Shortage of water leads to clashes in Iranian city

dubai — Iran called for calm on Sunday after protests in a southern city over water shortages turned violent on Saturday night with reports of police shooting at demonstrators who attacked banks and public buildings.

“No one has been killed in the unrest and just one person has been wounded in a shooting,” said Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, quoted by the state news agency Irna.

“Our effort is to bring these protests to an end as soon as possible with restraint from police and the cooperation of authorities, but if the opposite happens, the judiciary and law enforcement forces will carry out their duties,” Rahmani Fazli was quoted as saying.

Shots could be heard on videos circulated on social media from the protests in Khorramshahr, which has been the scene of demonstrations for the past three days, along with the nearby city of Abadan. The videos could not be authenticated by Reuters.

dubai — Gunfire erupted as Iranian security forces confronted protesters early on Sunday amid demonstrations over water scarcity in the country’s south, though authorities said only one person was wounded in the clashes.

The protests around Khorramshahr, some 650 kilometres southwest of Tehran, come as residents of the predominantly Arab city near the border with Iraq complain of salty, muddy water coming out of their taps amid a yearslong drought.

The unrest there only compounds the wider unease felt across Iran as it faces an economic crisis sparked by President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. Protests began in Khorramshahr, Abadan and other areas of Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province on Friday. The demonstrations initially were peaceful, with protesters chanting in both Arabic and Farsi.

But late on Saturday and into early Sunday morning, protesters began throwing stones and confronting security forces in Khorramshahr, according to widely shared online videos. State television aired images of rocks and broken glass covering sidewalks, as well as smashed ATMs. Women and children fled as gunfire echoed.

Heavy machine gun fire could be heard in one video showing demonstrators dragging away a man who couldn’t walk. Another video appeared to show a man carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle on the back of a motorcycle near protesters.

State TV reported that “peace had returned” to Khorramshahr and an unspecified number of protesters had been arrested. It said some demonstrators carried firearms during the unrest. It’s unclear what sparked the violence. Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told journalists on Sunday there had been no deaths, and just one person wounded.

“Such protests are directed by the propaganda of opportunists from places and people that are recognised by us as foes,” Fazli said. Khorramshahr and Khuzestan province have seen pipeline bombings by separatists in the past. Tens of thousands of civilians and sol-

diers were killed in the province during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. Exacerbating that unrest is the drought. The Iran Meteorological Organisation estimates 97 per cent of the country faced some form of drought. Analysts also blame government mismanagement for diverting water away from some

farmers in favour of others. “Although Iran has a history of drought, over the last decade, Iran has experienced its most prolonged, extensive and severe drought in over 30 years,” said a recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, a United Nations agency. —