New protests were held in Iran overnight, local media said yesterday, despite Iranian President Hassan Rouhani calling for calm and vowing more “space for criticism” in a bid to head off days of unrest.
Rouhani on Sunday night finally broke his silence about the protests that mark the biggest test for the regime since mass demonstrations in 2009.
Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse a small protest in Tehran’s Enghelab Square on Sunday evening, unverified social media videos show.
Protesters in the small northwestern town of Takestan torched a school for clergy and government buildings, the Iranian Labor News Agency said, while the state broadcaster said that two people had died in Dorud after crashing a stolen fire engine.
There were also reports of protests in the cities of Izeh (southwest), Kermanshah and Khorramabad (west), Shahinshahr (northwest) and Zanjan (north).
Verifying reports remained challenging due to travel restrictions and sporadic blocks of mobile Internet and popular social media sites including Telegram and Instagram.
“The people are absolutely free in expressing their criticisms and even protests,” Rouhani said in a message on the state broadcaster. “But criticism is different to violence and destroying public property.”
He sought a conciliatory tone, saying that government bodies “should provide space for legal criticism and protest” and calling for greater transparency and a more balanced media.
US President Donald Trump said the “big protests” showed people “were getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism.”
“Looks like they will not take it any longer,” he said on Twitter.
In a later tweet, Trump accused Iran of “numerous violations of human rights” and commented on the disruption to social media, saying it “has now closed down the Internet so that peaceful demonstrators cannot communicate. Not good!”
“This man who today in America wants to sympathize with our people has forgotten that a few months ago he called the nation of Iran terrorist. This person whose whole being is against the nation of Iran has no right to feel pity for the people of Iran,” Rouhani said in response.
After initial silence, state media on Sunday began showing some footage, focusing on young men attacking banks and vehicles, an attack on a town hall in Tehran and images of a man burning the Iranian flag.
Two hundred people were reported to have been arrested in Saturday night’s unrest in the capital.
There have been reminders of the continued support for the regime among conservative sections of society, with pro-regime students staging sizable counter-demonstrations at the University of Tehran over the weekend.
Rouhani came to power in 2013 promising to mend the economy and ease social tensions, but anger over high living costs and a 12 percent unemployment rate have left many feeling that progress is too slow.
“Rouhani has run an austerity budget since 2013 with the idea that it’s a tough, but necessary pill to swallow to manage inflation and currency problems and try to improve Iran’s attractiveness for investment, but choosing years of austerity immediately after a very tough period of sanctions is bound to test people’s patience,” Europe-Iran Forum founder Esfandyar Batmanghelidj said.
Police have so far taken a relatively soft approach to the unrest. They deny shooting two men killed in Dorud on Saturday night.
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