What relationship exists between intensifying disclosures from within the Islamic Republic’s government, the collapse of government forces, and the suppression of subsistence protests?
The revelation of an audio file containing conversations between senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) about the extent of economic corruption in this powerful state institution has once again drawn attention to the inefficiency of the country’s ruling apparatus and, of course, aroused public anger.
Why has the revelation of such a document gained special significance in today’s conditions of Iranian society and drawn greater attention? Why have disclosures become more frequent during a period when the government has no solution to escape the current situation? Is there a relationship between the multiplicity and variety of disclosures and the collapse of forces close to the government and suppressors at various levels of power? What has been the reaction of the government and media outlets close to power to these disclosures, and what does this reaction indicate? The intensification of subsistence problems among various social classes has caused the anger arising from inefficiency and widespread financial corruption at higher levels of government to circulate in public opinion more than ever before, and citizens consider the indifference of legislative and judicial authorities to be an insult to human dignity. On the other hand, it can be emphasized that this form of the government’s dealing with problems and citizens’ subsistence hardships, and the revelation of more corruption and inefficiency, has led to numerous narratives of the collapse of suppressive forces.
From disclosures of suppressors to unchecked corruption at the top of power
The process of revealing certain documents and images related to security institutions and those close to the top of the government, from the judicial apparatus to the IRGC, has accelerated at an unprecedented pace in recent months. On one hand, the presence of a number of military and suppressive forces at the International People’s Tribunal for November and their disclosures about the suppression of popular protests have placed public opinion in a new confrontation with the government. A confrontation based on these disclosive narratives and also on the lived experience of these days in Iranian society, which is subject to discrimination and suppression from all sides, and perhaps it can be said that more than anything, it has aroused the anger of public opinion and caused society’s certainty about the inefficiency and widespread corruption in the government to increase, and the few fragile bridges of trust between society and the government to face destruction. A look at two recent disclosures—the audio tape of the conversation of the IRGC’s economic officials at the time and the text of the meeting of security and intelligence officials of the country at the Tharallah headquarters of the IRGC focusing on popular protests—shows what the government’s approach is to the subsistence protests of various sections of society and how comprehensive and all-encompassing discrimination against the general public is achieved. On Thursday, the 21st of Bahman (February 10), approximately a 50-minute audio file was released on Radio Farda, most of which consists of a conversation between Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the IRGC at the time, and Sadegh Zolghadr, former deputy for economic affairs and reconstruction of the IRGC in 1397 (2018), about widespread corruption related to the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, the Quds Force, and the Tehran Municipality. In this audio file, emphasis is placed on the prominent role of Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, former Tehran mayor and current speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Qasem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force, Jamal-al-Din Abromand, former coordinator deputy of the IRGC, and Hossein Taib, IRGC intelligence chief, in widespread corruption. The figures mentioned in this regard represent widespread economic corruption at the highest levels of the IRGC, equivalent to approximately two billion dollars at the value of the 1397 solar year. Access by senior IRGC officials to financial resources and substantial capital, and their passive reaction to the waste of these resources and capitals clearly shows that what senior officials of power and wealth seek is to add to the wealth that results from the increasingly severe subsistence suppression imposed on society. On the other hand, it can be said that the prominent role of senior military and security officials of the country in large-scale economic corruption has a direct relationship with the suppression of people’s subsistence protests. The second half of the 1390s solar decade has witnessed the largest and most widespread popular protests throughout Iran. Protests that in most cases faced a constant response from the government: brutal suppression. The peak of these suppressions took shape in the bloody November of 1398 (2019), when according to Reuters, during this unprecedented suppression in Iran, 1,500 people were killed by the military and security forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A look at the number and variety of subsistence protests by various sections of society—from workers and teachers and retirees to farmers and livestock herders in the final years of the 1390s solar decade—despite the widespread prevalence of Corona in Iran from the end of 1398, shows that senior government officials and the main decision-makers regarding wealth distribution and the use of economic resources not only had no regard for the fate and future of citizens, but based on a mafia-like policy and context, sought to cover up widespread economic corruption and deliberately suppress popular protests and strikes.
Some time ago, a confidential document related to conversations between security and military officials at the Tharallah headquarters of the IRGC was released, in which officials acknowledged that the number of subsistence protests in 1400 (2021) had grown significantly. In the text revealed from the “Prevention of Subsistence-Based Security Crisis Crisis Taskforce” meeting, Colonel Kaviyan, representative of the Police Department of Intelligence and Public Security of the National Police, presented a report on predictions regarding protests in the last four months of 1400, saying that “gatherings in 1400 increased 48 percent compared to 1399, and the number of protesters also grew 98 percent.”
What can be obtained by putting these two documents side by side, more than anything, helps describe the process of systematic subsistence suppression. A suppression that has always been applied in different ways and at different times to various parts of society so that those in power and wealth can continue to profit and pursue economic opportunism with peace of mind.
Meanwhile, the holding of the International People’s Tribunal for November and the presence of some suppressive forces revealed another dimension of disclosures by forces close to the government; during the proceedings of this tribunal, some members of the main suppressive forces in November 1398 and judicial officials, without introducing themselves by name and position, provided detailed accounts of methods of suppressing protesters.
The revelation of the audio file related to economic corruption in the IRGC took place during days when many streets in various cities of the country witnessed protests by social security retirees, who held protest gatherings after the distribution of a call throughout Iran. Perhaps it can be said that the semantic link between the protests of retirees, which is unprecedented in the history of Iranian protests, and the widespread economic corruption of the mafia institutions of power and wealth, expresses the fact that rulers in the Islamic Republic of Iran easily trample on “human dignity” to advance their goals.
The government’s repetitive narrative about dealing with corruption and turning a blind eye to reality
A few days after the revelation of the audio file of the conversation of IRGC officials about widespread corruption at various layers of this powerful institution in Iran, media outlets close to the government, such as the Kayhan newspaper, claimed there was nothing wrong with the officials’ conversations in this meeting. Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of Kayhan newspaper, wrote on Monday, the 25th of Bahman, that “in this audio file, the counterpart of Commander Jafari’s (former IRGC commander) conversation provides a report of a misuse and financial corruption that occurred in one of the IRGC’s shell companies to the IRGC commander… and Commander Jafari, the IRGC commander at the time, after listening to the report and ensuring its accuracy, immediately issued an order to dismiss Sharifi—the person responsible for the misuse—and introduced him to the judicial system.”
The IRGC officials’ narrative of this matter ultimately relies on the claim of judicial investigation and dealing with offenders. Ramezan Sharif, IRGC spokesman, on Monday, the 25th of Bahman, claimed that: “Over the past 5 years, the IRGC’s oversight bodies, according to current procedures and their continuous monitoring, became suspicious of a phenomenon of mismanagement and violations in one of the companies affiliated with the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, and the case, after careful and professional review, was referred to judicial courts, and the judiciary, with the cooperation of the IRGC, issued rulings against offenders who are currently serving their sentences.”
Fars News Agency, one of the media outlets close to the IRGC, on the same day sought to impose this narrative by publishing a report that Qalibaf and senior IRGC commanders such as Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari were people who played an essential role in pursuing corruption cases and prosecuting their defendants. This is while the tangible reality for the people is the constant immunity of the main figures behind large-scale economic corruption; people such as Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a parliamentary speaker whose many decisions have a direct role in determining people’s subsistence fate.
After the intensification of unrealistic reactions from media outlets close to the government to impose a reversed narrative of the existing reality, Masoud Kazemi, a journalist, wrote in a series of tweets that “Mohammad Ali Jafari’s son is one of the defendants in the Capital Bank corruption case, which has never been investigated.”
Another point that becomes clear following continuous disclosures of widespread economic corruption among senior government officials is the government’s attempt to prevent transparency. The attempt of media outlets close to the government proceeds on exactly this pattern and even in reaction to documents such as the audio file related to corruption in the IRGC, they seek to eliminate the existing reality—the prominent role of senior government officials in unchecked corruption.
It can be said that the intensification of such disclosures has a meaningful relationship with the collapse of government forces. A few days after the revelation of the audio file related to widespread corruption in the IRGC, Vahid Ashteri, a media activist and one of the former forces close to the government, in a series of tweets examined matters in the Farsnews report and the officials’ approach to dealing with this corruption and highlighted the existing ambiguities in that report. Including the fact that in the FARS report about “why the IRGC’s intelligence analysis and IRGC protection in violation differed in such a large way and formally one was behind the violators and one behind the defendants,” there is no explanation.
There is no doubt that the revelation of the audio file of senior IRGC officials about multi-billion dollar corruption is only one aspect of the deep and widespread corruption of the gangs of power and wealth in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Powers that, without regard to the intensification of subsistence pressures on the people, sought to find new ways to suppress those demanding and protesting.
A few days ago, Mohammad Habibi, spokesman for the Teachers’ Professional Council, reported on the issuance of circulars by education officials to create fear and panic among teachers and attempts to prevent them from participating in gatherings and sit-ins.
Teachers’ main protest is against the non-implementation of the ranking plan. A plan that has been delayed for years under the pretext of lack of financial resources. Looking at the amounts announced in several instances of financial corruption in past years shows that a small portion of the amounts lost in widespread financial corruption would be a solution to many of the subsistence problems and hardships of various sections of society, especially the approved budgets for plans such as teacher ranking and salary equalization for retirees. The revelation of the details of widespread economic corruption and the widening gap between classes in society is producing serious anger from a society that, according to security institutions’ own admission, has reached a point of explosion.
