Iran’s rial sank to a fresh record low Monday as Washington prepared to unveil additional sanctions against the Islamic Republic, prompting anxious residents to crowd currency exchanges in a bid to protect their savings.
When markets opened, the rial slid to 2.02 million against the US dollar, leaving the currency worth roughly half of its value at the beginning of the year.
The sharp decline, deepening after nearly six months of war, has sent many Iranians in Tehran rushing to buy dollars before the rial weakens further.
“There is no hope for a deal and peace,” Sadegh Mahmoudi, 73, told the Associated Press while standing in line at a currency exchange in downtown Tehran.
The rial has been tumbling since last November, battered by years of Western sanctions and stubbornly high inflation — pressures that have intensified amid the conflict.
Although Iran’s Central Bank lists an official exchange rate of 1.5 million rials to the dollar, ordinary Iranians typically face the far weaker rate available on the open market.
“President Trump decimated Iran’s economy to a point where the rial has never been weaker and inflation has rarely been higher,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote Sunday in a Financial Times opinion piece.
“The regime’s final refuge now lies in the self-deception of fearful nations that still believe accommodating aggression can secure a durable peace,” he added.
Bessent warned that the additional financial penalties to come would effectively “collapse the regime,” with Trump echoing the same threat on social media.
“IRAN IS COMPLETELY COLLAPSING!!!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
With the United Arab Emirates, Iran’s largest trading partner, suspending all trade with Tehran, officials within the Islamic republic have threatened retaliation over the economic blows.
“Any escalation of this situation will undoubtedly bring about consequences,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters on Monday. “Our hands are not tied.”
With Post Wires
