If you listened to the War (Defence) Minister testify before Congress, you would have heard the US has dropped thousands of bombs on Iran. Would would hope many of the bombs went to military targets, however a percentage of them were dropped on Iran’s manufacturing industry.

In an article by Amir-Hussein Radjy, Lee Keath and Sarah El Deeb of the Associated Press, in the heartland of Iran’s famed carpet-making industry, manufacturing has ground to a near stop. Dairies struggle to find packages for milk and butter. Giant steel mills have stopped making steel and unemployment has risen as thousands have lost jobs.

Air strikes have damaged at least 20,000 factories some 20% of the country’s production units, according to Dr. Kahalzadeh, a research fellow at Brandeis University.

According to Iran’s semiofficial Jamaran news agency, more than 50 petrochemical complexes have been shut down. The 2 biggest steel works in Iran – Mobarakeh Steel and Khuzestan Steel as well as smaller units have shut down making steel.

About 80% of the rug and carpet manufacturers have stopped operations in the industrial zone of the city of Kashan.

Most new building is on hold, while the price of iron sheeting has more than doubled.

The US has a blockade on Iran, in 2025, Iran sold $98 billion in exports, about half from oil.

Iran has one of the world’s largest reserve of oil and gas and once the war is over, it has the ability to generate revenue to reconstruct.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if part of the agreement to end the war is to ensure sanctions put on the west have been taken off, it would mean there are possibilities for US companies to help build infrastructure in Iran. No one knows what the settlement will be, for Iran needs no sanctions and the world needs the Strait of Hormuz to be opened. It is possible similar to after WW II, to implement something like a Marshall Plan to bring Iran to closer ties to the US.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.