Iran on the spot

by Gareth Smith June 11, 2006

written by Gareth Smith June 11, 2006

TEHRAN: Motorists queuing in Niavaran Street, north Tehran, for gasoline at 8 cents a liter show no sense of crisis at the growing pressure on Iran. “What’s new?” says one, nozzle in hand as he steps around large puddles of petrol.President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, tours the country promising crowds his government will prioritize development and cheap bank loans. “Nuclear energy is our legitimate right,” they chant for a man whose election slogan last year was “putting oil money on the sofreh”, the cloth Iranians place on the floor for meals.Vilified in the west, Ahmadinejad has showed himself an adept politician. Nasser Hadian, politics professor at Tehran University, says his friend from school is a quick learner.“Once he got the reaction [from the west], he saw the chance to establish himself among the Muslim masses outside Iran, standing against the US and Israel.”In the process, Iran’s president has complicated the politics

Gareth Smith

Gareth Smith was a distinguished journalist who reported from the Middle East for over two decades. He served as the Financial Times correspondent in Tehran, where he was the chief Iran correspondent from 2003, following his earlier role as Lebanon correspondent. Throughout his career, Smith covered Middle Eastern affairs for leading media outlets, including The Financial Times, The Guardian, and the BBC. He also contributed as an editor to Executive magazine. His work as a freelance journalist in the 1990s, focusing on the politics of Iran and Iraq, paved the way for his appointment at the FT. In 2009, he relocated to the west coast of Ireland, where he balanced freelance journalism with his passion for nature and the land.

Iran on the spot

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