Struggling to cope, Iranians fear more misery from U.S. sanctions

DUBAI (Reuters) (Reuters) – Iranians fear more painful squeeze on living costs after additional U.S. sanctions take effect on Monday, from companies struggling to buy raw materials to the sick-and-sickness unable to afford life-saving medicines.

The United States will reapply to the country's vital petroleum and banking sectors on Monday in an effort to rein in its nuclear foe, missile and regional activities.

Iran's clerical rulers have played down the U.S. move, but many ordinary Iranians appear apprehensive.

"All the prices are going higher every day … I can not imagine what will happen after 13 Aban (Nov. 4). I am scared. I am worried. I am desperate, "said elementary school teacher Pejman Sarafnejad, 43, a father of three in Tehran.

"I can not even buy rice to feed my children or pay my rent."

The economy was battered by the reimposition of a first raft of U.S. curbs in August after Washington's pullout from a nuclear deal between Tehran and Global Powers in May.

Businesses of all types, ranging from oil companies, trading houses to shipping, have stopped doing business with Iran for fear of incurring U.S. penalties.

A Tehran Grand Bazaar said: "I am very nervous because of the fact that I am very nervous.

"What will happen after the reimposition of new sanctions?"

Iran's leadership says Tehran will not succumb to pressure to halt its missile programs or to change its regional policy.

"POLITICAL SLOGANS"

Yet while some Iranians back their leaders 'defiance, others are fearful that the economy, weakened by years of sanctions, mismanagement and corruption, may collapse when the United States puts pressure on the world' s Number 3.

"Washington-based lawyer Farhad Alavi, who focuses on U.S. trade regulation and sanctions.

"The fact is that these restrictions are significantly increasing costs for Iranians."

Since the reimposition of the first round of curbs in August, prices of bread, cooking oil and other staples have fallen and the national currency has fallen sharply.

Rice, one of the staples of Iran's diet, has more than tripled in price since last year because of the rial's fall.

Ordinary Iranians fear cuts in the economy, because they are the source of earnings.

Iranian leaders hope sanctions waivers granted to eight buyers of Iranian crude, combined with rising prices, will compensate for export volumes.

But even with the new measures on Monday, Iranian businessmen have been founding it harder to cope.

Some 70 percent of small factories, businesses and workshops have already started to shut down in the past, but according to Iranian media.

LIFE GROWS HARDER

"I had to close my business. They have been racing to ink a deal with me last year, now refusing to return my calls, "said a businessman in Tehran, who declined to be named.

Mohammad Reza Sadoughi says ordinary people will bear the brunt of the sanctions, in terms of medicines for cancer patients and food shortages and currency problems.

"My father has cancer, and with sanctions, the cancer-treatment medicine is more likely," said the 38-year-old government employee in the northern city of Sari.

The U.S. sanctions permit trade in humanitarian goods such as food and pharmaceuticals. Yet measures forced on banks and trade restrictions will make life hard for Iranian patients.

"At the end of the day, it's the Iranian people with their aspiration to lead a good life who are suffering from lack of good sense from their own regime who are not ready to compromise with the world power (US)," said Dubai -based Iranian businessman Aftab Hasan, CEO of Arya Insurance Brokerage.

However analysts say that economic growth is unlikely to revive anti-government unrest such as the demonstrations in December that turned into anti-government rallies.

"I do not care about politics. I do not care who is responsible for our problems. I do not want a regime change. I just want to live peacefully with my family in my country, "said housewife Fariba Shakouri, 51, in the central city of Yazd.