The Tamesis
Increasing unrest in Iran on Friday led government authorities to shut down the internet. Videos posted on social media showed anti-government riots raging in several cities, with cars and buildings set on fire.
The country’s aging supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has vowed not to back down. In a televised speech, he accused demonstrators of acting on behalf of exiled opposition groups and the United States, while rights groups reported police shooting at protesters in the south.
Reuters said the unrest did not mobilize as many layers of society as other political, economic or human rights protests over the past decade and a half, but analysts said dozens of people had died and the conservative regime looked even more fragile due to the dire economic situation after last year’s war with Israel and the United States.
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While the initial protests were focused on the economy, with Iran’s currency, the rial, losing half its value against the dollar last year and inflation reaching 40% in December, they have turned into slogans directed against the authorities.
Buildings and cars on fire
Internet blockades have greatly reduced the amount of information leaked, and calls to Iran have been blocked. At least 17 flights Flights between Dubai and Iran were canceled, according to the Dubai Airports website.
The protests began late last month with shopkeepers and market traders demonstrating over inflation and the rial, but soon spread to universities and provincial cities, where young people clashed with security forces.
Images released by state television overnight showed burning buses, cars and motorcycles, as well as fires at subway stations and banks.
It blamed the unrest on the Popular Mujahideen, a foreign-based opposition group that splintered after the 1979 Islamic revolution and is also known as the MKO.
“It looks like a war zone here – all the shops have been destroyed,” a state television reporter said, standing in front of the fire on Shariati Street in the Rashtri sea port.
Reuters confirmed that video taken in the capital Tehran showed hundreds of people marching. In one of the videos, a woman can be heard shouting “Death to Khamenei!”
Iranian human rights group Hengaw reported that a protest march held after Friday prayers in Zahedan, a town dominated by the Baloch minority, was shot at, injuring several people.
Chief Justice vows to show no mercy to rioters
The authorities have tried a two-pronged approach – portraying protests against the economy as legitimate while condemning what they called violent rioters and deploying security forces to quell them.
The Supreme Leader, Iran’s highest authority above the democratically elected president and parliament, used strong language in his speech.
“The Islamic Republic came to power through the blood of hundreds of thousands of its honorable people. It will not back down in the face of acts of destruction,” he said, accusing those involved in the riots of trying to please US President Donald Trump.
Justice Minister Gholam Hussein Mohseni Eji was quoted as saying by state media that punishment for the rioters would be “decisive, severe and without leniency under the law”.
The opposition is fragmented
Iran’s external fragmentation opposition There were calls for more protests, with demonstrators chanting slogans such as “Death to the dictator!” and praised the monarchy that was overthrown in 1979.
Reza Pahlavi, the late king’s exiled son, told Iranians in a social media post: “The eyes of the world are on you. Take to the streets.”
However, there is controversy over the extent of support within Iran for the monarchy or the MKO, the strongest exile opposition group.
Trump bombed Iran last summer and last week warned Tehran that the United States might provide aid to protesters. Trump said on Friday he would not meet with Pahlavi and was “not sure it would be appropriate to support him.”
Germany condemned violence against protesters, saying the rights to demonstrate and assemble must be guaranteed and Iranian media must be able to report freely.
- Reuters Additional editing by Jim Pollard
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