Demonstrators took to the streets of Tehran for a third day on Tuesday to protest the country’s deteriorating economy.
Online videos showed demonstrators again confronting police on Tehran's streets and alleyways. Similar confrontations had taken place on Monday where police fired tear gas at protesters near the parliament building.
Earlier on Monday, demonstrators forced the temporary closure of Tehran's Grand Bazaar and on Sunday, protests forced two major shopping centers for mobile phones and electronics to close in Tehran.
Video footage posted on social media Tuesday showed protesters setting fire to garbage dumpsters in Tehran streets to block riot police from attacking them.
Other videos showed riot police breaking windows of closed shops and striking parked motorcycles with batons. The police has accused protesters in recent days of causing damage to public property.
Metro stations near the bazaar were closed for hours as the result of protests, state media reported.
Pictures also showed shopkeepers were on strike in other cities including Arak, Shiraz, Tabriz and Kermanshah.
Rage persists over the plunging of the Iranian rial to 90,000 to the dollar — double the government rate of 42,000 rials to $1 — as people watch their savings dwindle and shopkeepers hold onto some goods, uncertain of their true value.
Part of the economic uncertainty comes from President Donald Trump's decision to pull America out of the nuclear deal and re-impose sanctions on Iran.
President Hassan Rouhani told the nation that it faces an "economic war" with the United States following America's pullout from the nuclear deal.
Similar economic protests roiled Iran and spread to some 75 cities and towns at the end of last year, becoming the largest demonstrations in the country since the months-long rallies following the 2009 disputed presidential election.
The protests in late December and early January saw at least 25 people killed and nearly 5,000 arrested.
On Tuesday morning, Rouhani addressed a meeting of judges that included the head of the country's judiciary and parliament.
"We are fighting against the United States, it wants to make an economic war," the president said. "The US cannot defeat our nation; our enemies are not able to force us to their knees."
Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, speaking at the same event as Rouhani, appeared to directly criticize his administration.
"The government hasn't done enough to confront the economic problems," the conservative politician said, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.
