With Friends Like These…

BY DJAVAD SALEHI-ISFAHANI

Foreign Policy
OCTOBER 12, 2012

The collapse of the rial in Iran's foreign currency exchange in early October was a tipping point -- not so much for Iran's economy as for Tehran officials' efforts to deny that sanctions do harm. In a rare moment of agreement, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and analysts in Washington blamed the rial's collapse on Western sanctions, even as most of the president's political opponents in Tehran insisted that his handling of the economy -- not sanctions -- was responsible for the economic mess.

For his part, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei dismissed the sanctions as "not a new issue" and said that "enemies are making efforts to blow the issue of sanctions out of proportion, and, unfortunately, certain people inside are assisting them."

As a lame-duck president with only six months left in his term, Ahmadinejad is an easy target. But blaming the crisis on domestic policy mistakes is also a way for the more radical politicians in Tehran to continue to deny the sanctions' negative impact and to suggest that the crisis will be brought under control by changes in economic, not foreign, policy.

To continue reading.......