Four dead in Iran fuel protest after government hikes pump prices up to 300 per cent

Four people were left dead in Iran following clashes between riot police and protesters in several Iranian cities after the government raised the price of petrol by up to 300 per cent.

The deaths occurred in separate incidents in the southern cities of Sirjan, Behbahan and Shiraz, while video footage showed protestors had attacked a military barracks used by the regime’s feared Bajis militias in Tehran, setting it on fire.

Thousands of angry motorists parked their vehicles on major thoroughfares and highways in protest at the price hikes, urging others to stop and “join the national anti-regime movement” as they drove by.

Iran’s chief public prosecutor, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, called the protestors “saboteurs” and warned they would face “severe punishment” if arrested. He has also alleged that foreign powers were behind the protests.

But in a sign of that the Rouhani government’s increasing political isolation over the decision, a leading establishment cleric Grand ayatollah Golpaygani called for the decision to be reversed, describing it as “a matter of great regret” and “deplorable”.

Video footage from the city of Shiraz showed protesters over-running a police station and setting banks on fire, while chanting “death to the dictator” against Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s Interior Minister Abdulreza Rahmani Fazli announced the sudden 300 percent increase in the price of gasoline last Friday, saying that it was a decision by the country’s High Council for Economic Coordination.

The aim was to generate revenue for the central government, which has lost billions of dollars of income from recently reimposed international sanctions on oil exports.

“The decision to raise the price of gasoline is aimed at creating social justice for more than 60 million Iranians, in particular the very low income families, fight fuel smuggling, reduce the amount of subsidies and strengthening our economic power,” the minister said.

The government has also cut petrol subsidies to thousands of poor people in a nation where many families make a living as informal taxi drivers.

Despite the subsidy cuts and price-rises, fuel in Iran still remains among the cheapest in the world thanks to the country having the fourth-largest oil reserves.

Iran affairs expert Dr. Reza Taghizadeh, formerly of Glasgow University, says the public reaction to the price rise has been inevitable, given the dire economic conditions of the country.

“It appears that the common element of these protests is exactly the same as what we are currently witnessing in Iraq, Lebanon and Chile and that is general poverty and the failure of their governments to provide the basic needs of populations.

“Although the trigger force in Iran is the rise of price of gasoline, the protests in more than 37 major cities are political and against a system of government that is corrupt, undemocratic and resists change”, he said.