Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, offered a crucial gesture of public support Monday for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s effort to enact a sweeping economic reform plan that would sharply curtail the country’s long-established system of state subsidies.
After Mr. Ahmadinejad issued his latest call for Parliament to support his proposal, Ayatollah Khamenei, speaking at a meeting of cabinet ministers and other senior figures, urged all parties to help Mr. Ahmadinejad’s administration in “facilitating” passage of a subsidies reform bill.
