Iran’s President Faces Four Major Disagreements With Parliament
Relations between Iran's president and parliament are not as smooth as many had expected in June 2021 when conservatives came to dominate both institutions.
Relations between Iran's president and parliament are not as smooth as many had expected in June 2021 when conservatives came to dominate both institutions.
According To Jahan-e Sanaat newspaper in Tehran, disagreements between parliament (Majles) and President Ebrahim Raisi are mainly in four areas: A controversial petrochemical plant, a bill to restrict internet access, discontinuing cheap dollars for essential imports and the motions planned by a sizeable group of lawmakers to unseat Raisi's economic ministers.
The petrochemical plant, that is still being built despite strong opposition by Raisi and his Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, is a project that has faced strong opposition by locals and environmentalists. The location in northern Iran by the Caspian Sea is near a natural reserve which is ecologically vulnerable, and the area is too densely populated for a project whose first outcome for the region will be pollution.
Widespread opposition to the project has reached a sensitive point as media has revealed that the man behind the project is allegedly a corrupt individual who has borrowed money from state banks under two different identities and has refused to pay back a $50-million loan after many years.
The only top official who has supported the project in public is Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf who is now quietly at loggerheads with Raisi over the issue.
The second area of disagreement is a bill to restrict internet access which particularly targets foreign social media platforms. The bill is ironically called "The Protection Bill" as its advocates claim that is meant to protect users from the perils of social media.
Raisi opposes the bill mainly because he knows that there are 1.7 million small businesses active on Instagram that provide jobs to around nine million Iranians. Banning access to social media will add those nine million to millions of other hungry bellies Raisi has to feed.
Some have said that Raisi also knows the country still lacks the infrastructure to replace the Internet with a local intranet network. So, he fears that the state’s administrative, financial and health systems as well as many public services might collapse and create even more problems for a government that already faces a host of hard issues.
The third disagreement between the Majles and the administration is the preferential rate of 42,000 rials per US dollar allocated for importing essential food and medicine. Lawmakers, who have come on board claiming to be revolutionaries, believe this is the only area they can have an impact by cutting a major source of potential corruption by individuals who have misused the cheap dollars to make profits in businesses that have nothing to do with essential imports.
Here too, Raisi knows that cutting off the subsidy will further increase the cost of living and will land his administration in trouble by creating the risk of street protests.
Finally, is the motion planned by over 50 of parliament's lawmakers to impeach Raisi's economic ministers including Industry Minister Reza Fatemi Amin and Labor Minister Hojjat Abdolmaleki who are believed to be his most vulnerable aides. Political circles in Tehran seem to be quite certain that the industry minister will be leaving the administration during the coming weeks.
These are only the main outstanding problems between the Majles and Raisi. Other problems such as the claim by some lawmakers that the administration has kept them in the dark about the nuclear negotiations also make matters worse, if lawmakers conclude that Raisi is in a weak position.
Borna news agency has reported that a man behind three companies licensed to build the project is a shady character who already owes a lot of money to government banks.
President Ebrahim Raisi ordered a new halt to the controversial petrochemical project until "ambiguities about its environmental impact" are removed, interior minister said Sunday.
On April 10, after intense controversy over the environmental impact of the project and shady records of the company behind it, Raisi called an immediate halt but media reports said the company has continued construction on the 90 hectare site close to the Miankaleh UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve.
Environmental activists have been campaigning to stop the project due to expected adverse impact on the coastal region and its wildlife and have even urged Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to intervene. The land earmarked for the project is also said to be high-quality agricultural public land.
Borna news agency said Foulad Alborz Iranian (FAICO), one of the subsidiaries of Amirabad-e Mazandaran Limited, is at the top of the list of individuals and companies which owe massive sums to the government-owned Tose'e Saderat Bank. Iran's state banks have been publishing lists of their 'super borrowers' with largest debts this week.
Borna said it had acquired documents that showed the guarantee for the payment of the loans had been made by the company's major shareholder, Abbas Abdi, who is also a major shareholder of several other companies active in Mazandaran Province including those involved in the petrochemical project.
Individuals and entities who borrow large sums from state banks through their connections with politicians, bureaucracy or the military are known as ‘super-borrowers’ in Iran. They usually get the multi-million-dollar loans pretending to have job-creating projects, but often use the money for other purposes or simply take it out of the country and never repay. The same connections they have, often protect them from prosecution and at most they lose worthless collaterals to banks. It is believed that officials who help ‘super-borrowers’ have a stake in the schemes.
The news agency also published the image of a ruling by the justice department of Tehran that shows Abdi was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud in 2020, in absentia. No one knows if he is now in Iran or not.
Borna said FAICO owed over 13 trillion rials ($52 million in current exchange rate) to Tose'e Saderat Bank for two foreign currency loans it received at government subsidized rates in 2016, and the interest and that the collateral offered by Abdi for the loans is worth only one-third of the sum of the original loan.
The report also suggested that Abdi who has a record of failing to pay back huge loans as well as fraud was helped by persons or entities in powerful centers to get the license to launch the petrochemical megaproject.
Several powerful figures including Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the governor of Mazandaran Province and the Friday Prayer Imam of the region have strongly and publicly defended the project and some hardliners have gone as far as saying opponents of the project are in essence opponents of the Supreme Leader, thus trying to accuse them of a political crime.
Javan newspaper linked with the Revolutionary Guard carried an editorial on April 14 criticizing Raisi's latest order to lower rising prices.
The president, seeming incapable of controlling consumer inflation, had called on government watchdogs to look "behind the scenes” to find the culprits he called the mafia. Javan pointed out that the "Mafia has infiltrated the body of the government and culprits for rising prices were in fact Raisi's own colleagues in his administration."
The daily further warned that if there is a hidden hand behind the scenes, it means the government is not in control of the country's economy.
The editorial insisted that the administration has a contract with the nation, made promises, accepted responsibility and created some expectations, but it has taken too long, and nothing has been accomplished.
The newspaper also questioned why there are so many mafias in the economy, including the car mafia, the medicine mafia, the potato mafia and so on. It charged that no mafia can exist without infiltrating the body of the government. It concluded, "So, the mafia is the same as the government's managers!"
The IRGC-linked paper then called on Raisi to uproot these mafias based in government buildings in the same way one would uproot the weeds in a garden.
While Javan criticized Raisi, it is well known that the IRGC is a major player in the economy, having been accused repeatedly of building up a business empire through its political influence and hidden networks.
In another development, former lawmaker Mansoor Haghighatpoor told Khabar Online website that Raisi was not involved in choosing his cabinet ministers and others did it for him. He did not name the "others" but vaguely referred to them as "pressure groups who did their job independent of Raisi's will.”
Like the Javan editorial, the former MP said that Raisi has failed to solve major problems facing the country, and now the people expect him to solve small problems such as potato and tomato shortages.
Haghighatpoor said that one of Raisi’s biggest problems is lack of expertise among his ministers.
He said everyone knew during the June 2021 presidential election that the candidates who were barred from running for president had far better qualifications than those who were approved – including Raisi.
Referring to intractable problems such as rising prices and unemployment, Haghighatpoor said he was sure Raisi will soon start to reshuffle his cabinet.
Politicians on social media were also certain during the weekend that Industry Ministry Reza Fatemi Amin and Labor Minister Hojjat Abdolmaleki will have to leave the Raisi administration soon.
This comes while several members of the parliament, including Jalal Mahmoudzadeh, a lawmaker for Mahabad have said that the Majles presidium has so far prevented lawmakers from tabling the impeachment motion to dismiss quite a few cabinet ministers.
Although over 50 Iranian lawmakers have long called for the impeachment of ministers in Raisi's economic team, Raisi has not commented on the matter.
Another person who is silent about general dissatisfaction with the government is Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who has maintained public silence.
A few political activists such as reformist commentator Javad Emam have said that changing the ministers will not make the situation any better as everyone else in Raisi's circle of friends and acquaintances also lacks executive experience and a thorough understanding of the country's economic problems.
In a tweet Thursday, the embassy wrote that Iran and its islands in the Persian Gulf were “safe for all including Britons and World Cup fans from around the world to enjoy the beauties of this land,” and that “Iranian civilizational and historical identity cannot be distorted by Times.”
In an article Wednesday headlined "No Room in Qatar? Enjoy the World Cup From An Iranian Island," the Times scoffed at Iran’s readiness to host soccer fans and its considering waiving visa requirements for Kish and other islands.
"Alcohol is banned, British nationals are regularly picked up on spurious charges of spying and only two weeks ago female football fans were pepper-sprayed for having the cheek to attend an international match,” the Times wrote. In Qatar itself, strict laws banning alcohol consumption may be waived during the World Cup for foreigners in hotels if not in stadiums.
Despite an expectation of one million visitors in Doha for the tournament in November and December, booking for hotels has not yet begun. Fans from around the world are looking at options including rooms on a cruise ship at $4,000 a week, private accommodation, and luxury camping in the desert.
On Sunday, Rostam Ghasemi, Iran's transport minister, met with his Qatari counterpart, Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, on Kish Island to discuss Iran’s involvement, following up suggestions made by President Ebrahim Raisi during a visit to Doha in February.
"Kish is the focal location for these arrangements, although other coastal and non-coastal provinces in Hormozgan and Bushehr close to the Persian Gulf can play a supporting role,” Ghasemi said.
Daily flights
Mohammad Mohammadi, head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, said the current 72 daily Iran-Qatar flights could be boosted to 100 during the World Cup.
Iran’s tourist sector, which includes religious and medical tourism, has struggled in recent years in the face of both United States sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic. The sector is keen for a boost from the World Cup and is touting the value on offer in Iran given the rial’s decline on foreign exchange markets. Despite Iran’s ban on alcohol and gender-segregated beaches, it was attracting around 5 million tourists annually before US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions.
The Times, arguing that easing visa requirement for British and American citizens would not remove a tense political climate between Iran and the west, highlighted cases of dual nationals being arrested in Iran, including the daughter of one protesting this week in London outside the Foreign Office. Tehran and London both denied any connection between Iran recently freeing two British-Iranian dual nationals it had held for years on espionage charges and Britain finally paying a four-decades-old debt of £400 million ($530 million). But the connection between the money and hostages was clear to all for a long time and the exchange happened last month simultaneously.
Some Americans may also remember that Kish Island is where Central Intelligence Agency contractor Robert Levinson disappeared 16 years ago. The Trump administration said Iranian intelligence Iranian was responsible for his capture and probable death.