Sanctions target government but Iran shoppers feel pinch

By Parisa Hafezi - Analysis

TEHRAN, March 4 - World powers want to push Iran's government into halting sensitive nuclear work with a new round of U.N. sanctions, but Iranian shoppers and small traders said on Tuesday they were the ones who really feel the pinch.

"I don't understand the mechanism of sanctions, but what I do know is whenever they talk about sanctions and resolutions, I pay more at the grocery shop," said 25-year-old Fariba.

The mother, buying her daily supplies, summed up how many Iranians feel about Monday's move by the U.N. Security Council to impose a third set of penalties to push Iran to stop work the West says is aimed at building nuclear bombs.

Iran's refusal to curb its nuclear program which it insists is peaceful has prompted two other sanctions resolutions in December 2006 and March 2007.

"Everything is becoming more and more expensive because of the sanctions," said 42-year-old civil servant Mohsen Taqavi on a main Tehran shopping street.

Many Iranians are wary about openly criticizing the government for its handling of the nuclear file, but opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad say his speeches vowing no compromise have antagonized the West to push for sanctions.

Ahmadinejad's opponents want to capitalize on public frustration with rising prices in the March 14 parliamentary election, seen as a test of his popularity.

Economists may question whether sanctions are the main culprit for Iran's 19 percent inflation. They put much of the blame on the spending policies of Ahmadinejad, who has pledged to share out Iran's oil wealth more fairly.