Iran's government offers dialogue as protests spread to universities

Protests against Iran’s soaring cost of living spread to several universities on Dec 30, with students joining shopkeepers and bazaar merchants, semiofficial media reported, as the government offered dialogue with demonstrators.

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Iran's rial currency has lost nearly half its value against the dollar in 2025, with inflation reaching 42.5 per cent in December in a country where unrest has repeatedly flared in recent years, and which is facing US sanctions and threats of Israeli strikes.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a social media post late on Dec 29 that he had asked the interior minister to listen to “legitimate demands” of protesters. Government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said a dialogue mechanism would be set up and include talks with protest leaders.

“We officially recognise the protests... We hear their voices, and we know that this originates from natural pressure arising from the pressure on people’s livelihoods,” she said on Dec 30 in comments carried by state media.

Video of protests, verified by Reuters as taking place in Tehran, showed scores of people marching along a street chanting “Rest in peace Reza Shah”, a reference to the founder of the royal dynasty ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Footage aired on Iranian state television on Dec 29 showed people gathered in central Tehran chanting slogans.

The semiofficial Fars News Agency reported that hundreds of students held protests on Dec 30 at four universities in Tehran.