In the midst of the fourth round of nuclear negotiations between the Iranian regime and the United States held in Oman—and while media outlets are busy analyzing the details of these talks—a deeper and more fundamental question is being heard louder than ever from within Iranian society.
How much can even a potential agreement improve the situation for the people? Why does life keep getting harder for ordinary Iranians, while the regime’s spending on foreign, military, and security operations—as well as widespread theft and corruption—continues to skyrocket?
These days, amid economic instability, widespread electricity blackouts, a water crisis, rising prices of medicine and basic goods, millions of Iranians across the country begin their day with frustration and anxiety.
Many citizens rightly ask how it is possible that a government claiming budget deficits for paying contractors or repairing decaying water and electricity infrastructure is simultaneously spending billions of dollars supporting proxy military groups in the region?
A budget for non-Iranians, not the people of Iran
Over the past years, the Iranian regime’s financial support to groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen has been repeatedly acknowledged by the officials of these same groups.
For example, the new Secretary-General of Hezbollah recently stated in a speech that they had received around $400 million as a “gift” from the Iranian regime to distribute among Lebanese families. This amount is separate from the regular annual support Hezbollah receives, which various sources have previously estimated to be between $1 billion and $2 billion per year.
Additionally, the Iranian regime pays about $150 million monthly to Hamas. The same pattern is repeated with Hashd al-Shaabi and the Houthis in Yemen.
If we sum up these figures, even the most conservative estimates show that just a portion of the regime’s budget spent on foreign groups easily exceeds several billion dollars annually. This is not including four decades of support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, which various reports estimate to have cost between $30 billion and $100 billion—though the actual scale remains unknown.
On the very days when funds are being transferred to armed groups in Lebanon, Gaza, Iraq, and Yemen, many cities in Iran are experiencing constant power outages, contaminated or entirely depleted drinking water sources, untreatable illnesses due to medication shortages, and the shutdown of small businesses—making everyday life bitter and unbearable for millions of Iranians.
Repression and Corruption
But the issue doesn’t end with regional aid. A significant portion of the country’s oil and tax revenues is spent on expanding and strengthening the domestic repression apparatus. Security, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies—including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Basij militia, the Special Units, and other repressive institutions—are heavily equipped and funded, not to ensure national security, but to suppress the people.
During every wave of public protests, these agencies—with modern equipment, armored vehicles, surveillance cameras, lethal weapons, and sophisticated monitoring and wiretapping systems—have been responsible for cracking down on street demonstrations. A large portion of the national budget is also allocated to paying salaries, benefits, and bonuses to security forces and repressors.
At the same time, hundreds of trillions of rials have been siphoned off from the country’s resources through cronyism or major corruption scandals and ended up in the pockets of corrupt officials and regime affiliates. Cases like the petrochemical corruption scandal, Bank Sarmayeh, the Teachers’ Fund, systemic embezzlement in the banking network, and dozens more are examples of this recurring pattern—none of which have led to the return of stolen assets or real prosecution of the main perpetrators.
Priorities That Exclude the People
In Iran’s regime, budgeting is not based on public interest but is driven by the regime’s ideological and security priorities. From the development of long-range missiles and military drones to financial support and multitrillion-rial budgets for 490 Islamic seminaries and 400,000 clerics across the country—these are the regime’s top priorities.
In contrast, urban infrastructure improvements, development of healthcare and education, drought mitigation, revitalization of the electricity industry, or even the reconstruction of dilapidated schools have always been met with claims of “no budget.”
This contradiction has fueled widespread public anger, especially among the youth and middle class, who now see no prospects for progress and not even hope for maintaining basic standards of daily life. On university campuses, in marketplaces, and among the growing poor, this anger is openly expressed.
An Angry Society, the Loud Voice of a Discontented People
In countless videos and messages posted online, people repeatedly speak of power and water outages, business closures, the destruction of small investments, and irreparable losses.
Under these conditions, labor and professional protests are also on the rise. From retirees to workers, from drivers to bakers in various cities, the voices of protest and demands are growing louder every day. Yet instead of responding, the regime mostly reacts with threats, arrests, or complete disregard.
