Several people have died during a fifth day of protests across Iran, state-affiliated media and rights groups said, as anger builds over the country's economic woes despite pledges from the Islamic republic's clerical leaders to take "new decisions" to improve the situation.
Social media videos and reports said markets in Tehran were again closed on January 1, with merchants marching in the streets as they battle an inflation spiral sparked by a free-fall of the currency.
Local media also reported the unrest, adding that demonstrations were occurring in other parts of Iran as well.
Unconfirmed Deaths Of Protesters
Domestic news agencies and international rights groups on January 1 reported at least six deaths related to the protests.
The Fars news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported protests in the city of Lordegan in the southwest, saying clashes with security forces had occurred. It cited "an informed source" as saying that "two people had lost their lives."
Norway-based human rights group Hengaw also reported deaths in Lordegan, saying security forces had opened fired on protesters, killing and wounding several. The group also said a protester was killed in Isfahan Province in central Iran on December 31.
Fars later reported that three people were killed and 17 injured around 8 p.m. during clashes between security forces and demonstrators in Azna, a city of 48,000 people in western Iran's Lorestan Province. The unconfirmed report stated that protesters had attacked a police station.
The IRGC, meanwhile, said on January 1 that a member of its Basij volunteer paramilitary unit was killed a day earlier in the western city of Kuhdasht, also in Lorestan Province.
Dozens of arrests were reported during the protests, although numbers could not immediately be determined. Iranian news agencies said that 30 people were detained in Tehran for 'disturbing public order."
Iranian authorities have yet to confirm the reports and RFE/RL's Radio Farda could not independently verify them.
Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian has called on citizens to show solidarity instead of joining protests. He has also promised that the government would make "new decisions" that would improve the economic situation.
This has done little to temper the anger of Iranians, who have been besieged by inflation of more than 50 percent and a slumping rial currency that is trading on unofficial markets at around 1.4 million to the dollar, compared to around 800,000 one year ago.
Official exchange rates are better but unavailable to many Iranian individuals and businesses.
"The recent protests reveal one clear reality: many Iranians have decided that the current establishment must end -- at any cost and as soon as possible -- before the country they love is further destroyed," Shirin Ebadi, who was awarded the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to bring democracy and safeguard human rights in Iran, spoke with Radio Farda in a phone interview on January 1.
Discussion Of Potential New Israeli Military Strikes On Iran
The poor state of the economy, which has been decimated by international sanctions over its nuclear program, may not be the only factor driving the renewed protests in Iran after US President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on December 29.
Asked whether he would support new Israeli military strikes on Iran if it continued with its missile program or nuclear program, Trump was unequivocal.
"If they will continue with the missiles -- yes; the [continuation of its] nuclear [program] -- fast. One will be 'yes, absolutely,' the other one, 'we'll do it immediately,'" Trump said after the meeting.
