United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has claimed that Washington engineered a dollar shortage in Iran to send the rial into freefall and cause protests on the streets.
In December and January, Iran was faced with one of the biggest antigovernment protests the country has seen since the Islamic revolution of 1979, prompted by the severe economic crisis.
Protests over soaring prices in Iran began with shopkeepers in Tehran who shuttered their shops and began demonstrating on December 28, 2025, after the rial plunged to a record low against the US dollar in late December. The protests then spread to other provinces of Iran.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s government responded with force. More than 6,800 protesters, including at least 150 children, are thought to have been killed in a sweeping crackdown by the government on the protest movement.
So, how did Washington create a “dollar shortage” in Iran, ultimately causing the rial to tank? And what effect has that had on the Iranian people?
People walk next to an anti-US mural on a street as protests erupt over the collapse of the currency’s value in Tehran, Iran, January 2, 2026 [Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency (WANA) via Reuters]
What is a ‘dollar shortage’?
A “dollar shortage” refers to when a country does not have enough US dollars to pay for things it needs from the rest of the world.
The US dollar is the main currency used in global trade, especially for oil, machinery and loan repayments, which means countries need a steady supply of it.
If exports fall and sanctions block access to the US financial system, dollars can become scarce. As a result, the local currency weakens, prices of imported goods rise, and inflation worsens.
In Iran, a “dollar shortage” was engineered by simultaneously blocking the two main channels of foreign exchange (FX) inflow: Oil exports and international banking access, said Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, an economist at Germany’s Marburg University. The US did this by imposing sanctions on Iranian oil, meaning anyone buying or selling it would be subject to punitive measures.
Given Iran’s dependence on oil for revenue, economic sanctions on its oil can create a severe FX constraint.
“By using secondary sanctions to threaten any global entity trading in dollars with Iran, the US traps Iran’s existing reserves abroad and prevents new dollars from entering the domestic market,” Farzanegan told Al Jazeera.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attends the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on January 20, 2026 [Denis Balibouse/Reuters]
What has US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said?
Replying to a query about dealing with Iran at a Congressional hearing last week, Treasury Secretary Bessent described the US strategy to send the Iranian currency plunging.
“What we [have done] at Treasury is created a dollar shortage in the country,” Bessent said, adding that the strategy came to a “grand culmination in December, when one of the largest banks in Iran went under … the Iranian currency went into freefall, inflation exploded, and hence, we have seen the Iranian people out on the street.
“We have seen the Iranian leadership wiring money out of the country like crazy,” Bessent added. “So the rats are leaving the ship, and that is a good sign that they know the end may be near.”
Before this, speaking with Fox News at the World Economic Forum last month in Davos, Bessent explained the role US sanctions played in driving the recent nationwide protests.
“President Trump ordered Treasury … to put maximum pressure on Iran, and it’s worked,” he said. “Because in December, their economy collapsed. They are not able to get imports, and this is why the people took to the streets.”
In both instances, Bessent referred to his earlier remarks at the Economic Club of New York, in March last year, when he outlined how the White House would leverage President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign to collapse Iran’s economy.
In his address there, Bessent said the US “elevated a sanctions campaign against [Iran’s] export infrastructure, targeting all stages of Iran’s oil supply chain”, coupled with “vigorous government engagement and private sector outreach” to “close off Iran’s access to the international financial system”.
Iranian scholars stand in the Islamic seminary that was burned during Iran’s protests, in Tehran, Iran, January 21, 2026 [Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency (WANA) via Reuters]
What effect did the dollar shortage have in Iran?
In January, the Iranian rial was trading at 1.5 million to the dollar – a sharp decline from about 700,000 a year earlier in January 2025 and about 900,000 in mid-2025. The plummeting currency triggered steep inflation, with food prices an average of 72 percent higher than last year.
In 2018, during his first presidency, Trump withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a deal between Iran and global powers limiting Tehran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
Since re-election last January, President Trump has doubled down on his so-called “maximum pressure” to cripple Iran’s economy and corner Tehran to renegotiate its nuclear and regional policies. Last month, Trump threatened a 25 percent tariff on countries doing business with Iran.
Through the rigorous blocking of Iran from the global financial system by creating a dollar shortage, the US pushed Tehran towards a severe “import compression, [and as a result, Iran] cannot pay for the intermediate goods and machinery required for domestic production”, said Farzanegan, the economist.
The US strategy, he said, “is particularly devastating because it leverages commercial risk management against humanitarian needs”. In short, Washington’s strategy “makes the small Iranian market a commercial liability” for any company, even if they are only dealing with medicine, for instance, Farzanegan added.
A research paper published by Farzanegan and Iranian American economist Nader Habibi last year found that the size of Iran’s middle class would have expanded by an annual average of approximately 17 percentage points, between 2012 and 2019, if it were not for US action.
In 2019, the estimated size of loss in the middle-class share of the population in Iran was 28 percentage points, the research found.
“People lost their purchasing power, and savings were wiped out,” the economist told Al Jazeera. “This is a long-term destruction of the country’s human capital.”
Besides the US action is the existing vulnerability of Iran’s economic structure, with factors like long-term mismanagement, high rates of corruption and over-reliance on oil revenues making it fragile.
While the US sanctions created external shock, a lack of domestic structural reforms left the government with “no fiscal space to cushion the blow”.
What is the US’s endgame here – and will it succeed?
Bessent’s admission that Washington deliberately created a “dollar shortage” signals the US’s shift towards a total economic warfare narrative.
“This is economic statecraft; no shots fired,” Bessent said at the WEF in Davos last month.
“This admission may complicate the US’s diplomatic standing, as it confirms that the humanitarian channels for food and medicine are often rendered useless if the entire banking system is being targeted for collapse,” Farzanegan said.
Bruce Fein, a former US associate deputy attorney general who specialises in constitutional and international law, told Al Jazeera that this type of economic coercion is “as common as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west”, pointing to economic sanctions against Russia, Cuba, North Korea, China and Myanmar.
However, unlike in other cases where the US has applied economic pressure, Farzanegan said Iran’s case is “a unique experiment due to the duration and intensity of the pressure”.
Unlike Russia, which has a more diversified export base and larger reserves, Iran has been facing varied forms of sanctions for decades since the supreme leader took power in 1979.
“Iran has a sophisticated internal mechanism for sanctions circumvention that makes the ‘dollar shortage’ a game of cat-and-mouse rather than a one-time shock,” the economist said.
With a US armada currently stationed in the Arabian Sea, the US and Iran are in talks to defuse tensions. The US wants three key things from Iran: To stop enriching uranium as part of its nuclear programme, to get rid of its ballistic missiles and to stop arming non-state actors in the region.
Ultimately, observers say, the US wants regime change in Iran.
But Fein said his experience shows that economic sanctions alone “seldom, if ever, topple regimes … Regime change comes externally only with the use of military force.
“Iran’s dollar shortage will not oust the mullahs or Revolutionary Guard,” he said, referring to Iran’s current administrative structure.
The impoverishment of Iranians will diminish, Fein told Al Jazeera, “rather than promote the likelihood of a successful revolution because day-to-day survival will be the priority”.
The theme of this unique motel will give many people anxiety, and its location next to a graveyard popular with ghost hunters doesn’t help. But if you love the kitsch and scary, it could be a night to remember
The hotel will trigger some guests’ phobias(Image: Josh Brasted/Getty Images)
Everyone has something they’re afraid of. It could be spiders, or flying, or, of course anatidaephobia (the fear that a duck is watching).
Whatever it might be, some people find that confronting a phobia head-on helps them manage the anxiety around it.
If you dislike being around clowns, then you aren’t alone. A study by psychologists found that among a group of 987 adults, 53.5%, had some degree of fear of clowns. In extreme cases, this can lead to coulrophobia, with even the mere mention of clowns causing anxiety and panic attacks.
It’s safe to say that most of the world’s population, coulrophobic or not, would rather give The Clown Motel a miss. However, for a small number of clown fans, horror movie lovers, and people who enjoy exploring haunted and just plain weird places, it’s the dream location.
There’s certainly no missing the place when you drive down the desert road of Tonopah, Nevada. You’ll either spot the huge Clown Motel sign, complete with a grinning cartoon, or the motel building covered in multicoloured polka dots. The exterior is covered in cartoons of clowns, from cheery, kid-friendly to downright creepy, resembling the character from IT that triggered many a clown phobia.
But the theme isn’t just on the outside of the building. Step inside and you’ll see floor-to-ceiling shelves covered in colourful clown dolls with rictus grins and various kitsch clown paintings. If you haven’t run away screaming by this point, you can explore the lobby’s clown museum, which includes items sent to the owner from around the world. There’s also a gift shop, should you wish to recreate the décor in your own home. As one reviewer said: “This place is clean, but it’s still kooky and strange”.
The rooms have various themes, some fairly standard with a few clown additions, while others go all out to create a colourful, sometimes horrifying nighttime experience. There are rooms themed around movies such as Friday the 13th and Halloween, while others, such as the Fear Unlimited room, go all out with creepy clown murals and bedsheets with fake blood stains.
The motel is reportedly haunted, with many reviewers sharing their odd experiences. One said: “At night around 3am there were really loud scratching sounds and something that sounded like a little child crying.” Another claimed: “We did hear some weird noises at 4am, such as ticking, scratching sounds and muffled talking.”
However, perhaps an even spookier site lies right next to the hotel. The Old Tonopah Cemetery dates back to 1901 and was the final resting place for many interesting characters from the Old West. Local legends claim that the victims of a mine fire haunt the grounds, and some people say they’ve spotted the ghost of a young girl.
Tonopah is about a three-hour drive from Las Vegas and the ideal stop on a desert road trip. Visit the Tonopah Historic Mining Park where you can see some of the old silver mines and learn about the town’s fascinating history. It’s also home to the Central Nevada Museum, a must-see for those who are interested in day-to-day life in the Old West.
Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com
The star told what lay behind her dropping one and a half dress sizes reaching a svelt size eight
11:50, 27 Jan 2026Updated 11:51, 27 Jan 2026
Carol will step down in April(Image: )
Carol Kirkwood is well known in front of the camera. As a BBCweather anchor and best selling author she was known for her curvy figure and had even spoken of plans to lose weight.
However, it took something out of her control for the pounds to suddenly drop off. It was at the start of 2025 that she suddenly found herself struck down by a “terrible” illness which led her to drop around one and half dress sizes.
The now 63-year-old developed a tough bout of food poisoning which saw her losing weight and led to a complete switch in her lifestyle. This not only changed her eating habits but transformed her complete outlook on life and what she ate.
The presenter announced on Tuesday she is quitting the broadcaster after more than 25 years to spend more time with her husband, Steve Randall, who she married in 2023. She said the two have been “like ships that pass in the night” thanks to her early starts.
But she previously told how her life changed after suffering food poisoning. She told OK magazine: “Afterwards, I just ate two slices of toast for two days and I wasn’t hungry.
“I’m a snacker. I love chocolate, a glass of wine, crisps, and I thought, ‘Right, you don’t need all this food’. Now I eat when I’m hungry rather than just eating because I can.”
The star did not say how much weight she’s lost saying at the time “my weight is a state secret” but admitted that she was “probably a dress size-and-a-half” smaller. She said she now fitted comfortably into a size 10, and sometimes even an eight.
She said: “I’ve got lots of clothes from years of doing telly. When I couldn’t get into them, I put them away. Now I can. It feels like I’ve got a whole new wardrobe, but I don’t. It’s old clothes that I’m wearing again.”
Carol said she had now discovered how to balance what she ate. She said: “I’ve done every single diet going but now I’m not depriving myself of anything. If I want a piece of chocolate, I’ll have it, but then I actually don’t. It’s like somebody’s flipped a switch in my head.
She told how her day starts at 2.45am. She added: “By 9.30am, if I’m a bit peckish, I’ll have an apple or a banana, then, after my shift, I get home and eat whatever the dickens I want, perhaps a toasted pitta with rocket, tomatoes, sweetcorn, peppers and chicken. In the evening, I might have another pitta with hummus, or some peppers with hummus and, because I’m eating this way, I’m not hungry between meals any more.”
She also was quick to quash any rumours that she had used weight-loss injections. She said: “I have had a couple of emails saying, ‘It’s obvious you’re doing this.’ Each to their own. If somebody wants to do that, I’m not going to judge them — it’s their bodies, their life — but I’m glad I’m doing it this way,” she insists.
The star will leave the BBC in April and today explained her reason behind the decision. She told presenters Sally Nugent and Jon Kay: “I love my job, I’ve loved working at the BBC, but I love my husband more than my job. More than everyone, I should say.
“We only got married a couple of years ago and we’re ships that pass in the night so I’m so looking forward to [spending more time together]. The future is rosy and the time is right, absolutely right for me to go.”
After starting her BBC presenting career on the News channel, Kirkwood went on to appear regularly on BBC One. She has been the main weather presenter on BBC Breakfast since 2010.
As well as fronting the daily bulletins, Kirkwood often presented the weather on location, including from Wimbledon, the Chelsea Flower Show and royal events. She has also reported for The One Show and competed on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015, reaching week eight with her partner Pasha Kovalev.
