A poll by the Ronald Reagan Institute released on Thursday indicated broad public support for air strikes launched by the administration of President Donald Trump on three major Iranian nuclear sites on June 22.
“With respect to Iran, the public is not only supportive of the airstrikes conducted last summer, they are keen on several forceful responses to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear device,” the Washington DC-based organization, which is dedicated to advancing the late Republican president's ideals, said in its findings.
The Reagan National Defense Survey, conducted in the last week of October and first week of November by Beacon Research and Shaw & Company, examines American views on threats and US military posture toward allies and adversaries.
“Americans back further economic sanctions 73%, deploying US cyber capabilities 70%, renegotiating the Iranian nuclear deal 66% and even using US military force 54% in the service of thwarting Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” the findings added.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon but Israel, the United States and other Western powers doubt its intentions.
China remains the top perceived US threat 29%," the poll added, "followed by Russia 21% and North Korea 9%, with Iran at 3%."
77% Republican respondents supported the June strikes compared to 39% of Democrats.
“This year’s survey underscores a clear message: Americans believe US leadership is indispensable to global security and peace,” said Roger Zakheim, Director of the Ronald Reagan Institute, said in a statement.
The United States held five rounds of negotiations with Tehran over its disputed nuclear program earlier this year after President Donald Trump set a 60-day ultimatum.
When no agreement was reached, Israel launched a surprise offensive on June 13, followed by US strikes on June 22 targeting key nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow.
“This sentence happened in the middle of this process, but I will finish this campaign and go back to Iran as soon as possible after,” Variety magazine quoted Panahi as saying at the Marrakech Film Festival in Morocco.
“I have only one passport … the passport of my country, and I wish to keep it,” Panahi added. “Although I was given the opportunity, even in the hardest years, I never considered leaving my country and being a refugee elsewhere.”
Panahi’s remarks come after his lawyer, Mostafa Nili, announced the prison sentence issued against the filmmaker in absentia earlier this week.
Nili said the sentence includes a two-year travel ban and bars him from membership in political or social groups, adding that they plan to appeal.
Panahi, whose movies have repeatedly brought him into conflict with Iranian authorities, said he is aware of the risks of returning.
“I know my films don’t please the government,” he said. “But that’s not a reason for me not to go back to my country.”
Panahi’s latest film, It Was Just an Accident, inspired by his experience as a political prisoner, is France’s submission for the Oscars and screened at the Marrakech festival on Thursday.
It was filmed in secret in Iran and follows the moral journey of a group of former political prisoners who believe they have captured their torturer.
In May, Panahi received the Palme d’Or at the 78th Cannes Film Festival for the film.
Panahi has faced restrictions and arrests for more than a decade.
He was sentenced in 2010 to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on filmmaking, travel and giving interviews, though he continued to work in secret. In 2022, he was detained again and spent seven months in prison before launching a hunger strike that led to his release in early 2023.
Lean is a mixture made by combining cough syrups containing codeine with sweetened beverages. The name lean refers to the sedating effect of codeine, which can make users feel unsteady or inclined to recline.
Long popular abroad and popularized in some corners of American hip hop culture, the habit is potential fatal.
It is sometimes known as purple drink because certain cough syrups contain dyes that turn the mixture violet, though local versions in Iran often appear in other colors depending on the medicines used.
The mixture, according to the expert, spreads easily because it can be prepared with medicines already found in many Iranian homes or purchased cheaply over the counter.
Alcohol and drugs are strictly forbidden in the Islamic Republic, and authorities have executed hundreds of people this year accused of drug offenses.
But basic codeine syrups and antihistamines require no special authorization, making the drink inexpensive, discreet and accessible to young people with limited means.
'Highly addictive'
The counsellor, who asked not to be named due to security concerns, said the mixture first surfaced in parks and schoolyards where teenagers gather after long days in classrooms where education is often by rote and has a strong focus on ideological content conforming to the ruling theocracy.
Students, she said, were searching for “something that breaks the monotony” after hours spent in lessons centered on ideological narratives and obligatory religious themes.
She described the drink’s beginnings as “born out of boredom,” saying that many adolescents felt they had no engaging place to spend their time.
“Recreation is squeezed, cultural choice is narrow and even access to a simple beer is criminalized,” she said. “When all conventional outlets are shut, young people invent alternatives.”
Lean is a highly addictive mixture that slows the body’s functions and can cause drowsiness, euphoria, nausea, dizziness, visual disturbances and hallucinations.
Mixing it with alcohol or sedatives greatly increases the risk of dangerously slowed breathing, low oxygen levels, brain injury, seizures, coma or death.
Long-term use can damage teeth, impair memory and vision and lead to serious heart and breathing problems.
Government oversight
Health professionals say the drink spread quietly because Iran lacks a unified system to track unusual purchases of over-the-counter medicines. Basic cough syrups containing codeine are widely available, and the country’s fragmented regulatory framework does not flag high-volume sales or patterns of youth misuse.
A Tehran pharmacist, Omid, said its abuse was predictable.
“When oversight is inconsistent and pharmacies operate without shared monitoring tools, teenagers can gather ingredients unnoticed,” he said. “These medicines sit in almost every home, and no authority has built a mechanism to prevent misuse.”
Omid told Iran International that the state’s regulatory posture has long focused on punitive measures against alcohol while failing to address practical gaps in the medical supply chain. “The priorities are mismatched,” he said.
Education system failure
The trend, according to the counsellor, also reflects shortcomings within classrooms where students rarely receive consistent health education or clear information about the dangers of misusing common medicines.
Instead, timetables remain filled with obligatory ideological material that leaves little room for life-skills programs or discussions about adolescent well-being.
Parents, the counsellor said, receive almost no guidance from schools on the needs of Gen Z or the pressures they experience. “Families are left to guess what their children are going through,” she said.
“Instead of equipping parents with tools, the curriculum focuses on messaging that feels distant from young people’s realities.”
Many teenagers, she added, report feeling disconnected from school content and turn to private rituals and drink simply to “break the cycle” of pressure they cannot voice openly.
Families on their own
Parents who encounter the issue typically do so after it has taken root. This late detection, according to the pharmacist, reflects a systemic failure.
“There is no coordinated pathway between schools, clinics and households,” he said. “Warnings come only after the consequences appear.”
Gen Z’s experimentation, the counsellor added, reflects unmet needs rather than deliberate risk-taking. “If young Iranians had engaging cultural venues, balanced schooling and genuine recreation, this drink would never have become a pattern.”
The two experts said the drink’s spread among 13- to 28-year-olds is a direct product of policy choices: narrow social freedoms, numbing school content, criminalization of ordinary leisure, fragmented pharmaceutical oversight and insufficient support for parents.
“The moment we print money without backing, inflation rises and people pay the price,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said during a visit to the southwestern city of Yasuj.
Monetary expansion driven by unfunded pledges, he said, “takes money from people’s pockets” and intensifies existing pressures.
Economists widely link Iran’s continued inflation and the collapse of the rial to persistent reliance on money creation.
The government’s use of bank borrowing and indirect central bank financing expands the monetary base without matching growth in real output, entrenching price instability.
Iran’s rial continued to weaken on Wednesday in a sign of flagging confidence in the country's troubled economy, with the US dollar trading at an all-time high above 1.2 million rials according to local exchange-rate websites.
Rapid liquidity growth
Iran's broad money doubled during the 2.5-year presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, according to statistics from the country’s Central Bank (CBI).
Broad money, the total money supply within an economy, is the primary cause of rampant inflation in Iran.
Over the past years, Iran’s Central Bank has ceased publishing government budget reports.
Local media tracking shows that in the past year, food prices in Iran have risen by an average of more than 66%.
According to the Supreme Audit Court of Iran, however, it is estimated that since 2018 – when the US withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil exports – the government's annual budget deficit has consistently exceeded 30%.
The Iranian government has been compensating the budget deficit by borrowing money, in particular, from the banking system.
Budget capped
Pezeshkian said his administration set an unprecedented ceiling on expenditure. “For the first time, we have kept budget growth to around two percent and cut the rest,” he said.
Some recipients, he added, had protested reduced allocations but argued that expanding spending without resources would heighten inflation rather than solve shortages.
He added that the government could not “spend from people’s pockets” for short-term gains and warned that raising expectations without funding would deepen internal disputes.
“If we think the situation is fine, that the government has money and is not giving it, or if we only raise our own expectations, we will increase disagreements and conflicts.”
Part of today’s social disorder, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said, stemmed from conduct related to hijab.
“This situation should not continue, and none of us can be indifferent toward what the law and the expectations of religious citizens demand,” Ejei added.
Intelligence bodies, Ejei said, had received orders to identify groups he described as “organized promoters of improper hijab,” and that police were obligated to intervene when offenses were openly visible.
“With such cases there will be legal action,” he warned. Restaurants, cafés and other venues had been warned they would face firm measures if violations occurred on their premises, he added, noting that closures would no longer be limited to brief periods.
He also said government bodies involved in public ceremonies would be held accountable if “unlawful behavior” occurred at their events.
Lawmakers press for firmer action
155 lawmakers on Tuesday wrote to Ejei accusing the judiciary of passivity toward growing noncompliance with the dress rules.
They said uneven enforcement by executive bodies had fueled what they called social disorder, urging the courts to “restore governance” by ensuring all institutions apply existing regulations consistently.
The lawmakers also criticized some judges and officials for what they described as lapses "that had allowed moral decline and social abnormalities to spread," urging action within the current legal framework.
Tensions intensified after a leaked audio file suggested Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had issued written instructions for stronger implementation of the mandatory hijab following an intelligence ministry warning about declining discipline.
Officials confirmed the directive but rejected suggestions of cabinet disagreement, while conservative outlets described it as an explicit call for decisive measures.
Despite escalating pressure, many women and girls continue to appear unveiled in public spaces.
In numerous districts of the capital, uncovered women now form the majority on streets and in shops, while widely shared videos show mixed gatherings, music and casual clothing.