Protesters angry over Iran’s ailing economy staged a sit-in at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar on Tuesday, witnesses said, as security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators and nearby shops shut down.
The protest at the centuries-old market — described in the report as a beating heart for both Iran’s economic and political life — came as the demonstrations, which began Dec. 28, continued to widen across the country. The report said the sit-in was the latest sign that the protests likely would continue, with the rial currency reaching a record low on Tuesday.
Activists abroad said the violence surrounding the unrest has killed at least 36 people and that authorities have detained more than 2,000 others. The report said Iranian authorities’ response has escalated in parallel with economic pressure.
In the Grand Bazaar, online videos and witnesses described demonstrators sitting down in a passage in front of security forces while other shops nearby shut down. The report said other demonstrations had also included people sitting in front of police, after a photograph circulated earlier showing a man sitting alone in front of security forces.
Authorities later fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, the report said. It added that Iranian state-run media did not immediately acknowledge the incident, and that later footage purportedly showed tear gas at a hospital and a metro station in Tehran.
The report linked the unrest’s persistence to currency weakness and changes in dollar exchange rates. It said Iran’s central bank recently reduced subsidized exchange rates for dollars offered to importers and producers, a shift that the report said could lead merchants to pass price increases directly to consumers.
The report said Iran’s central bank ended a preferential, subsidized dollar-rial exchange rate for all products except medicine and wheat. It also said merchants had taken advantage of the difference in rates, while normal Iranians watched their savings lose value amid years of sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic.
Pezeshkian, in a televised speech, said the government should not handle the crisis alone. “We should not expect the government to handle all of this alone,” he said. “The government simply does not have that capacity,” he added. The report said he blamed inflation, sanctions and other woes for the depreciation and warned that “If we do not make realistic decisions, we ourselves will push the country toward crisis and then complain about the consequences.”
The report said the unrest also reflected broader market impacts tied to the currency slide. It reported that IRNA said the average bottle of cooking oil had doubled in price, while cheese and chicken prices also spiked and imported rice had not been available in some shops.
Late Monday, the report said Pezeshkian assigned Iran’s interior ministry to form a special team for a “full-fledged investigation” into what had been happening in Ilam province. It said protesters in Malekshahi County in Ilam province were killed after online videos purported to show security forces firing on civilians, and that the presidency acknowledged an “incident in a hospital in the city of Ilam.”
The report said the U.S. State Department criticized the hospital incident in Iran’s Farsi-language post, calling it “a crime.” It also said an X post asserted, “Storming the wards, beating medical staff and attacking the wounded with tear gas and ammunition is an clear crime against humanity,” and added, “Hospitals are not battlefields.”
Separately, the report said semiofficial Fars earlier alleged without offering evidence that demonstrators carried firearms and grenades. It said Fars later reported that an angry crowd from a funeral for two of the dead stormed and damaged three banks in Malekshahi, with the report adding that Fars said one person was killed and several wounded.
For the overall death toll, the report cited the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which it said offered a latest figure of 36 for the demonstrations. It reported that the agency said 30 protesters, four children and two members of Iran’s security forces had been killed, and that demonstrations had reached over 280 locations in 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces.
The report said Fars also reported that some 250 police officers and 45 Basij force volunteers were hurt in the unrest. It said the rising death toll raised the prospect of U.S. involvement after President Donald Trump warned that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.”
After Trump’s comments, the report said officials within Iran’s theocracy threatened to target American troops in the Middle East. It added that the remarks took on new importance after the U.S. military on Saturday captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.