Mourad Vaisi, senior analyst at Iran International, said: “Mohsen Rezaei, who had previously promised to strengthen the national currency, in his first remarks after being appointed as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council spoke about the possibility of building an atomic bomb; statements that the market assessed as a sign of intensifying the war and increasing currency tensions, pushing the dollar past the 200,000 toman mark. With the market also anticipating a tightening of the U.S. blockade, it predicted an increase in demand for foreign currency and a rise in the dollar’s price—an outcome that even a first-year economics student would understand, although Rezaei has introduced himself as having a PhD in economics with a GPA of 19.5.”