In February 2013, Seyyed Hamed Azimi, the Director General of Development of Communications with Iranians and International Organizations of the Relief Committee, officially announced the opening of the committee’s offices in foreign countries. He stated that the purpose of this work is to “carry out charitable and poverty alleviation activities in line with human friendship and religious teachings” and that these offices are intended to not only transfer experiences to other countries, but also to help those in need living in these countries. According to Azimi, the eight countries where the Relief Committee’s foreign offices were launched were Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Comoros, Lebanon, Syria, and Somalia.

“Although it was not the first time that official authorities of the Relief Committee acknowledged its activities in foreign countries, it was the first official confirmation of the start of public operations of the foreign offices of the Relief Committee outside of Iran. However, this does not mean that the activities of the Relief Committee in other countries were previously carried out secretly. What has been mostly hidden is the purpose of these activities and especially their financial resources. Therefore, the main question is whether the purpose of the Relief Committee’s activities in other countries is truly providing aid or expanding and promoting the ideological system of the Islamic Republic and buying allies for the system?”

The Relief Committee as a Means of Penetration

Prior to the victory of Hassan Anvari, the then head of the Relief Committee in July 2009, had explicitly considered the Relief Committee’s activities outside the country as a means of promoting the ruling ideology and cultural and political capacity building for the Islamic Republic system. Anvari had said, “Providing dowries to the unfortunate girls in some countries is not only an expense, but also a type of investment for Iran.” According to him, the goal of this action was to “prevent social corruption in these countries and promote the culture of marriage.”

It remains to be seen how accurate this statement is in practice and whether providing aid, for example by the Relief Committee in Lebanon or Syria, actually prevents the spread of corruption in these societies or not. However, what seems to be true is the efforts of the Relief Committee to gain popular support in countries and among people who have at least a closer cultural proximity to the dominant culture of the Iranian government. This activity is rooted in the prevailing perception of Muslim solidarity and especially the belief in the “Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic” among the high-ranking officials of the system. There are also numerous images that have been published through these aids, showing the needy people of these countries with images of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic; especially since, according to Article 4 of the Relief Committee’s charter, the establishment of offices outside the country and their activities must comply with the regulations of the office of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic.

An important point in the statement of the chairman of the Relief Committee regarding the view of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards this institution is noteworthy. Anvari had acknowledged that “the Islamic Republic of Iran benefits greatly from the diplomacy of the Relief Committee, which is essentially a type of supportive diplomacy, and if it incurs any costs, it is for cultural work; in order to neutralize threats against the Islamic Republic system.”

This explicit confession by the former head of the Relief Committee, apart from indicating the cost of domestic aid in foreign countries by this institution, also reveals another reality; that the charitable activities of the Relief Committee serve as a cover for achieving ideological and political goals for the Islamic Republic system.

While it is essentially a comparison between a charitable institution such as the Relief Committee, which is partly funded by public donations, and budget-receiving institutions such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Islamic Communications Organization, it means that for the Islamic Republic system, the general budget of the country is not enough for ideological promotion or, as Hossein Anvari calls it, “supportive diplomacy and cultural work.” In addition to the general budget, which is partly funded by citizens’ taxes, charitable donations are also spent on government propaganda. However, the philosophy behind charitable institutions such as the Relief Committee is poverty alleviation and reducing the gap between economic and social classes, not ensuring the spread of Shia Islamic culture in African countries.

“The bright manifestation of this perspective is the assistance provided by the Islamic Republic through the Relief Committee, especially to the areas on the front lines of the war with Israel. In this regard, the website of Al-Alam TV network (the international channel of the Islamic Republic’s IRIB in Arabic) reported in September 2014, quoting a person named Hisham Salam, the head of the society “Baqiyat al-Salihat” in Gaza, who wrote: “During the war, we received a lot of help from the Islamic Republic of Iran through the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, and we distributed this aid to most of those whose homes were destroyed.”

The extensive financial activities of the Relief Committee in Lebanon, especially in the south of the country, are in line with Hezbollah. The transfer of large financial resources by the Lebanese branch of the Relief Committee, which had an active bank account at the Hezbollah Al-Qard al-Hasanah Foundation, led to this branch being included in the US Department of Treasury’s sanctions list since 1389 (2008). In this regard, although there is no clear evidence, some believe that one of the channels for transferring cash aid from the Islamic Republic to Lebanon during the 33-day war in the summer of 1385 (2006) and after that was the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee. In December 2020, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah confirmed the extensive financial aid from the Islamic Republic to Hezbollah during and after the war and stated that Iran had paid for the reconstruction of 200,000 houses and the livelihood of the people after the destruction caused by the war in Lebanon.

Of course, the activities of the Relief Committee for the expansion and spread of the ideological of the Islamic Republic, or as mentioned in the literature of the government media in Iran, “issuance of Islamic Revolution values,” is not limited to just fighting against Israel. This committee, prior to that, intensified its so-called benevolent actions in Afghanistan with the aim of expanding the influence of the Islamic Republic in the country after the withdrawal of the United States in 2014. The Wall Street Journal, in November 2012, published a detailed report citing government sources in Afghanistan, calling the Relief Committee the main tool for the development of intelligence and political influence of the Islamic Republic in western Afghanistan.

The lantern that lights up the house is sacred to the mosque.

The spread of news and reports about the international activities of the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, especially the expenses in other countries, on one hand, and the rapid spread of poverty in Iran, has sparked criticism against this committee and its presence outside of Iran. The main focus of these criticisms was that “the light that is needed at home is being taken to the holy mosque,” and considering the widespread poverty in Iran, the Relief Committee’s focus should be on the needs of those inside the country.

These criticisms have always been accompanied by denial and rejection from the authorities of the Relief Committee. In this regard, Parviz Fattah, the new head of the Relief Committee in July 2015, had denied sending cash aid within the country to other countries, saying: “Not a single rial of the collected alms of Iran has been sent to the people of other countries and will not be sent, and the aid given to these countries has been from the alms collected in these countries themselves.”

Parviz Fattah, in the month of Mehr 1395, once again denied the humanitarian activities of the Relief Committee in foreign countries and referred to its performance outside of Iran as advisory. He had stated that the work of the Relief Committee in foreign countries is to transfer experience for having a successful charity organization. He also denied the transfer of aid from people inside the country to foreign countries and called it an accusation against the Relief Committee.

The increase in criticisms, however, led to the new president of the Relief Committee announcing in Bahman 1395 (January/February 2017) the news of changing the nature of the foreign offices of the Relief Committee. Parviz Fattah had stated that as the first step in his role as the new president, the foreign offices were strictly obligated to work towards “attracting and organizing the contributions of foreign Iranians to help those in need within the country”; he also mentioned that all Iranian employees of the foreign offices of the Relief Committee have returned to Iran and these offices are now self-sufficient and managed from the country where the contributions are collected.

This statement by Fattah indicates that at least until then, the Relief Committee had been active in providing aid in foreign countries and had incurred expenses in those countries. However, it is still unclear whether the expenses incurred in foreign countries were covered by cash and non-cash donations from within Iran, as claimed by the authorities of this institution, or simply by the funds collected in those countries.

On the other hand, if this change in nature is valid, it means that the Relief Committee, as a charity organization affiliated with the Islamic Republic system, has been able to play the role of a bank and easily transfer financial aid from Iranian or non-Iranian benefactors outside of Iran to inside Iran; an action that many private charities in Iran have been accused of receiving financial aid from anti-revolutionaries due to their efforts, either by security and intelligence agencies of the Islamic Republic or by media outlets affiliated with these institutions.

The efforts to whiten the image of the Relief Committee in recent years have continued, and the officials of this organization have occasionally tried to pretend that the collected domestic aid in other countries is not being spent. Hojjatollah Abdolmaleki, the current Minister of Labor and former Deputy for Employment and Self-Sufficiency of the Relief Committee, said in Azar 1398: “The Relief Committee does not spend any other expenses for those countries, except for the aid collected specifically for Palestine and Iraq.”

This change is also promoted by the official representatives of the Islamic Republic outside of Iran; for example, the official website of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic in Paris introduced the Committee for Relief as the first charitable organization through which Iranians living abroad can participate in public and charitable activities. In this list, there is no mention of any civil charitable organizations such as the “Imam Ali Society”.

In this regard, Seyyed Morteza Bakhtiari, the current head of the Relief Committee, announced the transfer of 90 billion tomans in cash aid from abroad to the country in February of this year (1400), with the confirmation of cooperation between this committee and those whom he referred to as “benevolent people outside the country.” According to him, “currently, forty thousand orphaned children are under the care of benevolent people outside the country.”

It seems that the existence of vast financial resources among Iranians living outside the country, who undoubtedly, if not directly, at least indirectly, are in contact with the Islamic Republic system, plays an important role in changing the policies of the Relief Committee’s activities outside of Iran. The repeated emphasis of the official authorities in the Islamic Republic on the necessity of using the financial capital of Iranians living outside the country, as well as the existence of banking sanctions against the Islamic Republic system in the field of money and capital transfer to Iran, provide the grounds for the Relief Committee to attract more than ever before the cash capital of Iranians living outside of Iran and transfer it to the country.