PM:10:04:14/05/2022
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SULAIMANI — One person was killed during a protest over rising food prices
in Iran’s southwest Khuzestan province, a member of Iran’s parliament said on
Saturday (May 14), the country’s ILNA news agency reported.
Ahmad Avaei, an MP from Dezful in Khuzestan, did not provide further
information on the protestor, the Associated Press said.
Protests continued in Iran on Saturday, with demonstrations in Lorestan,
Chaharmahal Bakhtiari and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad in the southwest of the
country, Anadolu Agency said.
Iran’s Interior Minister, Ahmad Vahidi, downplayed the protests on state TV,
describing the demonstrations as small in scale.
Other officials have blamed foreign-based Persian-language media, Iran
International said, which described the recent protests as beginning in Iran’s
southwest province of Khuzestan and spreading to several other provinces.
Iran International said gunshots were heard during protests in the few videos
of demonstrations circulating on social media while the authorities have slowed
and in some cases shut down the Internet in areas where protests have occurred.
IRNA said 22 people were arrested on Thursday in the cities of Dezful and
Yasuj in southwest Iran.
The protests were sparked following President Ebrahim Raisi’s announcement this
week on a cut to subsidies that would increase the price of basic food items
such as cooking oil, chicken and milk by as much as 300 percent.
(NRT Digital Media)