Throughout history, the classic resort of a failing regime has been to divert the rising anger of its people toward supposed enemies. More often than not this involves a war or the threat of war by conjuring up imaginary menaces from another state. Then, of course, there is always the option to turn on minorities such as Muslims or Jews, blaming them for hideous but nonsensical crimes. Iran has, however, rediscovered another option.
Almost 40 years of rule by the economically-illiterate ayatollahs, coupled with the brazen corruption of the governing elite, have brought Iranians poverty and despair. In order to try to shift the gaze of an angry public away from its own incompetence, the regime has begun a series of high-profile corruption trials of selected individuals. The purpose of these phony courtroom dramas, which are being broadcast live, is to try and show that the government is cracking down on payola and graft. Three of the latest victims of these trials, which are held before specially-constituted anti-corruption tribunals, have been a currency trader and a contractor.
The currency trader Vahid Mazloumin and a colleague were found guilty by one of these kangaroo courts of amassing two tons of gold. Both men were promptly executed. The state-run media demonized Mazloumin calling him “the Sultan of Coins”. In reality he was simply one of the most successful currency dealers who make a genuine market in foreign currencies and gold, which reflects the tumbling value of the Iranian rial. The ayatollahs hate the black market currency traders because they reflect the humiliating reality of the regime’s economic failure.
Now another businessman, Hamidreza Baqeri Darmani has been executed for bribery over shipments of bitumen, financed with forged documents. The evidence against this man was very probably correct. But that is because in the parlous state of business and finance in Iran, nothing happens without someone holding out an upturned palm. Everything can be fixed with the right bribe. Darmani was merely playing the game until someone in the regime, who perhaps had a grudge against him, decided that he would make a suitable scapegoat and ensured that, after another very public trial, he was also hanged.
If the regime in Tehran were really sincere about getting rid of corruption they would all be hanging each other.
The US-led sanctions compounded the problems of an already-failing economy. Ordinary Iranians had become sick of collapsing living standards. Huge demonstrations were ruthlessly suppressed and threatened the regime. But in 2015, President Obama tragically threw away the powerful lever of sanctions in return for an effectively meaningless nuclear agreement with Tehran. President Trump’s reimposition of sanctions has been quietly welcomed by many ordinary Iranians longing for decent government and an end to the ayatollahs’ rule.
Unfortunately, Obama may already have sold the pass. The Europeans along with the Russians and Chinese are set to spurn Trump’s renewed economic assault on Tehran. On paper, renewed sanctions have less chance of working so well and will almost certainly take longer to kick in. But then perhaps, for all his bluster, Trump does not really care. After all, with his extraordinary decision to withdraw US troops from Syria, he is handing victory to the Assad regime and Hezbollah, both sustained by Iran, while abandoning Syria’s IS-conquering Kurds to the tender mercies of Iranian ally Turkey.
