Iranians have spoken of their despair as prices in the country surge, and revealed many people cannot now afford to buy food.
The Iranian regime has vowed to fight back against expanded US sanctions aimed at further isolating its economy, after Washington pledged to launch an “economic D-Day”.
Iranians who spoke to the JC described mounting anger and anxiety over the deteriorating situation they face on the streets.
One, Babak, not his real name, is a doctor.
He said: “Prices go up every single week. Food is no longer affordable for the majority of people.”
The price of bread and chicken has doubled in six months, while the cost of beef has tripled since March.
People shop at the historic Tajrish bazaar in northern Tehran, on August 25, 2026. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced increased secondary sanctions intended to choke off the Iranian regime’s oil revenues.
He warned that countries would be given “a defined timeline” to end trade with Iran, while bodies helping Tehran launder money or evade sanctions could be “cut off from the US financial system”.
Bessent called the measures "the single greatest financial offensive ever" against Iran, and said they would "tighten the noose and block every potential source of revenue".
The Iranian currency, the rial, plunged further on Tuesday, hitting a record low on the open market of 2.04 million rials to the dollar.
The currency has lost more than seven per cent of its value against the dollar in less than a week, intensifying the financial pressure on ordinary Iranians.
The Islamic Republic accused the US of “waging an economic war” in an attempt to “provoke more protests”, while insisting that the authorities were prepared for the mounting pressure, and that Iranians had no reason to worry.
But accounts given to the JC by people inside Iran paint a markedly different picture: of collapsing purchasing power, deepening uncertainty and growing anger at a regime they accuse of enriching well-connected insiders while ordinary people bear the cost of sanctions.
Those who spoke to the JC also accused the authorities of continuing to pour resources into the security apparatus and missile programmes, and of supporting proxy groups abroad, even as living standards at home deteriorate.
“For the past 47 years, we have been living under sanctions. We have become poorer and poorer, while the regime’s oligarchs have become richer and richer,” said Babak, speaking from inside Iran.
He added: “I am an educated person, working as a doctor, and even I cannot afford to live.
“Fewer patients are coming to see us because they cannot afford medical care or medication.”
The crisis is particularly acute in Iran’s healthcare system, where the price of some medicines has risen by as much as 300 per cent in recent months.
Motorists drive past an anti-US billboard in Tehran on August 24, 2026. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images) /AFP via Getty Images
Reports from inside the country suggest that some patients are delaying or abandoning treatment because they can no longer afford it.
But Babak said the collapse of the rial was only part of the problem.
“It’s not only because of the dollar,” he said. “It’s also because of their corruption.
“The regime says that because the country is under sanctions, imports of goods such as medicines have to be handled by certain people who know how to circumvent the sanctions. Usually, it is the children of regime officials who do this.
“They import medicines, sell them at several times the price and profit from the sanctions. They make money out of our misery.”
Videos circulating on Iranian social media offer another glimpse of the anger over the country’s deepening economic crisis.
“My pension doesn’t even pay for a week of our food, let alone rent and other expenses. How are we supposed to live?”, an elderly man says in one video seen by the JC.
“And if we go out to protest against the situation, they call us Mossad agents and kill us.”
His words evoke the nationwide protests that erupted on 28 December 2025, after the rial plunged to around 1.4 million to the dollar.
What began with shopkeepers protesting against soaring prices and the collapsing currency rapidly developed into a nationwide anti-regime uprising.
Iranian authorities responded with a brutal crackdown. A near-total communications blackout imposed in January made establishing the death toll particularly difficult, but subsequent estimates have put the number killed in the thousands.
For some Iranians, however, the prospect of still greater economic pressure is regarded as a potentially necessary price for weakening the regime.
“We’ve tried everything else, and maybe these sanctions will lead to the regime’s total collapse,” said Leyla, a woman in her 30s speaking to the JC from Mashhad, in north-eastern Iran.
“Maybe this is the price we have to pay now. What else can we do? We tried protesting, we even had the war, and the regime still hasn’t stepped back. Maybe this will finally bring them down.”
Leyla said there was little indication that the regime was prepared to change course.
“They are paying their supporters to come out on to the streets every night and chant in support of them. They provide them with food and drinks,” she claimed.
“Maybe now they won’t be able to fund them anymore.
“Maybe this time, even those who were hesitant to protest against the regime will be left with no choice but to join us.”
The prospect of renewed unrest appears to be weighing on the Iranian authorities.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent at the Treasury Department in Washington DC after announcing a new set of sanctions against Iran on August 24, 2026. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Getty Images
Ahmadreza Radan, commander of the Islamic Republic’s police force, recently warned that economic grievances could become a catalyst for further protests.
“The enemy is seeking to create unrest in one part of the country or across the entire country, and issues such as the cost of living, petrol, the economy and unemployment could be used as pretexts for such actions,” he said.
His remarks come amid mounting concern over fuel prices and supplies.
Reports from several Iranian cities on Tuesday suggested that some petrol stations had closed or were experiencing shortages, amid speculation that the government could sharply increase the price of petrol in the coming days.
But not everyone believes that sanctions will trigger mass protests – or that economic pressure alone can bring down the Islamic Republic.
“It’s like Iraq in the 1990s,” said Mohammad, not his real name, speaking to the JC from southern Iran.
“President Bush called on the Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam. Saddam killed them, and then years of international sanctions failed to bring down his regime.
“He abused the Oil-for-Food Programme while ordinary Iraqis suffered. In the end, it was the international coalition that toppled the regime in 2003, not sanctions.
“Sanctions weakened the people and made Saddam’s regime more brutal,” Mohammad said.
Despite their disagreement over whether sanctions will ultimately weaken the Islamic Republic or further entrench it, those who spoke to the JC shared a common conviction that ordinary Iranians will bear the immediate cost, while the regime will seek to turn the pressure to its own advantage.
They fear Tehran will use the growing hardship as propaganda against the West, while regime-linked insiders exploit the sanctions for profit and the leadership uses the economic pressure as leverage in future negotiations.
For Iranians already struggling to afford food, medicine and housing, the question is whether the latest wave of sanctions will finally weaken the regime – or simply give it another crisis from which to profit.
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