When the Supreme Leader Speaks, Who Still Listens?

-
Image
  By: Struan Stevenson Mojtaba Khamenei inherited the most powerful office in the Islamic Republic. Yet six months into his tenure, a question once considered unthinkable is surfacing in Tehran. When the Supreme Leader speaks, who still listens? For almost five decades, the answer was obvious. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created a system in which factional warfare could rage beneath the surface, provided everyone ultimately bowed to the Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei preserved that arrangement for more than three decades. Presidents came and went. Clerics competed. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) accumulated power. Yet one principle remained sacrosanct. The Supreme Leader had the final word. Today that principle is under strain. On August 28, Mojtaba Khamenei warned officials against creating false choices between war and negotiation, compromise and confrontation. He urged them to avoid publicizing weaknesses and declared that anything damaging social cohesion was forbidden. The mess...
Post a Comment

New on Iran’s List of Crises: Contaminated Fruit and Vegetables

-

 Written bySedighe Shahrokhi

In recent weeks, the state media are increasingly highlighting an emerging problem, that along with the skyrocketing prices of food and livelihood, there is a serious drop in quality, sometimes towards dangerous mediums.



According to the state-run website Eghtesadnews on January 15, Ebrahim Raisi’s administration had imported lead-contaminated wheat from Russia and, despite being aware of the dangerous contagion, it has not returned the wheat, arguing that the silos were empty and eventually allowed them to be delivered to markets throughout the country.

Images and reports posted on social media indicate that the clerical regime, while raising the price of bread, is offering contaminated and unhygienic wheat, exposed to soil, wind, rain, and animals, to the market.

 “In recent weeks, the discovery of pollutants in some of Iran’s agricultural products made headlines and many countries have begun to return some of them to Iran. Meanwhile contaminated wheat from Russia recently arrived in our country and tests confirmed the contamination,” Eghtesadnews wrote.

According to the website, Mojgan Pourmoghim, head of the Quality and Control Laboratory from the Food and Drug Organization, confirmed the report, saying that the clearance permit was temporary and that it had been allowed to be cleared simply because the country’s wheat silos were empty. However, she stressed that the contaminated wheat has not yet entered the consumption cycle.

However, the state-run Tejarat News wrote: “Hours after the news of the contamination of imported wheat was reported by the media, Mohammad Reza Mortazavi, head of the Iranian Food Industry Association, officially announced that the results of a retest of wheat showed that there was no contamination and that it was licensed for human consumption.”

According to the Tasnim news agency, run by the IRGC Quds Force, Reza Gheisipour, Director General of Standardization of Khuzestan Province, had sent a letter to the Director-General of Grain and Commercial Services of Khuzestan Province, approving the Russian wheat for public consumption.

Russia itself has recently returned a large shipment of Iranian bell peppers because it said Iran is not using Moscow’s approved contaminant.

In recent days, more and more countries are red-flagging Iranian products and sending them back to Iran.

On Monday, January 17, the Azerbaijan Food Security Agency announced that in recent months, three companies had imported 26 tons of bell peppers from Iran, which were later found to be infected with the Ruguz virus.

Also, India did not approve a large freight of Iranian kiwi due to the discovery of white particles on its skin and sent it back.

Previously, shipments of potatoes were returned to Iran from Uzbekistan, and in recent years, crops such as watermelon and raisins have been returned to Iran for this reason as well.

Fruit and vegetable traders in Iran have said that the return of the country’s exported agricultural products, along with reduced financial capacity, has led to a drop in fruit purchases.

This article was first published by ncr-iran

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When the Supreme Leader Speaks, Who Still Listens?

-
Image
  By: Struan Stevenson Mojtaba Khamenei inherited the most powerful office in the Islamic Republic. Yet six months into his tenure, a question once considered unthinkable is surfacing in Tehran. When the Supreme Leader speaks, who still listens? For almost five decades, the answer was obvious. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini created a system in which factional warfare could rage beneath the surface, provided everyone ultimately bowed to the Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei preserved that arrangement for more than three decades. Presidents came and went. Clerics competed. The Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) accumulated power. Yet one principle remained sacrosanct. The Supreme Leader had the final word. Today that principle is under strain. On August 28, Mojtaba Khamenei warned officials against creating false choices between war and negotiation, compromise and confrontation. He urged them to avoid publicizing weaknesses and declared that anything damaging social cohesion was forbidden. The mess...
Read more

Iran: The Poor Tumble While the Rich Rise

-
Image
 Written by Mansoureh Galestan On Friday, January 21, Dr. Javad Safari, a retired university lecturer, committed suicide due to financial difficulties and after not receiving his pension for months.  His tragic death once again highlights how the Iranian regime’s plunder and corruption have devastated people’s lives. Meanwhile, news broke out that in November, Hojat Abdolmaleki, the regime’s Minister of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, has “donated” 60 billion rials (roughly $1.5M USD) to a TV game show.  Abdolmaleki’s ministry controls Iran’s Social Security Organization, National Pension Organization, Social Security Investment Company (Shasta). The fate of Dr. Javad Safari, his family, and other Iranian pensioners is in the hands of the likes of Abdolmaleki. In a letter to Abdolmaleki, Ali Foroughi, the director of state-run Channel 3 TV, asked for a 480 billion rials investment for making 780 episodes of the “Square” contest. In less than 24 hours, Abdolmaleki...
Read more

Veteran War Commander Takes Over Iranian Regime Security Council

-
Image
By Hoshang Amiri Mojtaba Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Iranian regime, appointed Mohsen Rezaei as his representative to the Supreme National Security Council on August 9, 2026. Hours later, Iranian regime president Masoud Pezeshkian appointed him secretary of the council. Seventy-one-year-old Mohsen Rezaei was one of the founders of the IRGC Intelligence Unit before becoming commander of the Iran-Iraq War. In 1981, at the age of 27, he became commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a position he held for 16 years—the longest tenure as commander of the force. During his tenure, the IRGC’s ground, naval, and air forces were established, the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters was founded, and the IRGC evolved from a paramilitary force into military, security, and economic power. Rezaei’s name, however, is most closely associated with the Iran-Iraq War, from major operations to decisions whose human cost is still debated. Karbala-4: Defeat Under the Name of Deception Th...
Read more