Iran’s ‘Resistance Economy’ Is Kicking In
As sanctions begin to squeeze its economy, the Islamic Republic is resorting to trade by other means.
There are other ways to get the oil out.
Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
Farzaneh Sharafbafi, the first-ever female CEO of Iran Air, has just lost her job, a victim of U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Appointed in July 2017, Sharafbafi’s tenure was dogged by failures beyond her control. Of the 200 aircraft Iran ordered from Boeing, Airbus, and ATR, only 21 were delivered before the U.S. Treasury revoked the relevant licenses as part of the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran.
Sharafbafi’s replacement is Touraj Dehghani Zanganeh, a former air force commander and CEO of Meraj Air, a small airline which at one point operated the aircraft used by Iran’s president and foreign minister for diplomatic travel. Zanganeh was placed on the sanctions list by the U.S. last May.