This is CBS I on the world. I'm John Batchel. Eyes on Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Royder's reporting, Iran's currency slipped to the lowest level in history, nearing 1.25 million

real to the dollar. One point two five million to the dollar. 1.25 million to the dollar.

The Iranian Rial stood around 55,000 to the dollar in 2018, when U.S. sanctions were imposed

by the first Trump administration to force Tehran to the negotiating table.

As of yet, no negotiation, and the Rial continues to deteriorate.

To help us understand the struggles of the people in Iran trapped by the regime,

we welcome Jonathan Sye of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy.

I'm joined by my colleague and co-host, Bill Rajo,

senior fellow for the FD, who keeps the Long World Journal. Jonathan, 1.25 million is failure.

Your contact with Iran is intimate. You grew up there. What does this mean for the people in

Tehran or in the other large cities?

Are they able to buy food with an inflation rate that has climbed this dramatically?

Good evening to you.

Good evening to you.

You're right to point out the implication of the rising dollar prices against the real.

Of course, it trickles down into issues like inflation.

Just putting it into perspective, you know, growing up there and I, you know, left Iran in 2013,

prior to that, it may be the equation was about 9,000 reals to the dollar.

So you're talking about really astronomically different numbers.

The life in Tehran and Iran is not necessarily what it used to be.

In part is probably due to, of course, sanctions, even though they have not been that rigorously

...