Poking Fun At President Costs 'Empress Kuzcooo' Her Instagram Page

January 20, the government’s statistical center reported on Saturday.

The annual inflation rate stood at 42.4 percent during December 21-Jaunuary 20. The annual rate is calculated based on a basket of prices for the year ending in each month compared to the previous 12 months.

The point-to-point inflation rate, which compares prices in a particular month to the same period in the previous year, stood at 36.9 percent, the Statistical Center of Iran said.

The report says prices for food and rents had the highest jump last month. Previous reports has indicted that food prices were growing with an annual rate of above 60 percent.

Iran’s currency has fallen eightfold since early 2018, due to US sanctions and inflation has skyrocketed. Millions of working Iranian are now categorized as poor, with the middle class shrinking. A member of parliament’s budget committee recently announced that 20 million people are suffering from absolute poverty.

Teachers, industrial and healthcare workers have been protesting regularly demanding higher wages to keep pace with inflation. A typical worker earns between $120-150 a month, which in large cities is barely enough for rent. The government, faced with a large budget deficit is phasing out food subsidies in coming months.

As criticism of President Ebrahim Raisi's recent visit to Russia continues, critics say that Iran has become a "Colony for China and Russia.” Hardliner daily Kayhan, affiliated with the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has accused the critics of "Affiliation with the United States."

On Saturday, January 22, Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Mousavi Tabrizi, Iran's first ever Judiciary Chief, said an interview with reformist daily Arman that "Russia is not trustworthy. The Islamic Republic has been forced to signing long-term agreements with China and Russia because of international isolation."

Mousavi Tabrizi reiterated that because of its enmity with other countries Tehran has been forced to enter into deals with the two countries, adding that if it gives up its hostile approach, then it will not need such contracts. Meanwhile, he called on the government to publish the text of these agreements.

In another development, responding to questions about why Iranians have been kept in the dark, a clerical member of the presidium of the Iranian parliament (Majles), Alireza Salimi and another prominent lawmaker Mojtaba Zolnouri said that the Iranian government is not interested in disclosing the details of these deals.

In the meantime, Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in an interview with a Turkish TV network that secret agreements do not serve the nation's interest, adding that these deals will not be valid if they are not put to vote in the Iranian parliament.

In yet another example of opposition to secret deals, Mohammad Zare-Foumani, a young cleric who is the managing editor of proreform newspaper Sedaye Eslahat (Voice of Reforms), said at a gathering of Iranian political parties on Thursday: "Iran has become a colony of China and Russia, the two countries that have destroyed Iran's economy." Founmani also called for the publication of the full text of the long-term contracts with China and Russia.

The document with China was signed last March by the foreign ministers of Iran and China but its contents remain confidential. Ali Rabiei, the spokesman for the Rouhani administration had said in late March 2021 that the Iranian government has no problem with disclosing the details of its contracts, "but the Chines have a different view about this."

On Friday, Yaqub Rezazadeh, a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said that the reason for keeping the deals secret is that Iran does not want Western countries to find out about the details and use them to obstruct Iran's progress.

The Kayhan newspaper has said that the critics are individuals who dream about a secular pro-Western government in Iran, adding that the United States is counting on these individuals.

Last week, during a visit to China, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the implementation of the 25-year contract with China has started. China acknowledged this one day later.

IRGC-linked news agency IRGC-affiliated Tasnim harshly criticized Amir-Abdollahian's statement about Iran's decision to have balanced ties with East and West and ruled out anything other than reliance on China and Russia. On Friday, some prayer Imams, particularly in Isfahan and Rasht, praised Russia and China in such an exaggerated way that according to Asr Iran website, "even China and Russia have never claimed to be that good!"

Mohammad Fazeli, a professor of sociology at Beheshti University, and Arash Abazari, a philosophy professor at Sharif University, were dismissed in the last few days.

Abazari is well-known for his book Hegel's Ontology of Power: The Structure of Social Domination in Capitalism, which was published by Cambridge University Press. Fazeli’s works focus on sociology of politics and science, especially in the energy sector.

The Islamic Republic has conducted several ‘cleansing’ operations in universities, firing professors that it has deemed not committed to the regime.

The most widespread firings took place right after the 1979 revolution and was peaked again during the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who forced many professors into retirement.

Kaave Lajevardi, a fellow philosopher and translator, called it a disgrace for Iran’s education system, saying that Abazari is not tolerated while many are busy Islamizing the universities.

Abdonnaser Hemmati, the former head of Iran’s central bank who run for president last June, has protested to Fazeli’s firing and called on President Ebrahim Raisi to intervene.

Renowned reformist Abbas Abdi described such dismissals as part of a larger process to destroy the institution of science in Iran.

In an interview with ILNA on Saturday, Brigadier General Mehdi Hajian said several measures have been taken to improve the living conditions of law enforcement personnel.

“One of the main concerns of the general command is the livelihood of its staff and personnel”, he said, noting that negotiations are underway to provide further funding for the forces.

The news about several raises for security personnel comes as teachers, nurses, industrial workers and others have been protesting for higher salaries amid high inflation, but the government says it cannot afford to pay substantially higher salaries.

Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent in recent months, on top of high inflation in the previous three years. Government figures show that prices for 83 percent of basic food staples have reached a critical level. People living on salaries have cut back on nutritious food, such as meat, fruits and dairy products.

Earlier in the week, hundreds of firefighters held a demonstrationin Tehran to protest their poor living conditions, and last week hundreds of staff members from Iran’s judiciary department took to the streets in several cities while teachers and pensioners have held several rounds of nationwide protests.

Every week a new conservative group emerges on the Iranian political scene. Groups that already existed but were less visible, are given a wider exposure on national TV.

Even compared to Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and his aides who call themselves "neo-cons," the new conservatives, the likes of Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, are far more ruthless in their quest for power, according to some local media.

While traditional conservatives started forging alliances following former President Hassan Rouhani's victory in the 2013 presidential election, this time, it is a new generation of conservatives that is marching to occupy positions of power and to get ready for the next parliamentary elections in February or March 2024.

Last week, the party known as the Selfless Devotees of the Islamic Revolution held its congress in Tehran. With two other parties, The Society of Sacrificial Warriors, and the Society of Wayfarers, the three groups are known in the Iranian political circles as the Conservative Triplet. The names these groups use can be defined as super-revolutionary labels, but in fact their leaders are nothing more than typical political actors in an authoritarian system who want a bigger piece of the pie.

Currently, Iran’s parliament is dominated by the hardliner Paydari group, which has not always followed signals coming from the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The re-emergence of the triplet with new momentum, could be Khamenei's policy to introduce them as his favorite so that they could replace Paydari in 2024.

Apart from their leaders, most of the members of the three parties have been hitherto unknown. The Sacrificial Warriors come from a background of former revolutionary guards (IRGC), the Wayfarers are former, or current Basij militia members and the Selfless Devotees are the family members of the veteran soldiers of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.

After Alireza Zakani took office as the Tehran Mayor last summer, many of the members of the Sacrificial and the Wayfarers have joined the Tehran municipality as managers. Meanwhile, as some newspapers in Tehran have noted, members of all the three parties frequently take part in news and current affairs programs on state television in a bid to build recognition and credibility for the future.

The Selfless Devotees have their roots in a pre-1979-armed group, which would have been characterized as terrorist if it was active today. The group's name was Saf (Rank) and its members included Yahya Rahim Safavi the former IRGC commander and the current military adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Low-ranking members of that group included current IRGC General Esmail Kowsari who has been a member of the Iranian parliament three times so far and every time he immediately went back to the IRGC to serve as a security officer. Kowsari was, for some time, the secretary-general of the party.

All three groups were formed in the 2000s when the IRGC was beginning to become a major political and economic power in Iran.

Among the three groups, the Sacrificial Warriors is politically more important than the others and has been involved in making all the major decisions of the conservative camp. Former President Ahmadinejad was a member of the central council of this party when he became Iran's president in 2005. Its members include powerful conservative politicians such as Ali Darabi and Hassan Fadaei. The former was the deputy chief of the state television under three different heads of the state TV.

It appears that the three groups are preparing to seize the parliament and dominate the presidential administration as the "young revolutionaries" Khamenei wants for his ‘second step of the revolution,’ his jargon for his vision of Iran in the next 40 years.