A briefcase filled with Iranian rial banknotes is on display at the exchange market on Ferdowsi Street in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday, January 6, 2018.
Ali Mohammadi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Iran is facing its worst series of crises in years, facing economic deterioration in addition to a series of unprecedented geopolitical and military blows to Iranian power in the Middle East.
According to Reuters, Iran’s currency, the rial, hit an all-time low of 756,000 rials to the dollar over the weekend. The currency, which has been in turmoil since September, has suffered from devastating blows to Iranian proxies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as well as the fallout from Donald Trump’s US presidential election in November. There is.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has been ousted amid a shocking rebel offensive, leaving Tehran without its most important ally in the Middle East. Assad, accused of war crimes against his own people, fled to Russia, leaving behind a bitterly divided country.
“The fall of the Assad regime is a matter of survival for the Islamic Republic,” Benam Ben Taleburu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told CNBC. “Lest we forget, the regime spent more than a decade of treasure, blood and reputation to save a regime that ultimately collapsed in less than two weeks.”
The currency depreciation comes as ordinary Iranians struggle to buy daily necessities and suffer from high inflation and unemployment as a result of years of harsh sanctions by the West, exacerbated by internal corruption and economic mismanagement. It reveals the degree of difficulty faced.
President Trump has promised to take a tough stance on Iran, re-entering the White House nearly six years after unilaterally pulling the US out of the Iran nuclear deal and reimposing broad sanctions on the country. I will do it.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has announced his government’s intention to negotiate and revive an agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that lifts some sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbing its nuclear program. did. However, this attempt at assistance comes as the Iranian government is enriching uranium at record levels, reaching a purity of 60% and technically a short step away from weapons-grade purity levels of 90%. This was carried out at a time when the International Atomic Energy Agency was making an announcement.
