Hendra Wijaya
Iranian households are increasingly buying up staple goods and medicines in bulk, driven by mounting anxiety that the country could soon confront severe shortages as Washington escalates its economic pressure campaign. The mood in Tehran reflects a growing sense of precariousness as the conflict approaches its eighth month with little sign of a diplomatic breakthrough. Consumers who once trusted the government to keep basic goods flowing now appear to be preparing for the worst.
At a shopping centre in the capital, a 51-year-old man named Ali loaded a trolley with rice, flour, pasta, pulses, cooking oil and canned food. He said his decision to stockpile stemmed from a conviction that Iran's adversaries are trying to starve the population in order to provoke public anger against the government. In his view, the campaign is not a conventional war but rather one aimed squarely at civilians in order to apply pressure on the authorities in Tehran.
The anxiety has been fuelled in part by a wave of social media posts urging people to secure several days' worth of food before any possible new round of fighting with the United States. Although shops in Tehran remain stocked for the moment, shoppers are watching shelves closely. In some cases, imported items such as certain medicines and mobile phone headsets have become difficult to find after flights to some nearby countries were suspended, pushing up prices for the goods that remain available.
Haj Pasandideh, a 71-year-old grocer, expressed a belief that warehouses currently hold adequate supplies of basic goods. The deeper problem, he argued, lies in daily price increases linked to the weakening rial, which have prompted him to buy in bulk before expected hikes. In an effort to ensure as many customers as possible can make purchases, he sometimes limits cooking oil sales to one bottle per person.
The current situation marks a shift from the early months of the war, when the Iranian government managed to keep household staples moving to consumers. That relative stability has been eroded by a U.S. naval blockade and a pivot toward draconian sanctions, generating fears that imports will be curtailed further. Washington has also announced a ban on Iranian airlines worldwide and is pressing other countries to cut trade ties with Tehran as part of a broader effort to isolate the country.
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly last week, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned Washington for its blockade, warning that it would prevent food and medicine from reaching the Iranian people. The diplomatic track has shown little momentum. On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump rejected an Iranian offer for a seven-day truce that would have involved reopening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for economic relief and other conditions.
The squeeze is being felt well beyond urban shopping centres. Farmers are also on edge, unable to export their produce and forced to sell into local markets at a disadvantage. Years of sanctions had already transformed Iran from a regional exporter of agricultural and food products into one of the region's main importers, and the war has worsened that trajectory. For growers, the collapse of export routes has translated into lost income and unsold harvests.
An apple grower named Mehran told Al Jazeera that difficulties in exporting meant he had sold only a third of this year's harvest, all of it inside Iran. Some neighbouring countries have halted trade with Iran in recent months, he said, while trucks now spend days at border crossings that once took a single day to clear. As a result, fruit spoils before it reaches buyers. In his assessment, the blockade has closed not only sea and air routes but also land corridors, though in an undeclared manner.
The pharmaceutical sector is under particularly acute strain. The war has deepened an already dire shortage of medications, and some pharmacies in southern Tehran visited by reporters had run out of infant formula and dozens of other types of medicine. Officials have assured Iranians that substitute products are available, but pharmacy staff have voiced concern about the rising number of customers searching for infant formula without success.
A 23-year-old pharmacy assistant named Mahsa said imported medicines are disappearing quickly, and that customers have lately been coming in to buy certain items before they need them out of fear they will run out later. She added that health authorities have introduced "smart systems" to track the quantity and type of medication each person purchases, an indication of official efforts to manage distribution amid scarcity.
The prospect of a prolonged siege and steadily deteriorating economic conditions has driven some Iranians to call for a military solution. Along Tehran's main thoroughfare, several people told Al Jazeera that another round of fighting with the United States was unavoidable. Some urged the government to break the blockade by force before it is tightened further, reflecting a hardening of public sentiment as hope for a negotiated settlement fades.
Mohsen, a 23-year-old economics student, believes Washington's objective is to strangle the Iranian economy, and that the ultimate cost will fall on ordinary citizens. He argued that Iran holds many strong cards that it must play to break the air and sea blockade before such measures evolve into a land blockade that would completely choke Tehran.
Alireza Taghavinia, an Iranian international relations expert, told Al Jazeera that the gap between Washington and Tehran is too wide to be bridged. His assessment reinforces the sense that the standoff is likely to persist, leaving Iranian households, farmers, pharmacists and consumers to navigate an economy under mounting pressure with no clear end in sight.
Comments (0)