Iran's Conservatives Slam President For Economic Failure

Tehran's hardliner Friday Prayer leader Ahmad Khatami has criticized President Ebrahim Raisi for failing to address economic hardships Iranians currently face.

Speaking in Tehran on Friday, Khatami warned that "the people cannot plan for their future as they do not know what may happen tomorrow and this could lead to unrest."

Also on Friday, a leading conservative politician said that the current government led by Raisi is incompetent and that it is the outcome of the non-competitive presidential election in 2021.

According to Khabarovsk Online, Abolghassem Raoufian, the Leader of the Iran Zamin Party said that "now the supporters of Raisi's administration should also be held accountable for establishing a government that lacks the potential, experience and knowledge needed to run the affairs of the state."

Political observers in media have said on various occasions that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was the main supporter of Raisi’s candidacy and the Guardian Council under his jurisdiction disqualified capable candidates from other political factions to facilitate Raisi's victory in the election.

Raoufian charged that the Raisi refuses to work with reformists, independents and even conservative politicians who are not a member of his camp. His insistence on working only with "young revolutionaries" has been costly for the country, said Raoufian. As a result the president has failed to deliver on his campaign promises.

Raoufian said that public opinion and reformist activists were right to be against the widespread disqualification of candidates in the 2021 election. He called for a major reshuffling of the government to give a chance to others to come forward and contribute to solving the country's problems.

Meanwhile, Reformist politician Ali Sufi told Khabar Online that parts of Iran's conservatives have now turned into staunch critics of Raisi. This marks the failure of the conservative's "consolidated government" policy advocated by conservative figureheads in Iran.

Sufi said that the Iranian state television fabricates statistics to show Raisi in a good light, adding that some of his ministers are actively involved in fabricating "positive" statistics.

Confirming Sufi's remark of fabricated statistics, Lawmaker Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi added in an interview with Rouydad24 that "the people are suffering because of the poor performance of the Raisi administration.” Like Raoufian, Imanabadi also said that "Those who have engineered the 2021 presidential election should be held accountable for the poor performance of the Raisi administration.

Imanabadi asked: "How can you hand over the affairs of the state to a President who is just beginning to understand the economy?"

Khabar Online on Friday carried an article that asked: "Who gives these distorted figures to the President?" The article pointed out that for instance, the inflation figures Raisi has recently announced are far from the truth. The article added that because the president is not fully familiar with economic terms, sometimes his comments damage public confidence.

The report also argued that the problem of inflation cannot be solved by shouting orders at officials, and added that it is impossible to bring prices down by punishing a few shopkeepers.

The report quoted the Aftab News website as saying that since most of Raisi's experience was in the judiciary, he should have sought assistance from economic experts, but his economic team is damaging the people's trust in the government by offering baseless figures.

The report stressed that Raisi's economic team should at least be able to explain why the inflation rate in Iran has been constantly on the rise since 2018.