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CAIRO, Dec. 11 (AP) — Iran’s currency fell to a record low against the dollar on Sunday as nationwide anti-government protests now entered their third month. The collapse of talks to revive the Tehran nuclear deal also hurt the value of the rial.
On Sunday, traders in Tehran lifted the rial to around 370,000 per dollar from 368,000 on Thursday. Iran’s currency traded at 32,000 riyals to the dollar when the 2015 nuclear deal, which lifted international sanctions in exchange for tighter controls on Iran’s nuclear program, was signed.
Iran has been gripped by nationwide protests since September. Demonstrations erupted after Mahsa Amini, 22, died in the custody of the country’s morality police. She was detained by police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women. The status of the morality police remains unclear after Iran’s chief prosecutor, Mohamed Jafar Montazeri, said last week that the unit was “shut down”. Iranian state media has distanced itself from Montazeri’s claims.
Protesters have focused much of their anger on the country’s draconian policing and the entrenched power of Islamic clerics. But Iran’s poor economic situation is another factor sparking protests, with soaring prices, high unemployment and corruption among protesters’ common complaints.
For months, the Iranian government has tried to argue that a foreign country was behind the unrest, but has offered no evidence to back up the claim.
At least 485 people have been killed and more than 18,200 others arrested so far in the protests and subsequent violent crackdown by security forces, according to Iranian human rights activists monitoring the demonstrations. On Friday, Iran said it had executed the first person alleged to have committed a crime during the protests. At least a dozen other protesters have been sentenced to death by Iranian courts since the demonstrations began, according to data recorded by HRNA.
Efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal stalled a few months ago. The United States and the European Union have since imposed further sanctions on Tehran for its crackdown on protesters and its decision to provide Russia with hundreds of drones for its war on Ukraine.
Last week, Iran began construction of a new power plant. Last month, Iranian authorities said they had begun producing uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, within striking distance of 90 percent weapons-grade levels. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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