Iran’s prosecutor general said on Wednesday, December 31st, that economic protests that had gripped the country were legitimate, but any attempt to create insecurity would be met with a “decisive response.”
“Peaceful livelihood protests are part of social and understandable realities,” Mohammad Movahedi-Azad told state media.
“Any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of insecurity, destruction of public property, or implementation of externally designed scenarios will inevitably be met with a legal, proportionate, and decisive response.”
Protests that began on Sunday with Tehran shopkeepers rallying against Iran’s worsening economy have spread to other cities, drawing in students as well.
Israel’s Mossad spy agency issued a direct call urging Iranians to press on with protests, saying it was supporting them “on the ground.”
“Go out into the streets together. The time has come. We are with you,” Mossad wrote in a post on its Farsi-language X account.
The appeal also came after talks this week between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, following which Trump warned Iran of fresh strikes if it rebuilt its nuclear or ballistic missile programmes.
