Iran is CLOSED for business: PROTESTS break out as economy plummets amid Trump sanctions

Shop keepers, stall vendors, farmers and even truck drivers are demonstrating today in the Amir-Kabir industrial complex of Isfahan, central Iran, protesting against high prices as the value of Tehran’s currency, the rial, plummets.

Scores of demonstrators can be seen gathering in public squares and at the side of main roads, chanting “death to high prices” and “No to Gaza, no to Lebanon, my life for Iran”.

Dozens of store owners in the area have closed their shops and are on strike, after the rial’s value dropped by 120 percent in the last six months alone.

Iran has also been hit by falling salaries set against the rising cost of living, while water shortages and power outages have also hit the embattled country.

Why are Iranians protesting?

The average monthly salary of labourers who work for the government is 11,140,000 Rials – just £191 – and many of them do not receive their salaries for at least three months.

While the average monthly salary of office worker varies based on experience and level of education but is about 20,000,000 Rials – just £344.

This latest strike follows a recent nosedive of Iran’s currency, the rial, which reached just 115,000 rials to the US dollar.

Vahid Shaghaghi, an Iranian Economy lecturer in Tehran’s Kharazmi University, warned: “By the end of this year, inflation will increase by at least 20percent and in worst case scenario, by as high as 50percent.

“Lopping zeros from our currency won’t make any difference in our massive economic variances such as inflation.

“Getting rid of zeros in a crisis, with the hope of improving people’s perspective, will only exert the opposite effect; therefore, it’s best to implement such actions when in peace than in crisis.

On Sunday night, a number of bazaar merchants issued statements calling on colleagues to stage a new round of strikes, emphasising the status quo is no longer acceptable.

Merchants in Tehran’s Gand Bazaar have also gone on strike, saying they can no longer afford to buy goods to stock or sell them to customers.

Iran’s economy is expected to slide further after the USA continues to impose tough sanctions on the country.

Iran is already facing violence on the streets under the grips of a hard-nosed regime lead by President Hassan Rouhani.

In May, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran deal, which lifted international sanctions on Tehran in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

And in just a few days, the US will reimpose sanctions on Iran’s ability to purchase US dollars, as well as any world trading in Iran’s gold, coal, steel, cars, currency, and debt.

Later in the year, the US will also impose strict sanctions on Iran’s oil and energy exports and transactions with the central bank – possibly furthering damaging the economy.

But Shahin Gobadi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, says the sanctions are not the key factor in the poor economy as internal factors such as the government and affiliating mafia groups have the heaviest influence of all.

He believes Iran’s tyrannical regime is on its last legs amid the growing protests, which have reached fever pitch in recent weeks to highlight the increase in calls for a free Iran.

Mr Gobadi told Express.co.uk: “The Iranian economy is in total shambles and pressure on average citizen to make the ends meet is growing by the day.

“The Iranian people realise that their economic suffering is due to the institutionalised and pervasive corruption of the most senior officials and is a result of years of the misguided policy of the clerical regime which has spent the wealth of the Iranian people on suppression, warmongering in the region, and export of fundamentalism.

“The resumption of a nationwide strike by truck drivers and shop owners in Tehran in the past few days, despite the heavy crackdown, vividly reflects the growing public outrage and growing sentiment among the public that the only solution is a regime change by the people.

“The clerical regime is fast moving towards the precipice.”