A domestically-built missile and banners displaying portraits of the Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, heart, and armed forces commanders who have been killed in an Israeli strike in June, are displayed in Baharestan Sq., Tehran, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025.
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Nations reimposed sanctions on Iran early Sunday over its nuclear program, additional squeezing the Islamic Republic as its individuals more and more discover themselves priced out of the meals they should survive and apprehensive about their futures.
The sanctions will once more freeze Iranian property overseas, halt arms offers with Tehran, and penalize any growth of Iran’s ballistic missile program, amongst different measures. It got here through a mechanism referred to as “snapback,” included in Iran’s 2015 nuclear cope with world powers, and comes as Iran’s financial system already is reeling.
Iran’s rial forex sits at a document low, growing strain on meals costs and making each day life that rather more difficult. That features meat, rice and different staples of the Iranian dinner desk.
In the meantime, individuals fear a few new spherical of preventing between Iran and Israel — in addition to doubtlessly america — as missile websites struck through the 12-day struggle in June now look like being rebuilt.
Activists worry a rising wave of repression throughout the Islamic Republic, which already has reportedly executed extra individuals this 12 months than over the previous three a long time.
A lady sits within the al fresco eating space of a restaurant on the Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) avenue, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025.
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Sina, the daddy of a 12-year-old boy who spoke given that solely his first identify be used for worry of repercussions, stated the nation has by no means confronted such a difficult time, even through the deprivations of the Nineteen Eighties Iran-Iraq struggle and the a long time of sanctions that got here later.
“For as long as I can remember, we’ve been struggling with economic hardship, and every year it’s worse than the last,” Sina advised The Related Press. “For my generation, it’s always either too late or too early — our dreams are slipping away.”
Iran sanctions set to ‘snapback’
Snapback was designed to be veto-proof on the U.N. Safety Council, which means China and Russia couldn’t cease it alone, as they produce other proposed actions towards Tehran previously. Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov known as them a “trap” for Iran on Saturday.
France, Germany and the UK triggered snapback over Iran 30 days in the past for its additional limiting monitoring of its nuclear program and the impasse over its negotiations with the U.S.
Iran additional withdrew from the Worldwide Atomic Power Company monitoring after Israel’s struggle with the nation in June, which additionally noticed the U.S. strike nuclear websites within the Islamic Republic. In the meantime, the nation nonetheless maintains a stockpile of uranium enriched as much as 60% purity — a brief, technical step away from weapons-grade ranges of 90% — that’s largely sufficient to make a number of atomic bombs, ought to Tehran select to hurry towards weaponization.
Iran has lengthy insisted its nuclear program is peaceable, although the West and IAEA say Tehran had an organized weapons program up till 2003.
The three European nations on Sunday stated they “continuously made every effort to avoid triggering snapback.” However Iran “has not authorized IAEA inspectors to regain access to Iran’s nuclear sites, nor has it produced and transmitted to the IAEA a report accounting for its stockpile of high-enriched uranium.”
Tehran has additional argued that the three European nations should not be allowed to implement snapback, pointing partially to America’s unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, through the first time period of President Donald Trump’s administration.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the three European nations for “an act of decisive global leadership” for imposing the sanctions on Iran and stated “diplomacy is still an option.”
“For that to happen, Iran must accept direct talks,” Rubio stated.
Nonetheless, it stays unclear how Tehran will reply Sunday.
“The Trump administration appears to think it has a stronger hand post-strikes, and it can wait for Iran to come back to the table,” stated Kelsey Davenport, a nuclear professional on the Washington-based Arms Management Affiliation. “Given the knowledge Iran has, given the materials that remain in Iran, that’s a very dangerous assumption.”
Dangers additionally stay for Iran as properly, she added: “In the short term, kicking out the IAEA increases the risk of miscalculation. The U.S. or Israel could use the lack of inspections as a pretext for further strikes.”
Starvation and nervousness develop in Iran
The aftermath of the June struggle drove up meals costs in Iran, placing already costly meat out of attain for poorer households.
Two girls stroll previous an enormous banner displaying the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard expeditionary Quds Power, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone assault in 2020, and two Hezbollah leaders who have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in 2024, on the Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) sq., in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025.
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Iran’s authorities put general annual inflation at 34.5% in June, and its Statistical Middle reported that the price of important meals gadgets rose over 50% over the identical interval. However even that does not mirror what individuals see at outlets. Pinto beans tripled in value in a 12 months, whereas butter practically doubled. Rice, a staple, rose greater than 80% on common, hitting 100% for premium varieties. Entire rooster is up 26%, whereas beer and lamb are up 9%.
“Every day I see new higher prices for cheese, milk and butter,” stated Sima Taghavi, a mom of two, at a Tehran grocery. “I cannot omit them like fruits and meat from my grocery list because my kids are too young to be deprived.”
The strain over meals and fears in regards to the struggle resuming have seen extra sufferers heading to psychologists since June, native media in Iran have reported.
“The psychological pressure from the 12-day war on the one hand, and runaway inflation and price hikes on the other, has left society exhausted and unmotivated,” Dr. Sima Ferdowsi, a scientific psychologist and professor at Shahid Beheshti College, advised the Hamshahri newspaper in an interview revealed in July.
Executions surge in 2025
Iran has confronted a number of nationwide protests lately, fueled by anger over the financial system, calls for for ladies’s rights and requires the nation’s theocracy to vary.
In response to these protests and the June struggle, Iran has been placing prisoners to dying at a tempo unseen since 1988, when it executed hundreds on the finish of the Iran-Iraq struggle. The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights and the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Middle for Human Rights in Iran put the variety of individuals executed in 2025 at over 1,000, noting the quantity may very well be increased as Iran doesn’t report on every execution.
