DUBAI\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iran stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the U.S. and Israel, two semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported Tuesday, as tensions flared in Israel\u2019s related fight against the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
The halt in communication was likely meant to increase pressure on President Trump over negotiations on the Iran war ceasefire and loosening the Islamic Republic\u2019s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and the oil, gas and other commodities that normally pass through it. Trump could potentially push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt or slow the advance of his forces, which have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter of a century.<\/p>\n
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not address the reported cutoff in communications as he testified at a congressional hearing in Washington. Instead, he sounded an optimistic note about the nuclear dimension of the negotiations, while cautioning that there\u2019s no guarantee of reaching \u201ca deal that\u2019s acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reports by the Fars and Tasnim news agencies, both believed to be close to Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, come as the conflicts in Iran and Lebanon have increasingly become conjoined. Iran insists that any potential truce in the war there must also quell the fighting in Lebanon, where Hezbollah remains one of Iran\u2019s chief allies in its self-described \u201caxis of resistance\u201d against Israel.<\/p>\n
A regional official involved in the mediation, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, told the Associated Press that Iran had not communicated at all on Tuesday after saying that a ceasefire needed to be enforced in Lebanon for negotiations to continue.<\/p>\n
Israel and the U.S. maintain the fighting in Lebanon is separate from the Iran war talks. <\/p>\n
Inflation takes an economic toll on Iran<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, year-on-year inflation in Iran reached a level in May unseen since World War II, underlining the economic pain average Iranians are facing. While the U.S. is eager to ease the Islamic Republic\u2019s grip on the strait \u2014 through which a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed in peacetime \u2014 Iran faces economic challenges as its oil-backed economy remains under a U.S. naval blockade.<\/p>\n
Economic pressure touched off nationwide protests in Iran in 2017 into 2018, when rising food prices sparked demonstrations that killed over 20 people and saw hundreds arrested. The next year, an increase in government-subsidized gasoline prices caused protests that saw over 300 people reportedly killed.<\/p>\n
Then came the protests over the collapsing value of Iran\u2019s currency, the rial, at the start of this year. They were the most intense demonstrations to shake the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution and the chaotic years that followed. Iran\u2019s theocracy met January\u2019s protests with a crackdown on demonstrators in January that killed over 7,000 people, according to activists\u2019 estimates.<\/p>\n
Now, even as hard-liners hold gun-handling workshops and organize marriages under the shadow of a ballistic missile to bolster spirits, experts note there could be new demonstrations if people find themselves priced out of feeding their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no doubt that if Trump leaves [Iran without a formal peace deal] … most probably, we will see something like January by the end of summer because of the economic and social situations,\u201d analyst Mohsen Jalilvand said in a video published by Iran\u2019s Fararu news website.<\/p>\n
Prices climb at \u2018an unprecedented rate\u2019<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Central Bank said the consumer price index, which measures a basket of goods and services, reached 77.2% in May compared with the year before. The rate is 8.5% higher than in April, the bank added. Inflation in daily and general needs \u2014 like medicine, taxi fares, tobacco and communication fees \u2014 rose 113.8% from the year before.<\/p>\n
A private economic think tank in Iran, the Bamdad Institute of Economic Studies, described the current figures as \u201can unprecedented rate since World War II.\u201d Iran\u2019s Central Bank did not acknowledge the significance of the figures.<\/p>\n
The previous record came in 1942. During the war, the British and Soviets invaded Iran and took over its railway, disrupting food supplies. The lack of food, worsened by a poor harvest, sparked hyperinflation and a famine. Hunger and a typhus outbreak killed many.<\/p>\n
Airstrikes this year have greatly damaged Iran\u2019s businesses and its oil industry, Meanwhile, the U.S. blockade has been targeting Iranian crude oil shipments trying to reach the international market, a key source of hard revenue. Tax revenues have been depressed by businesses struggling even after the fighting paused.<\/p>\n
The rial, which traded at 32,000 to $1 in 2015, now trades at over 1.7 million to $1.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will definitely have higher prices,\u201d Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian warned in May. \u201cWe are fighting, and we must accept this hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tehran-based economist Saeed Leilaz, speaking to the AP, warned that annual inflation in Iran could reach 80%.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran\u2019s society cannot tolerate above 25%\u201d annual inflation, he said.<\/p>\n
Gambrell, Magdy and Karimi write for the Associated Press. Karimi reported from Tehran. Magdy reported from Cairo. AP writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report from New York. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Iran stopped communicating with mediators about extending a ceasefire in the war with the U.S. and Israel, two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16754,39260,42,86,932,87,219818,46,93030,88,24513,219817,43,5839,1266,40,38,41,39,4374,1661],"class_list":["post-473087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-central-bank","tag-communication","tag-headlines","tag-hezbollah","tag-inflation","tag-iran","tag-iranian-report","tag-israel","tag-january","tag-lebanon","tag-may","tag-nationwide-protest","tag-news","tag-oil","tag-people","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-u-s","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}