Spring of freedom

The Iranian rial plunged to a record low against the U.S. dollar on the black market  Early Sunday morning the black market in Iran began selling the US dollar at a whopping 100,000 rials, breaking the previous psychological barrier. The society and economy were in shock of these reports when only three hours later (around 2 pm local time) new reports indicated the US dollar selling at 108,000 rials and even surpassing the 111,000 rial mark. What can the Iranian regime do to tackle this crisis? Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani did all he could back when the US dollar was trading at 60,000 rials in the black market. Authorities arrested dozens of currency exchange owners and set a fixed government rate of 42,000 rials. “The mere fact that the Central Bank has banned currency exchanges from trading US dollars will soon lead to severe currency tensions,” according to the Iranian regime’s own ISNA news agency at the time. We are now witnessing such circumstances a...

Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, resigns  Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, government spokesman for Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani and head of the Plan & Budget Organization, has resigned from all his posts, according to the Fars news agency. Rumors regarding changes in Rouhani’s cabinet were mentioned in the Iranian regime’s state-run media outlets. Regime analysts consider these developments in line with the ongoing economic crisis and the United States pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Considering Nobakht’s other positions, the plunge of the Iranian currency and a crumbling economy may also be further reasons of his resigning. Keep in mind that his resignation could very well be aimed at saving humiliation for the regime in comparison to Rouhani or even Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei themselves getting involved to sack their senior officials. On June 18 th , Massoud Nili, known as Nobakht...

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Wednesday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee was yet another stage where US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo further defined US policy vis-à-vis Iran’s regime and how the Iranian people oppose the mullahs’ policies. “There is an enormous economic challenge inside of Iran today. It’s an economic structure that simply doesn’t work. When you’re a country of that scale that foments terror through the Lebanese Hezbollah, through Shiite militias in Iraq, into Yemen, conducts assassination attempts in European countries, provides enormous support for Assad outside of Lebanese Hezbollah in Syria, that’s expensive and I think the Iranian people are beginning to see that that’s not the model that they want. The Iranian expansionism that the supreme leader and Qassem Suleimani so favor is not what they’re looking for. I think you’re beginning to see the economic impact combined with understandings inside of Iran of the kleptocracy that it is, leading...