The Case of the '700 Million Dollar Man': New Financial Corruption in Ahmadinejad's Government

The newspapers Aftab Yazd and Etemad report on statements from a representative close to the Stability Front regarding the submission of a "motion of no confidence against the President" to the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Aftab Yazd emphasizes in its Thursday headline that "Opponents of Rouhani have gone all out," stating that Hamid Rasayi, a representative and member of the Stability Front, reacted to comments made by Majid Ansari, the parliamentary deputy of the Islamic Republic's President, who suggested that representatives should focus on overdue plans and bills instead of questioning ministers. Rasayi announced that some representatives are "seeking a motion of political incompetence against Hassan Rouhani." Etemad also noted that with Rasayi's comments about the "motion of no confidence against Hassan Rouhani," it is unlikely that he will not face criticism from his friends in the coming days, highlighting the ignorance of representatives, including conservative ones or those close to the Stability Front, regarding such a proposal. Abed Fattahi, a representative close to reformists, responded to Rasayi's comments by stating that "these remarks are due to concerns about the people's vote of incompetence against them in the parliamentary elections." The Iran newspaper, close to the government, featured the Supreme Leader's remarks in a meeting with the President and ministers of the eleventh government, praising economic stability and the conclusion of nuclear negotiations. However, the Javan newspaper, close to the Revolutionary Guards, published another part of the Supreme Leader's remarks, stating, "Officials must not fall into the enemy's trap at all." According to this newspaper, Ali Khamenei expressed, "My concern is the possibility of neglecting the enemy's objectives in the nuclear issue." The Arman newspaper dedicated its front page to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, quoting him as saying, "People are no longer deceived by appearances." The Qanoon newspaper reported that Mohammad Ali Madadi, a representative from the middle of the ninth parliament, referred to documents he received regarding rent-seeking in the "Atrak-Barakat Railway Project," stating, "A person who was convicted of corruption in the 1990s and had his assets confiscated by court order and spent several years in prison suddenly gained trust in Ahmadinejad's government and was assigned the $700 million Atrak-Barakat railway project." The Shargh newspaper reported on Mahmoud Vaezi, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, expressing satisfaction with "smart filtering," quoting him as saying, "In the implementation of the first phase of this program, we have achieved about 87% success." The Shahrvand newspaper published a field report on reactions to the repeated earthquakes around the capital, stating, "Tehran had a calm day after the earthquake on Tuesday night in Firuzkuh." This newspaper emphasized that "Tehran residents spent Tuesday night with news of the 4.6 magnitude earthquake at a depth of ten kilometers in Firuzkuh; some were shaken by its tremors, and many joked and made fun of it." Now, "whether an earthquake comes to Tehran or not, whether it is severe or not, whether the casualties are high or not, Tehran residents remain busy with their mobile phones and communication apps. Joking about earthquakes remains prevalent, and the constant worry about an earthquake in Tehran has been replaced by big smiles on their faces." The Iran newspaper reported on its front page that "Bitaollah Abbaspour, the world bodybuilding champion known as the Muscle Mountain, passed away on Tuesday night due to a rare disease, inflammation of blood vessels, at Atieh Hospital in Tehran." The Jahan Sanat newspaper highlighted "rising inflation and intensifying recession" as consequences of increasing government debt to the Central Bank. This newspaper wrote, "Although Rouhani's government has succeeded in addressing a significant portion of the problems left over from Ahmadinejad's administration, such as controlling inflation and achieving positive economic growth, issues like increasing monetary base, rising bank debts to the Central Bank, increasing government debts to the Central Bank, and rising bank arrears also exist in the record of the eleventh government." "Opponents of Rouhani have gone all out"; efforts to present a "motion of no confidence against Rouhani". The newspapers Aftab Yazd and Etemad report on statements from a representative close to the Stability Front regarding the submission of a "motion of no confidence against the President" to the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Aftab Yazd emphasizes in its Thursday headline that "Opponents of Rouhani have gone all out," stating that a representative and member of the Stability Front reacted to comments made by Majid Ansari, the parliamentary deputy of the Islamic Republic's President, who suggested that representatives should focus on overdue plans and bills instead of questioning ministers. Rasayi announced that "the JCPOA bill and addressing the motion of no confidence against Hassan Rouhani are the only outstanding tasks of the parliament." Majid Ansari, the parliamentary deputy of Hassan Rouhani, stated in an interview with Aftab Yazd's Thursday edition, "In the few months remaining of the ninth parliament's term, it may be prudent for representatives, who have now matured, to use this opportunity to pass important bills and plans. According to our statistics, there are at least 110 plans and nearly 75 various bills, some of which are very important, waiting for parliamentary action, while the parliament will have, at best, 90 to 95 public sessions, which will definitely not be enough to review these plans and bills." Ansari also stated, "My request from the honorable representatives is to remove the issue of questioning from the agenda. Questioning takes a lot of time from both the government and the parliament," and "I think these questions do not solve any problems for the country but rather create problems." Omid Kajiyan, a reporter for Aftab Yazd, noted that Majid Ansari's remarks faced a strong reaction from members of the Stability Front, stating that Ansari's comments "were met with a sharp response from Hamid Rasayi, a member of the Stability Front," and this representative of the ninth parliament "in his Instagram post referred to the JCPOA bill and addressing the motion of no confidence against Hassan Rouhani as the only outstanding tasks of the parliament, stating that Ali Larijani is preventing the progress of this proposal." Aftab Yazd wrote that Rasayi's remarks regarding the "motion of no confidence against Hassan Rouhani" were made at a time when "it seems highly unlikely that the majority of representatives share such a view. Although the JCPOA bill has long been one of the challenges between the government and the parliament, and the formation of a JCPOA commission for its review has also been proposed, the motion of no confidence against Rouhani in the parliament has a novelty similar to Rasayi's own statements, and of course, this part of his speech is also interesting that he says the obstacle to presenting the motion of no confidence is Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Parliament, as if the other representatives are eagerly waiting to bring the motion of no confidence against Rouhani to fruition and that Larijani is the only barrier in their way." Gholamali Jafarzadeh, one of the representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, commented on Rasayi's remarks to Aftab Yazd, stating, "Those who say this are the same ones who have been silent for eight years." This parliament member also stated that those who "talk about the President's political incompetence" were silent when oil was sold at $140 a barrel; at that time, these funds were used in gatherings and speeches for applause and cheers, and there was no governance over the country's economy." Gholamali Jafarzadeh emphasized that "some have been hurt by this agreement," stating, "They had opened a bakery for themselves and were using sanctions, especially when people were suffering. Currently, the JCPOA will turn this person's bread into bricks; what do you expect from these people? Their entire business market has been disrupted, and you can be sure that they will never cheer for the government but will scream instead." Ebrahim Neko, another representative of the ninth parliament, also reacted to Rasayi's comments, stating to Aftab Yazd, "Some individuals are heading towards a cliff; what is being expressed today by such individuals is not the voice of the people and representatives of the parliament but rather the voice of the government's opponents who see the government's successes as their isolation." The Etemad newspaper also noted that Hamid Rasayi, a representative close to the Stability Front, attempted to give Majid Ansari, the parliamentary deputy of Hassan Rouhani, a "stinging response" by publishing "a controversial text on social media," stating that with Rasayi's comments about the "motion of no confidence against Hassan Rouhani," it is unlikely that he will not face criticism from his friends in the coming days. Ehsan Badaghi, a reporter for Etemad, referred to Rasayi as a representative who "failed to gather signatures for a question from the President" but is now "seeking Rouhani's political incompetence." Abed Fattahi, a representative close to reformists, told Etemad, "These remarks are due to concerns about the people's vote of incompetence against them in the parliamentary elections." Nasser Mousavi Largani, Behrouz Namati, Alireza Monadi Sefidan, Ezzatollah Yusefian Molla, and Hadi Hosseini, representatives of the parliament, and even Alireza Salimi, Mohammad Hassan Asafari, and Ghasem Jafari, representatives close to the Stability Front, told Etemad that they were unaware of the proposal for "the political incompetence of Hassan Rouhani" mentioned by Hamid Rasayi, and Ahmad Shohani, a representative close to reformists, emphasized that "this is a pure lie and such a falsehood should be pursued." Etemad noted that "in such circumstances, it seems that the motion of political incompetence against the President has not faced any barriers from the Speaker of the Parliament in silence." Abdulreza Misri, the spokesman for the ninth parliament's presiding board, stated, "Mr. Rasayi's statement published on his Instagram page, which is a private environment, has no place in the official parliament to comment on it. This is a matter we will not enter at all, and it is better for Mr. Rasayi to explain it in the future." The newspaper also reported that in a call with Etemad's reporter, Hamid Rasayi himself "has no explanation regarding this matter" and only promised Etemad that "he will clarify his intention regarding the motion of political incompetence against the President in the coming days," with the newspapers noting that "Rasayi's positions will likely be forgotten during that time, especially since parliament members will go on a three-week holiday starting this Wednesday, and the suspension of public sessions always means a cooling off of political discussions." The exposure of a new financial corruption case from Ahmadinejad's government; the case of the "$700 million man." The Qanoon newspaper reported the exposure of another financial corruption case from the previous government, stating, "While discussions about the payment or non-payment of oil money by Babak Zanjani continue, on Wednesday, a member of parliament unveiled a new financial corruption case from the Mehrvarz government. This new corruption was revealed at a time when the fate of the assets and debts of individuals such as Meh Afarid and Zanjani remains shrouded in ambiguity." According to this newspaper, Mohammad Ali Madadi, a representative from the middle of the ninth parliament, referred to documents he received regarding rent-seeking in the "Atrak-Barakat Railway Project," stating, "A person who was convicted of corruption in the 1990s and had his assets confiscated by court order and spent several years in prison suddenly gained trust in Ahmadinejad's government and was assigned the $700 million Atrak-Barakat railway project." This member of the Economic Commission of the ninth parliament expressed regret over the assignment of such an "important project" to a person who had "no expertise or experience in construction work," stating, "The project was assigned to Mr. A, who, due to his close relationship with a specific individual in Ahmadinejad's government, managed to obtain this profitable project." The Qanoon newspaper quoted Ali Madadi as saying, "Mr. A has no financial resources or equipment for the $700 million Atrak-Barakat railway project," and "this individual resorted to major contractors in the country and began work in Turkmenistan using their equipment and financial resources, but "the money he received for this has not been paid to the contractors, and he currently owes hundreds of billions of tomans to the contractors." This member of the Economic Commission of the ninth parliament pointed out that $350 million of the budget for this project was provided by the "Islamic Development Bank" and another $350 million was provided by Iran, stating, "During a visit by Turkmenistan government officials to the project, they became aware of the rent-seeking that had taken place, and as a result, many officials in the Turkmenistan government were arrested due to negligence, but Mr. A, who is the main culprit of all these problems, is currently in Austria." The Qanoon newspaper concluded its report by stating that now the new $700 million case should be added to "other cases such as the $3 billion corruption case, the Iran Insurance case, the embezzlement of the Martyrs Foundation, the banking embezzlement in Hormozgan, the $450 million rent-seeking in free zones, and dozens of other small and large cases, and we must wait for the clean-handed Mehrvarz government to see which member of the eleventh government they will complain about this time." The Minister of Communications: "We have achieved 87% success in implementing smart filtering." The Shargh newspaper reported on Mahmoud Vaezi, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, expressing satisfaction with "smart filtering," quoting him as saying, "In the implementation of the first phase of this program, we have achieved about 87% success."