Three-minute read
Iran’s state and regime-aligned outlets on Thursday, December 4, 2025, offered a rare, concentrated view of a system under pressure on almost every front: territorial disputes in the Gulf, a collapsing currency, toxic air and disease, deepening poverty, and open brawling inside the ruling elite over who is responsible.
Across all factional media, the same themes recurred: fear of social explosion, quiet acknowledgement of structural failure, and political actors trying to shift blame before it lands on them.
State-run outlets noted that the rial has plunged to an unprecedented level of about 120,000 tomans per US dollar, under renewed nuclear sanctions and stalled talks with Washington. The fall is already feeding through into food and fuel prices, adding to an inflation shock that MPs and experts say has destroyed purchasing power for large parts of the population.
The state-run Ham-Mihan, slammed the new dowry law that cuts the criminally enforceable dowry ceiling from 110 to 14 gold coins, calling it proof of “baseless” lawmaking and a tacit admission that society can no longer bear previous levels of financial obligation. In Shargh, Health Committee member Homayoun Sameh-Yah Najafabadi warned that scrapping preferential foreign exchange for medicines is now “impossible” in the face of severe inflation, noting that the price of rice has jumped from about 70–80,000 tomans three years ago to roughly 400,000 tomans today while medical tariffs and doctors’ fees have not remotely kept pace.
Dry Skies, Dirty Air, And A Sliding Rial: #Iran’s Crises Collide in Early Winterhttps://t.co/Du8KzRDcDn
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) December 1, 2025
Smog, Flu and a Country on Respiratory Alert
Alongside economic distress, an environmental and health emergency dominated headlines. Officials said that in just 10 days, over 200,000 people with respiratory or heart complaints have sought emergency care as air pollution spiked across the country, with Tehran, Mashhad, Khuzestan and Alborz among the worst hit. Schools have been closed for up to 12 consecutive days in around 20 provinces, and many state offices are on remote or reduced operation.
According to Thursday’s reports in state-affiliated outlets, Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi warned that the overlap of dense smog and a new H3N2 influenza wave has made the current period “especially dangerous” for children, the elderly and high-risk groups. He was quoted as saying that roughly 59,000 deaths a year nationwide — including about 8,800 to 9,000 in Tehran — are directly attributable to air pollution, and that when pollution spikes, “the transmission and spread of the current influenza strain is at least ten times higher,” with most new cases recorded in the 5–14 age group.
According to official monitoring, Tehran’s average fine-particle (PM2.5) reading on December 4 was in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” range, and the capital has had only about six “clean air” days since the start of the year, against more than 100 days classified as unhealthy for vulnerable groups, plus nearly 20 days unhealthy for all. In some cities, such as parts of Sistan-Baluchestan and Khuzestan, daily PM2.5 scores have approached 480–500, levels that air-quality indices categorize as outright dangerous.
#Iran’s Winter of Smog and Shortages Deepens the Regime’s Crisishttps://t.co/fp8q5DEXbk
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) November 30, 2025
Water And the Caspian at Historic Lows
Ecological stress is not limited to the air. Mohammadreza Kavianpour, head of the state Water Research Institute, said the Caspian Sea’s level has dropped by roughly 25 centimeters in recent years and that “this year we will likely reach the lowest level in 500 years.” He blamed climate-driven declines in rainfall across the Caspian basin and sharply higher evaporation, warning that the fall is part of a wider 20–25-year drought that has drained reservoirs, shrunk rivers and increased salinity in many regions.
These pressures compound existing shortages: other officials and experts quoted in domestic media pointed to urban reservoirs near “critical” levels and to wintertime water cuts that, along with power outages, are now a regular feature of life for many households.
Poverty Line Soars, #Tehran Water Supply Critical, and Unrest Spreadshttps://t.co/M1fSh3Jhzu
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) November 18, 2025
Social Fabric and Political Infighting
Several outlets focused on how these overlapping crises are shredding daily life and trust. Tose’e-ye Irani reported that, despite a revised disability-rights law, more than 95% of people with disabilities live below the absolute-poverty line; a standard disability stipend of about 1.4 million tomans, plus basic subsidies, still leaves most with roughly 3 million tomans a month in cities where unofficial poverty thresholds reach 30 million.
In a Shargh feature on “living in a chain of tensions,” a Tehran resident described how repeated water and electricity cuts, layered on top of inflation and smog, create “permanent anxiety” and even disrupt basic routines. A psychologist interviewed by the paper said economic stress and constant crisis are eroding people’s sense of worth and social trust, while sociologist Hossein Imani-Jajarmi warned that unresolved shortages of water and energy are making “a life with dignity impossible” for the middle and working classes, with dissatisfaction that “can turn into a political crisis.”
Meanwhile, factional media kept up their attacks on rivals rather than proposing solutions. Former minister Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, quoted in Shargh and Tabnak, accused Pezeshkian’s government of “entertaining itself with a gasoline table” and relying on a spokesman who “whitewashes” fuel decisions. Arman-e Melli portrayed a coordinated campaign to discredit former president Hassan Rouhani as proof that extremist factions still fear his political appeal.
Taken together, Thursday’s coverage sketched the outline of a regime squeezed by socio-economic crises and climate stress, facing rising poverty, sickness and ecological collapse at home, and responding with warnings, denials and blame-shifting rather than any credible way out.