Sanctions having effect in Iran

Two Iranian newspapers that are said to reflect the opinions of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, are calling for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to keep his nose out of the country's nuclear program, the New York Times is reporting.

As Iran becomes increasingly marginalized by the international community which sanctioned the Islamic Republic in December for its defiant stance on nuclear enrichment, its economy has begun to be affected. The Iranian stock market has plummeted. Many European banks have stopped doing business with Iran.

One of the newspapers, the daily Jomhouri-Eslami, rebuked the Iranian president for having referred to the December sanctions as "a torn piece of paper" and went on to pronounce that “The resolution is certainly harmful for the country.”

“The resolution has had a psychological effect on people,” Ali Hagh, an economist in Tehran told the Times. “It does not make sense for investors not to consider political events when they want to invest their money.”