Continued Demolitions in Southern Tehran; District Mayor: 'We Have No Hesitations'

While the improper demolition of several houses in the Khalazir area of southern Tehran on August 6 resulted in the deaths of five people, the mayor of District 19 in Tehran stated that demolitions would resume on August 16, asserting, 'We have no hesitations in this regard.' Touraj Farahdi, the mayor of District 19, told the Fars News Agency, 'We paused the demolitions of unauthorized constructions for a few days, and we are set to resume today. We have no hesitations in this regard. The reason for the pause was due to some engagements related to the police and municipality.' A photo of Touraj Farahdi alongside Alireza Zakani, sitting at a table full of fruits and sweets just two days after the incident that led to the deaths of five police and municipal personnel due to improper demolition in the Khalazir area, 'under the pretext of honoring journalists,' sparked a wave of negative reactions and public outrage in Iran. The Fars News Agency, close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, attributed the August 6 incident, which resulted in the deaths of five police and municipal personnel, to the 'mafia of unauthorized constructions' and claimed, citing 'some urban officials,' that these 'illegal' constructions occurred during 'unrest' in the Khalazir neighborhood of District 19. The news agency also claimed that the Tehran municipality, after 'numerous back-and-forths,' obtained permission from relevant authorities to demolish several 'unsafe' buildings, but during the demolition, the buildings caused incidents due to their unsafe conditions. The head of the Tehran Engineering System Organization announced on August 7 that no engineering oversight was invited for the recent 'fatal' demolitions of buildings in the Khalazir area. Ali Karimi stated that 'all demolitions of buildings in Tehran are carried out improperly,' and told the Tasnim News Agency, 'The buildings that were being constructed improperly were demolished improperly, leading to this disaster and the death of several individuals.' The head of the Tehran Engineering System Organization acknowledged that similar incidents to Khalazir also occurred in the 'Metropol Abadan' project, stating that the events in these projects are the result of 'the elimination of engineering system organizations and licensed engineers in oversight and execution.' On the other hand, Ali Asghar Qaimi, a member of the Tehran City Council, told Fars News Agency, 'The shock transferred from the first building to the fourth building, causing its collapse, indicates that even a 3 or 4 magnitude earthquake could have caused the collapse of this building.' Domestic media reported on the afternoon of August 6 that five buildings simultaneously collapsed in southern Tehran as part of the 'crackdown on unauthorized constructions,' announcing that several municipal and police personnel lost their lives in this incident. The state news agency IRNA reported last June that in the metropolis of Tehran, there are '33,000 unsafe buildings and over 23,000 low-risk buildings,' of which the safety status of 129 buildings is 'critical' and 3,488 buildings are 'high-risk.' A trade official stated that the demolitions in 'Khalazir' occurred without the presence of supervising engineers. The chaos in urban management intensified; an explosion occurred in a three-story building in the Javanmard Qassab neighborhood of Tehran, and the death toll from the building collapse in Tehran reached four, with two of the victims being police officers.