00:01Well, let's bring in Professor Maziar Ghiyabi, Director of the Center for Persian and Iranian Studies at the University of
00:08Exeter in the United Kingdom.
00:10Maziar, thank you so much for speaking to us. How much longer can ordinary Iranians cope with these prices?
00:19Hi, and very good to be with you.
00:22Iranian households are past the point of simple tightening the belt.
00:27The situation is really dire, very difficult, and it's been very difficult for the past few years.
00:33But now the prospect, the horizon ahead of them seems dramatic.
00:39There is also a level of exhaustion because it is something to tighten the belt for an year, two years,
00:48and something when the prospect of it goes for longer.
00:51And inflation and the data that you gave, it speaks for itself, of course.
00:57We are talking about basic commodities, the everyday commodities of life, food, cooking oil, and all of this actually triple
01:06digit inflation.
01:07I think we are in a very dramatic situation.
01:13Of course, you know, Iran has had sanctions placed on the economy for decades.
01:20How much has the war impacted?
01:24The war has escalated that situation.
01:28Of course, not only sanctions work in layers year after year.
01:34You know, the effect of them is not a single historical event.
01:38It goes on and they build up.
01:40But the mitigation strategies that the Iranians and the Iranian state have put in place were further under pressure because
01:48of the war.
01:49Of course, the war creates also situations of a mutual help, of solidarity and sort of rallying around the flag,
01:58which we've seen in Iran.
02:00And to a certain extent that has had also effects on mitigating the extraordinary economic damage that the war has
02:08caused.
02:10Yeah. And now we know President Trump is threatening this economic D-Day, even more sanctions.
02:16Politically, any kind of resolution seems to be at a bit of a deadlock.
02:20What are Iran's options economically to make life livable for ordinary people?
02:27I think contrary to the past, as you said, there is a very little hope that a settlement, a diplomatic
02:35settlement can be reached with the current U.S. administration.
02:39The interests of which are mostly dictated, it seems, from Tel Aviv, which is the only country that actually sees
02:45the proliferation and continuation of the conflict as a positive sign.
02:53What impact do you see this having?
02:56I mean, the state will need to come up with some strategy, some form of strategy.
03:04One would be, for instance, to try to eradicate as much as possible levels of corruption within the Iranian socioeconomic
03:15system.
03:16The other is, as I said earlier, triggering forms of grassroots mutual help on the basic commodities,
03:24trying to create an economy that sustains the very basic demands of the Iranian people, and also trying to expand
03:35what has been successful in the past in formal networks,
03:39especially with neighboring states, particularly Iraq and Pakistan.
03:44All right, thank you so much for speaking to us today, Professor Maziar Ghiyabi, Director of the Centre for Persian
03:50and Iranian Studies at the University of Exeter.
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