In Iran, discontentment over president grows

Call for more kids per family
Lawmakers summoned Ahmadinejad’s Housing Minister Mohammad Saeedikia to parliament for questioning over the rising prices, which he blamed on increasing demand. He promised a plan to control prices, but gave no specifics.

Demand for housing has swelled because of a population bulge in Iran. After the 1979 Islamic revolution, hard-line clerics encouraged Iranians to have more children, causing a high birth rate in the 1980s and prompting them to reverse the policy in the 1990s.

Ahmadinejad — who has revived much of the revolution’s rhetoric — raised a public outcry last year when he said two children per family was not enough and urged Iranians to have more. Despite the criticism, he has stuck by the calls, saying last week that Iran, a nation of 70 million, has the capacity to feed 300 million.

The president “keeps making empty promises to people in every city he goes. This is causing unhappiness,” said Ghaffar Esmaili, another conservative lawmaker.

In a sign of the growing discontent, the president’s allies suffered a humiliating defeat in December local elections, carried by reformists and anti-Ahmadinejad conservatives.

Critics want answers
Since then, Ahmadinejad’s critics have become bolder, denouncing his nuclear policies, long seen as above criticism and an issue of national pride. They accuse him of unnecessarily escalating the nuclear standoff with his harsh rhetoric.

Reformist and conservative lawmakers are considering calling Ahmadinejad before parliament to answer questions about his nuclear diplomacy and economic policies. So far no date has been set for summoning him.

Some 150 lawmakers signed a letter last week calling on Ahmadinejad’s government to reconsider its draft budget for next year. Lawmakers called the draft too dependent on oil revenues. Iran roughly makes about 80 percent of its revenues from oil exports.

Even the president’s globe-trotting has come under fire. He has made several trips to Asia and Africa, burnishing his reputation as a world leader who can stand up to the United States. This week, he was in Latin America, meeting presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and other anti-U.S. figures.

“Do you really assume people like Chavez (and) Ortega ... can be Iran’s strategic allies?” the reformist daily Etemad-e-Melli said in an editorial Tuesday addressing Ahmadinejad. “We should not build a house on water.”

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