Tehran, Iran – As protests continue to grow, bolder protests have broken out across Iran. Deploy armed security Officials expressed concern that the government’s efforts to curb the deteriorating economic situation have failed.
Videos circulating online showed large protests on Tuesday night in the city of Abu Danan in the central province of Ilam, which has been the scene of several large demonstrations over the past week.
Thousands of people, ranging from children accompanied by their parents to the elderly, were filmed walking and chanting slogans in the streets of the small city, while helicopters flew overhead. The protesters appeared to be far outnumbered by security personnel deployed to contain them.
In the provincial capital of Ilam, video showed security forces storming the Imam Khomeini Hospital to root out and arrest protesters, a move that human rights group Amnesty International said violated international law and once again showed “how determined the Iranian authorities are to suppress dissent.”
The hospital was targeted following protests in Malekshahi County earlier this week, with many people there Protesters shot to death When gathering at the gate of the military base. Some injured protesters were taken to hospital.
Several videos of the shooting scene circulated online, showing people being shot with live rounds and falling to the ground as they fled through the gates. The local governor said the shooting was under investigation.
State media confirmed that at least three people died. They also announced on Tuesday that a police officer was shot dead after armed clashes broke out after a funeral for dead protesters.
In Tehran, numerous videos showed vendors and business owners in the Grand Bazaar closing their shops and clashing with security forces in riot gear armed with batons and tear gas.
People in the market could be heard chanting “freedom” and yelling “disgraceful” at police. “Execute me if you want, I’m not a thug,” one man shouted under pressure from security forces, drawing cheers and applause from the crowd.
“No mercy”
In his first response to this week’s protests, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the rioters must be “put in their place.”
Chief Justice Ghulam Hussein Mohseni Eji, meanwhile, said, “This time we will not show mercy to the rioters.”
Tensions were also high in neighboring streets and neighborhoods where the protests took place. Originally initiated by the shop owner December 28th. Massive strikes and protests took place in several other major Tehran shopping districts on Tuesday, including in Yaftabad, where police were met by chants of: “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon; my life is for Iran.”
The Iranian government has been accused of supporting armed groups in Gaza and Lebanon.
More clashes broke out around Sina Hospital in central Tehran, but Tehran University of Medical Sciences said in a statement that the tear gas canisters photographed inside the hospital compound were not thrown by security forces.
Demonstrations also took place in Lorestan and Kermanshah in the west; Mashhad in the northeast; Qazvin, south of the capital; the city of Shahrekord in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari in the southwest; and in the city of Hamadan, a woman braved a police water cannon in the cold winter.
A foreign human rights monitor opposed to Iran’s theocratic system claims that at least 35 people have been killed in protests so far. The Iranian government has not released casualty figures, and Al Jazeera has not been able to independently verify any casualty figures.
Tehran’s historic main bazaar closed on Tuesday amid protests [Vahid Salemi/AP]
Edible oil prices triple
The country continues to have one of the highest inflation rates in the world, especially with sharp increases in basic food prices.
The government of moderate President Masoud Pezeshkian says it is implementing plans to ensure the economic situation is contained, but the economy is still declining rapidly.
The country’s troubled currency, the rial, traded at more than $1.47 million against the U.S. dollar on Tuesday in Tehran’s open market. Another record low This demonstrates a lack of public and investor trust.
Edible oil prices experienced their sharpest price surge yet this week, more than tripling and falling further beyond the reach of Iran’s hard-hit middle class, which has seen its purchasing power shrink since the United States unilaterally abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions.
This comes after Pezeshkian presented a budget for the upcoming Iranian calendar year from late March that eliminated monetary subsidies for certain imported products, including food.
Some economists welcomed the rationale behind the move, which was to eliminate Rent allocation subsidy money rate Attempts to combat corruption, especially since cheaper currencies are simply misused, have failed to curb food prices.
The move is expected to lead to higher prices in the short term and faces resistance from interest groups within the establishment that have benefited from cheap money for years. But the rise in oil prices was so sudden that it prompted the government to announce its own official prices, but it remains to be seen whether the market will listen.
Taking advantage of the resources freed up by removing cheaper subsidized currencies, the government offered to distribute online credits of 10 million rials ($7 at current exchange rates) each to help people buy food.
Two well-known singers, Homayoun Shajarian and Alireza Ghorbani, joined many people and celebrities online who said they would halt their professional activities, including scheduled concerts, to solemnly commemorate and support the protests.
“How can our officials sleep with their heads down?” asked Ali Daei iranian football legend He is a respected national figure in a video interview released Tuesday that went viral.
“Maybe many of them are not even Iranian because they have no sympathy for the Iranian nation.”
