When President Trump announced in May that the U.S. would leave the Iran nuclear deal, that Obama administration orchestration of payment of billions of dollars to the rogue regime, he said sanctions intended to prevent it from becoming a nuclear power would return.
“The Iran deal is defective at its core,” he warned at the time.
And even though those sanctions still are months away, just the knowledge that they are coming is having an impact, according to a new report from the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“The Iranian regime is already showing signs of economic and political collapse, although through the 40 years of its existence it has presented itself as a powerful regime that benefits from popular support, a prosperous economy despite the sanctions, comprehensive economic, technological and scientific capabilities and unprecedented military abilities,” explains the report by A. Savyon and Yigal Carmon.
Savyon is the director of the group’s Iran Media Project, and Carmon is the MEMRI founder.
The nation not only has seen unprecedented demonstrations against its own government, but its currency, the rial, has been plunging, despite government efforts to prop it up.
“Trump’s May 2018 announcement about planned economic measures against Iran was enough to destabilize the country’s economy and cause resurgence, on May 26, 2018, of large-scale protests in central Tehran that lasted several days. In our assessment, even if the protests die down or are repressed by the regime for a while, they will eventually recur and intensify, because the Iranian regime can offer no solution for the economic crisis except by changing its regional and nuclear policies, i.e., by directing Iran’s national resources towards benefiting the Iranian people rather than promoting its goals outside the country.”
They explained that the renewed sanctions, including oil and banking sanctions, are scheduled to come into effect on Nov. 4, 2018.
“Only then will companies no longer be able to make transactions with Iran without incurring punitive measures by the U.S.,” the report said.
So, really, “there was no objective economic reason for the collapse of the Iranian currency four months before this date, especially considering that the European Union actively opposes Trump’s plans and is considering countermeasures to allow the Iranian regime to continue enjoying the economic privileges granted to Iran by the Obama administration,” the report said.
“Iranian officials likewise stress that there is no objective reason for the currency crash, and this is not inaccurate, since the crash apparently stems mainly from the Iranian public’s apprehensions. According to the officials, the protests and the public’s loss of confidence in the regime are the result of a plot by the Americans and the Zionists, who are employing psychological warfare against Iran since they are unable to confront it militarily,” they reported.
Among the chants at those demonstrations was “Death to the dictator.”
The regime, meanwhile, is staying its course, blaming “Americans and Zionists” for the nation’s declining strength.
“The officials stress that the regime has adequate reserves of foreign currency and stores of essential foods like oil and sugar, and urge the public not to panic. They also shift responsibility to the public itself by charging it to help the government overcome the currency crash,” the report explains.
They also have repressed dissent “with an iron fist, i.e., by subjecting ‘disruptors of the economic order’ to sever penalties, up to and including the death penalty,” the report continued.
“Iranian judiciary chief Ayatollah Amoli Larijani warned on June 26 that ‘the regime would not, under any circumstances, compromise with the rioters’ and that ‘the disruption of order would result in severe punishments … including the death penalty, imprisonment of up to 20 years and the seizing of property,'” MEMRI reported.
In a statement recently, Iranian President Hassan Rohani claimed the nation produces all the grain, oil and sugar it needs, and it has “adequate reserves” of anything that needs to be imported.
But his adviser Yahya Rahim Safavi blamed “the satanic triangle” including America, Zionists and the Saudi royal family for wanting to weaken Iran.
He said, “Under the [Supreme] Leader’s orders, [Iran’s] three branches [of government] are holding meetings and combatting America’s economic war on Iran. All institutions, as well as the people, must cooperate with the government, so that we overcome this situation that has been imposed [upon us] with our heads held high.”
MEMRI’s warning is simple: “Given that the Iranian regime adheres to its ideological stance and is unwilling to change its policy of channeling the state’s resources towards regional expansion and the increasing of its military might, and has rejected calls by reformist figures to renew negotiations with the U.S. to resolve the problems (such as the calls of Hashemi Rafsanjani’s daughter Faezeh and several other reformists who published an open letter calling for dialogue with the U.S.), the economic deterioration is likely to continue, triggering even harsher popular criticism and protests against the regime leadership. The economic crisis is bound to deepen in the coming year, and the internal collapse, triggered by economic factors, is likely to spread to the political sphere. “
