First Debate of the 14th Presidential Election Candidates; Clash Over Sanctions and Inefficient Managers

The first televised debate among six candidates for Iran's 14th presidential election was held on Monday evening, June 18, on the first channel of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Masoud Pezeshkian, Saeed Jalili, Alireza Zakani, and Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, the six candidates approved by the Guardian Council, participated in this debate. The topics of sanctions and inefficient managers in the Islamic Republic and their role in economic problems and resource wastage were points of contention among the candidates. The candidates entered the broadcasting studio with military honors, paid respects at the tomb of unknown soldiers in the complex, participated in a congregational prayer, performed a nationalist song by several teenage boys, recited the Quran, and played another piece of music in memory of Ibrahim Raisi, the former president of Iran who died in a helicopter crash, which caused the debate to start half an hour late. Economic Problems and Sanctions Alireza Zakani, the mayor of Tehran and a conservative candidate, stated during the debate: "Iran's economic problem is not the oppressive sanctions of America. It is the economic prescriptions of America." He claimed that sanctions should be neutralized and attacked Hassan Rouhani's government over its handling of the coronavirus vaccine, praising Ibrahim Raisi's government for its vaccine imports alongside Ghazizadeh Hashemi. Although Zakani claimed that the world did not provide the Islamic Republic with vaccines and that Iranian specialists were forced to produce vaccines domestically, a letter circulated on social media after the negotiations showing that Zakani was the second person among 2500 individuals who requested a halt to the import of the coronavirus vaccine as a physician. Furthermore, Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, had banned the purchase of the coronavirus vaccine from the U.S. and the U.K., a directive that exacerbated the number of COVID-19 victims in Iran. However, Zakani did not mention Khamenei's role in this matter in his remarks. He described linking the resolution of economic issues such as inflation and sanctions to erroneous diplomacy as incorrect and added: "Sanctions should be neutralized within the country, and diplomacy should go and change its foundation." Masoud Pezeshkian, a member of parliament and a candidate supported by reformists, reacted to these statements by calling sanctions a "disaster" and said: "They say we will circumvent the sanctions. There is a lot of corruption in this path. In the corruption ranking, we are the fifteenth country in the world from the bottom." In another part of his speech, he stated, "I consider sanctions to be an economic war, and the victims are the poor." Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of Parliament and another conservative candidate, also stated in this debate that he would strive to lift sanctions, including those on foreign investment. Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, a former Minister of Justice, said: "We have been sanctioned, and all our economy and all our economic and trade relations are locked." He added: "Some said sanctions are not a significant issue, and they still say the same. The world has imposed crippling sanctions against us. We are on the blacklist of countries. When all our trade and financial relations are locked, how can economic actors work?" Generally, Pezeshkian, Pour Mohammadi, and to some extent Qalibaf emphasized the impact of sanctions on Iran's economy, while the other three conservative candidates followed the well-known approach of their faction regarding the international sanctions against the Islamic Republic being mere "pieces of paper." The Role of Inefficient Managers in the Country's Situation Masoud Pezeshkian, in another part of his remarks, addressed the inefficiency of managers and said: "Our problem is unqualified management and inexperienced people." He continued by calling for attention to the experiences of other countries mentioned by the World Bank. This parliament member said: "We should not allow unqualified individuals to manage. Why should we give management to someone who causes losses? Everyone claimed that we should have an 8% growth, but why did we not grow?" This candidate asked why previous promises of economic growth had not been realized, stating that those who only made slogans and could not implement them should be prosecuted. Masoud Pezeshkian also stated: "That guy said I would create jobs with one million tomans. Why do you put someone who is not an expert in charge? Why do we say things that we cannot implement? Mr. Zakani says Turkey has failed. They should go and see their roads." Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf also criticized Masoud Pezeshkian's emphasis on global experiences, saying: "Friends say we should seek help from foreign forces. However, not utilizing experts and human resources within the country has led to a brain drain." Alireza Zakani, in response to Masoud Pezeshkian's remarks, said: "Those who were inefficient are now in Mr. Pezeshkian's campaign. Expertise is good, but assigning work to an expert is dangerous, like gasoline on a Friday morning." Masoud Pezeshkian responded to Qalibaf: "I did not say to bring in managers from abroad. I said we should use their experiences and advice. I have emphasized from the beginning the use of domestic forces." He criticized conservatives for considering only a limited spectrum as qualified human resources and managers. Saeed Jalili also considered economic growth to require "utilizing opportunities" and stated that economic growth should not be contingent on attracting foreign investment. He accused Hassan Rouhani's government of stating in a letter to the Expediency Council that it could not pay the salaries of government employees for the next month without an international agreement on the JCPOA, adding: "But this agreement did not happen, and salaries are still being paid." Reactions to the Debate on Social Media Concurrently with the debate, reactions from social media users with various positions regarding the candidates' statements were ongoing on different platforms. The general spirit of most of these reactions was that the candidates did not present any "new ideas" and their statements were "vague," "boring," and "repetitive." However, some users supporting the candidates attempted to praise the statements of their preferred candidate while belittling the remarks of others. It can be said that the Persian-speaking social media atmosphere was generally lacking the excitement that should typically prevail during debates. Many users wrote that even Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, a member of the so-called death committee in the 1980s, although expected to be a "phenomenon," did not meet public expectations, even though he performed better than other candidates. Mohammad Aghazadeh, a journalist, noted that the excitement and the level of independent Clubhouse rooms were much better than at least the first debate. Ahmad Zeidabadi, a journalist and political analyst, also described the first debate of the 14th presidential election candidates as "lifeless." Abbas Abdi, a political analyst, reacted to the indifference of some candidates regarding the role of sanctions, writing on X: "The more significant problem of the country is those who do not know, or know and do not say that sanctions are a problem for the country. These are a much more dangerous plague than sanctions." Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the former head of office for Mohammad Khatami during his presidency, also wrote on his social media accounts about this debate: "Pezeshkian was good... although he could have been better. Qalibaf was stylish and had the appearance of a president, but with his background, he did not say anything new. Pour Mohammadi was as I had said, the phenomenon of these debates. I did not understand Jalili... Zakani came for a fight, but it did not happen. Ghazizadeh was also a good person and spoke of the late martyr Raisi." In response to some candidates' remarks against Hassan Rouhani and his government, the former president's office sent a letter to the head of the broadcasting organization, requesting an opportunity to respond to "the claims and accusations of some candidates" during the discussions and the first debate of the election. The letter stated that the claims made in the first debate and some other programs by some candidates about Rouhani and his government are "instances of spreading falsehoods and defamation against individuals and legal entities, which according to the law, the election advertising commission must provide a specific timeframe for the absent party to defend itself." The office of the leader of the Islamic Republic also stated in a notice that in recent days, some candidates of the election or members of their campaigns and individuals associated with them have made "incomplete" or "incorrect" quotes from Ali Khamenei or officials from his office in their remarks and positions. This notice added that any "unsupported quote from existing and documented statements" of Khamenei is "invalid and unsubstantiated," and individuals should refrain from repeating it. In the context of the presidential election in Iran on July 29, 2024, five four-hour debates will be prepared and broadcasted by the first channel of the Islamic Republic Broadcasting, with the first debate held on Monday with the participation of these six candidates. The second debate is scheduled for June 19; the third on July 1; the fourth on July 4; and the fifth on July 5.