Operation Economic Outcast is working. The American blockade of Iranian ports means that Tehran cannot export any of its oil. More than half of the Iranian population now lives below the poverty line. In the last few months, 1.7 million Iranians have lost their jobs. In 1978, just before Khomeini came to power, a dollar was worth 70 rials. Today a dollar is worth 2.7 million rials. More on Iran’s economic collapse can be found here: “Iran unable to pay troops, fund proxies under Operation Economic Outcast, Bessent says,” Jerusalem Post, October 30, 2026:
The Iranian regime is unable to pay its troops due to Operation Economic Outcast, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Thursday interview with CNBC.
“It makes them unattentive to what’s happening, and then the Ayatollah is isolated. But the rubber is meeting the road; they’re not able to pay their troops,” Bessent said. “Importantly, they’re not able to get dollars, so they’re not able to replenish.”
He added that the funding Iran also puts towards its proxies, such as the Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah, is also being cut under the American sanctions.
“That’s kind of the tip of the spear when that money starts going down,” he said.
The operation, which was announced August 24, aims to cut Tehran’s funding for the war, missile construction, cyberattacks, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)….
One of the sources, and another close to Hezbollah, said the group had received tens of millions of dollars from Iran to help boost its military capabilities. That is in addition to around $200 million that the terror group previously received from Tehran, which Reuters reported earlier this month.
With what little funds remain, the Iranian government has chosen to prioritize aid to Hezbollah over spending at home on its own population. Even so, the amount being provided to Hezbollah is now in the tens of millions whereas it used to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The money is being spent by Hezbollah to pay for both weapons — chiefly explosives and drones — and for the salaries, now much reduced, of its recruits.
The most important effect of Operation Economic Outcast, which has only been in effect for the last three months, is that even the IRGC, the mainstay of the regime and guarantor of its survival, is receiving less money for salaries. The resulting discontent among these troops is a source of anxiety for the regime. Can it count on the continuing loyalty of the IRGC troops? Might the men of the IRGC stage a military coup to take over the country, to ensure that they are paid before any more money is sent to proxies abroad? Or could they, in the alternative, simply refuse to suppress the next wave of protests against the regime? The rulers in Tehran are well aware that in 1978 the Shah’s regime crumbled when the police and soldiers refused to act against the protesters. It could happen again.
Namer says
This is why Trump hasnt bombed Iran into the stone ages. Because he knew the economy of Iran was sinking faster than the Titanic.
The two threats says
If President Trump can remove the Islamic Iranian regime as a threat to the global economy, a potential nuclear threat and as a threat to regional stability, either directly or via proxies, that Iran has clearly posed for 47 years since 1979, that would be quite an achievement.
Would those on the Left and Right afflicted by Trump Derangement Syndrome give Trump any credit if Trump can remove Iran as a threat?
Or would they prefer Iran remain an ongoing threat?
ploome says
the real threat is Qatar and the money these oil rich jihadis are spending to create the chaos we see on the civilized world….
and enabled by the blind useful idiots who extend “refuge” to the invading muslim armies now flexing their strength terrorizing the civilized world..
tragedy that so many Americans are consumed and obsessed with the price of gasoline, and ignore the gradual destruction of western civilization
someone wake up el Papa…bending over to see his red slippers while ignoring he is being “used”
and we MUST eliminate the UN WHICH IS NOW AN ARM OF THE OIC AND JIHAD
Taffy says
Note that about 30 percent of Iran lived below the poverty line up to about a year ago.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
They are relentlessly printing money, which is why the exchange is 2 million rials to the dollar and rising. Actually, the Rial is even more unstable than Bitcoin: when a currency’s value fluctuates so much, it’s impossible to do normal business. On the Armin Navabi show, I watched one story about an Iranian sandwich deli that had an electronic ticker board w/ the menu and prices, which were constantly updating every second, to ensure that the deli didn’t lose money. It was like being in the NYSE than in a Panera Bread dining
One advantage that the regime has is that they are earning in dollars anything they’re earning – by illicit sale of oil, and aside from the tankers that are out in the East China Sea, the oil that they do have was being sold to Pakistan at international rates, rather than the heavily subsidized and rationed rates to the Iranian population. Now, those routes have been blocked as well. But this week, when the Saudis, Turks and the Pakistanis went to Tehran to meet Mohsen Rezaei, the Saudis paid him a ton of cash, despite knowing that the IRGC is still going to attack. Maybe they want them to hit them less, or to hit less strategic sites, who knows? But this war can’t simply be fought economically, b’cos there is a humanitarian disaster waiting to happen in Iran, if it isn’t already (since not much is known about events there from mainstream news sources)