By Pishtaz | 2024-11-25

New electricity rationing in Tehran and rolling power outages across the country have left the Iranian people in the cold and dark as state funds that could be used to repair dilapidated infrastructure flow to the military and regional militias.

On November 8, the Iranian regime -- one of the world's top military spenders -- announced it was increasing its military budget by "200%."

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accounted for 34% of its total military spending in 2022, per Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data.

On November 11, it began to impose electricity rationing in Tehran and other provinces, blaming a shortage of fuel in power stations, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Parts of Tehran were slated to experience two-hour power cuts on a rotating basis between 9am and 5pm, the agency said, with similar cuts scheduled for other provinces including Qom, Kerman, Gilan and Ardabil.

The state-run electricity authority said the decision to impose power cuts was taken because of "the limited supply of gas to fuel power plants" and a government decree "not to use fuel oil in some power stations."

Scant hope for improvement

Repeated power cuts have angered citizens of the Islamic Republic in recent years, especially during the cold winter and hot summer months.

In July, authorities ordered the working hours of government workers to be halved for several days in an attempt to save energy, AFP reported.

Power outages across Iran in the summer months were "exacerbated by prolonged water shortages in several cities, with some areas experiencing disruptions for days," IranWire said in an August 15 report.

"Unlike previous years, when long-term water and electricity outages were scheduled and citizens were notified in advance, this year has seen unannounced disruptions," it said.

New cuts come as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government "confronts the legacy of decades of corruption and infrastructure mismanagement," the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) said in a November 18 report.

"Power outages have increased across Iran over the last few years, but this year’s announcement suggests electricity insecurity in Iran will only get worse," it said.

"Four decades after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran’s real GDP per capita is not back to its pre-revolution level," the FDD said.

"Sanctions are responsible for only a small part of that shortcoming. The people know the real cause is the regime’s unending corruption, mismanagement, and foreign wars."

The overwhelming majority blames Iranian leader Ali Khamenei and his lieutenants for the ongoing electricity crisis, it said.