Sweden braces for retaliation as Iran issues threats over Quran burning

A former president of Iran's football federation has slammed the regime's policies, saying that Iran has become “an Islamic North Korea.” 

In a critical interview with the newspaper Arman-e Melli, Mohammad Dadkan raised concerns about various aspects of governance in Iran, including the regime’s crackdown on voices of dissent. 

"With pressure and force, what do you expect to achieve? You boast about arresting 92,000 people. You claim that 20 million people have legal cases, which means 60 million people are affected when considering their families. By forcing everything to appear right, what will be the outcome in the end?" he said. 

Dadkan quipped that the regime sought to become an Islamic Japan but has become an Islamic North Korea, claiming that "If the leader of North Korea says in the morning that the border is open, he himself won't stay either. If they open the bridge between the two Koreas, not a single person will remain in North Korea. 

Dadkan has served in several positions related to sports in Iran, including as a physical education advisor at the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Industry, Mine and Trade. He was the president of Iran’s Football Federation from 2002 until 2006, during which Iran’s national squad finished third in the 2004 AFC Asian Cup and ranked 15 in the FIFA standing, its best so far. In the past two decades, Iran's Team Melli has not achieved a better title.

The number of politicians who once held important positions in the Islamic Republic but are now critical of the regime has been growing, especially since people revolted against the Islamic autocracy after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody. Iranian analysts and politicians continue criticizing the ruling establishment for the country’s multiple crises within the limits of controlled media.

Hossein Marashi, a leading centrist politician in Tehran, said earlier in the week that the governance and politics in Iran have reached a deadlock and people need to take the lead to help themselves. "I have no hope in Iranian politicians. The elites in society should come forward with determination and make their point, and whatever they need to do. I have hope that the people will change the scene." 

Last week, prominent economist Mehdi Pazouki told Didban Iran website that government officials have humiliated the nation in the name of their revolutionary approach. Pazouki said, in an unprecedented and daring statement, "One of Khomeini's mistakes was allowing clerics to intervene in the country's social and executive affairs." 

He was referring to the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who after the 1979 revolution gradually expelled independent-minded people from the government and increasingly relied on clerics that he knew had no experience in running a country.

Regime insiders, pressed hard by serious economic crises and popular rejection, try to blame everything on invisible enemies.

Ahmad Alamolhoda, the representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Khorasan Razavi province, whose financial corruption case within one of Iran's biggest charities was recently revealed, said Friday that "The enemy wants to undermine the clergy in the eyes of the people.” 

Dadkan elsewhere in his extensive two-hour interview drew a comparison between the responses of the Iranian and French governments to popular protests. He pointed out that while the French government took action against the police officer who shot and killed a 17-year-old boy of Algerian descent, Iran's approach was markedly different. He emphasized that in Iran, officers who harm or kill protesters are often praised instead of being held accountable for their actions.

Ahmad Alirezabeigi, a member of the Iranian parliament who was sentenced to imprisonment this week for disclosing a major bribery case involving at least 75 other lawmakers and a former Industry Minister, accused officials of evading their responsibility and adding insult to injury by making statements that blame the people for the government's shortcomings.

Masih Mohajeri, a conservative newspaper editor, said in a strongly worded article earlier this week that, "People refuse to accept that in a country with such wealth and resources, a few individuals amass fortunes while millions of families are in poverty.

Dadkan echoed these sentiments saying that the ruling power places its incompetent supporters in crucial positions and manipulates information to distort the true state of affairs in the country. "The state-controlled television is biased, and spreads lies,” he emphasized. 

These regime supporters he said pretend to be religious and the "have made a business out of it,” asking why is it that “out of 72,000 mosques across the country, "50,000 are dormant.”

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