Iran's Speaker Tries To Minimize Family's Shopping Scandal

The Coordination Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations said that security officers raided the homes of the several activists in Tehran on Saturday, arrested four and confiscated their electronic devices.

The spokesman of the association, Eskandar Lotfi, said in a tweet that three of the detainees were taken to the notorious Evin prison, adding that tens of their other colleagues from different parts of the country have been summoned to court.

According to reports, the officers used violence against some of the activists who resisted arrest, including Rasoul Badaghi, and broke glasses and furniture with a hammer.

During the latest round of nationwide rallies, demonstrators gathered in front of the Education Ministry building in Tehran on Thursday and its offices in various other cities to protest discriminatory regulations on a teacher ranking plan as well as the "continuous and systematic" suppression of union activists.

Teachers across Iran have staged several nationwide protests and strikes in the past six months and have vowed to continue protests until authorities meet their demands including, the implementation of decade-old legislation that would bring the salaries and pensions of 750,000 teachers in line with other civil servants.

Middle East Eye, based in London, reported that according to a complaint launched in a Florida court Virgin Island officials had been connected to an undercover US Drug Enforcement Agency informant by operatives of Iran-backed Hezbollah, the Lebanese party allied to Iran.

The operative allegedly offered the informant the use of a storage port on the island of Tortola, the most populous of the Virgin Islands, to hold Colombian cocaine en route to Miami.

Fahie was arrested by the DEA along with Oleanvine Maynard, manager of the territory's ports authority. Fahie, Maynard, and Maynard’s son Kadeem had allegedly forged their plan with the informant, who had posed as a member of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel and who had met "a group of self-proclaimed Lebanese Hezbollah operatives."

Fahie, who has since last year has been the subject of an enquiry into alleged corruption, was allegedly due to make $7.8 million from the scheme. Located in the Caribbean east of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, the group of islands is a British Overseas Territory with its own elected government.

Mohajeri said in an interview with Nameh News website in Tehran that Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf is more likely to prompt his supporters to harshly criticize President Ebrahim Raisi’s administration, and question and impeach his cabinet ministers.

Differences between the two politicians were fist revealed during the 2020- parliamentary elections, Mohajeri said, but finally they decided to present a shared list of candidates for the Iranian parliament (Majles). Although the measure temporarily put an end to increasing disputes between the two, rivalries and hard feelings appear to be still motivating the two politicians.

Mohajeri recounted that Ghaliobaf was initially planning to run for president in the June 2021 election but changed his mind as soon as he found out that Raisi was a candidate. So, he announced: "I will not nominate myself as a candidate if Mr. Raisi wishes to run."

Nonetheless, when Raisi won the presidential election, the share of cabinet seats he gave Ghalibaf was far less than what he offered the ultraconservative Paydari Party.

Although the Majles gave a good vote of confidence to the Raisi administration, gradually, disputes between Raisi and Ghalibaf escalated. The lawmakers are now adamant to impeach Labor Minister Hojjat Abdolmaleki and Industry Minister Reza Fatemi Amin, but it is evident that more cabinet ministers will be on the parliament's impeachment list, Mohajeri added.

Mohajeri explained that the differences between Ghalibaf and Raisi are rooted in the dispute between Paydari and Ghalibaf and the lawmakers' intervention in the government's executive affairs. There are a lot of disputes in the Majles with the government over the appointment of local and provincial governors, he said, adding that the situation is likely to escalate.

Stressing that a fight between Ghaliobaf and Raisi is inevitable, he pointed out: "Have no doubt about this. "

Recently, lawmaker Hossein Jalali revealed that the members of the parliament have discussed calling for the disqualification of Raisi on the grounds of his "incompetence" for the job. Jalali believes that impeaching the ministers is useless.

Meanwhile, in an extensive article about the differences between Ghalibaf and the Paydari Party, Rouydad24 website wrote that disputes might flare up between Ghalibaf and Raisi. Rouydad24 also wrote that in the controversy surrounding Ghalibaf's family shopping spree in Turkey, his supporters believed that an intelligence agency linked to the government had appointed "minders" to keep an eye on the Speaker's family's every move in Turkey. Some of Ghalibaf's supporters have also said that Paydari was behind the leaking of a damning tape which implicated Ghalibaf's involvement in a major financial corruption case, the report said.

The rivalry between Ghalibaf and Paydari members goes back to the 2013 presidential elections during which Ghalibaf represented his own "neo-con" group and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili was Paydari's candidate. At the time Paydari damaged Ghalibaf's reputation by saying that his positions on foreign policy were the same as Iran's reformists. Later, Paydari charged that Ghalibaf supported the nuclear deal with the United States while Supreme Leader Khamenei described the deal as an "absolute loss."

After that election, Paydari strongly opposed Ghalibaf's appointment as Tehran mayor. And in the current Majles, Paydari let him win the position of Speaker only after getting many concessions. Paydari's mouthpiece, the Raja News website continues its verbal attacks on Ghalibaf.

Former lawmaker Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi wrote in an April 26 tweet: "I said in an interview with Didban Iran website that further to Ghalibaf family's luxury layette shopping spree in Turkey, they have also bought two apartments in Istanbul in the name of Ghalibaf's son-in-law."

The former lawmaker continued: "Instead of offering an explanation or apology, Ghalibaf has filed a complaint against me. There needs to be an open court that would also investigate the cases of Ghalibaf's [8 trillion rial corruption] case about the Tehran Municipality,” and the case involving [former IRGC Commander Mohammad Ali Jafari's leaked tape about Ghalibaf's involvement in a major corruption case.

Imanabadi had said in the interview with Didban Iran: "The person who has bought two apartments for 20 million Turkish Liras in one of Turkey's best neighborhood as well as 20 suitcase-full of layettes, has undermined the regime's prestige and should be removed from positions of power at once."

Subsequently, an advisor to Ghalibaf told the media that the Speaker will definitely file a complaint against Imanabadi.

Didban Iran reporter Nazila Maroofian wrote in a tweet: "Ghalibaf's aides have threatened us [about the interview] and at the same time they have filed a complaint against Imanabadi."

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The website was not accessible Wednesday morning.

Earlier, Ian International TV and the Independent in Persian had reported that Ghalibaf's family had paid 400 billion rials ($1.6 million) to buy two apartments in Turkey.

Mahmoud Razavi, an adviser to Ghalibaf has characterized the revelations about the apartments in Turkey as "a new dimension of a security and political project." He suggested that those who have the evidence about the purchase at their disposal should hand them over to Imanabadi so that he could defend himself in court.

Razavi had said earlier that the disclosures "were part of a security project carried out by a security organization." He added that the project aimed to eliminate Qalibaf as a rival.

Ghalibaf hass so far kept silent about his family's visit to Turkey. However, his aides and supporters including the hardliner daily Kayhan which is close to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office, Parviz Sorouri, a deputy chief of the Tehran City Council and a few Iranian lawmakers have harshly attacked his detractors.

On the other hand, Vahid Ashtari, the whistle-blower who first revealed the story, wrote in a tweet: "One week after returning from Turkey, they still cannot offer any explanation. They are not brave enough to apologize or to deny the reports."

Some media outlets in Iran, however, have accused the Raisi administration of spreading the news about Ghalibaf's family's luxury shopping because of the administration's differences with the speaker. However, they have not given any details to back their accusations.

Khamenei and his office have so far been cautiously silent about the scandal. Iran International analyst Morad Veisi wrote in a tweet on Tuesday: "Khamenei and his office's policy about Ghalibaf's family's controversial visit to Turkey has been one of not clearly supporting Ghalibaf or his critics. Regardless of Ghalibaf's corruption, Khamenei likes his loyalty and his preparedness to suppress protestors at any given time. [The motto is:] Be loyal and supress. Who cares if you ae corrupt?"

Former lawmaker Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi told Nameh News website in Tehran on Tuesday that the Iranian government has already collapsed, and it will be too late when President Raisi finds out what his advisers have done to the country and the government."

Imanabadi, a moderate-conservative politicians, charged that "Iran has 6 Presidents." He explained that Vice President Mohammad Mokhber has pushed out the Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezaei, and Vice President for Executive Affairs Solat Mortazavi from the government's Economic Commission, but to wat extent can this measure make Raisi's economic team efficient?"

He charged that while the current economic crisis is the country's most important issue, Raisi knows very little about the economy and his team is still extremely weak and uncoordinated."

Imanabadi said that "all the 6 contestants in the 2021 Presidential election, including Raisi are members of the Raisi Administration." He added: "In other words, the government has 6 presidents, like the proverb 'Too many chiefs and few Indians' ".

"All the existing evidence points to differences in the government's economic team," he said, asking "How can the vice president for economic affairs not be a member of the government's economic team?"

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Imanabadi explained: "The is so much pressure on Raisi and he cannot do anything other than make more promises because his economic team does not help him. Planning and Budget Chief Massoud Mirkazemi does whatever pleases him regardless of Raisi’s promises to the people and Mokhber is a big bluffer. We still remember that he said: Five big countries are buying [Covid] vaccines from Iran."

The lawmaker charged that while everything in the country's economy is linked to the nuclear deal, and every interview with Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian raises the exchange rate for the US dollar by 10,000 rials, Raisi still insists that he will not tie the fate of the economy to the nuclear deal (JCPOA).

What the lawmaker did not mention, is the fact that trying to publicly minimize the impact of US sanctions is a regime-wide policy imposed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Meanwhile, Political analyst Ali Mohammad Namazi has said in an interview that "If the current situation continues, widespread protests are likely in Iran." Namazi stressed that the Iranian government should reach a nuclear agreement with the United States as soon as possible."

Namazi warned that Iran's treasury is almost broke and the government is not even able to make overdue payments." He exclaimed "Why there is still no nuclear agreement while the economic situation is getting increasingly difficult?"

He quoted other analysts as saying that nothing has changed in the new draft nuclear agreement compared to the one prepared under President Hassan Rouhani," last year and suggested that "The government should be determined to sign the final agreement without insisting on irrelevant matters. But the negotiating team is more focused on symbolic moves rather than on technically down-to-the-point negotiations."

He was implicitly referring to Tehran’s demand for removing the IRGC from the US list of terrorist organizations that have halted the Vienna talks.

Namazi said, "a final agreement will bring about an economic breakthrough that would lead to releasing Iran's frozen assets and facilitate oil normal oil exports. Non-nuclear sanctions can be left for a future when the two sides can have discussions beyond the nuclear issue."