Iran’s president blames government size for inflation

Mohsen Zanganeh, a member of parliament’s Plan and Budget Committee, said “no one has the courage to decide” on key price and currency reforms and that “there is no choice but unification” of exchange rates, adding he was willing to accept responsibility for such a move, local media reported.

He said unresolved policy cases had been passed from one administration to the next and called on President Masoud Pezeshkian to close them to reduce public uncertainty. 

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  Energy reform key to Iran’s economic recovery, speaker says

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  Iran’s president says gasoline price hike inevitable, warns of social risks

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  Inside Iran’s maze of multiple exchange rates

Zanganeh also criticized reluctance to address fuel pricing, saying prolonged debate without action burdens the economy, and argued the president can consolidate or remove budgets for subordinate agencies without new legislation.

Iran maintains heavily subsidized fuel and multiple exchange-rate windows; previous efforts to unwind them have stoked inflation and unrest.

Many of those affected have voiced frustration over long delays and unclear procedures, with some students staging protests outside the German consulate in Tehran to demand action on their visa applications.

On Sunday, a group of young Iranians gathered in front of the consulate to protest the embassy’s refusal to process applications for bachelor’s, conditional master’s and college programs.

"This situation is completely unfair. The embassy should not treat us differently from those in higher programs when we have already paid tuition, insurance, and even rent," one protester told Iran International.

TLScontact, the external service provider that collects visa applications and biometric data on behalf of the German embassy, has also faced criticism from applicants who say their repeated calls and visits have gone unanswered.

“In the past two weeks, we have repeatedly contacted TLS, and in recent days we again protested both in front of the consulate and TLS, but no one is responding,” the protestor said.

On June 16, the German embassy announced that it had temporarily closed due to the circumstances created by the war between Israel and Iran and urged visitors to refrain from going to the embassy or its legal-consular section.

“Appointments already issued have been cancelled. The affected applicants will receive an email, and a new appointment will be automatically scheduled for a later date,” it said in a statement.

"The processing of pending visa procedures and the acceptance of new applications are taking place in accordance with current capacities," Germany's Federal Foreign told Iran International in response to an inquiry.

"The Federal Foreign Office aims to expand operations depending on further developments and the personnel resources available," it added.

Separation and forced return

An Iranian man living in Germany told Iran International that before the war began, he had completed the paperwork to obtain an interview appointment for his teenage son’s family-reunion visa.

But since the war broke out, the process has been suspended, and as of November 2025, he has not been able to register for an appointment.

He added that separation from family, uncertainty, and the unstable situation in Iran have negatively affected his son’s mental health.

The “Family Reunion” section of the German embassy’s website says the processing of visa applications for those who had already submitted their documents remains suspended.

It also says that from November 11, appointments for Iranian nationals already on the waiting list for family-reunion visas “will be scheduled depending on available capacity.”

According to the notice, it is not possible to register for new appointments or join the waiting list.

According to those who spoke to Iran International, the separation of families—spouses and children unsure when they will reunite—has imposed a heavy psychological burden.

An Iranian living in Germany said his friend, who migrated to Germany as a nurse on a work visa and has been apart from her husband and six-year-old child for more than a year, was in the final stages of securing their visas when the process was halted due to the war. Now, the future for this family of three remains uncertain.

An Iranian woman living in southern Germany also told Iran International that she witnessed her friend’s forced return to Iran.

She said the woman, a student at the University of Erlangen in northern Bavaria, southern Germany, was forced to abandon her studies and return to Iran after her husband was unable to obtain a visa.

She added that the embassy returned her husband’s passport without even stamping it as rejected.

More than 550 Iranian figures—including political activists, journalists, human rights defenders and those who suffered eye injuries during the nationwide 2022 protests—sent a letter to the German federal government, calling for the immediate resumption of visa processing for political, civil, and labor activists, journalists and other at-risk professions.

According to the 2025 Henley Passport Index on the world’s strongest and weakest passports, among 199 passports, only 13 countries rank below Iran.

In August, the state-run IRNA news agency reported that the closure of several embassies during the 12-day war left about 3,000 to 4,000 Iranian passports caught in visa processing. The report said many applicants, especially students and athletes, were unable to leave the country.

Mohammad Maljoo, a left-leaning scholar and prominent public intellectual, was summoned and detained alongside several other left-leaning authors and researchers a few days after a YouTube debate in which he discussed the roots of extremism in Iran.

In the program, hosted and published by moderate outlet Entekhab, Maljoo argued that “extremists in Iran gained a foothold in the political power center after the war with Iraq in the late 1980s and under the second leadership, when they were given institutional backing that empowered and activated them.”

The phrase “second leadership” was widely understood as a reference to Khamenei, who became Supreme Leader after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death in 1989.

Rights observers said his arrest fits a pattern of detentions targeting academics, journalists, and intellectuals in recent weeks, as authorities seek to contain public debate in the aftermath of Iran’s 12-day war with Israel.

‘At the state’s core’

Before the program aired, participants had agreed to use the term extremist to describe hardliners who obstruct dialogue and disrupt normal political and social life.

Maljoo contended that these forces survive because of their relationship with the ruling elite.

“Without backing from the hard core of the government, extremists would not be heard,” he said, adding that Iran’s central power structure is “neither interested in, nor capable of excluding them.”

He described extremists as pressure groups acting on behalf of the power center while occasionally defying it. Their proximity to power, he said, “turns every outburst into an official directive.”

In return for enforcing ideological red lines—such as mandatory hijab, censorship, and control over key state appointments—they gain “wealth, status, and legitimacy.”

The interview aired as small hardline groups in Tehran were demanding the arrest of former president Hassan Rouhani, accusing him of “creating trouble for the government” after he called for renewed engagement with the West to ease economic pressures.

‘Foolish or traitor’

The other participant in the discussion, conservative political scientist Sadeq Haghighat of the Imam Khomeyni Research Center, largely concurred.

“Extremists are either foolish or traitors,” he said, adding that they seized control of the political arena soon after the 1979 revolution and later justified their dominance through ultraconservative cleric Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi, who taught that rulers need no public legitimacy once they control the state.

Haghighat traced the roots of extremism to Iran’s enduring political culture. “Regime changes—from Qajar to Pahlavi to the Islamic Republic—did not change the behavior of extremists,” he said.

Maljoo, for his part, argued that the ruling establishment occasionally tries to restrain extremists when their demands threaten stability.

“At times, the power center encourages moderates and reformists to push back,” he said. “But extremists are never satisfied and constantly seek more.”

The probe focuses on billions of dollars in money movements between firms overseen by oil tycoon Hossein Shamkhani, the son of a top adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Bloomberg said.

According to the report, the probe has drawn on information from insiders within Shamkhani’s business network and from Wall Street banks that had relationships with entities linked to him.

The main target of the investigation is Shamkhani, rather than the banks, Bloomberg said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., ABN Amro Bank NV, Marex Group Plc, Standard Chartered PLC, Emirates NBD PJSC and National Bank of Fujairah PJSC are among the institutions under review, the report said citing several people familiar with the probe.

Bloomberg said spokespeople for the Justice Department, JPMorgan, ABN Amro, Marex and Standard Chartered declined to comment. National Bank of Fujairah said it is “not under investigation by the US Department of Justice,” while Emirates NBD said it has not received any communication from US authorities.

Bloomberg said Shamkhani did not respond to a request for comment the news agency sent to his lawyers.

Bloomberg reported last November that the US Treasury Department was examining JPMorgan’s relationship with a hedge fund said to be overseen by Shamkhani.

According to Bloomberg's latest report, the Justice Department’s probe is broader in scope, aiming to map out the tycoon’s global financial network and pursue potential indictments or arrests of his associates, with cooperation expected from authorities in the United Arab Emirates, a key hub for his operations.

Shamkhani, who operates mainly from Dubai, was sanctioned by the United States in July along with dozens of individuals, companies and vessels linked to his network in what the US Treasury described as its largest Iran-related action in seven years. The UK and European Union also imposed sanctions in recent months.

US officials said Shamkhani used his father’s political influence to build a fleet of tankers and container ships that transported Iranian and Russian oil worldwide through shell companies. The Treasury said he used aliases including “H,” “Hector” and “Hugo Hayek” to conceal his dealings.

Following the sanctions, Dominica revoked Shamkhani’s passport issued under the Hayek pseudonym, and Panama de-flagged several vessels tied to his firms.

Bloomberg's report said some of Shamkhani's companies have since shifted operations to Oman.

Another Bloomberg investigation last year found that Shamkhani’s network had become a key channel for Iranian and Russian oil exports and had established a hedge fund with offices in London, Dubai and Geneva to manage proceeds from the trade.

The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN) conducted the survey in September for the report "Iranians’ Attitudes Toward the 12-Day War" published on Wednesday.

It said it had carried out a "balanced statistical sample" of just over literate Iranian residents inside the country, adding the effort reflects the opinions of people aged 15 and older and reflect the views of the target population with a 95% credibility level.

GAMAAN director Ammar Maleki is an assistant professor of comparative politics at Tilburg University in the Netherlands and the national representative of Iran for the World Association of Public Opinion Research.

Direct talks

51% of respondents believed that Israel "was successful and achieved its objectives" in the conflict, while just 16% thought Tehran had been more successful and 19% said neither side had achieved its goals.

About 62% agreed Iran should negotiate directly with the United States to resolve its disputes," while 22% opposed direct talks.

Opinions on the missile program were polarized: 46% believed "Iran’s missile program has increased the country’s security," while 43% disagreed.

On uranium enrichment, 47% agreed that "to prevent another war, Iran should stop enriching uranium," while 36% disagreed.

When asked about the likelihood of a similar war occurring in the future, 34% rated the chance as "very likely" and 26% as "somewhat likely"; in contrast, 14% saw it as "unlikely" and 8% as "very unlikely."

Postwar crackdown

The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran Mai Sato said last week that Israel likely violated international law in its military campaign in June and that Tehran had expanded domestic repression after the conflict with hundreds of executions and new curbs on dissent.

Sato urged Iran to repeal laws criminalizing peaceful expression, end the use of torture and forced confessions, and investigate deaths in custody and border killings.

Hundreds of military personnel and civilians were killed in the Israeli airstrikes while Iranian counterattacks killed 32 Israeli civilians and an off-duty soldier.

In this survey conducted after the 12-Day War, the proportion of respondents favoring the overthrow of the Islamic Republic increased by 6% compared to last year, while the share favoring "structural transformation and transition" declined by 3%.

Pursue peace

A majority (69%) believed "Iran should stop calling for the destruction of Israel," while 20% opposed this idea.

Accountability emerges in GAMAAN survey, as 45% point fingers at the government for igniting the deadly spark through provocative policies.

Regarding favorability of countries, the United States received the most positive ratings (53%) and the least negative (37%) among Iranians; Israel ranked second with 39% positive and 48% negative views.