unrest Archives - Iran News Daily

Lebanese protesters return to streets amid virus outbreak

reporter 1222 — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 07:32:45 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Observing social distancing guidelines amid a virus outbreak, dozens of Lebanese people have taken to the streets across Beirut and other cities in their cars to protest rising poverty and economic woes.

The car convoys formed across the capital, the northwestern city of Tripoli, and the southwestern city of Sidon on Tuesday.

In Beirut, cars thronged around the UNESCO Palace, which was chosen by Speaker Nabih Berri to host the parliament’s first reconvention since the legislature was shut down for contagion fears.

The pandemic has so far infected 677 people and killed 21 in the country.

Cars were seen draped in Lebanese flag, with drivers honking their horns and protesters shouting slogans while leaning out in facemasks.

The lingering protests receded to some extent in January, when the country swore in a new government. They, however, resumed Friday in Tripoli, where locals reportedly showed up in their hundreds.

Lebanon’s debt equals 170 percent of its gross domestic product. The country failed to catch up on the arrears for the first time last month.

The Lebanese pound, which is pegged to the dollar, has depreciated by almost half in recent months. The loss in the currency’s value has been simultaneous with a severe shortage of the greenback.

The overall dire economic conditions have subjected around 45 percent of the country’s population to poverty.

The economic situation comes as the United States and its Persian Gulf allies have imposed sanctions on Lebanese economic assets and figures for government cooperation with the country’s Hezbollah resistance movement.

The popular movement — which is widely represented in the parliament — became an integral part of Lebanon’s defense force after defending the country against wars by Israel, the US’s most important regional ally, in the 2000s.

During Tuesday’s session, the parliament passed a law to fight corruption in the public sector and set up a national body in charge of stamping out graft. The MPs also discussed lifting immunity for ministers and lawmakers to allow prosecutions for corruption.

Hezbollah has likewise urged an indiscriminate fight against corruption in order to heal the country’s economic woes.

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Protests Ignite in Chile Streets

reporter 1222 — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 11:38:26 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – At least ten people were reportedly arrested with dozens injured as crowds hit Chile capital streets in anti-government protests on Friday.

Footages on social media show police clashing with the protesters, using water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protesters who responded with projectiles and Molotov cocktails, setting a water cannon vehicle on fire, with the clashes disrupting capital’s traffic.

Political and social organizations in Chile called for a new wave of protests on streets throughout March, ahead of the referendum on changing the constitution on April 26.

Furious Chileans have for weeks been protesting social and economic inequality, and against an entrenched political elite that comes from a small number of the wealthiest families in the country, among other issues.

The crisis is the worst in three decades of Chilean democracy and has led to 26 deaths and more than 12,000 injuries, according to the Organization of American States, with another 20,600 people detained, AFP reported.

As with every Friday, since protests began on October 18, thousands gathered at Plaza Italia in the center of Santiago to wave flags, sing and dance in a show of opposition President Sebastian Pinera’s conservative government.

Protesters held up a huge Chilean flag with a closed eye, a symbol of the 300 people who have suffered optical injuries during confrontations with police.

Some demonstrators armed with stones and Molotov cocktails clashed with police, who scattered them with tear gas and water cannon.

Officers erected barricades around the square later in the evening.

Chile’s unrest began with a demonstration against a price hike on metro tickets in Santiago, which spiraled into violent protests across the country.

Lawmakers in Chile’s National Congress last month agreed to hold a referendum on updating the country’s constitution, in force since 1980 and enacted by the former military junta of Augusto Pinochet.

Protesters have demanded the charter be changed to establish the state’s responsibility to provide education and healthcare.

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Iraq condemns Iran’s consulate blazing

reporter 1222 — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 09:31:14 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iraq condemns an attack on Iran’s consulate in the southern city of Najaf after the building was stormed and was blazing by rioters the previous day.

As Iraqi state news agency said early on Thursday, citing the foreign ministry, Wednesday’s attack was ‘aimed at damaging the historical relations between Iraq and Iran and with rest of the countries.’

“Diplomatic missions operating in Iraq are highly respected and appreciated,” it added, stressing that the incident did not reflect Iraq’s perspective.

Iraq condemns the act of rioters who stormed and set Iran’s consulate in blazing in the southern city of Najaf on Wednesday. The spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Ministry required the Iraqi government to give a firm response to these acts of violence.

Abbas Mousavi reminded the Iraqi government is in charge of providing the security of diplomatic sites in that country, adding that Iran will announce its protest against the event to Iraq via Iraqi envoy in Iran.

Staff at the Iranian consulate evacuated safely before the attack in the holy city.

Local authorities imposed a curfew following the incident, state media reported.

Staff at the Iranian consulate evacuated safely before the attack in the holy city. Local authorities imposed a curfew following the incident, state media reported.

According to local media, 47 Iraqi security staff have been injured during the attack. The Saudi-led media Al-Arabiya, activities of which is illegal in Iraq, has broadcasted the attack in a live report from its beginning which raises the probability of a pre-planned attack.

The attackers were a group wearing masks who had come from other cities to Najaf in a planned move to set the consulate ablaze, the report added.

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Damages of recent unrest; banks and gas stations on fire

reporter 1222 — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 06:57:22 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli says 731 banks and 70 gas stations were set ablaze or damaged during the recent unrest in the country.

“731 banks were torched with fire, among other damages of recent unrest,” Rahmani Fazli said on Tuesday evening on state TV.

“Also, 140 public places, 70 gas stations, and 9 religious centers and burned 307 automobiles and 1076 motorcycles are among damages of recent unrest,” he added.

The minister acknowledged that some questions have been raised following the gasoline price hike “which we should respond to.”

“All governments which are a manifestation of their people’s vote want well-being for the people, especially our country which is a democracy,” he remarked.

Protests erupted in Iran on November 15 after the government announced an increase in the price of gasoline, a subsidized commodity that is still cheaper in Iran than other countries in the world.

The proceeds from the price increase are paid in the form of cash subsidies to 60 million Iranians, who account for about 75 percent of the population.

The rationed gasoline, which is 60 liters per month, is priced 1500 tomans (35 cents) and any amount beyond that is 3000 tomans (70 cents).

The calculation is based on the official rate of 4200 tomans per dollar. However, the value of the dollar, due to the U.S. president’s strategy of “maximum pressure” against Iran, is almost 2.5 times higher in the free market.

He said the crisis only began after the foreign-based Persian media entered the stage and incited people by broadcasting footages of other protests to show that the country is in turmoil.

To control the situation, Iran blocked access to the internet for days.

The minister commented on the internet blackout, saying, “When the number of arsons and destructions increased, we were forced to shut down the internet temporarily.”

He also said the Iranian authorities are well aware of the damage caused by the internet blackout but had no other choice.

“Protest is different from riot and the Islamic Republic tolerates peaceful protests,” he said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a statement on Friday blacklisting Iran’s ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi for what it called his role in “widescale internet censorship.”

However, Iranian people’s access to the internet has been restored to a great extent.

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After unrest Iran counter foreign interventions

reporter 1222 — Tue, 26 Nov 2019 06:03:49 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran said Monday measures were being taken to offset American interference in the recent unrest in the wake of countrywide gas price hikes.

The decision was part of Iran’s belt-tightening in the face of US sanctions which have hit ordinary Iranians the hardest. While American officials said they supported the protesters, they imposed fresh sanctions on Iran last week.

“We think these statements and interventions are made not out of friendship and goodwill with the Iranian people, but aim to stoke tensions,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi told reporters in Tehran, Press TV reported.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted: “As I said to the people of Iran almost a year and a half ago: The United States is with you.”

Pompeo was referring to the time when he curiously said Washington’s tough sanctions were aimed at giving the Iranian people a chance to have better lives.

Pompeo had earlier told BBC Persian that Iranian officials must listen to Washington “if they want their people to eat.”

On Sunday, Mousavi denounced Pompeo’s new tweet. “Iran’s noble nation knows well that such hypocritical statements are completely void of sincere sympathy,” the spokesman said.

Iran has been trying to take the sanctions in its stride, working through a raft of measures to ease the suffering of the needy.

The Iranian government this month raised gasoline prices which still remain the cheapest in the world. The decision triggered peaceful protests which turned ugly when “saboteurs” went on a violent rampage, torching banks and gas stations, while assailants targeted police and security forces.

Mousavi said Monday, “We recognize the right to peaceful assembly. In recent years, similar incidents have happened where people had certain grievances and were able to express them.”

“However, more unsavory than the recent events was the meddling of foreign countries which we condemn, because Iran regards protests as the right of the people and this is stipulated in the Constitution,” he added.

Mousavi said Iran makes a distinction between peaceful protesters and armed groups which have taken advantage of the situation to cause mayhem.

Most countries involved in the unrest did so willingly, for which they should accept responsibility, he said, adding terrorist groups also engaged in certain acts which the judiciary and security agencies are investigating.

Mousavi also took aim at Pompeo asking Iranian protesters to send the US any photos or videos of violent protests, with a pledge to use the evidence as the basis for new sanctions.

“I am surprised by certain countries whose foreign secretary and foreign policy spokesman has come to such a low as to ask for videos and pictures from riots and arson,” he said.

Pompeo made the request on Thursday night on Twitter, in both Farsi and English, directing protesters to a “secure messaging service” to send any documentation of protests.

Mousavi said rallies planned in Tehran on Monday would show the world who the “real” Iranians are.

“I recommend they (foreign countries) look at the marches held these days… to see who the real people in Iran are and what they are saying,” he said.

Mousavi explained that Iran recognizes free access to information as a right, and that the Internet shutdown during the riots was only meant to safeguard national security, adding that connectivity to the worldwide web was restored nationwide after recent unrest calms.

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Iraq ongoing protests takes new lives

reporter 1222 — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 10:22:15 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Reports of clashes in Baghdad and southern Iraq indicate that at least seven people were killed and dozens wounded in the latest spate of ongoing protests against economic hardships and corruption, police and medical sources said Sunday.

In the southern town of Nasiriyah in Iraq, security forces clashed with demonstrators and used tear gas canisters to disperse protesters who had gathered overnight on three bridges amid ongoing protests, Reuters reported.

Police and health officials said three people were killed, and hospital sources said another person died later from bullet wounds to his head.

More than 50 others were injured in clashes in the city, they added.

Two people were killed and over 70 wounded when security forces tried to disperse protesters near the country’s main Persian Gulf port of Umm Qasr near Basra, police and medical sources said.

The protesters had gathered to demand security forces open roads around the port town. Authorities have blocked the roads to try to prevent protesters from reaching the port’s entrance.

Umm Qasr is Iraq’s largest commodities port, taking in grain, vegetable oils and sugar shipments that feed a country largely dependent on imported food.

In Baghdad, one protester was killed during overnight demonstrations in Al-Rasheed Street in the city center when police fired shots to disperse protesters, police and medical sources said.

Protests flared anew on Sunday on the street when security forces clashed with protestors to prevent them from trying to reach the road leading to Iraq’s Central Bank. At least 15 protesters were wounded, police and medical sources said.

At least 330 people have been killed since the start of mass unrest in Baghdad and southern Iraq in early October, the largest demonstrations since the fall of ex-dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Protesters are demanding action against corruption while many Iraqis languish in poverty without jobs, healthcare or education.

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