Units of the Iranian Basij, the paramilitary militia established after the 1979 revolution to fight on the front lines against Baathist Iraqi forces, were dispatched to western Iran earlier in March, armed with 100,000 live chicks. They also took with them cheap loans for citizens of Khuzestan to set up hatcheries and inland fish farms.

The Basij ordinarily supplies the brawn for much of the Iranian Revolution Guard Corps' work in religious indoctrination, enforcement of Islamic dress and riot control. The international sanctions on Iran’s financial system because of its nuclear program means that the militia is also now responsible for building Iran’s “resistance economy,” which includes promoting locally grown food supplies and reducing reliance on imports.

Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the rabble-rousing head of the Basij, announced in February that 30 percent of Iran’s poultry needs could be met by raising chickens at home. Naqdi, who has called for the hanging of US military commanders (for a Quran-burning incident in 2012) and the denaturalization of reformist political candidates, claims the sanctions have been a “blessing for Iran.”

“If I were in the authorities' position, I would never set the lifting of sanctions as a condition in nuclear negotiations,” he said in December. “I would tell the enemy to impose as many sanctions as possible on us because we can come to realize our hidden potentials under such circumstances.”