Netanyahu says toppling Iran’s regime is ‘within reach’

Iran’s rulers are facing what one senior source described as a rapidly tightening financial squeeze, with the rial at record lows and gasoline supplies reportedly limited to about two months. The pressure comes as the United States blocks Iran’s oil exports and targets the channels Tehran has used for decades to evade sanctions.

Three senior Iranian sources said Washington had intensified efforts in recent weeks to restrict Iran’s access to foreign currency, international financing networks and imported goods. The campaign aims to extract concessions in any future negotiations, after six months of conflict failed to produce an agreement.

The squeeze is hitting an economy already weakened by spiraling inflation, a collapsing currency and the cost of rebuilding damaged industry and infrastructure. Iran produces oil domestically but still imports gasoline because its refining capacity is limited. The sources said Tehran also has less money available to pay the high premiums involved in evading sanctions.

Fighting has returned openly this week. US attacks along Iran’s Gulf coast prompted retaliatory Iranian strikes at Arab states, while both sides continued to withhold the concessions demanded by the other. More energy has moved through the Strait of Hormuz, despite Iranian efforts to disrupt the waterway, but the US blockade has cut off Tehran’s main source of revenue.

Iranian leaders are also conscious that an economic collapse could revive nationwide protests suppressed in January, when thousands of demonstrators were killed, according to the account. Ali Ansari, a modern history professor at the University of St Andrews, said, “They are under very, very severe economic pressure. They're losing control of the Straits. It's really a question of if they choose to negotiate and I think they'll have to.”

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They are under very, very severe economic pressure. They're losing control of the Straits. It's really a question of if they choose to negotiate and I think they'll have to.