“The people are very happy about the sanctions being lifted,” Rouhani said during a primetime interview on state TV. (IRNA/AFP, 29 April)
Rouhani also said better relations with the United States were possible.
“Relations (with the U.S.) have been and will be difficult,” but it was possible that “tensions... can be reduced.”
Rouhani condemned those who profited from the sanctions while ordinary citizens suffered.
“A small, fringe group is very angry about it (nuclear agreement and lifting of sanctions) because they will suffer losses,” under a nuclear deal, Rouhani said
He singled out Babak Zanjani, who reportedly traded state oil through private channels with the support from IRGC. Rouhani said Zanjani “pocketed $3 billion.”
File photo: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (AFP)
10 comments:
Finally, an Iranian president who has the balls to expose the IRGC. This will only get better if the moderates win a majority in the next Assembly of Experts elections.
I'm not against everything the IRGC does, because many of the things they do is what makes the prospect of a win-win nuclear deal possible. I'm just fed up, as an Iranian, that they think it's their duty to "watch over" the country's elected officials and government bodies.
Looking forward to viewing the film "I am Rouhani." Hoping it is uploaded to YouTube.
Uskowi ?-
ALWAYS vilifying the IRGC !. Your rendering of the story is as if the President dragged the IRGC in HIS mentioning of Zanjani !!.
-AND as usual, you have no trace of evidence ,or can't present one -to pin down the world's most industrious military organization apart from some knock off,racially tinged, biased reporting from the Guardian !.
B.M.A.,
No need for anyone to drag IRGC into this; they are already deep into it. You really thought that a Babak Zanjani could receive millions of tons of crude oil from the state, worth billions of dollars, to sell it in international black market, and personally pocketing $3 billion in the process, all by himself? If you do, you don’t know how the system works, or does not work, in Iran.
Now, IRGC perceives its role in private sale of state oil to international buyers in the black market as fulfilling its duty to defeat what it regards as unfair and hostile Western sanctions. But meanwhile, its extra-legal ways of doing business creates an atmosphere of corruption as expected; and corruption becomes a disease that would affect and does affect IRGC itself.
YOUR analysis and general reporting of the IRGC would be a must read and a valued article if you stuck to your principle of always showing the two sides of the coin and settle on a balanced conclusion !,this is what you are and has been on many various issues , always very informative and unbiased.How can you vilify a whole football team because a single member assaulted a reporter in the street?.-Indeed you know more than anyone else tat the IRGC is the world's most industrious military organization !
STRANGE is when you attempt Syria or the IRGC, you are not the same Man !. Honestly -nobody is happy with your intellectual dishonesty on the IRGC ! and your near misinformation on SYRIA!.
Babak Zanjani is not the case of a rogue element, but a manifestation that extra-legal methods of doing business, as IRGC has done in oil trade, inevitably produces corruption, which at the end destroys the organization itself. Look at the case: a young man, inexperienced in major entrepreneurship projects, is trusted to sell state-owned crude oil in international black markets and bring back the money to the country's treasury. Well, his pocketing of $3 billion should not come as a shock to anyone; he probably pocketed some for his own and some for his accomplices.
For those of you who profess to be friends of IRGC, it's best to advise them to get out of these shady businesses altogether. A world-class fighting force should not get involved in business for obvious reasons. Fulfilling duties cannot be used as an excuse. There are other non-military responsible organizations to perform those duties. The danger, otherwise, is to convert the military into an entity that would be as concerned about security issues as about businesses. Very dangerous.
Rouhani and the IRGC are cut from the same cloth. Without IRGC there will be no Islamic regime. And who said the sanctions are going to be lifted? Oh let me guess,the ministry of spin and propaganda.
Mr Uskowi, is it weird that Zanjani was awarded and arrested by same person? I mean, there is a pic of him getting award from Rouhani. And one day Rouhani suddenly realized that Zanjani pocketed a big deal of money? After the arrest, there are intense media bashings(including advocate of his ex-wife interview). I think this case is not simple as we think and Iranian authorities havent provided any useful information about it yet.
Nader
Please tell, what did you expect the government to do when the nation was unjustly sanctioned by a nation that considered the death of more than 500,000 children in Iraq as a collateral damage? It is said that difficult periods require difficult solutions.
Can anyone with an atom weight of humanity in him justify the illegal acts perpetrated by the US on other nations? If the Iranians doesn't want the IRI anymore let them rise to overthrow the regime. It's very clear that Washington support for regime change in Iran is not based on humanitarian concern, if it is then the Saudi tribal medieval regime which Washington is propping up would be long gone. You are doing a yeoman job by hosting this forum but you tends to be bias in an unjustifiable ways once a while. No one can deny you the right to support which ever party you want but please do it in a way that would not eschew your conscience. IRI government as made a lot of mistakes which are being identified and rectified by Rouhani another government of IRI, which is part of the internal dynamics of IRI. I believe if there is to be any changes in Iran it should take place internally and not through foreign intervention. Look at the state Iraq is in today. Iran is an ancient civilization and nobody can teach the Iranians how to govern their own society.
Iranian citizens and those who love the country can tell the government what is right or wrong. The government could have taken a number of actions to counter sanctions. Giving large volumes of crude oil to a person inexperienced in oil trade to sell it in the international black market was indeed a dumb thing to do. The lesson from that awful experience: leave oil sales to professional, so many of them working for the government, and leave IRGC to worry about military matters. Mixing military power and business is extremely dangerous; you don't want your war fighters worry about their businesses when making decisions.
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