November 01, 2019
A senior Pasdar general has repeated his charges of a year ago that foreign countries are stealing clouds so that Iran will suffer from severe drought.
He came under considerable criticism from scientists at that time. This time he emphasized that he only wanted scientists to study what has happened to Iran and pinpoint the absence of rain.
He said he might have used inappropriate words when he said the enemies of Iran conduct cloud theft to prevent rain in Iran.
“Maybe I did not use the appropriate words with regard to cloud theft, but the issue is deliberate changes in climate,” Brigadier General Gholam-Reza Jalali, the head of civil defense and a very talkative officer, said in an interview September 28.
Jalali said there are technologies in the world that can impact the atmosphere and create climate change in the world. “My request was that scientific and research centers should study these changes,” he said.
“I said at a scientific conference that I am suspicious of the climate changes in Iran’s area,” General Jalali said. “I’m suspicious of whether they are natural or not.”
Jalali is perhaps unique in the world. Around the globe, there are many who say climate change is a hoax. Jalali says it is not a hoax; it is a conspiracy.
In remarks in July 2018, Jalali had said a decrease in annual precipitation in Iran seemed “suspicious,” alleging that “foreign hands” might be behind the phenomenon.
“There are scientific centers in the country that conducted a study in this regard and the results confirmed this point,” he asserted.
“Joint teams from Israel and one of the neighboring countries are deseeding the clouds entering Iran,” he said, adding, “Also, we are faced with other phenomena such as cloud theft and snow theft.”
His remarks were criticized by some experts at the time.
Davood Parhizkar, director of Iran’s Meteorological Organization (IMO), categorically denied the weather manipulation assertions, saying such claims have no scientific basis and that mankind cannot manipulate the climate.
Recurrent drought spells in Iran stem from climate change and temperature rise and not from other countries’ interference, he said.
Parhizkar went on to say that extreme weather events such as floods, storms and drought are all resulting from climate change.