ANALYSIS

Iran’s worsening gasoline shortage is becoming a test of whether Tehran can still sustain basic economic stability under war conditions.

Even as Tehran engages in hardheaded diplomatic maneuvering with Washington, it is advancing a parliamentary proposal offering a €50 million reward for President Trump’s killing.

After an 80-day shutdown, the Tehran Stock Exchange reopened on Tuesday under heavy state controls, with 42 major firms still suspended and reported curbs on large-scale selling amid uncertainty over war damage and corporate losses.

Long viewed as merely an oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz is now emerging as a digital flashpoint, after Iran floated “protection fees” for subsea fiber-optic cables crossing the waterway in a move experts warn could give Tehran new leverage.

Two years after former president Ebrahim Raisi’s helicopter vanished in fog, Iran has lost far more than a president: its succession plan, regional shield, aura of safety and confidence that time was on its side.

China is showing growing unease over the economic and strategic costs of Iran’s confrontation with the United States, even as it continues to shield Tehran diplomatically at the United Nations.

President Trump’s visit to Beijing appears to have confirmed two things about China’s approach to the Iran crisis: it is willing to help prevent further escalation, but not at Tehran’s expense.

The relationship between the Taliban and Iran, once marked by military confrontation and nearly pushed to war, is now defined by caution and quiet engagement.

As tensions escalate in the Middle East, critics say Canada’s “values-based realism” has left Ottawa a passive observer rather than an influential middle power confronting Iran’s threats and regional crises.

Iran’s water crisis is not only about scarcity or drought. It is also about where the Islamic Republic chooses to spend the country’s money, and what it leaves unfunded at home.

Deep-rooted mistrust continues to stand in the way of any meaningful thaw between Iran and the United States despite renewed diplomacy after weeks of war.

Iran’s foreign trade has suffered a sharp contraction in the first month of war with the United States and Israel, newly released customs data show, signaling a severe blow to the country’s already fragile economy.

Amid Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the ensuing US blockade, an old energy fantasy has resurfaced that cutting off a country’s oil exports works like flipping a switch. But reality is less cinematic and far more uncomfortable.

The Islamic Republic that has emerged from the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei may prove more operationally aggressive than the one it replaces, analysts say.

Iran’s economy is heading into a period of sharp deterioration following the March war, with mounting pressure from inflation, currency depreciation and damage to key industries raising the risk of a broader crisis.

Iran-UAE ties have unraveled over the past two months, beginning with Iranian airstrikes on Emirati targets during the US-led war and escalating into a crisis that now threatens one of Tehran’s most vital trade and financial channels.

After nearly two months of closure, Tehran’s stock market is preparing a phased reopening, but deep structural flaws, lack of transparency and uncertainty over US negotiations threaten to turn the restart into a fresh crisis.

Iran’s new “Internet Pro” rollout may tighten state control in the short term, but experts who spoke to Iran International question whether the Islamic Republic can sustain a class-based internet in one of the Middle East’s most connected societies.