Iran: Where Politics is a Distraction from Making Money
Time / Time
06-Jun-2011


Judging by the front pages of Persian language newspapers neatly laid out at every Tehran newsstand, political scandal is in the air. President Ahmadinejad's closest aides, including right-hand man Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, are being accused of embezzlement, cronyism, collaboration with opposition forces, and even pagan rituals thrown in for shock value. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, recently re-elected by a wide margin to his position by fellow members, asserted in public, "I wish for a strong Parliament" — a barely coded attack on the executive branch and the President himself. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei discouraged the quarreling after an earlier rebuke of the President, telling the Parliament that government officials should "prevent differences of opinion and diversity in taste which result in challenge and conflict." The President, seemingly confident and ascendant only months ago, could end up a lame duck for the remainder of his term as his conservative rivals in the Parliament seem to be planning to use the March 2012 parliamentary elections to increase their checks on his power.

Most Iranians, however, seem unconcerned with the political brawls among the revolutionary elite. They've seen these battles before. And they will see them again. What occupies the ordinary citizen nowadays is money. Next to the same newsstands in Tehran is a sparkling branch of one of the eight new banks that have ... >>>

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