The President of the Islamic Republic provided explanations in the Islamic Consultative Assembly to answer questions about the economic situation and the sharp decline in the value of the rial. Representatives were not satisfied with four answers to five questions and these questions will be referred to the judiciary.
Hassan Rouhani has gone to the Islamic Consultative Assembly for the first time in the past five years, with the aim of answering questions from representatives.
In the first part of his speech to the parliament, Hassan Rouhani said that the five questions asked by the representatives are also "questions of the Iranian nation": "Why unemployment? Why is the state of the banks like this? Why are booms and busts going through conditions that are not expected by the people? Why is the exchange rate rising?"
He also asked: "But the main question is why, after our movement that had been moving forward for four and a half years, and statistics bear witness to this, suddenly in these seven or eight months, new conditions have begun?"
The President of the Islamic Republic added: Why have people's hopes changed and, even more than that, why have some people become skeptical about the Islamic Republic's system?
The Islamic Republic President went on to defend his government's activities in combating smuggling.
Regarding the continuation of banking sanctions after the nuclear deal, he said: "Sanctions against Iran are not just nuclear sanctions."
Mr. Rouhani called on parliamentarians to approve bills related to banking matters as soon as possible, "which will greatly affect our banking relations."
In the past few months, the four bills to combat money laundering and prevent the financing of terrorism have become a point of contention between the government and its supporters and opposing movements.
The peak of these disputes has been the issue of joining the implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regulations. One of the bills that the Rouhani government sent to the parliament in late May, along with bills on Iran's accession to the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, amending the Anti-Money Laundering Law, and amending the Anti-Terrorism Financing Law, coincided with the expiration of the suspension of Iran's presence on the Financial Action Task Force's blacklist.
The chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee and Rob Portman, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee, in a letter in late June called for the Donald Trump administration to reinstate the Financial Action Task Force's punitive measures against Iran.
Hassan Rouhani has defended his government's record on unemployment.
Regarding the unprecedented increase in the price of the currency, Rouhani said that "social, psychological, and foreign policy issues" had a greater impact on the price increase than economic issues.
"Narcissism" vs. "Negroification"
Mojbati Zolnour, the drafter of the question to Rouhani, during a speech in parliament on Tuesday, accused the government of narcissism and lack of planning for economic problems, and said it had no plan to deal with the consequences of the Donald Trump administration's withdrawal from the JCPOA.
Mohammad Dehghan, a conservative MP, called the government’s decision to allocate state currency “illegal.” Hamid Reza Foladgar, a MP from Isfahan, criticized “instability in government decisions,” “lack of attention to domestic production,” and “non-implementation of the Resistance Economy Law.” Mohammad Hossein Farhangi, a MP from Tabriz, also said that under Rouhani’s government, the country’s economy was “dominated” by recession and “there is no sign of a government plan to solve it.” He predicted that inflation this year would reach “60 percent.”
But in the second part of his speech, Hassan Rouhani said that the history of recent events and developments goes back to "January 1396." Referring to the protests of January 27, 2017, he said that some people took to the streets and chanted "non-standard slogans" and "people were astonished."
On January 27, hundreds of participants in a rally in front of the Mashhad municipality building and several other cities protested against high prices and chanted slogans against Hassan Rouhani, a "dictator," Iran's aid to other countries, and in support of Reza Shah.
These protests quickly spread to other cities. These widespread protests were initially sparked by economic reasons, but it wasn't long before protesters in various cities were chanting slogans against senior officials of the Islamic Republic, against Iran's presence in regional countries, or in defense of the previous Iranian government.
The Islamic Republic President said that the incident "made the US government greedy," and Donald Trump announced in late January that he would withdraw from the JCPOA if it was not amended.
These remarks come despite Trump being a staunch opponent of the JCPOA even before the US presidential election and promising to abandon it if he wins. The Trump administration says the nuclear deal with Iran has fueled Tehran's "interference" in the region, that missile development in Iran has continued despite its commitments, and that Iran "remains the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism" and is engaged in "destabilizing activities."
The US government has asked Iran to engage in more comprehensive negotiations, but Iran has not yet agreed to do so.
In another part of his speech, Hassan Rouhani asked critics within the government not to say “behind the podium” that the country is in crisis: “The country is not in crisis, we are in a stage of damage and in some cases on the verge of threat, but the country is not in crisis.” Rouhani says, “You know, destruction brings ruin. Denigration leads people’s lives to darkness.”
Various cities in Iran have continued to be the scene of protests in recent months. The economic situation, the environment, the currency and gold crisis, and other issues have been raised in these protests, and political slogans against senior officials, Iran's presence in regional countries and Tehran's costs in them, and political and economic corruption continue to be raised in every corner of the country. These protests are not limited to the streets, and various evidence and examples of them can also be seen in cyberspace.
Hassan Rouhani says: "Apart from staying or leaving the JCPOA, there is a third way, and if Europe does not fulfill its obligations, we will announce a new method." He did not give an explanation about the "third way" and said that if necessary, we will announce it.
Yesterday, as the Iranian President called on countries committed to the JCPOA to take practical action to save the agreement, his French counterpart called for further dialogue on the Islamic Republic's missile program and Tehran's role in the Middle East.
The European Union supports the JCPOA and is at odds with the United States on this issue. However, leaders of several European countries, including Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, the leaders of France and Germany, have repeatedly expressed concern about Iran's missile program and its activities in the Middle East.
In the second part of his speech, Rouhani repeatedly called for “unity,” “brotherhood,” and “togetherness” among the three branches of government of the Islamic Republic, saying, “There is no other way.” He concluded his remarks by saying that the government was increasing foreign exchange reserves “for the coming months and years,” and that this was why these reserves were not being used at the moment.
The parliamentarians were only convinced about the reason for the continuation of banking sanctions and were not convinced about the government's actions to reduce unemployment, economic stagnation, the sharp increase in the price of foreign currency and the sharp decrease in the value of the national currency, and control smuggling.
"Secrets behind the scenes"?
Hassan Rouhani had previously described the representatives' questions as "unconstitutional" in a letter to the speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, but had said he would use this opportunity to express "some truths" to the people.
Shahindokht Molaverdi, his special assistant for civil rights, said during a conference in Mashhad on September 25 that Mr. Rouhani, "by attending the Islamic Consultative Assembly, will expose the secrets behind the scenes and the people who did their best to bring the country to this situation by creating scenarios and forming think tanks."
But Mojtaba Zolnour, a conservative representative from Qom, who previously served as Ayatollah Khamenei's deputy in the IRGC, said that "if the president speaks off-topic" and no one stops him, "then the atmosphere in the parliament may lose its calm, which is not in the dignity of the parliament and the government."
Economic situation and the five questions
The five axes of the questions are: "The government's failure to control the smuggling of goods and currency," "Continuation of banking sanctions," "The government's failure to take appropriate action to reduce the unemployment rate," "Severe economic recession lasting several years," and "Rapid increase in foreign exchange rates and sharp depreciation of the currency."
Since the US withdrew from the nuclear deal with Tehran and began the process of reimposing sanctions, Iran's economy has been under severe strain; the national currency has lost its value significantly, the price of coins and other goods has increased, many large Western companies have left Iran, and a wave of protests has also taken place in various cities.
US officials say the tensions are a result of the reimposition of sanctions. Donald Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton recently said the reimposition of sanctions has had a significant impact on Iran’s economy and public opinion. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also said, “We don’t ask much from the Iranian leadership. We just want them to behave like normal leaders. Don’t rob your people; don’t waste your people’s money on adventures in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, etc.”
On the other hand, the Leader of the Islamic Republic says the main problem is internal and related to "performances." The Iranian Foreign Minister also said that "internal disputes have completed the psychological atmosphere."
Source: Radio Farda
