Iran's Parliament Speaker In Hot Water After Corruption Allegations
The Speaker of Iran's parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has come under fire from conservatives after being implicated in a major financial corruption case.
The Speaker of Iran's parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has come under fire from conservatives after being implicated in a major financial corruption case.
Many among the public and some reformist politicians have also demanded a serious probe, leaving the Speaker vulnerable to serious pressure.
Earlier this month a leaked audio tape resurfaced in which two top Revolutionary Guard generals, former commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari and his deputy for financial affairs Sadeq Zolqadrnia are heard discussing a major corruption case. The top-secret tape revealed that over $3 billion disappeared in an IRGC-linked company and is still unaccounted for after several years.
Ghalibaf’s name comes up in the recording as the lead person who as mayor of Tehran at the time wants to cover up the embezzlement by involving the city administration in a fake contract to account for the lost money.
Hardliner cleric Hamid Rasaei, who is a member of the largest ultra-conservative faction in parliament (Majles), has charged in an article that Ghalibaf's aides clamp down on anyone who even thinks that the Speaker was involved in financial corruption.
Rasaei wrote: "The members of a clan who worship Ghalibaf do not like anyone to talk about the matter or criticize him." He was pointing to those aides who have tried to protect Ghalibaf from corruption allegations using his friendship with former IRGC Qods Force commander Qasem Soleimani, killed in a US drone strike in January 2020.
If you do criticize Ghalibaf, said Rasaei in a series of tweets, then you will come under attack by the pro-Ghalibaf media artillery. He posted screenshots of articles on several websites that attacked him and reformist activist Mostafa Tajzadeh who has also asked why nobody probes the financial case involving Ghalibaf.
Ghalibaf supporters have argued that Soleimani knew about the dealings in question and therefore the affair had nothing corrupt in it.
Rasaei has also written to the head of the Iranian armed forces judicial office asking it to shed light on the contents of the leaked audio file, without mentioning Ghalibaf.
He also charged that Ghalibaf's media adviser has tarnished the image of the IRGC and Soleimani to protect his boss.
Meanwhile prominent conservative activist Hossein Kanani Moghaddam told the press that it was unfair to sacrifice Soleimani’s reputation to protect Ghalibaf. He called on IRGC commanders and particularly former commander Mohammad Ali Jafari to shed light on the case and not allow Ghalibaf’s aides to tarnish Soleimani's image. He called the actions of an aide "a plot against Soleimani and the IRGC," a damning accusation that could entail dangerous repercussions.
"It was an unmanly act to try to whitewash Ghalibaf's corruption by levelling accusations against Soleimani," Kanani Moghaddam said. He also called on Ghalibaf to be accountable for what he has done to save the IRGC's face.
The attacks on Ghalibaf are however, not solely motivated by a desire to restore justice. Most of the attacks come from the members and media outlets of the ultraconservative Paydari Party, Ghalibaf's main rival at the parliament. During the past two years, Ghalibaf gave or solicited top jobs for his rivals in Paydari to establish his role as the speaker of the Majles. Now Paydari appears to be poised to unseat Ghalibaf when an annual election for Majles Speaker is slated to take place.
The only one who can save Ghalibaf and help him out of the trouble, is Ghalibaf’s relative, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who saved him once by ordering everyone not to dwell on the case when it first surfaced in 2017.
"Raisi, Ghalibaf, This is the last call. Teachers' movement is prepared for an uprising", teachers chanted in protests in Shiraz, Fars province (video), and Shahr-e Kord in Chahr Mahal province (video), as well as Ilam in Ilam province, and around 50 other cities.
The same slogan appeared on banners and posters in all rallies, including Tehran where teachers protested in front of the parliament.
There were also chants against the state broadcaster (IRIB), which has not covered earlier protests. "Enough Oppression and Injustice. There's Nothing on Our Tables" and "The Country Has Become A Thieves' Den. Sanctions Are Only an Excuse," chanted protesters in Najafabad in Esfahan province, dismissing any notion that Iran’s economic troubles were anything to do with United States ‘maximum pressure’ imposed in 2018.
A female teacher in Anzali (video), Gilan province, lambasted Iran’s authorities for teachers’ ills. "We weren't the ones who looted the Melli (National) Bank, we weren't the ones who pillaged the Teachers' Savings Fund, we weren't the ones who looted the Development Fund. We don't own villas and gardens in Canada [like some former officials]. We weren't the ones who smuggled important national documents out of the country. We are right here, beside you. We are easy to find, we are in schools, classes and with your children, brothers, and sisters.”
And it didn’t stop there. "Taking the teachers by the neck, dragging them on the ground, kicking them, is nothing you could be proud of,” she opined. “You must take the looters and pillagers if order in the country is important, if security in the country is important.” A teacher in Esfahan said in her speech Tuesday who also said that after thirty years of service she now must work as a cab driver to make ends meet.
Equal pay with other civil servants
This was the fifth nationwide protest by teachers in the past two months as they demand implementation of decade-old legislation that would bring the salaries and pensions of 750,000 teachers in line with other civil servants.
The budget bill that President Ebrahim Raisi presented to parliament December 12 proposes a 14-percent increase in the education ministry's budget but does not earmark resources for a teachers’ pay rise.
Food prices have risen by more than 60 percent this year, on top of high inflation in the four years since a jump from 9.6 percent in 2017 to 30.2 percent in 2018 and around 40 percent in 2021.
Some scuffles were reported during the demonstrations on Tuesday and security forces arrested at least two more teachers, Solmaz Feyzollahzadeh in Karaj in Alborz Province and Ali Hasan-Bahamin in Shiraz in Fars Province.
Teachers, whose rallies are organized by the Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Union, also demanded the release of colleagues arrested in earlier protests. Shabnam Baharfar, a teacher arrested in Karaj Saturday, is still in custody but others arrested the same day have been released. Some scuffles were reported during the demonstrations on Tuesday.
The letter, which was signed by Western-based secular and liberal groups opposed to the Islamic Republic, addressed the leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, calling on them to end “the failed and catastrophic policy of negotiating with and appeasing the Islamic Republic”.
They told Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson, and Olaf Scholz that the regime with which they are engaged in talks “is the same fundamentalist regime that since its inception 43 years ago, has had terror, hostage-taking, and sabotage, as an integral part of its ideology and nature, and its most important tools for blackmailing the free world”.
Diplomats have said that nuclear talks, which began last April to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement (JCPOA), have made significant progress and a final deal is imminent soon. In case agreement is reached, Iran is set to receive billions of dollars of blocked funds and massive sanctions relief.
The signatories highlighted that the “Islamist revolutionary regime has carried out hundreds of terrorist attacks around world”, emphasizing that it has engaged in killings, bombings, and hostage taking, as well as issuing fatwas (decrees) for murder of innocent people.
This is “the same inhumane, misogynist, and anti-LGBTQ oppressive regime that, despite decades of attempts at dialogue and resolutions by the international community, still enforces medieval Sharia law,” which includes stoning, amputation, and flogging, the letter read.
The opposition groups stressed that the clerical government “carries out large-scale executions and imprisonments, often with the aim of suppressing and silencing political opponents”.
The Islamic Republic soon after its establishment cracked down on opposition and independent groups and has continued to ban civil society initiatives. Practically all opposition has been sent into exile or imprisoned.
They criticized the policy of the West, especially Europe, towards “this anti-Semitic regime,” saying “appeasement and the payment of ransoms in order to normalize and attempt to change the behavior of this inherently abnormal regime” have only emboldened it “in its terrorist activities, criminality, and nuclear and military ambitions”.
The signatories highlighted Iran’s track record of “insolence on the international stage and criminal suppression of the people”, stating that “Nearly two decades of counterproductive negotiations and flawed deals such as the JCPOA have only given the Islamic Republic a chance to buy time. By deceiving the international community, it has brought its nuclear and ballistic missile programs to an irreversible stage”.
Then opposition groups called for action, urging the three European powers “to put aside, once and for all, the failed and catastrophic policy of negotiating”, saying that now when the Islamic Republic is at the lowest level of popular legitimacy in its history it “is the time to choose another policy: Maximum support for the Iranian people to end more than four decades of medieval rule and replace it with a secular democratic system that serves Iran's national interests through peaceful coexistence and cooperation with neighbors and all countries in the world”.
“This is the only way to prevent the world's largest terrorist state from achieving the atomic bomb -- a catastrophe that will plunge the entire region into a nuclear arms race”, they wrote.
They asked the European leaders that instead of the Vienna talks they should “enter into a serious and effective dialogue with the democratic and national opposition of Iran, which wants a free and secular Iran”.
“Sooner or later, the Islamic Republic will be overthrown by the brave and courageous people of Iran, and the day after liberation, the Iranian people will remember who stood by them in difficult times and who aided their oppressors”, they concluded.