Iranian Revolutionary Guards forces seized a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker in the Gulf of Oman and drove it toward Iranian waters after it passed the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported on Friday citing maritime security sources.
Average monthly incomes now stand near $200, leaving millions unable to keep pace with food inflation. Many respondents said basic protein disappeared from their tables months ago.
“Our daily cost for five people is about 30,000,000 rials (around $27), not even counting meat, oil or rice,” one respondent said. “Our table has not just shrunk, it has been wiped out,” the message said.
Another described a timeline of disappearing foods: meat long ago, dairy a year ago, chicken six months ago, fruit four months ago. “It costs 1,000,000 rials (about $0.90) every time we buy bread. There is not much distance left until absolute hunger,” the person said.
One self-described employee earning 220,000,000 rials (around $195) a month and renting on a city’s outskirts said survival required queuing for subsidized poultry. “We removed meat from our diet at Nowruz because we were coming up short,” the message said.
Several said long-considered staples – Iranian rice, fish, nuts, fresh fruit and legumes – had become aspirations. “We eat only bread, yogurt and rice from morning to night,” another message said.
Health concerns mounting
In mid-October, domestic outlets reported that roughly 35 percent of recorded deaths were linked to undernutrition. Health ministry estimates say at least 10,000 people die each year from shortages of omega-3 fatty acids, another 10,000 from low fruit and vegetable intake, and about 25,000 from insufficient whole grains.
Shortages extend beyond food. “People are cutting doctor visits and medicine before anything else,” another respondent wrote. “We live on luck alone.”
One family of four said six months had passed since they last bought meat. “Life has become hard. My 16-year-old son left school to work, yet we still cannot cover daily needs,” the message said.
Another wrote that the essentials most families consider the heart of a meal – red meat, chicken and fish – were now out of reach. “If this government continues, the rest will disappear too, whether we like it or not,” the person said.
Many described a shift to cheaper staples. “Everything has been removed from my basket: fruit, dairy, meat, legumes. The only things I can still manage, with difficulty, are Indian rice, eggs and potatoes,” one message said.
Middle-class erosion
Several respondents who once identified with the middle class said they were now buying fruit with difficulty. “We take four apples, some pears, persimmons, cucumbers and oranges – it reaches 20,000,000 rials (around $18). One kilo of meat is 15,000,000 rials (about $13),” a message said, calling the situation “frightening and broken.”
Travel – once a marker of modest stability – has vanished. “Red meat, chicken, fish, clothes and gold have become dreams. Travel is zero,” one person said.
Amid the accounts of vanished foods, one message pressed for solutions rather than surveys. “We need a way out, not a question whose answer we all already know,” the person said.
Independent labor and pensioner groups warned in a joint 21 October statement that worsening living conditions and unanswered demands were pushing more workers, teachers and retirees toward street-level protest. They wrote that daily demonstrations reflected a determination to “win rights and express grievances” despite the economic strain.
The broad concern running through the messages is not only what families can no longer buy, but how long they can endure a decline that has turned routine meals into calculations of survival.
Two maritime sources told the agency that the tanker then turned toward Iran's coast based on an initial view after small boats neared it off the UAE port of Khor Fakkan, and they said units linked to the Revolutionary Guards were involved.
Columbia Shipmanagement, which operates the ship called Talara, said it lost contact with the vessel as it sailed from Sharjah to Singapore with a load of high sulphur gasoil.
The ship is owned by Cyprus-based Pasha Finance.
Vanguard Tech said in a note that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy intercepted the ship about 20 nautical miles east of Khor Fakkan and forced it to head toward Iran waters.
Ambrey said the tanker was about 22 nautical miles east of Khor Fakkan when three small boats came near as it moved south through the Strait of Hormuz before it veered off its course in the Gulf of Oman. The firm called the event “likely highly targeted.”
Broader tensions over past seizures
Iran has continued to pursue legal action related to earlier maritime incidents. In late October, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said prosecutors had issued an indictment in the case of a container ship seized by the Revolutionary Guards last year in the Strait of Hormuz.
The ship’s Israeli-born owner, he said, was charged with financing terrorism, alleging transfers worth about 1.07 million dollars. According to the judiciary, the money supported Israeli military activities and the case was handled by Tehran’s international affairs prosecution office “in line with international and domestic law.”
The vessel, the MSC Aries, was flying a Portuguese flag when it was intercepted in April 2024. Reuters reported at the time that it was operated by Swiss-based MSC and leased from Gortal Shipping, an affiliate of Israel’s Zodiac Maritime, partly owned by Israeli businessman Eyal Ofer.
Iran has stepped up maritime enforcement in recent months, especially in waters near the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, where fuel smuggling remains a persistent issue due to price differences with neighboring countries.
The IRGC regularly announces such seizures as part of what it calls efforts to curb fuel trafficking in the region, a key route for global oil shipments. Iran has also seized tankers over maritime disputes or in response to international sanctions enforcement.
