Speaking to officials in East Azerbaijan, President Masoud Pezeshkian said the Islamic Republic had "never" faced pressure of the current intensity in its 48-year history. He described a sequence in which blocked trade routes and failing public services leave people dissatisfied and eventually produce "social protests," Khabaronline reported.

It is rare for a sitting president to spell out the path from economic failure to unrest so directly. It reflects a calculation, visible across the government's statements, that the next uprising is a matter of when rather than whether.

Pezeshkian also turned his attention inward. At the October 14 cabinet meeting, he told officials not to be distracted by "division-makers" who, he said, constantly insult and accuse managers and senior officials, according to Asr Iran.

A leadership warning of protests from below while complaining of sabotage from within is a leadership with fewer options than it admits.