[Los Angeles Times] Borzou Daragahi - Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei had ordered his deputies to start privatizing state-owned businesses: the telephone company, three banks, and dozens of small oil and petrochemical enterprises. His underlings all but ignored him, months passed, and then Khamenei gathered the country's elite and told them to sell off some businesses - and be quick about it. "Those who are hostile to these policies are the ones who are going to lose their interests and influence," he declared. Nine months after his public scolding, only two out of 240 state-owned businesses Khamenei targeted had been sold off. To many, it is a government tightly controlled by the Shiite Muslim clergy. But the power of the clerics has steadily eroded.
2008-01-03 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive