City Council's Plan to Form a Fact-Finding Committee for the Plasco Incident

According to reports from news agencies, despite the submission of an urgent plan to form a "fact-finding committee for the Plasco incident" signed by "18 members" of the Tehran City Council, the council's president prevented it from being discussed as an urgent matter, arguing that the number of signatures was insufficient, and the one-urgency of the plan was approved. According to the state news agency IRNA, Ahmad Masjed-Jamei, a member of the Tehran City Council, had submitted this plan to the council's board with the signatures of "18 members". According to the council's regulations, plans that receive signatures from more than 50% of the members (half plus one) must be discussed as urgent. Mr. Masjed-Jamei stated that 16 members of this council signed the two-urgency of this plan, and Parviz Sarvari and Morteza Talai also signed the one-urgency. However, Mehdi Chamran, the president of the Tehran City Council, announced that this plan only has "14 signatures" and that the signatures did not meet the threshold for two-urgency. Ultimately, the members of the Tehran City Council voted on the one-urgency of this plan. Ahmad Masjed-Jamei, Mohammad Salari, Mohammad Haqani, Ahmad Hakimipour, Gholamreza Ansari, Mohammad Mahdi Tondgouyan, Rahmatollah Hafezi, Abdolhossein Mokhtabad, Valiollah Shojaipourian, Hadi Saei, Alireza Dabir, Ahmad Donyamali, Ismail Doosti, Mohsen Sarakho, Abbas Sheibani, and Abbas Jadidi signed this two-urgency plan. Parviz Sarvari and Morteza Talai also signed the one-urgency. A review of the names of the members of the Tehran City Council shows that Mehdi Chamran, Masoumeh Abad, Mohsen Pirhadi, Reza Taghipour, Fatemeh Daneshvar, Elaheh Rashtgoo, Hossein Rezazadeh, Ali Saberi, Habib Kashani, Abdol-Moqim Nasiri, and Abolfazl Qenaati did not sign this plan. According to this plan, two members of the City Council, one member of parliament, a representative of the mayor of Tehran, a representative of the Tehran governorate, a lawyer selected by the Bar Association, a specialist selected by the Engineering System Organization, a firefighter specialist selected by the City Council, a firefighter specialist selected by the families of the deceased firefighters, a representative from the Plasco merchants, and a representative from the media selected by the Ministry of Culture will be members of the "fact-finding committee" for the Plasco incident. The committee's duties will include reporting on the reasons for this incident, the share of various organizations in its occurrence, and reporting on firefighting equipment, the City Council's budget decisions regarding firefighting, and the extent of their implementation. If formed, this committee must submit its final report not only to the City Council but also to the judiciary and the "National Review" committee established by the President of Iran. According to news agency reports, the discussion of this plan led to a verbal confrontation between reformists and principlists supporting the mayor of Tehran during the session on Tuesday, February 1, with both sides accusing each other of "political maneuvering". According to ILNA news agency, Morteza Talai, the vice president of the Tehran City Council, addressed Mohsen Sarakho, a reformist member of the City Council, saying: "What is the letter related to this proposal doing in the hands of anti-revolutionary networks and on social media? Why has this letter been published?" He accused the reformists of politicizing this plan and stated that supporters of the mayor of Tehran are against "defending the rights of the people". In response, Mohsen Sarakho accused Mr. Talai of "political maneuvering" and said, "We cannot say a word in the council." Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, on Saturday appointed a special committee consisting of academic figures with expertise in civil engineering, insurance, law, and urban management to prepare a national report on the Plasco incident, with the first meeting of this committee held on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Tehran prosecutor announced the formation of a judicial case to address the Plasco incident and stated that the 12th District Prosecutor's Office, being the closest district to the incident site, has dedicated a branch to handle claims related to property. Abbas Jafari Dolat Abadi also referred to the widespread repercussions of the Plasco incident, adding: "Some claimed that the collapse of the Plasco building was due to weaknesses in some social and urban managements, asserting that Plasco was a symbol of modernity, and its collapse also indicates the fall of urban management." He added: "However, it is necessary to note that every incident has consequences; we must learn from incidents and take practical actions to create public trust." Some social media users in recent days have protested the judiciary's performance by pointing out the arrest of several individuals in connection with the train collision incident in Semnan in December, while no one has been arrested regarding the Plasco incident. Some also criticized the Supreme Leader's messages regarding the train collision incident, in which he called for identifying the culprits of the incident, contrasting with Ayatollah Khamenei's messages about the Plasco incident, which did not mention accountability for the culprits. According to Article 14 of Section 55 of the Municipalities Law, the municipality is responsible for removing danger from at-risk buildings, and if the orders of this body are not executed by the owners of at-risk buildings, this body will take action to remove the danger and will charge the costs incurred plus 15% damages from the owners. The owner of the Plasco building is the Foundation of the Oppressed, an economic institution under the Supreme Leader, and in recent days some news sources have claimed that the Tehran municipality has refrained from sealing it for this reason. Meanwhile, some members of the City Council have reported that the Board of Trustees of the Plasco building announced that the Fire Department inspected this building only "once" and stated that "the building's facilities are acceptable for crisis management, but it lacks a fire escape." According to the Board of Trustees of the Plasco building, the cost of constructing this escape was the responsibility of the owner, namely the Foundation of the Oppressed, and for this reason, the fire department's warning was given to this foundation. Some members of the Tehran City Council and Amir Hossein Abadi, the president of the Bar Association, have also attributed the cause of this incident to the "negligence" of the owner of the Plasco building "in maintaining, repairing, or taking action regarding the property."