Another Account of Economic Corruption; The Rise of 'River Grabbing' in Iran

The Director General of Crisis Management in Tehran Province has reported an intensification of the phenomenon known as 'river grabbing' and the necessity to address this issue, stating that construction activities in the riverbeds of Tehran Province threaten the 'lives and property of the people.' Hamed Yazdimehr's comments, made in an interview with the ILNA news agency on April 7, indicate that after the encroachment on the banks and riverbeds, the municipality also issues construction permits. This is while any construction requires inspection and expertise from multiple agencies, which is why experts consider the actions taken in this area to be organized and coordinated. The recent statements from the Director General of Crisis Management in Tehran Province not only highlight the coordination and complicity of the municipality with this phenomenon but also indicate that contrary to the claims of the government and the state-run newspaper Iran, river grabbing has not only not stopped but has spread to other parts of Tehran Province as well. The state-run newspaper Iran had reported in its February 9, 2022 issue about dealing with encroachers of the banks and riverbeds, referring to it as the 'end of river grabbing.' Land grabbing, mountain grabbing, river grabbing, and similar cases have become prevalent among state agencies, individuals close to political factions, power circles, and even influential clerics. In the latest case, based on newly released documents, Kazem Sedighi, as the custodian of the Khomeini Seminary in Ozgol, has taken a 1000 billion Toman garden out of the seminary's ownership at 150 times below the regional price and registered it in the name of his family company, which has led to numerous reactions following the publication of the documents in recent days. The implications of land grabbing; social media users have called for judicial action against Kazem Sedighi. Conflicts over Miankaleh; Ghalibaf secretly supports the construction of a petrochemical complex. New dimensions of corruption attributed to the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament; the number of astronomical properties reaches two thousand.