Tehran Expecting Economic Windfall From Renewed Ties With Riyadh

The Twitter account of Hengaw, which is an Independent rights monitoring group following violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, reported that two schools in the city of Naqadeh were attacked on Saturday.

Meanwhile, The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers' Trade Associations reported a school in the city of Ardabil in the northwest was also attacked and a number of students were poisoned.

There are also reports of an attack with suspected poisonous gas on a school in Haftkal city of southern Khuzestan province. At least 20 students with symptoms of gas poisoning have been admitted to the hospitals of the city.

At least 130 elementary and high schools were targeted in the past Iranian year ending in March 20.

The attacks that started in November have continued without any apparent effort by the government to seriously pursue the perpetrators or explain to terrified parents and students what was happening in so many schools.

Many ordinary Iranians have been suspicious of involvement of the regime itself, or religious extremists protected by the regime, calling the attacks “state terrorism”.

The government has aired ‘confessions’ of those allegedly responsible for the attacks as a man and his daughter forced to speak to national TV. The broadcast has all the trademarks of the regime’s forced confessions.

Local media has been asking the government about its total silence on any ongoing investigation.

Donyaye Eghtesad (World of Economy) said in a report on Saturday that in the first weeks of Iranian new year (starting March 21), the number of newly built units offered for sale increased slightly, but the housing market transactions did not return to normal.

The daily also added that "the proposed prices are much higher than the expectation of the buyers".

Meanwhile, Jam-e Jam daily, which is owned by Iran's state broadcaster, reported that "the government has lost the ability to monitor the chaotic housing market."

"In less than two and a half months, the relocation of tenants will reach its peak, but the plans of the government and parliament to control the rental market have failed, with many tenants more worried about the unreasonable increase in prices," stressed Jam-e Jam.

In the meantime, Saeed Lotfi, a member of the board of directors of the Tehran Real Estate Consultants Union noted that “the government presents plans that are not based on expertise.”

Rents and home prices have climbed as much as inflation and the value of the US dollar have risen in recent months, reaching a level that an ordinary worker must hold two or even three jobs just to afford basic housing. Workers make between $100-150 a month, calculated by the current rate of the dollar which is 510,000 rials.

Food prices have increased between 70-100 percent in the past 12 months on top of high inflation in the previous year.

Bahadorifar, had also confessed to conspiring to break US economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic by helping to provide money to a private investigator, who was tasked with monitoring Alinejad.

During the court session on Friday, Bahadorifar apologized to Alinejad calling her “a hero to all Iranians.” However, according to Alinejad, the judge realized the defendant was trying to abuse all Iranian women to show herself as a "victim of the Islamic Republic and the patriarchal system".

“Niloufar Bahadorifar willfully violated sanctions and knowingly provided financial support to Iranian intelligence assets, who in turn were engaged in a plot to kidnap an Iranian human rights activist living in the United States whom the Iranian government has sought to silence for years,” said US Attorney Damian Williams.

Alinejad, who campaigns against mandatory hijab and other rights issues was the target of an international kidnapping plot orchestrated by Iran’s intelligence network in 2021. She has a considerable following in Iran especially among women with 8.8 million followers on Instagram and 721,000 on Twitter.

US authorities charged an Iranian intelligence agent and some others with attempting to abduct Alinejad and take her back to Iran, but the regime in Tehran denies the charge and the four defendants, who all reside in Iran, have never stood trial.

Ahmad Ardestani told Rouydad24 website in Tehran that "regardless of Iran's attempts, regional countries shaped their attitude after the Islamic revolution based on the United States’ view about the new Iran."

"The Islamic Republic created the Resistance Front to showcase its regional hegemony." Resistance Front is the regime’s officials' jargon about the anti-US alliance it has created in the region, by supporting militant proxy groups in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Syria.

According to Ardestani, the Islamic Republic uses the ‘Resistance Front’ to portray Tehran as a regional superpower. He said, no matter who likes it or not, Iran is at loggerheads with the United States and that explains its interaction with countries such as Russia and China.

"Unfortunately, Europe and the United States pushed Iran toward the East with their ‘maximum pressure policy’. Now Iran has strategic ties with Russia and China while it has failed to maintain a logical relationship with the West," Ardestani said.

Meanwhile, Mehdi Motaharnia, an academic in Tehran questioned the concept of regional supremacy. "Iran's regional influence cannot help Tehran if it is not used to create a peaceful life for Iranians." What the Iranian government needs at the current juncture is legitimacy, he reiterated.

100%

Speaking about the interests of the Arab side, Ardestani said that after the suspected Iranian attack on Saudi oil facilities in September 2019 and Iran’s continuing support for the Houthis in Yemen, the Riyadh as well as others in the region including Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE, concluded that instead of “bribing the United States” for protection, they should get closer to Tehran.

Ardestani added that in such a situation Iran needs to establish logical relations with the West. However, he failed to observe, or living in Iran prudently skipped the fact that Tehran’s policy toward the West is mainly driven by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s unwavering anti-US and anti-West ideology.

Elsewhere in the interview Ardestani said that both Saudi Arabia and Iran benefit from their recent agreement brokered by China, as this makes Riyadh immune to US blackmails, and gives Tehran an opportunity to present itself as a confident and stable state. He further characterized Iran and Saudi Arabia as the two wings that keep the region stable.

Critics of the Biden Administration say that its cold attitude toward Saudi rulers pushed Riyadh to diversify its foreign policy options, by restoring ties with Tehran and eliminating a constant threat.

100%

He expressed hope that the agreement with Saudis could be a prelude to a nuclear deal with the West. Ardestani said in a controversial comment that "Now when Iran has stopped just short of making the [nuclear] bomb, it is the best time to revive the JCPOA."

He added that Iranian expats wish to suggest to the US Congress and others that Iran is not stable as protests are raging in the streets, but the West's intelligence agencies have reassured governments that the claim about Iran's instability are not true.

However, Motaharnia highlighted the instability of the regime. "If you have international influence and even if you are a regional superpower, but your society is not peaceful and is in pain, not only your apparent supremacy is not important, but it is useless and probably only good for propaganda."

Motaharnia reiterated that the Iranian government is facing multiple challenges that have eroded its legitimacy and have made it isolated in the region and within the international community. These challenges are exerting pressure on the government as the people want to separate the state from religion and criticize the government for its inefficiency.

He said Iran needs to change, but changing is difficult for a government which sees itself over and above everything else in the society.

The judiciary’s news website, Mizan, said Friday Abbas (Mojahed) Kourkour has been sentenced to death for the killing of Kian Pourfalk in Izeh in southwestern Iran on November 15, adding that the sentence could be appealed.

Kian and his family were targeted by plainclothesmen during a night of protests in Izeh while they were in their car. Kian’s father was also paralyzed as a result of serious injuries he sustained during the attack.

100%

His mother, Zaynab Molaei-Rad, who was also in the car, has always insisted that it was plainclothes agents, not Kourkour and his friends, who sprayed their car with bullets and killed her son.

A former lawmaker from Izeh, Hojjatollah Darvishpour, confirmed the account Kian’s mother gave at her son’s funeral and said she had provided all the details about those who shot and moved her son and husband to the Red Crescent and then hospital.

Belgian politician Tomas Roggerman has accepted political sponsorship of Kourkour.

Kourkour’s family also insist that he was not anywhere near the site of the shooting and was tortured into “confessing” to the shooting in which Kian was killed. His mother, Golanbar Kourkour, has appealed to Iranians to help prevent his son from being innocently executed.

Six others including three other children, were also shot dead in Izeh during the same night but authorities claim the attacks were perpetrated by “terrorists” who wanted to discredit the regime.

Shocked by the indiscriminate killing of children including Kian during nationwide protests that began in mid-September many Iranians began to call the Islamic Republic a “child-murderer regime”. Tens of other children, including a two-year-old, were killed by security forces during the protests.

Kourkour’s mother appealing to Iranians to save his son’s life.

Kourkour and three other men, their families claim, armed themselves to take revenge on the government for the killings of November 25 in Izeh and hid in a village near the city but were ambushed by security forces four days later.

During an hours-long standoff in which security forces used heavy machine guns and anti-tank grenade launchers, two members of the group were killed and Kourkour and another man were arrested.

Over 500 protesters and bystanders were killed by security forces during the protests across Iran. Authorities have only taken responsibility for the killing of one protester, the 27-year-old Mehran Sammak, who was shot by a senior police officer in his car in northern Iran on November 29.

The regime executed four young men for their alleged role in the killings of government agents in December and January after hasty trials.

Kian’s mother with the mother of the man she says is wrongfully accused of killing her son.

The accused were not allowed to have access to defense lawyers before and during their trials. Many believe that protesters’ death sentences were based on “torture-tainted confessions”. Several other protesters have been sentenced to death in similar circumstances.

Death sentences based on torture-tainted confessions of the accused are not uncommon. Iran International has learned that currently two men, 19-year-old Farhad Beigi Garousi and 34-year-old Gholamreza Rasaei, have been tortured to confess to the killing of an intelligence official in Sahneh in Kermanshah Province in western Iran on November 18.

100%

Locals say the officer Nader Beyrami was killed in a clash with mourners when he and his forces raided a funeral ceremony for a local poet and musician to prevent the ceremony from turning into anti-government protests.

Rasaei’s family say they have witnesses who will testify that he had not been present at the scene of the killing.

The deceased and both accused belong to the Yarsan religion which has many followers among the Kurdish population of the region. Many Yarsanis hide their religion for the fear of persecution.