He was a relatively unknown young pop singer who had been eliminated in the final round of Iran’s version of “American Idol.” Then he wrote a protest song. On Sunday, he won a Grammy Award.

Shervin Hajipour, 25, won in a new special merit category recognizing a song for social change for his hit “Baraye.” The song has become the anthem of protests that have swept through Iran in recent months, evoking grief, anger, hope and a yearning for change.

The first lady of the United States, Jill Biden, introduced the award. “A song can unite, inspire and ultimately change the world,” she said. “Baraye,” she added, was “a powerful and poetic call for freedom and women’s rights” that continues to resonate across the world.

And as Hajipour’s image and song played on two screens, she reiterated the bedrock slogan of Iran’s uprising: “For Women, Life, Freedom.”

Hajipour lives in Iran and did not respond to a request for comment. “We won,” he posted on Instagram after the award was given.

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The Department of the Treasury is designating six Iran-based companies involved in the sale and distribution of petrochemicals. Amir Kabir Petrochemical Company has produced and sold millions of dollars’ worth of low-density polyethylene to U.S.-designated Triliance Petrochemical Company. Simorgh Petrochemical Company is owned by Amir Kabir Petrochemical Company. Laleh Petrochemical Company, Marun Tadbir Tina Company, Marun Sepehr Ofogh Company, and Marun Supplemental Industries Company are owned by Marun Petrochemical Company, which was previously designated for providing material support to Triliance.

The Treasury Department is also designating two Singapore-based entities, Asia Fuel PTE. Ltd. and Unicious Energy PTE. Ltd., which have facilitated Triliance’s sale of petroleum products to customers in East Asia.

Finally, the Treasury Department is designating Malaysia-based Sense Shipping and Trading SDN. BHD., a front company that has facilitated the shipment of tens of thousands of metric tons of petrochemicals for Triliance.

Today’s action demonstrates our continued efforts to enforce U.S. sanctions on Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical trade and disrupt Iran’s efforts to circumvent sanctions.

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The sanctions were mainly aimed at East Asian companies accused of purchasing from a shipment of Iranian petroleum and petrochemicals, which Tehran relies on for considerable income.

Iran has had to rely on east Asian markets for their sales due to U.S. sanctions. The Treasury is now seeking to throttle this income stream as well.

“Iran increasingly turning to buyers in East Asia to sell its petrochemical and petroleum products, in violation of U.S. sanctions,” Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson said in a statement from the Treasury.

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On January 30, in response to the recent increase in the price of goods, including food, Raisi said, “At the beginning of our administration, we faced a budget deficit, and we tried to change the situation by increasing income without printing money and borrowing from the central bank. We had nearly 60 percent inflation, which has now reduced to 40 percent.”

The website Aftab News rejected this claim, saying, “According to the latest report by the Statistics Center, inflation reached over 51 percent in January, and Raisi still insists on reducing inflation by 20 percent.”

According to the official report of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, “in 2021, more than 31.5 percent of Iran’s population dropped below the poverty line.”

Poor government performance

Referring to the promise of building four million housing units during the four years of the government’s activity, Raisi claimed, “It remains the government’s promise to build one million homes every year, and people, institutions, and mass builders will assist.”

Raisi made this claim despite his government having one of the worst performances in house building in Iran.

According to the Statistical Centre of Iran, in January, point-to-point inflation of food items was at 70 percent and healthcare at 58 percent. Also, the inflation rate in January reached over 51 percent.

Regarding the “good and reliable” foreign exchange reserves, Raisi said, “In the past few years, many food items depended on the dollar, and we are working to reduce their dependency so that people’s tables are not affected by fluctuations in the dollar. People’s demand for price stability is completely reasonable. We suffer from high prices even more than the people; governments are affected by what people suffer.”

Experts predict that Iran’s currency will continue to lose value if the current trend in economic indicators continues for the following year.

“The currency of all exporters must be under the central bank’s supervision. The oil revenues covered last year’s budget deficit. The government has made serious efforts not to have a budget deficit in 2022,” Raisi added.

Putting behind an awful year

Despite the numbers announced by the government, there is substantial concern about the budget deficit and the sources for financing next year’s budget. In the last days of 2022, the Majlis Research Center announced the government’s budget deficit at 3,000 trillion rials.

“To secure the public budget by the end of 2022, the government will need about 3,000 trillion rials assuming all public expenses are paid. Considering the financial burden transferred from 2021, this figure reaches about 3,600 trillion rials,” the Research Center reported.

The Research Center further estimated that only 73 percent of the total budget resources were realized in the first seven months. Meanwhile, the average oil revenue realization was at most 56 percent.

The same report also indicates that only 27 percent of the construction budget materialized in the first six months. It means the government has once again reduced the construction budget due to its inability to realize revenues and has paid salaries and wages 73 percent of it.

All these deficits and inefficiencies will likely carry over like dominoes into next year with increased intensity.

Growing unemployment and poverty

In another part of his TV interview, Raisi claimed having reduced unemployment and succeeded in creating one million jobs per year and said, “The day I assumed the presidency, the unemployment rate was 8.9 percent, and today it is 8.2 percent. The percentage of unemployment has decreased especially in 11 provinces.”

Raisi claimed to have created one million jobs, but the labor force report for the fall season categorically refutes his assertion. The Statistics Center announced that only 535,000 jobs were created compared to the previous year.

According to Ebrahim Raisi’s claim, economic growth was 0.4 percent before his government, but in the fall of 2022, growth shot above 3 percent.

This claim is also false, and the economic growth has visibly decreased during Raisi’s presidency, from 6.7 percent to 2.3 percent.

Donya-e-Eqtesad daily reported on January 5 that the results of poverty monitoring in 2022 indicate a prevalent poverty level in Iran and a fall in the average calorie intake per capita. “Due to high general inflation and a significant drop in per capita income, more than 31 percent of Iran’s population could not afford the minimum living expenses in 2022.”

The “Poverty Monitoring in 2022” results show that the average number of calories in households in Iran has fallen. This index reached about 2700 kcals per day in 2011 to about 2190 kilocalories in 2022.

Ham-Mihan daily reported, “Per capita meat consumption for each person has reached four kilograms per year, while this per capita in Kuwait is 67 kilograms per person per year. Even the annual per capita meat consumption in Djibouti is 15 kilos per person. It means that every citizen of Kuwait consumes 16 times more meat, and every citizen of Djibouti consumes 3.5 more than their Iranian counterparts.”

People can’t pay for house rent

Iran’s annual house rent inflation exceeded 40 percent in 2020 and 2021, which has been one factor in families becoming poorer.

The sharp growth of rents in Tehran and other parts of the country reached the point where, based on official statistics, 2021 was the worst year for home renters.

Beitullah Satarian, an expert on the housing market, told Etemad Online, “Should the nuclear deal be finalized, and economic openings take place in the country, the housing market would face a higher inflation rate. But since there will be no economic improvement, apart from the sharp increase in housing prices, the rental fee will also go up.”

Some experts believe this price increase will persist until the end of this year, both in the purchase and rental sectors.

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Although the resolution has no legal authority, it reinforces American support for the Iranian people and condemnation of the ongoing violations of human rights by the country’s government. More than 165 members of Congress, from both main parties, co-sponsored the resolution, which is expected to easily pass when it comes up for a final vote.

“The timing of, and the unprecedented number of cosponsors for, this bipartisan resolution, on the eve of the anniversary of the 1979 anti-monarchic revolution that overthrew a corrupt and ruthless dictator, reflect the forward-looking policy by Congress and its support for a secular, non-nuclear Iranian republic,” said Ramesh Sepehrrad, chairperson of the advisory board for the Organization of Iranian American Communities.

The resolution was introduced by Tom McClintock, a Republican Congressman from California, who said more must to be done to align European and Baltic nations in opposition to the Iranian regime.

“I am pleased to introduce this resolution supporting the Iranian people’s desire for a democratic, secular and non-nuclear Republic of Iran, and condemning violations of human rights and state-sponsored terrorism by the Iranian government,” he said.

It comes as protests against the ruling regime continue in Iran. They began in September last year following the death in custody of 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the country’s “morality police” for not covering her hair to their satisfaction, based on strict rules governing how women can dress in public.

More than 600 civilians, including 70 children, have been killed since the protests began and 19,600 people arrested, including 687 students.

Maryam Rajavi, the leader of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, an Iranian opposition group that advocates the overthrow of the ruling regime and the installation of a democratic government, addressed Wednesday’s briefing through a video link. She thanked Congress for its continuing support but said more must be done to end the regime’s ongoing use of violence to crack down on protesters.

“We are at the anniversary of the anti-dictatorial revolution in 1979, when a unified nation swept a dictator, the Shah, out of power but (former Supreme Leader Ayatollah) Khomeini hijacked their revolution and established a religious dictatorship,” Rajavi said.

“However, today, after more than 40 years of repression and resistance, the Iranian nation is ready again to overthrow another form of dictatorship. They want to put an end to one century of dictatorship and establish a democratic, pluralistic and secular republic.

“What you see in Iran today is another revolution in the making. This is the result of 40 years of organized resistance and struggle against the regime, (during which there have been) 120,000 political executions.”

Congress has introduced and adopted dozens of resolutions condemning the regime in Tehran.

Rajavi has developed a 10-point plan for the future of Iran, which calls for: The universal right of citizens to vote in free and fair elections; a market economy; gender, religious and ethnic equality; a foreign policy based on peaceful coexistence; and a non-nuclear Iran.

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It is also no secret that the goals of the Iranian regime to control the Arab region and interfere in its internal affairs are faced by fierce Arab resistance, led by Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Gulf and around the world. Their resistance aims to curb the ambitions of this tyrannical, expansionist and sectarian regime, which has established terrorist militias in countries such as Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

In Lebanon, the same scenario was applied with Hezbollah, where Iran armed the party and trained it to become an auxiliary army to the country’s official forces, using it as a political tool to manipulate, according to its own desires, against the existing regime. It adopted this militia as an army to work under the directives of its supreme leader, aiming to divide the country, fragment its social fabric, control it and use it as a platform to attack and blackmail surrounding countries.

But what is ironic now is that the Iranian regime suffers from a real crisis due to the stumbling nuclear program negotiations and the economic sanctions against it, which threaten the future of its militias in Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon. In order to compensate for this loss, Iran has resorted to more immoral activities, relying on drug trafficking and human trafficking in a number of countries such as in South America and Africa.

Whoever has followed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s recent stances, in which he called on the Arab Gulf states to financially support Lebanon, is well aware of the immense scale of the catastrophe that his party and its allies are suffering from. Nasrallah is the one who used to brag that his funding, equipment, employees’ salaries and his incubating environment came entirely from Iran, and that he was proud of what he called “clean money.”

But whoever reads history well can realize that, for some time, it was impossible for Iran to take control of Lebanon, despite the existence of Hezbollah’s weapons, because one solid man stood still in the face of this project and spared no attempt to deter it from expanding and reaching the state institutions — and there he prevailed. He is the martyr Rafik Hariri, who — after becoming a real obstacle in the face of the Iranian regime — was assassinated in order to change the general situation in Lebanon and allow Hezbollah to take control.

Hariri had many political and diplomatic weapons, but the most important of them was his adherence to a bilateral Islamic-Christian approach to confronting any danger to the Lebanese interior and its fabric of coexistence. He always considered that the union of Muslims and Christians constituted a force capable of preventing Iranian control over Lebanon, thus securing internal stability and providing Beirut with the cover required to restore prosperity, secure job opportunities, build the state and institutions, and maintain coexistence with the components of all other sects.

So, today’s password to restore the glories of the past starts with a real partnership and a golden equation — a joint Islamic-Christian approach — to face the trio of militias, weapons and corruption. This trio has brought Lebanon nothing but destruction, wars, isolation, poverty, starvation and political, economic and social collapses. It has displaced and starved tens of thousands of Lebanese and destroyed their future in a homeland in which they believed.

Today — by monitoring Bahaa Hariri’s initiatives and efforts, the meetings he held in Cyprus with Christian and Islamic personalities, his openness to everyone to discuss all ideas and plans to build a better future for Lebanon, and to discuss the reasons for its collapse in such a rapid manner — we feel hopeful that this country will be saved. The armed militias and the corrupt political class will vanish through restoring the vision and project of the martyr Rafik Hariri.

Today, justice is achieved through the fires we are witnessing inside Iran, most notably the recent bombing of military installations in Isfahan and the demonstrations pervading the Iranian lands. Iran has been poisoned with the same potion it used to poison Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. And Just as Lebanon succeeded in expelling the Syrian occupation after the assassination of Rafik Hariri, this united people will succeed in expelling the Iranian regime, its militias and its corrupt subordinates.

In the end, there is no doubt that Iran and its proxies are experiencing unprecedented conditions that highlight the international discontent with their behavior and a clear desire to curtail their ambitions. Thus, the following question is raised: What has changed after decades of international tolerance for all of Tehran’s violations of the sovereignty of states and its threats to the stability of the region, including the security of maritime navigation? Has Tehran now crossed the world’s red lines?

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Honorable members of parliament,
Ladies and gentlemen, dear Friends,
I am delighted to see you in the Colbert Room of the National Assembly.
I want to thank the Parliamentary Committee for a Democratic Iran, its president Cécile Rilhac, its vice-presidents André Chassaigne, Philippe Gosselin, Hervé Saulignac, Yannick Favenec, as well as all the members of the CPID for their precious support to the Iranian people and their democratic revolution for a free Iran.
The CPID did not wait for the uprising for the mullahs’ overthrow to denounce human rights violations in Iran, defend Iranian women, and support the Iranian Resistance.
The uprising started almost five months ago, and the Iranian people, especially the women, have impressed the world with their revolt and courage in the face of injustice, inequality, and discrimination. It is the courage of a determined youth in the face of death, arrests, and torture.

A firm decision to overthrow the mullahs

The Iranian people will continue to surprise and sweep away all the propaganda and myths about the regime’s stability and power. These people have demonstrated that their decision to topple the mullahs’ dictatorship is final.
Their struggle is rooted in more than 40 years of organized Resistance.
120,000 martyrs, including thousands of women and 30,000 political prisoners massacred in 1988, show that the Iranian people have never given in to this religious dictatorship. Generation after generation, the flame of Resistance continued to burn.

The revolution cannot be extinguished

Some are in a hurry to make people believe that repression can stifle the uprising. No, never!
Nothing will be the same as before, and Iran will not return to the past. Neither to the near past of a normalization of the mullahs’ dictatorship nor to the more distant past of the dictatorship of a shah.
The people of Iran have made it clear in their slogan, “We have not made sacrifices to bow down to a criminal leader,” and also, “Death to the oppressor, be it the shah or the [mullahs’] leader.”
The alternative is an Iran that looks to the future.
After a century of suffering, the Iranian people no longer want dictatorships.
At the beginning of this new century, they want a democratic, modern, free republic, with the separation of religion and state, gender equality, no torture, no executions, no SAVAK (Shah’s secret police), no Basij militia and no Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
The time of a demagogue like Khomeini is over. He said in Neauphle-le-Château that we must be “all together” to hijack the Iranian people’s anti-Shah revolution and build a religious dictatorship to eliminate all the others.
For Khomeini, “all together” meant “all with me, otherwise you would be killed.”
The Iranian people will not let their revolution be stolen again by so-called opponents controlled by Tehran.
The regime’s overthrow, the establishment of a true republic, and the separation of religion and state are the NCRI’s basic principles proposed to all freedom-loving Iranians and all democratic forces.

A selfless force for regime change

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
The regime can no longer stop the uprising. It has no solution for social discontent.
Despite widespread arrests, the Resistance Units are taking considerable risks to keep the flame of Resistance burning. They convey the message of Resistance to cities and provinces across Iran.
The Resistance Units are a young and organized fighting force.
To make a revolution against the mullahs, you need a force that can sacrifice to overthrow the regime.
The regime has acknowledged that many of the leaders of the uprising who have been arrested are members of the Resistance Units.

In recent months, the regime’s media, the mullahs’ Supreme Leader and his president, the head of the Judiciary, the IRGC commander, and the speaker of the mullahs’ parliament (Majlis), who is a former revolutionary guard, have stepped up their attacks on the Iranian Resistance.
A few days ago, one of the regime’s experts wrote, “The (People’s Mojahedin) Organization should not be underestimated. They will be a more effective player than we expect… The doors are open for them to make new recruitments.” He added, “Whenever there was an unrest, their teams showed up.”
The dictatorship is worried about the young people supporting the Iranian Resistance.

PMOI is the regime’s red line

The clerical regime does not care to be viewed as a record holder of executions, torture, and misogyny by international opinion.
What is crucial for them is to censor the Iranian Resistance news because the PMOI is their red line.
Khatami’s foreign minister had clearly announced that the serious criterion for assessing the level of sincerity of European countries is their relations with the Iranian Resistance. This red line has been imposed on many media.

Media outlets that refuse to disseminate the news of the activities of the Iranian Resistance either want to travel to Iran or maintain their government’s relations with the mullahs.
The regime has never stopped its terrorism and demonization campaigns against the Iranian Resistance.
The regime also pursues an official and criminal policy of hostage-taking of foreign nationals to blackmail foreign governments.
It pursues the same blackmailing with Iranians abroad and holding their families and property hostage to force them to condemn or withdraw their support for the Iranian Resistance.

What do the people of Iran want from the French government?

We say that to stop these hostage-takings, one must not give in to blackmail.
If France wants to stand by the women and young people struggling in Iran, it must recognize the Iranian people’s right to overthrow the mullahs’ regime.
It must hold the regime’s leaders accountable, and above all, it must prioritize the terrorist designation of the IRGC by the European Union.
Wasting time will only allow the mullahs’ killing and war machines to roll.
French deputies can have an impact in advancing this goal. France, the country of Resistance and human rights, can play a leading role in this path to freedom.
I thank you all.

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Iranian Army/WANA

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NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly gets a look inside Iran since popular protests rocked the sanction-ridden nation last September. The economy has tanked, with prices doubling or even tripling.

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