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Article snippet: After four days of rare protests that shook Iran, President Hassan Rouhani tried to calm the nation on Sunday, saying that people had the right to protest and acknowledging public concerns over the economy and corruption. “We are a free nation, and based on the Constitution and citizenship rights, people are completely free to express their criticism and even their protest,” Mr. Rouhani said, according to the state-run PressTV. But he also exhorted Iranians not to resort to violence, after reports of protesters attacking banks and municipal buildings across the nation, including a local government building in Tehran. The protests are the first major demonstrations in Iran since 2009, when people took to the streets to challenge the results of a presidential election that kept a hard-liner in power and was widely regarded as fraudulent. Mr. Rouhani, a moderate, came to power in 2013. The recent unrest began as a protest over rising prices and quickly grew into a nationwide outpouring of anger against the government, including over corruption. In 2009, protesters were supporting reformers, but now their discontent appears to be with their leaders in general. In an unusually bold act of defiance, some protesters in Tehran and elsewhere called for the resignation of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and witnesses described crowds chanting, “Death to the dictator” and “Clerics should get lost.” Video shared on social media showed the police in Tehran firi... Link to the full article to read more