Araghchi meets French FM on sidelines of UN assembly

Exports of handmade rugs, which stood at more than $400 million in 2017, fell to just $41.7 million in the year to March 2025, according to customs data -- a drop of over 95% from their peak in the early 1990s, AFPreported.

The collapse followed Washington’s 2018 reimposition of sanctions, cutting off the US market that once bought more than 70% of Iranian carpets.

“During the unkind and cruel US sanctions, we lost our biggest buyer,” said Zahra Kamani, head of Iran’s National Carpet Center.

Germany, the UAE, Japan and China are now Iran’s top destinations, but volumes remain a fraction of past levels.

Rivals including India, China, Nepal, Turkey and Pakistan have captured global market share, with some rugs even imported back into Iran, traders said.

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  Iran's Handwoven Carpet Exports Plummet Amid Sanctions

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  Iran’s carpet exports unravel with 90% plunge

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  Iran's Persian Carpet Exports Drop Drastically

At least two million Iranians, many of them rural women, depend on carpet-weaving but earn only a few dollars a day. “We are losing even part of our domestic market due to imports,” Tehran trader Hamed Nabizadeh told AFP.

With tourism also in decline, fewer foreign visitors buy rugs, and even those who do are deterred by price tags of $30,000 or more for silk carpets.

Officials insist revival is possible. Trade Minister Mohammad Atabak said in June that new trade and currency policies could help resuscitate exports.

Analysts argue adapting designs to modern décor trends, using social media for sales and branding carpets more effectively may be key.

But with Iran’s currency plunging, many families at home are turning to cheaper factory-made rugs, and a centuries-old craft risks fading into a relic of the past.

Sanctions were never lifted to be restored by the snapback mechanism, since they have always been imposed on the Islamic Republic, parliament’s economic committee member Fathollah Tavassoli said Thursday.

“Sanctions were never gone to be brought back with the snapback mechanism, they have been there from the beginning and for many years imposed on the Islamic Republic,” Tavassoli said.

A definitive solution is within reach if both sides’ interests are met, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday, following his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.

“Today I had a frank and detailed discussion with Emmanuel Macron in which we exchanged views, and a solution ensuring Europe’s concerns and safeguarding Iran’s interests was clearly expressed,” Pezeshkian wrote on X.

“In case of commitment to fairness and the fulfillment of mutual interests, a definitive solution is within reach,” he added. He also said the two leaders agreed to address the issue of detainees on both sides.

Iran’s once-prized handwoven carpets no longer sell as before due to sanctions, Agence France-Presse reported.

The industry earned more than $2 billion in export revenue in the early 1990s but now struggles to reach around $40 million, a drop of more than 95 percent, according to AFP.

The return of sanctions in 2018 cut off access to its biggest traditional market, the United States, the report said.

Exports last year went to 55 countries, with Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Japan and China among the top destinations, AFP added.

The United States wants to take away Iran’s weapons, nuclear energy, and revolution, the Supreme Leader’s representative in Mazandaran province said on Thursday.

“America is still the Great Satan and wants to take away our weapons, nuclear energy, scientists, the Islamic Republic, and the revolution,” Mohammad Bagher Mohammadi Laeini said.

“Those who think about compromise with America are miserable and do not know that its cost is far heavier,” he added.

Some in Iran wrongly believe the cost of confrontation with America is too high, Laeini said.