Hassan Rouhani's Second Complaint Against Ebrahim Raisi Submitted to Election Advertising Commission

Hassan Rouhani, the President of the Islamic Republic, has submitted his second complaint against Ebrahim Raisi to the Advertising Commission of the twelfth presidential election. According to the IRNA news agency, this complaint, along with Rouhani's first complaint against Raisi, is set to be reviewed on Wednesday, April 10. Ehsan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, the spokesperson for the Advertising Commission of the twelfth presidential election, announced that these complaints relate to the second debate between the candidates. Rouhani's first complaint against Raisi pertains to his statements regarding the 'plundering' of the Teachers' Savings Fund, while the second complaint concerns a 'false attribution' that Rouhani believes Raisi made during this debate. In his second complaint, Rouhani stated that Raisi falsely attributed to him a claim about the immediate lifting of sanctions after the JCPOA. Rouhani's campaign believes that the President only referred to the lifting of nuclear sanctions and did not mention the cancellation of other sanctions. Ebrahim Raisi, during the second debate, claimed that 'Mr. Rouhani promised that as soon as this work [the JCPOA agreement] was done, all sanctions would be unilaterally lifted with four emphatic assurances, which did not result in any change in the people's situation.' In response to Raisi's comments during the second debate, Rouhani asked, 'Mr. Raisi, what information do you have about the nuclear issue that you are judging?' Raisi also brought up the issue of the Teachers' Savings Fund, stating, 'When we hear that the Teachers' Fund has been plundered... this is extremely painful.' Raisi added, 'How is it that teachers have problems in their lives, yet some people plunder this fund?' The Teachers' Savings Fund has over 800,000 members affiliated with the Ministry of Education and pays annual interest on the monthly deposits of teachers, with the 'Sarmayeh' bank being considered a subsidiary of this fund. Previously, Mahmoud Sadeghi, a representative from Tehran in the parliament, announced that financial irregularities in this fund occurred between 2007 and 2013 during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency.