PARIS, France (AFP) — Iranian students chanted anti-government slogans and scuffled with counter-protesters on Saturday in the latest display of anger at the country’s clerical leaders, who also face a United States military build-up aimed at pressuring them into a nuclear deal.
The gatherings at universities, which were reported by both local and diaspora media outlets, followed a mass protest movement that was met with a government crackdown last month that left thousands dead.
The crackdown had prompted US President Donald Trump to threaten to intervene militarily, though the focus of his threats eventually shifted to Iran’s nuclear program, which Western governments fear is aimed at producing a bomb.
The US and Iran recently resumed Oman-mediated talks on a potential deal, but Washington has simultaneously increased its military presence in the region, dispatching two aircraft carriers, jets and weaponry to back its warnings.
Videos geolocated by Agence France-Presse to Tehran’s top engineering university showed fights breaking out in a crowd on Saturday as people shouted “bi sharaf,” or “disgraceful” in Farsi.
Footage posted by the Persian-language TV channel Iran International, which is based outside the country, also showed a large crowd chanting anti-government slogans at Sharif University of Technology.
The Fars news agency later said there were reports of injuries in scuffles at the institution.
Iranians had reprised their protest slogans earlier this week to mark the 40th day since thousands of people were killed as a wave of demonstrations was peaking on 8 and 9 January.
The unrest first broke out in December over prolonged financial strain, but exploded into mass anti-government protests that were suppressed in a violent crackdown by security forces.