What Happened To Those Who Accompanied Khomeini To Tehran In 1979?

The president was speaking on the 43rd anniversary of the 1979 revolution on February 11, as government-organized marches and rallies took place across the country. The anniversary coincided with Friday prayers and Raisi delivered a speech at the venue of the weekly gatherings in Tehran University.

The celebrations were a hodgepodge of motorcycles and cars driving in streets and people marching on foot, although crowds were smaller than in previous years apparently because of the Covid-19 pandemic, although the government had not announced any restrictions.

Raisi emphasized economic self-reliance and diplomatic “balance” condemning any tilt towards the West. Self-reliance has been a persistent tenet of the Islamic Republic since its establishment in 1979, as its founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini campaigned against Iran’s alliance with the United States during the monarchy.

As relations deteriorated with Washington with the taking of US diplomats hostage in Tehran in November 1979, the motto of self-reliance became an alternative to maintaining cordial relations with the West. But its economic cost has been incalculable, with anemic growth for four decades and eventually confrontation over its nuclear program and severe sanctions.

Raisi’s remark about not pinning hopes on Vienna could be directed at the United States, as Washington warns little time remains for an agreement to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement. Iran’s economic situation in February 2022 is much worse than during any previous anniversary of its revolution. A nuclear agreement in Vienna could lift sanction imposed by former president Donald Trump and provide billions of dollars to the embattled government in Tehran.

Raisi’s remark about Vienna was not mentioned by state-controlled media immediately after his speech, but later they added the sentence to their reports. Videos showed that the president tried to sound decisive when he uttered the sentence.

No one knows what he meant when he mentioned New York alongside Vienna. Some began joking on social media that he probably meant Washington DC, but New York came to his mind as the capital of the United States.

Raisi came to office six months ago with lofty promises to improve the economy despite sanctions, but nothing has changed on the ground as high inflation and soaring food prices continue.

Iranian pundits and politicians have been warning of a social explosion if economic conditions do not improve in coming months. On Thursday, videos emerged of people shouting anti-regime slogans from their windows at night. “Death to Khamenei” chants were broadcast by loudspeakers in the bazaar in Mashhad on Thursday, as the PA system was apparently hacked, and a recording of incendiary slogans rang out for a while. Videos showed bewildered shopkeepers and shoppers listening to chants.

Raisi also emphasized “economic independence” but acknowledged that Iran has a long way ahead to achieve economic security. He emphasized the need for investments, while even in case of a nuclear agreement, large corporations would hardly take risks to invest because of a state-controlled economy, corruption and risk of sanctions returning.

Hossein Davari, governor of Iran’s second largest city and an important religious center, said that a recording on a USB device “was broadcast for a few seconds” in one part of the bazaar on Wednesday. He did not explain how the recording has reached the PA system.

People present in the bazaar have said that the PA system was hacked and for an extended time anti-Khamenei and anti-Khomeini messages were being broadcast.

In the videos loud voices are heard chanting “Death to Khamenei” and “Khomeini be damned”. Friday is the 43rd anniversary of Iran’s 1979 revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a conservative cleric who established the Islamic Republic.

In repeated mass protests since 2017, demonstrators often chanted “Death to Khamenei” and “Death to the dictator”.

Hackers had recently penetrated the government-controlled state television, interrupting regular programming had broadcasting anti-regime messages. A group calling itself ‘Edalat-e Ali’, or ‘Ali’s Justice’ claimed responsibility. The hackers’ group had also penetrated Iran’s prison system last year and recently, accessing files and CCTV footage.

The spokesman of the parliament's budget review committee, Rahim Zar’e, said on Wednesday that the barter has been approved by the committee.

IRGC’s Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters, which is the engineering arm of the IRGC and one of Iran's largest contractors in industrial and development projects, is set to allocate half of the amount to complete the construction of Grand Mosalla mosque of Tehran while the other half will be spent on similar projects across the country.

The Grand Mosalla (literally meaning prayer grounds or mosque) is a huge patch of land in Tehran that was proposed in 1982 to replace Tehran University as a location for the weekly Friday congregation. Its construction began in 1990 by the IRGC but the complex has not been completed and has largely served as a venue for exhibitions.

The administration of President Ebrahim Raisi is giving a lot of projects to different sections of the IRGC in return for crude oil that Tehran cannot sell due to sanctions, including a $3 billion project for rice production.

Involvement of the IRGC in business began in earnest two decades ago and has become a highly controversial issue in the country. Former president Hassan Rouhani in 2017 publicly criticized the practice and met a quick reaction by hardliners. He has to retract his statements at the time.

Iran has expanded barter to circumvent United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions, which threaten punitive action against any third party buying Iranian oil or dealing with Iran’s financial sector. Bartering oil for imports of animal feed and agricultural products has proved particularly viable.

The government has announced that 4.5 billion euros worth of crude oil will be put at the disposal of the armed forces to sell. This means the lion’s share will go to the IRGC, which must find middlemen and illicit ways to export the oil, giving rise to corruption.

Tehran’s city council has also announced its intention to hand over major projects to the Revolutionary Guard, despite serious allegation of large-scale corruption during the mayorship of a former IRGC general Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (2005-2017). He is now speaker of parliament

The same scenario happened during the administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the early 2010s, when for example the police was given oil to sell to provide for its needs. In the end it came to light that nearly $200 million in 2012 was never returned to the country.

A businessman, Babak Zanjani, who is now in jail with the death penalty hanging over his head, was a middleman selling oil during international sanctions also in the early 2010s. He failed to pay back at least $2.7 billion. His accomplices in the government were never identified. It would have not been easy for him to embezzle such a large amount of money without insider support.

The spokesman of teachers’ trade associations, which has organized several rounds of nationwide demonstrations, said on Thursday that the new directives are aimed at creating panic among the teachers, so they won’t hold more protests.

Mohammad Habibi revealed some copies of documents in his twitter account, saying that instead of responding to teachers' legitimate demands, education ministry officials have issued directives to school principals asking them to make sure that teachers are warned that attending rallies and sit-ins is against the law and they will face consequences if they take part in protests.

Teachers have planned to hold another round of protests and sit-ins from February 12 to 17 in many cities across the country.

During the latest round of the protests, teachers in 300 cities, town, and villages took part in the protests, and at least seven were arrested.

People from different walks of life, including nurses, firefighters, and even staff members of the judiciary department and prison guards, have held regular protest rallies or strikesto demand higher salaries.

Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent in recent months, on top of high inflation in the previous three years, while the government is unable to sufficiently boost wages as United States’ sanctions impede full capacity oil exports and international trade.

Farah Pahlavi, who married Mohammad Reza Shah at the age of 21 in 1959, is 83 years old and lives in Paris. She has come to be seen by many Iranians as a respected elder who campaigned for women’s rights during the secular monarchy.

The exiled queen said in a statement on Wednesday that she is certain “light will defeat darkness,” an implicit reference to pre-Islamic Iranian beliefs in a struggle between good and evil and the eventual triumph of light against darkness.

She expressed hope that all Iranians “who have the love of this ancient fatherland in their hearts” will unite to achieve victory over “gloom and hardships.”

In recent years as economic crisis and heavy-handed policies by the Islamic Republic have worsened, many Iranians have come to praise the Pahlavi dynasty for modernizing the country in the 20th century. On the anniversary of the revolution, many on social media condemn the 1979 revolution as a misguided step.

Islamic Republic’s top officials, increasingly disenchanted by the sharp turn in public mood, have reacted in their speeches and in government-controlled media. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei this week condemned foreign-based Persian broadcasters for showing conditions in Iran before the revolution.