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Telecommunications retirees protested on October 26 in at least Tehran, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Sanandaj, Borujerd, Tabriz and Ilam, demanding unpaid entitlements, pension adjustments and better healthcare. In Tehran they chanted “Where are the media? Come to our aid,” “Our state broadcaster is our disgrace,” and “A nation has never seen this much incompetence.” In Isfahan, protesters directly criticized the telecommunications company’s major shareholders, including the IRGC Cooperative Foundation and the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order.
Foreign-exchange shortages remain another major pressure. The government still owes essential-goods importers roughly €4 billion, with parliament discussing use of the National Development Fund to cover the arrears. At the same time, Tehran prosecutors claimed 61 people, including 36 company executives, have been arrested over exporters’ failure to return foreign currency, while judicial action has produced more than €10 billion in settled currency obligations. The state is therefore struggling to finance imports while simultaneously using arrests, asset seizures and travel restrictions to force foreign exchange back into official channels.
Trade routes are also obstructed. Despite a partial reopening of the Pakistan frontier, roughly 3,000–4,000 trucks remain stuck on the Iranian side and 2,000–3,000 on the Pakistani side, according to trade representatives. Another 2,271 trucks have been reported waiting at Dogharoun to enter Afghanistan. Transport groups blame customs delays, infrastructure shortages and measures approved but never implemented.
Iran’s crisis is increasingly inside the regime itself: retirees protested across several provinces, parliament’s research chief blamed #inflation on state dysfunction and rent privileges, while Marashi warned that factional intimidation could turn into political killing—even as…
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 19, 2026
Industrial losses and tighter economic enforcement
Financial disclosures from Isfahan Steel show roughly 9.3 trillion tomans in net losses during the first six months of the year, with accumulated losses reaching around 25.4 trillion tomans. Crude-steel production fell about 42% year-on-year, while several production lines achieved barely half their targets and rail production reached only around one-fifth. The company also reports overdue bank debts, dangerous liquidity conditions and difficulty obtaining guarantees and letters of credit. More than 10,000 employees depend on the enterprise.
Economic newspapers are simultaneously reporting weaker household demand, expansion of installment purchases and continued pressure from the rial, which remained around 270,000 tomans to the dollar. The combination of falling purchasing power, expensive inputs and impaired access to foreign currency is squeezing both consumers and producers.
Flooding added another domestic strain over the weekend. In Bileh Savar, about 70 homes were flooded and 100 sheep killed, while heavy rain around Aslan Duz damaged roads serving around 20 villages.
Pezeshkian now says Iran cannot even plan under its permanent “neither war nor peace” crisis. State media simultaneously reports wages far below living costs, €4.07bn unpaid to food importers, 297,000 people cut from subsidies, 40% telecom price hikes and weakening #oil…
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 24, 2026
A rare leadership appearance sends a security message
A politically development came with the officially publicized meeting between Mojtaba Khamenei and judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei. State television said Khamenei called for the “swift,” “firm” and “deterrent” implementation of judicial sentences, stronger inspections and decisive prosecution of offenses.
The significance lies less in projecting control than in what the regime appears to need to signal. Mojtaba Khamenei has remained largely out of public view for security reasons, so announcing a meeting with the head of a judiciary associated with executions, political prosecutions and repression serves as reassurance to loyalists that the leadership and coercive institutions remain aligned. At the same time, it sends a warning outward: as pressures mount, the regime is leaning more heavily on crackdown.
An earlier official account of Khamenei’s meeting with the parliament speaker carried the same defensive tone, stressing the need for “continued conscious and deterrent presence in field gatherings” and for confronting what the regime calls military, economic and “cognitive” warfare. The pattern suggests a leadership increasingly preoccupied with demonstrating cohesion and readiness because it fears the political consequences of appearing divided, absent or weak.
Iran’s domestic pressure is widening: universities are tightening surveillance and #hijab enforcement, an armed clash erupted in Khash, state media says workers are abandoning jobs as wages collapse, officials admit persistent #poverty, and the government is rewriting its…
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 21, 2026
The judiciary itself is expanding both economic and political enforcement. Prosecutors say they have received around 4,000 new public reports against people accused of “selling out the homeland,” while authorities continue using detention, asset seizures and travel bans in economic cases. The merging of economic discipline, political denunciation and national-security language is becoming increasingly explicit.
Internet conditions are also deteriorating. Cloudflare data cited by Iranian technology media show that Iran’s recent daily traffic peak fell to about 41% of the previous weekly high and roughly 32% of the monthly peak. The cause remains unexplained. The decline follows an official acknowledgment that authorities remain prepared to restrict internet access if “national security” demands it; the communications minister has previously estimated the economic cost of shutdowns at $35.7 million per day.
Iran is turning social pressure into a security problem: retirees protested in several cities while parliament advances “cognitive #security governance,” lawmakers insist the communications backbone remain under state control for crises, #internet shutdowns remain an option, and…
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) October 25, 2026
Meanwhile, students at Zabol University reported widespread food poisoning after spoiled chicken nuggets were served in a university cafeteria. Students described poor-quality and expired food as a recurring problem and complained of deteriorating dormitory conditions.
The broader picture is of a regime becoming more dependent on coercion as its room for maneuver narrows. Rather than resolving the pressures eroding its authority, it is increasingly treating weakness, dissent and even hesitation as security threats. The result is a system in which repression intensifies as the underlying crises deepen—suggesting that fear of losing control is becoming a governing logic in its own right.