Over the last 12 months, and intensifying over the last two months, there has been a financial war against the Iranian currency, the rial. Clearly, this began with U.S. President Donald Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on May 8, 2018. The increase of the attack on a nation’s currency, to the point that it is so depreciated that the population and business of a nation cannot use it, is a central instrument for overthrowing a government.
Under the JCPOA, which went into effect in October 2015, Iran agreed to significantly reduce the number of its centrifuges, limit its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, and redesign its heavy-water reactor (Arak) to prevent plutonium production, and allow regular inspection of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Administration (IAEA). In return, the United States and principally European countries agreed to lift crippling sanctions which had been imposed on Iran.
With the U.S. unilaterally leaving the JCPOA in May 2018, sanctions were re-imposed, and toughened. Between 2018 and 2021, Trump placed “maximum pressure” on Iran, and 1,500 sanctions were imposed. These included: blocking Iran’s transactions trade in steel, iron, cooper, metals, petrochemicals, capital goods, and in financial transactions upon Iranian banks, the Central Bank of Iran; delisting most of Iran’s banks from the SWIFT system; imposing secondary sanctions; and freezing assets. In 2018, Iran intervened, and from then until 2023, it froze the official exchange rate at 42,000 Iranian rial to the U.S. dollar (though the black market rate was higher). But starting in 2024, an attack by speculators intensified. Under attack, the value of the rial plunged to 767,500 to the dollar, a plunge of nearly 95%; and it got worse toward the end of the year.
