The widespread floods across Iran have only further exposed the deep divide between the President Hassan Rouhani administration and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), with both sides lashing out against each other rather than helping the Iranian people.
So far, locals report that over 200 people have been killed, while over 25,000 homes have been destroyed in the floods.
The IRGC is questioning Rouhani’s handling of the situation with their affiliated news outlets openly criticising the government’s incompetence as thousands of IRGC and Basiji troops were sent in to quell protests among the flood victims and attempt to divert water away from residential areas.
IRGC commander-in-chief, General Mohammad Ali (Aziz) Jafari visited a flood-hit area of northern Mazandaran province on Sunday to tell residents that the IRGC stood with them.
Hussein Shariatmadari, editor of the IRGC-affiliated newspaper Kayhan, wrote: “I wish that Mr Rouhani would cut short his apparent touristic trip to Qeshm Island upon hearing of the destructive flooding in the provinces of Golestan and Mazandaran and would come back to express empathy with the affected people, but sadly he did not do that.”
However, Rouhani has also been critical of the IRGC, especially after troops led by Jafari, blew up part of a railway line connecting Iran with Turkmenistan when they were using explosions to divert the floodwaters.
Rouhani said that these explosions had no impact on the rising water levels, while the news outlets affiliated with his faction warned against using the floods for political gains.
While Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to the UK, criticised Persian speaking media outlets based outside Iran for covering the floods “in order to prove the incompetence of the country’s officials”.
This is all part of a long-standing feud between the two parties and has nothing to do with how the floods are affecting the people of Iran. In fact, the main reason is that the IRGC is quickly gaining more power over Iran’s economy, politics, and foreign affairs without being accountable to anyone other than Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
It is important to note that neither side is innocent in all this. Both are corrupt institutions controlled by an evil Supreme Leader. All are more concerned with the future of the Regime than the fate of the people.
The Regime is weaker than ever before, plagued by domestic and international crises, and the people know that there is but one solution to their problem. That solution is regime change. It is no longer enough to hope that moderates can reform the Regime. There are no moderates there.
Source » irannewsupdate