Iran's Khamenei Cancels Persian New Year Speech Due to Virus

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has cancelled an annual speech marking the start of the Persian new year, his office announced Monday, as the country's death toll from novel coronavirus mounts.

"The ceremony of the speech of the supreme leader, which takes place every year at the sacred mausoleum of Imam Reza... will not take place this year" and Khamenei will not travel to the city of Mashhad, the statement said.

With a death toll of 237 as of Monday, Iran is one of the worst hit countries, after China and Italy.

The speech given by the supreme leader in Mashhad each year usually sets out the country's key objectives for the 12 months to come.

The statement added that the decision to cancel this year was taken "due to the spread of the coronavirus and the strict advice of medical and health experts and officials to avoid gatherings and travel... to slow the spread of the illness".

Mashhad is a key Shiite holy city. It is also Khamenei's birthplace and the capital of the Khorasan Razavi province.

According to the most recent health ministry figures, 183 people have been infected by the virus in the province.

There are currently over 7,000 confirmed cases in Iran spread across all 31 of the country's provinces.

The Persian new year—to be celebrated this year on March 20—is often a time when people travel and visit family.

But in light of the spread of coronavirus, several provinces have issued orders to close hotels and other tourist accommodation to discourage people from travelling.

The government has been scrambling to contain the virus since it reported its first cases in mid-February, shutting down schools and universities as well as urging Iranians to stay at home.

Photo: IRNA

Iranians Line Up at Dawn for a Sanctions Meal They Can Afford

Just after dawn Fatemeh Ansari Mokhtari stood alone outside Tehran’s Shahid Baharloo supermarket, gripping the edge of her black chador.

Hours later she was still there, now at the head of a long queue, as a refrigerated van pulled up and the driver unloaded Australian-reared lamb wrapped in white muslin. The 69-year-old was eligible for 3 kilograms of state-subsidized meat, her monthly allotment. “It’s good we have this at least, otherwise what would we do?” she said. “It’s bread and milk, too—the pressure is immense.”

The sidewalk where Mokhtari spent most of that Saturday morning is a front line in what’s increasingly resembling a war economy, with red meat rationed while profiteers and smugglers thrive. Iran isn’t facing a Venezuela-style collapse, but renewed U.S. sanctions have slashed oil revenue, battered the rial and pushed prices beyond the reach of many. Shortages, in meat, medicine, even gasoline in some regions, are spreading; proof, say hardline conservatives, that President Hassan Rouhani’s engagement with the West has failed.

“Each day there’s about a hundred people waiting, but we usually only have enough for about 50 or 60,” said butcher Amir Hossein Siapoush, waiting to cut up the lamb. “It’s like this every day.” The cost of red meat and poultry has surged more than 90 percent from a year ago. US sanctions don’t apply to humanitarian supplies like food but their re-imposition last year froze banking channels and alarmed foreign companies doing even permitted business in Iran. The rial went into free fall and has only partially recovered. Imports, when Iran can afford them, are vastly more expensive. Ministers are prioritizing food and medicines, and last week parliament approved USD 14 billion of Iran’s dwindling resources to support domestic producers and fund “electronic coupons” for the poor that can be exchanged for essential goods. Importers already had access to cheaper foreign currency to ensure a flow of goods, but that policy is blamed for fanning price rises, with companies not passing savings onto customers despite threats of prosecution. 

The government banned livestock exports last August to avoid shortages at home as sanctions came into force, but farmers instead smuggled animals abroad to obtain foreign currency. To stem public discontent, it has airlifted in hundreds of thousands of cows and sheep, as well as extra supplies of beef and lamb from Romania, Australia and Brazil for cut-price sale to low-income families like Mokhtari’s.

Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the government shared some of the blame for Iran’s difficulties, describing its policy of providing subsidized dollars to importers as misguided.Instead, authorities should boost monthly cash transfers to poorer Iranians and let them decide how to spend the money, he said. “They’re trying to maintain consumption by the poor at a level that’s unrealistic given the environment that Iran finds itself in today.”

Attacks Escalate

For Iranians who recall the privations of the 1980s, when their country was mired in a grinding war with Iraq, or the coordinated international sanctions that isolated their economy prior to the 2015 nuclear deal, rationing is nothing new. Things are not as bad yet as they have been in only recent memory. The Islamic Republic shows little sign of buckling, but a bout of protests that swept through provincial cities even before sanctions resumed show how quickly the tide can turn. What began then as anger over the government’s handling of the economy, quickly escalated into a display of frustration with the political establishment. Rouhani’s attempts to claw more of the economy away from the military and other state institutions have been set back by U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision last year to withdraw from the 2015 international accord that curbs Iran’s nuclear program in return for an end to some sanctions. The economic crisis means Rouhani is facing pressure from the U.S. on one side, and hardliners, who say Iran is being punished for its concessions, on the other. 

With U.S. officials pledging to tighten curbs on Iran’s oil sales, and import waivers for several of the nation’s oil buyers set to expire in May, life is only getting harder. It’s a grim backdrop as Iran this week celebrates Persian new year, or Nowruz, a festival normally characterized by feasts, sweets and gifts. Central bank chief Abdolnaser Hemmati said last month families should adjust spending habits and prepare to see fewer foreign brands on the shelves. In an address to supporters in the oil-exporting region of Bushehr, Rouhani promised to expand welfare programs that already target 11 million poor Iranians. “You have to persevere, I guess. Tolerate things a little,” said Ali Sabaghi, a 53-year-old worker at a state-run garment factory who was in the meat queue with his wife. Their monthly income would cover just two weeks of expenses if they hadn’t cut back.

Another Day

Talk of belt-tightening does little to mitigate the frustration among those who’d hoped the nuclear accord would finally ease their isolation. “The U.S. has its own objectives. What they are, God only knows,” said Jaleh, 37, asking not be identified talking to foreign media. The value of her husband’s monthly pension, the sole income for a family of six, has slumped by more than half in hard-currency terms to USD 184. “We won’t starve or go hungry, but this still isn’t right, lining up like this.” The arrival of the store manager didn’t improve the mood. He turned away those who’d arrived too late for a numbered ticket or hadn’t realized they needed their ID card to buy the cheaper meat. They’d have to come back another day.

Photo Credit: Bloomberg

Iran Responds to Trump Over 'Absurd Insults'

Iran's foreign minister on Tuesday lashed out at Donald Trump over the US president's message to the country on the occasion of its Nowruz Persian New Year celebrations.

"With millennia of civilization, Iranians have the historical depth to ignore the absurd insults of an arriviste leader; one whose entire command of history, politics and diplomacy can be condensed into 280 characters - but even so, still superior to his juvenile royal stooge," Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on Twitter, referring to Trump's own tweets.

In his message released by the White House, Trump said: "The Iranian people face another challenge: rulers who serve themselves instead of serving their people."

The US president also denounced Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard. "Twenty-five centuries ago, Darius the Great asked God to protect Iran from three dangers: hostile armies, drought, and falsehood. Today, the Iranian regime's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) represents all three."

Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has adopted a tough stance against Iran and repeatedly denounced a landmark deal that Tehran reached with world powers to curb its nuclear program.

Trump said in January that the 2015 deal between Iran and major powers must be "fixed" by May 12 or the United States will walk away.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons