Tehran's grand bazaar to reopen, guild leaders blame administration's policies
Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 4/ Trend M. Moezzi
Tehran's Grand Bazaar will open on Saturday, the first day of Iran's business week after being closed for the past two days, Mehr news agency reports.
The heads of manufacturing, distribution and technical service guilds agreed at a meeting this morning that the Bazaar will go back into business on Saturday morning and there will be a greater law enforcement presence.
Basij representatives of the associations also attended the meeting. The Basij is a paramilitary force made up of volunteers.
The Bazaar closed yesterday (Wednesday) after Iran's currency, the rial, plunged in value. People at the market burned tyres and shouted slogans against the government in protest.
On Monday, a USD was sold at 29,700 rials in the morning, but sharply increased to 35,500 rials by the evening. As a result of the rapid drop, as much as 660 trillion rials in cash assets of country's citizens were lost on Monday evening.
The guilds' leaders blamed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration for making mistakes that have harmed Iran's economy and issued a statement defending Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Security forces arrested several people on charges of organising riots at the Bazaar.
Two Europeans are among the detainees. According to Mehr, they introduced themselves as tourists, but were photographing the occurring disorders.
