The Eventful Year Reaching Its End

Dear readers I would like to inform you that this issue will be the last one which will hit the news-stands in this Iranian calendar year which ends on Thursday.

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

If we page down the calendar of this Iranian calendar year, we consider it totally different with other years. Islamic Iran during the bitter and sweet times has enjoyed its noble people’s support that one can definitely claim that no country can be found in the world whose people are so strong, resistant and committed to their beliefs and promises.

Policies of enemies of Iran is to magnify any behavior from the minority, followed by west-oriented celebrities, and to portray them as Iranian people but I hardly believe this big lie and believe that genuine people are those who burst out crying in the funeral ceremony of great martyr of Iran, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani. If for reminder which is pleasant for anyone we review the events in this year, we find that no one can force this nation to a political incitement. Events from the beginning of the year, some involved in enemies’ psycho-war and some natural events, had their own bitterness and sweetness and they can be analyzed comprehensively how people have addressed them.

For example, I can point to the first event of the year which began with flood in the city of Shiraz which spoiled New Year festivities. Essentially I will never forget this year’s Nowruz (New Year). The unprecedented and deadly flood in Nowruz is by itself considered as one of the bitterest events of the year which engaged different areas in the country between March 21 and April 1.

Heavy rains which started in the morning of Monday, March 25, in Shiraz created an unbelievable disaster in the entry points of the city and the Quran Gate region. The death toll of the flood was some 21 people and several houses and buildings were damaged. This flood happened in Khuzestan and Kermanshah Provinces, too, and it had some casualties.

On the whole we can say Iran started this year with floods. Of course, those floods filled the underground water resources of the country. We have not forgotten yet that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to order Iran for water.

Iran’s soccer has also faced with ups and downs this year. After failure in the 2019 Asian Football Cup, Iran’s national soccer team’s Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz left Iran as it was expected to do so. Then Belgian coach Marc Wilmots took the helm of Iran’s national soccer team in June. The team hammered Cambodia 14-0 in the World Cup qualifiers. But after failures against Iraq and Bahrain, he was dismissed and the unsuccessful story of inefficient coaches in Iran’s football still goes on. Some believe that unhidden hands do not let native coaches manage national soccer team. Penetration of freemasonry current in the country makes this issue something to ponder about.

The other bitter event this year was former Tehran Mayor Mohammad Ali Najafi’s murder of her wife Mitra Ostad which people were interested in it. Najafi is one of the leading reformist figures in the country and he was a member of former reformist governments.

Ms. Ostad was shot dead on Tuesday, May 28, in a tower in Saadatabad of Tehran. Mr. Najafi was the prime suspect and later he confessed to his crime of killing his wife. First he was sentenced to qisas (retributive justice). Of course he, by taking some questionable measures, could win the consent of parents of his wife and escaped from death but his final verdict for serving prison sentence is still challenging with prudence and hope!. And the process of this questionable issue….

Arrival of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was one of the important political event in the country. Abe on June 12 visited Tehran for conveying a diplomatic message from U.S. President Donald Trump and one day later he met Iran’s Supreme Leader. This meeting was one of the important political events of the year. Abe was the first Japanese Prime Minister who visited Iran after victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

Later when he took stand against Iran and especially against the Supreme Leader, he ruined good relations between both states with his unwise stand.

In Iranians’ views, he is the prime suspect of transfer of information about Martyr Soleimani’s regional shuttling to the U.S. in order that the country could use it for assassinating this national hero.

June 20 in Iran’s history has been a history-making day as this year IRGC defense system shot down the U.S. Navy’s spy drone Global Hawk in Kooh Mobarak area in Hormuzgan Province.This act consolidated Iran’s military stand and position in the region and the world.

August and September were sweet months for Iran’s volleyball as senior and youth teams achieved some great results which they had never experienced it before.

But one month later in October, Iran faced pressure from world football governing body FIFA over the presence of women in the stadiums. This conflict was more political than being a social issue. In this month, Iran reacted to unwise seizure of its oil tanker by Britain and it ultimately in a tit-for-tat reaction decided to seize a British vessel by the IRGC.

November of this year was a critical year when the government decided to increase unbelievably the price of gasoline from 1000 tomans to 3000 tomans per liter which ignited unrests in the country. This decision led to bitter events and wounds inflicted on the political and security body of the country.

The decision and its consequences had its own impacts which were seen in December, too.

On January 13, the commander of IRGC’s Quds Forces in a terrorist attack was assassinated by the U.S. drones at Baghdad Airport. The U.S. President announced that the attack was conducted on his order. Lieutenant General Soleimani and his Iraqi comrade and commander of Hashd al-Shaabi Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandi as well as ten more people were martyred during the attack.

This issue had broad repercussion in the country as many people across the country poured into streets to condemn this terrorist act. The throng was so that some people in Kerman were trampled to death.

The issue of Marty Soleimani’s assassination was one of the bitterest and tragic events of the year which led to IRGC’s retaliatory attack and firing missiles at the U.S. Airbase in Ain Al-Asad in Iraq. IRGC Aerospace forces in retaliation to assassination of Martyr Soleimani fired some ballistic missiles at the U.S. positions in Ain Al-Asad. During the missile attack at the U.S. Airbases ,which was carried out by the code-named of Martyr Soleimani Operation, the U.S. forces suffered heavy blow and some of their advanced military equipment were destroyed.

In later reports which were released, the U.S. implicitly pointed to deaths of over 200 of its troops. Amid the political crisis between Iran and the White House in the U.S., Ukrainian Passenger Plane Flight 752 took off Imam Khomeini Airport but six minutes after the take-off and in a tragic accident all passengers and crew on board of the flight lose their lives and President Hassan Rouhani was blamed for not closing the airspace for domestic flights.

After people’s unimaginable and massive turnout in the rallies marking the victory of the Islamic Revolution in February, the outbreak of deadly Coronavirus hit the country and its consequences have not ended yet.

Except what I mentioned as major events of the year, the country lost some of its dear artists and personalities that this article does not fit it. At the end, I would like to pray God for rescuing Iran and the world from the concerns of the Coronavirus and treatment for this deadly virus and wish a happy new year for all.

 By: Hamid Reza Naghashian