Under-fire Iran speaker responds to ‘lies’ about family trip

The speaker of Iran’s parliament on Saturday answered to days of criticism after his own family changed into visible stocking up on toddler products from overseas as hundreds of thousands of Iranians face crippling economic situations.

Conservative Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has been in hot water for almost weeks after pix emerged of his spouse, daughter, and son-in-law returning from Turkey with items inclusive of clothes for his unborn grandchild.

A hashtag critical of Ghalibaf went viral on social media, with many users sharing a 2017 video in which he called for officials who shop abroad instead of supporting local products to be censured.

Ghalibaf said Saturday that he had opposed his family’s trip as “not advisable”, but alleged critics had “told stories about the shopping” in an effort to discredit the parliament.

“All of that was a lie,” ISNA news agency quoted him as saying before a parliamentary session.

He cited allegations that his family had gone abroad to buy a property with forged documents.

“The parliament has done great things in these two years, and they are trying hard to damage” its name, he said.

Iran’s economy has suffered under stringent sanctions reimposed by the United States after it unilaterally pulled out of a deal with world powers on Iran’s nuclear program in 2018.

Official data indicates inflation hovers around 40 percent.

Ghalibaf is a member of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of Iran’s military.

He turned into previously a mayor of Tehran and commander of the national police force and ran for the presidency in 2017.

In 2020, he was elected as speaker of the conservative-ruled parliament.

Ghalibaf’s son Elyas has called his household’ trip to Turkey an “unforgivable mistake”.

It is “without a doubt wrong in these economic situations”, he wrote on Instagram in advance this month.