Is the pressure in Iran about to boil over and destroy the Islamo-Fascists?

THE assassination of a prominent cleric in an oil-rich Iranian province, coinciding with violent protests in Tehran over the rationing of petrol, has plunged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into his biggest crisis since he was elected two years ago.
The murder on June 24 of Hesham Saymary in Ahvaz, the centre of Iran’s oil-producing province in the south, was a blow to a regime that is already under pressure because of international condemnation of its nuclear program and the prospect of economic meltdown.

The assassination, the third of a senior cleric this year, bore the hallmarks of a well-planned murder. According to witnesses, the gunmen waited outside Saymary’s house for him to arrive home about 10pm. They called out to the cleric as he was about to open his door and shot him three times. He died instantly.

There have been other assassinations in Iran, notably in the Kurdish area, in the west near the Iraq border, but the Government is far more concerned about Saymary’s death because stability in the province is crucial for its oil revenues.

Saymary was a member of the majority Arab population of Ahvaz, the focus of an Arabist separatist movement that follows the Wahabi sect of Islam, linked to Osama bin Laden.

He may have been targeted because he was a prominent supporter of the regime. Protests that followed shortly afterwards over the rationing of petrol convulsed Iran and its increasingly discontented citizens.

Well, that was an incredibly well timed and targeted assassination. And it is also not good for Ahmedinejad and the Mad Mullahs that so many Iranians are being killed and captured in Iraq:

In the last ten weeks, Iranian forces in Iraq (mainly members of the Quds Force) have been subject to several attacks, leaving over fifty dead and more than a hundred captured. The interrogations of these men has led to more arrests, and a growing pile of evidence concerning Iranian support of terrorist activity in Iraq. Iran denies it all.

But what Iranian leaders cannot deny is what it is doing to the people of Iran – who are rightfully getting fed up. And it is only going to be getting worse:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended a rationing scheme to cut back on petrol guzzling in the world’s fourth largest oil producer, saying even tighter controls are on the way.

“In recent days, petrol consumption has dropped from 80 mln liters (17.5 mln gallons) per day to 70 mln and (it) must go down to less than 60 mln liters per day,” President Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad’s government on Tuesday night suddenly announced petrol rationing throughout Iran, saying private cars using petrol would be limited to 100 liters of petrol a month and those using both petrol and liquefied gas would only be allowed 30 liters.

It is clear why Iran and Venezuela are talking. Both have restive populations, large oil reserves and busted economies. Iran may very well be hitting a tipping point of its own.