Land Grabbers with Wealth and Power Have Targeted Iran’s Soil

Sohila Kh., FCN News Agency: History testifies that an Iranian would give his life to preserve even a small piece of his homeland’s soil and would not hesitate to sacrifice his possessions in this path. However, today this Iranian witnesses his nation’s soil being plundered to appease merchants across the Persian Gulf waters and for the profiteering and indulgence of those who have taken the helm of governing the nation. It can boldly be said that this time powerful land grabbers and those possessing wealth and force have targeted the homeland’s soil and are nurturing the destruction of Iran.

According to ISNA, the newspaper “Islamic Republic” has reported the export of soil from some cities in Fars Province at a negligible price.

After leaving the country, this soil is used for building fruit orchards and beautiful gardens and providing raw materials for cement production to adorn the homes of merchants in Persian Gulf region countries.

While replacing this national capital takes centuries and plundering it intensifies environmental destruction in the vast Fars Province, a province in southern Iran that houses the major part of Iran’s 2500-year-old civilization and culture.

Yet we have witnessed that officials of this province and our country have shown no reaction to this news. This is where rumors of the reemergence of land grabbing mafia in the land of Pars gain strength.

Presence of Officials in Land Grabbing Mafia

Meanwhile, a group of environmental and cultural heritage enthusiasts of Fars shed light on predictions and concerns about this in conversations with FCN.

Mahboubeh, an environmental enthusiast, by recalling the exposure of similar incidents a decade earlier, believes that the continuation of land plundering in Fars results from the indifference of Islamic Republic officials and even the people.

This thirty-year-old’s reminders go back to years before 2011, when Mohioddin Haeri, the Friday Prayer Imam of Shiraz at the time and the Supreme Leader’s representative in Fars Province, seized natural resource areas and amassed wealth by separating natural resource lands.

Mahboubeh told FCN: “All patriots remember how members of the land grabbing mafia in the southern part of the country sold natural resources under the pretext of developing land and under the name of the ‘Prosperity in Leisure’ plan and, by separating pastures into garden cities, intensified drought in Fars. This happened when uncontrolled and even illegal extraction of groundwater for irrigating gardens began. Moreover, natural pastures and grazing lands were also destroyed. Only the gentlemen’s pockets were filled.

During this period, no media outlet in the country, not even in Fars, exposed this. However, the strengthening of the land grabbing mafia circulated among people by word of mouth. In a few cases, residents of villages and towns that had lost their agricultural water and pastoral pastures due to these actions showed reactions that faced suppression. Eventually, it reached a point where Islamic Republic officials suddenly removed the Friday Prayer Imam from his position overnight to prevent the mafia members from being exposed. During this time, figures like Mehrzad Khord, the director general of natural resources and jihad agriculture, also were sidelined.

However, environmental enthusiasts in Fars knew well that this was not the end of the matter.”

A Religious Authority’s Support for the Land-Grabbing Friday Prayer Imam

This environmental enthusiast also raised another connection with this mafia team and said: “Simultaneously with these events, Nasser Makarem Shirazi, one of Iran’s religious authorities, announced his support for Mohioddin Haeri: I have known him for many years. During this time, I have seen nothing in him that contradicts Islamic standards, and I can testify to this about him. His sincerity is unparalleled and he has a distinguished scholarly position. He is also knowledgeable in economic matters and can provide good guidance to state officials, and I find special integrity in him.”

According to Ibrahim, in this way, Haeri from 1981 to 2008, for 27 years, served as Friday Prayer Imam of Shiraz and a member of the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership, implementing programs that led to the destruction of natural resource areas in Fars.

Covering Up Violations

In response to the popular protests mentioned by Mahboubeh, Mehrzad Khord, the director general of natural resources, was tried only on one financial embezzlement charge, which was paying a 12 million toman mission fee to a subordinate employee who had not gone on any mission at all. Of course, Mehrzad Khord, during approximately a decade when he controlled natural resources and jihad agriculture of Fars Province, acted as a powerful sponsor of conservative forces in the country.

Ignoring the Sale of Natural Resources to Foreigners

Furthermore, according to Ibrahim, another environmental enthusiast in Fars, journalism in a local Shiraz newspaper during those years exposed a secret that revealed another violation by the land grabbing mafia. This secret concerned the sale of thousands of hectares of natural resource lands in Fars to merchants across the Persian Gulf waters.

Sidelining the Exposing Journalist

Ibrahim told FCN: “According to the revelations of that journalist who was later sidelined, the actual land buyers were not clear, but young Iranians appeared as buyers in the transactions and purchased lands at negligible prices. Interestingly, documents were also issued for natural resource areas. Because of this, the newspaper had written that these illegal and plundering transactions could easily be traced through the documents registration office. Even some parliamentary representatives confirmed this violation in conversations with the mentioned journalist, but no legal action was taken in this regard. Only the journalist was punished. The Friday Prayer Imam and the director general of natural resources and jihad agriculture were also removed, of course after transferring their positions to people approved by them.”

Threatening a Historian Objecting to Land Grabbing

He reminded: “As these types of protests continued, things went so far that in one case where only correspondence took place, Abdullah Shahbazi, an Iranian writer and historian, was summoned to court. In this open letter published in 2007, a group of people from Fars protested the destruction of over a thousand hectares of natural resource and endowment lands in the Siakh area. The main agent of this encroachment on natural resource areas was of course the same team as the Friday Prayer Imam.”

Now another curtain has been drawn aside and a small corner of the widespread violations of the land grabbing mafia in the southern part of the country has been exposed. No sound mind would accept that such injustices are inflicted upon the homeland through the nation. In other words, it is impossible for ordinary people to carry out violations such as exporting soil from the country without the support of the powerful.

The history of land grabbing and encroachment on natural resource areas affirms this fact and stamps approval on the activities of profit-seeking mafia bands in this violation. During this time, it is expected from the country’s media not to move beyond legal limitations and, by avoiding self-censorship, to expose violations. Perhaps by raising public awareness and the pressure of public opinion, it may be possible to stem the tide of destruction and devastation in this field.