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Iran’s Supreme Leader Condemns Protesters as ‘Thugs’ Iran Blocks Nearly All Internet Access
(about 7 hours later)
TEHRAN, Iran — The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Sunday called angry protesters who have been setting fire to public property over an increase in gas prices “thugs,” signaling a potential crackdown on the demonstrations. Iran imposed an almost complete nationwide internet blackout on Sunday one of its most draconian attempts to cut off Iranians from each other and the rest of the world as widespread anti-government unrest roiled the streets of Tehran and other cities for a third day.
Ayatollah Khamenei backed the government’s decision to raise the government-set prices for gasoline by 50 percent as of Friday. Since the increase took effect, demonstrators have abandoned their cars along major highways and joined mass protests in two dozen cities, including Tehran, the capital. Some protests turned violent. The death toll for the three days of protests rose to at least 12; hundreds were injured; and more than 1,000 people have been arrested, according to semiofficial news agencies like Fars News.
The authorities have since shut down the internet across Iran to smother the protests. One firm said it was the biggest internet outage ever seen in Iran. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters, called the demonstrators “thugs” and endorsed the government’s decision to raise prices it sets for rationed gasoline by 50 percent as of Friday and by 300 percent for gasoline that exceeds ration limits. Even after the price hike, gasoline in Iran is still cheaper than in most of the rest of the world — now the equivalent of about 50 cents a gallon.
Though largely peaceful, the demonstrations devolved into violence in several instances, with online videos appearing to show police officers firing tear gas at protesters and mobs setting fires. In a speech on Sunday, Mr. Khamenei said he would support rationing and increasing gas prices because heads of three branches of government — the presidency, judiciary and parliament — had made the decision.
On Sunday, the Iranian authorities raised the official death toll to at least two. One police officer was killed in Kermanshah on Saturday as protesters attacked a police station, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Earlier, one man was reported killed. He acknowledged that Iranians had taken to the streets to protest and that some had died. But he blamed the protests on monarchists and opposition groups trying to destabilize Iran.
In an address broadcast by state television on Sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei said that “some lost their lives and some places were destroyed,” but he did not elaborate. He called violent protesters “thugs” who had been pushed into violence by counterrevolutionaries and foreign enemies of Iran. He specifically called out those aligned with the family of Iran’s late shah, ousted 40 years ago, and an exile group called Mujahedeen Khalq. The widespread discontent on display across the country marked yet another crisis for the Islamic Republic. Iran has been struggling with an economic crisis after the United States exited a nuclear deal and reimposed harsh sanctions that ban Iran’s oil sales.
“Setting a bank on fire is not an act done by the people,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “This is what thugs do.” In the past month, Iran has faced a fierce backlash in regional countries such as Lebanon and Iraq where protesters have called for an end to Iran’s outsized influence in their countries’ affairs. Now, the most powerful forces leading the country are being challenged on the home front.
He made a point, however, of backing the decision of President Hassan Rouhani and other officials to raise gasoline prices to a minimum of 15,000 rials per liter. Even with the increase, gasoline is among the cheapest in the world. It now costs 13 cents a liter, or about 50 cents a gallon. In the United States, a gallon of regular gasoline costs $2.60 on average. In the past, Iran has met such widespread protest movements with forceful crackdowns that have crushed dissent.
Ayatollah Khamenei ordered security forces “to implement their tasks” and urged citizens to keep clear of violent demonstrators. Mr. Khamenei’s support of the gas price hike effectively put an end to parliament’s attempt to challenge the decision, and lawmakers took back a bill they had introduced to reverse the new policy.
That seemed to signal a crackdown could be looming. Economic protests in late 2017 and early 2018 were met by a heavy reaction by the police and the Basij militia, the all-volunteer force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. But protests raged and criticism continued. At least two lawmakers resigned in opposition to parliament’s not being consulted. In the cities from Tehran to Shiraz in the south, Iranian protesters chanted, “Death to Khamenei.”
“Such illegal actions would not solve any problem but add insecurity on top of other problems,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “Lack of security is the biggest calamity for any country and society. That is what they are looking for.” Some analysts said Iran could not sustain the pressure from all directions and would have to make some concessions — either to its population or to the United States for new negotiations.
The protests have renewed pressure on the Iranian government as it struggles to overcome United States sanctions that are strangling the country’s economy. “The regime is facing a serious crisis and unless they concede someplace to relieve the pressures, the anger and the violence will continue,” said Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, an independent analyst based in New York.
While representing a political risk for Mr. Rouhani ahead of February parliamentary elections, the protests also show widespread anger among Iranians, who have seen their savings evaporate with high unemployment and the collapse of the national currency, the rial. The Trump administration on Sunday condemned the lethal use of force and the cutting of communications in Iran.
Cheap gasoline is practically considered a birthright in Iran, which has the world’s fourth-largest crude oil reserves. Mr. Rouhani had been pushing for months to increase prices to pay for social welfare programs. While the increase was expected eventually, the decision to raise gasoline prices practically overnight still caught many by surprise. “The U.S. supports the Iranian people in their peaceful protests against the regime that is supposed to lead them,” a statement from the White House press secretary said.
Iran also experienced wide disruptions and outages of internet service on Friday and Saturday, according to the group NetBlocks, which monitors worldwide internet access. By Saturday night, connectivity had fallen to just 7 percent of ordinary levels, NetBlocks said. Iranian activists on social media called for the United States to figure out a way to provide Iran with internet access. Human rights activists said they worried that without witness documentation of the violence, it would be difficult to hold Iran accountable for its crackdown.
The Associated Press reported that Iran also experienced wide disruptions and outages of internet service on Friday and Saturday, according to the group NetBlocks, which monitors worldwide internet access. By Saturday night, connectivity had fallen to just 7 percent of ordinary levels, NetBlocks said.
“The ongoing disruption is the most severe recorded in Iran since President Rouhani came to power, and the most severe disconnection tracked by NetBlocks in any country in terms of its technical complexity and breadth,” the group said. The internet firm Oracle called it “the largest internet shutdown ever observed in Iran.”“The ongoing disruption is the most severe recorded in Iran since President Rouhani came to power, and the most severe disconnection tracked by NetBlocks in any country in terms of its technical complexity and breadth,” the group said. The internet firm Oracle called it “the largest internet shutdown ever observed in Iran.”
The tensions in Iran came as weeks of antigovernment protests have engulfed Iraq and Lebanon, two nations that are crucial to Tehran’s influence abroad. Ahmad, a taxi driver in Tehran who did not want his last name used, said in telephone interview that when he tried to connect to the internet on his mobile phone, a recorded message said that because of a decision by the National Security Council, connectivity had been cut off.
Iran has suffered economic problems since the Islamic Revolution of 1979 cut off the country’s decades-long relationship with the United States. Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq in the 1980s followed, further straining its economy. WhatsApp and Instagram, both used widely by Iranians, were also blocked.
The collapse of the 2015 nuclear deal has exacerbated those problems. The Iranian rial, which traded at 32,000 to $1 at the time of the accord, fell to 122,600 to $1 in trading on Saturday. Over the past few months, Iran has begun breaking terms of the deal as it tries to force Europe to help it find a way to evade American sanctions. Fahimeh, an accountant, said she and her friends relied on WhatsApp to find out the location and time of protests, and in the absence of the internet, it would be difficult for Iranians to plan and spread the word.
The United States has said little so far about the protests. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Twitter late Saturday: “As I said to the people of Iran almost a year and a half ago: The United States is with you.” The Ministry of Information said Sunday that it had identified bad actors among protesters and warned that those responsible for unrest would be arrested.
In Dubai, the new American ambassador to the United Arab Emirates told The Associated Press that America was “not advocating regime change. We are going to let the Iranian people decide for themselves their future.” Intelligence agents on Sunday arrested Abdoleza Davari, a senior aide to Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a vocal critic of the gas price policy, according to his wife, Elham Salmani. Mr. Davari had posted a tweet a day earlier saying that the people have the right to demonstrate and that parliament must hear their concerns and stand up to the branches of the government imposing this policy.
“They are frustrated. They want freedom,” the ambassador, John Rakolta, said at the Dubai Airshow. “These developments that you see right now are their own people telling them, ‘We need change and to sit down with the American government.’” “They have failed to successfully counter freethinking with ideology so the only tool at their disposal is violence,” said Ms. Salmani, a journalist and political activist, in a telephone interview. She said the prosecutor’s office had threatened to arrest her as well and had accused her of hiding her husband’s mobile telephone and laptop computer.
Mostafa Tajzadeh, a prominent reformist politician, said on Twitter that if elected officials could not listen to the demands of the people, “they should resign and leave the country to its real rulers.”