Hard-liners have promised a harsher crackdown if protests spiral out of control

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Violence erupted between Iranian protesters and police during unrest on Thursday, leaving at least five dead on the fifth day of demonstrations over the country’s economic crisis.

Three people were killed during a demonstration outside a police station in Lorestan Province in western Iran, according to Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Another two people were killed during a protest near the governor’s residence in Lordegan, another western Iranian province, Fars said.

It came a day after a 21-year-old member of the Basij—a volunteer force tasked with protecting the Islamic Republic—was killed after demonstrators threw stones in Kuhdasht in Lorestan, the state broadcaster IRIB reported. About a dozen members of law enforcement and the Basij were injured, the local deputy governor, Saeed Pour Ali, said.

Protests also continued to take place in Tehran and elsewhere in the country.

The demonstrations began on Sunday after merchants took to the streets to protest after a precipitous drop in the value of the rial, the country’s currency. International sanctions over Iran’s refusal to pare back its nuclear ambitions have led to widespread economic problems, including high inflation and a devaluation of its currency. A June war with Israel shattered its defenses and exposed its weaknesses.

The violence could spur the regime to crack down more firmly on protesters, say analysts. 

“The only strategy the regime knows is repression,” said Saeid Golkar, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Iran expert. 

During the first few days of the protests, Iranian officials vowed to address the economic concerns that were highlighted by the demonstrations. But hard-liners have promised a fierce response if protesters turned to calling for the downfall of the Islamic Republic. Police violence resulted in hundreds of deaths in 2022 demonstrations over the country’s strict religious codes.

“Enemies will exploit” the situation, Pour Ali, the Lorestan deputy governor, said late Wednesday. “Rioting and destruction of public property have nothing to do with civil protests.”

Mohammad Movahedi-Azad, Iran’s prosecutor-general, warned this week that any attempt to turn economic protests into a tool of “insecurity” or “destruction of public property would face a legal, proportionate and firm response,” according to the judiciary-news agency Mizan.

Iran’s food inflation reached 64.2% in October, according to the World Bank, the second- highest level in the world after South Sudan. The rial has lost 60% of its value since the June war with Israel. Iran failed to clinch a deal with the U.S. over its atomic program that could have helped alleviate some of the stress sanctions have placed on its economy.

The economic crisis has been accompanied with mounting repression. More than 1,870 people had been executed in Iran in 2025, about twice as many as the prior year, according to data collected by the Washington-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, an advocacy group that documents human-rights violations in Iran. More than 490 people have been executed since Nov. 1, surpassing the total for all of 2021.

Write to Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

An earlier version of this article incorrectly said Iran failed to clinch a deal this year with U.S. over its atomic program, and that 1,870 people had been executed in Iran this year. In both cases, the events occurred last year. (Corrected on Jan. 1)

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Excerpt From

“Iranian protesters killed as unrest turns violent on 5th day”

Benoit Faucon

The Wall Street Journal

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