In the latest of a series of provocative actions, Iran has just commenced a new set of military drills and Israel and Saudi Arabia have responded by issuing warnings. Tensions are rising between Iran and the United States but one important factor has been overlooked in all this – the volatile state of society in Iran. 

For the past 38 years, the people of Iran have been living under the dictatorship of the clerical regime. The past four of these years have been under the so-called “moderate” President Hassan Rouhani. But the reality is that there has been nothing moderate about him. The number of executions has risen dramatically and the crackdown on society is out of control.

The price of U.S. Dollar increased from 3791 to 3797, last week. Price of each newly designed Bahar Azadi gold coin reached one 1,169,000 tomans, a 5,600 toman gain, compared to its price a day before.

At the stock exchange, shares of seven auto manufacturing groups traded lower in the capital market, according to gold and jewelry union website.

State-run Shahrvand newspaper reported on February 9, 2017, that 11% of Iran’s population are now below the absolute poverty line, with another 30% being below the relative poverty line.

When President Trump named the seven majority Muslim countries named in January’s travel ban, which is now pending a legal review, it caused great concerns for Iranians with connections in the United States. Iran has one of their largest diasporas based in the United States, as well as the largest number of overseas students, and the highest number of people traveling on visitor visas.

These are anxious times for Iranians. BBC Persian received hundreds of messages from worried Iranians, whose lives were thrust into uncertainty once the ban was announced.

The history of the region for roughly the past 100 years is made up of changing camps and shifting alliances, so and the rhetoric about the idea of proposing an Arab quartet NATO will be a normal reaction against Iran’s active tripartite alliance.

Discussions about the Arab military alliance allege that it resembles the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established in the wake of Soviet expansion. NATO was the western military power that confronted the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Much news is coming from the Munich Security Conference, including demands by Saudi Arabia that Iran be punished.  They call for justice over allegations that Iran was propping up the Syrian government, developing ballistic missiles and funding separatists in Yemen.

On Sunday, the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, told delegates at the conference that Iran is the main sponsor of global ‘terrorism’ and a destabilizing force in the Middle East. “Iran remains the single main sponsor of terrorism in the world,” he said, “It’s determined to upend the order in the Middle East … [and] until and unless Iran changes its behavior, it would be very difficult to deal with a country like this.”

Shocking the country, there’s an new disruptive potential inside Iran in its main oil field province, Khuzestan. “The Strikes” that occurred in this province by tens of thousands of oil workers, paralyzing the state thirty-eight years ago, and paved the way for the Shah’s downfall, are now happening again. Historically Iran’s oil supplies are the regime’s lifeline. 

Khuzestan province borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz. It’s the country’s oldest province, and produces 35 percent of the Iran’s water and electricity. More importantly, its oil fields and gas supply provides 90% of Iran’s national revenue.

Although Tehran wants to produce its own jet fighters,  designing and manufacturing advanced combat jets poses formidable challenges, Still, the Iranian air force has showcased its development of several domestic fighter jets since the turn of the century, most notably the HESA Saeqeh (“Thunderbolt”), which Iranian media have claimed to be superior to the F-18 Hornet.

However, performance specifications and technical details for these aircraft remain vague or perhaps, nonexistent. This may be because additional details would likely be unimpressive, as the Saeqeh is a reverse-engineered American F-5 Freedom Fighter with a new tail and upgraded avionics.