2 protesters killed in Iran as government tries to thwart activists with social media crackdown

Jim Michaels | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Iranian Protesters Chant "Down With Dictator" Amateur video emerged on Saturday showing large protests in the central Iranian city of Hojedk. The footage showed protesters throwing stones at security officials and chanting "down with dictator". (Dec. 30)

Two demonstrators were reportedly killed overnight as the Iranian government struggled to contain anti-government protests spreading throughout the country.

The deaths, which were reported Sunday by the semi-official Mehr news agency, marked the first time protesters were killed in the demonstrations that began Thursday over economic woes facing the country.

The fatalities occurred in protests in Doroud, a city about 200 miles southwest of Tehran, the Associated Press reported.

Hundreds of protesters have been arrested since Thursday, including 200 in Tehran on Saturday, according to Iranian media reports.

Iran’s government, meanwhile, attempted to undermine activists by limiting access to apps that had been used to organize or garner support for the protests.

Iran blocked access to Instagram and Telegram, a messaging app used by protesters to organize rallies.

“Iranian authorities are blocking access to Telegram for the majority of Iranians after our public refusal to shut down… peacefully protesting channels” Telegram CEO Pavel Durov wrote on Twitter.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, has not commented publicly on the reports from Iran.

President Trump weighed in Sunday for the second time. “Big protests in Iran,” Trump tweeted. “The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!”

He had earlier warned Tehran via Twitter, “The world is watching!”

In a statement released late Sunday, The White House said: "We support the right of the Iranian people to express themselves peacefully. Their voices deserve to be heard. We encourage all parties to protect this fundamental right to peaceful expression and to avoid any actions that contribute to censorship."

The demonstrations were the largest in Iran since 2009 when tumultuous protests spread following a disputed presidential election.

It is difficult to predict the outcome of protests like these, but analysts do not expect them to lead to the collapse of Iran's government or a major overhaul of political institutions.

"There's is not as much of an appetite for a new revolution," said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA official. "The most likely scenario is something similar to 2009: a combination of a crackdown by security forces and just a fatigue (among protesters) that sets in after a time."

The protests, which were triggered by economic concerns, reflect underlying popular discontent that has been simmering in Iran for years, experts say.

The 1979 Iranian revolution that replaced the shah with the Islamic Republic promised the "equivalent of a chicken in every pot," said Richard Nephew, a former National Security Council official who is now a senior research scholar at Columbia University.

"This is just part of the inability of the government to make good on its promises," he said.

The unrest comes as Trump has taken a hard line against Tehran, sharply criticizing a nuclear deal reached by the Obama administration and world powers that lifted some economic sanctions against Iran in return for limiting the country’s enrichment of uranium.

The agreement did not limit Iran’s activities around the world, including its support for the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria or the Houthis, who are engaged in a civil war in Yemen. The Trump administration has said the nuclear deal has done nothing to limit Iran’s support of terrorism.

The lifting of sanctions has improved Iran’s economy somewhat, but few of those changes have yet to reach ordinary Iranians, who still struggle with limited opportunities, including high unemployment.

The Iranian public had expected more of an economic boost from the nuclear deal, Pillar said, and those hopes have since been dashed.

"Enough time has gone by to know this windfall not happening," Pillar said. "Iran's government probably oversold the agreement."

The lifting of sanctions has also made it difficult for the government of President Hassan Rouhani to blame economic problems on the United States and its allies, he said.

It was a recent increase in egg and poultry prices by as much as 40% that appears to have sparked the protests, AP reported. They have since broadened to include wider political demonstrations.

State TV said some protesters chanted the name of the U.S.-backed shah, who fled into exile just before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and later died, according to AP.

On Sunday, the semi-official ILNA news agency reported that authorities have arrested about 80 protesters in the city of Arak, 173 miles south of Tehran, AP reported.

Even if the current protests are quashed, the divisions within Iranian society and government will continue, experts say. "You're going to see a vigorous debate inside government over how do we fix these problems," Nephew said.