In Van, Turkey, Iranians seek a respite from the war between Tehran and the U.S.

The Iranian regime wants to drag out the war until the U.S. midterms. Meanwhile, many Iranians are voting with their feet. President Trump's military campaign against Iran has not gone the way he promised it would.

Iran's government survived weeks of all-out war, and it's still refusing to give up control of the Strait of Hormuz. The administration now says it's getting ready to wage economic warfare. Iran's economy was in dire straits even before the war started, with ordinary Iranians bearing the brunt of that pain.

Now they are bracing for that pain to deepen. FADEL: NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi has been speaking to Iranians in the city of Van, Turkey. It's a place many Iranians visit because of how close it is to the border with Iran.

HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Good morning. FADEL: So you've been talking to Iranians, spending time in Van. AL-SHALCHI: So the main thread of what I heard is that things are super expensive.

While you can find goods in stores to shop and you can still fill up your tank with gas, many people aren't doing either. A 30-year-old woman who works in a beauty salon and who had been back in Iran just a week ago told me that the price of eggs was going up day by day. I was told a tray of 30 eggs is now about $5, double what it was a month ago.

Cooking oil is about $3 for a 30-ounce bottle. That jumped about 30% in a month. Yesterday, a train from Tehran brought dozens of new visitors, and I met a woman at the station who's a personal trainer.