Tehran Metro CEO Quits Amid Canada Sanctions

The passage of time, however, proved that I was mistaken. His intention was to continue serving a regime that had afforded him ample opportunities, enabling him to exert influence over two major newspapers, rise from a street activist to Iran’s ambassador in Germany, and subsequently become a chief negotiator in nuclear talks with the West.

Throughout his career, Mousavian has demonstrated unwavering loyalty to the Islamic Republic. From his tenure as a member of the Resalat Daily editorial board and his leadership role at Tehran Times to his diplomatic endeavors in Europe as Iran's top diplomat, he has consistently upheld the regime's interests. Even upon relocating to the US, his advocacy for the controversial JCPOA nuclear deal and defense of Iran's nuclear program as peaceful persisted.

Mohammad Javad Zarif attests to Mousavian's commitment to the regime, having entrusted him with representation at various European events during Zarif's tenure at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Zarif lauds Mousavian's adept defense of the regime's positions, acknowledging his efforts in international forums across America and Europe.

However, Mousavian has crafted various narratives portraying himself as a regime critic. One such claim involves being listed as a target for internal assassination in the 1990s, an assertion lacking substantiation or evidence. Lists of assassination targets from the 1990s, provided by reputable sources, notably exclude Mousavian's name, indicating a discrepancy in his narrative. I have personally seen two lists for assassinations in the 1990s (one list provided to me by Saeed Hajjarian, a high-ranking security official) and Mousavian was not on those lists. The internal terror project in that period was planned to be carried out inside the country and not in Europe.

Terror-oriented ideology and discourse

During the 1980s, the regime's ideological priorities differed from its current agenda. Anti-semitism, nuclear armament, and Shia imperialism were not prominent; instead, the focus was on the Iran-Iraq war, domestic stability through terror tactics, and ideological rivalries within Islamist factions. Amidst escalating tensions and internal dissent, internal targeted killings emerged as a pivotal tool to safeguard the regime's survival.

Islamist terrorism, characterized by fatwas and militant recruitment, was instrumentalized by the regime to suppress dissent and eliminate opposition voices. This was a time when the war with Iraq was not going well and numerous opposition figures abroad were plotting the regime’s overthrow. Survival of the clerical rulers was the top priority. Mousavian, along with his counterparts at Resalat, played a pivotal role in legitimizing and normalizing this terror narrative, perpetuating a culture of fear and coercion within Iranian society.

Ali Khamenei had the same feeling of fragility in his first years in office and began killing intellectuals and political dissidents in the 1990s. Resalat did the same job to promote and normalize terror in this decade even when Mousavian was out. It was in its DNA.

Mousavian played a key role in the covering up of the Mykonos terror attack and denying Iran's role in this terror attack: "Personally I had more than 300 meetings with the [people in] the [German] Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the judiciary, the German Parliament, the Chancellor's office and even with the heads of the German media to show that the [Iranian] government had no role in the event.”

According to Parviz Dastmalchi, who witnessed the assassinations, Abolghasem Mesbahi, known as 'Witness C,' one of the founders of the IRI’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, testified in February 1997 under oath before the German court regarding the role of Hossein Mousavian in the assassination of Kurdish leaders at the Mykonos restaurant: "Mr. Mousavian has participated in most of the assassinations committed in Europe."

Terrorism, as exemplified by Mousavian's actions, is a grave matter not to be trivialized. His cavalier attitude towards terrorizing American authorities, as evidenced by his gleeful recollection of Bryan Hook's wife's distress, underscores the severity of his involvement in Iran's state-sponsored terrorism. Such callous disregard for human life is reprehensible and underscores the urgent need for accountability.

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily the views of Iran International - The author signed a petition to oust Mousavian from his Princeton position.

Published in 2022 in the Journal of Medical Virology, the now-retracted study described the clinical development of the Noora vaccine, which had been licensed for emergency use in Iran in the same year.

Scientists worldwide, including Donald Forthal, Chief of Infectious Diseases at the University of California, raised doubts about the validity of the study. Despite the critiques, the paper had undergone multiple rounds of review before publication.

In January, additional concerns regarding data integrity and potential conflicts of interest were raised by epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz on PubPeer. Subsequently, on March 2, the Journal of Medical Virology announced the retraction of the paper citing inconsistencies in the data and the authors' failure to disclose potential conflicts of interest.

Corresponding author Hassan Abolghasemi of the IRGC-affiliated Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences in Tehran disputed the retraction, alleging it was politically motivated. Abolghasemi claimed that pressure was exerted on the journal due to "apartheid scientific issues" and stated that their response to criticisms was not accepted for publication.

Last year, a report claimed that over 75,000 Covid deaths could have been prevented in Iran if the regime had permitted global vaccines, banned by Iran's supreme leader who ruled out importing United States and British made Covid vaccines in January 2021, arguing that Western countries could not be trusted.

He claimed Iran was well placed to develop its own vaccines or should take them from more reliable sources as at the time, the US-German Pfizer, US-made Moderna and the British-made AstraZeneca were the only vaccines approved internationally.

A paper published in association with the British Medical Journal and Yale last year called, ‘A quantitative evaluation of the impact of vaccine roll-out rate and coverage on reducing deaths from COVID-19: a counterfactual study on the impact of the delayed vaccination programme in Iran,’ a team of experts have found evidence to show mass neglect on the part of the regime.

After enduring a more-than-40% annual inflation rate for the past five years and seeing their purchasing power slashed to a fraction of what it was in 2018, Iranians now have to struggle with rising rents that are surpassing the monthly salary of an ordinary employee.

Iranians voice deep concern on a daily basis on social media about inflation and rising rents. The common thread among these posts is the citizens’ inability to pay rents, particularly in the capital city Tehran.

A user wrote on X: “I realized I only have money for four months of rent, and a little more to cover my monthly expenses. I got a few steps closer to mental breakdown.”

Another X user noted that she was unable to pay her rent last month due to medical expenses, further adding the economic situation in Iran is so dire that a friend asked me to lend him 1 million rials (less than $2) so that he could buy some bread and potatoes. The only cause behind poverty, corruption and exorbitant prices in Iran is the "terrorist regime" of the Islamic Republic, she stressed.

According to a poll conducted in October 2023, housing is the most important issue for Tehran residents, with problems such as low income and general inflation ranking next.

The findings of the poll indicated that rent accounts for an average of more than 50% of a household’s expenses in the capital where residents pay an average of 15 million rials ($300). This is while more than more than 50% respondents of the poll reported their monthly salary as less than 160 million rials ($320).

This has resulted in the migration of some Tehran residents to smaller towns around the capital such as Parand, Pardis, Hashtgerd, and Pakdasht, where they can afford the rents.

According to Iran's leading economic daily Donyaye Eqtesad (World of Economy), the national rent growth in the first half of the year hit a 12-year high of 38.5%.

In 2022, Abdollah Otadi, a board member of the Tehran Real Estate Consultants Union, said rents had risen 300 percent in the last three years in the capital.

Examining the ratio of rent inflation to general inflation in Iran, Etemad daily wrote on Saturday that rent inflation has exceeded the monthly general inflation rate since September. A comparison between rent inflation over the past two years demonstrates that Iranian tenants have had a much tougher time this year to make ends meet, the report added.

The continuous devaluation of the rial, particularly since the US withdrawal from the JCPOA nuclear deal in 2018, has fueled inflation and plunged millions into poverty. Over the past six years, the rial has fallen 15-fold, from 40,000 per dollar to more than 600,000.

Official annual inflation hovers near 50 percent, but the rial’s continuous fall can directly impact prices and push the inflation rate to near hyper-inflation levels in the coming months. Earlier in the month, Eqtesad 24 daily warned that nearly one-third of Iranians struggle below the poverty line. The report projected a worrying escalation in poverty rates, foreseeing that by the end of the current Iranian year on March 20th, “the proportion of individuals below the poverty line could soar to 37 to 40 percent.”

The economic crisis has also eroded the government's legitimacy, with a historic low voter turnout of 40% in the March 1 elections. Experts contend that economic turmoil is likely to worsen in Iran, with no end in site to its confrontational nuclear and regional policies.

Due to the rising inflation rate, real estate, like gold and foreign currencies, has been treated as capital investment in Iran, with many trying to avoid the rapid depreciation of their cash by buying houses and apartments. Real estate prices rise in tandem with the rising dollar.

According to Donyaye Eqtesad, owning a home in Tehran has become virtually impossible while the key indicators of the quality of life are also in decline. The average time people need to save money to be able to buy a residence in Tehran has increased to a staggering 112 years, from about 22 years in 2005, the report added.

Israel Katz slammed the Turkish president's recent stance on Israel, saying "The murders and sex crimes of Hamas against Jews and the State of Israel makes it one of the greatest acts of oppression and antisemitism in history, and Turkey as the biggest supporter of terrorism in the world right after Iran."

In a speech on Saturday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan made comparisons between Netanyahu and historical fascist leaders including the architect of the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler.

Erdogan voiced support for terror group Hamas and the attacks of October 7, instead describing Israel as "the Nazis of our time committing humanitarian crimes in Gaza."

He added, "We cannot be coerced into designating Hamas as a terrorist organization. We communicate with them openly and stand behind them."

On October 7, Iran-backed Hamas killed at least 1,200 mostly civilians in Israel and kidnapped at least 250 more to Gaza.

In a war of words, Netanyahu stated, "Israel observes the laws of war and will not be subject to moral preaching from Erdogan, who supports murderers and rapists of the Hamas terrorist organization, denies the Armenian genocide, massacres Kurds in his own country, and cracks down on regime opponents and journalists."

Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, also slammed Erdogan for his support of Hamas, stating, "Erdogan standing with Hamas makes him a supporter of crimes against humanity, and comparing the Prime Minister of Israel to dictators is the height of hypocrisy."

Despite both countries recalling their ambassadors, their official relations have not been severed.

"As we approach the New Iranian Year, there is a possibility of an increase in the exchange rate," he added. However, he attributed the fluctuation in the US dollar price to peripheral issues such as the ongoing conflict in Gaza, sparked by Iran-backed Hamas's invasion of Israel on October 7.

The ensuing regional conflict, backed by Iran's proxies, has further fueled a collapse of the country's economy with yet more sanctions following actions by militants from Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon.

His warning comes amidst growing criticism of the Iranian regime's inefficiency in managing prices, foreign policies, and the impact of nuclear sanctions, all of which have contributed to the current economic situation. Rahimi's remarks signal further depreciation of the Iranian rial, which has already experienced a significant decline. Since early January, the US dollar has surged from 500,000 rials to over 600,000, marking a 20 percent increase against the Iranian currency.

The official annual inflation rate stands near 50 percent, but the rapid depreciation of the rial could push inflation to hyper-inflation levels in the coming months.

The devaluation of the rial has been a prolonged trend since the 1979 revolution but intensified notably in 2018 following the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal and the subsequent sanctions on Iran's oil exports and banking sector. Remarkably, the currency was valued at 70 rials per dollar in 1978.

The sharp depreciation of the rial has exacerbated inflationary pressures over the past five years, pushing millions of Iranians below the poverty line.