Tehran Bazaar Strikes Enter Day Two Amid Rial Collapse

Are U.S. sanctions strangling Iran's economy, or is regime corruption and warmongering destroying the nation from within?

Published 1 day ago

Tehran Bazaar Strikes Enter Day Two Amid Rial Collapse

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Above: A man who runs a mobile currency exchange office counting money in Tehran, Iran on Oct. 6, 2025. Image credit: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

Economic sanctions are bleeding the Iranian rial with major consequences. Trump's maximum pressure sanctions have strangled oil exports and collapsed the Iranian currency by 50% since September, driving prices up 100% as medicine shortages worsen. Learning from previous experience, the U.S. has plugged loopholes to make the sanctions more thorough. Additionally, non-oil exports are also targeted now.

Iran International

Nepal Correspondence on X

Right narrative

The rial's catastrophic collapse represents systematic plunder by Khamenei's inner circle through unrestrained money printing and resource theft. Regime corruption and warmongering policies — not sanctions alone — have destroyed 99.9% of the currency's value over 45 years. Inflation is a hidden tax funneling national wealth to military elites and while the middle class slides into poverty.

Eurasia Review

Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay on X