ISTANBUL — Thousands of supporters of Iran’s ruling clerics rallied around the country Saturday, state media reported, after days of rare anti-government protests also spread to major cities this week.
The demonstrations Saturday were pre-planned and had been scheduled to mark the end of the 2009 uprising, a pro-reform movement crushed by government hardliners.
But they took on new significance as fresh unrest was reported across Iranian cities Thursday and Friday. Demonstrators set out to protest rising prices but were soon chanting against Iran’s government, in an unusual show of public dissent.
Footage uploaded to social media showed protestors defying security forces everywhere from Mashhad, Iran’s second largest city, to Kermanshah in the west and Qom in the north.
Official media for the most part ignored the widespread protests, which targeted President Hassan Rouhani and even the Supreme Leader, who has the final say on all foreign and domestic policy matters.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters, Iranian human rights groups reported. At least 50 people were arrested, authorities said.
On Saturday, images emerged of anti-government demonstrators at Tehran University, and in Kermanshah, where hundreds of people were killed in a devastating earthquake last month.
The videos could not be verified, and it was unclear if demonstrations had sustained their momentum elsewhere. Iran’s interior minister Saturday warned citizens against joining “illegal gatherings,” according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
The government has shown little restraint in brutally quelling dissent, and many analysts speculated that the protests would fizzle. But they also warned that harsh measures from security forces could spark further anger, leading to more demonstrations.
Iranians have struggled under an ailing economy they hoped would soar after the country reached a nuclear deal with world powers and major international sanctions were lifted.
Iran’s economy has indeed grown since the deal was struck in 2015, in large part thanks to the country’s renewed oil exports. But its non-oil economy has failed to keep up, hindering broader job creation, economists say.
The administration of Rouhani, a moderate politician reelected in May, has curbed runaway inflation. But the rate remains as high as 9 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Rising prices of basic foodstuffs, coupled with a proposed cut to monthly cash subsidies to poorer citizens, are believed to have stirred this week’s unrest.
And some saw the protests as indicators for more political change.
“It proves that there is widespread discontent in Iran, that it can be triggered at any time,” said Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington.
“These protests also show that . . . Iranians see the regime and its mismanagement as an impediment to their daily lives,” he said.
Others warned about the viability of demonstrations without a cohesive strategy.
“Socio-economic discontent should not be equated with effective political resistance,” Mohammad al-Shabani, editor of Iran coverage at Al-Monitor, an online news portal, wrote of the protests.
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