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Fresh Clashes Kill Six in Iran Cost-of-Living Protests

An Iranian woman walks with her shopping bag in a street in Tehran, Iran, 31 December 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian woman walks with her shopping bag in a street in Tehran, Iran, 31 December 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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Fresh Clashes Kill Six in Iran Cost-of-Living Protests

An Iranian woman walks with her shopping bag in a street in Tehran, Iran, 31 December 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
An Iranian woman walks with her shopping bag in a street in Tehran, Iran, 31 December 2025. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Protesters and security forces clashed in three Iranian cities on Thursday, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the cost-of-living demonstrations broke out. 

The protests began on Sunday in Tehran, where shopkeepers went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation, and have since spread to other parts of the country. 

On Thursday, Iran's Fars news agency reported two people killed in clashes between security forces and protesters in the city of Lordegan, in the province of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, and three in Azna, in neighboring Lorestan province. 

"Some protesters began throwing stones at the city's administrative buildings, including the provincial governor's office, the mosque, the Martyrs' Foundation, the town hall and banks," Fars said of Lordegan, adding police responded with tear gas. 

Fars reported that the buildings were "severely damaged" and that police arrested several people described as "ringleaders". 

In Azna, Fars said "rioters took advantage of a protest gathering... to attack a police commissariat". 

During previous protest movements, state media has labelled demonstrators "rioters". 

Earlier Thursday, state television reported that a member of Iran's security forces was killed overnight during protests in the western city of Kouhdasht. 

"A 21-year-old member of the Basij from the city of Kouhdasht was killed last night by rioters while defending public order," the channel said, citing Said Pourali, the deputy governor of Lorestan Province. 

The Basij are a volunteer paramilitary force linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the country. 

Pourali said that "during the demonstrations in Kouhdasht, 13 police officers and Basij members were injured by stone throwing". 

- 'End up in hell' - 

The demonstrations are smaller than the last major outbreak of unrest in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women. 

Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces. 

The latest protests began peacefully in the capital and spread after students from at least 10 universities joined in on Tuesday. 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has sought to calm tensions, acknowledging protesters' "legitimate demands", and called on the government Thursday to take action to improve the economic situation. 

"From an Islamic perspective... if we do not resolve the issue of people's livelihoods, we will end up in hell," Pezeshkian said at an event broadcast on state television. 

Authorities, however, have also promised to take a "firm" stance, and have warned against exploiting the situation to sow chaos. 

Local media coverage of the demonstrations has varied, with some outlets focusing on economic difficulties, and others on incidents caused by "troublemakers". 

Iran is in the middle of an extended weekend, with the authorities declaring Wednesday a bank holiday at the last minute, citing the need to save energy during the cold weather. 

They made no official link to the protests. 

The weekend in Iran begins on Thursday, and Saturday is a long-standing national holiday. 

Iran's prosecutor general said on Wednesday that peaceful economic protests were legitimate, but any attempt to create insecurity would be met with a "decisive response". 

"Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate and decisive response." 

Earlier this week, a video showing a person sitting in the middle of a Tehran street facing down motorcycle police went viral on social media, with some seeing it as a "Tiananmen moment" -- a reference to a famous image of a Chinese protester defying a column of tanks during 1989 anti-government protests in Beijing. 

On Thursday, state television alleged the footage had been staged to "create a symbol" and aired another video purportedly shot from another angle by a police officer's camera. 

Sitting cross-legged, the protester remains impassive, head bowed, before covering his head with his jacket as behind him a crowd flees clouds of tear gas. 

On Wednesday evening, the Tasnim news agency reported the arrest of seven people it described as being affiliated with "groups hostile to the republic based in the United States and Europe". 

It said they had been "tasked with turning the demonstrations into violence". Tasnim did not say when they were arrested. 

The national currency, the rial, has lost more than a third of its value against the US dollar over the past year, while double-digit hyperinflation has been undermining Iranians' purchasing power for years. 

The inflation rate in December was 52 percent year-on-year, according to the Statistical Center of Iran, an official body. 

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World

Iran Police Chief Says Anti-Government Protesters Treated as ‘Enemies’

People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP)
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Iran Police Chief Says Anti-Government Protesters Treated as ‘Enemies’

People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty Tajrish traditional bazaar in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP)

Iranian protesters will be treated as enemies if they support Tehran's foes, the country's top police officer warned, as the Middle East war sparked fears mass anti-government rallies could reignite.

"If anyone comes forward in line with the wishes of the enemy, we will no longer see them as merely a protester, we will see them as an enemy," said national police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan in comments aired by state broadcaster IRIB late on Tuesday.

"And we will do to them what we do to an enemy. We will deal with them in the same way we deal with enemies," he added.

"All our forces are also ready, with their hands on the trigger, prepared to defend their revolution."

His warning comes after the government cracked down on anti-government protests in January, sparked a month before over economic grievances in the sanctions-hit country.

The authorities deemed the protests to be "riots" and Radan at one point issued an ultimatum to protesters to hand themselves in or face the full force of the law.

Iranian authorities acknowledge more than 3,000 deaths in the unrest, including members of the security forces and bystanders, but say the violence was caused by "terrorist acts" fueled by Iran's enemies.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), however, has recorded more than 7,000 killings in the crackdown, the vast majority protesters, though the toll may be far higher. More than 50,000 have been arrested, it says.

US President Donald Trump had initially cheered on the protesters, threatening to intervene on their behalf as authorities launched a deadly crackdown, but his threats soon shifted to Iran's nuclear program.

Washington launched strikes with Israel on Iran on February 28, sparking retaliatory strikes by Tehran against Israel and US bases across the Gulf region.

World

UN Warns Hormuz Standstill Will Hit World’s Most Vulnerable

The Parnassos crude oil tanker sits anchored as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)
The Parnassos crude oil tanker sits anchored as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Warns Hormuz Standstill Will Hit World’s Most Vulnerable

The Parnassos crude oil tanker sits anchored as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)
The Parnassos crude oil tanker sits anchored as the traffic is down in the Strait of Hormuz, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Muscat, Oman, March 10, 2026. (Reuters)

The standstill in the Strait of Hormuz caused by the Middle East war could hammer some of the world's most vulnerable people, the United Nations warned Tuesday.

The strait is the only sea passage from the Gulf towards the Indian Ocean, through which nearly a quarter of the world's seaborne oil supplies pass, as well as a significant amount of cargo.

Iran has all but blocked the waterway following the launch of the February 28 US-Israeli airstrikes on the country that triggered the war.

"The current shock comes at a time when many developing economies struggle to service their debt, face a tightening of fiscal space and limited capacity to absorb new price shocks," the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD said.

"Higher energy, fertilizer and transport costs -- including freight rates, bunker fuel prices and insurance premiums -- may increase food costs and intensify cost-of-living pressures, particularly for the most vulnerable," it said.

UNCTAD added that, in terms of seaborne trade volume, in the week before the conflict 38 percent of crude oil, 29 percent of liquified petroleum gas, 19 percent of liquified natural gas and 19 percent refined oil products went through the strait.

But while an average of 129 ships transited daily through the passage between February 1 and 27, that number dropped to just three on March 3.

UNCTAD said the disruptions underscored the vulnerability of critical maritime chokepoints and their potential for disruption to them to send shocks across supply chains and commodity markets.

"Rising energy, transport and food costs could strain public finances and increase pressure on household budgets, potentially heightening economic and social pressures... particularly in economies heavily dependent on imported energy, fertilizers and staple foods," it said.

- Food aid hit -

UN rights chief Volker Turk echoed the alarm for the effect the plunge in commercial shipping activity could have, "particularly for the world's most vulnerable".

"The impact of an oil price surge will have a knock-on effect for macro-economic and social stability in many countries, particularly those already experiencing debt distress," he said.

The UN's World Food Program said the costs and time lost to the Strait of Hormuz disruptions were already impacting its humanitarian operations.

"This is nothing less than another seminal moment in global supply chain history," Jean-Martin Bauer, the director of WFP's food and nutrition analysis service, told reporters in Geneva.

Speaking from the WFP's Rome headquarters, he said shipping lines were diverting services and adding surcharges, leading to congestion "in places that are very far from Hormuz".

"We're seeing congestion in Asia. It's quite a severe disruption that's taking place right now," Bauer said.

"We're needing to go the long way around the Cape of Good Hope to reach some of our key geographies."

WFP's biggest operation is in Sudan, but now it is facing approximately 25 days of additional shipping time.

"It's basically 50 percent more than we would usually have. So that's really extending the supply chain and adding to cost," said Bauer.

World

Israel Says Iran Hacked Security Cameras

People exercise on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 March 2026. (EPA)
People exercise on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 March 2026. (EPA)
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Israel Says Iran Hacked Security Cameras

People exercise on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 March 2026. (EPA)
People exercise on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel, 10 March 2026. (EPA)

Israel's cybersecurity directorate said it had identified "dozens of Iranian breaches into security cameras for espionage purposes" since the start of the war in the Middle East, urging the public to be vigilant.

"The directorate is working to alert hundreds of camera owners and calls on the public to change their passwords and update their software to prevent any security risk, whether national or personal," Cyber Israel wrote on X Monday.

Cyberattacks between Iran and Israel have been a frequent occurrence in recent years, as the two foes conducted a shadow war that culminated in open conflict last June and again on February 28.

In December 2025, former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett -- who is set to run against incumbent premier Benjamin Netanyahu in a general election this year -- said he had been the victim of a cyberattack targeting his Telegram account, after hackers claimed to have broken into his phone.

Private messages, videos and photographs said to be taken from Bennett's phone were published on a hacker site named after "Handala", a character symbolizing the Palestinian cause, and on an associated X account.

Iran-linked hackers have stepped up their operations in the region since strikes began on the country, an expert told AFP.

Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point said in a report that since the launch of the US-Israeli offensive on February 28, it has seen hackers accessing surveillance cameras, which are widely used but often poorly secured.

The images were likely used to assess damage caused by the attacks or "to gather the necessary information" on "the habits (of targeted individuals) or locations to hit", Gil Messing, head of cyberintelligence at Check Point, told AFP.

The hackers "are part of (Iran's) army" and "are largely supported by the state", notably by the Revolutionary Guards and the ministry of intelligence and security, he added.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that Israel had hacked nearly all of Tehran's traffic cameras for years in preparation for the operation that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the offensive.