Iran bows under growing economic pressures

Troubles are mounting in Iran. Its currency, the rial, has lost more than half its value against the dollar on unofficial markets this year and inflation is soaring. Even middle-class Iranians are struggling to get by, with food prices rising and reported fuel shortages in some cities. Sporadic anti-government demonstrations are continuing.

Worse, the economic pressure on the country is set to mount. The US government last week reinstated economic sanctions that had been waived as part of the Iran nuclear deal of 2015. These punitive economic measures are set to intensify in November, when the US will seek to ban Iranian oil exports. EU nations have pledged to try to preserve economic ties with Iran. But it seems probable that most large European companies will sacrifice trade with Iran, rather than risk suffering from secondary sanctions.

The US government says its goal in re-imposing sanctions is to force Iran to make deeper concessions on its nuclear programme and to stop its military and political intervention in neighbouring countries — in particular Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

Tehran charges that the Trump administration’s real goal is “regime change”. It has some justification for its suspicions. John Bolton, the US national security adviser, asserted last week that changing the regime in Iran is not America’s goal. Before joining the government, however, Mr Bolton had explicitly called for the fall of the Iranian government.

Since the Iranian revolution of 1979, the clerical regime has been guilty of serious abuses of human rights, economic mismanagement and the support of terrorism and insurgencies around the region. The Iranian people and the Middle East deserve better.