The Mullahs instruct their people to eat less.

A military advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has said Iranians should fast Ramadan-style to show “the enemy” they can resist its sanctions. In other words: The less you eat, the stronger you will become.

Iran's former Minister of Defense, Hossein Dehqhan, speaking on February 1 at an event dubbed “The Idea of Resistance in Imam’s (Khomeini) School of Thought,” stated that Iranians should follow the teachings of the founder of the Islamic Republic. He stressed that “If America is sanctioning us and wants to keep us hungry,” then the people should fast to show their resistance.

U.S. sanctions have brought the Iranian economy to a standstill, devaluing its currency fourfold and deepening the impoverishment of working-class people. This has led to consecutive protests, destabilizing the ruling regime.

Dehqhan is hardly alone in his sentiments. Several national leaders called upon Iranians to cut down on their calories, as a sign of loyalty to the regime, and they had some suggestions on what to eat. And when.

A hardliner ayatollah, Ahmad Alamolhoda, told people in a sermon last year that if they cannot afford chicken, they must eat a cheap omelet instead. Last August, the Minister of Energy Reza Ardakanian said, “The Chinese eat once a day” and that Iranians have a bad habit of eating more.

As the leaders of the Islamic Republic call on Iranians to eat less, their agents throughout successful countries try to steal money so that the elite can eat whatever they wish. The Justice Department just indicted an Iranian in the United States for organizing the export of American dollars in cahoots with Venezuela.

The Department of Justice announced that Bahram Karimi was charged with conspiring to commit bank fraud and making false statements in connection with his involvement in a joint project initiated by the governments of Iran and Venezuela -- in which more than $115 million was illegally funneled through the U.S. financial system for the benefit of various Iranian individuals and entities. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan.

“Karimi allegedly conspired in an infrastructure project initiated by the Governments of Iran and Venezuela,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers.

He then lied to banks about Iranian involvement and took advantage of the U.S. financial system to benefit Iranian parties. The Department of Justice will continue to prosecute those who misuse our financial system in violation of U.S. sanctions.

As Iranians starve, the rulers of this failed state pound on their chests and threaten their enemies. The late General Qassem Soleimani’s heir, General Qaani, promised the leaders of Islamic Jihad (Ziad Nakhale) and Hamas (Ismail Haniyeh) that his forces were more powerful than anything the supporters of Trump’s “Deal of the Century” could put on the battlefield.

The leaders of the regime are incensed at Trump’s proposal. Khamenei wants a referendum in “the Palestinian territory” while denying such an expression of political wishes to his own people (Iranians would undoubtedly vote against the Islamic Republic), and Hassan Baqeri, the head of the Joint Staff of the Iranian armed forces, warned Islamic states that their silence in the face of the Deal would have dire consequences.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, who had said one day after Trump announced the deal that it was "the most hated plan of the century," added during a visit to Khomeyni's tomb on Sunday that it is "a disgusting and shameful plot against all Muslims and freedom-lovers of the world."

But American military power takes a toll on Iran-sponsored terrorist leaders. Al Qaeda terrorists, who have received substantial assistance from the Islamic Republic, were especially hard-hit. Qassim al-Rimi, aged 41, was killed by U.S. bombs. He was the leader of AQ terrorists in Yemen. And within the United States, 42-year-old Ali Yousif Ahmed al-Nouri was arrested in Phoenix. He was an Al Qaeda operative in Iraq, was wanted for the killing of Iraqi police, and at this writing nobody knew where he had been living, how long he had been in America, or what he had been doing. Was he a lone wolf? A member of an extensive AQ network? Or what? Time may tell.

Meanwhile, the Iranians are bragging about the good old days, when the Quds Force was waging war in Bosnia and Soleimani was building it up to become one of the premier terrorist organizations in the world.

But that was then. Things are getting different nowadays.