Things Keep Getting Worse For Ahmadinjad

Ahmadinejad's 4 day trip in Latin America seems to be a great success:

The Iranian President stopped by Caracas on Saturday as part of a four-day engagement with Latin America's new leftist governments. On Sunday, the Iranian communed with Nicaragua's new boss, Daniel Ortega, and then on Monday he hit the inauguration of Ecuador's new pro-Chávez President Rafael Correa.

The Caracas visit was Mr. Ahmadinejad's second in four months. "This is just a prelude of what we will do," declared Mr. Chávez, in a televised speech announcing the creation of a joint $2 billion fund to finance development and other projects. "This large and strategic fund, brother, is going to be converted into a mechanism of liberation," he added, saying their goal is to build "a network of alliances."

For everyone except Ahmadinjad.
From The Guardian:

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has suffered a potentially fatal blow to his authority after the country's supreme leader gave an apparent green light for MPs to attack his economic policies.

In an unprecedented rebuke, 150 parliamentarians signed a letter blaming Mr Ahmadinejad for raging inflation and high unemployment and criticising his government's failure to deliver the budget on time. They also condemned him for embarking on a tour of Latin America - from which he returns tomorrow - at a time of mounting crisis.

Among the results so far of Ahmadinejad's term in office:

• Inflation is higher 17 months after Ahmadinejad took office
• Unemployment, officially estimated at 12% but probably much higher, has not improved
• Uncontrolled inflation
• Soaring food prices
• House prices and rents in Tehran have risen 50% in six months
• The government plans to ration gasoline to cut rising import costs
  

Even his anti-Western diatribes have been criticized at home and the controversy he has caused over Iran's nuclear program.

The rumors are flying whether Ahmadinejad will even finish out his term:

"Ahmadinejad's golden era is over and his honeymoon with the supreme leader is finished. He has problems even meeting the supreme leader," said an Iranian political commentator, Eesa Saharkhiz. "The countdown to his dismissal has already begun. There is a probability that he cannot even finish his current four-year period."

The question is whether Ahmadinejad's removal will make a difference in terms of Iranian policy.

Technorati Tag: Iran and Ahmadinejad.