Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has backed down from a confrontation with the country’s parliament over the implementation of a politically explosive plan to phase out $100 billion worth of price subsidies for gasoline, electricity, public transport, bread and other food staples.
For several weeks, Ahmadinejad, his aides and ministers had been insisting that, in amending the government’s budget proposal, the Majlis (parliament) had sabotaged the government’s plans to eliminate the subsidies in a manner that would limit the economic and political fallout, especially the adverse impact on the poor.
