The Miracle of Not Losing Two State Companies

The newspaper Etemad reported on its front page on Wednesday that the Minister of Energy and several experts warned at the "Water Economy Conference" that "Iran's water resources are not commensurate with population growth." According to this newspaper, Rahim Midani, Deputy Minister of Energy, also stated at this conference: "The country's population will reach 105 million by 1404, and if the current water crisis continues, we will not be able to overcome the water stress." The newspaper Forsat Emruz, in its front page on August 6, titled "The Miracle of Not Losing Two State Companies," described the return of "49 percent of the shares of Mahab Quds and 47 percent of the shares of Mapna" to the government as a "miracle." Naqi Aghalu, the reporter for this newspaper, referred to the transfer of the two companies Mahab Quds and Mapna in 1392 to the Astan Quds Razavi, stating: "In a not-so-friendly game, part of the public treasury, namely the shares of Mahab Quds, which was valued by experts at 12,600 billion tomans, was transferred to this institution in the last days of the tenth government due to a 600 billion toman debt owed by the Astan Quds Razavi to the then Ministry of Roads, just as estimates suggest that the Mapna company is valued at "40 to 50 thousand billion tomans." This newspaper recalled that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government transferred shares of Mahab Quds and Mapna worth 600 billion tomans in exchange for providing 15 percent of the funding for the Golestan-Bojnourd-Mashhad railway project. It noted: "Interestingly, this transfer took place in the last 10 days of the tenth government and by order of the cabinet." Forsat Emruz emphasized that "Mahab Quds is the largest consulting engineering company in the water sector of the country, with most of Iran's dams, especially large hydropower dams in the Karun basin, designed by this company," and wrote: "Mahab Quds owns 51 percent of the Saba company, the investment company for water and electricity, which itself owns significant shares in 43 companies and manages 23 electricity production companies with ownership stakes ranging from 11 to 60 percent," and on the other hand, this same Mahab Quds owns 47.7 percent of the shares of Mapna. This newspaper introduced Mapna as "one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Iran and a builder of large thermal power plants" and "executor of oil and gas and rail transport projects." The newspaper Forsat Emruz highlighted the role of Hamid Chitchian, the Minister of Energy, in the recovery of the two companies Mahab Quds and Mapna from the Astan Quds and wrote: The resolution of August 2, 1393, of the previous government regarding the transfer of these companies was recently pursued by the cabinet of Hassan Rouhani's government and with the "persistence of Minister of Energy Hamid Chitchian" went to court and was annulled. The newspaper Javan, close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in its front page without naming "two women" accused them of "eating 600 billion tomans from Bank Mellat" and even "taking it out of the country." This newspaper, less than a week after the arrest of Ali Rostegar, the former CEO of Bank Mellat, and three others by the IRGC Intelligence Organization, wrote: "New details of a major banking corruption case indicate the presence of two women in this case who have taken about 600 billion tomans of public funds out of the country and are now fugitives." The Javan newspaper pointed out that one of the accused is "an Indian woman who received 250 billion tomans from individuals involved in the major banking corruption case and has not returned this money yet, and another accused woman in this case is the wife of one of the major bank debtors who has also taken 350 billion tomans of public funds." This newspaper emphasized the role of the "IRGC Intelligence Organization" in the arrest of the accused and the statements of Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the IRGC, about this case, writing: "The banking corruption pressure is the most important news that has been reported by the commander of the IRGC in recent days." The newspaper Iran quoted Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman, as saying that "a ceiling for the salaries of government officials" has been determined, stating: "Political officials will receive 10 million and non-political officials will receive 18 million and 900 thousand tomans." The government spokesman also commented on the repeated accusations made by some principlist figures and officials affiliated with the judiciary against Hossein Fereydoun, the brother of President Hassan Rouhani, saying: "All issues and speculations regarding Fereydoun, the special assistant to the President, are monitored by supervisory, judicial, and security authorities, and whatever the outcome is, we will comply." "Filtering Research and Investigation Plans" is the title of a report in the newspaper Farhikhtegan about "the new plan of the presiding board of the eleventh parliament" to filter the parliament's research and investigation plans from various agencies. According to this newspaper, "For the first time, the presiding board of the parliament has formed a committee to determine whether research and investigation plans should be conducted or not," while "the tenth parliament, which has not yet reached two months in its term, has already initiated 10 research and investigation plans; a plan that, according to Article 198 of the internal regulations of the parliament, is considered a right of representatives, and whenever there is a sense of underperformance and disruption in any organization or institution, representatives can request it." The newspaper Mardomsalari reported with the headline "Behind the Scenes of Changing the Uniform of Iran's Olympic Caravan" that "after numerous criticisms of the design of the parade uniform of Iran's caravan at the 2016 Olympics, which began as soon as these uniforms were unveiled, it was finally decided that the Iranian Olympic caravan would appear in a new uniform at the opening ceremony of the Rio Games to preserve the country's dignity, but the rapid change of these uniforms has also created some controversies among designers and fashion activists that contain rumors about the behind-the-scenes of this change." This newspaper emphasized that "the unveiling of the Iranian caravan's uniforms at the Olympics was poorly executed" with "very bad design and color, the use of poorly proportioned mannequins, and the incorrect positioning of the mannequins' hands," but shortly after the peak of criticism, "attractive designs of uniforms with the Iranian flag were unveiled" and "suddenly one of the designers named Kamran Bakhtiari announced through a photo of his meeting with the president of the National Olympic Committee that Kiumars Hashemi supported his designs." The newspaper Mardomsalari noted that "Kamran Bakhtiari, the designer of these uniforms, is the brother of Babak Bakhtiari, the owner of the Ice Pack brand in Iran," stating: "Some believe that part of this story is a pre-determined scenario" and probably "these uniforms were prepared in advance, and to reduce potential opposition to the new design, they were presented after the initial uniform faced opposition, leaving no opportunity for dissent." However, this newspaper wrote that "in any case and with any scenario, everyone hopes that ultimately this matter will lead to the preparation of suitable uniforms for Iran's sports caravan at the Rio Olympics." "We are the forgotten ones" is the title of a report in the newspaper Shahrood about "the untold stories of the injured and families of the soldiers in the bus accident in Neyriz." The rescued soldiers from the bus accident of soldiers from the 05 Kerman barracks into a ravine near Neyriz and also the families of some of the deceased soldiers told Simin Farahani, the reporter of this newspaper: "In the first days, many promises were made to us, but none were fulfilled," adding that "it was supposed that the deceased soldiers would be considered martyrs, but this promise has been forgotten so far." Hamid Koohbar, one of the injured soldiers, said 35 days after the incident: "In the first week, everything was good. Officials visited us one by one and gave us hope. While none of us were well, these encouraging promises were somewhat hopeful; but suddenly the situation changed. After a week, everything changed. There was no longer any support or hope. None of the promises made were fulfilled. We were told that the deceased in this incident would be considered martyrs and the injured would also be regarded as veterans. But later this issue was opposed. The blood money has not yet been paid to us; only a little money was deposited into our accounts, and that’s it! It was supposed that most of us injured, except for those with superficial injuries, would be exempt from military service, but even this issue has not yet been approved, and our follow-ups have not yielded any results." Jalil Shirazi Zadeh, the senior officer whose soldiers were killed or injured in the bus accident, also told the newspaper Shahrood: "In the first week, everything was good, and the care was excellent. Some money was also deposited into our accounts. But after that, no one followed up with us. During this time, we were neither exempt from military service nor considered veterans. Even the blood money has not been paid. No one remembered us, and they only promised that during this time, sick leave would be granted to us." This soldier from the 05 Kerman barracks emphasized that "the bus had emptied brakes due to excessive weight and could not stop," stating that while three soldiers from this bus were from Shushtar, Khuzestan, and Shahrekord, the rest were all from Fars province, currently the case of this incident "has gone to Shushtar, which has caused us a lot of trouble. My friends are still in very bad condition and have not been able to follow up on their cases because they are still in the hospital." Jalil Shirazi Zadeh also said, "We lost our close friends and our lives have been disrupted because of this issue. However, after some time, we will have to go through military service. It will be very hard to go through the service without our friends. We lost our close friends and can’t bear to go back to the barracks. We have all suffered serious psychological and physical injuries." The mother of Rahim Sajadian, one of the soldiers killed in this incident, also told the newspaper Shahrood: "I spoke with him before the accident. I still can’t believe my son is gone. During this time, except for a few days at the beginning, no one came to see us. It was supposed that the deceased would be considered martyrs, but that seems to have been canceled too."