Iran to unleash 'decisive' response if economic protests destabilise country, prosecutor says

Iran's prosecutor general said on Wednesday that economic protests that had gripped the country were legitimate, but any attempt to create insecurity would be met with a "decisive response".

"Peaceful livelihood protests are part of social and understandable realities," Mohammad Movahedi-Azad told state media.

"Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate and decisive response."

Several people attacked and damaged a provincial governor's office in southern Iran on Wednesday, according to authorities quoted by the justice ministry's Mizan agency, after days of protests over the economy.

"A portion of the provincial governors' office door and its glass were destroyed in an attack by a number of people," said Hamed Ostovar, the head of Fasa city's judiciary, as quoted by Mizan, without specifying how the attack was carried out. The attack came after the prosecutor general's statement.

Fasa is located 780 kilometers south of the capital Tehran, where a spontaneous movement against the high cost of living broke out on Sunday among shopkeepers before spreading to some universities.

The Iranian rial has dropped against the dollar and other world currencies, forcing up import prices and hurting retail traders.

When the protests erupted on Sunday, the US dollar was trading at around 1.42 million rials, compared to 820,000 rials a year ago.

In December, inflation stood at 52 percent year-on-year, according to official statistics. But this figure still falls far short of many price increases, especially for basic necessities.

The country's economy, already battered by decades of severe Western sanctions, was further strained after the United Nations in late September reinstated international sanctions linked to the country's nuclear programme that were lifted 10 years ago.

President Masoud Pezeshkian – who has less authority under Iran's system of government than supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – met Tuesday with labour leaders and made proposals to tackle the economic crisis, according to press agency Mehr.

"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," he said in a social media post.

Iran's central bank chief resigns amid protests, currency turmoil

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According to state television, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, also called for "necessary measures focused on increasing people's purchasing power" but warned against foreign agents and government opponents attempting to exploit the protests.

On Monday, the government announced the replacement of the central bank governor with former economy and finance minister Abdolnasser Hemmati.

Israel's Mossad spy agency on Wednesday issued a direct call urging Iranians to press on with protests, saying it was supporting them "on the ground" as demonstrations spread in capital Tehran and other Iranian cities.

"Go out into the streets together. The time has come. We are with you," Mossad wrote in a post on its Farsi-language X account, Israel's army radio reported on Wednesday.

"Not just from a distance or through words. We are also with you on the ground."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)