New Delhi, July 2 -- TEHRAN - The exchange rate gap tells the story before any official statement does. Iran's 2025/2026 budget allocates 20 million barrels of crude oil to the IRGC Aerospace Force at roughly 600,000 rials per euro. The open market rate is approximately 1.14 million rials per euro. On 20 million barrels, the spread between those two rates represents a multibillion-dollar implicit transfer from the state treasury to the military at the precise moment President Masoud Pezeshkian is trying to close a diplomatic agreement that would curtail the military's independent revenue ambitions entirely.

Pezeshkian defended that allocation publicly on July 2, according to IranWire. The defense was not addressed to Washington. It was a...