Tehran students chant 'Woman Life Freedom' on eve of planned protests

Several protest rallies were held in various parts of Iran, from Qeshm in the south, to Zanjan and Hamadan in the north, on Monday night.

"Death to the dictator" was heard on Qeshm Island. Zanjan protesters also chanted "Seyyed Ali (Khamenei) will be toppled this year".

In Hamadan, protesters chanted "This is the final battle, Pahlavi will return," referring to Iranian exiled prince, Reza Pahlavi, whose father's monarchy was toppled by the Islamic Republic in 1979.

A video shared with Iran International showed one protester sitting in the middle of a street in Tehran and refusing to move as motorbike-riding security forces moved in on demonstrators.

The protester was later beaten and forced to leave, another video showed.

The video had sparked some comparisons to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in China.

Tehran protesters chanted 'death to the dictator' during sporadic nighttime demonstrations, videos obtained by Iran International show.

Similar chants were heard in Malard, a town in western Tehran province, on Monday evening.

The Majlis’ joint budget committee voted 32–9 against the bill’s general outlines on Monday, citing concerns that the proposal would fuel inflation, further erode household purchasing power and rely on revenue assumptions lawmakers fear will not be met.

The committee said its report rejecting the bill will now be sent to parliament’s leadership for debate in an open session, where lawmakers will decide whether to return the budget to the government for revision.

The budget had been formally submitted to parliament last week, as Iran grapples with mounting fiscal pressures, a sliding rial and rising public discontent over living costs.

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  Iran president says budget cannot match wages to inflation

Iran’s president has appointed former economy minister Abdolnaser Hemmati as the new head of the central bank, state-linked media reported on Monday, confirming a leadership change amid turmoil in currency markets and mounting economic pressure.

Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy head of communications at the president’s office, said on X that President Masoud Pezeshkian had decided to name Hemmati as central bank governor.

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