America's Last Hope: Washington Tries to Starve Iran Into Submission

After six months of military action failed to deliver the hoped-for results, the United States is turning back to economic pressure. The new plan, titled Operation Economic Outcast, seeks to cut Iran off from all economic contact with the outside world. Donald Trump has described it as an "economic D-Day," invoking the Allied landings in Normandy during World War II.

The article presents the strategy as a new attempt to achieve what bombs and missiles could not. According to its account, the campaign failed to topple Iran's theocratic government. Its only stated success was delaying the country's nuclear program. At the start of the war, Trump urged Iranians to seize the opportunity to overthrow the ayatollahs' government, while he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expected U.S. and Israeli strikes to encourage another uprising.

Washington and Jerusalem now appear to be relying on economic isolation and a severe deterioration in living conditions for Iran's population of more than 90 million to produce street protests and regime collapse. Juliusz Gojło, a former Polish ambassador to Tehran, told Rzeczpospolita that the United States had maintained sanctions against Iran for 47 years. He said the war began partly because Iran's opponents concluded that sanctions had failed, and that Trump was returning to the same idea after the bombing campaign also failed to deliver its expected results.

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Economic D-Day

The economic pressure is already reflected in prices and currency markets. The article says vegetable oil cost almost four times more in August than a year earlier, while egg prices tripled and red meat prices rose by half. In early September, the dollar reached about 2.2 million rials on Iran's free market, compared with an official rate of 1.6 million. Reuters reported that average monthly pay stood at the equivalent of $125, while official Iranian data showed that supporting a three-person household cost more than three times the average monthly wage.

The article says these conditions also reflect an earlier blockade of Iranian oil exports in the Strait of Hormuz. It questions whether the pressure will produce a popular revolt, rather than the political change sought by Washington and Jerusalem.

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The United States has maintained sanctions against Iran for 47 years. The war began partly because Iran's opponents concluded that sanctions had failed to bring down the system. Now, because the bombing also failed to produce the expected results, President Trump is returning to the first idea.