Iranians Protest Rising Food Prices<br />Saeed Leilaz, a Tehran-based analyst, said that Mr. Rouhani’s political rivals may have played a role in organizing the protests, saying "the hands of political groups could be seen in today’s gathering in Mashhad."<br />But he said the administration still faces a major challenge.<br />28, 2017<br />DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranians angry over rising food prices<br />and inflation protested in the country’s second-largest city and other areas Thursday, putting new pressure on President Hassan Rouhani as his signature nuclear deal with world powers remains in peril.<br />The police in Mashhad made an unspecified number of arrests, local authorities said, though the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guard<br />and its affiliates did not intervene as they have during other unauthorized demonstrations since Iran’s disputed 2009 election.<br />It wasn’t immediately clear how many people took part in Thursday’s protests, though social media<br />posts suggest several thousand demonstrated at rallies across at least three other cities.<br />Leilaz said that There are more than three million jobless in Iran, and more than 35 percent of Iranians are under the poverty line,<br />Poultry is an important part of the diet of many of Iran’s 80 million people;<br />previous price increases have caused political problems for Iran’s leaders.
