Iran’s president urges dialogue as currency plunge sparks protests
Anger over Iran’s worsening economic situation pushes people onto the streets in Tehran and other cities
Iran’s president urged his government to listen to the “legitimate demands” of protesters, state media reported Tuesday, after several days of demonstrations by shopkeepers in Tehran over economic hardships.
Shopkeepers in the capital had shut their stores for the second day in a row on Monday, after Iran’s embattled currency hit new lows on the unofficial market.
The US dollar was trading at around 1.42 million rials on Sunday - compared to 820,000 rials a year ago - and the euro nearing 1.7 million rials, according to price monitoring websites.
“I have asked the Interior Minister to listen to the legitimate demands of the protesters by engaging in dialogue with their representatives so that the government can do everything in its power to resolve the problems and act responsibly,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
Protesters “are demanding immediate government intervention to rein in exchange-rate fluctuations and set out a clear economic strategy”, the pro-labour news agency ILNA reported Monday.