{"id":7394,"date":"2020-01-30T16:38:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-30T13:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/?p=7394"},"modified":"2020-01-30T16:38:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-30T13:38:30","slug":"the-role-of-the-quds-force-in-confronting-the-syrian-people-the-families-of-the-plane-crash-victims-harassed-at-the-airport-when-leaving-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/monitoring-and-translation\/iran-in-a-week\/the-role-of-the-quds-force-in-confronting-the-syrian-people-the-families-of-the-plane-crash-victims-harassed-at-the-airport-when-leaving-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"The Role of the Quds Force in Confronting the Syrian People; The Families of the Plane Crash Victims Harassed at the Airport When Leaving Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Government\u2019s Hand\nin the People\u2019s Pocket<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The editorial of Jahan Sanat points\nout that the Iranian government has no policies to generate revenues for\nitself, except by making people pay more taxes to compensate for next year\u2019s\nbudget deficit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that Iranian officials have no other plans for\nproviding for next year\u2019s budget except by taking it from the people. The\nParliament has imposed taxes on owners of luxury cars to compensate for a part\nof the government\u2019s budget deficit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While economists hold that reducing the government\u2019s\nexpenses will result in the country\u2019s growth and development, the government\nhas no policies in this regard and is only after solving the budget deficit by\nmaking people pay more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government takes measures that will not result in the\ncountry\u2019s growth, but it takes policies that are against growth. Currently,\nimported cars enter Iran with so many different kinds of expenses, to the\nextent that the price of imported cars shows a 100% increase compared to their\noriginal price. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These expenses include a 25% tax on companies that import\ncars, a 20% import tax, a 9% tax on added value, and other tariffs that all are\npocketed by the government. As such, levying new taxes on cars is a strange\nthing to do: firstly, it increases the price of these cars; secondly, it can\nresult in widespread inflation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certainly, imposing more taxes on luxury cars will impact\nall groups in society. We should not forget that owners of such cars are\nfinanciers and producers, and according to economic theories, increasing their\nexpenses will put other social groups under pressure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, these people will compensate for the increase in\ntheir own expenses by increasing the prices of their goods and services. As\nsuch, everybody will share in paying the increased expenses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jahan Sanat<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislation; at the\nTop or Bottom? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The editorial of Siasat Rooz focuses on the need for\nsubstantial changes in Iran\u2019s legislation and laws, explaining that the current\nnumerous problems are due to legislative failure during the past 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, no one is awarded for his incompetence and\ninefficiency. Any religious state focuses on social justice and providing for\npublic needs, as well as seeking to guarantee the material and spiritual\nhappiness of society. Numerous problems in society show that it has not been\nadministered properly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislation during the last 40 years shows that\ndifferent political factions have squandered the country\u2019s resources and\nopportunities one after the other. Ironically, those who were in power before\nhave now turned into critics, trying to get re-elected in the upcoming\nparliamentary elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those responsible for the current status of legislation and\nsocietal problems, are now claiming that they have the cure for all chronic\ndiseases in the country. They themselves are a part of the chronic disease in\nthe country\u2019s legislation and administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they had the knowledge and the capacity, people wouldn\u2019t\nbe facing so many problems now. As such, to exit the current situation in the\ncountry, it is inevitable for there to be drastic changes in law and\nlegislation. This change shouldn\u2019t be just in words or for media propaganda. It\nshould be a change in the real sense of the word \u2013 something that is\nscientifically and practically verifiable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undoubtedly, problems like high prices, unemployment,\npoverty, divorce, addiction, slum dwelling, housing, brain drain, unmangeable\nimports, drought, traffic, environmental pollution, consumerism, bribery,\nbureaucracy, corruption, and social pathologies have made lives difficult. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why the Guardian Council must exert its maximum\npowers to implement approbation supervision, while focusing on the competence\nand efficiency of candidates for Parliament. Just having post-graduate degrees\nhas not been \u2013 and is not \u2013 enough to solve societal problems.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siasat Rooz<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trauma of Collective\nSilence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent months, there have been many catastrophic\nincidents in Iran such as the November protests in which 1500 people were\nkilled or the downing of the Ukrainian plane that resulted in the death of 176\npeople. The editorial Ebtekar explains why such incidents create a \u201ccollective\nsilence\u201d that will have dangerous consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recurrence of bad news during the past months has put\nIranian society in a special situation, which has changed many social concepts.\nThe current situation has had terrible consequences and has challenged many\npublic services in society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, any society has certain requirements for a\nhealthy, reasonable, and ordinary existence. Minimum security, wellbeing, civil\nfreedom, and public assurance are all requirements for a healthy ordinary\nexistence in society. In other words, a society that is constantly facing\nsocial, political, economic and cultural crises cannot be expected to have an\nordinary life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when a society faces a lot of catastrophic news and\nevents, it suffers from many collective traumas which can destabilize the\nfoundations of society. One of the most concerning forms of such traumas is\n\u201ccollective silence\u201d which is a social psychological reaction to such\ncalamitous events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first symptom of such silence is dialogue being hindered.\nDue to excitement of these bad events or because of a rational analysis,  society reaches the conclusion that it is not\npossible to engage in dialogue. As such, groups within society knowingly or\nunknowingly decide not to have dialogue with each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In such a society, not having dialogues is accepted as a\ncollective strategy, and the major part of the society uses it as a solution.\nAll these result in a collective silence which can be very dangerous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minimum consequence of such a silence is the lack of\nunderstanding between social groups. As such, the common beliefs of the nation\nare forgotten, and different groups within the geographical borders of Iran\nwill change into isolated colonies, while basic concepts like national\ninterests, public demands, and central government lose their meanings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One other consequence of such a situation is collective\nisolation. People turn into small isolated, and lonely groups that are not even\ninterested in dialogue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ebtekar<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A New Wave of\nInflation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The editorial of Jahan Sanat, written by Majid Reza Hariri,\nhead of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, explains why the Iranian government shouldn\u2019t\nbe after generating revenues for itself by increasing the price of dollar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest report of the Parliament\u2019s Research\nCenter, changing the rate of dollar in import declarations can generate 35,000\nbillon tomans of revenues for the government. But if this measure is taken to\nsimply increase the government\u2019s revenues, it is absolutely wrong as it will\nincrease the prices of goods and will result in inflation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under current circumstances when the country\u2019s economy is\nfacing negative growth and inflation, any move by the government that ends in\nmore inflation is wrong and will impose more expenses on people. But on the\nother hand, if the rate of dollar in import declarations changes to increase\ntransparency, that is the right move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is that currently more than 80% of imported goods\nare intermediate goods and raw materials for production lines. So if the rate\nof dollar is changed to increase the government\u2019s revenues, it will certainly\nresult in increasing the prices of imported goods, as well as domestic\nproducts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changing the rate of dollar in import declarations means\nthat the price of dollar goes up from 4200 tomans per dollar to about 12000\ntomans per dollar. This will result in a 2.5 times increase in customs tariffs.\nThis will certainly result in an increase in the price of goods and the rate of\ninflation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the government is after increasing its own revenues by\nthis move, it means that it has taken money out of people\u2019s pockets for its own\nexpenses, which is absolutely wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democratic governments run the country by taxes they receive\nfrom the people and they are accountable to them. But in Iran, the government\nis after obtaining money for its expenses from the people and not be\naccountable to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jahan Sanat<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Admitting the Role of\nthe Quds Force in Confronting the Syrian People<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fars news agency that has close relation with the IRGC\nissued a long report about the history of the IRGC\u2019s Quds Force and its\nactivities in Syria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The long report points out that the Quds Force\u2019s consultants\ntrained Syrian police on how to confront protests. The report calls the Quds\nForce \u201ccombatant without borders\u201d which was how the Iranian supreme leader Ali\nKhamenei recently called this force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report openly confirms the Islamic Republic\u2019s\ninterference in other countries in the region and the Iranian regime\u2019s policy\nof influence in Syria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Fars news report, before popular protests\nin Syria turned into a civil war and radical groups like ISIS partcipated, the\nQuds Force and Iranian law enforcement forces helped Bashar Assad\u2019s regime in\nsuppressing Syrian protesters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Syria was one of the last countries in the Arab world to\nexperience protests during the Arab Spring. But a severe crackdown by Assad\u2019s\nregime did not allow popular protests in this country to grow. Syria entered a\nwar for several years, as a result of which many people were killed and lost\ntheir homes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report clearly states that other militia groups in\nwestern Asia including Ansar Allah, Hashd al Shaabi, Fatemiyoun, Hamas, and\nother Shiite militias in the region are a result of the Quds Force\u2019s activities\nand training. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the IRGC chief commander Hossein Salami has said\nthat \u201cif America threatens the IRGC commanders, its commanders\u2019 lives will not\nbe safe anywhere.\u201d It seems that he was pointing to the remarks of Brian Hook,\nthe US special representative on Iran, who recently said that if Qassem\nSoleimani\u2019s successor follows his path in killing Americans, he too will have\nthe same destiny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Soleimani was killed by American forces, Khamenei\nappointed Esmail Ghaani as the commander of the Quds Force. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independent Persian<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oil Minister: Iraq Does\nnot Pay for the Gas It Receives From Iran<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Iran\u2019s\nOil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has said \u201cIraq does not\npay any money to us for the gas we send to this country.\u201d He also pointed out\nthat Iran\u2019s gas export to Iraq has been reduced due to \u201ctechnical reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zanganeh had previously said that Iraq owed $2 billion to Iran for\ngas and electricity but could not pay its debt because of the US sanctions.\nMeanwhile, Iraqi officials say that they have deposited money into Iran\u2019s\naccount at Tejarat Bank in Iraq without clarifying the exact amount of that\nmoney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq\u2019s Tejarat Bank lately announced that if the United States do\nnot extend the exemptions next month, this bank has to stop transactions\nbetween Iraq and Iran. Iran exports 50 million cubic meters of gas to Iraq on a\ndaily basis– which is mainly used as fuel in Iraqi power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Farda<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rouhani: I\u2019m Worried\nThat \u2018Republicanism\u2019 Might Turn into a \u2018Crime\u2019 in Iran<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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President Hassan Rouhani has criticized the Guardian Council\nfor disqualifying candidates who plan to participate in Iran\u2019s next\nparliamentary election, saying \u201cI\u2019m worried that one day the word \u2018republicanism\u2019\nmight turn into a crime\u201d in Iran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at a meeting with governors, Rouhani slammed the\nway candidates were disqualified by the Guardian Council: \u201cThey send someone to\na street [to do research on a candidate] and it is not clear who he talks to\nand what he hears and then he writes a report,\u201d said Rouhani, \u201cHow is it\npossible to manage a country like this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hassan Rouhani continued that appointing individuals in key\npositions is dangerous for democracy. He added that elections might turn into\nsome kind of a formality in Iran. \u201cAnd then people are asked to take part in\nthis formality of elections,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referring to holding a referendum in Iran, Rouhani said,\nsome do not like the word referendum while the Islamic Republic itself was\nestablished based on a referendum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a different note, Rouhani implicitly pointed to the\nnon-approval of bills related to money laundering in the Expediency Council,\nsaying: \u201cIf we continue like this, our relations with the world will become\nproblematic. How is it possible that Iran\u2019s banking relations with the world\ncome to a halt or get disrupted? Who makes the decisions in this country?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should also be mentioned that Iran\u2019s state TV (IRIB)\nrefused to broadcast Hassan Rouhani\u2019s speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khabar Online<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Farda<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Families of the\nPlane Crash Victims Say Officers at Tehran\u2019s Airport Harassed Them When Leaving\nIran<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Family members of those who lost their lives after the IRGC\ndowned a passenger plane in suburbs of Tehran on January 8 say Tehran airport\nofficers harassed them before leaving the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamed Esmailion, who lost his wife and daughter in that\ncatastrophe, divulged the mistreatment of victims\u2019 relatives in a Facebook post\naddressing Tehran airport officers: \u201cLet the family members exit the country easily\nfor them to participate in funerals\u2026it is none of your business why the\nCanadian government issued their visas in a few hours.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of family members who planned to bury their loved\nones in Canada had applied for a visa from Canada. The Canadian immigration\noffice recently issued a statement, announcing that it would facilitate\nimmediate travel of those family members to Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Family members have not only been subject to harassment at airport\nbut were threatened against giving interviews to foreign media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Javad Soleimani, husband of Elnaz Nabiei who was killed in that\nplane crash, said he was summoned by the Intelligence Ministry and threatened:\n\u201cThe very same day that her funeral was held, they told me: Shut your mouth!\nThis is the first and last warning.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soleimani pointed out that he had not said a word so that his\nwife\u2019s body could be buried as soon as possible. Afterwards, he posted on\nInstagram that he was forced to hold her funeral and burial ceremony the way\nthe IRGC had ordered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by the\nIslamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the suburbs of Tehran when leaving this\ncity for Kiev on January 8. All 176 passengers and crew \u2013 including 146\nIranians, 61 Canadians who were mostly dual nationals, 11 Ukrainians and a\nnumber of Afghani, Swedish and British nationals \u2013 were killed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Farda<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

$1.5bn Drop in\nTurkey\u2019s Exports to Tehran<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Turkey\u2019s trade minister criticized the US sanctions against\nIran saying that this country\u2019s exports to Iran show a $1.5bn drop. Ruhsar\nPekcan asserted that despite a drop in Turkey\u2019s exports to Iran, the entire\nexports of this country reached $180.46bn in 2019, showing a 2% increase\ncompared to 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey has always criticized the US sanctions against Iran,\ncalling them a violation of international laws. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This country, however, has fully followed the US oil\nsanctions on Iran, and has stopped importing oil from Iran, since last May when\nAmerica didn\u2019t extend waiver for buyers of Iran\u2019s oil. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest report of Turkey\u2019s Statistics\nCenter, this country\u2019s exports to Iran reached $2.1bn for the past 11 months,\nwhich show a $200mn decrease compared to the same period in 2018 and a $1.15bn\ndrop compared to 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey\u2019s Statistics Center declared that in the past 11\nmonths, this country\u2019s imports from Iran were about $3.2bn; for the same period\nin 2018 and 2017, it was respectively $6.5bn and about $7bn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Iran and Turkey\u2019s mutual trade in the current year is\nalmost half of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Turkey\u2019s criticism of the US sanctions every now and\nthen, this country has a rather high level of trade with the United States.\nBilateral trade between the two countries reached $17bn during the past 11\nmonths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radio Farda<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Government\u2019s Hand in the People\u2019s Pocket The editorial of Jahan Sanat points out that the Iranian government has no policies to generate revenues for itself, except by making people pay more taxes to compensate for next year\u2019s budget deficit. It seems that Iranian officials have no other plans for providing for next year\u2019s budget […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":7400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[12,1637,4037,1432,2881,4036],"class_list":["post-7394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iran-in-a-week","tag-iran","tag-iran-in-a-week","tag-plane-crash","tag-quds-force","tag-syrian","tag-syrian-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394","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=7394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7401,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7394\/revisions\/7401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rasanah-iiis.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}