Iran president urges security forces not to target protesters

TEHRAN

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian on Jan. 7 ordered security forces not to crack down on economic protests, drawing a distinction between peaceful demonstrators and armed "rioters.”

In a video released by the news agency Mehr after a cabinet meeting, Vice President Mohammad Jafar Ghaempanah said Pezeshkian had "ordered that no security measures be taken against the demonstrators.”

"Those who carry firearms, knives and machetes and who attack police stations and military sites are rioters, and we must distinguish protesters from rioters," Ghaempanah added.

Meanwhile, Iran's army chief threatened preemptive military action on Jan. 7 over the “rhetoric” targeting the Islamic Republic, likely referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's warning that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” America “will come to their rescue."

The comments by Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami come as Iran tries to respond to what it sees as a dual threat posed by Israel and the United States, as well as the protests sparked by its economic woes that have grown into a direct challenge to its theocracy.

Iranian officials including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have been responding to Trump's comments, which took on more significance after the U.S. military raid that seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro , a longtime ally of Tehran, over the weekend. But there's been no immediate public sign of Iran preparing for an attack in the region.

Seeking to halt the anger, Iran's government began on Jan. 7 paying the equivalent of $7 a month to subsidize rising costs for dinner-table essentials like rice, meat and pastas.

Shopkeepers warn prices for items as basic as cooking oil likely will triple under pressure from the collapse of Iran's rial currency and the end of a preferential subsidized dollar-rial exchange rate for importers and manufacturers — likely fueling further popular anger.