Iran is perhaps the only country in the world, other than America, that has almost ‘everything’ that any government needs: economic power, a unique geographical location, diverse weather, enormous natural resources, multiple industries, an active people, a long history, a vast land, huge tourism potential, a world-class cuisine and wonderful arts. However, its people live under harsh conditions and it is classified among the backward countries. Half of the countries in the world are hostile to it, or at least do not feel comfortable dealing with Tehran. It is the lowest in rank when it comes to tourism, compared to Turkey, Dubai, Morocco and Egypt, despite all its potential (other than religious tourism) and its great tourism capabilities. The reason is that most of its resources and money are directed to overcoming the economic sanctions imposed on it and its adventures, inside and outside its borders and the fear of the possibility of a coup against its regime.
This prompted it to spend lavishly on its military and intelligence agencies and its regional expansions, under political and sectarian pretexts and a desire to gain allies, which it succeeded in doing for a while, but they were allies who were not distinguished by anything, except that they are ‘bankrupt’, financially and intellectually, so it only took Israel a few days to eliminate more than half of them in the region! Iran has the fourth largest proven oil reserves in the world, the second largest gas reserves in the world after Russia, an area of 1,650,000 km² (Kuwait is less than 18,000 km²) and a population of 90 million. It outperforms Russia in the field of short-range missile manufacturing and drone technology, but it suffers from inflation, unemployment, government corruption and a huge number of problems. In an article published a few days ago in the newspaper, colleague Khalil Ali Haidar asked: ‘Does the Islamic Republic now realize the depth and significance of the grave events that the region has gone through, which caused it to lose face? What happened was not something it can ignore and return to before the fall of Bashar? His collapse, Turkey’s support for the new regime and the hesitation of its allies to stand with it, require a realistic understanding by its leadership and to carry out a series of transformations and abandon the policies it has adopted since 1979. The events in Syria have proven that suppressing political freedoms does not provide security and guarantees for any regime.
How can it justify spending tens of billions of dollars on parties hated by its people and failed, or justify the complete and shameful loss of everything that was spent for yesterday’s allies, or what caused Iran’s impoverishment over half a century? Why do all the Gulf states and many oil countries live in luxury and enjoy strong economies, strong currencies, generous monthly salaries and retirement benefits, while the employees and worker in Iran suffer from a series of pressures, clear limited income and a decline in the standard of living and his country is the richest, so where did the country’s huge wealth go? And why should the Iranian people alone suffer, militarize, build nuclear weapons, buy fighter jets, missiles and tanks and adopt exaggerated positions on the Palestinian issue, which even exceed the positions of many Palestinians? All of Iran’s enemies wish it to continue with the same behavior, only its friends, despite their scarcity, ask it to do otherwise and ask; isn’t it time for Iran to review its policies and turn to serving its people and enhancing their well-being, instead of the Don Quixote stances and the claim that it is the spearhead of the Islamic world and I don’t remember who tasked it with doing that?
By Ahmad alsarraf
