Revealing Details of the Zanjani and Mortezaei Agreement

The Kayhan newspaper, in the front page of its Tuesday issue, has accused the organizers of 'startups', referring to 'startups' as an effort by the US and Europe for 'covert entry into the economy', while simultaneously accusing 'Google' of attempting to 'influence' Iran to 'create diverse changes in the lifestyle and mindset of Iranians'. The Shargh newspaper published a report on the political atmosphere in Iran four months before the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, describing it as a 'tortoise-like movement towards the elections'. The Etemad newspaper reported a decrease in inflation rates and the continuation of recession, stating that the economic indicators from the Central Bank of Iran show that in October, 'inflation decreased', but 'recovery was not achieved'. This newspaper highlighted a warning from Abbas Akhoundi, the Minister of Roads and Urban Development, regarding 'toxic assets worth 100 trillion', quoting him as saying: 'The government has made a brave decision to clarify the status of toxic assets and rents and return the people's property.' The Bahar newspaper published a report titled 'Voluntary Sterilization Policies, Not Mandatory', regarding the plan for 'sterilization of street women', reporting on opposition to 'mandatory sterilization'. The Jahan-e-Eqtesad newspaper, in its Tuesday issue, pointed out that 'the per capita water availability for each Iranian has fallen to one-fourth of the global average by 2020', stating: 'If the water crisis is not resolved, we will become a historical lesson.' The Arman newspaper focused on statements by Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Ninth Parliament, regarding the 'illegal recruitment of 500,000 employees in the previous government'. The Shargh newspaper reported on the 'revelation of details of the Zanjani and Mortezaei agreement', stating that during the trial of Babak Zanjani on Tuesday, Farzad Maleki, the legal representative of the Social Security Organization, read complaints from this organization and referred to a memorandum of understanding between the Sorinet Qeshm holding company, represented by Babak Zanjani and Hamid Fallah Heravi, and the Social Security Organization, represented by Saeed Mortezaei, regarding the purchase of 138 companies. Saeed Mortezaei opened a foreign currency account at Bank Maskan with a handwritten letter, without a number or date, issuing a check for 444 billion and 524 million and 454 thousand and 500 Japanese yen equivalent to the daily exchange rate in favor of Sorinet Qeshm, which is 'more than two billion yen above the amount issued to the Sorinet holding company', and Babak Zanjani presented the checks issued by Mortezaei as repayment of his debts to the Ministry of Oil. The Qanoon newspaper also reported that Saeed Mortezaei, the former prosecutor of Tehran and former head of the Social Security Organization, on Tuesday regarding his trial for financial corruption stated: 'Complaints against me are promotional fodder for foreign media.' This newspaper emphasized that 'for some time now, major defendants have been defending themselves against accusations in the guise of major creditors. It seems that attack is their defensive technique, regardless of whether the oil debtor is in court or the former prosecutor.' On Tuesday, Saeed Mortezaei appeared in court to respond to his accusations and, as per his usual practice, after the closed court session, he spoke to reporters, confidently asserting his innocence and leaving. The Jahan San'at newspaper quoted Akbar Turkan, an advisor to Hassan Rouhani, about the 'possibility of canceling car imports to free zones'. The warning from Kayhan about the dangers of 'Google' and the 'threat of holding startups' was highlighted in the Kayhan newspaper, which accused the organizers of 'startups' and 'technological entrepreneurship' of being part of a US effort for 'covert entry into the economy'. The newspaper accused 'Google' of attempting to 'influence' Iran to 'create diverse changes in the lifestyle and mindset of Iranians'. It noted the 'holding of global startup weekend events in Iran with the joint cooperation of some government organizations supported by Google and a collection of major foreign companies including Coca-Cola and Microsoft', stating: 'The share of some managers with clear identities in establishing a non-national employment cycle based on technology, as a necessary and logical need for a country where nearly 48% of its university graduates are unemployed, is undeniable. A review of the news published on this subject shows that the global startup weekend events by Google have been held from the beginning with their official participation and presence in the field.' Kayhan emphasized that 'behind a significant part of the technological transformations that have occurred in relation to Iran and Muslim countries in the Middle East since the 2009 unrest, the name Google can be traced.' The newspaper stated: 'Google managers are managing Iran's cyber dialogue with the presence of various anti-revolutionary branches and offering ways to manage the communities of young job seekers in Iran by locking the cycle of wealth and power in their hands, while at the same time freely promoting American-style entrepreneurship in Iran city by city with the help of consultants trained abroad, with the official support of the N-J lobby in the Ministry of Communications.' The newspaper also noted that reports from Kayhan about the 'danger' of Google's activities are not even believable to its readers, writing: 'There is no doubt that Google is a popular brand in the world, separate from the US government. Given this, Google's presence in Iran, under the attractive title of entrepreneurship, is likely to be assessed as harmless by you, dear reader.' However, it emphasized that 'Google's goal is to create a monopoly in the employment sector for young people in Iran, to introduce economic shocks at the time of threatening to leave the country, leading to the loss of job positions for hundreds of thousands of young people, and to create increasing and temporary livelihood crises to position the people against the government.' Kayhan expressed concern about what it called 'the Ministry of Communications' negotiations with Google managers regarding the acceptance of laws for activities in Iran', stating that one of the 'dangers' of Google's official activities in Iran is that 'under the guise of job creation through the conditions for the activities of American companies, they will pave the way for diverse changes in the lifestyle and mindset of Iranians.' This newspaper, under the supervision of the representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, reiterated the accusations from the indictments of the group trials of the detainees from 2009 against Google, YouTube, and Twitter, stating that during the protests of 2009, 'Google released a series of its banned applications in Iran with the aim of assisting in the overthrow of the Islamic Republic' and even emphasized that 'in June 2009, following the presidential elections in Iran, the capabilities of mobile phones and the communication technologies used in them drew the world's attention to the organization of social movements and recording images such as the death of Neda Agha Soltan.' Kayhan, while also accusing some of the dual nationals detained in Iran, including Nizar Zaka, a Lebanese-American citizen, and Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American citizen, leveled accusations against Nasrollah Jahangard, the Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology and head of the Information Technology Organization, referring to this government official by initials 'N-J' and wrote: 'Why does the N-J circle not utilize famous Iranian investors, many of whom are supporters of the eleventh government, instead of national job creation in the technology sector and assisting Dr. Rouhani's team in increasing the employment statistics of unemployed graduates?' This newspaper pointed out that 'this is part of the same infiltration gate that led the Leader of the Revolution to state the famous phrase that cyberspace is as important as the Islamic Revolution.' It wrote: 'The Islamic Revolution is facing the most extensive and complex structural attack on its economic, social, and political pillars since the revolution, and for this reason, the enemy is trying to reduce the level of this struggle to the scale of 'party conflicts' to control the extent of the damages inflicted.' Kayhan also wrote that 'the US and the European Union can, after completing the entrepreneurship project, create very large livelihood crises in Iranian society through network threats, forcing the government to make compulsory changes.' The 'tortoise-like movement towards elections' was described by the Shargh newspaper, which published a report on the political atmosphere in Iran four months before the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, calling it a 'tortoise-like movement towards the elections'. According to this newspaper, Mohammad Hossein Maqimi, the political deputy of the Minister of Interior, stated: 'Fortunately, on the brink of the tenth parliamentary elections, all parties have announced their readiness to participate in the elections, and there is no official party in the country that is not ready to participate in the elections.' Nafiseh Zareh Kohan, a reporter for the Shargh newspaper, wrote that despite these statements by Mohammad Hossein Maqimi, 'currently, with nearly four months until the tenth parliamentary elections, the situation is not at all like the previous elections', and 'although political activists and members of parties and groups have each announced their plans in discussions with the media, it seems that the electoral atmosphere of the country is not as it should be. While it is expected that the electoral enthusiasm will gradually fill the country's atmosphere, there is still no news from the plans of parties, whether reformist or principlist, nor from the individuals who are supposed to step into this path.' The Shargh newspaper noted that Ali Akbar Nategh Nouri also described the electoral activities of political groups in the election year of the Parliament and the Assembly of Experts as 'slowly, slowly', quoting him as saying: 'Currently, neither the reformists have a specific plan for the elections nor do the moderate principlists. When I was in charge, we would light the electoral stove a year and a half before the elections and announce the candidates six months before the elections,' but now 'the moderate political currents in the country have no specific plans for the elections. While I have heard that some radical and extremist currents are planning more systematically to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections.' The Shargh newspaper compared the election atmosphere of the ninth parliament, which took place in the context of protests following the 2009 elections, with the elections that will be held in March this year, stating: 'The ninth parliamentary elections four years ago were held in a situation where various social layers were involved in other issues, and on the other hand, a cold political atmosphere, especially among reformists, had prevailed,' and for this reason 'the overall mood of the country was not very electoral.' However, 'despite this, other parties in the country, especially the principlists, were not completely unprepared and had entered the electoral campaign several months in advance.' The Shargh noted the internal competition among principlists in the previous elections, stating that in the elections of March 2012, there was competition among 'the United Front of Principlists', referred to as '8+7', 'supporters of Ahmadinejad at the time', another faction of 'Ahmadinejad's supporters, namely the Stability Front', and of course 'the Resistance Front' centered around Mohsen Rezaei, and 'the Coalition of Insight and Islamic Awakening' was also active in the elections. This newspaper recalled that 'the reformists' in the 2012 elections and in those days 'did not see the possibility of competition and could not enter the arena as they should have. The result was in favor of the principlists; although this changed in the 2013 presidential election, where the electoral wave was so widespread that no one expected it, and it was this wave, along with the specific cohesion and solidarity of the reformists, that led to Hassan Rouhani's victory in the eleventh presidential election.' The Shargh newspaper pointed out that now, more than two years after Hassan Rouhani's victory and with 'the approach of the tenth parliamentary elections, there is still no news of candidates, programs, and the wave that should be created', and this condition is 'clearly observable between the two political factions of the country; although in this regard, it seems that only reformist women have taken the competition seriously and have long been determined to achieve a maximum presence of women in the parliamentary elections and secure a 30% quota.' According to this newspaper, while the electoral activities of reformists and moderate principlists have not yet peaked, 'the extremist principlist faction and supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are active in various cities of the country to enter and gain seats in the parliament.' This newspaper also wrote: 'Some political groups among principlists prefer not to heat up the electoral market so that they can easily win the upcoming elections, and based on this, they also have a general program, keeping all activities for the last month or March, believing that electoral activities earlier than the election date yield counterproductive results.' The Shargh emphasized that 'the status of reformist parties and groups is not very clear, and it cannot be accurately stated what their programs and lists and lead candidates for the tenth parliamentary elections are', but 'the successes of the government, especially in the nuclear field on the one hand, and the poor performance of some current parliament members, especially those from the Stability Front' are among the points that strengthen the likelihood that 'as soon as political parties and groups become active, the people will immediately respond and blow into the furnace of elections.'