The Guardian:

Patrick Wintour
Diplomatic Editor

The Iranian government is attempting risky economic concessions as it tries to meet the escalating demands of protesters seeking fundamental political change, a clampdown on corruption and an easing of the squeeze on living standards of the poor.

Now entering their ninth day, the protests have spread to 27 of Iran’s 31 provinces, with a human rights group claiming that the death toll has passed 35 with more than 1,200 arrested.

The figure came from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been tracking the ongoing protests. It said 29 protesters, four children and two members of Iran’s security forces have been killed.

The semiofficial Fars news agency reported late Monday that some 250 police officers and 45 members of the Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force have been hurt in the demonstrations.

A switch in the system of foreign exchange subsidies announced by Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, may lead to a short-term rise in food prices, but is intended to be ameliorated by a new system of direct subsidies to consumers. Previously the subsidies were given to those importing products from abroad through exchange rate subsidies. But the decade-old system was wide open for corruption and leakage.

Official figures released on Monday showed that inflation had reached 52.6% in December. Inflation, and a collapse in the value of the rial, led to the protests that began in Tehran’s bazaar, but have now spread to more than 100 towns and cities, including many smaller towns. Police were seen entering the University of Birjand in the south-east of Iran, arresting students inside one of the largest universities in the east of Iran.

The promise of economic reforms were made as the head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, said the period of “concessions and appeasement” to the protesters were over. Ejei accused the United States and Israel of openly and officially supporting the “chaos” in Iran and said that because of this support, “the rioters should know that if concessions were made in previous periods, there will be no more such concessions and appeasements”.

Donald Trump again vowed the US would come to the defence of the protesters if they were attacked, vowing that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters” the US “will come to their rescue”. The Iranian foreign ministry accused Trump of “psychological warfare” on the Iranian people.

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