By Pishtaz | 2024-03-08

The Iranian regime's ongoing fixation with foreign affairs -- namely the directing, arming and support of proxy militias throughout the Middle East -- is intensifying the suffering of Iran's own population.

The regime, mainly through the actions of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), spends lavishly on stoking tensions in the Red Sea, Strait of Hormuz, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Ukraine, while the Iranian people continue to suffer, particularly in economic terms.

IRGC actions have also put Iran under extraordinary financial pressure due to sanctions related to arms smuggling, ballistic missile development, among other illicit activity.

Iran's currency hit an all-time low on February 27, trading at 59,000 tomans (590,000 IRR) to one US dollar.

According to Iran's official statistical center, the country's unemployment rate is 7.6%, however that figure does not factor in the significant decline in the number of citizens employed or actively seeking employment.

Over the past four years, nearly 3.5 million people in the country have become inactive, meaning they are neither employed nor seeking employment, Dalga Khatinoglu, an energy expert out of Azerbaijan, wrote for Deutsche Welle Persian in January.

The actual unemployment rate would be over 18% if those inactive individuals were counted, he said.

The worsening situation has fueled discontent and resentment at home, with widespread national protests since late 2022 shaking up the status quo in Iran, and numerous other protests and acts of mass disobedience since.

To many Iranians, their government's external ventures have brought nothing but poverty, instability and even death.

The regime's preoccupation with foreign matters also turned deadly for Iranians, as Tehran ignored a US warning in January about an impending terrorist attack which left dozens of people dead and wounded in Kerman.

While Iranians suffer

The Iranian regime's long-time support for the Houthis in Yemen has come into focus lately after dozens of attacks have threatened vital shipping lanes and endangered the lives of mariners in the strategic Red Sea waterway.

Since mid-November, the Houthis have attacked dozens of ships in international shipping lanes, upending global trade routes and worsening the economic prospects of regional countries, including Yemen itself where an unprecedented humanitarian crisis continues to grow.

Meanwhile, the Iranian regime continues its destabilizing activities through its proxies in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon -- and even in Pakistan, where it hit with missiles and drones what it alleges are bases of militant group Jaish al-Adl on January 16.

Iran has also been heavily criticized for exporting various types of drones and drone technology to Russia, which has been using them in attacks on Ukraine that have targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure.