How Iran’s Government Benefits From Its Falling Currency

The source says eight tankers were targeted and two of them caught fire, forcing the convoy to stop moving. However, Iran claims still 14 tankers are in the Iraqi territory.

Iran's state broadcaster had earlier announced that American warplanes had launched airstrikes against a convoy carrying logistics along the Iraqi-Syrian border.

Sabereen News, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard says 25 fighters have been killed and 21 others injured so far but provided no details about the nationality of the military personnel. It says the fuel shipment was supposed to be delivered to Lebanon.

According to AFP, a spokeswoman for the US-led coalitionfighting the remnants of the ISIS in Iraq and Syria said that the strike was not carried out by the United States or any other coalition country.

Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated the strike hit a convoy of “fuel tankers and trucks loaded with weapons and most of those killed were militiamen.”

Pro-Iran militias have long been present near the Iraq-Syria border in Deir ez-Zor province and for several times Iran and the US launched reciprocal attacks there.

The strike comes a day after a US citizen, Stephen Edward Troell, was killed in Baghdad. No group claimed responsibility for the killing but Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Monday ordered an investigation. The US embassy in Baghdad confirmed Troell’s death, adding that they were closely monitoring the investigation.

Russia's Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin met with Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Russian state news agencies said.

Nour News Agency, affiliated with the Iranian Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), announced in an English tweet that Patrushev was invited by Shamkhani, adding that he will also hold meetings with other high-ranking Iranians to discuss cooperation between Tehran and Moscow.

Alongside Ukraine, the two discussed "information security, as well as measures to counter interference in the internal affairs of both countries by Western special services," the TASS news agency reported, citing a readout from the Russian Security Council press service.

"The economic potential of Russia and Iran and building foreign trade relations in the face of sanctions pressure was emphasized," it added.

Patrushev’s trip to Iran has raised considerable speculations that he might discuss the sale of Iranian ballistic missiles to Russia, which has already used Iranian suicide drones in Ukraine against civilian targets.

The Islamic Republic on Saturday finally admitted it has provided drones to Russia claiming that they were supplied months before the Ukrainian war.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran provided Moscow with a limited number of drones months before the war, but if it is proven that Russia has used them against Ukraine, the Islamic Republic will not be indifferent to it.

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After 18 months of talks to revive the JCPOA, an Obama-era nuclear accord with the United States, Iran presented demands in August that were unacceptable to Washington and negotiations broke down. Already in July the US had announced that Iran was preparing to supply drones to Russia.

Petrushev’s visit comes amid some criticism in Tehran of military aid to Moscow. The well-known conservative editor of a government newspaper asked the government on Monday why it did not ban Russia from using Iranian drones against Ukraine. Massih Mohajeri, the editor of Jomhouri Eslami (Islamic Republic) newspaper said the government must admit its mistake.

Some believe Iran publicly announced Patrushev’s arrival in Tehran to tell the world that the mutual ties between the Islamic Republic and Russia is deepening, and implicitly emphasize that a powerful Russian official turned to Iran for help in Ukraine.

However, the clerical regime is likely to boast of its strategic relations with Russia, signaling to its regional adversaries that the Kremlin is a constant powerful ally, although in fact it faces a possible defeat in Ukraine, with its military reputation in tatters.

Some others speculate the Iranian autocratic rulers are seeking Russian assistance to suppress the antigovernment protests that have swept the country since mid-September.

Late last month, the White House expressed concerns that Russia may be advising Tehran on best practices to suppress the ongoing protests in Iran.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during joint press briefing with Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby that Moscow may be helping the Islamic Republic, drawing on its own experience in suppressing open demonstrations.

Patrushev’s visit comes amid international outcry over the Islamic Republic’s supply of drones and ballistic missiles to Moscow. Kiev said earlier that Tehran plans to ship even more arms to Russia. Ukrainian intelligence agencies claimed the Islamic Republic is set to deliver more than 200 Shahed-136 and Arash-2 kamikaze drones, and Mohajer-6 reconnaissance and combat UAVs later in November.

With reporting by Reuters

Mohammad Reza Afkhami, Secretary of Khorasan Razavi Pharmacists Association, said pharmacies are not separate from other guilds and they are not in a good economic situation either.

“Currently, the economy of pharmacies is ruined, and they are on the verge of closing down. If the situation continues like this, we will see the closure of pharmacies soon,” warned Afkhami.

He listed the increase in the number of pharmacies, inflation, lack of pharmaceutical items, high taxes, rents, cost of bills, etc. as factors of the bankruptcy of pharmacies.

This Iranian expert also added that some common medications like cold pills, acetaminophen, amoxicillin, distilled water, and syringes are scarce due to the government mismanagement.

While there are numerous reports about shortages of medicines, including basic drugs and IV fluids in recent months, the country’s health ministry has recently destroyed a huge amount of the imported supplies without the required examination by relevant organizations.

The Islamic Republic has been claiming that United States sanctions prevent procurement of medicines, while Washington insists that humanitarian aid is exempt from sanctions. Iran has been importing more than $1.5 billion of medicines a year.

Considering the incessant bemoaning by the Islamic Republic’s officials about the effect of US sanctions on shortages of medicine in the country, there are speculations that the government is pleased with the psychological effects of the shortages on foreign audiences.

Sunak met UAE president Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan on the sidelines of the COP27 United Nations climate gathering in Egypt. Beleaguered over bullying allegations against a leading minister back in London, Sunak told Saudi-owned al-Arabiya that the United Kingdom was “lucky in its important and historical relations with the Gulf states.”

Britain has been a major regional arms supplier, with around 60 percent of its annual £110-billion ($126 billion) weapons exports going to the Persian Gulf, with Saudi Arabia, easily the region’s highest defense spender, taking the lion’s share. But a small amount has been going to the UAE, with only £887 million ($1.17 billion) to the UAE in the decade up to 2017, and France in December 2021 securing an €21-billion sale ($21 billion) to the UAE of advanced Rafale jets.

While the UAE and Iran have restored diplomatic relations since President Ebrahim Raisi took office in August 2020, Tehran-Riyadh talks in Baghdad have not yet led to the return of ambassadors. The Wall Street Journal recently reported Saudi warnings to the US of an imminent Iranian attack, although skeptics have noted this came just after Riyadh’s relations with President Joe Biden were strained by Saudi coordination with Russia over oil production cuts in the run-up to November 8 US Congressional elections.

‘Look who’s here! NASMAMs’

After months of lobbying in Washington, Ukraine said Monday it had received the first delivery of surface-to-air missiles that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed can combat drones supplied to Russia by Iran.

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said the NASAMS air defense systems would “significantly strengthen” its armed forces. “Look who’s here! NASAMS and Aspide air defense systems arrived in Ukraine!,” Reznikov tweeted. The Aspide is an Italian-made missile with a 40-km range.

A spokesman for the Germany government said Monday it was up to Kyiv to decide whether to open peace talks with Russia. Aside from €2-billion military aid to Ukraine, the German government has allocated $200 billion to cushion domestic and business consumers against energy price rises.

Iran acknowledged Saturday that it supplied drones to Russia, claiming this was before the current phase of the conflict began in February, but Kyiv has made great play of the supply in its lobbying efforts and recently named Iranian airlines it said had delivered drones. The US, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have argued that Iran sending drones to Russia contravenes United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

‘Not evolving in right direction’

Efforts to restore the JCPOA, which the US left in 2018 imposing ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions on Iran, have paused since the summer. Josep Borrell, foreign policy chief of the European Union, which has chaired JCPOA talks, said Monday that “positions between the parties” were “not converging yet,” meaning “things are not evolving in the right direction.”

Bilateral meetings between Iran and the US in the summer, chaired by the EU, and subsequent exchanges of messages, failed to resolve differences. Iran has sought ‘guarantees’ that it would be cushioned economically against the US again leaving the agreement. The atmosphere has also soured with the US and European states imposing additional sanctions on Iran, including against its ‘morality police’ over the death of a 22-year-old woman.

The most urgent problem is a fast-falling national currency that began to nosedive in early November, dropping to historic lows almost on daily basis. The US dollar has risen from 295,000 rials to 365,000 in two months. But that is just an early signal of what is to come.

The retail sector is having its own multiple problems. First, during protests people are buying less, as recently the garment industry complained of very low sales to consumers who are in no mood to go shopping.

Second, a draconian denial of access to the Internet by the government, to contain the protests, has badly hurt hundreds of thousands of small businesses dependent on sales through social media.

Third, Iranian consumers have begun boycotting large retailers and businesses believed to be controlled by the Revolutionary Guard and other regime entities, as another tool in their civil disobedience movement.

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Digikala, Iran’s Amazon, and Mihan dairy and food company have been targeted by activists on social media, who tell the people not to enrich the government’s suppression machine. In a matter of days, there are signs of lower sales by both companies, which sponsored appeals from their workers who asked the public not to harm their livelihoods.

Fourth, and the perhaps the most predictable is a looming shortage of natural gas in the winter, as pressure in Iran’s South Pars maritime fields in the Persian Gulf are gradually falling. The country has failed to secure capital and western technology to improve drilling and pumping system to boost production.

Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas reserves after Russia with almost 30 trillion cubic meters of potential supply, but it needs to invest $50 billion and use special technology only a few western firms can provide to keep its level of daily production at around 700 million cubic meters.

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The former head of the national gas company, Hamidreza Eraghi told ILNA news website in Tehran on November 7, that this winter the country might be forced to buy gas from Turkmenistan to be able to supply electricity and keep industries in business. Already, in the past few years as consumption has risen, there have been both shortages of electricity and gas. The government sells energy at ridiculously cheap rates and consumers have no incentive to save, with usage fast increasing each year.

There are also ongoing strikes in the oil and gas sectors in solidarity with nationwide protests, which will further hurt production.

What Iran needs most is imported technology for horizontal drilling for gas, Eraghi said, and this winter imports should increase to prevent an industrial shutdown.

The government has periodically highlighted the need to boost prices to lower consumption, but that would anger a public that has become impoverished in the past four years after the United States imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil exports. Already, with nationwide antigovernment protests raging, the government has no way to increase energy prices.

Ordinary Iranians have fallen victim to high inflation rate for years. No one knows exactly what the current annual inflation rate is, but if one would believe the government, it is at least 40 percent, with food prices having risen by 100 percent in the past 12 months. The falling national currency will accelerate inflation as Iran imports a significant part of its food and raw materials.

With a convergence of so many negative economic developments there is very little the regime can do to stop the protesters, who openly say they want to get rid of the Islamic Republic, not only for its economic mismanagement but also for its draconian denial of social freedoms.