Corruption truly the Iranian regime’s Achilles’ heel

Iran has been experiencing protests following the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of the Iranian morality police. Despite the government’s attempts to dampen public anger by executing a wrestler and a dual national, protests have continued.

Tehran is looking for a solution to silence its restive public, while the Iranian people are looking for a solution to topple the ayatollahs. The solution could be to exploit corruption, which is the Iranian regime’s Achilles’ heel.

Washington should do a better job exploiting the corruption in Iran. Leaders and cronies of various tyrannies were fully fledged members of the community of nations with a seat at the United Nations, reception at the White House, and/or a nose at the U.S. taxpayer’s trough.

They were ousted, and the world discovered with shock that they had been skimming billions of dollars from their country’s coffers. This happened with former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who owned property in Beverly Hills, a share of resorts in the Egyptian seaside city of Sharm el-Sheikh, and houses in London and New York. He had an estimated fortune of $70 billion, and his two kids were allegedly billionaires.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein also skimmed millions of dollars for his and his sons’ personal profit through a United Nations-administered oil-for-food program. The U.S. government was well aware of Saddam’s evasions of oil sale restrictions, including to U.S. allies in Jordan, Turkey, and the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also profited from Saddam’s dirty business. Former Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi had more than $200 billion stashed around the world, with around $37 billion reportedly in U.S. banks.

Iran has its own corruption problem. Former Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was said to have millions of dollars to his name. Billions of dollars have been stolen inside the Iranian oil ministry, billions more embezzled from state banks, and tiny percentiles of government appropriations for health actually spent on medicine and supplies.

The predecessor of current Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was found to have deposited bail money into 63 different bank accounts to the tune of almost $100 million.

The exploitation of corruption could be the solution to the current Iranian problem. Both Sunni and Shiite Islamists used to pride themselves on their resistance to the corruption endemic in the Middle East, but those days are long gone.

Washington should do a better job exploiting the Iranian regime’s corruption, which is its Achilles’ heel, to bring about change in Iran.