Iran Regime’s Top Lawmaker: We Gave $20-30 Billion to Syria

Written by
Shahriar Kia
Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh
In an interview with the state-run Etemad Online news agency published on May 20, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a Member of Parliament from Kermanshah and member of the Majlis (Parliament) National Security Commission, acknowledged how the mullahs’ regime been wasting national wealth to fund Syrian dictator Bashar-al Assad.

“When I went to Syria, some complained that I had caused expenses, but I will say this again: We may have given $20-30 billion to Syria. The money of our people was spent there,” Felahatpisheh said.

IranNewsUpdate

@IranNewsUpdate1
On May 20, the state-run Etemad Online published an interview with Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh. In March, in his interview, Falahatpisheh admitted #Iran has granted $20-30 billion to prop the Assad regime in #Syria while 60% of Iranian families have pushed below the #poverty line.

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18:06 – 22 May 2020
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When Falahatpisheh was the chairman of the National Security Commission, he led a parliamentary delegation to Syria, where he met with Emad Khamis, the Prime Minister of the Assad regime.

According to the information revealed on December 6, 2017, by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which was obtained by the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) network from inside the regime, in return for the expenses incurred by the clerical regime in Syria, on January 17, 2017, the Syrian Prime Minister, Emad Khamis signed an agreement with the Iranian regime’s vice president Eshaq Jahangiri, to return the money spent by the regime within 25 years (extendable for up to 40 years.) The plan included six major contracts. The regime considered this agreement with Syria a strategic project for itself.

According to the information published by the NCRI, these projects, which were planned and implemented by the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and under the supervision of the regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, were worth over $20 billion dollars.

The volume of the project to pay the Syrian debt to the regime is estimated at $20 billion, according to a debate in the regime’s Supreme National Security Council. This amount includes only the oil and credit that the Iranian government has paid to Syria during Bashar al-Assad’s rule, especially during the war. Of this amount, the cost of oil given to Syria by the regime is estimated at least $8 billion. This amount does not include the regime’s military and weapons aid to the Syrian army and government, which is several times the amount.

The Iranian regime entered the Syrian war since it broke out in 2011 and has been propping up Assad’s regime since then. In addition to its financial support, the mullahs’ regime has been constantly sending weapons and armed forces to the country to prevent the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad. According to the estimates made by the Iranian Resistance, the regime may have spent up to $100 billion on the Syrian war.

In another part of his interview, Falahatpisheh, while referring to the Iranian restive society and the nationwide Iran protests which erupted in November after the sudden gas price hike said: “How many economic problems do we have in the country? The increase in gasoline prices generates 2 trillion rials per day. This is the average revenue generated by the increase in gasoline prices and selling the surplus to other countries. We can distribute this 200 trillion rials to the provinces to solve their problems. This is just part of the revenue.”

“In the budget, oil revenue is equal to a fourth of the share of taxes. This means that it is the people who are paying for the country’s expenses. And this is a country that is sitting on a sea of oil,” Felahatpisheh said. “If we consider all of this, it means that we have the necessary budget to solve the country’s economic problems, that is, if the budget is not spent on other things.”

Falahatpisheh made these remarks, while the regime, citing economic problems, has forced the Iranian people to go back to work amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has so far, according to the MEK, claimed the lives of nearly 44,000 people. In addition, the regime’s officials and apologists try to blame U.S. sanctions for the coronavirus crisis in Iran, to receive more money to further increase their illicit activities.

While refusing to help people financially during the quarantine, the regime forced the Iranian people back to work because it was terrified of the army of hungry expanding daily and the possibility of a nationwide uprising.

As Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the NCRI’s president-elect, has said: “For Khamenei and Rouhani, the lives and well-being of the people are worthless. They only want to protect their regime from the threat of uprising. The criminal decision to send people to work is a crime against humanity and will cause countless number of victims of the COVID–19 in Iran.”

Maryam Rajavi

@Maryam_Rajavi
For Khamenei and Rouhani, the lives and well-being of the people are worthless. They only want to protect their regime from the threat of uprising. The criminal decision to send people to work is a crime against humanity and will cause countless number of victims #COVID19 #Iran

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