A Glance at Iran’s State Media: COVID-19 and Economic Crises, and Defiant Youth
Written by
Amir Taghati
Iran’s state media on September 6-8 acknowledged some aspects of the country’s crises. They primarily focused on the current Covid-19 crisis and its rising death toll, the deepening economic crisis, and warned about reactions of frustrated people.
Covid-19 and Vaccination
“These days, the country is facing a shortage of vaccines. Field observations also show that several large vaccination centers have been closed, and other vaccination centers have only the first dose of the Covo-Barakat vaccine. Domestic vaccines are reviewed very late, and licensing of [foreign vaccines] is delayed,” wrote the state-run Setare-Sobh daily on September 6.
“While we were discussing the matter, other countries built and exported vaccines. They succeeded in reducing the Covid-19 fatalities, and the life [in those countries] is close to becoming normal as before the pandemic. Yet, we thought we would produce 50 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by September,” wrote the state-run Hamdeli daily on September 6.
Hamdeli acknowledged that the regime had not only “succeeded in producing 50 million doses of vaccines but delayed importing vaccines. What was the result? More people lost their lives.”
Truth about coronavirus vaccination in Iran
According to the Iranian opposition, over 412,700 people have died as of September 8.
The Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei banned credible Covid-19 vaccines in January 2021 and persisted in producing the so-called domestic vaccines. Khamenei banned certified vaccines from using the Covid-19 casualties as a barrier against popular uprisings. He persisted in producing the domestic vaccine to plunder people since various financial institutions under his supervision were controlling the production and distribution of vaccines.
One of these institutions is the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO), one of Iran’s largest centers of economic power.
“With false promises and deadly mistakes about providing the required vaccine and neglecting the vital precautions in controlling the coronavirus, officials killed thousands of infected people,” wrote the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily on September 8.
Jahan-e Sanat underlined that regime officials “also sent large numbers of patients home due to a lack of exchange of needed medicines and lack of hospital beds, adding many family members to a large number of coronavirus patients.”
“Mohammad Mokhber, the Vice-President of Ibrahim Reisi, as the head of EIKO, had repeatedly assured the people that we would soon eliminate the coronavirus crisis with the mass production of millions of domestic vaccines by the end of September. By such misleading and bogus promises covered the absence of the required foreign vaccine, [regime officials] said they had defeated Covid-19,” Jahan-e Sanat adds.
Jahan-e Sanat then warned that the “Public opinion is pushing for the perpetrators of this humanitarian catastrophe to be tried in a public court on charges of killing thousands of innocent people.”
Iran’s Economic Crisis
Iran’s economy is plagued with crises, such as inflation and skyrocketing prices. The regime’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, has only given hollow promises to resolve these issues. The regime’s inability to address economic crises and Raisi’s hollow promises were also a subject discussed in Iran’s state media in recent days.
Resalat daily, referring to the continuation of the plundering policies of the previous governments by Raisi’s government, wrote: “If Raisi wants to continue this situation, at the end of this year, with a budget deficit of 400 trillion Tomans, his government will fall into a super-inflationary black hole. If we add sanctions to these mistakes and deviations, the situation will remain the same.”
“The upward trend in inflation” is the headline of an article in the Setareh Sobh newspaper, reviewing the reports presented by the regime’s statistics center. “The trend of increasing dairy prices in recent times has been such that six items in this group have increased by more than 50% and even up to 120% compared to last year,” Setareh Sobh wrote, adding, “The group of food items for households is on average 57.1 percent more expensive than last year.”
How the mullahs destroyed Iran’s economy
Iran Social Crisis and Restive society
Like other days, Iran’s state media recently warned officials about Iran’s restive society. The Iranian regime’s decades of wasting national wealth on terrorism, corruption, and oppression have turned the Iranian society into a powder keg. The two previous major Iran protests in 2018 and November 2019 are testaments to the explosiveness of Iranian society. The nationwide boycott of the regime’s sham parliamentary and presidential elections also shows that the regime is illegitimate.
“One of the serious challenges the system face is the reducing political trust and, consequently, the downward trend of social capital. Some political and social unrests in 2018 and 2019 and people’s slogan of ‘reformist, hardliner, the game is over,’ the low turnout in the 11th parliamentary elections and then in the 13th presidential election all confirm the decline in [people’s] political confidence in the [regime],” wrote the state-run Etemad daily on September 6.
Iran Protests: Nationwide Uprising in Iran- November 2019
While Iranians suffer from poverty and the Covid-19 crisis, the regime continues its malign activities and spreading terrorism under the pretext of helping other nations.
Etemad daily on September 6 called the regime’s helping other countries an “a contradiction which angers people.”
“We see this contradiction in the behavior and speech of officials. Why does the official who collected a lot of aid for the Bosnian people from the government and the people and took it there and cried for the Bosnian and Somalians does not react to the poverty and suffering of his people? He even advises them to be patient and considers inflation as God’s will,” Etemad daily adds.
“Why do you cry for Somalian children during Friday prayers, but the children of Sistan and Baluchistan, other southern provinces of Iran and even around Tehran, and the children and girls working in the garbage dumps of the city do not hurt you? It is important to find the root of this behavior. The pain of this behavior is more than the poverty and disease,” Eteamd daily wrote on September 8.
In another article on September 7, Etemad daily warns officials about Iran’s defiant youth, calling them radical and dangerous. “The youths pose a threat to established rules and norms. We did not pose a risk to established rules and norms in the mid-1990s. The officials must seek the extent to which the actions of today’s youth are radical in terms of how risky they are for established rules and norms. We need to know that the radical is something that puts the [regime] in danger,” Eteamd warned officials.
A Glance at Iran’s State Media: COVID-19 and Economic Crises, and Defiant Youth