Two people killed as Iran protests spread to west
TEHERAN — Two people were killed overnight in western Iran in anti-government protests, Iran’s Labor News Agency reported on Sunday. The announcement was made by Hbibollah Khojasteh Pour, deputy governor of Iran’s Lorestan Province.
Khojasteh Pour said that the two people were killed in Dorood, a city in Lorestan province, following the protest demonstrations in the city.
He blamed foreign intelligence agencies for flaring up of the peaceful protest gathering of the people.
Over the past two days, anti-government protests erupted in some Iranian major cities and in a number of cases they turned into violence and clash between people and police.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned US “interference” in the country’s internal affairs.
In a statement on Saturday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that “meddling” remarks of the US president and his support for recent protests in some Iranian cities were “opportunistic and deceitful”.
On Friday, protests erupted in some Iranian major cities over the government’s potential move to raise the prices of some basic commodities including fuel and bread.
In the capital Teheran, the holy cities of Mashhad and Qom, as well as Isfahan and Qazvin, people took to the streets to protest the mishandling of economy by President Hassan Rouhani’s administration.
The videos posted on social media showed police trying to disperse the crowd by using tear gas and water cannons.
“The great Iranian nation regards the opportunist and duplicitous support of the US officials for certain gatherings in some Iranian cities as nothing but the deceit and hypocrisy of the US administration,” Press TV quoted Qasemi as saying.
In a tweet on Friday, US President Donald Trump made remarks about the recent gatherings in protest against economic conditions in Iran, and said the Iranian government should “respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching!”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said Trump’s remarks and his support for recent protests ... were “opportunistic and deceitful.”