On March 8, the Iranian regime’s parliament approved 100 billion tomans ( $3,876,000) for a project called “Explanatory Jihad“.
In recent months, in every public speech, the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been calling on all state organizations and institutions to boost “Explanatory Jihad”, a widespread propaganda campaign that is supposed to explain the rule of the clergy and why it has to be defended and preserved. According to this line, the state media, the Basij, and other state-funded organizations are obliged to produce false content and spread forgeries, especially on social media.
Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday afternoon that even the regime’s navy has founded a special task force for “Explanatory Jihad”.
In an interview with the state-run news website Khabar Online, Majid Ansari, a member of the Expediency Council warned that the “Explanatory Jihad” initiative would backfire.
“These days, while the hypocrites (regime’s acronym for the MEK) are working day and night to disappoint the people, using large budgets and media apparatus of our enemies, there is no doubt about the necessity of this issue,” Ansari said. “But I seriously criticize the parliament’s decision and I believe it will have the opposite effect.”
Referring to the high state deficit, he added: “Right now, we have dozens of agencies and institutions with thousands of staff and salaries and tens of thousands of billions of tomans of approved budgets, whose primary and intrinsic duty is doing ‘this explanation’. The Radio and Television, the Ministry of Guidance, the Advertising Organization, the Propaganda Office, seminaries, Friday prayer headquarters, deputies and cultural units of various organizations, the Basij, the IRGC, the various media outlets, and their affiliated news agencies are all feeding on people’s money. Thousands of people are paid, and that’s their main job. There is no need for a new organizational apparatus or organizational structure or a new budget.”
