The Washington Post reports today that, “President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, already faced with growing opposition from competing political forces within Iran, is confronting new pressure brought on by severe economic problems, including some triggered by international sanctions. The sanctions, intended to push the country to abandon its nuclear program, are not yet crippling the Islamic Republic, economists and analysts say. But they are causing prices to rise and making it increasingly difficult for Iranian companies to work internationally….Steel prices have already increased by nearly 50 percent in the past two months because of the sanctions. In the first sign that Iranians are becoming nervous about the currency, some businessmen are starting to send cash abroad. ‘People are traveling outside with their pockets stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars,’ the steel trader said. ‘We feel the government is intentionally trying to break our backs.'”
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Publishers Weekly review of The Twelfth Imam
Joel C. Rosenberg. Tyndale, $26.99 (512p) ISBN 978-1-4143-1163-0
“Bestseller Rosenberg (The Last Jihad) has carved out a deep niche in conservative political fiction, vividly sweeping from 1979 Iran during the hostage crisis to a world-threatening crisis in the present day. When a prophecy of the coming Mahdi, or 12th imam, is believed to have been fulfilled through a Muslim prophet, a nuclear attack is threatened by Iran against Israel to bring the end of days. Iranian-American CIA operative David Shirazi must infiltrate the Iranian government without leaving American fingerprints and stop the ultimate disaster that would certainly escalate into international conflict. Filled with Islamic culture and history, this story of an Iranian family and an American one trying to understand one another is coupled with an emerging love story that will no doubt play out in coming books, since the ending is left open for more. Readers must keep track of many characters, but the author has provided a character list. Toeing the Christian conservative line while still writing sympathetic Muslim characters, Rosenberg is a go-to novelist for Christian political fiction. (Oct.)”
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