Iran's leader action on economy

Iran’s leader action on economy

Tehran (dpa) — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday called on citizens to show solidarity instead of staging protests, and promised the government would take steps to help people amid the current economic crisis.

“We are in a situation where, alongside pressure from foreign enemies, there are unfortunately also [protest] actions taking place inside the country,” Pezeshkian said, according to state news agency IRNA.

In such a crisis it is crucial to strengthen solidarity in order to overcome existing problems, the president added.

Pezeshkian also said the government would make new decisions on Wednesday evening to improve the economic situation and boost people’s purchasing power.

He said these would be announced as soon as they were finalized, according to reports.

Shortly after the protests, Pezeshkian had promised in a brief message economic reforms and declared his willingness for dialogue.

However, this found no resonance among the demonstrators. For them, the president and his policies are the main cause of the current economic misery in the country, which is rich in oil and gas.

Iran’s leader action on economy

Iran attributes the protests of the past four days to a “foreign conspiracy” aimed at pushing the country into unrest and instability.

Iran’s arch-enemy Israel is particularly in focus of these conspiracy theories. The Israeli intelligence service Mossad and former prime minister Naftali Bennett have so far openly supported the demonstrators.

On the fourth consecutive day, protests against the Islamic system again broke out in the capital Tehran and other cities. Reports suggest violent clashes with police and the security forces.

In Tehran, four students were arrested at the University of Tehran. Reports on social media that one person had died in the southern province of Fars could not be verified.

The trigger for Sunday’s protests was the sudden rise in foreign exchange rates, which pushed the national currency, the rial, to a record low and paralysed trade in Tehran’s business districts.

The initially economically motivated protests quickly took on political dimensions – with slogans against the Islamic system such as “Death to the dictator.”