Meeting Challenges
Head-On

Iran has had a chequered history from the times of the ancient Persian Empire. The turmoil has continued to the post-revolution present-day Iran. The country has faced immense challenges in recent times, due to its ongoing tussle with the United States and the Middle Eastern Arab-monarchies. Recently, a wave of violent protests spread like wildfire after a fuel price hike was announced. These demonstrations are believed to be the largest uprisings since the 1979 revolution which overthrew the Shah of Iran. The November protests resulted in the loss of dozens of lives, thousands injured and public and private properties damaged. These agitations were also fueled by the foreign opponents of Iran to bring the Iranian regime to its toes.

Iran has a bitter past. As the country has been under international sanctions due to its development of a nuclear programme, the economic growth rate has slowed down to a historic low which has put severe pressure on the population. Successful negotiations and inking of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) back in 2015 gave rise to hope that the sufferings of the Iranian people would be relieved, and a confrontational atmosphere will come to an end. Nonetheless, as President Trump took oath, he vowed to unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA alleging that Tehran did not comply with the agreement. Although other members of the P5+1 were satisfied with the Iranian side, President Trump withdrew through a presidential order followed by more economic sanctions against Iran. Besides, there was a naval blockade and the US and its allies were standing eyeball to eyeball against Iran for some days. It was feared that this brinkmanship might spiral out of control and turn into a full-blown war. Apparently, it was aimed at bringing the Iranian economy to near standstill, so that internal anarchy might erupt and a regime change could be realized without direct intervention.

The roots of the recent discontent can be traced to the economic woes of the Iranian citizens. The Rouhani government increased fuel prices to 15,000 rials per litre; earlier it was 10,000 rials for the first 60 liters per month and each additional litre after that would be charged 30,000 rials. That amount was to be diverted as cash handouts to the poorest citizens. Despite one of the lowest fuel prices even after the recent increase, people came into the streets of around 100 cities against the fuel price hike. Drivers left their vehicles on the roads and participated in the demonstrations. According to Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli “as many as 200,000 people took part in the protests and 731 banks, 70 petrol stations and 140 government sites were set ablaze. More than 50 security bases were also attacked”.

In response, the regime resorted to ruthless force in an attempt to curb the widespread protests. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dubbed the violent protestors as “thugs” and labelled them as counter-revolutionaries while President Hassan Rouhani said, “anarchy and rioting will not be tolerated”. As per estimates, more than 200 fatalities had occurred and 800 persons had been injured. Nevertheless, US sources claimed the casualties could be around 1000. The government imposed a weeklong internet blackout in order to restrict information-sharing related to the gory incidents that boccurred during the clampdown against the demonstrators.