Mass Protests Are In Their Third Day In Iran

The protesters had political slogans.

Since Sunday, December 28, mass protests have been going on in the capital and other major cities of Iran, the catalyst for the beginning of which was the difficult economic situation in the country. This was reported by several news agencies on Tuesday, December 30. According to them, students from major universities have joined the protests in Tehran and Isfahan, DW reports.

There have already been "minor" clashes between protesters and police; law enforcers used tear gas to disperse the crowd. The dpa news agency points out that the protest has turned political. Demonstrators appeared to have slogans such as "Death to the dictator" and "Long live the king." The first may refer to Iran's supreme (spiritual) leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The second, however, appears to call for the restoration of the monarchy, which was overthrown in Iran in the Islamic Revolution of 1978-1979.

Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said on December 30 that he had instructed the interior minister to enter into a dialog with representatives of the protesters and "listen to their legitimate demands." This is necessary "so that the government can put all its efforts into solving the problems and act responsibly," he wrote in his X account.

AFP specifies that the demonstrations began on Sunday, December 28, in Tehran's main city bazaar, where store owners - first selling cell phones and then others - closed their outlets to protest hyperinflation and sharp price fluctuations caused by the devaluation of the national currency. These factors primarily hit traders of imported goods.

On December 29, the rial fell to a new record low of about 1.4 million to 1 dollar on the open foreign exchange market, where the exchange rate is very different from the official one. Against this backdrop, the head of Iran's Central Bank, Mohammad Reza Farzin, resigned.

The Iranian economy is under pressure from high inflation and Western sanctions over the government's nuclear program. President Pezeshkian recently pledged to fight inflation and the high cost of living.

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