Irans economy nears breaking point, citizens reportedly stealing basic groceries to get by: expert

Reports of Iranians stealing bread, cheese, meat and other basic groceries are fueling concerns that the country’s worsening economic crisis is pushing households toward a breaking point.An investigation published Wednesday by the Iranian newspaper Jahan-e Sanat described supermarket workers encountering customers who allegedly concealed inexpensive food items or ate packaged products inside stores without paying.The accounts are anecdotal and do not establish the national prevalence of food theft, but analysts say they reflect the mounting pressure created by inflation, currency depreciation and collapsing purchasing power.“These are anecdotal, but they align with hard data,” Miad Maleki, an associate fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.“Iran is already inside the tipping zone,” Maleki said.

“But a genuine ‘tipping point’ wouldn’t be a single dramatic event.It would look like what’s already unfolding in slow motion: currency collapse, World War II-level food inflation and now theft of staples, reaching a threshold where basic caloric/nutritional access breaks down for a large share of the population, not just the poorest.”The reports surfaced as Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged that the country was facing “difficulties and problems,” while insisting during a televised address Wednesday that Iran remained powerful and respected.“The enemy is exerting pressure in an attempt to provoke the people into protesting,” Pezeshkian said, according to an account of his Aug.

5 address published by Iran’s state-affiliated Press TV.Maleki said worsening food insecurity could become a trigger for renewed demonstrations, pointing to Iran’s November 2019 protests following a sharp government-imposed increase in gasoline prices.“The regime’s own history proves it, because its most dangerous moments have been economic, not ideological,” Maleki said.He cautioned, however, that econo...