Iran continues crackdown on dissent

TEHRAN, June 24 (UPI) -- Iran has stepped up its crackdown against dissent, targeting labor leaders, academics, journalists and women's rights advocates, it was reported Sunday.

The crackdown is happening amid a nuclear standoff with the West that threatens to bring new sanctions and an economy so stressed it is on the verge of rationing gasoline, even though Iran is the world's second-largest oil exporter, the New York Times reported.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under pressure in his country for failing to deliver greater prosperity from soaring oil revenue, the Times reported. He, therefore, has been using U.S. support for a change in government, as well as a possible military attack, as a pretext to crackdown on his opposition.

Some analysts say it is an attempt to return to the 1979 revolution, when the newly formed Islamic Republic used religious zeal and anti-imperialist rhetoric to try to assert itself as a regional leader.

Little of the crackdown on dissent has been permitted to be discussed in the Iranian media, the Times reported.