TEHRAN (Agencies) - Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has pledged to address mounting economic grievances in the country, saying his government is “ready to listen” to protesters while urging them to prevent “rioters” and “terrorist elements” from wreaking havoc.
Pezeshkian spoke about the unrest in an interview on state television on Sunday as the demonstrations, which began when merchants at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar closed their shops over the Iranian rial’s sharp depreciation, entered a third week.
The Iranian president told the IRIB broadcaster that Israel and the United were masterminding the destabilisation in the country, saying “the same people that struck this country” during Israel’s 12-day war in June were “trying to escalate these unrests with regard to the economic discussion”.
“They have trained some people inside and outside the country, they have bought in some terrorists from outside,” Pezeshkian said, claiming the perpetrators had attacked a bazaar in the city of Rasht and setting “mosques on fire”.
The Iranian president said the government had heard the concerns shopkeepers’ concerns and is going to solve their problems “by any means necessary”. But he urged the public not to allow “rioters” to disrupt the country, insisting: “Rioters are not protesting people. We hear the protesters and have made every effort to solve their problems.”
The protests, which have evolved from economic grievances into broader anti-government demonstrations, are the largest in Iran since the 2022-2023 movement spurred by the custodial death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.
DEATH TOLL RISES
State media reported that 109 security personnel have been killed during the latest unrest. Authorities have not confirmed the number of demonstrators who have lost their lives, but opposition activists based outside the country say the death toll is higher and includes hundreds of protesters.
Footage, verified by Al Jazeera, from a morgue in Kahrizak, south of Tehran, showed dozens of bodies in black bags outside the facility, with apparent relatives searching for loved ones. State television broadcast similar scenes from Tehran’s coroner’s office, attributing deaths to “armed terrorists”.
Authorities on Sunday also declared three days of national mourning “in honour of martyrs killed in resistance against the United States and the Zionist regime”, according to state media. Iran’s Ministry of Interior claimed the unrest is subsiding as the attorney general warned participants they could face capital punishment.
A nationwide internet blackout has persisted for more than 72 hours, according to monitoring groups.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday he was “shocked” by reports of violence against protesters in Iran and called on the government to show restraint.
“The rights to freedom of expression, association & peaceful assembly must be fully respected & protected,” he said on X.
Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said Iranian officials had spent the past week trying to draw a distinction between protesters and what they described as foreign-trained rioters.
Asadi added that senior officials had acknowledged public anger as justified, citing “soaring prices, high inflation and the drastic devaluation of the local currency that right now puts a huge amount of pressure on the pockets of local people”.
US TENSIONS
The unrest in Iran is unfolding as US President Donald Trump pursues an assertive foreign policy, having abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and discussing acquiring Greenland by purchase or force.
Trump, who has pledged to “hit Iran where it hurts” if protesters are killed, was scheduled to meet with senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran, a US official told the Reuters news agency. The Wall Street Journal meanwhile reported that options included military strikes, using secret cyber weapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to anti-government sources.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf issued a stark warning.
“In the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories [Israel] as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” Ghalibaf told lawmakers, some of whom reportedly chanted anti-American slogans.
Iranian authorities also called for nationwide rallies on Monday to condemn “terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel”, according to state media. Pezeshkian urged participation in what state television characterised as a “national resistance march” against violence attributed to “urban terrorist criminals”.
Some US lawmakers meanwhile questioned the wisdom of taking military action against Iran.
Republican Senator Rand Paul and Democratic Senator Mark Warner warned that rather than undermining the regime, a military attack on Iran could rally the people against an outside enemy.
Demonstrations supporting Iranian protestets took place in London, Paris, Berlin and Istanbul.
Iran also summoned Britain’s ambassador on Sunday to the Foreign Ministry in Tehran over “interventionist comments” attributed to the British foreign minister and a protester removing the Iranian flag from the London Embassy building and replacing it with a style of flag that was used prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution.