International politics interest me for several reasons. One is that even with the UN, WTO, EU, and any number of other organizations, issues still come down to either convincing the other side or going to war (and that second option is still rather rare).

It appears that Iranian citizens are convinced that the nuclear issue isn't going well for them. Why convert money into gold? Because it's pretty easy to convert gold into any currency you want -- whether that's US dollars, Russian rubles, Brazilian reals, New Iraqi dinars, or whatever the future government of Iran prints.