ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – At least 20 people were arrested after taking part in an International Workers’ Day protest outside the Iranian parliament in Tehran on Wednesday while an influential cleric backed their outcry against rising prices as US sanctions plunge the country into economic crisis. With chants of “Inflation has devastated the people!” and “Bread, employment and freedom are our rights!” a crowd of about 500 protested outside of the parliament on May 1, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran. The demonstration was “violently repressed” by police and plainclothes security agents who arrested a prominent trade unionist, Reza Shahabi, and at least 20 others, the US-based rights monitor reported. Inflation in Iran is projected to reach 37.2 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, while GDP shrinks by six percent. The economic crisis was triggered by Washington’s sanctions, imposed after US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal last May. The financial crunch has stoked public discontent. An influential cleric on Wednesday acknowledged Iran has a serious economic problem and urged the government to tackle the high prices and illegal trade. “Both the government and the people have a role in these high prices,” said Ayatollah Mekaram Shirazi, as reported by Tasnim news. The government must combat inflation and judicial officials must end illegal trade and crackdown on those exploiting inflation in the money exchange markets, he said. The traders are not working alone, but have help by people in government, he added. Shirazi called on Ebrahim Raisi, head of the judiciary, to confront the problem, saying the people need to see the guilty put on trial. The Iranian government, which saw an economic boon when the nuclear deal was implemented and the US lifted sanctions in 2015, has said that banning foreign imports and boosting domestic production will ensure the country can weather the new round of sanctions. “We need to increase production and minimise smuggling,” President Hassan Rouhani said in Kermanshah province on Wednesday. “Today, increasing exports and boosting production is a great national responsibility for all of us.” “America has made problems for us with its economic pressures,” he acknowledged, “but it is politically isolated.” US officials like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, have raised the possibility of war with Iran – drawing swift rebuke for doing so. “I can tell you explicitly, you have not been given power or authority by Congress to have war with Iran,” Senator Rand Paul told Pompeo at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, however, said on Wednesday that the whole country must be on alert for a possible American offensive. “Every one of the people and the officials must prepare themselves for this aggression and wherever they are, they must take responsibility and enter the battlefield,” he told a meeting of educators. “The enemy has made a confrontation arrangement in the realms of politics, economics, and cyberspace. Apparently, they have not made a military confrontation arrangement yet. However, our armed forces are of course vigilant.” “In the face of this confrontation arrangement, the nation has to go into make a confrontation arrangement too, and the most important thing to do is to stay united. Everyone make sure not to confront one another for differences of opinion, because the power of this nation and what gives this country sovereignty is unity.”
