The mullahs’ regime claims that it is unable to provide medicine and medical facilities to the Iranian people due to cash shortage caused by international sanctions. But information from within the regime shows that over the past three months, as coronavirus has spread across Iran and killed many people, the regime continues to send cash to pay its foreign mercenaries in Syria and Lebanon in order to continue its terrorism and war in the region.
In order to clarify the dimensions of the regime’s lies and looting in this report, we compare the salaries of nurses in Iran with the salaries of the regime’s foreign mercenaries in Syria.
In a TV interview (Ofogh -Horizon- Network) in early April 2020, IRGC Brigadier General Parviz Fattah, the current head of the Foundation for the Underprivileged(Mostazafan Foundation), confessed to paying IRGC mercenaries in Syria, saying: “I was at the IRGC Cooperative Foundation. Haj Qassem [IRGC-QF commander Qassem Soleimani] came and told me he did not have money to pay the salaries of the Fatemiyoun. He said that these are our Afghan brothers, and he asked for help from people like us … “.
The salaries of IRGC mercenaries in Syria
The monthly salary of IRGC mercenaries in Syria, according to information released by the Office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran in the US in July 2016, averages about $1,000 a month. At that time, there were about 70,000 IRGC foreign mercenaries in Syria, including Iraqi (Heydarion), Afghan (Fatemiyoun), Lebanese (Lebanese Hezbollah), Pakistani, and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members.
Thus, the IRGC’s non-Syrian mercenary salaries in Syria alone amounted to about $70 million a month. (The amount paid to the IRGC’s foreign mercenaries ranged from $800 to $1,500 and the average amount was about $1,000.) The IRGC is currently paying the same amount to foreign mercenaries (including Afghans, Iraqis, Lebanese, and Pakistanis, etc.) in Syria.
The salaries of nurses in Iran
According to Ministry of Health officials, the amount of salaries paid to nurses in Iran is as follows. Maryam Hazrati, Deputy Minister of Nursing of the Ministry of Health, referring to the amount of nurses’ salaries in February 2019, said:
“In the private sector, nurses’ salaries were 1.5 million tomans plus performance reward, in the public sector, 2.5 million tomans plus performance reward and the average performance reward was a maximum of 800,000 tomans.” (According to media reports, the regime not paid performance reward until a year later.)
In a completely optimistic study, if we assume that the average salary of each nurse is 3 million tomans, it will be equal to $200 per month. (At the exchange rate of 15,000 tomans per U.S. dollar)
Regarding the number of nurses in Iran, the Deputy Minister of Health said in January 2020 that the number of nurses per 10,000 population in the country was about 19, which is lower than the standards of the World Health Organization. 10,000 people must have 50 nurses working in medical centers and hospitals, which is the minimum standard.
Accordingly, the number of nurses in across Iran (including about 80 million population) is estimated at about 152,000. Accordingly, the total salary of nurses in Iran is about $30 million per month.
Comparing the salaries of Iranian nurses and IRGC mercenaries in Syria
A simple comparison (an optimistic estimate of nurses’ salaries) shows that the $200 monthly salary paid to an Iranian nurse is a fifth of the $1,000 average salary of IRGC mercenaries in Syria.
Also, compared to the total salary paid to nurses in Iran, which is about $30 million a month, the $70 million paid to IRGC foreign mercenaries in Syria shows that the mullahs’ regime pays its mercenaries in Syria more than salaries of all nurses throughout Iran. (Even in the current situation where the number of IRGC foreign forces in Syria has decreased to less than half of what it was at the height of the war, the total salary paid to regime mercenaries in Syria is still higher than the total salary of nurses in Iran.)
Continuation of payment of salaries of IRGC mercenaries in the coronavirus crisis and large-scale dimensions of IRGC terrorism
The monthly salary of IRGC foreign mercenaries in Syria is only a fraction of the salary of IRGC mercenaries in different countries. In addition to Syria, the regime pays fixed monthly salaries to its mercenaries in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan. They have continued to receive payment during the coronavirus crisis.
According to reports from within the Revolutionary Guards over the past three months, the IRGC Quds Force has sent Lebanese Hezbollah monthly salaries through cash packages as well as regime-affiliated exchanges and despite a 50% drop in the amount sent due to the coronavirus situation, compared to the usual situation, the sending of money has not stopped. The IRGC are currently providing $700 million a year in financial assistance to Hezbollah in Lebanon. (Before the sanctions, that amount was $1 billion.)
Paying salaries to foreign mercenaries of paramilitary groups is only part of the cost of the IRGC’s warmongering and terrorism in other parts of the world. In the case of Syria, the clerical regime’s cash donations to Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship and sending free oil to the country, sending weapons and building dozens of barracks and military installations in the country have cost the regime up to $10 billion a year.
Corners of the catastrophic situation of Iranian nurses in the coronavirus crisis
According to reports from inside Iran, over the past three months doctors, nurses and medical staff have been among of the biggest victims of coronavirus, and the exact statistics are being kept secret by the regime. According to current estimates hundreds of dedicated nurses have sacrificed their lives to save coronavirus patients. The names of 117 doctors and nurses who have died of coronavirus have been released on social media so far.
According to reports from inside Iran, the monthly salaries of many nurses have not yet been paid by the regime and their performance reward has been paid with one-year delay.
Due to the shortage of nurses in Iranian hospitals, the nurses are under intense pressure during the coronavirus tragedy. In many hospitals, however, they lack gowns and protective gear against the coronavirus disease. According to the regime’s media reports, many nurses in the country have been depressed due to the stress of seeing their patients die.
Conclusion of comparing nurses’ salaries in Iran with the salaries of IRGC mercenaries in Syria. In a simple review of the amount of nurses’ salaries in Iran, and the salaries of IRGC mercenaries in Syria and other countries in the region, the following facts are proven:
1. The clerical regime has spent the financial resources and wealth of the Iranian people on terrorism and warmongering in the region, only part of which is to pay the salaries of IRGC mercenaries in Syria and other countries in the region.
2. The flipside of the coin of spending the budget and wealth of Iran for the export of terrorism is the allocation of a minimal budget for the basic services of the Iranian people. A small example of this is the situation of the salaries of dedicated Iranian nurses, which is below the poverty line defined by the regime, in the condition of the Corona tragedy in Iran.
3. The payment of salaries to IRGC mercenaries in Syria and Lebanon in the coronavirus outbreak, proves that the regime has no cash problems in face of sanctions. Rather, the reason for not paying the salaries of nurses and workers in Iran is that the country’s wealth has been spent on foreign terrorism and domestic repression, which has not been able to solve the health and medical problems of the Iranian people.
Source » ncr-iran