Ten days after the May 23 collapse of the Metropol, a four-year-old 10-story building in Abadan, southern Iran, the death toll has risen, the building’s owner is nowhere to be found, and public protests have turned into vigils.
Dozens are dead or unaccounted for under the rubble of the building as the toll continues to rise, with the Khuzestan governor’s office on June 2 announcing that 38 people were dead and a further 38 injured in the collapse.
A few days ago, the Director-General of Crisis Management of Khuzestan Governorate announced: The Khatam Al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, the engineering arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) terrorist organization, has been tasked with the destruction of the remaining unsafe parts of the 11-story building.
The question is why the IRGC? Why should the responsibility for the destruction of an urban structure be given to the engineering arm of a terrorist-designated military organization? What secret needs to be protected to bring in the IRGC? What are the security threats to this project that prompt IRGC’s immediate involvement?
The uprising and protests in Abadan and other cities in connection with this tragedy are indubitably a major contributing factor behind the Iranian IRGC involvement.
The building was part of a colossal residential and leisure complex built and owned by Abdolbaghi Holding, a major holding company active in Abadan with ties to the Iranian IRGC terrorist organization.
Abdolbaghi Holding, like many holdings and companies in the ruling oligarchy of Iran, owes its life to institutions of power and plunder. Therefore, covering up the violations and corruption in the construction of Metropol Tower is part of the vital task of Khatam Camp after taking over this project.
Hossein Abdolbaghi had said in a meeting with Saeed Mohammad, the commander of Khatam base: “The biggest issue we have in the Arvand Free Zone is when obtaining each license, the municipality, the free zone organization, and the tax office each have a separate claim for payment. Do us a favor! Assign whose duties and who receives the money in what area?”