# Iran's Military Can't Pay Its Own Troops as Naval Blockade Squeezes the Economy

> A U.S.-led naval blockade has kept more than $25 billion in Iranian oil exports off the market, leaving the IRGC unable to pay troops on time as inflation nears 90% and unrest spreads in the southeast.

- Source: Foreign Time
- Canonical URL: https://foreigntime.com/article/iran-economy-naval-blockade-irgc-pay-domestic-unrest
- Author: Foreign Time Newsroom
- Section: Sanctions
- Published: 2026-10-19T09:21:24.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-19T09:21:24.000Z
- Tags: Iran, IRGC, naval blockade, inflation, Sistan and Baluchestan

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U.S. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper used a video message posted Friday to lay out the toll a U.S.-led naval blockade has taken on Iran's economy, saying the operation has kept more than $25 billion in crude oil exports off the market and frozen roughly $350 million in Iranian cryptocurrency assets. Oil sales ordinarily account for about a third of Iran's state budget, and with that revenue cut off, the country's currency has been in free fall while inflation has climbed to roughly 90% and is still accelerating month over month.

The strain has reached the institution the regime depends on most for internal security. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been unable to pay its own troops on schedule, and Iran-aligned militia groups have reportedly been withholding pay from their own fighters in order to funnel resources toward the IRGC instead. Even Iran's own leadership has acknowledged the severity of the moment: Mohsen Rezaei, one of the country's top security officials, has described the current period as among the most difficult the country has ever faced, and Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has voiced concern over the economic trajectory.

## Pensions, resignations, and installment-plan groceries

The pressure is visible well beyond military payrolls. Retired government employees have staged protests over unpaid pensions, and workers in both the public and private sectors have announced resignations, citing pay that no longer covers basic costs. Some consumers have turned to installment plans just to buy groceries, a sign of how far household purchasing power has eroded as the rial continues to slide.

Iran has responded in part by escalating attacks on commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf, a pattern U.S. officials have linked directly to the economic squeeze, even as the blockade's final oil-related payment deliveries are expected to continue trickling through December.

## Unrest spreading to the southeast

The financial strain is coinciding with a rise in domestic violence far from Tehran. At least eight members of Iran's security forces have been killed over the past three weeks in Sistan and Baluchestan province, a long-restive southeastern region where separatist militants have stepped up attacks as the state's resources are stretched thinner. Shay Khatiri, a senior fellow at the Yorktown Institute, has pointed to the timing as significant: the economic and military strain is building just as Washington is seen as weighing further action against Tehran once U.S. midterm elections are behind it, raising the possibility that external pressure and internal insurgency could compound each other in the months ahead.

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Originally published by Foreign Time. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://foreigntime.com/article/iran-economy-naval-blockade-irgc-pay-domestic-unrest.