Lack of medical equipment and relief supplies for people such as masks, alcohol and disinfectant gels has become one of the main obstacles to preventing and treating coronavirus in Iran.
Meanwhile, the Iranian regime’s leaders call the economic and oil sanctions an obstacle to the provision of medical equipment for treatment.
The fact is that food and medicine have not been subject to sanctions at all, and even the United States and many other countries have offered medical help, and even Doctors Without Borders have sent medical equipment to Iran, but it is the regime itself that has prevented many donations.
Among other things, the regime prevented ‘Doctors Without Borders’ from setting up a 40-bed field hospital in Isfahan and expelled ‘Doctors Without Borders’ from the country.
Ali Rabi’i, the spokesman for Rouhani’s government, claimed that “we have not refused the help of any country or any international organization so far. The media, which always attacks the regime under any pretext, expresses these issues.”(Fars News Agency, 30 March 2020)
If we ignore the destruction of Iran’s infrastructure and nature, which is the result of 40 years of occupation by the mullahs, Iran is still not under the pressure of sanctions in terms of capital and meeting the needs of the people.
Because the people’s property and capital are in the hands of the regime’s leaders, especially the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, and the collection of different institutions affiliated with him is skyrocketing.
Regarding the adequacy of part of the wealth of Khamenei-affiliated institutions to fight the coronavirus outbreak, a member of the Money and Capital Markets Commission in the Tehran Chamber of Commerce simply said that paying taxes by these institutions was enough: “Taxes by institutions such as Astan Quds Razavi, The Executive Headquarters of Imam Khomeini’s Directive and the Foundation for the Underprivileged are the best way to compensate for the government revenue deficit to help the activities affected by the coronavirus.” (Borna News Agency, 3 April 2020).
Institutions that are completely in the hands of Khamenei and are exempt from any audits and taxes.
A quick look at the property and assets available to Khamenei makes it clear that the money and capital of the institutions affiliated with Velayat-e-Faqih are such that all medical and relief supplies and equipment can be procured.
The giant economic-political institution called Astan Quds Razavi Foundation
The Astan Quds Razavi Foundation is one of the richest economic cartels in the Khamenei’s mafia. A significant area of arable land around Mashhad and other cities in Iran, including Tehran, Qazvin, Isfahan, Damghan, Semnan, Yazd, Kerman, etc., belongs to Astan Quds Razavi, which is estimated to be worth about $ 20 billion.
The huge financial giant owns at least 58 companies and several independent holdings and has a stake in 31 other companies, and one can imagine how much money goes into Khamenei’s pocket each year.
Basij Cooperative Foundation
The Basij Cooperative Foundation has officially announced in 1988 during the Iran-Iraq war that the Mehr Financial Institution is one of the institutions affiliated with the Basij Cooperative Foundation.
Hamid Tehranfar, director-general of the Central Bank’s Banking Supervision and Credit Institutions at the time, said about the IRGC and Basij banks: “They are doing everything except interest-free loan. They act as the financial arms of the IRGC and the Basij in the Tehran Stock Exchange and elsewhere and buy shares of companies.” (ISNA News Agency, 27 December 2009)
Mehr Eghtesad Iranian Investment Company is just one of the holdings of the Basij Cooperative Foundation and one of the largest buyers of shares in the Tehran Stock Exchange, which buys for the IRGC and is a shareholder in a number of large Iranian companies.
Abbas Rezaei, the former CEO of Mehr Eghtesad Iranian Investment Company, said in 2009: “32 months ago, I received the Mehr Eghtesad Iranian Investment Company with 20 to 30 billion tomans. I am leaving Mehr in a situation where the value of the company’s investment portfolio has reached 14 trillion tomans.” (Donya-e-Eqtesad daily, 20 January 2010)
Revolutionary Guards Cooperative Foundation
The Revolutionary Guards Cooperative Foundation is one of the oldest economic organizations of the regime, which was founded by law in 1995 and the founding of construction companies and services were allowed the armed forces, especially the IRGC. Projects with billions of rials in budget and road construction and facilities were handed over to the IRGC-affiliated companies, including the IRGC Cooperative Foundation.
Mostazafan Foundation
In 1998, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, the former head of the Mostazafan Foundation, said that the Mostazafan Foundation had about 400 commercial companies and produced 28% of the country’s textiles, 22% of cement, about 45% of non-alcoholic beverages, 28% of rubber and 25% of Iranian sugar.
On 20 January 2018, Etemad daily reported that the profit of this foundation in 2018 was 26 trillion Tomans. This means that the annual profit of this institution is more than one million and 444 thousand years of a worker’s salary.
On 20 January 2019, IRNA published an interview with Mohammad Saeedi Kia, the head of the Foundation, about his and his deputies’ salaries, saying, “The maximum salary of my deputies, as well as myself, is 10 million and 800 thousand tomans. If they overwork, they get more. With overtime, it becomes 18 million, 19 million tomans.”
Mohammad Saeedi Kia and 6 of his deputies in the Foundation receive a salary of 19 million Tomans per person per month, and all together they receive 114 million Tomans in a month, which is a salary of 1.596 billion Tomans in one year. Comparing these salaries with the salaries of 1.5 million tomans of workers’ or teachers’ and other employees’ salaries, the depth of the looting of the leaders and regime’s officials is determined.
Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs
The Martyrs Foundation started its work in 1979 under the command of Khomeini. Bank D, with 47 branches, owns only one of the money-making centers, and the bank has at least 13 companies.
Kowsar Credit Institution is affiliated with this foundation, which according to the balance sheet of this institution in mid-2016, the total value of its assets has been more than 13 trillion tomans.
Gholam-Ali Jafarzadeh, a member of the Investigative Committee in the regime’s ninth parliament, said in a report to the parliament: “If we want to make public the financial embezzlement of the Martyr’s Foundation, the society may face a shock. Some other members also said that the figures could not be published in the media.” (Majlis News Agency, June 2016)
Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards
Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters is one of the bases of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which is currently the largest contractor for Iranian government projects.
The encroachment of the Revolutionary Guards and its numerous subsidiaries on economic projects, often without tenders over the past 20 years, has made this base the largest contractor for government projects.
On April 26, 2016, the Le Monde newspaper reported that the Khatam al-Anbiya camp had 30 percent of Iran’s oil sector as its main contract. Nearly all oil and gas extraction contracts were in the possession of this base for the past 20 years, generating astronomical revenues of several hundred billion dollars for them.
In an interview with the regime’s news channel on 18 March 2017, the base commander at that time Abdullah Abdullahi revealed just one item of the IRGC’s looting of the Persian Gulf refinery’s oil sales, saying: “60 million liters of products are produced from this refinery, of which 37 million liters are Euro 4, 4 million liters are jet fuel and 14 million liters is heavy and light diesel.
“That’s a total of 60 million liters if we calculate it with the global rate and calculate one dollar per liter, the daily income of the Persian Gulf refinery is 60 $ million and it has an annual income of 20 billion dollars. If you calculate it with the rate of 3-4 thousand Tomans, the income of this refinery is 70 to 80 thousand billion tomans a year.”
Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order
Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO) is the largest economic cartel in this regime, which Reuters estimated in a research report on 11 November 2013, to have a fortune of $95 billion.
One of several holdings of the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order is Barkat Pharmaceutical Company, which owns more than 60 percent of the shares of Alborz Investment Group, the country’s second-largest pharmaceutical holding.
Alborz Investment Group is in this situation, in cooperation with the IRGC, busy looting the people by creating a black market for medical equipment to deal with the coronavirus outbreak in Iran.
In order to determine a real picture of the amount of money available to Khamenei and the IRGC under his control, it is necessary to refer to the letter that Ahmadinejad former regime’s president which he wrote to Khamenei on 13 March 2018.
In the letter, Ahmadinejad told Khamenei: ‘The 15 Khordad Foundation, the Mostazafan Foundation, Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order, the Revolutionary Guards Cooperative Foundation, the Army Cooperative Foundation, the Basij Cooperative Foundation, the Ministry of Defense Cooperative Foundation and the Economic Committee of the Relief Foundation have more than 700 trillion tomans of wealth, which the people are unaware of the report of their work, income, and place of consumption. ” (Dolat-e Bahar website, 18 March 2018)
Source » irannewsupdate