The Iran deal: It’s the economy, stupid

[unhappycamper]

http://atimes.com/2015/07/the-iran-deal-its-the-economy-stupid/

The Iran deal: It’s the economy, stupid
By Salman Rafi on July 24, 2015

“I had to fill my shoulder bag with Iranian Rial every day to meet routine expenses. The taxi driver would simply demand thousands of Rials to take me to a place hardly 5 to 10 KM away.” This is what my friend had to tell me about Iran’s economic situation after his short visit in 2013-14. As a matter of fact, Iranian Rial hit its all-time low in 2012 due to the crumbling economic situation that arose out of the sanctions imposed on the country. As it stood then, 34,500 rials bought $1 on the open market. Today, almost 30,000 Iranian rials equals just one US dollar.

It is evident that life in Iran today is not much different from what it was in 2012, and the very fact that things were not changing for the better seems to have pushed Iran to finalize the nuclear deal. As it stands, the geoeconomics behind this deal are as important for Iran as geopolitics can be. However, the latter factor appears to have overshadowed the former due to a misplaced focus on Iran’s political ideology, and its conflict with Arab “Sunni States.”

Iran, as the deal shows, is as rational a state as any state can be expected to be. And the nuclear deal is a result of very careful deliberations carried out at the highest levels of its government. The underlying principle of these deliberations was simple: Economic survival. Geopolitics notwithstanding, Iran would never have been able to compete with rival states without getting rid of the western imposed sanctions. The nuclear deal relieves Iran of such pressures.

Although the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreed to in Vienna is a “landmark” agreement which is sending political jolts across the entire Middle East, there’s no denying the fact that Iran has managed to create a situation through diplomacy that it can use to its advantage. In simple words, the deal is more than a new chapter in Iran’s relations with the West and the world at large; it is the agreement by which Iran can transform itself from a potentially powerful, though politically and economically isolated country, into an emerging power.