Iran’s president urged his government to listen to the “legitimate demands” of protesters, state media reported on Tuesday, a day after demonstrations by shopkeepers in Tehran over economic hardship.Monday’s protest took place mainly in central Tehran’s shopping districts. On Tuesday morning, most shops and cafés were open as usual, AFP saw, along the vast Vali-asr Avenue which runs 18 kilometres (11 miles) from north to south through Tehran.Riot police were, nonetheless, monitoring the main squares in the city centre.When the protests erupted on Sunday, the US dollar was trading at around 1.42 million rials  — compared to 820,000 rials a year ago — and the rial strengthened only slightly by Tuesday.On Wednesday, schools, banks and businesses will be closed in Tehran and several other regions in the north and centre of the country to save energy amid severe winter cold, state media reported.It was into this atmosphere that President Masoud Pezeshkian — who has less authority under Iran’s system of government than supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — made his statement.   “I have asked the interior minister to listen to the legitimate demands of the protesters by engaging in dialogue with their representatives so that the government can do everything in its power to resolve the problems and act responsibly,” he said, in a social media post.According to state television, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, also called for “necessary measures focused on increasing people’s purchasing power”. “People’s concerns and protests regarding livelihood problems must be responded to with full responsibility, and dialogue,” he said.Price fluctuations are paralysing the sales of some imported goods, with both sellers and buyers preferring to postpone transactions until the outlook becomes clearer, AFP correspondents reported.According to the Etemad newspaper, one trader who did not give his name, complained that officials had offered no support to storekeepers battling soaring import costs.”They didn’t even follow up on how the dollar price affected our lives,” he complained. “We had to decide to show our protest. With this dollar price, we can’t even sell a phone case, and the officials don’t care at all that our lives are run by selling mobile phones and accessories.”- Battered economy -Iranian Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei called for “the swift punishment of those responsible for currency fluctuations”, the justice ministry’s Mizan agency reported Monday.The government has also announced the replacement of the central bank governor.”By decision of the president, Abdolnasser Hemmati will be appointed governor of the Central Bank,” presidency communications official Mehdi Tabatabaei posted on X.Hemmati is a former economy and finance minister who was dismissed by parliament in March because of the sharp depreciation of the rial.In December, inflation stood at 52 percent year-on-year, according to official statistics. But this figure still falls far short of many price increases, especially for basic necessities.The country’s economy, already battered by decades of Western sanctions, was further strained after the United Nations in late September reinstated international sanctions linked to the country’s nuclear programme that were lifted 10 years ago.Western powers and Israel accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran denies.

Saudi Arabia declared a UAE-backed separatist advance in Yemen as a threat to Riyadh’s national security on Tuesday and called Abu Dhabi’s actions “highly dangerous”, as the conflict boiled over into an open dispute between the Gulf powers.The strongly worded foreign ministry statement came after the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said it had struck a United Arab Emirates weapons shipment destined for separatist forces.In recent weeks, separatists backed by Abu Dhabi and seeking to revive the formerly independent state of South Yemen have made sweeping territorial gains after launching a lightning offensive in recent weeks.Experts say their successes have embarrassed Saudi Arabia, a regional heavyweight and the main backer of the internationally recognised Yemeni government.The leader of Yemen’s presidential council, which sits atop that government, declared a state of emergency and cancelled a security pact with Abu Dhabi after the forces of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized swathes of territory.The STC is also part of the government, a fractious patchwork of groups held together by its opposition to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who control swathes of northern and western Yemen including the capital Sanaa.Saudi Arabia and the UAE, traditionally close allies who joined forces in Yemen against the Houthis, have increasingly been at odds over the conflict on their doorstep, as well as the war in Sudan.”The Kingdom (Saudi Arabia) expresses its disappointment by the actions taken by the brotherly United Arab Emirates, pressuring the Southern Transitional Council’s forces to conduct military operations on the southern border of the Kingdom,” the Saudi statement said.It called them “a threat to the Kingdom’s national security, as well as to security and stability in the Republic of Yemen and the region,” it said.”The steps taken by the UAE are considered highly dangerous,” it said, adding “the Kingdom stresses that any threat to its national security is a red line, and the Kingdom will not hesitate to take all necessary steps and measures to confront and neutralise any such threat”.- ‘Fire is still burning’ -Riyadh also backed a demand from Yemen’s presidential council for Emirati forces to withdraw from the country within 24 hours, and urged Abu Dhabi to cut off military and financial support for Yemeni groups.Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, issued decrees on Tuesday announcing a 90-day state of emergency and annulling a security pact with the UAE over the separatists’ advance.Earlier, the Saudi-led coalition said it targeted a large quantity of weapons and combat vehicles sent by the UAE for the secessionist forces.The coalition struck two ships carrying “a large quantity of weapons and combat vehicles to support the Southern Transitional Council forces”, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported.”Given the danger and escalation posed by these weapons… the Coalition air forces carried out a limited military operation this morning targeting weapons and combat vehicles that had been unloaded from the two ships at the port of al-Mukalla,” it said.The ships had arrived from the UAE port of Fujairah, SPA said, adding that the operation was conducted in accordance with international humanitarian law and without collateral damage.An official at the port said a warning to evacuate was received at 4:00 am (0100 GMT) local time.”The evacuation completed, and the strike occurred a quarter of an hour later in a dirt area within the port. The fire is still burning,” the official said on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to media.- ‘Unacceptable to God’ -Abdullah Bazuhair, whose home overlooks the port, showed AFP the damage to his property, with windows blasted clear out of the walls and glass strewn across the floor. The strikes were “unacceptable to God” he said, adding “the children were terrified and the women frightened”.AFP footage of the port showed dozens of parked military vehicles and pick-ups, several of which were burnt out and smouldering as workers hosed them down.The Saudi-led coalition had warned that it would back Yemen’s government in any military confrontation with separatist forces and urged them to withdraw “peacefully” from recently seized territories in Hadramawt and Mahra governorates.Tuesday’s strike came days after reported Saudi air raids on separatist positions in resource-rich Hadramawt — and after Washington called for restraint in the conflict.In recent days, hundreds of Yemeni tribesmen have gathered in Aden to ask the STC’s leaders to announce the independence of South Yemen, according to the separatist-affiliated Aden Independent Channel.A Yemeni military official said on Friday that around 15,000 Saudi-backed fighters were massed near the Saudi border but had not been given orders to advance on separatist-held territory.burs/th/dcp