Tear gas fired at protesters at Iranian parliament

PROTESTERS angered by Iran’s faltering economy confronted police in front of parliament yesterday, with security forces firing tear gas at them.

The demonstration – documented in online videos – was the first such confrontation since similar protests rocked the country at the start of the year.

It came a day after protests forced the closure of two major shopping centres in Tehran and after demonstrators earlier closed its Grand Bazaar.

The protests signalled widespread unease in the wake of the decision by Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from Tehran’s nuclear deal and restore sanctions. It was not immediately clear who led the protests.

Fars, ISNA and Tasnim, Iran’s semiofficial news agencies, said the protests at the Grand Bazaar erupted after the Iranian rial dropped to 90,000 to the dollar on the black market, despite government attempts to control the currency rate.

Videos shared by Iranians appeared to show a crowd confronting police at the country’s parliament, just over a mile from the Grand Bazaar.

The videos showed tear gas in the air and protesters screaming, “They attacked us with tear gas!” Other videos appeared to show police charging into the crowd.