Iranian bazaar retailers protest over foreign money collapse, demonstrators chant ‘Long reside the Shah’
DUBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Iran’s authorities stated on Tuesday it might search dialogue with protest leaders following the central financial institution governor’s resignation following demonstrations in Tehran and different cities over a plunge within the worth of the foreign money that has fueled inflation.
Iranian state media stated the protests, which included shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, occurred on Sunday and Monday and had been the most recent demonstrations within the Islamic Republic, which has seen repeated outbreaks of violence in recent times.
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President Masoud Pezeshkian stated in a social media put up late Monday that he had requested the inside minister to hearken to the protesters’ “official calls for.” Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani stated a dialogue mechanism could be established, together with dialogue with protest leaders.
Tehran, Iran, December 29, 2025: Protesters are demonstrating in Tehran towards the deteriorating financial state of affairs, and a few store house owners will shut their retailers on December 29 resulting from persevering with hardships and fluctuations within the nation’s foreign money. The worth of the Iranian rial has plummeted, with the US greenback buying and selling at round 1.42 million rials, down from 820,000 rials a yr in the past, and the euro approaching 1.7 million rials. This financial disaster is exacerbated by tensions between Israel and the United States, in addition to sanctions from the United States and the European Union. (Credit picture: © Social Media by way of ZUMA Press Wire)/REUTERS/KL
“We formally acknowledge the protests… We hear their voices and know that this stems from pure pressures arising from stress on individuals’s lives,” she stated in feedback carried by state media on Tuesday.
The Iranian rial has been depreciating, hitting an all-time low of round 1.39 million rials to the greenback on Monday as Western sanctions hit the economic system, in line with a web site that displays open market charges.
“We are on the agenda for elementary measures to reform the foreign money and banking system and preserve the buying energy of the individuals,” Pezeshkian wrote in a put up on X.
Iranian media stated the federal government’s latest financial liberalization insurance policies are placing stress on the open fee actual market the place peculiar Iranians purchase overseas foreign money.
In 2022, Iran was hit by protests throughout the nation over worth hikes, together with for the staple meals bread.
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Around the identical time and into 2023, the nation’s clerics confronted probably the most brazen rebellion in years, sparked by the loss of life of Mahsa Amini, a younger Iranian Kurdish lady within the custody of morality police, which implement strict gown codes.
Iranian safety providers have crushed earlier protests with violent crackdowns and widespread arrests slightly than dialogue.
Iran stays beneath intense worldwide stress, and US President Donald Trump stated on Monday that he might help one other Israeli airstrike if the nation resumes improvement of its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons applications.
In June, the United States and Israel performed 12 days of airstrikes towards Iran’s navy and its nuclear amenities, aiming to halt what they believed to be efforts to develop the means to make nuclear weapons.
Iran maintains that its nuclear vitality program is totally peaceable and that it has by no means tried to construct a nuclear bomb.
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