In Iran, discontentment over president grows

updated 7:05 a.m. ET Jan. 18, 2007

TEHRAN, Iran - Prices for vegetables have tripled in the past month, housing prices have doubled since last summer — and as costs have gone up, so has Iranians’ discontent with hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his focus on confrontation with the West.

Ahmadinejad was elected last year on a populist agenda promising to bring oil revenues to every family, eradicate poverty and tackle unemployment. Now he is facing increasingly fierce criticism for his failure to meet those promises.

He is being challenged not only by reformers but by the conservatives who paved the way for his stunning victory in 2005 presidential elections. Even conservatives say Ahmadinejad has concentrated too much on fiery, anti-U.S. speeches and not enough on the economy — and they have become more aggressive in calling him to account.

“The government has painted idealistic goals like tackling housing problems and unemployment ... but no solution has been offered,” said Mohammad Khoshchehreh, a prominent conservative lawmaker, told The Associated Press.

Ahmadinejad’s government “has been strong on populist slogans but weak on achievement,” said Khoshchehreh, who campaigned for Ahmadinejad during the election.

The president has touted himself as a tough anti-Western leader, frequently denouncing the United States. His comments that Israel should be “wiped off the map” and his questioning of the Nazi Holocaust have sparked anger in the West and increased Iran’s isolation.

Fallout from nuclear program
At the same time, he has aggressively pushed ahead Iran’s nuclear program, shrugging off U.N. demands that the country halt uranium enrichment. As a result, the U.N. in December imposed sanctions on Iran.

The sanctions were limited to a ban on selling materials and technology that could be used in Iran’s nuclear and missile programs and the freezing of assets of 10 Iranian companies and individuals.

But since then the price of fruit, vegetables and other widely used commodities in Iran — already rising — have skyrocketed, apparently because of fears of harsher punishment.

The inflation has hit Iranians hard, along with unemployment, which the government puts at 10 percent but which economists say could be as high as 30 percent. The government also says inflation is 11 percent, but experts estimate it at 30 percent.

Tehran housewife Maryam Hatamkhani, 28, said her family has given up buying potatoes and tomatoes because prices have tripled or quadrupled in the past month. Tomatoes have gone from around 33 cents a pound to $1.50.

“People are really under pressure. We are unhappy. Instead of bringing welfare, this government has given us hardship,” she said.

Vahid Yousefi, a factory worker, moonlights as an informal cab driver at night to get by, picking up passengers in his car. He had hoped to buy a modest apartment in downtown Tehran last year but couldn’t afford it. In the six months since, home prices have doubled.

“I really can’t make ends meet,” said Yousefi, the father of two. “I will never be able to live in my own house.”

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