{"id":347753,"date":"2026-09-03T11:51:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=347753"},"modified":"2026-09-03T11:51:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:51:30","slug":"irans-factions-are-fighting-over-who-bankrupted-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/iranian-regime-infighting\/irans-factions-are-fighting-over-who-bankrupted-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Factions Are Fighting Over Who Bankrupted the Country\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE
FILE PHOTO: Brawl between MPs in Iran\u2019s parliament (Majlis)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three-minute read<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Inside Iran\u2019s ruling establishment, the hardline explanation for economic collapse is increasingly blunt: the real enemy is corruption, rent-seeking and incompetent management\u2014not the strategic course imposed by the regime itself.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hassan Rahimpour Azghadi, a member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution and one of the establishment\u2019s ideological voices, has repeatedly invoked the regime\u2019s own scandals to make that case. In one published address, <\/span>Rahimpour denounced<\/a> banks handing a handful of people loans worth hundreds or thousands of billions of tomans without meaningful guarantees<\/span>, while ordinary borrowers face relentless pressure over comparatively tiny debts. He asked why officials who authorized such lending were not held responsible.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The accusation is useful because it relocates responsibility. Economic misery, in this narrative, does not demonstrate that the regime\u2019s strategic policies have become economically unsustainable. It demonstrates that corrupt managers have betrayed those policies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The same argument appears in parliament. MP Hossein Samsami <\/span>told Mehr that <\/span><\/a>persistent currency instability was caused by \u201cwrong domestic policies, not foreign pressure\u201d<\/span>, while other lawmakers have blamed inflation and shortages on defective management, privileged importers and inadequate supervision. Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf has himself spoken of \u201cmafias\u201d obstructing economic policy and acknowledged profound dysfunction inside the banking system.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The economic accusation quickly becomes political. Officials who advocate reducing sanctions pressure are portrayed as people prepared to surrender enrichment, missile capabilities and other \u201cpillars of power\u201d merely to compensate for their own mismanagement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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"The clerical dictatorship in Iran faces a convergence it cannot resolve through messaging. The rial is plunging despite official assurances, deficit financing is being acknowledged from inside the executive branch, and livelihood #IranProtests<\/a> are spreading," writes\u2026<\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 2, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n