Why the new Iran protests won’t change much

Published June 26, 2018 4:27pm ET



Iran’s deepening economic misery portends a revival of the mass protests which shook the Islamic republic over the new year. But don’t bet on those protests leading to some seismic shift of power towards the more-moderate political faction under President Hassan Rouhani.

As the BBC’s Instagram channel attests, residents of Tehran are furious about the plummeting value of their rial currency and the prospect of a near-term resumption of U.S. sanctions. Shopkeepers are refusing to open for business, and the government seems incapable of making things better. But the data is the best indicator of why public anger is rising. Consider this chart from XE.com which shows the the Iranian rial’s value against the U.S. dollar.

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