Iran Democracy Monitor: No. 119

IRAN COMBATS MOUNTING SANCTIONS WITH CASH PAYOUTS...
With inflation now estimated at between 20 and 50 percent, and the rial depreciating as Iran’s financial and energy institutions face deepening international sanctions, the Iranian government is increasing its direct monthly cash payments to its citizens. The increase is expected to raise the amount that the Iranian government pays its citizens by 50 percent, to around sixty dollars per person a month. Although the value of each cash payment will be increased, however, the Iranian government plans to reduce the actual number of people receiving direct cash payments - from 90 percent to 80 percent of the total Iranian population - in an effort to reduce the financial burden of the new plan on the federal budget. (Doha Al Jazeera, March 25, 2012)

...BUT DOMESTIC DISCONTENT CONTINUES TO DEEPEN
Cash payouts and other remedial moves, however, have done little to dampen soaring domestic dissatisfaction. For example, during a recent official visit to the country’s south, the vehicle in which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was traveling was completely surrounded by a crowd of "hungry" protesters. The incident, captured on video and subsequently uploaded to the website YouTube, involved a crowd overrunning the president's motorcade to protest food shortfalls and financial malaise in a telling sign of mounting dissent over Iran’s worsening economic situation. (London Telegraph, April 18, 2012)

IRAN RAMPS UP ITS WAR ON DRUGS
Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, Iran’s Interior Minister, has declared that Iran plans to intensify its campaign against the “main agents” of drug trafficking networks, and accelerate its clampdown on drug production networks. The Islamic Republic already spends some $1 billion annually on counternarcotics efforts, and is responsible for some 89 percent of the world's opium seizures. Najjar's comments, however, reflect plans to expand this mandate still further - focusing in particular on the drug corridor from Afghanistan through Iran to Europe. As part of this effort, according to Najjar, Iran plans to step up its cooperation with regional states on counternarcotics and interdiction in the coming year. (Tehran FARS, April 8, 2012)

AFTER THE COALITION, IRAQI INSURGENTS FOCUS ON IRAN
With the departure of the U.S.-led Coalition from Iraq, that country's various Sunni insurgent groups have increasingly begun to focus on a different enemy: Iran. A series of statements by Sunni insurgents on the anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime have signaled a sharpening of hostilities toward the Iranian regime and Iraq's Shi'a-dominated government. For example, the Islamic Group in Iraq, a coalition of 17 Sunni insurgent outfits, has announced publicly that it will fight Iran “with the same force” as it did the Americans prior to the U.S. military withdrawal in 2011. “It has become clear beyond any doubt that Iran occupies Iraq through its traitor agents,” the group went on to say. (Baghdad Al Arabiya, April 11, 2012)

IRANIAN REGIME SEEKS HELP CENSORING THE INTERNET
Iran's government is actively looking for corporate partners to assist in its efforts to isolate its population from the World-Wide Web. The Iranian Research Institute for Information and Communication Technology, a research center affiliated with Iran’s Ministry for Information and Communication Technology, recently asked Iranian companies to offer ideas to help “purify” the internet. Experts say that the formal request, uncovered by Washington-based internet researcher Collin Anderson, suggests that Iran's cyber offensive is not intended to completely cut the country off from the Internet, but to transition to a dual internet system, with a fast “National Internet” and slow, heavily filtered access to the real World Wide Web. Significantly, the request also suggests that the Iranian regime is having trouble in its censorship efforts, and is now looking for additional private sector vendors that can help augment its efforts. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, April 19, 2012)