Iranian lawmaker links mobile disruptions to power shortages

"It is not just that the E3 has no legal, political, or moral entitlement to invoke "snapback", and that even if they did, "use or lose it" doesn't work," Araghchi said in a post on X.

"It's that the correct expression for the E3's dilemma is "use it *and* lose it". Or better yet, "use it and lose it *all*"," he said, without providing further details.

The three European powers triggered the snapback process on August 28 under Resolution 2231, demanding Iran return to talks, grant wider access to inspectors, and account for its missing uranium stockpiles.

Sanctions will be automatically reimposed within 30 days unless the Security Council votes otherwise.

Tehran has rejected the move. Speaking on state TV Thursday, Araghchi said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium remained intact despite Israeli and US airstrikes in June.

“Our enriched uranium is buried under the rubble of bombed nuclear facilities,” he said, marking the first official acknowledgment the material survived.

The Supreme National Security Council would decide on Iran’s response if sanctions return, he added without giving details.

The UN nuclear watchdog (IAEA) reported earlier this month that Iran’s 60% enriched uranium stockpile rose nearly eight percent before the June strikes, reaching 440.9 kilograms.

Reuters reported in June that most of the enriched uranium at Iran’s Fordow facility appeared to have been moved days before the attacks.

The United States on Wednesday urged Iran to take “immediate and concrete action” to meet its nuclear safeguards obligations, warning the IAEA board may need to act if Tehran fails to cooperate.

Many with monthly incomes of 200 to 300 million rials ($200-300) can no longer afford routine purchases or modest leisure activities.

One young woman told the paper her salary had risen sixfold in four years but her quality of life had deteriorated. “I clearly struggle to make ends meet each month,” she said, explaining that social outings had shrunk to small gatherings at friends’ homes.

A married couple said they had stopped buying basic items like coffee, while another respondent described cutting back on skin-care products and restaurants out of fear of running out of money before month’s end.

Other interviewees echoed the theme. A newly married couple said that after a short trip to Kish Island in southern Iran, they had no money left for the rest of the month.

Once accustomed to filling their cart with extras at chain stores, they now only buy essentials. A bookstore owner recounted earning 500 million rials ($500) a month but said higher household costs meant “in my youth I am constantly thinking about money problems, not joy.”

A teacher who once traveled frequently told Shargh he could no longer afford even budget trips to neighboring Turkey. Rising rents forced him and his friends to abandon a shared home outside Tehran.

“Even though all of us earn more than last year, our quality of life has clearly gone down,” he said.

Psychological strain

The loss of economic security is driving chronic anxiety among young professionals, psychologist Nasser Ghasemzadeh told Shargh.

He said financial stress discourages marriage and childbearing and undermines collective morale: “A young person who compares himself with peers abroad feels defeated. That sense of failure reduces hope in life.”

Without economic reforms, insecurity will continue to erode both individual mental health and wider social cohesion, he warned.

The problem is rooted in inequality and state neglect, economist Hossein Raghfar told the daily. Wage-earners, unable to offset inflation through pricing power, bear the brunt of rising costs, according to him.

Raghfar cited a 60–70 percent jump in car prices last winter as proof of government failure to regulate markets.

He cautioned that frustration is fueling crime and social unrest. “These young people look at the decision-making system and see it as the main cause of their failures—and to a large extent they are right.”

Once a political force, the middle class now feels powerless, he added, drained of energy for civic engagement by daily financial stress.

The insecurity facing young, educated workers is no longer a private matter but a collective threat to Iran’s social fabric and future stability, Shargh concluded.

Iran faces one of the highest inflation rates in the region. According to the International Monetary Fund's estimates, the annual inflation rate has averaged above 42% since 2020.

Sanctions, corruption and economic mismanagement have contributed to widespread economic hardship and market instability as Iran's currency the rial has lost over 90% of its value since US sanctions were reimposed in 2018.

A poll by Iran's leading economic newspaper Donya-ye Eqtesad last month showed that a vast majority of Iranians are dissatisfied with the government's economic policies, as costs of living soar and the value of the Iranian currency slips.

Since the 12-day war with Israel in June, athletes have been performing military-style salutes to the flag at international competitions—a move heavily promoted by state media but denounced by opposition groups and angry fans.

The first instance came on June 14, a day after Israel’s strikes, when Iran’s volleyball team saluted before a match in the FIVB Men’s Nations League.

Whether the move was spontaneous or ordered by authorities remains unclear. Since then, athletes at send-off ceremonies, matches and even homecomings are expected to perform the gesture.

Opponents condemn what they see as forced reverence for the flag and anthem, symbols they see as inseparable from the Islamic Republic’s ideology.

Refusal to sing the anthem had become one of the most visible forms of athlete protest in recent years.

State media, including Press TV, portray the salutes as loyalty to the armed forces and solidarity with war victims.

Following the June conflict with Israel and the United States, authorities have embraced a nationalism they once suppressed to rally a weary public. Sports are now used to showcase allegiance.

“This gesture shows our enemies that the nation always stands behind the Leader of the Revolution,” said MP Rahim Zare, praising the footballers’ salute before a CAFA Nations Cup match against India.

Opponents, however, slammed the display and even celebrated the team’s defeat online.

“These are the regime’s team,” one X user wrote. “It used to be the national team when it didn’t give military salutes.”

Football’s loss of support

The national football team, Team Melli, has suffered a dramatic loss of support since the 2022–23 protests triggered by Mahsa Amini’s death in custody.

Some players condemned the crackdown, wore black armbands, and refused to sing the anthem at the Qatar World Cup. Their defiance drew global attention but was followed by a return to compliance, reflecting intense behind-the-scenes pressure.

Many fans began calling the squad the “mullahs’ team.” Victories no longer stirred pride; defeats—such as the Asian Cup loss to Qatar in February 2024—were even welcomed by some.

Pressure beyond football

The football squad’s experience is emblematic, but pressure extends across sports. Athletes risk harassment, arrest and career ruin for small acts of defiance.

Voria Ghafouri, captain of Esteghlal, was arrested in November 2022 after criticizing the government’s protest crackdown and supporting Kurdish rights. His career has since collapsed.

Legendary striker Ali Daei and his family were also targeted: his Tehran businesses were shut, and authorities forced a jetliner to land to stop his family from leaving the country.

Images from a charity match last week showed Daei and fellow former player Hamid Estili refusing to sing the anthem—a quiet but potent reminder that, even under relentless pressure, the anthem remains one of the few remaining stages for resistance.

The assets belonged to Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, also known as Mohammad Abedini, 39, of Tehran.

“The government seized USDT (Tether) from an un-hosted cryptocurrency wallet alleged to be controlled by Abedini,” the Justice Department announced in a statement on Thursday.

USDT (Tether) is a stablecoin, meaning its value is tied to the US dollar. The cryptocurrency has been issued by Tether Limited since 2014.

Abedini is the founder and managing director of San’at Danesh Rahpooyan Aflak Co. (SDRA), a company that manufactures navigation system modules, including the Sepehr Navigation System (SNS), used in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military drone program, the Justice Department alleged.

The IRGC has been designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the United States since 2019.

The SNS is used in guided rockets and missile-integrated navigation systems. In January 2024, three US service members were killed in an attack Washington blamed on the IRGC. A drone recovered from the attack was identified as a Shahed drone equipped with the SNS guidance system.

The strike targeted Tower 22, a US military base in northern Jordan, injuring more than 40 others.

“US law authorizes the forfeiture of all assets of individuals or entities engaged in planning or perpetrating a federal crime of terrorism against the United States, its citizens or residents, or their property, and all assets, foreign or domestic, affording any person a source of influence over any such entity,” the Justice Department said.

The United States charged Abedini in 2024 with conspiring to export sophisticated electronic components from the US to Iran and providing material support to a designated FTO.

He was arrested in Italy in December 2024 at the request of the United States, which sought his extradition. Abedini was released in January 2025 after Italy appeared to swap him for an Italian journalist detained in Tehran.

Italian authorities determined that violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act are not punishable under Italian law, in line with the Italy–US extradition treaty.

Figures from commodities intelligence company Kpler shows a sharp rise in Iranian oil offloaded at Chinese ports last month in a sign the world's top oil importer was unfazed by attempted US curbs on Tehran's supplies.

The surge was so significant that Iran’s unsold crude stored at sea in Asian waters—which had been building for months— fell by half in just one month, in a sign of stepped up demand.

According to Kpler, Iranian crude offloaded at Chinese ports in August hit 1.68 million barrels per day (bpd)—a 23% jump from July.

Floating storage dropped to 15 million barrels by September 7, down from 30 million barrels in early August, much of it concentrated near Malaysia.

Since the start of the year, the US Treasury has sanctioned 127 tankers along with dozens of individuals, companies and networks accused of skirting US sanctions on Iranian flows, which it says enriches Tehran's aggressive military moves.

Tehran denounces the sanctions as an attack on the livelihood of its people and bid to bend its policy to Western will.

The frenetic pace of new curbs manifested itself at times in near daily new US announcements on entities in the Treasury and State Department crosshairs for allegedly moving Iran's oil.

Yet the administration’s pledge to “bring Iran’s oil exports to zero” appears to have fallen far short of its intent, the data indicates.

Both loading and discharging volumes of Iranian crude are higher than last year.

While month-to-month fluctuations in Chinese port discharges have been sharp, the overall trend shows growth. On average, China has discharged 1.45 million bpd of Iranian crude over the first eight months of 2025, slightly above the same period last year.

This transpired despite Washington blacklisting more than a hundred “ghost fleet” tankers linked to Iranian smuggling operations.

China holds the key

US efforts to dismantle Iran’s smuggling networks—through monitoring ship-to-ship transfers, forged documents and hidden financial channels—could eventually slow Tehran’s trade.

But Beijing’s willingness to greenlight purchases of Iranian oil appears to have carried the day. Without Chinese cooperation, Washington’s “maximum pressure” strategy could face failure.

Chinese Premier Xi Jinping hosted Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian along with heads of state from Russia, North Korea and other nations not aligned with the United States for an international conference and military parade this month.

The spectacle was widely interpreted as a show of strength and defiance toward American preeminence in global politics and trade and a sign that sharp policy swerves by the Trump administration on sanctions and tariffs were rejected.

Beijing’s insistence on importing Iranian oil is not driven by supply shortages or price discounts alone. The market is oversupplied, and prices are lower than last year.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) noted in its September 11 report that global oil production this year is expected to rise by 2.7 million bpd, while demand will increase by only 700,000 bpd.

Analysts estimate Tehran grants Chinese refiners discounts of $4-6 per barrel to keep crude moving. Yet China’s persistence in overlooking US sanctions may also serve as a bargaining chip in trade talks.

Since returning to office, President Trump has reimposed multiple layers of tariffs on Chinese goods, and US Census Bureau data shows imports from China fell 19% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2025.

China’s refusal to enforce US oil sanctions against Iran could thus be part of a broader strategy to leverage concessions from Washington in its trade disputes.

Oil-for-goods nexus

Another key factor is that Chinese exports to Iran are closely tied to oil imports. Crude shipments underpin China’s status as Iran’s largest trading partner, with part of Tehran’s oil payments settled through barter with Chinese goods.

Beyond crude, China is also the main buyer of Iran’s petroleum and petrochemical products, which together account for about half of the country’s total exports.

Despite US sanctions this year on nine tankers carrying Iranian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), consultancy Vortexa reports Iran’s LPG exports rose to 1.1 million tons in August. Kpler data indicates China absorbs around 80% of that trade.

By relying on imports of Iranian oil and petroleum products, China now accounts for more than a quarter of Iran’s total goods imports—underscoring how central Beijing has become to Tehran’s economic survival.