Following the first round of US sanctions against the Iranian regime, the second step was to create the Iran Action Group, commissioned by Brian Hook as announced by the US Secretary of State. In his first statement, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif compared the move with the August 28 coup against Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh. Zarif sounded like he was gagging rather than making a political comment.
65 years ago today, the US overthrew the popularly elected democratic government of Dr. Mossadegh, restoring the dictatorship & subjugating Iranians for the next 25 years. Now an “Action Group” dreams of doing the same through pressure, misinformation & demagoguery. Never again. pic.twitter.com/ic3o652awn
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) August 19, 2018
Over the past three months, currency fluctuations and a loss of half the value of Iran’s currency against the dollar made top news around the world. One that Iran tries to link directly to fresh US sanctions so it can blame its economic crisis on an external factor.
Prior to the start of sanctions, Iranian government media outlined the country’s poverty 40 percent since last year.
A country with more than 80 million people, when 40 percent (32 million) live below the poverty line before the start of sanctions, you can clearly see the huge wave of monetary crisis the smallest economic pressures will have to bring.
Moderate classes cannot increase their purchasing power while there’s huge acceleration of inflation. They usually have fixed wages and on the other hand, wage moderation does not fit in with the terrible inflation rates. So the purchasing power for these classes goes down and they lose their savings, and this class will join the strata below the poverty line.
Hossein Raghfar, an Iranian economist says, “The bottom layers of society are witnessing a fall in revenue. The purchasing power of the majority of the middle and lower classes of society has fallen sharply. Some people in the middle class try to adapt themselves to these conditions with two working shifts or limiting their consumption. They may even sometimes spend their savings on their children’s nutritional needs, without being able to support their educational needs.”
Abnormalities and the bankrupt economy in Iran, which some Western media and specifically CNN, are trying to blame on US sanctions, is a 40-year-old product that is rooted in sovereign corruption and plundering.
The same Iranian economist tells the Arman state-run daily that “the existing abnormalities are the result of economic disasters in the past three decades after the Iran-Iraq war in 1980. The conditions created the powerful and wealthy mafias, who today are the winners of this wrecked economy. Unfortunately, they are also behind major decisions in the country.”
Considering the everyday calamity in Iran and with oil, currency and other sanctions affecting the whole economy, Javad Zarif claims the aim is to overthrow the regime. The current problems threaten the whole system, known as Velayat-e faqih and Zarif seem particularly bothered about the Iran Action Group. Apart from the consequences of sanctions, Iran is fearing its collapse and has begun to tremble. The main threat strikes the entire ruling system, which the Iranian people on the streets of Tehran and other cities have started to challenge too.
