The UN imposes “snapback” sanctions on a more faced, poorer and more anxious Iran: NPR
A missile and banners built at the national level showing portraits of the Iranian supreme chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the commanders of the center and the armed forces who were killed in an Israeli strike in June, are exhibited on Place du Baharestan, Tehran, Thursday, September 25, 2025.
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Dubai, the United Arab Emirates – The United Nations reproduced the sanctions against Iran early Sunday about its nuclear program, tightening the Islamic Republic more, because its people find themselves more and more expensive to the food they need to survive and worry about their future.
The sanctions are again gelting Iranian assets abroad, will interrupt the agreements with Tehran and penalize any development of the Iran’s ballistic missile program, among other measures. He came via a mechanism known as “Snapback”, included in the Iranian nuclear agreement with the world powers, and occurs while the Iranian economy is already in shock.
Iran’s Rial currency is at a record level, increasing the pressure on food prices and making daily life even more difficult. This includes meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table.
Meanwhile, people are concerned about a new series of fights between Iran and Israel – as well as the United States – like missile sites were struck during the 12 -day war in June which seem to be rebuilt.
Activists fear an increasing wave of repression within the Islamic Republic, which has already executed more people this year than in the past three decades.
A woman sits in the outdoor dining room of a coffee on rue Enqelab-E-Eslami (Islamic Revolution), in Tehran, Iran, Saturday September 27, 2025.
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Sina, the father of a 12-year-old boy who spoke provided that only his first name was used for fear of repercussions, said that the country had never been confronted with such a difficult period, even during the private war of Iran-Iraq in the 1980s and the decades of sanctions that came later.
“Since I remember, we have trouble with economic difficulties, and each year, it’s worse than the previous one,” Sina told the Associated Press. “For my generation, it is always too late or too early – our dreams are moving away.”
Iranian sanctions are defined on “snapback”
Snapback was designed to be Vito-Vito to the United Nations Security Council, which means that China and Russia could not stop it alone, because they have other actions proposed against Tehran in the past. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov described them as “trap” for Iran on Saturday.
France, Germany and the United Kingdom sparked a snapback on Iran 30 days ago for its new surveillance of its nuclear program and blocking on its negotiations with the United States
Iran has also withdrawn from the surveillance of the International Atomic Energy Agency after the War of Israel with the country in June, which also saw the United States hit nuclear sites in the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, the country still maintains a stock of uranium enriched up to 60% of purity – a short technical step in the level of level of weapons of 90% – which is largely enough to make several atomic bombs, if Tehran chooses to rush towards armament.
Iran has long insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful, although the West and IAEA say that Tehran had a program of weapons organized until 2003.
On Sunday, the three European nations said they “continued to avoid triggering a snapback”. But Iran “has not authorized the IAEA inspectors to regain access to Iranian nuclear sites, and it has not produced and transmitted to the AIEA a report representing its high renewal uranium stock”.
Tehran also argued that the three European nations should not be authorized to implement Snapback, in part pointing the US unilateral withdrawal from the 2018 agreement, during the first mandate of the administration of President Donald Trump.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the three European nations for “a decisive world leadership act” for imposing sanctions on Iran and said that “diplomacy is still an option”.
“For this to happen, Iran must accept direct talks,” said Rubio.
However, it is not clear how Tehran will react on Sunday.
“The Trump administration seems to think that it has a stronger hand after the strikes, and it can wait for Iran to return to the table,” said Kelsey Davenport, nuclear expert from the Washington Arms Control Association. “Given the knowledge that Iran has, given the materials that remain in Iran, it is a very dangerous hypothesis.”
Risks also remain for Iran, it added: “In the short term, the AIEA kick-off increases the risk of unhappiness. The United States or Israel could use the lack of inspections as a pretext for other strikes.”
Hunger and anxiety develop in Iran
The consequences of the June war have raised food prices in Iran, putting the meat already out of reach for poorer families.
Two women pass in front of a huge banner showing the commander of the expeditionary force of the Iranian revolutionary guard Quds Force, General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in an American drone attack in 2020, and two Hezbollah leaders who were killed in the Israeli Revolution in 2024, Square, Saturday.
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The Iranian government has put overall annual inflation at 34.5% in June, and its statistical center said that the cost of essential food products increased by more than 50% during the same period. But even that does not reflect what people see in stores. Pinto beans tripled in price in a year, while butter has almost doubled. Rice, a staple, has increased by more than 80% on average, reaching 100% for premium varieties. The whole chicken is up 26%, while beer and lamb up 9%.
“Each day, I see new higher prices for cheese, milk and butter,” said Sima Taghavi, mother of two, in a grocery store in Tehran. “I cannot omit them like fruit and meat from my grocery list because my children are too young to be private.”
Pressure on food and fears concerning the resumption of war have seen more patients heading to psychologists since June, local media in Iran reported.
“The psychological pressure of the 12 -day war on the one hand, and inflation and the price increases, left the company exhausted and not motivated,” said Dr. Sima Ferdowsi, clinical psychologist and professor at Shahid Beheshti University, in the Hamshahri newspaper in an interview published in July.
Executions increased in 2025
Iran has faced several national demonstrations in recent years, fueled by anger against the economy, demands for women’s rights and calls for the country’s theocracy to change.
In response to these demonstrations and the June War, Iran has put prisoners to death at an invisible rate since 1988, when it executed thousands at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. The Iran Human Rights group based in Oslo and the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights, based in Washington, put the number of people executed in 2025 with more than 1,000, noting that the number could be higher because Iran does not report on each execution.
