On, Dec. 30, the third day of protests by Tehran bazaar merchants in response to the dire economic situation, the strike started to spread across Iran. Shopkeepers in Isfahan, Ahvaz, Shiraz, Kermanshah and Najafabad closed their shops and held protest gatherings, where they were joined by students who walked off university campuses. Security forces responded with multiple arrests and the use of live fire and tear-gas in several locations. One student is rerpoted to have been severely injured in Tehran. Protest slogans escalated beyond economic grievances, openly targeting clerical rule and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Iran Focus [14], Iran International [15])
A photo [10] of a lone protester blocking a column of police motorcycles on a Tehran freeway has gone viral, drawing comparisons to the iconic "tank man [11]" photo from Tiananmen Square [12] in June 1989.
In a possible bed to deflect popular anger onto external enemies, President Masoud Pezeshkian stated [16] Dec. 27 that Iran is engaged in a "full-fledged war" with the US, Israel and Europe, describing the pressures on Iran as "far more complex and difficult" than the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The remark appeared in an interview published on the official website of the Supreme Leader. (Jurist [17])
Since the 2022 protests [18] in Iran, there have been worldwide protests [19] fueled by spikes in the price of food and fuel.
