Special report: Iran
Shoppers see red and President feels the heat over tomatoes http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2000346,00.html
Robert Tait finds the Iranian people and parliament in revolt
Robert Tait in Tehran Sunday January 28, 2007 The Observer
History is not littered with cases of heads of state being brought down by the price of tomatoes but, with his critics growing by the day, Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, could be in danger of earning such a distinction.
Besieged by denunciations of his economic and nuclear policies, the President was put further on the defensive last week by MPs complaining that the cost of tomatoes had soared to 30,000 rial (£1.65) a kilo - an unthinkable price in a country where the average worker scrapes by on £225 a month.
Prices subsequently slipped back in response to the outcry. But the startling statistic crystallised popular anger over runaway inflation, which has eaten into the living standards of the army of low-income Iranians whom Ahmadinejad came to office pledging to help.
The ever-combative President had a ready riposte. The prices quoted were not representative, he claimed. MPs should visit his local fruit and vegetable store in the middle-class Narmak neighbourhood in east Tehran, where tomatoes cost much less.
The tiny store sits around the corner from the modest home Ahmadinejad vacated on assuming the presidency. According to staff, none of his family has shopped there for months. The President might have been advised to have done so before recommending it as a haven for the thrifty. He would have found a shop no longer stocking tomatoes due to their prohibitive price and an owner desperate to sell up.
'I want to change job. It's not a proper investment and it's no longer profitable,' said owner Hassan, 24, who said rising prices had deterred many customers. Wealthy hoarders, he said, were depriving the market of produce so they could sell at inflated prices. But Hassan, who voted for Ahmadinejad, did not blame the profiteers. 'I blame the government - it comes from a lack of regulation,' he said. 'There's no stability. My situation and that of many others was better before Ahmadinejad. When he won I was happy because he didn't dress like a mullah and wore humble clothes, but he is no different. If he had solved youth unemployment, people would have been happy.'
A few blocks away, traders at Kerman fruit and vegetable market voiced outrage. Ibrahim Falali, 42, said he was selling imported tomatoes from Pakistan to make up for shortfalls and high prices caused by the export of Iranian produce to Iraq. Onions and potatoes were no longer on sale because customers balked at the prices, while the cost of a kilo of fish had risen from 90p to £1.50.
Gripes over surging prices are just part of a broader critique against Ahmadinejad being framed by the media, former allies in parliament and powerful regime insiders close to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters.
They accuse him of failing to keep his economic promises to create jobs and reduce poverty while presiding over wasteful policies that have triggered inflation and threaten chaos.
But the charge sheet goes beyond economics. Having argued for Iran's nuclear programme with shrill anti-Western rhetoric, Ahmadinejad now stands accused of provoking Western enemies and of leaving Iran vulnerable to sanctions or military attack.
Last month, the UN security council passed a resolution imposing limited sanctions over Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. It gave Tehran 60 days to comply or face the possibility of further embargoes. The Bush administration has begun pressing European banks to cut off transactions with state-owned Iranian banks said to be linked to the nuclear programme. Meanwhile, leading Israeli figures threaten military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.
Ahmadinejad's opponents say he has inadvertently increased the threat through his uncompromising bluster and further accuse him of refusing to take it seriously. The country's Islamic system, they believe, could collapse under the burden of sanctions or from the repercussions of a military attack.
The President has taken a brazen approach to the criticism. Presenting the coming year's budget to parliament last Sunday, he insisted Iran would stick to its nuclear strategy. He dismissed the capacity of sanctions to damage the economy and claimed to have reduced the country's dependence on oil revenues. On state television he brushed aside inflation as 'rumours' and insisted the US was powerless to attack Iran. 'The important thing for us is to become a nuclear power and we have done so without any costs,' he said.
But the ability of such defiant talk to rally the nation has worn thin. Last week, Mohsen Rezai - a former revolutionary guard commander linked to Iran's inner circle - said he believed an enemy attack was highly likely.
More threatening to Ahmadinejad's authority is the increasing assertiveness of Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former President and head of the powerful expediency council. Rafsanjani - whom Ahmadinejad defeated in the last presidential election - believes Iran faces a crisis and must negotiate on the nuclear case, even if it means backing down.
Rafsanjani last week voiced his concerns about the economy and the nuclear strategy to 100 MPs. He said the expediency council would scrutinise Ahmadinejad's budget and criticised 'high-ranking officials' for under-estimating the international threat.In remarks interpreted as designed to show the President's waning influence, Rafsanjani described how a top-level official had been slapped down by Khamenei. 'We had a session with the supreme leader and a group of officials,' he said. 'Somebody said, "the threats are not serious and there is no need for concern", to which Ayatollah Khamenei replied, "the threats are serious".' The unnamed official is broadly assumed to have been Ahmadinejad.
Rafsanjani reminded MPs that the 'highest religious duty' of officials was preserving Iran's Islamic system - implying this might mean making painful compromises with the West.
Rafsanjani was pushing at an open door. Parliament is in open revolt, believing the President guilty of incompetence, arrogance and self-indulgence.
Moves were afoot to rein him in even before Rafsanjani's pep talk. A petition is being circulated to summon Ahmadinejad for questioning over his economic and nuclear policies, while impeachment proceedings are under way against four ministers.
Emad Afrough, a fundamentalist MP, said parliament would start dictating to Ahmadinejad unless he learnt the art of consultation. 'The political situation is going to force the government to consult more. If not, some issues be dictated to them,' he said. 'The government cannot count on the fundamentalists like before.'
A reformist MP, Akbar Aalami, said disenchantment had reached unprecedented levels. 'This government lacks the maturity to fulfil its legal duties and exercise authority,' he said.
Prospects of Ahmadinejad's impeachment and removal from office are widely dismissed. But it is clear that he is running short of friends.
One of the few that could be found last week was shopping in the same fruit and veg store the President had cited in his defence.
Abdolreza Bazian, 38, had known Ahmadinejad as a neighbour and fellow member of the volunteer Basij militia. 'He is a good man,' he said. 'We have faced price rises but he is not the guilty one. The blame lies with the foreign pressure being put on Iran.'
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007