Iran Unrest: Fresh Protests Erupt In Tehran After Hospital Raid Fuels Anger
Footage of security forces storming the Imam Khomeini Hospital in the western city of Ilam on Sunday fueled public anger and prompted President Masoud Pezeshkian to order an investigation.
Iranian police clashed with protesters in Tehran's main market and a hospital on Tuesday, as activists said the death toll from the mounting unrest climbed to at least 29.
Security forces fired tear gas at demonstrators in the sprawling Grand Bazaar — where the protests began on Dec. 28 — who had shuttered their shops and were staging a sit-in at the trading hub, the AP said, citing witnesses.
Videos posted to social media appeared to show police rushing crowds in the bazaar’s surrounding streets and in one of its main arteries, and firing tear gas into the nearby Sina Hospital — the second such raid on a medical facility in as many days.
Footage of security forces storming the Imam Khomeini Hospital in the western city of Ilam on Sunday fueled public anger and prompted President Masoud Pezeshkian to order an investigation. Officials haven’t yet responded to the incident at the hospital in Tehran. The videos can’t be verified by Bloomberg.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said Monday that at least 29 people have been killed in provinces including Lorestan, Fars and Kurdistan and more than 1,200 people arrested since a sharp currency decline triggered demonstrations in the capital that later spread to other cities.
The protests have divided Iran’s leadership over how to respond. While Pezeshkian, a political moderate and a former heart surgeon, has described protesters’ demands as legitimate, judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei has warned that "no leniency or tolerance" would be shown toward protesters and vowed swift trials, according to the official Mizan news agency.
"Rioters can no longer claim to have been misled," Ejei said, accusing the US and Israel of openly backing the unrest. "There is now no room for any concessions toward rioters and instigators of unrest."
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on most state matters, said Saturday that "rioters must be put in their place".
The protests are the biggest to rock Iran since nationwide unrest in 2022 over the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody. But they don't yet represent a threat to the Islamic Republic's security, Eurasia Group analysts wrote in a report last week.
The unrest comes amid deteriorating living conditions in Iran, where high inflation, rising costs and a weak currency have fueled growing public dissatisfaction.
The government has announced measures to ease the frustration including a monthly cash subsidy of 10 million rials (roughly $7) for each member of every household. It also appointed a new central bank governor to stabilize the declining rial.
The subsidy is part of a broader "livelihood plan" that’s aimed at offsetting the rising cost of basic goods like cooking oil, milk, sugar and meat, government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Monday.
Iran's currency has dropped by around 45% on the black market in the past year. It trades at roughly 1.5 million against the dollar, according to bonbast, a website that tracks the currency.
