Corruption truly the Iranian regime’s Achilles’ heel
Iran has been experiencing protests following the death
of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Iranian morality police. Despite the
government's attempts to dampen public anger by executing a wrestler and a dual
national, protests have continued.
Tehran is looking for a solution to silence its restive
public, while the Iranian people are looking for a solution to topple the
ayatollahs. The solution could be to exploit corruption, which is the Iranian
regime's Achilles' heel.
Washington should do a better job exploiting the
corruption in Iran. Leaders and cronies of various tyrannies were fully fledged
members of the community of nations with a seat at the United Nations,
reception at the White House, and/or a nose at the U.S. taxpayer's trough.
They were ousted, and the world discovered with shock
that they had been skimming billions of dollars from their country's coffers.
This happened with former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who owned property
in Beverly Hills, a share of resorts in the Egyptian seaside city of Sharm
el-Sheikh, and houses in London and New York. He had an estimated fortune of
$70 billion, and his two kids were allegedly billionaires.
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein also skimmed millions
of dollars for his and his sons' personal profit through a United
Nations-administered oil-for-food program. The U.S. government was well aware
of Saddam's evasions of oil sale restrictions, including to U.S. allies in
Jordan, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf.
Iran's Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps also profited from Saddam's dirty business. Former
Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi had more than $200 billion stashed around the
world, with around $37 billion reportedly in U.S. banks.
Iran has its own corruption problem. Former Iranian
President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was said to have millions of dollars to
his name. Billions of dollars have been stolen inside the Iranian oil ministry,
billions more embezzled from state banks, and tiny percentiles of government
appropriations for health actually spent on medicine and supplies.
The predecessor of current Iranian President Ebrahim
Raisi was found to have deposited bail money into 63 different bank accounts to
the tune of almost $100 million.
The exploitation of corruption could be the solution to
the current Iranian problem. Both Sunni and Shiite Islamists used to pride
themselves on their resistance to the corruption endemic in the Middle East,
but those days are long gone.
Washington should do a better job exploiting the Iranian
regime's corruption, which is its Achilles' heel, to bring about change in
Iran.
