Iran is prepared for ‘psychological, economic, political war’ with US
SUMMARY
President Hassan Rohani has reassured Iranians that his government will offset the economic pressure of upcoming U.S. sanctions, a day after protests fueled by concern over a sharp fall in the value of the country's currency.
In a speech broadcast live on state television on June 26, 2018, Rohani said that government revenues had not decreased in recent months, and blamed the fall in the value of the rial on "foreign media propaganda."
On June 25, 2018, protesters gathered outside parliament after swarming Tehran's Grand Bazaar. It was the first such protest was the first since similar demonstrations were held throughout the country at the beginning of 2018.
Iran's semiofficial ISNA news agency reported June 26, 2018, that many of the protesters, which it referred to as rioters, had been detained the previous day. It did not give any numbers.
The Fars news agency and other local media reported a strike was under way for a second day on June 26, 2018, in some sections of the Grand Bazaar, and demonstrators were shouting antigovernment slogans in surrounding streets.
Some reports said that many shopkeepers closed their doors in anticipation of further unrest. The reports of a strike and shop closing could not immediately be independently verified.
