Unrest spread in Tehran on Thursday, the second day of gasoline rationing in oil-rich Iran, with drivers lining up for miles, gas stations being set on fire and state-run banks and business centers coming under attack.
Dozens were arrested, and the Tehran police chief, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, complained to reporters that the police had been caught unaware by the decision to ration fuel.
The anger posed a keen threat to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected two years ago on a platform of bringing income from oil to the nation's households. Instead, even though Iran is one of the world's largest producers of crude oil, it has been forced to import about 40 percent of its gasoline at an annual cost of $5 billion to make up for shortfalls in its archaic refining industry. Read More.
2 comments:
Like the US, Iran is constrained by gasoline refinery capacity. Unlike the US, they have much more crude oil reserves per capita and a totalitarian government.
Gas rationing is merely one of the problems that the Iranians have with their "government". It is really not going to take much in the way of sanctions to get the government of Iran's attention. Problem will be getting everyone to engage in sanctions. China, Russia, France and Germany always seem to rationalize why they shouldn't have to follow UN mandated sanctions. Then to add insult to injury, they are not up front about it.
Part of their problem is that they cannot afford new refinery capacity. This is not the major problem in the US, it is that building a refinery is not well thought of in most towns!
Iran is going to blow up if their gov't is not careful. Of the totalitarian states their populace is better informed than many.
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