November 24, 2025

For weeks now, fires have been burning in the Hyrcanian forests, one of the oldest environmental treasures of our country. The Islamic Republic has reached out to Turkey and other countries to extinguish the fires in these forests. But in the meantime, a large part of these forests, which are estimated to be between 30 and 50 million years old and are a kind of natural museum that has emerged over millions of years, have been burned by the flames.

Several factors could be involved in this disaster, including lack of enough rainfall, persistent droughts, and human negligence or intentional and unintentional fires. But in today’s world, governments are providing the necessary equipment to protect forests and combat these types of fires, and to prevent and control them. The Islamic Republic’s inability to deal with the recent fire showed that the only thing this regime does not think about is preserving the country’s environment and natural resources. This doubles the awareness and responsibility of citizens towards preserving the environment.

The fire in the Hyrcanian forests of Mazandaran is not just a natural disaster, it is a clear sign of the structural incompetence of the Islamic Republic. Forests that are millions of years old and are a common human heritage are burning today before the eyes of a nation, because the regime that should be responsible for protecting them does not feel any responsibility towards the people and land of Iran.

The Islamic Republic spends billions of dollars of this country’s wealth on ideological and tension-provoking projects in the Middle East, but it has not left any budget to equip local environmental forces, to purchase minimal firefighting equipment, or even to train and support public volunteers! In the policies of this regime, cross-border power-seeking is important and prioritized, but the environment within its borders has been abandoned; such a policy is anti-national and inhumane.

Environmental protection is part of social justice. Nature is not the private property of regimes, it is the common wealth of generations. Any regime that cannot preserve the green lungs of this land has in fact deprived the people of their right to life. Today, the Hyrcanian fire is another proof of the bitter truth that the Islamic Republic has neither the ability to manage the country, nor the will to protect the environment, nor does it value human lives and the future of the country.

The Left Party of Iran strongly condemns this inaction, recklessness, and criminal prioritization of the Islamic Republic. In our view, saving Iran’s environment depends only on democratic, accountable, and popular governance; a governance that spends national wealth on the welfare of the people and the protection of nature, not on ideological adventures! Today, before the last Hyrcanian trees burn in the fire of incompetence, a voice of protest must be raised against the incompetence of the Islamic Republic regime. A regime that destroys the country's environment and burns the forests has no legitimacy to continue its existence!

Political-Executive Board of the Left Party of Iran
Monday, November 24, 2025.