Khamenei Wants Businesses and Offices to Remain Open During the Pandemic

Iran’s leaders remain confident that the country is on its way out of the coronavirus crisis, and the Supreme Leader is so dismissive about continuing risks that he has urged businesses to open and start trading as normal.

“We will defeat coronavirus” because “for years we have learned how to live with crises,” tweeted General Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, on April 6 [Persian link]. He also implied that the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei opposed the suggestion that Iran be locked down and quarantined.

“The Iranian model to combat coronavirus must have its own unique, native innovations,” tweeted Shamkhani. “The economic consequences of coronavirus are grave, but the doctors and the workers are the two main strategic pillars for putting this crisis behind us. We must not allow the false dichotomy between health and economy immobilize us. For years we have learned how to live with crises.”

Shamkhani’s message appears to be that, despite the seriousness of the coronavirus epidemic, which has claimed the lives of at least 3,872 Iranians, the regime will not impose quarantines because workers must make a living — and the government is not going to help employers pay their workers.

Then, in another tweet posted later, Shamkhani made his argument with more clarity. “The coexistence of health and the economy as a desirable model for putting the coronavirus crisis behind us with little loss...will be possible through practical dedication to the motto of ‘production leap,’” he wrote [Persian link]. “The directives by the Exalted Leader of the Revolution regarding withdrawal from the National Development Fund will provide a trustworthy roadmap for traveling this difficult road.”

When Ayatollah Khamenei agreed with the government’s request to withdraw one billion euros from the National Development Fund following the outbreak of the coronavirus, he asked for this money to be spent on domestic industry. And Shamkhani’s tweet strongly suggests that the main opponent to locking down the country to fight coronavirus is Ayatollah Khamenei, who had announced that this would be the year of “production leap.”

Religious sites are closed and meetings of the Assembly of Experts and even daily appearance and speeches by Ayatollah Khamenei have been canceled — his speeches are broadcast on TV. And yet he expects most working people to continue in their jobs and allow the deadly coronavirus to continue claiming victims.

An Unsafe and Unreliable Environment

A “leap in production” is very different from maintaining international and national financial communications and protecting the safety of job creators, employees and workers. Many people believe that the way Ayatollah Khamenei runs the country, in regards to both domestic policies and international relations, has created an unsafe, unreliable and sanctions-ridden environment that has ruined the economy, caused a decline in capital and wasted the country’s resources.

The prospects of sanctions being lifted are nil. Ayatollah Khamenei seems unwilling to take the appropriate steps to reduce the misery of Iranian citizens by opening the way for negotiations with the United States or helping the Islamic Republic to usher in a normal government.

But now, the coronavirus epidemic has added further complications to any existing issues and crises. When the coronavirus began to take hold in Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei failed to take it seriously, and even claimed that Iran’s “enemies” were using the epidemic to scare away people in Qom from voting in the parliamentary elections.

Under these circumstances, a year dedicated to forging a “production leap” as ordered by Khamenei is impossible. 

If the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Supreme Leader really care about a leap in production, the first step would be to protect the lives of workers and job creators. The current confusing policy of closing some businesses and reopening others will not break the vicious cycle of the coronavirus epidemic.

Ali Shamkhani claims that Iranians have learned "how to live with crises” for years. But the current situation, the most serious crisis confronting the lives and the health of Iranians in the history of the Islamic Republic, cannot be overcome by following a policy of “coexistence of health and the economy” with disregard for preventable loss of human life.

The Islamic Republic is inherently a crisis-generating system, and the way the country has been run requires a constant state of emergency to survive. Citizens have a right to a dignified and healthy life, and this right cannot be enshrined through soundbites,  hashtags, slogans and costly “native” solutions.

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