ABOVE the grimy car-choked streets of Tehran, Iran’s down-at-heel capital, a new poster campaign is under way. Beside the brooding black-turbaned features of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, slogans extol the virtues of the “resistance economy”. The regime, it seems, is not ready to let go of the isolationist days of Iran’s worst confrontations with the West.
Anyone who hoped that the signing last July of a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers would strengthen the hands of the country’s reformists at the expense of the religious conservatives is starting to think again. The deal, which Mr Khamenei had been persuaded would boost a stagnant economy (see chart) by ending most international sanctions and reintegrating Iran into the global financial system, has so far fallen far short of what was hoped. The backlash has begun.
Iranian oil exports have, it is true, grown by 60% since the...Continue reading
Source: Middle East and Africa http://ift.tt/249mOM4
EmoticonEmoticon