Iranian Footbal Star Shames Government For Handling Of Protests

So far three of the five protester deaths have been reported in small towns of the largely rural Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari in western Iran. Protests of this scale are unprecedented in three small towns of the province which is one Iran's least developed and poorest.

One of the deaths was reported in Babaheydar, a town of around 11,000 on Saturday evening when security forces opened fire on dozens of protesters. According to social media reports, people who chanted against the rule of clerics, attacked the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) local Basij militia headquarters in Babaheydar during their protests. Photos of a father of two, Behrouz Eslami, has been circulating on social media with reports that he was shot in the chest by a local IRGC officer.

A young man, Saadat Hadipour, was also reportedly killed by security forces in Hafshajan, a town of 22,000 in the same province. According to social media reports he was shot from the local Basij Militia building in the town which protesters attacked and tried to enter.

The third protester killed earlier in the province was Hamid Ghasempour. He was a resident of Farsan, a town of 30,000. There is a video that allegedly shows him after being shot in the head while other protesters chant "We Will Kill Those Who Killed Our Brother".

Protests that began in the southwestern province of Khuzestan over a week ago against a massive hike in food prices first spread to Iran's western provinces and on Saturday to the east as unrest was reported in Neyshabour.

Economic chaos continues in the wake of a government decision to stop subsidizing food imports. Long queues in front of bakeriesthat sell the traditional flatbreads and at supermarkets and shops for chicken and cooking oil are now a common sight in many cities. In some cases, bakeries have restricted the number of bread loaves they sell to meet the demand as they say their flour supplies are limited.

The government says it will compensate for the price increases by paying 90 percent of Iranians a monthly cash subsidy for the time being and will later substitute it with ration cards for cheap staples. The first instalment of the monthly 400,000 rial ($13) subsidy has already been paid into people's bank accounts.

The price of oil used in production of canned foods, for instance, has risen by sixfold and affected many foods. The tenfold increase in the price of flour has also pushed up the cost of pasta, a staple food for many lower-income families who cannot afford to buy rice.

Some protestswere reported Saturday evening in southeast Tehran in Shahrak-e Karevan (Razavieh) district where protesters also chanted anti-government slogans. The area is largely inhabited by lower-income families. In the rest of the capital Tehran and most other large cities heavy presence of security forces kept a heavy presence in the streets.

Brigadier General Mehdi Hajian said in a press conference on Sunday that 3.3 million liters of vegetable oil, over 5.3 tons of wheat and flour, 3.3 thousand tons of rice, and 2.7 thousand tons of animal feed have been discovered and confiscated from smugglers and hoarders during the past two months.

He added that 1,284 people have been arrested in connection with the smuggling, noting that the total value of the confiscated goods is estimated to be about 9,000 billion rials (about $30 million).

Saying that such figures are alarming, he called for more efficient regulations and supervision over the supply chains, implying that such amounts of goods can only be smuggled through organized crime or with the help of the authorities.

Hajian also said the volume of goods trafficked to the country is also too high to be the work of individual smugglers via border crossings.

In February, the head of Iran’s Headquarters for Combating Smuggling of Goods and Foreign Exchange said the volume of smuggled goods is at least $12.5 billion and only one-third of the goods involved is discovered.

Ali Moayedi Khorramabadi noted that due to political conditions and economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic, trade is not conducted in accordance with international laws, therefore a lot of commodities are smuggled in or out of the country.

In a consolidation of his leadership, Sheikh Mohammed, known as ‘MbZ,’ was appointed unanimously Saturday by the UAE federal council a day after the death of his half-brother President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, 73. Sheikh Mohammed succeeded Sheikh Khalifa as ruler of Abu Dhabi on his death May 13.

"We congratulate him and pledge allegiance to him as do our people," said Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, UAE vice-president and premier.

At 61, MbZ became a strong figure in a growingly assertive UAE foreign policy after the regional defeat of the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011, including armed interventions in Libya and Iraq, and in supporting military rule in Egypt, which the UAE justified as curbing the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 2020, the UAE and Bahrain ‘normalized’ relations with Israel in an agreement brokered by the United States administration of Donald Trump, breaking a long-standing Arab League policy that this should not be done until Israel recognized a viable Palestinian state in occupied territory.

Contain Iran but improve relations

While ‘normalization’ was condemned by all Palestinian groups, it was widely interpreted as a means to contain Iran. The UAE went ahead despite Saudi Arabia’s refusal to follow suit and there have also been differences between the two over the Yemen war – which began 2015 – as the UAE withdrew most of its military presence in 2019.

Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have stood back from taking sides in the Ukraine conflict, contributing to tensions with the United States administration of President Joe Biden, and declining invitations to pump more oil to bear down on rising prices. A planned US sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to the UAE also appears stalled partly due to American concerns over the UAE’s relationship with China.

Sheikh Mohammed will be only the third president since the UAE gained independence in 1971 as a federation of seven sheikhdoms. His primary task will be consolidating the UAE’s position as a financial and tourism hub while diversifying further from an oil-based economy.

Recent efforts to relax tension with Iran, with speculation of a visit from President Ebrahim Raisi, reflect a desire for regional stability. In December, despite Iran’s strong condemnation of the UAE’s ‘normalization’ with Israel, the UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan met with Raisi in Tehran.

“We look forward to the acceleration of development aimed at consolidating the global sovereignty and pioneering of the Emirates,” said Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed.

Foreign leaders – including US vice-President Kamala Harris, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog – arrive Sunday and Monday to offer condolences over Sheikh Khalifa’s death as the UAE begins 40-day mourning.

In a statement released Thursday, Brussels-based Education International condemned the arrests as “violations of freedom of association, the right to organize, and freedom of speech” and called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of those detained.

Among those named were Eskander Lofti, a member of the teachers’ union in Mariwan, Kurdistan province, and spokesperson for the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Association, which has organized the protests.

Given Iran’s inflation of at least 30 percent since United States ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions began in 2018, teachers like other Iranians have demanded higher salaries.

Their protests go back around two years, with recent demonstrations beginning in April. At least 28 were arrested in the build-up to protests planned for May 1. Iran also arrested May 7 Cecile Kohler, a French teaching union official in Iran with her husband.

The statement from Education International included a resolution from its executive board demanding respect for rights of education workers to organize and peacefully assemble.

The federation also called for the release of Esmail Abdi, former leader of the Tehran Teacher Association, who is in jail over “collusion against national security” with release not due until 2031 and who on May 1 began a hunger strike. Education International called his charges “trumped up” and said his “long imprisonment and ill treatment” had “severely affected his health.”

The head of Cattle Farmers Association, Ahmad Moghaddasi, told ILNA on Saturday that the price of barley, corn, and soybean meal have risen from less than 10 cents to about 60 cents per kilogram. 

He added that the jump in the feed prices has also increased the price of live cattle by nearly 20 percent. 

Soybean meal, barley and corn for livestock and chicken feed are mainly imported from Russia and other countries. Iran annually imports around 8 million metric tons of corn, 4.2 million metric tons of soybean meal, and 400,000 metric tons of barley for animal feed. Any shortages or higher prices can push up the price of meat further.

The head of the Flour Producers Association says this year Iran must import 20 million tons of grain – including 6 to 7 million tons of wheat -- noting that the country has never been so dependent on imports. 

Anti-government unrest in Iran triggered by the sudden rise in food prices spread further on Saturday as state media and officials are in denial.

The average price of food for one person is estimated to be about 9,030,000 rials (about $30) per month and for a family of four it is about 36,120,000 rials (about $120). Considering the average minimum wage that is set at about 42,000,000 to 63,000,000 rials this year (about $140 to $200), a family of three to four must spend more than 85 percent of its income on food.