Business | Economy
Iranians shrug off nuclear crisis
Tehran's traffic jams in the run up to the Nowruz or New Year festival have come early this year, suggesting a lack of public concern over the expiry last Wednesday of the latest United Nations deadline for Iran to curb its nuclear programme.
- Financial Times
- Published: 00:00 February 25, 2007
- Shoppers throng the Tehran Bazaar. The nuclear standoff with the West has not deterred the people from shopping for Nowruz, the Iranian new year on March 21.
- Image Credit: AP
Tehran: Tehran's traffic jams in the run up to the Nowruz or New Year festival have come early this year, suggesting a lack of public concern over the expiry last Wednesday of the latest United Nations deadline for Iran to curb its nuclear programme.
Nowruz is not marked until March 21, but the build-up is traditionally a time when Iranians buy new clothes, especially for children, scrub their houses from top to bottom, and stock up with goodies for the festival.
"Who cares about the nuclear issue? People want to buy things," said Bahareh, a woman from a central Tehran middle-class district.
"I went to the main bazaar today to shop for my daughter, and it was much busier than this time last year."
Shopkeepers selling clothes, shoes and furniture confirmed business was picking up after a lean period, but fruit, nut and sweet sellers said it was still early for the Nowruz rush as people always shopped late for their wares.
Quelling fears
State television has helped mitigate popular worries. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has constantly argued the US and Israel would not dare attack, even though a second American aircraft carrier, the John C Stennis, arrived last week with its battle group in the Gulf of Oman off Iran's south-eastern coastline.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, has told the recently-elected Experts Assembly that there was "no extraordinary situation in the country, because the enemy has been lining up against the republic for 28 years".
In affluent north Tehran, Arash, a 30-year-old shopkeeper selling Indian and Italian scarves and shawls said his customers showed little concern over international pressures.
"They care a lot about fashion and good quality in scarves, but there's no talk about the nuclear issue. Either they don't care or they don't understand the depth of the danger."
The tourism industry is also reporting record bookings for holidays abroad during the week's holiday at Nowruz.
"We expected fewer people not more, and I can't really explain it," said Alireza Pahlavani, a tour operator. "Maybe Iranians are so used to crises - the [1979] Revolution, the war with Iraq [1980-88], sanctions - that they feel nothing extra.
"A glass that is already full can take no more water. Perhaps they also feel the US has created such a disaster in Iraq that it can't launch more adventures," he said.
Pahlavani added that one of the most expensive tours offered by his company, to South Africa, had attracted double the number of bookings expected.
Less wealthy Iranians are focused on rising prices. Shayesteh, a 52-year-old grandmother out shopping with her three-year-old twin grandchildren, said she had no time to think either about a holiday or the nuclear crisis.
"I have enough on my plate thinking about where we'll move if housing rents go up after Nowruz," she said angrily.
"I can't lecture my children about atomic energy when what they want is new clothes."
Morteza, a 43-year-old taxi driver, was more subdued. "If the US is going to attack there's nothing we can do about it anyway. It's good the government isn't panicking people."
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