- 08 May 2018 12:09
#14912679
In the end the women protest generates this outcome. Germany can't reach out to save its long time ally even if it desperately wants to.
https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... urce=atltw
Iranian rial hits all-time low as citizens scramble for US dollars
Bureaux de change close down to avoid queues after Tehran tries to stabilise exchange rate
Saeed Kamali DehghanWed 11 Apr 2018 05.00 BST
People stand in front of a bank in Tehran, hoping to buy US dollars at the new official exchange rate announced by the Iranian government Photograph: Vahid Salemi
Iran’s government is scrambling to contain a currency crisis after the rial hit an all-time low, prompting panic-buying of hard-to-find dollars amid political uncertainty.
The Iranian currency has been steadily losing its value against the dollar since the 1979 Islamic revolution, when one dollar bought 70 rials.
This week, one dollar was exchanged for up to 60,000 rials in central Tehran, as people sceptical of the country’s economic performance and uncertain about its future political stability rushed to get hold of more-stable foreign tender.
The crisis comes three months after protests over economic grievances that soon took on a political dimension and spread to up to 80 cities, taking politicians by surprise. In May, Donald Trump faces a deadline to either sign a presidential waiver on sanctions on Iran, or withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear accord. The latter would have severe consequences for Iran as it the nuclear-related sanctions that were lifted as part of the agreement may be restored.
Saeed Laylaz, a prominent Tehran-based economist close to the Rouhani team, said both internal and external political reasons were driving the currency devaluation. Some officials have blamed Iran’s regional rivals, including US-backed Saudi Arabia and the UAE, for limiting Tehran’s access to dollars.
The Iran Deal Is Strategically and Morally Absurd
It is less an arms-control agreement than cover for American inaction.
REUEL MARC GERECHT MAY 4, 2018
We can use America’s approach to the Soviet Union as a model: Contain, roll back, and squeeze. The Islamic Republic now resembles the Soviet Union of 1979: a police state, incapable of reforming itself while drowning in corruption and economic ineptitude, expands abroad to protect the nation and its “faith.” Now, unlike the U.S.S.R., which in the end just had Marx’s and Lenin’s desiccated orthodoxy to sustain an empire, the Islamic Republic has a still vibrant Shiite identity. It is the only idea, mixed with revolutionary intent, that the mullahs can lock on to that can motivate the faithful and undermine critics who stopped believing in the cleric-constructed Islamic state. But as we have seen repeatedly, Iranians have been willing in significant numbers to express their disgust for this tyranny. In the nation-wide demonstrations that started last December, even those that the regime thought were loyal to the theocracy—the provincials—shouted their opposition to imperial adventures.
https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... urce=atltw