Iran International:

Negar Mojtahedi

International sanctions renewed on Tehran over the weekend are already making life harder for ordinary Iranians and may signal an impasse that could lead to renewed war, experts told Iran International’s podcast Eye for Iran.

The renewed restrictions are biting deep into society, yet they are ultimately the result of Tehran’s own policies, economist Mahdi Ghodsi told Eye for Iran.

“In the past 10 years, the real income of Iranians has been halved. The middle class has become poor and the poor cannot live under these conditions,” he said.

“I consider sanctions as the effect of bad management, bad policy and bad governance. If you think about the benefits of your own people, you don’t impose policies that attract sanctions,” he added.

Iranians themselves are pointing the finger at their leaders, analyst Holly Dagres said.

“You’re hearing chants from retirees, you’re hearing labor unions saying enough — stop blaming sanctions and inflation. This is all on you. The West is not the problem here. You’re the problem,” said Dagres, a fellow at the The Washington Institute think tank.

Currency tank

The rial has collapsed to 1,170,000 to the US dollar — or 117,000 tomans on the free market — the weakest in Iran's history.

Iran’s Central Bank Governor blamed the plunge on an “enemy’s psychological war,” but for families, it has meant soaring costs for food, rent, and medicine. The broad scope of the new sanctions, covering oil, banking and dual-use goods, is already eroding purchasing power across the country.

The volatility is also taking a psychological toll.

Go to link