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Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1687371.ece
Cracks Show under Iran's Strongman
[Times-UK] Marie Colvin - It is Ahmadinejad's apparent detachment from the economic realities facing ordinary Iranians that now threatens his position. On May 21, subsidized petrol will rise from 800 riyals to 1,000 riyals per liter, and only three liters a day will be available at that price. Ration cards will be issued and any purchase over the limit will be at a nonsubsidized rate. Iranians have already been hit by a 50% rise in taxi fares last month. The mood on Tehran's streets is mutinous. The people who voted Ahmadinejad into power are furious that their salaries remain pitifully low while the price of food rises at a rate between 20% and 40%. They feel betrayed and say they will not vote for him again. A former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran last month is being held by Revolutionary Guards in Tajrish, northern Tehran, according to a source within the guard. They want to swap Robert Levinson, 59, a private investigator from Florida, for Ali Reza Asgari, an Iranian general who vanished in mysterious circumstances in Turkey in February.