Occasionally Iran’s Revolutionary Guards broadcast the news about one of its new so-called ‘missile cities,’ which mostly are based in underground facilities.

The latest presentation of one such missile city was the presenting of a “missile equipment” silo by the IRGC’s marine forces with the presence of the Hossein Salami, the IRGC head.

In this show one of the IRGC commanders naming Alireza Tangsiri who is now the head of IRGC’s Navy claimed: “Today, with the arrival of this equipment in the IRGC Naval Organization and the Electronic warfare (EW), we will be able to observe both from the enemy, even silent signals, and the enemy’s internal communication, and this will increase our operational capability against the enemy in the discussion of electronic warfare.” (State TV Channel One, March 15, 2021)

Regarding the regime’s goal of displaying missiles, the Revolutionary Guards officer Ezatollah Zarghami, former head of Iran’s state broadcaster, said: “In political disputes and negotiations, they look at the power of the individual and look at whether it has added value or not. Those who talk about missiles do not understand, and some are traitors. It is the missiles that allow us to negotiate. Negotiations do not make sense without missiles.” (State-run daily Fars, April 6, 2021)

Observers note the regime cannot do anything with its missile program, but the costs of this project are being paid by the people with extreme poverty and hunger.

However, the IRGC spends staggering amounts of money from the pockets of the poor people to build underground tunnels to produce and maintain missiles.

The authorities waste huge amounts of money on such meaningless projects while at the same time headlining that sanctions are the main problem of the people’s poor situation and economic disasters.

Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani once said: “I am surprised that they see the problems and they know the problems, and a large part of it belongs to sanctions. They do not say a word against America.

“Some of them claim to be very anti-American, but when something becomes expensive, they do not cuss America. Cuss is just specific to the government. It must be completely against the government, for example, they must cuss the president.” (State TV News Channel, February 3, 2021)

Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei also linked his government’s economic problems to sanctions and ‘American malice,’ and said: “We should not ignore the role of American malice. These malicious sanctions are a crime in the full sense of the word.” (State TV, October 12, 2020)

Khamenei and other officials of the regime do not answer the question that if sanctions cause all these bottlenecks, then where does the money and facilities to build these missile cities come from?

Regarding the destructive effect of the missile project on the living conditions of the people, the Mardam Salari daily on April 5, 2021 wrote: “It is no secret that we have seen significant growth in the field of arms and missile production and military vessels, which has made it more difficult for people to earn a living by allocating more resources to this area.”

Although the exact number of missiles of the regime is not known, from the unveiling of various types of missile cities it can be easily estimated how many of these missiles are stored.

That is to say, the regime has spent millions that should have been spent on the welfare and comfort of the people for depositing missiles which it does not even dare to use. The regime’s silence in the face of more than 500 bombings of its forces in Syria illustrates this fact.

Therefore, it is clear where the hunger and homelessness of the Iranian people have their roots.