Iranian students staged street protests in Tehran, a day after the capital’s shopkeepers demonstrated against economic hardship and won a message of understanding from the president.
Security forces and riot police were deployed at major intersections in Tehran and around some universities on Tuesday, while some of the shops closed the previous day in the capital’s center had reopened.
Iran’s prosecutor general said on Wednesday that economic protests that had gripped the country were legitimate, but any attempt to create insecurity would be met with a “decisive response”.
President Masoud Pezeshkian — who has less authority under Iran’s system of government than supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — met Tuesday with labor leaders and made proposals to tackle the economic crisis, according to press agency Mehr.
“I have asked the interior minister to listen to the legitimate demands of the protesters by engaging in dialogue with their representatives so that the government can do everything in its power to resolve the problems and act responsibly,” he said in a social media post.
The country’s economy, already battered by decades of Western sanctions, was further strained after the United Nations in late September reinstated international sanctions linked to the country’s nuclear program that were lifted 10 years ago. (AFP)
