Cargo Ship Reportedly Owned By Iran Security Chief Impounded In India
A cargo ship reportedly belonging to the sons of Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani has been impounded in one of India’s ports.
A cargo ship reportedly belonging to the sons of Iran's top security official Ali Shamkhani has been impounded in one of India’s ports.
Some observers have expressed concern that the disappointing performance of Iran's 11th parliament (Majles) since the 1979 revolution might lead to another record voter low turnout in 2024. The parliament's performance already led to an extremely low turnout in the 2020 by-election.
Nearly under every social media post about the parliament, users point out that lawmakers have broken their promise of making the voting process in the parliament transparent. In early November, the parliament rejected a bill that called for open voting and a renewed push in February was supported by only 66 of the 290 lawmakers. However, the Majles might approve the bill towards the end of its term only to leave it as an annoying legacy for the next Majles.
While the current Majles started its work with criticism of the Rouhani administration's economic performance, it has not yet approved any bill meant to bring about improvement in Iran's ailing economy. Majles speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a rare admission in October, “We could not accomplish anything,” and added, “We were not able to work correctly.”
Meanwhile, in July 2021, Khabar Online, a leading news website in Tehran characterized the current Majles as a "minority parliament" that should avoid provocative legislation opposed by most Iranians. The website noted that the ultra-conservative parliament has already annoyed a major part of the population by considering a bill to limit citizens’ access to the Internet and opposing a long-awaited salary increase for the country's low-paid teachers who have been taking to the streets in recent months.
Khabar Online also said that 38 lawmakers at the Majles had won between 2 to 10 percent of the votes in their constituencies, when they got elected in February 2020. Two members won around 2 percent of the votes in their districts, while at least 3 lawmakers in this group chair various parliamentary committees despite their less than 10 percent voter base.
While at times the Majles joined other critics to lash out at the Raisi administration for nepotism and giving big jobs to small men with no merits, it turned out in November that some of the insiders who got the big jobs were the relatives of lawmakers.
The parliament has also been harshly criticized for not objecting to the appointment of IRGC generals as state officials or allowing them to run for President.
The Majles has also been criticized by the press for not being able to carry out its supervisory role. A group of lawmakers tabled motions during the past months to impeach several ministers including the ministers of labor, industry and health for breaking laws and shortcomings in their performance, but each time, the Majles Presidium refused to officially acknowledge the call for impeachment.
Based on what the Majles has done or failed to do during the past two years, some Iranian media outlets, including the moderate Rouydad24, have said that many of the current lawmakers might find it hard to convince Iranian voters to vote for them in 2024 when the turnout is likely to be even lower than in 2020.
The parliament’s record of coordination with the government has also been criticized. While most commentators in Iran believed that a hardliner Majles would work well with the ultraconservative government of Ebrahim Raisi, the first signs of a rift between the two emerged in late February as the parliament disagreed with key parts of the government's budget bill.
The container vessel, named Kabul, belongs to the Admiral Shipping Company that Iranian media said is owned by Hassan and Hossein Shamkhani, the sons of the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
ILNA news agency reported on Friday that an Indian court has ordered the seizure of the ship and cargos originating or destined to Iran about 10 days ago.
The container ship is impounded on charges of possessing false documents, and has been anchored at Kandla, officially Deendayal Port -- a seaport and town in Kutch district of Gujarat state in Western India -- for 10 days ago.
According to Marine Traffic, KABUL is a container ship that was built in 2001 and is sailing under the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
In recent years, the economic activities of Shamkhani’s family, including his brother and son-in-law, have been widely criticized and made headlines in Iran. Shamkhani was an admiral in Iran’s navy and a former IRGC commander.
He has recently been an outspoken critic of the Vienna talks to revive the Iran nuclear deal. After news about the impounded ship broke, critics quipped that continuation of United States’ sanctions are apparently good for Shamkhani family’s business interests.
This week, the publication of an audio recording implicated top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards in a massive corruption scheme in mid-2010s.
