Iran’s Pezeshkian pledges economic overhaul amid spiralling protests

President Masoud Pezeshkian has pledged to overhaul Iran’s struggling economy, saying his government is “ready to listen to its people” after two weeks of increasingly violent nationwide demonstrations.

Pezeshkian adopted a conciliatory approach during an interview on state television on Sunday, saying his embattled administration was determined to resolve the country’s economic problems while accusing the United States and Israel of fomenting deadly unrest.
He said the government’s duty is to solve problems, address people’s concerns, and not allow what he called “rioters” to disrupt the country, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

“Therefore, we ask families not to allow their youth to get involved in the unrest of terrorists and rioters,” he was quoted as saying.

“The enemy has brought trained terrorists into the country … Rioters are not protesting people. We hear the protesters and have made every effort to solve their problems,” the president also said.

He added: “Our goal is to distribute everything we have fairly among the people; regardless of what party, faction, ethnicity, race, or even province, dialect, or language these people belong to.”

The crisis erupted after the Iranian currency plummeted in late December after years of economic duress, triggering mass protests over soaring living costs and inflation. Those protests have since taken on a more political and anti-government nature.

The demonstrations are the largest in Iran since a 2022-2023 protest movement spurred by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.