The Latest from Iran (3 October): Blaming the "Enemy" for the Economy

President Ahmadinejad at his Tuesday press conference (Photo: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA)

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0555 GMT: Currency Watch. Mesghal has not updated its Tuesday figure of 35550 Rials to 1 US dollar. Another leading currency website, Mazanex, has removed the Rial-to-dollar rate completely.

0525 GMT: It is a measure of the recognition of Iran's economic problems that The New York Times, which tucked Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's United Nations appearance at the bottom of an article, devotes a 17-paragraph article to his Tuesday press conference, "Iran’s President Ties Recent Drop in Currency to U.S.-Led Sanctions". The BBC's flagship radio programme evaluates the episode in its second story, pushing aside the speech of Britain's opposition leader Ed Miliband to his Labour Party Conference.

Ahmadinejad's blame of the "enemy" is far from new, of course. What is notable is that his presentation shreds the position, maintained through September by the Supreme Leader and other Iranian officials, that the US-led measures were not succeeding. The "resistance economy", they said, would flourish while the West would suffer the economic blowback from its sanctions.

The challenge for the President is that his rhetoric does nothing to address the question of what his Government does in practice, rather than in speeches, to deal with the currency crisis, inflation, unemployment, and declining production. Indeed, Ahmadinejad dismissed that question on Tuesday, saying he and his Ministers were not to blame for the Islamic Republic's predicament.

Ahmadinejad's position also fuels a political fight. It was notable that his "Sanctions, Not Us, to Blame" declaration was directly opposite that of a Tuesday statement by Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, who repeated his assertation that sanctions carried 20% of the responsibility and Government mismanagement the rest.

The potential battle goes far beyond Ahmadinejad v. Larijani, for the President was not just citing an "enemy" abroad. He also took swipes at other politicians, the media, and even the Revolutionary Guards. As BBC Persian's Reza Asadi wrote, ""Ahmadinejad is attacking every official in the Islamic Republic in his presser like a wounded tiger."

Every official but one, that is. The President never mentioned the Supreme Leader.

Which raises the question, as we look to another day of economic developments, that conludes our analysis this morning: "What exactly is Ayatollah Khamenei doing?"

from EA WorldView: EA Iran

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