Khamenei’s Speech: A Dismissive Gesture Towards Iran’s Economic Woes and International Isolation
khamenei meeting foreign affairst ministry (1)
FILE PHOTO
Written by
Farid Mahoutchi
Two-minute read
On Wednesday, April 24, the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in repeating his usual rhetoric about the state of the economy and then international sanctions, showed that he disregards the economic pressures on the people and the international isolation of the regime, and has no intention of backing down from his own strategy.
Khamenei, under the pretext of Labor Day, met with a carefully selected group of regime operatives that state media portrayed as workers. He claimed that through a production surge, the country and the people would become wealthy, and the workers’ pockets would be full.
Instead of addressing the economic problems and urgent needs of society, Khamenei demonstrated that he had other priorities. He said, “Our military advancements have astonished our enemies. Can Iran, amidst sanctions, produce such advanced weaponry, and with this quantity? Yes, it can! It can even produce more! It can produce better! It can produce even more advanced ones!”
“They want to corner the Islamic system with sanctions so that it submits to their bullying demands and greedy expectations,” Khamenei boasted.
Watch and judge how a former official slams #Khamenei over the dire socio-economic crises in #Iran pic.twitter.com/qHEIBNT0P9
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) May 9, 2023
Dismissing concerns voiced by state officials about the volatile societal situation and the struggle, Khamenei stressed the continuation of this policy and said, “Some benevolently advise that we get along with America. Let me tell you, their [the enemies’] demands are endless. It is impossible for the system to submit to such coercion.”
However, the statistics show that a significant portion of job seekers in Iran have left the labor market due to economic, social, and political problems, and the migration of human resources from the country has reached its highest historical level.
The Jahan Sanat newspaper wrote in January, “The Iranian labor community is seeking to migrate to Iraq, especially the city of Erbil.” According to the newspaper, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and the UAE are other destinations for Iranian labor.
Rasoul Sadeghi, a member of the Cultural Academy’s Brain Drain Working Group, also said in January that according to a national survey on “social capital”, the desire to migrate among the Iranian population over 18 years of age has increased from 23% in 2014 to 46% in 2021.
Tasnim News Agency wrote in December 2023 that long working hours and the difficulty of work compared to low wages have caused factory workers to turn to other jobs, even informal ones, after a year, as street vending can provide significantly higher incomes than working in factories and production units.
Reports indicate that the national average poverty line has surged to nearly 24 million tomans, with Tehran surpassing 30 million tomans. However, Khamenei did not address the minimum wage for this year, which stands at just over 11 million tomans, nor did he acknowledge the daily protests from workers regarding these inadequate wages.