Iran: Corruption Cannot Be Hidden or Denied Any Longer
By Mahmoud Hakamian
The people of Iran have been holding anti-government demonstrations against the regime’s corruption. Corruption in the country is rife and is present at all levels of the leadership. It has provoked a major economic crisis that has had serious financial consequences for the people.
More and more Iranians are falling into the absolute poverty category. Many people have exhausted their entire life savings, just to be able to survive. Many are concerned about where their next meal will come from or how they will pay for their rent. Worrying reports from Iran indicated that people are selling their kidneys and other body parts, just to get by. Desperate times mean desperate measures for the people of Iran.
The clerical regime has blamed the country’s economic issues on international sanctions and foreign powers. However, this is categorically not the case,. The international sanctions have only just been re-imposed. A few years ago when the sanctions were lifted during former U.S. President Barack Obama’s time in office, billions of dollars were freed up – billions of dollars that could have made a significant impact on the people of Iran.
However, as always, the regime pushed the interests of the people to the side and plundered huge sums of money on terrorism and the support of terrorist proxy groups and militias in the region.
The situation in Iran is changing and the clerical regime has no choice but to admit to some of its major shortcomings. It is no longer able to deny certain points, such as the widespread support of the Iranian Resistance which it once dismissed as insignificant and having no following.
Earlier this week, the Chamber of Commerce in Tehran published a report about the Corruption Perception Index of several Middle Eastern and other countries across the world. Instead of denying corruption, its report shows that the Iranian economy is affected by high levels of corruption.
The report also draws attention to Syria which is classed as having the most corrupt and worst economy in the Middle East. A lot of the corruption in Syria is down to Iran’s presence there. It has propped up Syrian President Bashar al Assad and has poured huge sums of money into supporting the forces there.
The regime has been employing “hope-therapy” efforts there which means that the people are not being told the truth and are not presented with reliable data. Misinformation campaigns are employed all the time by the clerical regime – sometimes they are more successful than other times, but the goal is always the same. It wants to hide the reality from the international community.
The people of Iran have been instrumental in making sure that the international community has the information that it needs about the reality of life in Iran. Supported by the Iranian Resistance, the people highlight the regime’s corruption and malign activities that are ruining their lives. Unfortunately, the international community is not informed by the world press that seems, for the most part, to ignore the reality.
Regime change is coming and it will be driven by the determined people of Iran.