Iran's Pezeshkian vows action on economy, warns against 'rioters'

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has pledged to address mounting economic grievances in the country, saying his government is “ready to listen” to protesters while also urging them to prevent “rioters” and “terrorist elements” from wreaking havoc.

Pezeshkian spoke about the unrest in an interview on state television on Sunday, as the demonstrations – which began when merchants at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar closed their shops over the Iranian rial’s sharp depreciation – entered a third week.

The Iranian president told the IRIB broadcaster that Israel and the United States were masterminding the destabilisation in the country, saying that “the same people that struck this country” during Israel’s 12-day war in June were “trying to escalate these unrests with regard to the economic discussion.”

“They have trained some people inside and outside the country; they have bought in some terrorists from outside,” Pezeshkian said, claiming the perpetrators had attacked a bazaar in the city of Rasht and set “mosques on fire”.

The Iranian president said the government had heard the shopkeepers’ concerns and would solve their problems “by any means necessary”.

But he urged the public not to allow “rioters” to disrupt the country.

“Rioters are not protesting people. We hear the protesters and have made every effort to solve their problems,” he said.

The protests, which have evolved from economic grievances into broader opposition against the Iranian government, are the largest in Iran since the 2022-2023 movement spurred by the custodial death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.

Death toll rises

State media reported that 109 security personnel have been killed during the latest unrest.

Opposition activists based outside the country say the death toll is higher and includes hundreds of protesters.

Al Jazeera cannot independently verify the figures.

Authorities on Sunday also declared three days of national mourning “in honour of martyrs killed in resistance against the United States and the Zionist regime”, according to state media.

Iran’s Ministry of Interior claimed the unrest is subsiding as the attorney general warned participants they could face capital punishment.

A nationwide internet blackout has persisted for more than 72 hours, according to monitoring groups.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday he was “shocked” by reports of violence against protesters in Iran and called on the government to show restraint.

“The rights to freedom of expression, association & peaceful assembly must be fully respected & protected,” he said on X.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said Iranian officials had spent the past week trying to draw a distinction between protesters and what they described as foreign-trained rioters.

Asadi added that senior officials had acknowledged public anger as justified, citing “soaring prices, high inflation and the drastic devaluation of the local currency that right now puts a huge amount of pressure on the pockets of local people.”

US tensions

The unrest in Iran is unfolding as US President Donald Trump pursues an assertive foreign policy, having abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and discussing acquiring Greenland by purchase or force.

Trump, who has pledged to “hit Iran where it hurts” if protesters are killed, was scheduled to meet with senior advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for Iran, a ⁠US official told the Reuters news agency.

The Wall Street Journal reported that options included military strikes, using secret cyberweapons, widening sanctions and providing online help to antigovernment sources.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf issued a stark warning.

“In the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories [Israel] as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” Ghalibaf told lawmakers, some of whom chanted anti-US slogans.

Iranian authorities also called for nationwide rallies on Monday to condemn “terrorist actions led by the United States and Israel”, according to state media. Pezeshkian urged participation in what state television characterised as a “national resistance march” against violence attributed to “urban terrorist criminals.”

Vali Nasr, professor of international affairs and Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University, said Iran’s leadership genuinely believes “it is deeply penetrated” by foreign-backed elements” that are able to operate in the country at will.

“Iranian leadership deep down thinks that the protests are part of America and Israel’s efforts to bring regime change in Iran,” he told Al Jazeera.

“This is happening in a context of war with Israel and the United States… The Iranian leadership is highly suspicious that the protests are being used by its adversaries to weaken or maybe topple the Islamic Republic. So this is not just a rhetoric that they’re giving to delegitimise the protesters.”

He added that Iran has no viable path to address the economic or security grievances.

“I don’t think Iran is going to be free of protests going forward. Blood has been shed. People are very angry. And the Islamic Republic really has no way in which it could either improve the economic situation or their security issues or address their other grievances,” he said.

“The key issue is whether the protesters can be in the streets in large enough numbers that can overwhelm the security forces. I don’t know the answer to that, because we’re still early in these protests, and also because it’s very difficult to get credible information out of Iran.”

Solidarity protests

Some US lawmakers meanwhile questioned the wisdom of taking military action against Iran.

“I don’t know that bombing Iran will have the effect that is intended,” Republican Senator Rand Paul said on ABC News’ This Week. Rather than undermining the ‍regime, a military ⁠attack on Iran could rally the people against an outside enemy, he said.

Democratic Senator Mark Warner agreed.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, he warned that a strike against Iran could risk uniting Iranians against the US “in a way that the regime has not been able to”.

Demonstrations supporting Iranian protesters took place in London, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin, and Istanbul.

In the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Westwood, a rental truck drove into a crowd of a few hundred people who were holding a rally in support of ‍the Iranian protesters, the KNBC news outlet reported on Sunday.

There was no immediate report of casualties.

Iran also summoned the United Kingdom’s ambassador on Sunday to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran over “interventionist comments” attributed to the UK foreign minister, as well as a protester removing the Iranian flag from the London Embassy building and replacing it with a style of ‌flag used prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution.