Gas rationing in Iran ignites anger, unrest

But a quota imposed Wednesday on the purchase of subsidized gasoline sent Iranians to the streets, where they set fire to at least 12 gas stations, damaged government-owned banks and department stores and shouted slogans against the president, according to Iranian news agencies and witnesses.

To curb rapidly increasing gasoline consumption, the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday began enforcing a rationing program that limits most motorists to 26.4 gallons a month at the subsidized price of about 42 cents per gallon.

Although Iran possesses huge reserves of crude oil and natural gas, it has too few refineries to meet the energy-hungry country's demand, forcing it to import more than $4 billion of refined petroleum a year, most of it from Europe. That dependence makes Iran vulnerable to economic sanctions from the West, which is pressuring it to halt uranium enrichment.

Ahmadinejad's conservative government proposed a complicated rationing system last year, but did not implement it on schedule amid public fury and technical problems. In March, it raised the price of the subsidized gas 25%.

But despite concerns voiced by supreme leader Ali Khamenei and security officials, the government revived the plan this week, putting it into effect with only two hours' notice.

"We live on an ocean of oil," said Kambiz Rahmati, 25, an electronics engineer working in a computer market in Tehran. "Why should we pay a high price for gasoline or suffer rationing?"

State-controlled television announced the plan Tuesday night, sending masses of people out into the streets. Motorists honking their horns in protest rushed to fill up in the hours before the plan went into effect. Crowds gathered, and as the clock struck midnight, melees erupted. Angry mobs in the capital set gas stations afire. A spokesman for the fire department told the daily World of Industry newspaper that 21 gas stations had been burned down. Others said at least a dozen were set ablaze.

Witnesses said demonstrators chanted slogans against Ahmadinejad, calling him a "pimp." Scuffles broke out between protesters and members of the pro-government Basiji militia.

Rioters smashed windows of chain stores and government banks. A witness said that a gas station was burned down in Garmsar, Ahmadinejad's hometown.