The BBC's radio news roundup is reporting today that the Iranian government is considering easing off on its gas subsidies and limiting buyers to four liters of gas a day. Translating that into American, that's a gallon of gas a day. The Iranian government faces the basic problem that although Iran is awash in crude oil, it has comparatively little refining capacity. As a consequence, most of its refined gas is imported and subsidized to keep the price down -- the report cited a price of about 18 cents a liter, or 72 cents a gallon.
Actually imposing these limits, and raising gas prices, would both be spectacularly unpopular moves. So unpopular, in fact, that it's been nearly a year since anyone suggested such a move, and it still hasn't been done. There are real worries that if something isn't done, however, the damage to the Iranian economy could be profound.
(...and, in a quirky twist on the 1970s, the BBC reporter points out that western nations could actually put in place a gasoline embargo against Iran, perhaps as a means of punishing them for continuing their nuclear program.)
In a wholly different category of mismatch, the UAE has seized twelve Iranian divers, accusing them of violating UAE territorial waters. This is just another episode in a long-running dispute between the two countries over owneship of several islands in the gulf. These islands, comprising Lesser Tunb, Greater Tunb, and Abu Musa, were abandoned by Britain in 1971, seized by Iran, and claimed by the UAE.
All of this comes just ahead of Iranian president Ahmadinejad's visit to the UAE.
Finally, the Iranian parliament has banned al Jazeera from entering, pending a formal apology to Iraqi Shia leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. al Jazeera's crime occurred when one of its show hosts questioned the legitimacy of al-Sistani's rule, which apparently was "...a plot of the enemies of Islam and Iraq and news networks like Al Jazeera committed this insult because of their influential role."
So even al Jazeera can't catch a break. Darned liberal media.