New clashes in Iran as protests enter second week

PARIS, Jan 5: New deadly clashes between protesters and security forces erupted in Iran, rights groups and local media said Sunday, as demonstrations first sparked by anger over the rising cost of living entered a second week.

At least 12 people, including members of the security forces, have been killed since the protests kicked off with a shopkeepers' strike in Tehran on December 28, according to a toll based on official reports.

Overnight, protests featuring slogans criticising the Islamic republic's clerical authorities were reported in Tehran, Shiraz in the south, and in areas of western Iran where the movement has been concentrated, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) monitor.

The latest protests have been concentrated in parts of the west with large populations of the Kurdish and Lor minorities, and have yet to reach the scale of the 2022-2023 movement, let alone the mass street demonstrations that followed disputed 2009 presidential elections.

But they do present a new challenge for supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- 86, and in power since 1989 -- coming on the heels of a 12-day war with Israel in June that saw nuclear infrastructure damaged and key members of the security elite killed.

"We're watching it very closely. If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they're going to get hit very hard by the United States," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One -- a day after the American operation to capture Tehran's ally Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Meanwhile, Iran will offer no leniency to "rioters", though the public has a right to demonstrate, the head of the country's judiciary said on Monday, following more than a week of sometimes-deadly protests.

The remarks came after US President Donald Trump warned Iran would "get hit very hard by the United States" if the authorities killed more demonstrators.

The protests began on December 28 when shopkeepers in Tehran staged a strike over high prices and economic stagnation, but they have since spread to other places and expanded to include political demands.    �"AFP