{"id":336591,"date":"2025-09-08T16:51:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=336591"},"modified":"2025-09-08T16:51:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:51:19","slug":"irans-economic-strain-and-unrest-fears-drive-khameneis-push-for-narrative-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/irans-economic-strain-and-unrest-fears-drive-khameneis-push-for-narrative-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s Economic Strain and Unrest Fears Drive Khamenei\u2019s Push for Narrative Control"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei meets with President Masoud Pezeshkian and members of his cabinet in Tehran\u2014 September 7, 2025<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Three-minute read<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s clerical dictatorship is tightening its grip on information as economic collapse deepens and fears of uprising grow. In a meeting with regime-appointed president Masoud Pezeshkian and his cabinet on September 7, 2025, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered<\/a> officials, journalists, and state media to \u201cavoid narrating weakness\u201d and instead amplify \u201cthe country\u2019s strengths and capabilities.\u201d He warned that \u201cthe enemy intends to impose a state of neither war nor peace,\u201d framing the crisis as externally engineered while ignoring his own decades-long role in creating it.<\/p>\n

This posture is deliberate. For over three decades, Khamenei has driven Iran\u2019s regional aggression, sabotaged lasting peace \u2014 even refusing reconciliation with the Iraqi government his regime helped install \u2014 and used perpetual tension as a political shield. Now, facing sanctions snapback<\/a>, a collapsing economy, and mounting public anger, he projects himself as an \u201copposition critic\u201d of his own system, pretending to challenge the very policies he dictated. It is calculated charlatanism designed to deflect blame and preserve his authority.<\/p>\n

At the same session, Khamenei coupled demands for narrative control with hollow promises aimed at calming unrest. He ordered the government to guarantee that \u201cten or fewer basic items\u201d remain affordable, floated expanded use of ration cards, and called for tighter \u201cmarket discipline.\u201d Pezeshkian, echoing the script, claimed his administration is tackling energy infrastructure, inflation, and food security, pledging monthly ration cards for seven income groups. In parliament, Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf promoted<\/a> an electronic ration-card scheme to \u201ckeep staple prices stable year-round.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Khamenei\u2019s Weak Position Exposed as #Iran<\/a>'s Rival Factions Escalate Infightinghttps:\/\/t.co\/Z7U9xguQdl<\/a><\/p>\n

— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) September 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n