Pezeshkian Criticizes Students for Lack of Support for Gaza in Student Day Speech

The President of Iran stated that Iranian students did not protest against the 'atrocities in Gaza' as they should have. Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking on Saturday, December 8, at Sharif University on the occasion of Student Day, noted that the lack of protest from Iranian students occurred while students in the U.S. and Europe were raising their voices 'against injustice and killings' in Gaza and Palestine. This comes at a time when many protesting students faced expulsion from education, arrests, torture, summons, and heavy judicial sentences during the crackdown on widespread protests two years ago, known as 'Women, Life, Freedom.' The Iranian President, without mentioning these events, stated that 'there is no need for us to fight at the university,' adding, 'Before the revolution, we debated at the university, both sides expressed their views, and those with weaker logic would step aside.' In another part of his speech, Pezeshkian emphasized the existence of crises regarding electricity, gas, gasoline, and water, saying 'whatever we want to touch, we are told not to touch this,' but he did not name any officials or other entities. He also criticized the 'trial and error in appointing and selecting managers,' stating that if we know the way and the map, changing people should not change our path. These remarks come amid the recent dismissal of the president of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, which faced significant controversy, with some members of the previous government's Ministry of Science accusing Pezeshkian's administration of 'improper' treatment of the former president and not adhering to 'conventional and ethical protocols' in this matter. Meanwhile, Hossein Simayi Sarraf, the Minister of Science, Research, and Technology, confirmed the news of the resignation of the student deputy of Tehran Medical University, who was appointed during the Raisi administration, stating that a new person will be appointed to this position. In response to students' questions about 'FATF,' Pezeshkian called for the establishment of such a mechanism within the country instead of Iran joining the FATF, arguing that 'America is sitting there and understands what disaster we are causing to our money; America knows which ship and goods go where, but we, because we do not have a domestic FATF, if a ship with its cargo goes missing, we do not realize where it has gone.' The 'FATF' is an intergovernmental organization that develops and promotes policies and standards to combat financial crimes, including money laundering and terrorist financing. Iran's non-participation in this organization comes while the country remains on the high-risk list, or the money laundering blacklist, which now includes only North Korea, Myanmar, and Iran. According to economic experts inside and outside the country, Iran's continued presence on the money laundering blacklist has devastating consequences for the country's economy, including increased difficulty in obtaining necessary goods from foreign markets, exorbitant costs for obtaining goods from unconventional markets, a sharp decline in the value of the national currency, and the outflow of foreign currency from the country.