India, March 22 -- Iran faces economic collapse, rising protests, military setbacks, and potential regime change amid leadership uncertainty.

LONDON: "The country is like a powder keg, and further economic strain could be the spark that sets it off", said an official, close to Iran's government last week. In January alone, Iran's Statistical Centre disclosed that a third of essential commodities increased in price by more than 40 percent, to leave them more than double that of the previous year. At the same time, state media reported that the price of rice had soared 200 percent over the past year, while housing and utility costs had sparked sharply, climbing more than 60 percent in some Teheran districts in recent months, due largely to...