Iran Braces for Trump Reset With Economy Buckling From Sanctions

When Donald Trump first entered the White House in 2017, Cyrus Razzaghi was running an Iranian business consultancy, advising US, Japanese and European companies about how to grab opportunities in a market emerging from years of economic isolation.

That all changed the following year, when the then-US President abandoned Iran’s landmark nuclear deal with world powers and imposed severe economic sanctions instead.

“We had to diversify away from Iran and somehow hedge ourselves for further animosity,” Razzaghi, chairman of Ara Enterprise Consultancy Group, said by phone from Tehran. “At one point we thought there was going to be a ...