What’s Driving the Protests in Iran?

Iran

Iran’s anti-government protests are a result of deep-rooted structural issues that have existed for decades, analysts say.

Years of social and economic inequality have pushed tens of thousands across the country to rally over the rising cost of living, and against the policies of the system that has ruled Iran for more than three decades.

Experts on the country said it is still heavily reliant on its oil reserves, and that Iran’s successive governments have failed to solve institutional problems that have piled up over the last 30 years.

These include the lack of foreign investment and the overbearing role of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Iran’s inflation is at 9.6 percent while its unemployment rate sits at 13 percent.

However, the unofficial rate is estimated to be almost double the formal figure.

For many Iranians, the 2015 nuclear deal, which they thought would bring economic relief through the relaxation of internationally imposed sanctions, has failed to deliver the economic benefits it promised.

Failure of nuclear deal

“People predicted that the honey is coming but it was a miscalculation,” Mahjoob Zweiri, a Doha-based professor of contemporary Arab politics, told Al Jazeera. “They didn’t take seriously the impact of Trump’s policies… The whole deal was not beneficial to Iran.”

The landmark nuclear deal came under threat when US President Donald Trump took office last year.

Trump was a vocal critic of the deal even before he won the presidential race, pledging to change and review much of its content.

In October, he refused to certify the deal curtailing Tehran’s nuclear programme, accusing the country of violating its provisions.

During the first year of his presidency, Trump imposed two new packages of sanctions on Iran, harming its economy even further.

Trita Parsi, founder and president of the Washington-based National Iranian American Council, said sanctions combined with mismanagement and corruption have taken a toll on Iran’s economy.

“The sanctions have definitely created a tremendous amount of economic pain, which worsened the situation,” Parsi told Al Jazeera.

“Sanctions relief has not really worked and has become even more difficult as a result of the Trump administration constantly speculating that they may kill the nuclear deal.”

Inflation, unemployment, lack of investments

However, Trump’s threats to the nuclear deal are not solely to blame.

Iran’s weary economy has also been damaged by the country’s policies that continue to isolate the country internationally.

Zweiri explained that Iran’s persisting structural problems lay in legislation, the banking system, Iran’s accessibility to the international finance system, and corruption.

With the nuclear deal constantly under threat of revocation, foreign banks that seek to finance investment projects remain hesitant to establish themselves in Iran for fear of sanctions returning.

“All of these structural problems have persisted since the Islamic model came to power in 1980,” Zweiri said.

In the face of mounting economic challenges, the government has increasingly imposed taxes on its citizens.

Last month, Iran’s parliament discussed President Hassan Rouhani‘s budget bill that plans to increase fuel prices.

Iran’s involvement in regional conflicts has also played a role in prompting the latest wave of protests, with citizens accusing the state of misplacing national funds on maintaining the “status quo” in Syria, for instance, and supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

These reasons have triggered widespread anger over the nation’s “mismanaged” funds, says Zweiri.

Reformists vs conservatives

Firas Maksad, deputy executive director of the US-based Arabia Foundation, said the sense among Iranians was that the billions received after the nuclear deal were not spent on the country, but “were instead spent in funding overseas militias in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon”.

According to Maksad, though sparked by social and economic grievances, the ongoing protests quickly turned “political” with calls for toppling Iran’s top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Rouhani attempted to justify the increase in taxes by citing the “massive entitlement programs of Iran’s religious establishment”, Maksad said.

“Such embezzlement of public funds, along with greater economic pain, ignited public anger,” he added.

Iran’s reformist president Rouhani, who swept into office four years ago on a platform to reduce the country’s international isolation, won a second presidential term in May 2017.

Despite a high voter turnout, up to 30 percent of the population did not take part in the voting process altogether.

According to Parsi, Rouhani won simply because “the alternative was a conservative”.

Read full article by Farah Najjar on Aljazeera, January 3, 2018.