Thanks to its glittering mosques, breathtaking landscapes, ancient ruins and, believe it or not, ski resorts, Iran’s tourism industry underwent an extraordinary boom after the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. Tourists flocked to the Middle Eastern country to discover cultural treasures largely unseen by western eyes since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and found the cost of staying there relatively cheap.

But this week’s decision by Donald Trump to pull the US out of the agreement, which could trigger its collapse and inflame an already tense region, is stoking fears that Iran’s tourism sector could slide back into the doldrums. “After Barjam [the Persian acronym for the joint comprehensive plan of action on Iran’s nuclear programme] we saw a huge growth in our tourism sector – I worked as a guide all year long,” said Ali Sheibani, a 30-year-old Iranian tour guide.

He has been operating for seven years in Isfahan, the country’s top tourist destination, and Shiraz, close to Persepolis, with its relics of a proud ancient civilisation. “Before [the deal],” he said, “if you’d see a foreign tourist, it was as if you were seeing an alien, someone from space, and people would encircle them to talk to them. Foreign tourists would be treated as celebrities – but now it’s less like that. It has become common to see tourists.”(theguardian)…[+]