News stories by Yasaman Baji, page 2

Last week's unexpected reappointment of Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as the chair of Expediency Council has provoked considerable speculation here about Iran's future political trajectory as it faces unprecedented economic pressure and military threats from Israel and the United States.

While the general public here is anxious about the increasingly harsh sanctions imposed by Western powers on Iran's financial and oil sectors, the leaders of the Islamic Republic appear more consumed by the upcoming parliamentary elections to be held Mar. 2.

The news of Iran's participation in an alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Washington and subsequent harsh rhetoric by senior officials in both Washington and Riyadh have generated deep and complex nationalist feelings on the part of the public here.

A banking scandal, identified by Iranian authorities as the 'largest embezzlement in the country's banking history', has further shaken confidence in the government whose legitimacy was already under question after the contested results of the 2009 presidential election.

Uncertainty and confusion, particularly among the highly factionalised conservatives that have dominated Iranian politics since 2005, appear to be the order of the day some seven months before next March's parliamentary elections.

A silent protest through the streets of Tehran under the watchful eyes of a heavy security presence marked the second anniversary of Iran's June 2009 contested polls Sunday, amid a growing rift between Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and among different conservative wings preparing to compete in the March 2012 Parliamentary elections.

Owners of industrial and agricultural enterprises who initially welcomed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's plan to reduce subsidies by lifting the price-support system for basic goods have now become its chief critics.