Politics
Iran’s government offers dialogue as protests spread to universities
Protests over Iran’s soaring cost of living spread to several universities on Tuesday, with students joining shopkeepers and bazaar merchants, semi-official media reported, as the government offered dialogue with demonstrators.
Iran’s rial currency has lost nearly half its value against the dollar in 2025, with inflation reaching 42.5% 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 Monday that he had asked the interior minister to listen to “legitimate demands” of protesters.
Government spokesperson 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 Tuesday in comments carried by state media.
Protesters March streets in Tehran
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 Monday showed people gathered in central Tehran chanting slogans.
The semi-official Fars News Agency reported that hundreds of students held protests on Tuesday at four universities in Tehran.
On social media, some Iranians voiced support for the protests with one, Soroosh Dadkhah, saying high prices and corruption had led people “to the point of explosion” and another, Masoud Ghasemi, warning of protests spreading across the country.
Iranian authorities have quashed previous bouts of unrest that have flared over issues ranging from the economy to drought, women’s rights and political freedoms, with violent security actions and widespread arrests.
The government has not said what form dialogue will take with the leaders of this week’s demonstrations, the first major protests since Israeli and US strikes on Iran in June, which prompted widespread expressions of patriotic solidarity.
Pezeshkian said in a meeting with trade unions and market activists on Tuesday that the government will do its best to resolve their issues and address their worries, according to state media.
Sanctions hammer economy
Iran’s economy has been in deep trouble for years after US sanctions were reimposed in 2018 when US President Donald Trump ended an international deal over the country’s nuclear programme during his first term in office.
United Nations sanctions on the country were reimposed in September and Reuters reported in October that several high-level meetings had been held on how to avert economic collapse, circumvent sanctions and manage public anger.
Economic disparities between ordinary Iranians and the clerical and security elite, along with economic mismanagement and state corruption — reported even by state media — have fanned discontent at a time when inflation is pushing many prices beyond the means of most people.
The currency slid to 1.4 million rials to the US dollar on Tuesday according to private exchange platforms, a record low after starting the year at 817,500 rials to the dollar.
Monthly annualised inflation figures have not dropped below 36.4% since the Iranian new year started in late March according to official figures.
On Monday the central bank chief resigned with Iranian media saying the government’s recent economic liberalisation policies had put pressure on the open-rate rial market, where ordinary Iranians buy foreign currency. Most businesses use official currency exchanges where the rial price is supported.
In 2022, Iran was buffeted by protests across the country over price hikes, including for bread, a major staple.
Over the same period and into 2023, the country’s clerical rulers faced the boldest unrest in years touched off by the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the morality police, who enforce strict dress codes.
Iran remains under intense international pressure, with Trump saying on Monday that he might back another round of Israeli airstrikes if Tehran resumed work on ballistic missiles or any nuclear weapons programme.
The US and Israel carried out 12 days of airstrikes on Iran’s military and its nuclear installations in June aimed at stopping what they believe were efforts to develop the means to build an atomic weapon.
Iran says its nuclear energy programme is entirely peaceful and that it has not tried to build a nuclear bomb.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Wednesday he encourages Britain’s King Charles to return the Koh-e-Noor Diamond, with his comments coming during the British monarch’s ongoing US visit.
“If I were to speak to the king separately from that, I would probably encourage him to return the Koh-e-Noor Diamond,” Mamdani, who is Indian American, said when asked at a press conference hours before a ceremony that commemorated victims of the deadly September 11, 2001, attacks.
Later in the day, the king spoke with Mamdani at the ceremony. Buckingham Palace declined to comment. Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request to comment on whether Mamdani brought up the issue with the king.
India has previously repeatedly demanded that Britain return the 105-carat diamond.
Britain’s then colonial governor-general of India arranged for the huge diamond to be presented to Queen Victoria in 1850 after the East India Company had annexed the region of Punjab in 1849 and taken the diamond from a deposed Indian leader.
Charles on Wednesday commemorated victims of the September 11, 2001, attack on New York City, laying a floral bouquet at the memorial where the World Trade Centre’s twin towers once stood.
India received independence from British rule in 1947. The British colonisation of India and the widespread atrocities committed against people during that period remain sensitive issues in the country.
India has previously said the diamond was a “valued piece of art with strong roots in our nation’s history.” The diamond’s possession by the British is seen by many Indians as a symbol of colonial atrocities during British rule.
The diamond has been previously owned by India’s Mughal emperors, shahs of Iran, emirs of Afghanistan, and Sikh maharajas, according to the Historic Royal Palaces charity.
China’s AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, the maker of J-10C aircraft used by Pakistan to down India’s French-made planes in May last year, has reported a significant surge in profits, according a report by Bloomberg.
Revenue increased by 15.8% to 75.4 billion yuan ($11 billion) in 2025, with profit up 6.5% to 3.4 billion yuan in 2025, the publication cited the jetmaker as saying in a statement.
The numbers are the highest-ever for the company, Bloomberg reported, adding that Chengdu’s first-quarter sales rose almost 80% on year.
The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) inducted J-10C in March 2022, in a major boost to the country’s military capabilities to defend airspace.
At the time, the government said that the fighter jet could carry more advanced, fourth-generation air-to-air missiles, including the short-range PL-10 and the beyond-visual-range PL-15.
The fighter jet saw its first combat use in May 2025 when India launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan on May 6, following an attack on tourists in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan, during the 87-hour conflict, downed seven Indian fighter jets, including French-made Rafale, and dozens of drones.
The four-day war saw Pakistan successfully employing the Chinese-made HQ-9 air-defence system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles, and J-10C fighter aircraft, credited with downing multiple Indian aircraft.
The PAF also used its JF-17 Thunder jets to destroy India’s S-400 air defence system in Adampur by using hypersonic missiles.
The war between the two nuclear-armed nations ended on May 10 with a ceasefire agreement brokered by the US.
Months after the conflict, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General (DG) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry praised the performance of Chinese-made weapons, saying they performed “exceptionally well. “Of course, lately, recent Chinese platforms, they’ve demonstrated exceptionally well,” Lt Gen Chaudhry said in an interview in October last year.
In November last year, a report presented to the United States Congress acknowledged Pakistan’s “military success over India” in the war.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission report — reviewing US-China security and foreign affairs — stated that Pakistan employed advanced Chinese weaponry to enhance its military edge over India.
- Revenue up by 15.8% to 75.4 billion yuan in 2025: report.
- Company’s profits up by 6.5% to 3.4 billion yuan in 2025.
- Chengdu sales in first-quarter rose almost 80% on year.
China’s AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, the maker of J-10C aircraft used by Pakistan to down India’s French-made planes in May last year, has reported a significant surge in profits, according a report by Bloomberg.
Revenue increased by 15.8% to 75.4 billion yuan ($11 billion) in 2025, with profit up 6.5% to 3.4 billion yuan in 2025, the publication cited the jetmaker as saying in a statement.
The numbers are the highest-ever for the company, Bloomberg reported, adding that Chengdu’s first-quarter sales rose almost 80% on year.
The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) inducted J-10C in March 2022, in a major boost to the country’s military capabilities to defend airspace.
At the time, the government said that the fighter jet could carry more advanced, fourth-generation air-to-air missiles, including the short-range PL-10 and the beyond-visual-range PL-15.
The fighter jet saw its first combat use in May 2025 when India launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan on May 6, following an attack on tourists in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan, during the 87-hour conflict, downed seven Indian fighter jets, including French-made Rafale, and dozens of drones.
The four-day war saw Pakistan successfully employing the Chinese-made HQ-9 air-defence system, PL-15 air-to-air missiles, and J-10C fighter aircraft, credited with downing multiple Indian aircraft.
The PAF also used its JF-17 Thunder jets to destroy India’s S-400 air defence system in Adampur by using hypersonic missiles.
The war between the two nuclear-armed nations ended on May 10 with a ceasefire agreement brokered by the US.
Months after the conflict, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General (DG) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry praised the performance of Chinese-made weapons, saying they performed “exceptionally well,” The News reported, citing Bloomberg.
“Of course, lately, recent Chinese platforms, they’ve demonstrated exceptionally well,” Lt Gen Chaudhry said in an interview in October last year.
In November last year, a report presented to the United States Congress acknowledged Pakistan’s “military success over India” in the war.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission report — reviewing US-China security and foreign affairs — stated that Pakistan employed advanced Chinese weaponry to enhance its military edge over India.
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