Iran has been roiled by demonstrations against the dramatic increase in the price of gasoline that was dictated by the government earlier this month. The demonstrations have been brutally suppressed, with somewhere between 100 and several hundred protesters killed by police. For several days, the mullahs pulled the plug on internet service to prevent videos of the protests and police brutality to be seen by the outside world.

Totalitarian governments always lie in state-controlled media, but it is hard not to mix in the occasional truth. The mullahs’ version is: Supreme Leader: Highly Dangerous Conspiracy Foiled by Iranian people.

According to the mullahs, the demonstrations began innocently but were taken over by outside agitators controlled by the United States and Israel. Happily, the great mass of the Iranian people rose up to suppress the protests and show support for the regime:

“I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to the great Iranian nation for their magnificent movement during recent days. The people proved again that they are powerful and great, and defeated the big conspiracy of the enemy with their presence on the scene,” Ayatollah Khamenei said…. “The grave, extensive and very dangerous conspiracy that Global Arrogance and Zionism spent so much on and worked for so that they could cause this destruction, villainy, and murder in Iran at a crucial time was quashed by the presence of the people,” he added.

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“Israel and the US were behind these incidents,” General Sharif said, addressing a forum in the Southern province of Kerman.

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Riots by a small number who had taken advantage of legitimate public protests against the government’s gas price hike plan in Iran were directed at sowing chaos through targeted attacks on public and private properties, forcing law enforcement to step in to stop saboteurs.

There is much more along the same lines at the link. What is interesting, however, is how Iran’s government talks about the increase in fuel prices and the peaceful demonstrations launched in response thereto:

On November 15, the government raised Iran’s extremely cheap gas price in order to moderate the national consumption rate, which stands at 110 million liters per day, 40 million liters above the maximum domestic requirement.

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The price reform, required by Iranian legislature and essential as US-imposed sanctions seek to deplete Iran’s budgetary resources, had been long delayed due to concerns regarding the move’s probable backlash.

In other words, the Trump administration’s sanctions are working. Iran’s government, short of cash, was forced to dramatically raise the price of fuel, even though it knew what the reaction would be. And the resulting explosion–the analogy to the Yellow Vest protests in France is obvious–has shaken the regime.

Trump’s policy of using sanctions to starve the mullahs of cash contrasts favorably with Barack Obama’s inexplicable policy of sending $100 billion dollars to the regime in exchange for empty promises.