Iran’s Top Security Official Warns of Dire Economic Crisis

The rare admission from Mohsen Rezaei, the security chief, came weeks after the U.S. tightened sanctions and its naval blockade.

By Erika Solomon and Sanam Mahoozi

Iran’s national security adviser has warned that the rapidly deteriorating economy has plunged the country into one of the most difficult periods in its history.

Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s top security official, made the rare admission on Saturday at a high-level government meeting about how to stabilize the economy after more than seven months of war.

Iran’s currency, the rial, has plummeted since the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran in February.

The decline has accelerated sharply in recent weeks, since the United States ratcheted up sanctions and enforced a naval blockade. That has made imports more expensive and deepened a longstanding cost of living crisis that sparked nationwide protests last December that the security forces crushed with deadly force.

Analysts say the U.S. naval blockade has also largely prevented Iran from exporting oil, depriving the country of its main source of revenue and causing a fuel crisis.

In recent days, government and private sector employees, including nurses and teachers, have taken to social media to say they were quitting their jobs because their salaries could no longer support them. Iranian local media has reported that retired government employees have held protests in the past few weeks because they said they had not received their full pensions.

In addition to Mr. Rezaei, the government meeting on Saturday included President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior Iranian ministers, according to state media.

State news outlets in Iran did not provide direct quotations of Mr. Rezaei’s comments. But Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported that he “described the circumstances as among the most difficult periods the country has faced” and told the meeting that Iran’s security council would provide whatever support it could.

Mr. Pezeshkian acknowledged the worsening economic conditions in a statement on social media on Saturday and said that the government “has adopted a new posture to manage the special conditions.” He did not specify what that would mean in practice.

The economic pressure on Iran has intensified as negotiations between Tehran and Washington have stalled, with both sides refusing to make concessions and signaling that they can outlast the other’s tolerance for economic pain.

In recent weeks, U.S. officials have argued that they are winning the economic standoff. Recent data showed oil shipments from the Middle East have returned almost to prewar levels.

But the price of oil remains higher than before the conflict, and some analysts have warned the crisis for the global economy is far from resolved. The strait remains dangerous to navigate and damage to energy infrastructure has hampered refining capacity and natural gas exports. Iran’s leaders hope that the pressure could hurt President Trump ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, according to analysts.

In addition to the blockade, the United States has blocked most civilian air travel between Iran and the rest of the world, adding a new layer of economic isolation that some sanctions experts have said could hurt critical imports, including medicine.

Erika Solomon is The Times’s bureau chief for Iran and Iraq.