Tehran, 02 January (H.S.): At least six people lost their lives Thursday in clashes during economic protests that erupted in Iran's rural southwestern provinces, signaling a potential escalation as demonstrations spread beyond Tehran despite government pleas for dialogue. The fatalities—one Wednesday, five Thursday—occurred in Lur ethnic strongholds Azna, Lordegan, and Kouhdasht, amid a currency collapse that has driven year-end inflation to 42.2 percent and the rial to a record 1.4 million per US dollar.

Protests swell from bazaars to provinces

Ignited Sunday by shopkeepers' strikes at Tehran's Grand Bazaar and Alaeddin market over the rial's 50 percent 2025 plunge, the unrest entered day five Thursday, fanning to Isfahan, Shiraz, Kermanshah, Yazd, Hamedan, and Qom with chants of Shameless! and Death to the dictator.

Videos geolocated by outlets showed burning barricades, stone-throwing crowds torching banks and governor's offices, met by tear gas and gunfire from Basij militias and police.

President Masoud Pezeshkian urged Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to heed legitimate demands via talks, while spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani pledged mechanisms for union-merchant dialogue, but crackdowns intensified.

Deadliest flashpoints: Azna, Lordegan, KouhdashtIn Azna, Lorestan province—300 km southwest of Tehran—Fars News Agency reported three deaths amid infernos and gunfire echoes; pro-reform media cited the figure without state TV confirmation, amid journalist arrest fears echoing 2022. Lordegan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari (470 km south), saw two protester fatalities per Abdorrahman Boroumand Center and Fars, with shotgun-armed officers in body armor; the site recalls 2019 HIV scandal riots.

Wednesday's Kouhdasht (400 km southwest) killing—one Basij volunteer martyred by rioters, 13 security personnel injured—drew Lorestan deputy governor Saeed Pourali's call to address livelihood concerns without profit-seekers hijacking.

Regime strains under sanctions, war scars

Reformist Pezeshkian admits limited leverage as US sanctions and June 2025 Israeli-US strikes on nuclear sites gut oil revenues, halting uranium enrichment in de-escalation bids yet to yield talks.

Central bank chief Mohammad-Reza Farzin resigned Monday amid liberalization blamed for black-market chaos; Wednesday's holiday cited cold weather to empty Tehran streets. Though dwarfing 2022 Mahsa Amini fury, protests evoke 2019 fuel riots, with arrests of 20 in Kouhdasht, seven monarchists, and seizures of 100 smuggled pistols. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, reeling from war, faces anti-theocracy slogans as food prices soar 72 percent.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar