Iran: Protesters clash with security forces at Tehran’s main market

Protesters angry at Iran’s struggling economy staged a sit-in on Tuesday at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, witnesses said, with security forces eventually firing tear gas and dispersing protesters while the rest of the market was closed.

The demonstration at the Grand Bazaar, the beating heart for centuries of both IranThe country’s economic and political life is the latest signal that protests are likely to continue as the country’s rial currency fell to a record low on Tuesday. Already, violence surrounding the protests has killed at least 35 people and authorities have arrested more than 1,200 others, according to activists abroad.

Meanwhile, the situation is likely to get worse as Iran’s Central Bank has significantly reduced the subsidized exchange rates for dollars it offers to the country’s importers and producers. This will likely see traders pass on product price increases in the coming days directly to consumers, whose savings have already shrunk over years of international sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.

Reformist Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, while ordering a government investigation into an incident involving the protests, also signaled Tuesday that the crisis could quickly spiral out of control.

“We should not expect the government to handle all of this alone,” Pezeshkian said in a televised speech. “The government simply does not have this capacity. »

In the Grand Bazaar, a maze of covered passageways and alleys, protesters sat in a passageway past security forces as other nearby stores closed their doors Tuesday, online videos showed and witnesses said. Similarly, other protests saw people sit in front of police after a photo was released earlier of a man seen sitting alone in front of security forces.

The authorities then fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. Iranian state media did not immediately acknowledge the incident, which has been common since protests began on December 28.

Iran has faced a series of nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran struggled after a 12-day war with Israel in June, its currency, the rial, collapsed in December, reaching 1.4 million to the dollar. Protests began soon after, with demonstrators chanting against Iran’s theocracy.

On Tuesday, the dollar was trading at 1.46 million rials, a new low, with no signs of slowing. Before Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979, the rial was generally stable, trading around 70 to the dollar. At the time of the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal with world powers, 1 dollar was exchanged for 32,000 rials.

Iranian consumers could suffer more. The Iranian Central Bank has significantly reduced a preferential and subsidized exchange rate between the dollar and the rial in recent days. The Iranian government offers the tariff to importers and producers to try to keep food, medicine and other essential goods moving despite international sanctions over its nuclear program and other problems.

However, many of these companies took advantage of the rate difference, pocketing ever-larger profits while normal Iranians saw their economies rapidly losing value against the dollar. This led the Central Bank to significantly reduce this rate.

Currency and rate depreciation has had a direct impact on what is available in stores – and at what price. The average price of a bottle of cooking oil has just doubled, the official IRNA news agency reported. Many complain that store shelves are empty, probably because suppliers and traders fear selling the cooking oil at a loss. Prices of cheese and chicken have also climbed, while imported rice is not available in some stores.

Pezeshkian, in his speech, blamed the depreciation on inflation, sanctions and other problems – and warned that tougher times could lie ahead.

“If we do not make realistic decisions, we ourselves will push the country into crisis and then complain about the consequences,” he warned.

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On Monday evening, Pezeshkian instructed the Interior Ministry to form a special team to conduct a “thorough investigation” into what happened in Ilam province. Protesters in Malekshahi county in Iran’s Ilam province, about 515 kilometers (320 miles) southwest of Iran’s capital Tehran, were killed as online videos purported to show security forces shooting civilians.

The presidency also recognized an “incident that occurred in a hospital in the city of Ilam.” Online video shows security forces wearing riot gear raiding a hospital, where activists said they were searching for protesters.

The assault on the hospital drew criticism from the US State Department, which, in the Iranian Farsi language, called the incident a “crime”.

“Storming wards, beating medical staff and attacking the injured with tear gas and munitions is clearly a crime against humanity,” we can read on the social platform X. “Hospitals are not battlefields. »

A report by the semi-official Fars news agency had previously claimed, without providing evidence, that the protesters were carrying guns and grenades.

Ilam province is primarily home to the country’s Kurdish and Lur ethnic groups and faces severe economic difficulties.

The American news agency Human Rights Activists News Agency announced the latest death toll of 35 for the protests. According to the statement, 29 protesters, four children and two members of the Iranian security forces were killed. The protests reached more than 250 sites in 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces,

The group, which relies on a network of activists in Iran for its reporting, has been accurate during past unrest.

Fars, considered close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, reported late Monday that some 250 police officers and 45 members of the all-volunteer Basij force had been injured during the protests.

The rising death toll brings with it the possibility of American intervention. US President Donald Trump warned Iran on Friday that if Tehran “violently killed peaceful protesters,” the United States would “come to their rescue.” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that “the rioters must be put in their place.”

Although it is unclear how or if Trump will intervene, his comments immediately sparked an angry response, with theocracy officials threatening to target US troops in the Middle East. The comments took on new significance after the U.S. military on Saturday captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran.