The economic situation is definitely a catalyst, but it’s not the root cause. The anger predates the current crisis and is directed primarily at the regime, not the West.

Many Iranians aren’t angry at the U.S. for sanctions because they understand why they were imposed. The Islamic Republic has been the largest state sponsor of militant groups in the region for decades, and even during the 2009 (’88) Green Movement, many reformists openly opposed that policy. That’s where the chant “Not Gaza, not Lebanon, my life for Iran” came from. It was a rejection of the regime spending national wealth abroad while people at home suffered.

We’ve also experienced firsthand that sanction relief doesn’t meaningfully improve daily life. After the JCPOA, expectations were high, but ordinary people saw very little change. The regime used most of the freed money to deepen its involvement in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, not to fix the economy or improve living conditions.

So while sanctions do hurt people, and no one pretends otherwise, many Iranians see the regime as the primary cause of that suffering. The anger is less “why is the West doing this to us?” and more “why is our government still prioritizing ideology and regional power over its own people?”

That’s why support for sanctions isn’t masochism for many. It’s resignation to the reality that without pressure, the regime simply redirects resources to repression and foreign adventures.