Mishandled Turban

With a comprehensive nuclear agreement deadline by the end of June, what Tehran and in particular the supreme ayatollah leader will do in this regard is of paramount regional and global significance.
Even though negotiations have been going on, the Iranian regime has not responded to scores of IAEA concerns regarding the military dimensions of its nuclear program, thus confirming once more that it is not reliable.
However, while posing a serious threat to the whole international community with its nuclear program, the regime is actually struggling for survival. Besides its astonishing record of massive and systematic human rights violations, it doesn’t manage anymore to cover its failure in providing well-being and protection for ordinary citizens.
The Iranian economy is under a major crash due to inconsistency of economic strategy and international sanctions, while the fall of oil prices has exacerbated financial woes. Oil, being the main source of foreign revenue for Tehran, has lost 50 percent of its value since June and there are no prospects for a positive change.
The Iranian regime’s officials worry about possible uprisings, where one can already see the dire consequences for the regime itself. News of widespread corruption at the highest level in the government appear even in the press, while the majority of the population is stricken by poverty.
In response, the regime has actually become more oppressive as their solution is to rule with an iron fist, not welcoming any room of contention by the public. Imprisonment and torture of people for their ideas are on a rise. Also the use of capital punishment, which has always been widespread in the ‘Islamic Republic of Iran’, is further growing: There have actually been about 1,300 executions during Rouhani’s tenure.
Thus, the nuclear problem should be seen also as a screen to hide the crumbling economy of the country under the ayatollahs, rather than a stance of a State for an alleged right to use nuclear energy for ‘peaceful purposes’.
According to Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Iranian opposition, Iran has become the center of Islamic fundamentalism, and it cannot move towards progress unless that oppressive regime is defeated. For her, it is high time that Iran articulates a new policy, one that does not cause such animosity from the global community against the Iranian people and their link to religious fascism.
The challenge for Iran is actually not limited to the nuclear issue, as major sources of contention are also its cruel domestic policies, its dangerous support for the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, the export of terrorism and its role in Iraq that led, through the puppet regime of al-Maliki, to the birth and expansion of ISIS.
 
 
Dr. Antonio Stango is the President of the Helsinki Watch in Italy