伊朗全國斷網+暴力衝突，看來美國的施壓很有效

As the internet slowly flickers back on across Iran, videos of violent clashes between protesters and security forces are bursting into the public eye. In the days following a fuel price hike on November 15, thousands of Iranians took to the streets to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the decision.

隨着全伊朗的互聯網慢慢恢復，抗議者和安保人員之間的暴力衝突視頻迅速進入公衆視線。11月15日燃油價格大幅上漲，隨後幾天數千伊朗人走上街頭表達對這一決定的不滿。

The 50 percent increase in fuel prices, which historically were highly subsidized, came without warning. Two days after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that the country faced a deficit that amounted to nearly two-thirds of the yearly $45 billion budget, Iranian state television broadcast his decision to increase gas prices for nearly 60 million Iranians.

以前燃油補貼很高，但現在燃油價格卻毫無徵兆地上漲了50%。就在兩天前，伊朗總統哈桑·魯哈尼宣佈，該國面臨的赤字幾乎相當於每年450億美元預算的三分之二，伊朗國家電視臺播報了總統針對近6000萬伊朗人提高油價的決定。

“It’s a little difficult to tell why [the Iranian regime] did what they did at this time with the subsidies,” Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, told me.

華盛頓布魯金斯學會智庫的伊朗專家Suzanne Maloney告訴我：“很難解釋此時‘伊朗政府’如此處理補貼的原因。”

“There’s no excuse for undertaking that policy in this way,” Maloney continued. “This announcement was unusual as it was so abrupt; it came with no notice or planning to brace the public.”

Maloney繼續說道：“沒有理由要這樣做，這個聲明太突然了，很反常。沒有提前通知，也沒有打算讓公衆做好準備。”

The Iranian government is under increasing strain due in large part to the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy of increased sanctions and support for the protesters.

伊朗政府壓力越來越大，主要是由於特朗普政府加大制裁力度的“極限施壓”政策以及對抗議者的支持。

Iran dismisses Washington officials’ statements of support for the protesters as “hypocritical” due to the effect that the sanctions have had on the Iranian economy that led to this crisis.

伊朗駁斥華盛頓官員支持抗議者的聲明是“虛僞的”，因爲制裁對伊朗經濟造成了影響，而正是經濟問題導致了這場危機。

Reza Khaasteh, a reporter and editor for the Iran Front Page news site based in Tehran, said that the economic situation the Iranian people are laboring under directs their anger both at home and abroad.

德黑蘭的《伊朗頭條》新聞網站記者兼編輯Reza Khaasteh說，正是伊朗人民所處的經濟形勢導致了國內外憤怒情緒的出現。

“Frustration is very widespread now,” Khaasteh told me. “The government needs to do much more to regain the trust [of the people]. But it’d be very, very difficult. ... The decisions made by the government were wrong moves in the wrong time, as the people were already struggling under the US sanctions, and could not stand any more economic pressure.”

Khaasteh告訴我：“現在人們普遍很沮喪，政府需要做出更多努力重獲‘人民的’信任，但這是相當相當困難的…政府在錯誤的時間做出了錯誤決定，由於美國的制裁伊朗人民已經處於水深火熱中了，承受不起更多的經濟壓力。”