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/QPFC[(TKFC[COsRO26 Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, sails into New York harbor aboard a zero-emis-
sions yacht on Wednesday after a two-week crossing from Plymouth, England. She’s in New York to speak
at the United Nations Climate Action Summit next month. There, she’ll join world leaders who will pre-
sent plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The boat carrying Thunberg, the Malizia II, encountered
rough seas that slowed it down for a day. Taking turns steering the 60-foot stripped-down racing yacht
were Boris Herrmann and Pierre Casiraghi, the grandson of Monaco’s late Prince Rainier III and Ameri-
can actress Grace Kelly. Thunberg became a European celebrity last year when she refused to go to school
in the weeks before Sweden’s general election to highlight the impact of climate change.1,000 WORDS: NEW YORK
Craig RuttleAssociated PressGREEN ATLANTIC CROSSING
TEHRAN — Here’s what
President Trump’s “maxi-
mum pressure” campaign of
economic sanctions against
Iran looks like for
Shaghayegh Safari, a 38-
year-old single mother who
works as a typist at a maga-
zine in Tehran.
Her water and gas bills
rose 30% over the last two
years. The monthly rent for
her one-bedroom apart-
ment jumped from $75 to
$240.
“My income is not
enough to buy decent
clothes for myself and my
child anymore,” she said. “I
used to buy brand-name
clothes, but now if I buy
something it’s secondhand.”
Unable to keep up with
the cost of living, Safari
recently moved into her
mother’s one-bedroom
apartment with her 10-year-
old daughter.
Her experience is typical,
as Iran’s most vulnerable
citizens suffer the brunt of a
drop in foreign investments
and oil exports, massive
inflation, a plummeting
national currency and rising
prices for food, clothing and
medicine.
“People in the private
sector are making fortunes
in real estate or the financial
and trade sectors and they
are gaining the lion’s share
of the economy while the
working class and poor in
the cities are feeling the
soaring prices of commod-
ities on their shoulders,”
said Fariborz Raisdana, an
economist in Tehran.
The United States im-
posed the sanctions target-
ing the oil, energy, banking,
metals and shipping indus-
tries last year after with-
drawing from the landmark
2015 nuclear agreement that
had given Iran sanctions
relief in exchange for mea-
sures aimed at preventing it
from obtaining materials
that could be used to pro-
duce a nuclear weapon.
In May, when Iran an-
nounced that it would stop
complying with parts of the
deal, the U.S. added sanc-
tions to the iron, steel, alu-
minum and copper indus-
tries and revoked waivers
that had allowed Iran to
ship to China and Syria. In
June, after Iran shot down a
U.S. spy drone near the
Strait of Hormuz, the
Trump administration hit
the country with even more
sanctions.
The other signatories of
the deal — Russia, France,
China, Germany and Brit-
ain — have remained in the
accord and not reimposed
sanctions they had lifted.However, severe restrictions
imposed by the U.S. on
Iran’s banking and financial
institutions have made it
difficult for the interna-
tional community to do
business with Iran.
U.S. officials have said its
sanctions are aimed at
curbing Iran’s military
power and its support of the
Houthi rebels in Yemen,
Hezbollah in Lebanon and
other militant groups in the
Middle East.
At the Group of 7 sum-
mit in France on Monday,
Trump and other leaders
set off speculation that the
U.S. was planning a presi-
dential summit with Iran.
But Iranian President Has-
san Rouhani suggested in a
speech Tuesday that such a
meeting would be pointless
unless the U.S. first lifted
sanctions.
Brian Hook, the U.S.
special envoy for Iran, told
reporters in June that the
sanctions were working,
preventing Iran from ac-
quiring nuclear weapons
and forcing it to cut military
spending by 29% this year.
Oil exports, Iran’s main
source of income, have fallen
80% since the sanctions
were put into place, and the
International Monetary
Fund predicts that Iran’s
economy will shrink by 6%
this year. But Iranian offi-
cials and various experts
said that didn’t necessarily
mean Iran’s economy would
fall apart.
“Iran has learned how to
mitigate the damages that
are associated with sanc-
tions,” said Steve Hanke, an
economics professor at
Johns Hopkins University.
“Yes, it costs something, but
they retain stability.”
Indeed, Iran has ample
experience with U.S. sanc-
tions, having been subjectedto them continuously since
the Islamic Revolution in- The U.S. eased off only
twice: once in the late 1990s,
then again after the nuclear
accord was signed.
After the Obama admin-
istration placed stringent
sanctions on Iran in 2012,
Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei enacted poli-
cies to support local indus-
tries and reduce depend-
ence on oil exports by in-
creasing trade with Iraq,
Afghanistan and other
neighbors.
Those endeavors, known
as Iran’s “resistance econo-
my,” are helping guide the
government of Rouhani.
The country has increased
domestic production of
hard-to-import goods such
as medicine and appliances.
The annual inflation rate
declined from 50% in June to
48% last month, and the rial
rose 20% against the dollar.
“Under the heaviest
record of sanctions in the
contemporary history of
Iran, any government could
have bent down and com-
promised to the pressures
imposed by America,” said
Hamidreza Taraghi, a
political analyst who is close
to the supreme leader’s
office. “But Rouhani has
managed to help stabilize
the country, even though it
took a lot to make ends
meet.”
The sanctions, however,
have been felt heavily on the
streets of Iran, despite
statements from U.S. offi-
cials that the “maximum
pressure” campaign does
not affect ordinary Iranians.
No longer able to afford
fresh food, some Iranians in
middle-class neighborhoods
in Tehran have resorted to
buying withered cucumbers
and rotting tomatoes,
grapes, apples and peaches
that grocery store salesmen
put aside every day at dusk.
“My clients are buying
less and are more frugal,”
said Ali Sharifi, the 33-year-
old owner of a grocery store,
where in the last year prices
have risen more than 70%.
He said he has had to
change his own spending
habits: “I have a child in
preschool and I can no
longer take my family out to
eat in a decent restaurant.
Instead we buy the cheapest
fruits or clothes.”
Majid Taleghani, a pub-
lisher and bookstore owner
downtown, said the skyrock-
eting price of paper has
raised the price of books
and hurt his business.
“Books are not afford-
able for most people, so
people prefer to watch TV
and not read books,” he
said.
A major challenge for the
government is preventing
such frustrations from
evolving into popular un-
rest.
“If Iran is safeguarded by
riots and protests, then in
one or two years the wheels
of Iran’s economy will be
lubricated and it will stand
on its feet firmly,” said
Saeed Laylaz, a political
economist who is close to
the Rouhani government.
Some citizens have given
up and abandoned Iran,
and others hope to follow.
Farshid Andikjou, a
27-year-old former engineer,
said he was studying Eng-
lish with the intention of
finding a job abroad.
“Give me a good reason
to stay in my country,” he
said. “I’d rather try my
chance somewhere else.”Times staff writer Etehad
reported from Los Angeles
and special correspondent
Mostaghim from Tehran.BACK STORY
Middle class in Iran feels
the brunt of U.S. sanctions
The ‘resistance economy’ is unlikely to collapse, but money is tight
SEVERErestrictions imposed by the U.S. on Iran have led to massive inflation, a
plummeting national currency and rising prices for food, clothing and medicine.Atta KenareAFP/Getty ImagesBy Ramin Mostaghim
and Melissa Etehad