Ignoring pleas for calm from President Hassan Rouhani, Iranian protesters took to the streets in several cities for the fifth day on Monday as pent-up economic and political frustrations boiled over in the broadest display of discontent in years.
The Iranian government responded with conciliatory words from Mr. Rouhani, but also a widening security clampdown — and a pledge late Monday to crack down even harder.
The government will not allow an “insecure situation to continue in Tehran,” Brig. Gen Esmaeil Kowsari, deputy chief of the main Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps base in Tehran, told the semiofficial ISNA news agency. “If this situation continues, the officials will definitely make some decisions and at that point this business will be finished.”
Despite Mr. Rouhani’s diplomatic language, it was clear the demonstrators would be given no leeway. The deputy interior minister, Hossein Zolfaghari, told the semiofficial Jamaran website, “From tonight the unrest will be controlled more seriously
On Monday, a crackdown by the government and security services was building, and riot police officers with water cannons were out in full force in Tehran, the capital.
The death toll from the clashes was up to at least 21, and in the central province of Esfahan, one police officer was reported killed and three wounded in a gunfight. “An agitator exploited the current situation, and using a hunting rifle, opened fire on police forces,” state television reported.
Additionally, six protesters were killed and three policemen injured Monday night as protesters sought to seize the police station in Qahdarijan in Esfahan Province, state news radio reported on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in Esfahan, state radio also reported the killing of an 11-year-old child and a 20-year-old by “rioters” in Khomeinishahr Shahr and the death of a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in an attack on a police station in Kahrizsang.
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January 02, 2018
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