Awaiting the Revelation of Major Corruption in the Martyrs Foundation

The newspaper Bahar reported in its Wednesday issue about the "expectation for the revelation of major corruption" in the Martyrs Foundation during the presidency of Masoud Zaribafan, stating that "the report of the investigation and scrutiny of the Martyrs Foundation has been submitted to Ali Larijani for reading in the parliament." Abbas Salahi, a member of the investigation committee of the Martyrs Foundation, mentioned "land grabbing, the import of luxury cars using disability cards, and construction violations by the Martyrs Foundation" as parts of the report's content, and Bahar stated: "The corruption of this foundation is much more than what has been raised in public opinion." The newspaper Etemad published a report titled "Fireworks in the Sky," stating: "Russia, without invitation and undoubtedly predicting potential costs, has entered a territory that many believe will have no winner without serious and real global consensus and is forced to attribute the downing of its fighter jet to one of the natural consequences of war, while Turkey is also forced to endure for a while longer with the ongoing show of power of Russian and Syrian fighter jets at its borders." The government-aligned newspaper Iran reported with the headline "Erdogan and Putin's Showdown in the Sky over Syria," stating: "After receiving Putin's threatening message and news of Lavrov's canceled trip to Turkey, the Erdogan government requested NATO to hold an emergency meeting." This newspaper emphasized that "military analysts believe that Turkey and Russia have been testing each other's reactions in various ways since the beginning of attacks against ISIS in Syrian territory," noting that "Turkey supports Assad's opponents while Russia supports the Damascus government." Bahar also published a photo of the Russian President on its front page, reporting with the headline "The Downing of the Sukhoi, Putin's Shock," stating: "Russia's military presence in Syria has ultimately led to military tensions between Moscow and Turkey, the northern neighbor of Syria. Yesterday, a Russian Sukhoi 24 fighter jet, which had violated Turkish airspace, was shot down by the Turkish army using an F-16 fighter jet." The newspaper Javan, close to the Revolutionary Guards, reported on its front page with the title "NATO's Dagger to the Fighters Against ISIS," stating: "One of the Sukhoi 24 fighter jets of Russia, which has been bombing terrorist positions in northern Syria these days, was shot down by Turkish F-16s, escalating tensions between Moscow and Ankara into a new phase." This newspaper wrote: "In response to this action by Turkey, two scenarios are likely: the first scenario is that Russia will take a passive action against Turkey and NATO and will limit its missile and air attacks in Syria, especially at the border with Turkey, while the second scenario is that Russia will react strongly to this action and may retaliate against Turkish aircraft in the border region with Syria." The newspaper Jomhouri Islami, in its editorial titled "The Sound of a New Cold War," wrote about Russia's potential response: "It seems highly unlikely that the consequence of this incident will be an immediate military confrontation, but there is no doubt that this was a shot fired at the relations between the two countries." This newspaper noted that "the trend of events is moving towards increasing complexity," stating that these events "are signs of the formation of a new round of the Cold War between Russia and the West, which is gradually taking on new dimensions and showcases the organized militarism of the West in confronting Moscow." The newspaper Etemad, in its editorial, posed the question "Is Putin trustworthy?" while noting that "relations between countries are not like family relationships based on love, trust, and intimacy, but should be based on power and the preservation of national interests." It wrote: "The conditions for establishing a bilateral and positive relationship with Russia are available for Iran. However, this relationship should not be such that we rely on the Russians against the Westerners," as "the Russians, like any other country, do not have a fundamental attachment to Iran, just as we do not have one to them; both are pursuing their national interests." The editorial writer emphasized that "if our relationship with the West does not move out of the past tense of tension, it will not be possible for us to benefit from relations with Russia either," stating: "In fact, one of the reasons why the Russians currently want to establish better relations with Iran is the relative improvement of Iran's relations with the West from previous tensions," and now "we must define a balanced relationship with both Russia and the West, through which we can have the best relations and thus benefits with both blocs." The newspaper Qanoon dedicated its front page to Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, the external branch of the Revolutionary Guards, calling the news about his injury a "rumor" and quoting Ramadan Sharif, the head of the public relations of the Revolutionary Guards, stating that "Qassem Soleimani is in perfect health." This newspaper wrote about the reason for the spread of rumors in this regard: "In a situation where newspapers and journalists are under pressure and their hands are tied to publish news, the initiative falls to social media. Media in which the news published does not have much credibility." This newspaper posed the question of whether "despite this, more dynamic and freer media are more beneficial for national security and the health of public opinion or weakened media!" stating: "This is a question that relevant officials should think carefully about if they intend to prevent the tsunami of rumor-mongering." The newspaper Arman reported on the "return of the morality police to the streets of Tehran," stating that from the afternoon of Tuesday, "morality police vans" have returned to the streets of Tehran. The newspaper Shahre Vandi reported on the existence of "27 serious ambiguities in the financial accounts of Tehran Municipality," quoting Alireza Hafezi, a member of the Tehran City Council, stating: "According to the opinion of the auditing institution selected by the City Council regarding the affiliated companies of the municipality for the financial year 1392, the auditing status of these companies has been declared unacceptable by the official auditor of the Islamic City Council." The expectation for the revelation of major corruption in the Martyrs Foundation; from land grabbing to the import of luxury cars. The newspaper Bahar reported in its Wednesday issue about the "expectation for the revelation of major corruption" in the Martyrs Foundation during the presidency of Masoud Zaribafan, stating that "the report of the investigation and scrutiny of the Martyrs Foundation has been submitted to Ali Larijani for reading in the parliament." Abbas Salahi, a member of the investigation committee of the Martyrs Foundation, emphasized the "necessity of the rapid reading of this committee's report in the public session of the parliament" and mentioned "land grabbing, the import of luxury cars using disability cards, and construction violations by the Martyrs Foundation" as parts of the report's content, stating: "The corruption of this foundation is much more than what has been raised in public opinion." This representative emphasized that "there are forces that do not want the violations of the Martyrs Foundation to be revealed," stating: "There are forces that did not want the angles to be opened further," and "this force is present in various parts of the country. If it were only limited to outside the parliament, we would not have surrendered, and the report would have been read by now, but good cooperation with the investigation committee has not been achieved in the parliament either." This member of the investigation committee implicitly confirmed the Martyrs Foundation's involvement in the appropriation of lands in Mazandaran province, stating: "There are certain realities that representatives have observed in their constituencies, and based on the documents they had, they raised it. Certainly, a lot of assets have been at the disposal of the foundation. Many organizations and institutions are under the control of the Martyrs Foundation. Many assets have been confiscated for the benefit of the Martyrs Foundation, which has generated significant income for it." Abbas Salahi also emphasized the "import of luxury cars using disability cards," stating: "Regarding the import of cars, there were individuals who had disability cards or quotas and imported cars, and there were also individuals who did this through favoritism." This representative of the ninth parliament told Bahar: "The Martyrs Foundation is an economic domain and involved in various fields and many organizations and institutions; extensive violations such as construction violations are raised; therefore, there are individuals who do not want these extensive violations to be revealed." The newspaper Bahar, while reviewing the approval and formation of the investigation committee for the Martyrs Foundation in Ordibehesht 92, wrote that "Wednesday was the promised day for the investigation committee," and Amir Khajasteh, the head of the investigation committee of this foundation, "after two years and seven months, submitted the investigation and scrutiny report to the presiding board and asked Ali Larijani to allow the reading of the investigation report in the public session of the parliament in the face of pressures against him and to defend the committee's performance against the attacks." According to Bahar, Amir Khajasteh also announced in the public session of the parliament that "with the investigation and scrutiny conducted from the Martyrs Foundation, 30,000 pages of documents with a workload of over a thousand hours have been obtained, and in this process, colleagues worked around the clock, and all efforts were made for this scrutiny to be read." The head of the investigation committee of the Martyrs Foundation emphasized that "the parliament is powerful when it truly and effectively exercises oversight," stating: "Various factors, including threats, bribery, and heavy political pressures, are involved in this issue, which we have endured a lot to fulfill the people's demand for the reading of the scrutiny." The newspaper Bahar also quoted Amir Khajasteh addressing some members of parliament, stating: "They say this report was prepared without documentation and with bias. Why are behaviors such that external pressures must affect us? Do the events of Bimeh Di, the Kowsar economic organization, and the events of Bank Di lack documentation? Does the return of hundreds of billions through the currency exchange of Bank Di indicate a lack of documentation? Does the discovery of the sugar king's hand in the Subhan economic company and the forgery of disability percentages with political pressures based on their written confessions in courts indicate bias?" Farshad Azemi, a reporter for Bahar, pointed out that "the essential content of this investigation and scrutiny is more related to the performance of the Martyrs Foundation during Ahmadinejad's presidency" and the presidency of Masoud Zaribafan over the Martyrs Foundation, writing: "Masoud Zaribafan, the former head of this foundation, was one of the controversial guests of Baharestan during this investigation and scrutiny, and at that time it was announced that Zaribafan's answers did not resolve any issues, and representatives were not convinced by his explanations about the performance of the Martyrs Foundation." Bahar noted that some members of parliament, including Abdolreza Azizi, the head of the Social Committee of the ninth parliament, emphasized that due to the emergence of disagreements among the members of the investigation committee of the Martyrs Foundation, a vote should be taken from the members of this committee regarding the content of the report before it is read in the parliament.