At first glance, Iran’s behavior makes little sense.

Its economy is battered, its currency has collapsed, inflation is crushing ordinary citizens, and years of sanctions combined with war damage have left the country economically exhausted. Yet Tehran negotiates with the United States not like a defeated power seeking relief, but like a confident winner dictating terms.

That contradiction is the key to understanding modern Iran.

In poker terms, Iran is holding a dramatically inferior hand. But instead of folding, it keeps raising the stakes, staring directly into the eyes of its opponents and betting that they will blink first.

The numbers tell the story.

Ten years ago, following the original nuclear agreement, the Iranian rial traded at roughly 34,000 to 36,000 rials per U.S. dollar. Inflation had temporarily fallen below 10 percent. European companies were exploring investments. Oil exports were recovering. There was cautious hope that Iran might gradually reconnect to the world economy.

Today, that same dollar buys approximately 1.8 million rials.

In one decade, Iran’s currency lost roughly 98 percent of its value.

The collapse accelerated dramatically during the past year. About a year ago, the rial traded at roughly 750,000 to 820,000 per dollar. Six months ago, it had fallen to around 1.5 million. A month ago, approximately 1.47 million. Today, it again hovers near historic lows, around 1.8 million rials to the dollar.

This is not normal inflation. It is the slow-motion destruction of a national currency.

The consequences inside Iran are devastating.

A middle-class Iranian family that once could afford imported medicine, meat, appliances, or modest vacations now struggles with basics. Salaries remain denominated in rials while prices increasingly behave as though they are indexed to the dollar.

Savings accumulated over decades have effectively........

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