In a country where fuel subsidies have long served as an unspoken covenant between state and citizen, Iran has moved to raise gasoline prices for its heaviest consumers — a carefully bounded gesture that speaks to the depth of its economic distress. Rather than a sweeping increase that might ignite public fury, the government has chosen a tiered approach, asking those who consume the most to bear the greatest burden. The measure is less a solution than a signal: that the fiscal pressures bearing down on Tehran have grown too heavy to defer, and that harder choices may yet lie ahead.