Often we are told that when we want a country to change its behavior, sanctions don’t work, hurting the poor rather than hurting the people in office making the decisions.

An interesting story from the UK Telegraph shows that while the poorer classes do suffer, the Iranian government also suffers when it, rather than the Great Satan, is blamed.

On Tuesday, a proclamation from his palace suddenly imposed a fuel ration of three litres (0.6 gallons) a day, a move designed to stockpile supplies because of fears of United Nations sanctions.

Within hours his name was being cursed, as motorists clashed with riot police at fuel stations and set garage forecourts ablaze.

“Without fuel I cannot earn,” said the driver of a battered saloon car who had finally reached the head of a long queue for petrol. He was a shopkeeper who, like many residents of Teheran, supplements a meagre income by moonlighting as a cabbie. “Ahmadinejad is an ass. This is not what he promised the ordinary man.”

(skipping)

The fear of UN sanctions following Iran’s refusal to stop uranium enrichment means that foreign investment in the country has waned, hampering the president’s ability to deliver on his pledge to slash unemployment. His response, a big, state-directed jobs and welfare programme using earnings from record oil revenues, has led to inflation soaring to 40 per cent.

Oops. Socialism may be an attractive way for one to gain power through people’s suffering, but it rarely actually fixes economic problems. It turns out that fuel in Iran has been heavily subsidized, so that when the effects of the sanctions are felt and the government has to drop the subsidy, the difference is not between a market price and an elevated price, but between a depressed price and an elevated price. No wonder everyone is angry.

Maybe this is what it takes for Iran to change its foreign policy. I hope the swell of the people will outlast attempts to quell it.