{"id":6134,"date":"2019-01-03T15:37:50","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T12:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=6134"},"modified":"2019-01-03T15:37:50","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T12:37:50","slug":"no-guarantee-iranian-establishment-survives-and-more-criticisms-of-budget-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/iran-in-a-week\/no-guarantee-iranian-establishment-survives-and-more-criticisms-of-budget-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"No Guarantee Iranian Establishment Survives and More Criticisms of Budget Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\n How Much Longer Resources Should be Allocated to Proponents and Pointless Expenses?<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe editorial of Mardomsalari focuses on the money squandered and given away to those close to Iranian establishment in the annual budget.
\nPeople keep reminding Iranian government and parliament that there is not much left in the country for squandering and giving away. Natural resources, capitals, oil, forests have been excessively misspent. Therefore, the government and the parliament must be careful not to squander whatever is left, in the name of transparency, economic arrangement, and priority of justice over development.
\nThe editorial continues: Iran is now in the worst and most complicated historical situation. The conditions are so precarious that only wise people realize it. However, Iranian government is only focused on spending, and doesn\u2019t care about what is gained instead.
\nIt has been a while that non-governmental cultural entities and certain people \u2013 close to Iranian establishment \u2013 use the government\u2019s treasury, credits and financial aids without being accountable or offering a work report to the nation, government or parliament. How much longer this unacceptable condition must go on?
\nThe editorial adds: in passing the budget bill, the priority should be given to Iran\u2019s economy and Iranian people, and not interests of certain people. Squandering the government\u2019s resources must be stopped. Prudence, saving, and creating employment capacity for the youths must be focused on.
\nDuring past 40 years after the revolution, the editorialist concludes, the social gap has been widening and rent seekers are still in power. Some statesmen are not tough enough on squandering the public properties on personal uses, propaganda, and on their supporters and relatives.
\n Mardomsalari \u2013 January 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Role in Talks with Taliban<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe editorial of Arman Emrooz focuses on the role Iran can play in talks with Taliban, seeing it as an opportunity for Iran to gain more geopolitical weight in the region. Iran recently admitted holding talks with Taliban in Tehran.
\nIran has always been an influential actor in the regional developments, and Afghanistan is one of the neighboring countries with strategic depth due to the presence of Shi\u2019as in this country. As a result, Islamic Republic has always had a contact with all combatant, ethnic and religious groups in this country. This includes Taliban whose control over a large part of Afghanistan and its influence among people has added to its socio-political weight.
\nThe editorial continues: during past months, Taliban has portrayed a different image of itself as a group that is ready to enter peace talks and play a role in the future of Afghanistan. Different countries such as America, Pakistan, UAE and Saudi Arabia are after having relations with and impact on Taliban, because it has an enormous influence in Afghanistan and is in control of the large part of this country.
\nIran, due to its geopolitical role in the region, can facilitate these talks. One of Taliban\u2019s conditions to enter talks is foreign forces pulling out of this country. Iran is after the same thing to secure its eastern border; as a result of this political strategic closeness, Iran can help establish a stronger bridge between Taliban and Afghanistan\u2019s government. Iran can use this opportunity to create power and geopolitical balance against other regional and transregional actors including America.
\nThe editorial concludes: this is an opportunity for Iran to increase its geopolitical weight and secure its own eastern borders with regard to drug transit and illegal trafficking which can have an impact on the region and beyond.
\n Arman Emrooz \u2013 January 1<\/a><\/p>\n

Lack of Proportion between New Annual Budget and Economic War<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe editorial of Arman Emrooz focuses on the 2018-2019 Budget Bill in relation to economic ordeals in Iran.
\nIt seems that those organizations that express their dissatisfaction with the budget for the new year have basically forgotten about the economic war and do not realize what the US sanctions are doing. Meanwhile, some think that if Iran disconnects its ties with foreign countries, everything will be perfect. As such, some officials are after putting a show of being revolutionary, destroying the JCPOA, not ratifying FATF, etc., while seeming to ignore the harsh realities.
\nThe editorial continues: they don\u2019t consider that the government must have revenues to be able to spend. It seems that the Budget and Planning Organization isn\u2019t aware of the economic war either, which is why this year\u2019s budget is more inflated than the last one. Meanwhile, the government and officials keep promising improvements in conditions.
\nUnder the conditions of economic war, no such promises must be made, emphasizes the editorial, as it creates more expectations. When we talk of economic war, it means less income, more problems. In actuality, the pressure has increased on Iran, the limitations have escalated, and many European countries have disconnected ties with Iran. And what is certain is that the United States will have more severe confrontation with Iran.
\nOn the other hand, China and Russia have acknowledged that if Iran doesn\u2019t ratify FATF, they cannot have banking relations with Iran. That is why the budget must have been drafted with more economic austerity.
\nThe editorial concludes: Iranian officials must prepare themselves and people for the economic war, instead of raising the expectation within the society.
\n Arman Emrooz \u2013 December 31<\/a><\/p>\n

Nightmare of 12th Government<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe editorial of Mostaghel newspaper focuses on all problems created by Hassan Rouhani\u2019s government, turning it into a nightmare.
\nIt seems that Rouhani\u2019s government \u2013 12th government \u2013 can no longer attribute the problems in Iranian society to Ahmadinejad\u2019s government to escape accountability. People participate in election to improve the conditions compared to the previous term, and 12th government had certainly enough time to overcome the problems and create hope in the society.
\nThe editorial continues: if Ahmadinejad\u2019s government was going to be blamed for all problems, it would be better for the 12th government to withdraw from 2017 election since it was aware of all the problems created by 9th and 10th governments. The current level of unemployment, inflation, and recession is so high that it cannot be even compared with the previous government. Inability in controlling the currency, gold coin, and automobile market is much more than before.
\nThere has been no improvement in environmental issues. There are still astronomical salaries within the government organizations, despite promises to fight them. Unbridled inflation in the housing market cannot be seen as outcome of policies of Ahmadinejad\u2019s government. Neither can 9th and 10th governments be blamed for attributing all domestic problems to the JCPOA or the escalation of tension with Gulf countries.
\nThe editorial concludes: it is time for Rouhani\u2019s government to be accountable for its own policies and not hide behind the former government to escape responsibility. Rouhani\u2019s government should stop using 9th and 10th governments as justification for its failures to overcome problems. As a matter of fact, the 12th government itself has now turned into a nightmare which can be used in upcoming election to gain people\u2019s votes.
\n Mostaghel \u2013 December 30<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n More Budget for Religious and Propaganda Institutions; Less Money for Environment and Health Ministry<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nIn Iran\u2019s budget bill for the next fiscal (March 2019-20), religious and propaganda institutions of the establishment and IRIB (The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) receive more than five trillion tomans (5300 million tomans) altogether– which is nearly 13 times more than the budget dedicated to \u201cenvironmental issues.\u201d The total budget for Iran\u2019s environmental issues, including air pollution control is 403 billion tomans.
\nBy dedicating a 5-trillion-toman budget to religious and propaganda institutions (besides IRIB), Iran\u2019s establishment actually allocates nearly 66 thousand tomans for each person to its religious and propaganda institutions. Meanwhile, the environment budget for each Iranian is less than five thousand tomans.
\nTo make another comparison, Iran\u2019s Welfare Organization which was established for providing supportive services and fulfilling the most basic needs of low-income families, receives a budget of 4 thousand billion tomans; namely, less than 50 thousand tomans for each Iranian.
\nThere are some religious and propaganda institutions whose major duty is specifically promoting the political, cultural and religious ideas of the establishment\u2019s leaders. The Service Center for Religious Seminaries is one of them. This institution receives the largest share of the budget, namely, more than one trillion tomans. More than one third of this budget is spent for clerics\u2019 unemployment insurance.
\nIn the long list of Iran\u2019s religious and propaganda institutions, an enormous budget is dedicated to institutions that have specific and limited religious or propaganda duties. For instance, Central Headquarters for Rahiane Noor– whose major duty is promoting official narratives of war and organizing trips to war zones for students\u2014receives 25 billion tomans as its budget.
\nSeveral institutions whose duty is to take care of Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini\u2019s mausoleum or preserve his works receive a budget of 73 billion tomans.
\nMeanwhile, while 40 million people are under poverty line in Iran, the budget of health ministry is reduced.
\nA member of the Iranian parliament\u2019s social committee Rasoul Khezri said as 40 million people live under poverty line, \u201creducing the health ministry\u2019s budget is not logical at all.\u201d According to Khezri, medical insurance coverage is a major service which should be provided for people, so its budget must not be reduced by the government.
\n BBC Persian<\/a>
\n Asre Etebar<\/a><\/p>\n

Students Protest Bus Crash, Death of Classmates<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nIn the deadly accident of a bus at the Islamic Azad University yesterday, 10 students were killed and 28 injured. The bus was overturned on the university campus located on the foothills of the Alborz mountains in Tehran. The bus was overturned due to brake failure on the university campus located on the foothills of the Alborz mountains in Tehran on December 26. According to Tehran traffic police, the bus had been among worn-out vehicles since 2012.
\nHundreds of university students have held rallies protesting against \u201cinefficient authorities\u201d. Students at the Science and Research branch of Islamic Azad University (IAU) in Tehran cancelled their classes and staged rallies in protest against the deadly bus accident at their campus. The student protesters chanted slogans against \u201cinefficient\u201d university authorities and demanded their resignation and trial. Currently, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi is the dean of IAU and Ali Akbar Velayati is the head of its board of trustees.
\nFollowing severe criticism against Velayati, 5 managers and deputies of the Science and Research branch of IAU were dismissed. However, IAU students have said the university officials \u201cducked their responsibility\u201d by those dismissals, adding the \u201cresignation of the highest authority of the university\u201d is the \u201cleast price\u201d to be paid in this regard.
\nOn Monday protest gatherings were held in front of Tehran University in support of Azad University students, in which protesters chanted slogans against inefficient officials. These gatherings coincided with protests of December 2017 last year, in which many people took part in extensive protests in tens of cities of Iran against financial corruption and high prices.
\nAzad University, with 535 units and branches in Iran and several other countries and with 1.6 million students, is one of the \u201csuper rich\u201d scientific institutes because of the high tuitions it receives from the students. Many see it as an investment enterprise where students\u2019 money is pocketed, but not much is spent on students\u2019 safety and comfort.
\nAzad University is allegedly after land grabbing, which is why it chooses distant and hard-to-reach locations including the mountainous areas for establishing its branches. Following the bus crash, a journalist wrote in his twitter, \u201cAll these years, Azad University has been grabbing land; they have immediately built a couple of classes in the mountains or deserts, so that no one can take the lands back from them; meanwhile students have been used as a ploy and a financial source.\u201d
\nZeitoon<\/a>
\n Hamdeli<\/a><\/p>\n

Khomeini\u2019s Grandson: No Guarantee We Will Remain in Power<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nAs Iran gets closer to the 40th anniversary of Islamic Revolution, children of founding fathers of the revolution seem to be more and more disappointed and disillusioned with the current affairs in Iran.
\nHassan Khomeini, grandson of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Islamic Revolution in Iran, urged on people\u2019s approval as foundation of any society, stressing that there is no guarantee that Iranian establishment will continue in Iran.
\nIn his remarks criticizing the Iranian establishment, Hassan Khomeini said that continuous fragmentation in the society and disseminating resentment, hatred and hypocrisy among people are all signs of failure of the government.
\nPrior to that, Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of late Hashemi Rafsanjani, had said that in her opinion, the establishment of Islamic Republic has already collapsed from within; if it hasn\u2019t happened from without, it is due to fear and intimidation created among people. People are scared of what might come after the Islamic Republic; that is why the facade of the Iranian establishment has not collapsed yet, underscored Faezeh Hashemi. Anywhere you look, you can see only failures, added the daughter of one of the founding fathers of Iranian Revolution.
\nFaezeh Hashemi urged on heavy sentences handed to activists in Iran, adding that currently people from all civil groups are in jail: teachers, truck drivers, women activists, environmentalists, students, economic actors, and different other people. She expressed her doubts as to whether people should vote in the next presidential election, emphasizing that elections in Iran have failed to produce any practical results.
\nMeanwhile, Mohammad Reza Tajik, political advisor of former president Mohammad Khatami, in an interview with Etemaad online, compared Iran to Titanic, which is trapped in storm and whirlpool. He added that currently Iran is in bad conditions as no individual or entity is in its right place or doing its right job.
\nIt must be mentioned that later Fatemeh Hashemi, another daughter of late Hashemi Rafsanjani, talked of her father being murdered. She added two months before Rafsanjani\u2019s death, she was informed that a number of individuals were planning to assassinate her father. She also pointed out that Rafsanjani\u2019s case had been closed in the Supreme National Security Council. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a founding father of the Iranian revolution, was found dead in a pool on January 8, 2017.
\n Parsine<\/a>
\n Radio Farda<\/a><\/p>\n

Khamenei Calls for Israel\u2019s Collapse, while IRGC Warns of Crises in Iran Next Year<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nIran\u2019s supreme leader Ali Khamenei claimed that Palestinian government will be formed in Tel Aviv in the future, urging on downfall of Israel. He emphasized that pressures will not stop Islamic Republic\u2019s support for \u201cresistance groups\u201d. Israel has announced readiness to attack Iran, if its existence threatened.
\nKhamenei, in his meeting with Ziyad al Nakhaleh, leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, urged on victory of Palestinian people and Islamic Republic\u2019s \u201creligious duty\u201d to help and support Palestinians.
\nAl Nakhaleh urged that if any war with Israel takes place, Tel Aviv and other cities and towns of Israel will be within reach of \u201cthe Resistance\u2019s missiles\u201d. Islamic Jihad has been labelled a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Israel and other countries and has been backed by Iran.
\nKhamenei\u2019s remarks about Israel\u2019s downfall were made a few days after Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif had claimed in interview with a French magazine that Iran has never called for destruction of Israel \u2013 remarks that are in obvious contradiction with Islamic Republic\u2019s public foreign policy during past 40 years. Zarif\u2019s words didn\u2019t sit well with Iranian hardliners who accused Zarif with distorting the words of Khomeini, the founder of Islamic Republic.
\nIn popular protests, Iranian people have kept expressing their rage at Iranian establishment\u2019s foreign policy, including support for Palestine and Syria and enmity with Israel.
\nKhamenei\u2019s promise of victory for Palestinians over Israel comes at a time when he and IRGC\u2019s advisors are concerned over more turmoil and crisis in Iran in the upcoming year.
\nAn advisor to IRGC chief commander warned about crises in Iran next year, which will probably triggered by upcoming parliamentary election and union, protests in the country. Ali Mohammad Naeini, referring to parliament election, said: \u201cElections act like catalyst preparing the grounds for civil disobedience.\u201d He added that on the other hand, the enemies \u201chave focused on economic pressures\u201d over trade unions and workers.
\nPrior to that, Khamenei himself had warned against \u201cAmerica\u2019s possible plot\u201d against the Iranian establishment in the upcoming year. His remarks were made at a time when the increase in dollar\u2019s price has resulted in soaring prices for essential goods in Iran; the poverty line in Tehran has had 11% increase; assemblies of workers, teachers, and retirees in recent months have triggered serious protests in Iran.
\n Radio Farda<\/a>
\n Tasnim<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Much Longer Resources Should be Allocated to Proponents and Pointless Expenses? The editorial of Mardomsalari focuses on the money squandered and given away to those close to Iranian establishment in the annual budget. People keep reminding Iranian government and parliament that there is not much left in the country for squandering and giving away. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2917,635,2938,2937,1859,2935,1637,2658,2939,2936],"class_list":["post-6134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iran-in-a-week","tag-bill","tag-budget","tag-budget-bill","tag-criticisms","tag-establishment","tag-guarantee","tag-iran-in-a-week","tag-iran-in-aweek","tag-no-guarantee-iranian-establishment-survives-and-more-criticisms-of-budget-bill","tag-survives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6139,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6134\/revisions\/6139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}