Iran badly needs favor from Joe Biden

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Iran is in deep crisis as it has already been proved – no country can witness progress, peace and prosperity if its is run by bunch of radical Islamic clerics and mullahs. The madness centering so-called Islamic revolution is rapidly eroding, while Iranian people already are too tired of chanting anti-US and anti-Israel slogans. They also are fed-up with mullah regime’s decade-old delusion of occupying Jerusalem with the help of its Palestinian proxies.

Commenting on situation in Iran, Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami, President of the International Institute for Iranian Studies wrote in the Arab News: The year 2021 has not been filled with favorable results for Iran. However, with the swearing-in of a new, Democratic, US administration in January and this summer’s installation of a hard-line Iranian president in Ebrahim Raisi — an objective long sought after by the Tehran leadership — senior officials in Iran expect the situation in the country to change for the better, especially in the economic and foreign policy spheres.

These expectations are overly optimistic, considering that the grave challenges facing the regime continue to increase and steadily become more complex. Also, the geopolitical developments in the international arena have not been advantageous for Iran. Instead, they have impeded the new administration’s ability to fulfill its lofty electoral promises, rendering the new Iranian political equation handicapped from the start.

The regime is increasingly aware that support for its “revolution” is rapidly eroding, with its ideals incompatible with the values and ambitions of the younger generation. The regime is attempting to counter this, with much talk of indoctrinating the youth with a revolutionary mindset in an attempt to create an intellectual vanguard to sustain the Khomeinist line. For the Iranian leadership, this year’s presidential election was intended to reset societal attitudes and revive the ideals of the revolution through “engineering the election” toward a conservative line that is in tune with the ideas of the supreme leader. This was intended to lay the foundations for a new generation that bears the burden of sustaining the revolutionary ideals.

However, the regime — as some view it — is preparing the scene for the post-Khamenei era. When Raisi took over as president, the regime was able to appoint loyalists to head the legislative and executive branches. This step was preceded by the appointment of Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf as the speaker in parliament, where the hard-liners hold a majority.

Regarding the new government’s performance in the more than three months since Raisi took over the presidency, signs of disgruntlement and dissatisfaction are emerging and escalating. Iran is experiencing rampant inflation, while unemployment and poverty rates are increasing. These deteriorating economic indicators have led to intense criticisms being leveled against the government because of its failure to set out a plan to deliver on its electoral promises, such as improving the economy, establishing better ties with neighboring nations and improving international relations to help lift the economic sanctions on the country, which have exacerbated the economic woes faced by the Iranian people.

Another subject of widespread public dissatisfaction is the government’s failure to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Raisi administration embracing the previous government’s failed health policies and approach. This has also led to some parliamentarians blaming Raisi’s government for the decline in Iran’s stock market and the major losses hitting share prices. In addition, they have blamed the government for not addressing the rising poverty and unemployment rates. Senior Iranian officials are concerned that the aforementioned factors will lead to extensive protests.

At the security level, as a result of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, the pace of emigration and displacement from the country has increased, resulting in a surge in drug smuggling. This has aggravated the already parlous state of the Iranian economy and put more pressure on the country’s security and law enforcement agencies. Elsewhere, tensions have marred the relationship between Iran and Azerbaijan, prompting Tehran to increase its preparations for any potential dangers, most notably from Israel’s presence in Azerbaijan. Iran has also been subjected to cyberattacks targeting the country’s national petrol distribution system, leading to further criticisms of the government over its poor technical know-how and ability to thwart such cyberattacks.

Meaning, with Iran’s continuing and worsening water scarcity and extreme power shortage, Iranians are becoming increasingly aggrieved with the rowdy mullah mafia regime. Although the state-machinery has been making frantic bids of systematically uprooting pro-democracy and anti-regime masses, the year 2022 would be bringing too many challenges for Iran’s Supreme Leader and his cronies, including half-educated president Ebrahim Raisi.

Under mullah regime, Iran’s economy is also in great trouble. Although the regime has embraced a strategy to develop a flexible economy capable of withstanding and recovering from adversities and challenges by reviving state-controlled banking and financial institutions the country is still grappling with the socioeconomic fallout from the pandemic and, although it has blamed US sanctions for its inability to tackle the health crisis, it is obvious to anyone who observes Iranian affairs that Tehran’s ineffective health policies and approach have contributed to its current predicament.

Failure of the regime in tackling the challenges posed by the pandemic and rampant spread of the virus has had far-reached ramification. This has not only resulted in death of hundreds of thousands of people, COVID has also caused job losses and income levels falling, which is leading to worsening socioeconomic conditions. During Raisi’s governance, all the macroeconomic indicators point to a crisis-ridden and deteriorating situation: Weak economic growth after a prolonged recession and an increasing budget deficit as a result of curbs on the country’s primary sources of income.

Revenues generated from oil exports have also been greatly affected by the US sanctions. To overcome these challenges and ensure continuation of the mullah regime, Iran badly needs support and favor from Joe Biden and his administration in granting extreme favor by liftings sanctions and unfreezing billions of dollars. There are indications that Iranian regime is already spending significant amount by appointing lobbyists, while it also is making efforts of buying special favor from Joe Biden through his son Hunter Biden as well as husband of Kamala Harris. It is also learnt, Iranian regime is offering hundreds of millions of dollars to Hunter Biden in particular in the form of trade in oil should Hunter Biden succeed in influencing his father in doing a great favor to the Iranian mullah regime.

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