Report: Iran Sanctions Has Country’s Pensions on ‘Brink of Collapse’

A Sept. 13 Fox News report states that the Trump administration’s sanctions against the Iranian regime have put the country’s pension funds on the “brink of collapse.”

The report states that, according to National Security Council documents, 17 out of the 18 retirement funds in Iran are “in the red,” including “pension funds for all of Iran’s armed forces.” The report also notes that 80 percent of the pensions’ funding comes from the Iranian government.

The sanctions appear to have crippled Iran’s economy, as the country’s GDP growth went from being more than 12 percent in 2016 and more than 3 percent in 2017 to a negative growth rate of more than 3 percent in 2018 and a forecasted negative growth rate of 6 percent in 2019, according to the BBC. 

The Trump administration exited from the Iran nuclear deal and began reinstating sanctions on Iran in 2018.

The Sept. 13 report comes as President Donald Trump reportedly considering lifting sanctions on Iran in order to get a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani; the Daily Beast reported on Sept. 11 that Trump might agree the French government’s proposal to provide a $15 billion bailout to Tehran as incentive for them to comply with the Iran deal.

A possibility of a Trump-Rouhani meeting has the Israeli government reportedly concerned, as their policy toward Tehran is to target the regime through isolation and economic warfare, according to Bloomberg. Such concerns have been amplified with National Security Adviser John Bolton’s departure from the administration on Sept. 9.