‘Potato policy’ is hot issue in Iran

Potatoes and tea are given away in Tehran during a Shia festival. Now the president is accused of wooing voters with handouts

You might think Iranians are blaming Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad for exacerbating Iran’s isolation or squandering its wealth on a nuclear programme.

But two months before the June presidential election, the fundamentalist president seeking a second term is under fire for more banal issues, including what is being called in Tehran as his “potato policy”.