Iran's Khamenei says protesters' economic demands 'fair'

TEHRAN: Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday acknowledged the economic demands of Iranian protesters, while warning against what he described as rioting.

“The president and high-ranking officials are working to resolve” the economic difficulties in the sanctions-battered country, Khamenei said in a speech marking a Shiite holiday.

“The shopkeepers have protested against this situation and that is completely fair,” he added, while warning that “rioters… must be put in their place”.

A member of an Iranian paramilitary force was killed during a demonstration in the country’s west, the Mehr news agency reported on Saturday, the seventh day of protests that have spread to more than two dozen cities.

The protests began on Sunday as an expression of discontent over high prices and economic stagnation, but have since expanded to include political demands.

The first deaths were reported as demonstrators clashed with authorities on Thursday, with at least eight people killed so far, including members of the security services, according to official figures.

“Ali Azizi, a member of the Basij, was martyred after being stabbed and shot in the city of Harsin during a gathering of armed rioters,” Mehr said, citing a statement from the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military that oversees the volunteer Basij force.

The Tasnim news agency, citing a local official, also reported a man killed Friday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, when a grenade he was trying to use exploded “in his hands”.

The protests have mostly been concentrated in mid-sized cities in Iran’s west and southwest, where clashes and vandalism have been reported.

At least 25 cities have seen protest gatherings of varying sizes, according to an AFP tally based on local media.

But on Saturday, a public holiday, the atmosphere in the capital appeared quiet, with streets mostly empty as the skies spat rain and snow.

Since the protests began, authorities have adopted a conciliatory tone when it comes to economic demands, while warning that destabilisation and chaos will not be tolerated.

Though widespread, the demonstrations are smaller than the ones that broke out in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.

Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.

Iran was also gripped by nationwide protests that began in late 2019 over a rise in fuel prices, eventually leading to calls to topple the country’s clerical rulers.