2300% Increase in Parliament Budget from 2004 to 2017

The newspaper Jama'e Farda reports a 2300% increase in the budget of the Islamic Consultative Assembly from 2004 to 2017, stating: "2300% growth in budget since 2004. This figure reflects the growth of the Parliament's budget from the start of the seventh Parliament until today, but there are now other concerns among some members of Parliament. Concerns about how to oversee the spending of this budget and whether the Parliament has been as effective and efficient as its budget growth." Mohammad Reza Tabesh, a member of Parliament, told this newspaper: "In the final days of the sixth Parliament, when the budget for the seventh Parliament was being finalized, I was the financial officer in the board, and a budget of 28 billion tomans was set for the seventh Parliament, while today, a budget of 680 billion tomans has been set for the tenth Parliament, excluding the budget for the Parliament's Research Center and Library, which also have separate budgets." Jama'e Farda points out that "every September, the Parliament's board presents a report on budget spending to the representatives," noting that "many of these representatives consider this report to be vague and believe it lacks transparency." Furthermore, "many experts believe that the legislative branch has deviated from its primary role as one of the main powers of the country in recent years and has distanced itself from decision-making in major national issues." The newspaper compares the Parliament's budget increase to that of the country's development, health, and education budgets over the same period (2004 to 2017), stating: "Based on this comparison, the country's development budget increased by more than eight times during this 13-year period (858% growth), the health and treatment budget increased by about thirteen times (1283% growth), and the education budget also increased by about eight times (779% growth), while the Parliament's budget increased by 2300% during this time." Etemad, on its front page titled "What is Happening in the President's Office?", published a report about "the changes ordered by Mahmoud Vaezi," stating: "The appointment of Majid Takht-Ravanchi, a key member of the nuclear negotiations, as the political deputy of the President's office was a puzzling event. Takht-Ravanchi replaced Hamid Abutalebi, who was demoted from deputy to advisor." The newspaper refers to speculations about Mahmoud Vaezi's role and influence as the President's office chief, stating: "In this new position, it seems we are facing a new Vaezi; in fact, the changes in the President's office do not stop at the reduction of Mohammad Nahavandian and Hamid Abutalebi's roles or the arrival of Majid Takht-Ravanchi. The forgetting of Morteza Bank, one of the most effective figures in the Presidency during the eleventh government, should also be considered part of the targeted changes in the President's office and the Presidency institution." Etemad raises the question, "What does Vaezi really intend?" stating: "There are discussions about the chief of staff's interference in the composition of the twelfth cabinet and his role in existing disputes, while he himself says, 'The President's office should be his eyes and ears to address and resolve differences before they escalate.' However, his efforts to resolve existing disputes seem to be limited to smiles after cabinet meetings and denying disagreements." The newspaper emphasizes that "Vaezi's conflict with reformists in the twelfth government has escalated," noting that "influential figures among reformists hold him responsible for reducing Jahangiri's role in the government," while on the one hand, Mahmoud Vaezi's influence "in appointing ministers not approved by reformists and on the other hand, playing in Larijani's team" indicates that "the closest person to the President in the government tends to Larijani, while speculation about Ali Larijani's candidacy in the 2021 elections has emerged, and some even speak of a potential Larijani-Jahangiri dichotomy." The newspaper Shargh, on its front page titled "War and Now Peace," reported that "the one-day meeting of Hassan Rouhani, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Vladimir Putin, the presidents of Iran, Turkey, and Russia, concluded on Wednesday evening in the city of Sochi, a resort city that has recently become a diplomatic hub in Russia, where discussions about the fate and future of peace in Syria are taking place." According to this newspaper, Hassan Rouhani stated before traveling to Russia and attending the upcoming Syria summit: "The capture of the city of Abu Kamal in Syria does not mean that the issue of ISIS in the region is over," and "this victory does not mean that the issue of terrorism and ISIS in the region is over; however, their foundations have collapsed. They no longer have territory to claim they are seeking governance in the region; however, they will remain as smaller terrorist groups for a while." Shargh also reported that after this meeting, Hassan Rouhani stated: "Today's session was very open, and the three countries clearly articulated and expressed their views, and the main goal following this meeting is to form a Syrian-Syrian national congress to gather all ethnicities, religions, and active parties, whether they support the current Syria or oppose it, in Sochi in the near future to discuss and negotiate the future of Syria and from that congress, the groundwork for drafting a new constitution will be provided." The newspaper Khorasan also assessed the discussions between the presidents of Russia, Iran, and Turkey in Sochi as "the beginning of the political phase in Syria," quoting Vladimir Putin as saying: "We have reached a new stage that allows us to implement a political solution in Syria," and "without the role of Iran and Turkey, the war in Syria would not have stopped, and the agreements reached will help strengthen Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity." This newspaper wrote that the Sochi meeting is one that "all three presidents described as 'historic' for the future of Syria. The president, who just two days ago had a four-hour negotiation with Vladimir Putin in the same city, now, 'with the end of ISIS's dominance over Syria and the negotiations yesterday between Rouhani, Putin, and Erdogan and the agreements that, of course, there has not been much information about their details, it can be stated that the three countries, guarantors of peace in the Astana negotiations, have now entered the political phase.'" The newspaper Javan, close to the Revolutionary Guards, described the meeting of the presidents of Iran, Turkey, and Russia in Sochi as "the architecture of a regional order without America," writing that Hassan Rouhani, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Vladimir Putin in this meeting "outlined a new vision for regional security, a meeting that has worried Tel Aviv and Washington. Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with Putin just hours before the three-way meeting in Sochi," and "Netanyahu asked Putin to consider Israel's security and not allow Iran's role and influence in Syria to expand after ISIS." The same newspaper reported in its middle pages that Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of the Islamic Republic, emphasized in a television program that "until the factory producing ISIS is destroyed, there is a security threat." Javan wrote that Ali Shamkhani stated: "The ISIS threat has not yet ended, and this threat is moving towards becoming a security issue that manifests as bombs and terrorist operations. Some regional countries act under a strategy that the Middle East should not be without challenges, and on the other hand, I believe some regional countries have factories producing ISIS, and as long as this factory is not destroyed, this security threat will exist." The newspaper Arman reported in a piece titled "Khuzestan Residents Under Polluted Rain" that hundreds of people visited hospitals in Khuzestan province due to respiratory problems. This newspaper quoted the head of public relations at Jundi Shapur University of Medical Sciences in Ahvaz as saying: "Following the occurrence of dust storms and autumn rains in Khuzestan, from Tuesday to noon Wednesday, 329 people with shortness of breath visited the treatment centers under this university." Farhad Hamzehloui stated that "of these visitors, 20 were hospitalized and the rest were discharged," adding that "the number of visitors compared to the same period last year has decreased by one-fifth." The Arman newspaper emphasized that "the dust storm on Tuesday affected some areas of Khuzestan and Ahvaz, and rainfall was reported in most areas of Khuzestan," quoting the Khuzestan Environmental Protection Agency as stating: "The concentration of dust in Ahvaz reached 58 times the permissible limit at 1 PM on Tuesday." This newspaper recalled that "the shortness of breath among Khuzestan residents began with the first autumn rains in 2013 and until 2015, more than 60,000 people visited treatment centers due to respiratory problems, but in the first night of autumn rains in 2016, less than a thousand people visited treatment centers across Khuzestan, which was a 70 to 80 percent decrease compared to previous years." The newspaper Shargh also published an interview with "the coordinator of the German team present in Kermanshah," reporting that "some villages have still not received aid." Cyrus Ghiasy, an Iranian-born coordinator of an NGO called "Homemedica," said about the performance of this NGO's dispatched team to Sarpol-e Zahab: "Every morning, we go with an ambulance carrying necessary medicines to villages that have received less attention; so far, we have visited about 65 villages," but "currently, I think there are villages that no one has visited after the earthquake." He mentioned the village of "Javanimiri" as one of them and said this village "had 146 households and about 700 residents," and visiting its residents "took two days. Our goal was to do the work properly in one place rather than half-doing it in ten places." The newspaper Shahrvand also reported in a piece titled "Debtors of Mehr" that "owners of Mehr housing in earthquake-affected areas have become homeless and indebted to the banking network" because they "have lost all their possessions in an orange ruin. They have no land to build on themselves, nor do they have savings to return to renting. They bought the house with the condition that the land belongs to the government and the structure belongs to them, which means the government owns the land, and they only bought the building. Worst of all, for this ruin, which is no longer a building, they have to pay installments for another 12 years." According to this newspaper, "800 Mehr housing units were built in Sarpol-e Zahab, and it has been about 4-5 years since they were handed over to their owners. The horrific earthquake 11 days ago destroyed their newly built homes. Abdolreza Ghafouri, the director of housing affairs at the Kermanshah Road and Urban Development Department, says that 576 units have been severely damaged." The Shahrvand newspaper interviewed several owners of Mehr housing in Sarpol-e Zahab, and for example, one of them, who works as a street vendor, told this newspaper: "I used to earn 800 to 900 thousand tomans a month. Now that the earthquake has come, all my 25 million tomans in savings are gone, and I have to pay 300 thousand tomans a month for my destroyed house." This newspaper emphasized that "this story affects 576 families in Sarpol-e Zahab and about 1,700 families in Islam Abad. They say their joy of becoming homeowners was very short-lived, and they have returned to years of homelessness. Now with even emptier hands than before and years of installments and debts." The newspaper Etemad reported on the possibility of Iranian judoka Mohammad Rashnoonajad seeking asylum, stating: "The 2017 Grand Prix judo competitions in the Netherlands concluded on Sunday, and the Iranian national judo team, which had sent six judokas to these competitions, ultimately ended with two bronze medals won by Saeed Mollaei in the 81 kg category and Javad Mohajer in the 100+ kg category, while four other judokas were eliminated. However, following the end of these competitions, Mohammad Rashnoonajad, the Iranian judoka in the 60 kg category and last year's Asian judo vice-champion, left the national team camp in the Netherlands and did not return to Iran with the national team." This newspaper noted that "Mohammad Reza Roudaki, the manager of the national teams, has stayed in the Netherlands to facilitate this judoka's return to Iran," stating: "Over the past years, many judokas have traveled abroad with national teams and did not return to Iran, to the extent that Rashnoonajad is the nineteenth judoka to refuse to return to Iran, and in this regard, judo in Iran has set an unprecedented record; judokas, many of whom have given up on returning to Iran forever and are living in foreign countries.