Al Arabiya, 29 December 2017 – As protesters continue to take to streets in Iran and shout anti-government slogans against high prices a top cleric in the second largest city of Mashhad has called for tough action against people by security forces.

According to the information provided by the network of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran inside the country, in Kermanshah (West Iran) demonstrators chanted “death to Rouhani”, “political prisoners should be freed,” “Let go of Palestine”, “Not Gaza, not Lebanon, I’d give my life for Iran.”

Police arrested 52 people in Thursday’s protests, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted a judicial official as saying in Mashhad. Political protests are rare in Iran but demonstrations are often held by workers over layoffs or non-payment of salaries and people who hold deposits in non-regulated bankrupt financial institutions.

“If the security and law enforcement agencies leave the rioters to themselves, enemies will publish films and pictures in their media and say that the Islamic Republic system has lost its revolutionary base in Mashhad,” IRNA quoted prominent conservative cleric Ahmad Alamolhoda as saying.

Videos on social media

Videos posted on social media showed demonstrators chanting “Death to (President Hassan) Rouhani” and “Death to the dictator”. Protests were also held in at least two other northeastern cities.

Alamolhoda, the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in northeastern Mashhad, said a few people had taken advantage of Thursday’s protests against rising prices to raise slogans against Iran’s involvement in regional conflicts.

Videos on social media also showed demonstrators chanting “Leave Syria, think about us”, criticizing Iran’s military and financial support for President Bashar al-Assad who is fighting opponents of the government in Syria’s six-year-old civil war.

Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, a close Rouhani ally, suggested that hardline opponents of the president may have started the protests.

“When a social and political movement is launched on the streets, those who started it will not necessarily be able to control it in the end,” IRNA quoted Jahangiri as saying. “Those who are behind such events will burn their own fingers. They think they will hurt the government by doing so.”

With Reuters inputs