As 2006 closed Iranians witnessed two events that will impinge on their lives in the new year. The hardline government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a poor showing in two key elections and the UN Security Council unanimously voted to put the country under sanctions for its defiant nuclear enrichment programme. Iran has lived under sanctions for many years now and hardliners say they are prepared to face sanctions, however dire. In an editorial released after the Security Council resolution, the Keyhan newspaper’s editor demanded that Iran exit the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of which the country is a signatory. The hardliners and conservatives who dominate Iranian parliament responded to the sanctions, adopted on Dec. 23, by approving outlines of a bill which binds the government to reconsider its relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). “Access to peaceful nuclear technology is our right. I can’t see why the world has closed its eyes to Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons, not speaking of the nuclear arsenals of the great powers themselves. Everybody knows that Israel, a very aggressive state, has them. They haven’t even joined the NPT like us,” a 45-year-old engineer said, asking not to be named. “I however believe Iran could have pursued its goal of achieving nuclear technology with much less cost to our nation.”

But what worries many Iranians is the steady erosion of their civil rights. Tens of political activists, students and journalists were jailed in Iran in 2006 and some of them are still awaiting trial and others are serving their sentences. A few are in detention but not formally charged. Reports of maltreatment of prisoners and denying them proper legal counsel were abundant in the past year. Akbar Mohammadi, a former student activist, died during a hunger strike. Iran continued to sentence minors to death and carry out executions after they reached legal age. Stoning sentences for adultery continued to be passed and there were at least two cases of actual stoning in 2006. Censorship increased during the past year and several newspapers and other publications were banned with journalists losing their jobs.

The administration has also not been able to lower the level of unemployment as promised. It has been rising steadily and now stands at close to 12 per cent. Inflation has grown by 14.7 per cent since the same time last year according to latest Central Bank of Iran’s statistics.

“The country’s oil reserve fund was drained by the government’s insatiable thirst for money this year and if oil prices go down, with the ever increasing liquidity and inflation rates, there will be no money to lavish next year to please the masses,” an economic and political observer said. “It’s only the high oil prices that support the extravagances of the administration. Many factories were not able to pay their workers or laid them off this year. There is going to be more serious labour unrest and even urban riots in poorer suburbs in the next year if things continue in the same way. The beginning of the first stage of sanctions and the grave prospects of further and more serious international action against Iran is now making the picture even more complicated. The future doesn’t seem promising at all,” he added. —IPS