Ahmadinejad's Response to Rouhani: I Did Not Hand Over Empty Warehouses

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in his second letter to the people of Iran in less than a week, once again accused Hassan Rouhani of making a "false claim" regarding the "emptiness of essential goods warehouses" at the end of his administration. According to Iranian news agencies on Tuesday (March 7), Ahmadinejad provided explanations about the status of essential goods warehouses in the country at the end of his presidency in a five-point statement. This statement was issued in response to remarks from officials of the eleventh government claiming that Ahmadinejad's administration had planned to hand over empty warehouses to the new government. Eisa Kalantari, advisor to the first vice president on water, agriculture, and environment, was among those who stated that "the previous government had predicted that by the end of its term there would be no reserves and the warehouses would be empty." Kalantari mentioned in a June 15 interview with Iran newspaper that "at that time, the warehouses for animal feed and vegetable oil were completely empty," and the newly elected president had formed a special committee, but the Ahmadinejad administration did not cooperate to fill the warehouses. Hassan Rouhani also spoke of "empty warehouses" after taking over executive affairs in Iran, and on May 9, 2023, Ahmadinejad's supporters responded on websites, stating that Rouhani had a "misunderstanding" in this regard. About ten months after the responses from the media supporting Ahmadinejad, he personally reacted in his second statement to the remarks of Rouhani and some other officials of the eleventh government. Ahmadinejad stated that a week before the eleventh government began its work, "more than three million two hundred thousand tons of wheat and about one-third of the country's annual consumption were only stored in the Ministry of Commerce silos." He also added that in August 2013, "millions of tons of wheat were in the process of being purchased and transported to the silos." According to Ahmadinejad, his government "had purchased and stored the minimum six-month needs of the country to ensure the security of various essential goods under sanctions at the time of the government handover." He added that these actions were interpreted by Rouhani's friends as "emptying the National Development Fund," but "after he became aware of the correctness of the work, he insisted that the work continue." In another part of his statement, Ahmadinejad questioned, "How has the current government managed to fill the warehouses in three days or a week with an empty treasury?" On March 6, Ahmadinejad had accused Rouhani of "providing false statistics and information" regarding the treasury's balance at the end of his presidency. Rouhani had reported on December 27, 2013, that his government received the treasury with about 1280 billion tomans in balance and a considerable amount of debt. Over the past three years, Rouhani has repeatedly criticized Ahmadinejad's presidency, attributing part of the current government's problems to the policies and actions of Ahmadinejad's previous administrations. Ahmadinejad also stated in his second statement that he intends to respond in the future to other "claims" made by Rouhani regarding "the government's indebtedness," "subsidies," "corruption," "nuclear positions," and "foreign income."