Analysis: Iran protests 2019
Pressing sanctions and recalcitrant mullahs In the throes of a threat to his country’s designs to dominate the region, Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, countenanced a sharp rise in the price of a commodity that Iranians hitherto obtained for a pittance: petrol. What happened next? All hell broke loose. As though fate hadn’t been sufficiently unkind to Iran, this move came in the backdrop of widespread protests in Lebanon and Iraq, both of them countries in which Iran has made deep inroads. Iran’s proxy group Hezbollah, political party and militant organisation, wields considerable clout in Lebanon. Iraq, as revealed by documents recently leaked to The Intercept, has come under Iran’s sway ever since U.S. troops left the country in 2011. While the causes of these protests are mainly economic, they are also seen as fulminations against the sinister influence of Iran in Iraq and Lebanon. Economic woes The reason this step was taken at such an unpropitious moment can