DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuters) — Iran’s bazaar merchants, the trader class who were the financial backbone of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, have turned against the clerics they helped bring to power, fuelling unrest over an economy that has morphed into full-blown anti-government protests.

Frustration among bazaar merchants, from small-scale shopkeepers to large wholesale traders, has grown as their political and economic clout in Iran has diminished over the decades, while the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has tightened its grip on the economy, building sprawling and tightly held networks of power.

“We are struggling. We cannot import goods because of US sanctions and because only the Guards or those linked to them control the economy. They only think about their own benefits,” said a trader at Tehran’s centuries-old Grand Bazaar, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The wave of protests that has engulfed the country, posing one of the toughest challenges ever to the clerical leadership, erupted in late December in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, where hundreds of shopkeepers denounced the sharp fall in the rial currency.

The demonstrations quickly swelled and turned political, challenging the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy. Protesters burned images of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and chanted “Death to the dictator” — undeterred by security forces armed with tear gas, batons, and, in many cases, live ammunition.

Iran’s rulers, while acknowledging economic difficulties, have blamed their longtime foes, the US and Israel, for fomenting the unrest. They appear intent on holding onto power at any cost, backed by a security apparatus refined over........

© The Times of Israel