionel Messi refused to play a friendly game in Jerusalem because the ground was on the site of a razed Palestinian village. This week, more than 20 acts withdrew from the Sydney Festival because of Israeli funding. But the Islamic Republic’s ideological basis for its boycott is much more radical. Iranian officials have often called for Israel’s destruction and are supplying arms and money to militant groups.

Among dozens of Iranian athletes who have emigrated over the past two decades, some said they did so because officials forced them to lose titles by refusing to compete against Israelis.

The internationally renowned chess player Ghazal Hakimifard gave up Iranian nationality in 2020 in protest and plays for Switzerland.

Some female athletes say they have left the national team because of mandatory hijab (dress code). Grandmaster Mitra Hejazipour was expelled from the chess team for removing her headscarf during international tournaments.

Political observers in Iran and abroad are waiting to see how true is the alliance between the hardliner government and the likeminded "revolutionary" parliament.

During the past weeks, many observers, including some prominent lawmakers have been criticizing the budget bill, characterizing it as " incoherent, risky and chaotic." According to moderate-conservative new website Khabar Online, the issue of doing away with the preferential rate of exchange of 42,000 rials per US dollar will be the focal point of the differences between the Majles and the administration.

This is the rate by which the government allocates dollars for importing essential commodities, such as basic food staples and medicines. The government is planning to cut what is regarded as a subsidy, except for buying wheat and medicine. The result is expected to be further inflation that some fear an end to the patience of low-paid Iranians who could launch protests.

In November 2019, a hike in fuel prices immediately led to nationwide protests that ended with security forces using military ammunition to kill at least 1,500 unarmed people.

According to Khabar Online, critics at the Majles say this is a high-risk budget bill that is not likely to curb the rising poverty rate in Iran. The lawmakers also fear that higher prices might prompt potential voters not to support them in the next election. The administration's daily newspaper, Iran, however, dismisses any criticism by the Majles simply as tactic by lawmakers for extracting concessions from the administration and share the power with the executive.

Raisi has said that he does not believe subsidizing essential commodities can help the country survive the current economic crisis. His critics at the Majles argue that the government should not try to bridge its huge budget deficit at the expense of the people. They further suggest that Raisi should start to reform the country's administrative structure.

Many parliamentarians have pointed out the perils of doing away with the preferential rate of exchange, and Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has said that "the problem is not money, it is about not having good governance and not getting the people involved in the country's management."

Meanwhile, experts at the Majles Research Center have said that the budget for the year starting in March has a deficit between 3,000 to 6,000 trillion rials. They called on the government to reform its economic and administrative systems.

Meanwhile, as moderate conservative Aftab News website pointed out, Raisi's economic team does not appear to have a roadmap for the country's economy. Like many other media outlets and politicians, Aftab News has also highlighted the lack of coordination among the members of Raisi's economic team.

During the past six months when Raisi was putting together his team, many in and out of the Majles warned him about the danger of having people from different walks of life and little experience in managing the economy as a team.

Khorasan daily pointed out in September that the members of this team come from many different offices and that they have never worked with each other before. Most of them never had challenging executive jobs and have been simply spending hefty state budgets at their disposal in their previous posts.

Hardline lawmaker Elias Naderan has said that lack of coordination among the members of Raisi's economic team is a major cause for concern. Naderan also called on Raisi to announce who is in charge and who determines policy. Another hardliner economist, Ahmad Tavakoli also criticized the lack of coordination in an interview with Sharq daily and warned that "The people can tolerate high prices and inflation only up to a point.”