Iranian President Admits to Losing Control Over Protests

So far, 35 people have been killed during protests, including four children, and 1,200 demonstrators have been arrested. 

By Dinah Bucholz, Jewish Breaking News

President Masoud Pezeshkian confessed on television that the government can’t rein in the protesters. “We should not expect the government to handle all of this alone,” he said, because “the government simply does not have that capacity.” This is a stunning admission for a regime long known for its brutal crackdowns.

Yesterday’s protests at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, the backbone of Iran’s economy, threaten the foundation of Iran’s government and marks a new battleground in the escalating protests, coming as they did after the deaths of 35 people, including four children, as well as the detention of 1,200 protesters.

The shopkeepers had supported the 1979 revolution, so their unexpected participation in this round of protests, as well as the sit-in they staged on Tuesday, surprised and encouraged many, forcing riot police to deploy heavy amounts of tear gas. The closure of their shops shows that the crisis is deepening.

The unrest has reached new levels. After a funeral for slain protesters, mourners stormed three banks and caused considerable damage, the Fars news agency (a semi-official news outlet) reported. Others broke into a store and stole rice.

President Donald Trump issued a threat against Iran should they kill unarmed protesters, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu affirmed Israel’s support for the Iranian people. This provoked a backlash from Iranian leadership, who threatened a harsh response should any other country intervene. According to the Fars news agency, General Amir Hatami, Iran’s military chief, warned, “The Islamic Republic of Iran considers the escalation of hostile rhetoric against the Iranian nation a threat and will not tolerate its continuation without responding.”

The implosion of the rial currency, steep inflation, and decades of brutal repression combined with a terrible economy have all reached a boiling point.

To ameliorate the situation, the Central Bank of Iran lowered the dollar exchange rate, but this will only cause the prices of basic goods, already prohibitively expensive, to skyrocket further, merchants warned.

This is pushing Iranian citizens to greater desperation. The shopkeepers, who had always been considered reliable supporters of the regime, can no longer tolerate a climax of mismanagement that has been years in the making.