Iran’s car industry has been under growing pressure since the Trump Administration re-imposed sanctions in August 2018. The challenges are economic, demographic, environmental, and medical—a microcosm of changes in the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution. Iran has gone through waves of sanctions over the past four decades that have spilled over into daily life, including access to transportation as the population mushroomed to 82 million.
Iran’s often colorful press — both conservative and reformist — invoked vivid images and headlines in covering the Trump administration's decision to reimpose economic sanctions. The following is a sampling from November 4-6 of major newspaper front pages after the U.S. announcement.
"We Won’t Return to the Past"
"A Report on Political-Economic Consequences of Re-imposed U.S. Sanctions" (November 4)
Since the revolution's early years, Iran has been linked — directly or indirectly — to acts of terror on five continents. The Islamic Republic has “conducted terrorist plots, assassinations, and attacks in more than 20 countries worldwide,” according to a State Department report released in September 2018. Most have been linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).
Terrorism has been a recurrent challenge for Iran since the 1979 revolution. The perpetrators, targets and frequency have fluctuated. The early attacks killed hundreds of government officials, including a president, prime minister, cabinet ministers, and dozens of members of parliament. Attacks have been carried out by a wide array of actors—ethnic separatists, Sunni militants, monarchists, Marxists and, statistically most of all, the opposition Mujahadeen-e Khalq (MEK).
Top representatives from the European Union, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom said they regretted the U.S. decision to reimpose sanctions on Iran. In a joint statement, foreign ministers and finance ministers pledged to protect European companies doing legitimate business with the Islamic Republic.
On October 30, Denmark’s intelligence agency alleged that Iran plotted to assassinate an Iranian Arab opposition figure on its territory.
On October 3, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered the United States to ease sanctions on Iran for humanitarian reasons. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal in May 2018 and imposed a first round of sanctions on Iran in August. A second round of sanctions, which will target oil exports, will go into effect on November 4.
On September 24, E.U. High Representative Federica Mogherini chaired a meeting on the nuclear deal’s implementation attended by the Chinese, French, German, Russian, U.K., and Iranian foreign ministers. “The participants considered ways forward to ensure the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA in all its aspects.
On September 22, four gunmen attacked a military parade in the southwestern city of Ahvaz. At least 29 people were killed, including women and children, and some 70 others were injured. At least eight were Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel, according to Iranian officials. The gunmen were reportedly dressed like IRGC members. “They were just aimlessly shooting around and did not have a specific target,” one witness told Iranian state television.
On September 23, a bipartisan group of more than 50 American national security experts encouraged the Trump Administration to combine pressure and diplomacy in its approach to Iran. “The Trump Administration’s Iran strategy is to assert maximum economic, political and military pressure to change Iran’s behavior and threaten, if not cause, collapse of the regime. But since it has not undertaken diplomatic engagement on any of its twelve demands on Iran, the Administration has left Iran the option of either capitulation or war,” they warned.
