Many businesses have also been hit and the market that is usually bustling in the days leading up to Nowruz (Iranian New Year) no longer exists.

Take a moment to digest the following, quite extraordinary sequence of events. At the end of last week, US officials leaked to the Washington Post that Russia had been giving Iran target data to strike US military assets in the Persian Gulf.

The US is relocating parts of the terminal high-altitude area defence (THAAD) missile-defence system along with other military hardware out of South Korea to the Middle East for its war against Iran.