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https://scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3038078/least-one-dead-protests-erupt-iran-over-sudden-petrol-price
World/ Middle East

Iran’s Khamenei signals possible crackdown on ‘thugs’ protesting against fuel prices

  • Wave of protests broke out after Iran imposed fuel-rationing measures and upped the cost of petrol
  • Khamenei ordered security forces ‘to implement their tasks’ and for citizens to keep clear of violent demonstrators
Iranian protesters clash in the streets following a fuel price increase of up to 50 per cent. Photo: EPA-EFE

Iran’s supreme leader on Sunday backed the government’s decision to raise fuel prices and called angry protesters who have been setting fire to public property over the increase “thugs”, signalling a potential crackdown on the demonstrations.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments came as authorities shut down the internet across Iran to smother the protests in some two dozen cities and towns over the rise of government-set prices by 50 per cent as of Friday.

Since the increase, demonstrators have abandoned their cars along major motorways and joined mass protests in the capital, Tehran, and elsewhere. Some protests turned violent, with demonstrators setting fires and there was also gunfire.

It remains to be seen how many people have been injured, killed or arrested. Authorities on Saturday said only one person was killed, though other videos from the protests have shown people gravely wounded.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voices his support for a decision to impose petrol price increase and rationing. Photo: EPA-EFE
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei voices his support for a decision to impose petrol price increase and rationing. Photo: EPA-EFE

In an address aired by state television on Sunday, Khamenei said “some lost their lives and some places were destroyed”, without elaborating. He called violent protesters “thugs” who had been pushed into violence by counter-revolutionaries and foreign enemies of Iran. He specifically named those aligned with the family of Iran’s late shah, ousted 40 years ago, and an exile group called the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

“Setting a bank on fire is not an act done by the people. This is what thugs do,” Khamenei said.

However, he made a point to back the decision of Iran’s relatively moderate President Hassan Rowhani and others to raise fuel prices. Petrol in the country still remains among the cheapest in the world, with the new prices jumping up to a minimum of 15,000 rials per litre – 50 per cent up from the day before. That is 13 cents a litre, or about 50 cents a gallon. A gallon of regular petrol in the US costs US$2.60 by comparison.

Khamenei ordered security forces “to implement their tasks” and for Iran’s citizens to keep clear of violent demonstrators.

People protest against increased fuel prices, on a highway in Tehran. Photo: Reuters
People protest against increased fuel prices, on a highway in Tehran. Photo: Reuters

That seemed to indicate a possible crackdown could be looming. Economic protests in late 2017 into 2018 were met by a heavy reaction by the police and the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

“Such illegal actions would not solve any problem but add insecurity on top of other problems,” Khamenei said. “Lack of security is the biggest calamity for any country and society. That is what they are looking for.”

The protests have put renewed pressure on Iran’s government as it struggles to overcome US sanctions strangling the country’s economy since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers over a year ago.

Though largely peaceful, the latest demonstrations devolved into violence in several instances, with online videos purporting to show police officers firing tear gas at protesters and mobs setting fires.

While representing a political risk for Rowhani ahead of February parliamentary elections, they also show widespread anger among Iran’s 80 million people who have seen their savings evaporate amid scarce jobs and the collapse of the national currency, the rial.

Cheap fuel is practically considered a birthright in Iran, home to the world’s fourth-largest crude oil reserves. Rowhani had been pushing for higher prices to offer payments to the poor for months. While the increase was eventually expected, the decision to raise prices still caught many by surprise and sparked immediate demonstrations overnight.

Iranian protesters stand around a burning car in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE
Iranian protesters stand around a burning car in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Iranian internet access meanwhile saw disruptions and outages on Friday night into Saturday, according to the group NetBlocks, which monitors worldwide internet access. By Saturday night, “real-time network data show connectivity has fallen to just 7 per cent of ordinary levels following 12 hours of progressive network disconnections as public protests have continued across the country,” NetBlocks said.

“The ongoing disruption is the most severe recorded in Iran since President Rowhani came to power, and the most severe disconnection tracked by NetBlocks in any country in terms of its technical complexity and breadth,” the group said.

The semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Sunday that Iran’s Supreme National Security Council ordered a “restriction of access” to the internet nationwide, without elaborating.

Protester chants seen in online videos mirrored many from the economic protests in late 2017, which resulted in nearly 5,000 reported arrests and at least 25 people killed. Some criticised Iran’s spending abroad on Palestinians and others while the country’s people remain poor.

The tensions in Iran came as weeks of anti-government protests have engulfed Iraq and Lebanon, two Middle Eastern nations that are home to Iranian proxies and crucial to Tehran’s influence abroad.

Iran long has suffered economic problems since its 1979 Islamic Revolution cut off the country’s decades-long relationship with the US. Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s followed, further straining its economy.

A road is blocked by protester in Tehran, Iran. Photo: AP
A road is blocked by protester in Tehran, Iran. Photo: AP

The collapse of the nuclear deal has exacerbated those problems. The Iranian rial, which traded at 32,000 to US$1 at the time of the accord, fell to 122,600 to US$1 in trading on Saturday. Iran has since begun breaking terms of the deal as it tries to force Europe to come up with a way to allow it to sell crude oil abroad despite American sanctions.

The US so far has had a muted response to the protests, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeting overnight: “As I said to the people of Iran almost a year and a half ago: The United States is with you.”

In Dubai, the new US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates said America was “not advocating regime change. We are going to let the Iranian people decide for themselves their future”.

“They are frustrated. They want freedom,” Ambassador John Rakolta said at the Dubai Airshow. “These developments that you see right now are their own people telling them: We need change and to sit down with the American government.”