Jahangiri: $22 Billion in National Resources Taken to Istanbul and Dubai
The first vice president of Hassan Rouhani accused the opposition faction within Iran’s Islamic Republic governance of taking $22 billion in national resources to Istanbul and Dubai at one point, with no clarity on what happened to the money.
Ismail Jahangiri, the first vice president of Iran’s president, revealed on Tuesday, October 22 (October 30 in the Persian calendar) during a speech at a “consultation session with scholars and clergy” that during the previous government (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), $22 billion in national resources were taken out of the country.
According to Jahangiri, the objective of those who took this huge sum was to counter the increase in the dollar’s price in the country and reduce it, but neither did the dollar price decrease nor did it become clear what happened to the $22 billion.
Continuing his remarks and referring to widespread criticism of the 4,200 toman exchange rate for some essential items and goods, which critics of the government also refer to as “Jahangiri’s exchange rate,” Jahangiri said: “The decision made in this regard was approved by all branches of the system, but some people who are seeking to fabricate news and discourage the people have repeatedly headlined in media that $18 billion in national resources were wasted with this decision and have never once explained what their reasoning is?”
Iran’s first vice president added: “Those who question the 4,200 toman exchange rate and say the government wasted the nation’s resources are the same people who at one point took $22 billion in national resources to Istanbul and Dubai, allegedly to reduce the exchange rate in the country, while neither did the dollar price decrease nor did it become clear what happened to the $22 billion?”
The figure mentioned by Jahangiri is approximately equivalent to the total value of Iran’s annual oil exports in 2016 and could, if proven, be recorded as the largest financial corruption in the history of the Islamic Republic.
In his lengthy speech, Jahangiri also spoke about and defended the government’s “achievements” in various fields. He said: “Iran’s gas extraction in 2005 from the shared gas field with Qatar was equal, but in 2013 when the Hope and Prudence government began its work, Qatar’s daily extraction was 550 million cubic meters and Iran’s extraction was 250 million cubic meters, and this backwardness must have been due to betrayal because tens of billions of dollars of the Iranian people’s money have been lost.”
Source: DW
