Iran International
Hardliners in Iran feel vindicated by a European move on Thursday to reimpose international sanctions, seeing it as proof of both implacable foreign hostility and the failure of hapless home front moderates.
Outspoken conservatives had for over a decade seethed at the diplomacy which clinched the 2015 international nuclear deal the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as a surrender of Iran's sovereignty to hostile outside powers.
"The JCPOA, the imposition of the trigger mechanism, the US withdrawal from the JCPOA and the 12-day war were all pieces of an American and Israeli plan," fulminated Mahmoud Nabavian, the deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee.
"The authors the JCPOA's imposition and the trigger mechanism on the nation, some of whom are now brazenly seeking to make concessions to the enemy, must be tried," he added on X, apparently referring to Iranian moderates.
Britain, France and Germany on Thursday triggered a 30-day process - the so-called "snapback" mechanism - to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program in a formal letter sent the UN Security Council.
Iran condemned the European sanctions move as malicious and illegal but stopped short of mentioning specific consequences and instead warned of an "appropriate response."
Just before the European move, another ultraconservative member of the parliamentary committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi mooted blocking the energy exports of its Arab neighbors if sanctions choked off its own flows.
"If Iran cannot export its oil, certainly something will happen that will stop the exporting of others’ oil," Tehran’s leading economic daily Donya-ye Eghtesad quoted him as saying. "We won’t sit and watch the compromising of all of our interests."
The threat has been repeatedly voiced by various Iranian politicians, including former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Hassan Rouhani, since the mid-1980s when Iran first attempted to close the Strait of Hormuz.
That move prompted a swift US military response which promptly decimated Iran’s naval forces in the Persian Gulf and destroyed two major oil platforms.
Kayhan on closing off commerce
The Kayhan newspaper, closely linked to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office, warned against caving to Western demands to negotiate and advocated strength.
"The response to the West’s threat should be a threat rather than negotiating and taking a passive approach," it wrote a commentary.
"The West’s repetitive scenario leaves no room for optimism and expectations. Our experience shows that the West understands only the language of force," it added. "Iran should take strict decisions, from exiting the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to limiting access to the Strait of Hormuz, and show that the enemy’s threats will not remain unanswered."
For decades, Kayhan has advocated for closing the Strait of Hormuz so fervently that one social media user joked, “Let’s close the strait at least for 10 minutes only to do a favor to Kayhan’s editor!”
"Negotiating with the United States and Europe will lead to nothing other than humiliation, deceit, and wasting time," it said in another article.
Meanwhile, Kayhan dismissed any connection between the trigger mechanism and UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which the three European powers are invoking to reinstate pre-2015 sanctions on Iran.
Amid the radical reactions, one relatively moderate voice emerged from Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a conservative MP and yet another member of the National Security and Foreign Relations Committee.
Iran, he said, still had one month to respond to European demands and a boon could come in the form of Russia taking over the presidency of the UN Security Council in October.
Still, the European troika's move appeared designed to forestall that possibility with the 30-day process to restore international sanctions likely to be complete before the periodic change in the Security Council's leadership.
The Islamic Republic risks losing the ability to fund its health system, said Reza Jabbari, a member of parliament’s presiding board, during a meeting with Health Minister Mohammadreza Zafarghandi.
“Based on submitted reports, 70 percent of insurance resources are spent on medicine and equipment, which could be significantly reduced through strategic purchasing,” Jabbari added.
Without reform, he said, demographic and dietary pressures could create in health care the same shortage already seen in Iran’s energy sector.
Iran may soon face a surge in chronic and non-communicable diseases, Jabbari warned.
“The country will no longer be able to pay health costs if the current situation continues.”
Debt to the pharmaceutical supply chain
The warning came a day after Shahram Kalantari, head of Iran’s Pharmacists Association, described the government as “the main debtor to the pharmaceutical supply chain.” Insurers have failed to pay most of their obligations this year, he said.
“Health Insurance owes us $100 trillion rials ($100 million), Social Security owes $150 trillion rials ($150 million), and the Daroyar plan owes $90 trillion rials ($90 million) since July,” Kalantari said Tuesday.
The drug industry can only remain stable for 170 to 180 days if payments continue to be delayed, he cautioned. After that, shortages of essential medicines are likely.
Kalantari has previously said 80 percent of pharmacies in the country are on the brink of bankruptcy due to mounting debts from insurers and subsidy programs.
Rising burden on households
Other lawmakers have also highlighted the growing strain on families. Fatemeh Mohammadbeigi, deputy chair of the parliament’s Health Committee, said Iranians now pay about 70 percent of medical costs out of pocket.
She described the insurance system as “inefficient and near bankruptcy” due to poor management and a failure to consolidate coverage.
“This figure should be reversed, with people paying 30 percent and the government 70 percent,” Mohammadbeigi said earlier this month. Falling insurance coverage particularly harms low-income groups, she added.
Labor activists have also pointed to shrinking access. Abbas Shiri, a board inspector for the National Construction Workers’ Union, said on August 2 that fewer than 50,000 workers have gained insurance since 2020, leaving hundreds of thousands waiting.
The combined warnings from lawmakers, pharmacists, and labor groups underscore a health system burdened by debt, demographic pressures, and inadequate insurance coverage, with officials conceding that sustainability is in doubt.
