Iran: Calm restored after fuel price hike unrest

PanARMENIAN.Net - Protests in Iran triggered by petrol price hikes last week have subsided, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday, November 19, a day after the elite Revolutionary Guards warned of “decisive” action if anti-government protests do not cease, Reuters reports.

Social media videos posted in defiance of an Internet block showed protests continued in several cities on Monday night, however, and a heavy presence of security forces in streets. The images posted on social media could not be verified by Reuters.

“Calm has been restored in the country,” Iran’s judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a news conference.

Several people, including members of the security forces and police, have been killed in the protests that began on Friday after fuel price rises of at least 50 percent were announced, and around 1,000 “rioters” arrested, authorities said.

Three members of the security forces were stabbed to death near Tehran, ISNA news agency reported late on Monday.

Hundreds of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at squeezed living standards, state corruption and a deepening gap between rich and poor. Social media footage showed protesters burning pictures of top officials and calling on clerical rulers to step down, as well as violent clashes between security forces and protesters.