Behind the Headlines/July 25

Jamshid Chalangi:

In tonight’s program of Behind the Headlines we will discuss the last Sunday’s speech on Iran by the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and ask our guests, the Washington-based journalist Ardavan Roozbeh and Suleiman Sima, the Toronto-based member of the Iranian Liberal Students and Graduates, what implications his speech will have for the Iranian people and the Iranian regime.

Jamshid Chalangi:

One of the most important issues facing the Iranian people is the crisis that has been caused by the regime’s anti-American policy that has been affecting Iran’s economy and politics since this regime came to power. Is this, as the regime claims, a price that the Iranians have to pay for their independence? Is Iran now more independent than before?

Ardavan Roozbeh:

I believe we have been repeating the same slogan for many years but the result has been quite the opposite. May be part of it according to the Islamic republic regime is a “foreign enemy’s plot”, but the Iran of today faces no bigger enemy than the collection of those people who currently rule the country.

They are a gang of people who are only concerned about their own interests and never think of the people’s needs and interests.

We have had many of the current problems and crisis in Iran over the last 40 years but today we have a whole package of these problems facing the nation at once and while the regime claims that everything is under control, quite to the contrary, the current situation in Iran is unprecedented.

Suleiman Sima:

To some extent I agree with what Mr. Roozbeh said. However, when we look at the slogans of the Iranian people such as the one that says “they are lying when they say US is our enemy…the enemy is our own regime”, then we realize that the Iranians have clearly identified the ruling clique as the cause of all their miseries.

They look at the free fall of their national currency, and workers do not receive salaries for months, and pensioners lose their savings to bogus banks linked to the centers of power, and then they see how the clerics are amassing hundreds of millions of dollars for themselves and their offspring.

A combination of these realities of life tells them that a gang of plunderers of their wealth rules the country.

Ardavan Roozbeh:

When we talk about the Islamic republic regime we are not talking about a unitedgovernment. However, the record of all its factions fails to indicate that they have made any sincere attempt to improve the lives of the citizens or promote their human rights.

Until such a day that the regime drinks from the chalice of poison, nothing will change in Iran.

Suleiman Sima:

The worse is still to come for Iran’s economy when the sanctions come into effect. Governments should act like a wristwatch where all its parts should work together and in harmony.

The so-called reformists within the regime are nothing more than a safety valve to stop an implosion of the system but behind the scene their rivalry is all about who steals more of the nation’s wealth.