Iran Economy Hurtling Towards Hyperinflation

Over 2,000 students at Iran’s Tabriz University signed a petition against the regime’s punishment of students as it continues to quash dissent.

The protesting students at Tabriz University of Medical Science emphasized the right to freedom of expression and assembly.

"The students … must not be threatened, suspended, or exiled,” read the petition, with many students found supporting protests banned from classes and dormitories as the regime tries to suppress dissent.

Addressing the university officials and the disciplinary councils, the Tabriz University students said: "You have no right to silence and oppress the students with coercive measures and adverse rulings.”

According to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), 637 students from 144 universities have been arrested since mid-September, students at the forefront of the unrest sparked in September by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

Universities have been the center of several large anti-regime demonstrations with some sources inside Iran claiming that the number of detained students is more than 700.

A few days ago, the students of six universities wrote a statement condemning the government's misuse of psychological methods to suppress protests.

Earlier, Iran’s Student Union Council said 435 students have been suspended or expelled following the recent protests across the country.

In a statement on April 12, the Council stated that "a significant number of students have received suspension and expulsion orders through an illegal process."

Brigadier General Mohammad Baqeri, who headed a top military delegation to Muscat at the request of his Omani counterpart, said Monday that in recent years, the region has been “the scene of swordplay by the Americans, who tried to impose themselves as absolute rulers on the world and the region.”

Baqeri stated that regional collaboration outweighs Western influence. “We are all in the same region and therefore we understand our interests better than others. We believe that regional security can be ensured by the solidarity of the regional states,” he said.

Iranian officials have been bragging over “new regional developments” and a “new order” after restoration of diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia in March.

Regime officials and its ideological gurus have been making the most of the agreement being a US strategic defeat because Riyadh agreed to the deal with China’s tutelage, excluding Washington.

However, hardliners are praising Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s “wisdom” in predicting a decline of the American world order, citing the Chinese-sponsored agreement with Saudi Arabia.

After years of hostility that fueled conflicts across the Middle East, Tehran and Riyadh agreed to end their diplomatic rift and re-open embassies in a major deal.

The agents ransacked the home on Sunday in spite of his not being there, ignoring pleas from his wife and daughter to wait until his return.

Aghajari, considered one of the political figures close to the Green Movement leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was among the speakers of the "Dialogue to save Iran" conference, which was held virtually two weeks ago on the Clubhouse platform. He signed Mousavi's last statement which called to end clerical rule in Iran.

When the university professor returned home, the agents of the ministry of intelligence seized his laptop and other electronic devices, telling him that he should appear in the Revolutionary Court on Wednesday.

It is likely he will be charged with threats to state security for his role in revolutionary activity. At the recent conference, the group’s statement made bold calls for the end of the regime and called for a referendum in what it says is the only way forward, “allowing the people to decide their own destiny”.

He is an all too familiar figure to the regime. In 2002, Aghajari was sentenced to death for apostasy after a speech he gave on Islam urging Iranians to "not blindly follow" Islamic clerics. In 2004, after domestic Iranian and international outcry, his sentence was reduced to five years in prison.

Keyvan Samimi, Alireza Beheshti Shirazi, Abdollah Momeni, Qorban Behzadian-Nejad, Narges Mohammadi and Alireza Hosseini Beheshti were among the other activist speakers of the online conference who were since summoned, arrested, or prosecuted.

Sullivan met bin Salman on Sunday and reviewed what the White House called "significant progress" in Yemen peace efforts, but there was no acknowledgment if the expansion of the Abraham Accords or issues related to Iran were discussed, apart from the Yemen conflict.

A statement released by the White House said the two sides reviewed “significant progress in talks to further consolidate the new 15-month long truce in Yemen.”

There have been reports and speculations in recent weeks that the United States has been working to bring Saudi Arabia and Israel closer and expand the Abraham Accords that saw Saudi allies, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain establish diplomatic relations with the Jewish state in 2020.

A senior Israeli security official said on Friday that Israel was hoping for a breakthrough in efforts to normalize its ties with Saudi Arabia during Sullivan's visit there.

But the White House statement made no mention of Israel.

Saudi state media did not immediately publish either video or photographs of the meetings.

Saudi Arabia in March reached agreement with Iran to resume diplomatic relations, a deal that was brokered by China and seen as a sign of decline in American influence in the region, particularly with Riyadh.

Sullivan's meeting also came after a period in which US-Saudi ties have been damaged by oil production cuts by Saudi-led OPEC+ and differences over the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Saudi state news report said only that the men reviewed “strategic relations” in a meeting that included other American officials.

Later, Sullivan took part in a meeting with the crown prince and Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval and Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the national security adviser of the neighboring United Arab Emirates.

Washington is said to be interested in linking the Arab oil producing countries around the Persian Gulf in a rail network that would ultimately expand trade links with India, perhaps as a counterweight to growing Chinese influence.

A White House statement acknowledged the meetings, saying they aimed to “to advance their shared vision of a more secure and prosperous Middle East region interconnected with India and the world.” It did not elaborate.

Sullivan, President Joe Biden's top White House national security aide, also thanked the crown prince for Saudi support to US citizens during evacuation from Sudan, the statement added.

US special envoy Tim Lenderking travelled to Oman and Saudi Arabia earlier this month to seek to advance Yemen peace efforts, the State Department said.

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthis ousted the government from the capital Sanaa.

A Saudi delegation, which is seeking a permanent ceasefire deal to end military involvement in the war, concluded peace talks in mid-April in Sanaa with the Houthi group, whose top negotiator said talks had made progress and further discussions would be held.

Yemen's conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions hungry, has widely been seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP

Media in Tehran reported that Monday alone the index fell by more than two percent at the beginning of trading. Following a similar fall on Sunday, the decline on Monday led to most shares being “locked” and traders forming long lines to sell unwanted stocks.

Although the fall is not considered dangerously high by international standards, Iran’s stock market is controlled by the government and investors fear possible machinations in inflating and deflating the market.

In July 2020, Tehran’s stock market fell by more than 30 percent in one week and some shares by as much as 50 percent, wiping out the savings of many small investors who had believed government promises of a safe stock market. Some observers said that government entities had inflated the stock market and ripped large profits before its sudden fall.

The memory of the 2020 crisis has remained strong among investors who become jittery at any sudden downturn.

In recent days, government media was hyping positive news about the stock market and encouraging people to invest.

Fararu website in Tehran reported that sell orders totaling nearly $300 million were pending on Monday as the market closed.

Eighty percent of Iran’s economy is controlled by the government or large conglomerates controlled by the ruling regime. Tehran’s stock market is no exception as government appoints officials who control it.