With the low price of oil and a global economic crisis eroding Iran’s economic growth, some analysts believe the economy will emerge as a political liability for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he seeks reelection in June. This leads some to argue that now is the time for the West to turn up the heat with new sanctions in an attempt to win concessions on Iran’s nuclear program. But Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, a professor of economics at Virginia Tech and a former economist at the Central Bank of Iran, says these broad-brush observations miss the subtle realities of Iran’s mature, if troubled, economy.
