Jackie Northam

Jackie Northam, NPR News.

Well, what started this round of protests was, as you say, the economy, which is in very bad shape.

You know, Iran has struggled under sanctions for more than a decade.

And because of that, its oil exports, which are the lifeblood of the country's economy, are sharply curtailed.

And so, too, is investment.

The local currency, the riel, has plummeted.

Inflation is running over 40%.

And the government recently published a draft of the budget which predicted that the real incomes of the salaried middle class will fall by about half.

So on top of everything else, that seemed to ignite these protests.

We're starting to see the security forces crack down.

You know, there are videos on social media showing them firing tear gas into the crowds.

Also, the authorities today announced a shutdown of government offices, banks, schools, universities across more than 20 provinces.

And they said it was due to cold weather.

They didn't mention the protests.

The country's moderate president, Massoud Pazeshkian, is urging the regime to listen to what he called the legitimate demands of the protesters.

As far as the economy, the head of the central bank resigned, and the bank started throwing U.S.

dollars into the market to help prop up the Riel, which helped a bit, but, you know, it doesn't have unlimited resources to do that.

I spoke with Javad Salehi Isfahani, and he's an economics professor at Virginia Tech specializing in the Iranian economy.

And he said another thing is that the 12-day war with Israel this past summer was expensive, and there's a widespread belief now that Israel will start another war, which is smothering investment.

And Michelle, the threat of another war grew larger when President Trump said on Monday that the U.S.