Page 43 - bne_March2019_20190306 magazine

bne March 2019 Eurasia I 43
Difficult to gauge
Just how much discontent there is among Iran’s population of 81mn at
the regime is difficult to gauge but some analysts think Trump’s attempt to throttle the Iranian economy – which has plunged Iran’s economy back into recession, brought soaring inflation, some food shortages and a deprecia- tion of the Iranian rial running at more than 60% – to force concessions on Iran’s Middle East policies and activi- ties is wrong-headed. It has involved unilaterally and somewhat dishonour- ably breaking a multilateral agree- ment struck after years of painstaking diplomacy – the 2015 Iran nuclear deal – and it is exposing ordinary Iranians to untold economic hardship. Far better, say some, to refocus the anger by going after Iran’s ruling elite with highly targeted political sanctions.
In the meantime, Trump’s Iran policy continues to draw the anger of both the hardliners – who exert their power and influence through the theocratic struc- ture headed by the unelected supreme leader, which is empowered to vet and supervise the country’s parliamentary democracy – and the centrist, pragmatic camp led by Rouhani.
“We have not asked and will not ask for permission to develop different types of ... missiles and will continue our path
40 years of terror. The regime in Iran has produced only #40YearsofFailure." "The long-suffering Iranian people
“We have not asked and will not ask for permission to develop different types of ... missiles and will continue our path and our military power”
and our military power,” news agencies reported Rouhani as saying in a speech before tens of thousands at Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square.
Rouhani added in his address that the "enemy will never reach its evil objectives," vowing that Iran will defeat US sanctions. "The Iranian people have and will have some economic difficulties but we will overcome the problems by helping each other," he declared.
Trump, meanwhile, attempted to have the last word, saying in a tweet, sent out in English and Persian: "40 years of corruption. 40 years of repression.
deserve a much brighter future," he added.
Not surprisingly, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, always quick on the draw when it comes to the Twittersphere, did not let Trump have the last word, tweeting: “#40YearsofFailure to accept that Iranians will never return to submission. #40YearsofFailure to adjust US
policy to reality. #40YearsofFailure
to destabilize Iran through blood & treasure. After 40 yrs of wrong choices, time for @realDonaldTrump to rethink failed US policy.”
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