“Where is My Oil?” Carnegie Foundation Event on Financial Corruption in the Islamic Republic
The Carnegie Foundation hosted a meeting on Tuesday where Khosrow Simnani presented research from the “Hope for Iran” group. This research sought to answer the question: “Where is my oil?”
The research addressed corruption in the oil and gas sector of the Islamic Republic.
Khosrow Simnani, referencing the research findings at the event, stated that Iran today faces an unprecedented crisis situation. What we are witnessing in Iran today is the result of Khomeini’s theory of Velayat-e Faqih (guardianship of the jurist).
In explaining the “Hope for Iran” group’s research on the “plundering of Iran’s wealth,” he said that Khomeini’s ideology has fundamentally enabled the looting of Iran’s resources by denying the Iranian people’s right to sovereignty.
This research was being reviewed at a time when, one day earlier, the U.S. Secretary of State, referring to forecasts of a decline in Iran’s economic growth, attributed this decline to actions by the Islamic Republic government, including the squandering of Iran’s capital in Syria.
Mike Pompeo wrote on Monday, November 28, in a Twitter message that the International Monetary Fund has predicted Iran’s economic growth will decline by 3.6 percent in the coming year.
Mr. Pompeo further added: “When the regime steals from its own people and instead of creating jobs for Iranians, invests in (Bashar) Assad, it destroys the country’s economy.”
Khosrow Simnani also referred to widespread corruption in Iran and said: The case of Babak Zanjani showed the Iranian people that they do not have the ability and right to control, monitor, follow up on, and verify the contents of oil contracts such as selling prices and where the contract money went and how it was spent.
He added: Officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran receive their positions and ranks based on their loyalty to the system and not on serving the people. Their duty is to protect the oil mafia against the people.
Khosrow Simnani, at the Carnegie Foundation meeting regarding the “Where is My Oil?” research, said: The solution to fighting the current situation in Iran is a public mobilization by the Iranian people to stand against widespread corruption.
Source: Voice of America
