Iran plans to implement a new financial rescue package on Monday to try and halt the rial’s decline, coinciding with the re-imposition of severe U.S. sanctions on the oil-rich state’s economy after President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal.
The decision follows a week of sporadic protests against Iran’s political and religious establishment as concerns over the economy mount. On Friday, one person was shot dead and 20 others arrested in the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, the semi-official Fars news reported. About 500 protesters in Eshtehard, a town west of the capital Tehran, used stones and bricks to smash the windows of a seminary and tried to set fire to its building, Fars news reported, citing local cleric Hojjatoleslam Hendiani.
Fars reported that a number of the protesters had been arrested by police who then went house-to-house trying to identify them.
Video posted to social media this week purported to show protests in various Iranian cities, including the capital Tehran. None of the footage can be independently verified but appeared to show people chanting against the government.
Iran is struggling to quell anger over rising prices while seeking to assure the public that it can successfully counter the economic crisis triggered by Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear accord. At the same time, its fighting to stem the rial’s decline, which has slumped to record lows against the U.S. dollar since the start of the year amid protests. READ MORE
