THE HARD-LINE regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been frightening neighbors with its meddling-by-proxy in Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza. The regime's apparent pursuit of nuclear weapons has also prompted unusual solidarity among the United States, Europe, and Russia; together they have been ratcheting up United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran, demanding that it suspend uranium enrichment and comply with its obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency. But the most telling signs of trouble for the theocratic regime in Tehran are currently on display not in its external relations but in domestic turmoil.
The reaction to gas rationing earlier this week cast light on public discontent with Ahmadinejad's failure to keep his promises to improve economic conditions and share Iran's oil wealth with the common people. Angry Iranians set fire to gas stations after the announcement of rationing. Amid long lines of cars waiting to fill up in Tehran, young men threw stones at police and chanted "Ahmadinejad should be killed!"
The need to ration gas in OPEC's second largest exporter of crude oil reveals a major vulnerability of Iran's theocratic regime.
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THE HARD-LINE regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been frightening neighbors with its meddling-by-proxy in Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza. The regime's apparent pursuit of nuclear weapons has also prompted unusual solidarity among the United States, Europe, and Russia; together they have been ratcheting up United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran, demanding that it suspend uranium enrichment and comply with its obligations to the International Atomic Energy Agency. But the most telling signs of trouble for the theocratic regime in Tehran are currently on display not in its external relations but in domestic turmoil.
