‘Poverty, hardship rise in Iran’

‘Foreign agendas driving internal chaos’

“THE Iranians have been suffering from poverty and hardship since the onset of the Iranian revolution in 1979 and it has been observed that since that time they have not tasted the flavor of a decent standard of living but to the contrary their situation has been steadily deteriorating,” columnist and former Kuwaiti ambassador wrote for

daily, “Nonetheless, we have seen a state of anarchy in Iran in addition to the demonstrators opposing the ruling regime in most of the Iranian cities and towns.

“For example in 2016, the angry Iranians took to the streets to protest the high salaries of some Iranian officials which exceeded the basic salary of each government post which is $400 and the demonstrators were shouting at the officials (government) ‘Abandon Syria take care of us’.

“Not just that, Iran faces danger on the internal front which currently threatens the regime following clashes which happened in mid-June, 2016 between the Iranian Kurds and the Revolutionary Guard which gave birth to ‘The Free Life Party’ in the Kurdistan Province of Iran.

“In the Baluchistan Province, the Iranians – the Sunni group called ‘The Army of Justice’ – clashed with the security forces and in the Khuzestan province the separatist group called ‘The Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz’ was accused of sabotaging one of the oil pipes.

“And because the Iranian internal situation is in a state of deterioration, we wonder what the Iranian leadership will have to do to divert the attention of the people away from such an internal situation. However, right now Iran follows the policy of the ‘boat and the frigate’ moving its boat in the Gulf waters to provoke others so that the Iranians will forget and ignore their problems and their difficult standard of living and stand behind the political leadership.

“For his part, the Iranian spiritual leader Al-Sayed Ali Khamenei in an apparent reference to the events taking place in some Arab countries from the beginning of June 2017 represented by a state of anarchy and turmoil was quoted as saying, ‘The situation in Iran is different because Iran is strong and stable.’

“But on June 7, 2017 while some people in Tehran were visiting the tomb of the Iranian Revolutionary Leader Al-Khomeini and of the former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, one suicide bomber killed at least eight people near the two tombs.

“An unknown person bombed the premises of the Iranian Al-Shura Council (the parliament) and this attack had claimed the lives of seven people which also left many other injured. This event resulted in the Iranians to wonder ‘what happened and why the Iranian authorities did not prevent the two attacks’.

“As a matter of fact, what occurred – the huge attack on two major symbols – sent ‘a strong message’ to everything related to the Iranian revolution. This is a tremendous pressure on the Iranian government or a challenge to it, because we know that the security authorities tighten the security around Tehran.

“For his part, one of the writers penned an article in the mid of 2018 for the American Atlantic Newspaper in which he said the economic problems in Iran cannot be attributed to the American sanctions imposed on it, rather these problems can be attributed to the tremendous spending by Iran to meet its interventions in both Syria and Iraq as well as its involvement in financing the Hezbollah, the Hamas Movement and the other armed groups in the Middle East.

“He further added, of course, these activities seem to be too costly, because Iran has spent tens of billions of dollars to meet its commitments to foreign agendas, given the fact this tremendous spending has brought the Iranians on the street to criticize the government and the religious institutions and shout ‘No to Gaza … No to Lebanon … Death to Palestine … Bring down the dictator’.

“The writer went on to say, the Iranian regime has placed the revolutionary agenda at the top of its priorities at the expense of the luxury of its people and this has put Iran on a long road of turmoil and anarchy.

“On the other hand, some analysts say the recent American sanctions on Iran has contributed to the shortage of medicines and basic commodities and the country is drowned in inflation as a result of which one of the Iranians told the foreign press that the Iranians are currently passing through a difficult phase (the standard of living) and some of the Iranians are involved in modest occupations just to meet their daily requirements.

“As a matter of fact, the Iranian government has committed a big mistake by increasing the fuel price on Nov 15 of this month. It seems this government had not expected the popular wave of protests throughout the country during which some of them set fire to some local banks and some oil stations.”

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Al-Dawas

“The former US secretary of state Dr. Henry Kissinger adopted the sagacious American policy in the Middle East region which he compared to the religious wars that occurred in Europe in the 17th Century,” columnist wrote for daily.

“In his article Kissinger saw the internal and international struggles feeding each other, but the political, sectarian, clannish, regional, ideological and national interest struggles got mingled with each other, particularly if the religion returned to carry the weapons to serve political objectives.

“As a matter of fact, these weapons target the civilians due to their sectarian belonging and the states which can maintain its power will use the same without taking into consideration any type of rights and international obligations in the name of protecting their survival.

“However, in case of dismantling the states and the collapse of the state power, the latter will be transformed into an arena for rivalry among the powers to dominate each other without any consideration to the dignity of the human being.

“Meanwhile, Kissinger says that the struggle which currently takes place in the Middle East region is religious, political and geographic simultaneously. He added the region is currently burning because of inflaming political events and this can be attributed to the sectarian and ethnic divisions.

“In Syria, for instance, he went on to say, the sectarian factor in 2011 engulfed the Al-Assad regime simply because he was striving to give the struggle a sectarian dimension, as such this idea was intentionally adopted fully aware that the people feared the same and the regime along with its Hezbollah was attempting to introduce themselves as defenders.

“However, the scene in Iraq did not differ too much particularly in terms of using the sectarian card and the struggle is likely to be crowned by the division of Iraq.

“With regard to Yemen and the Houthis war actually represents a new replica of sectarian conflicts wearing the cloak of religion and threatens the Gulf states which are charged with religious and sectarian struggles, with Iraq and Syria situated to the north and Yemen to the south which is accompanied with regional interventions under the sectarian umbrella.

“It is needless to say the regional scenario calls for concern, particularly since we at the moment pass through a crucial phase under which the political map of the Middle East is likely to be redrawn on the basis of the ‘color of the blood’, sectarianism and ethnic struggles.”

“While His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled is expected to form the government in the next few days the citizens are eagerly waiting to see the faces of ministers, wishing it to be a government of technocrats and specialized people who are capable of working to achieve the dreams of the citizens keeping in mind to turn Kuwait into a commercial and financial center to fulfill the aspirations of the people towards the future of Kuwait,” columnist wrote for daily.

“Of course, after the formation of the government what must be taken into account are the priorities which need to be dealt with in a synchronized manner since there are so many projects waiting to be realized, problems are waiting solutions and national issues to be addressed in a transparent manner.

“The instructions given by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad to the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled during the oath-taking ceremony must be adhered to.

“HH the Amir has given clear instructions to the Prime Minister to “fight corruption and fight those who act like stumbling blocks in the development of the country.”

“There is always a connection between history, geography and events. Throughout history, countries have shown great care in establishing cities on their borders in order to show everybody that those lands are part of their territory and to use those remote cities as the first line for confronting any foreign attack,” wrote for

daily. “Those remote cities have been given different names by the country. They were called fortified borderline cities ‘Thughour’ during the Islamic Caliphate era. The residents in these cities practiced commercial and economic activities and were also ready to resist any outside attacks. Other countries named such cities as settlements, most of which were established within the borders of the country. In some cases, they are established on the land of a neighboring state just like Israel when it established settlements on West Bank, Palestine.

“The importance of borderline cities is that they give legitimacy to the belonging of that land to the country. Some countries deliberately transport citizens from the central cities to live in the borderline cities in order to impose their domination on the land as well as create a strong defense line against any invasion.

“Concerning Kuwait, the attitude of showing great consideration to the land borders and islands is essential. It is better late than never. The establishment of major projects and residential cities in remote areas is a strategic necessity, despite the fact that the borders of most of countries in the world are already defined and approved. This major project needs to be established in this special era when Kuwait enjoys huge revenues from oil production, which will not last forever.”

“Signs of a breakthrough in the Gulf crisis have become clear from the political point of view. Thankfully, Kuwait is following in the footsteps of its humanitarian leader, His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah,” columnist

wrote for daily. “We saw this when Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates announced that they will participate in the 24th Gulf Cup which will be hosted by the State of Qatar from Nov 26 to Dec 8, 2019.

“After last week’s draw, the teams are divided into two groups – one consists of Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Iraq while the other includes Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman.

“Perhaps, this number of participating teams takes us back to the first Gulf football championship in Manama in 1970 when only four teams – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar – participated.

“Gulf tournaments have gone through many ups and downs, most notably the withdrawal of Saudi and Iraqi teams from the 1990 Gulf tournament.

“In 1992, the Iraqi team was prevented from participating in the tournament because of the invasion of Kuwait. The Gulf Cup must be kept out of politics. It is the true sporting spirit of the Gulf, and the spirit of our beautiful past.”

“It is indisputable that Kuwait is destined for democracy, which is the only option for His Highness the Amir (May Allah guard and guide him aright), so the new Cabinet will handle preparations for the next parliamentary elections to be held after some months. In this case, it is important to give the youth a chance for participation in decision making,”

wrote for daily. “There is no doubt that the ruling family has many youth who hold high academic qualifications and are academics who have proven their competency in various fields of work. How nice it would be if they are given the opportunity to be a part of the government, which could be described as an opportunity for tutelage to prove their competency. This will enable them to contribute to the renaissance of the country based on the modern youthful vision basically meant to serve Kuwait. They will use it to express the fact that the youth constitute a large segment of Kuwait’s population.

“It is a known fact that almost 62 percent of Kuwaitis are youth who have aspirations and hopes of contributing their quota in service to their homeland. Therefore, nobody can express hope of their generation like them. It amounts to injustice to exclude them from occupying positions through which they can display their skills.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb