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Iran Currency Crisis Sparks Tehran Protests

(Los Angeles Times) Ramin Mostaghim and Patrick J. McDonnell - Iranian police and demonstrators clashed Wednesday in Tehran during street protests linked to rising prices and the plunging value of the national currency. The protesters decried what they termed "inefficient government," and some marchers chanted "Leave Syria! Think about us!" Iran is believed to be providing huge subsidies to Syria to help keep Assad's government afloat amid a rebellion. Mark Dubowitz, a sanctions expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the rial's fall may be a sign that Iran doesn't have the foreign exchange reserves needed to prop up the currency, or at least can't access reserves that might be in accounts abroad that have been frozen by sanctions. "You'd think that if the regime had sufficient reserves, and access to them, they could be intervening to prevent the rial from plummeting further," he said.
2012-10-04 00:00:00
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