IRAN’S “summer of simmering discontent” is presenting an existential crisis for the theocratic regime, communists warned today as unrest continued across the country for a fourth consecutive day.

Tudeh Party of Iran (TPI) international secretary Navid Shomali told the Star that the regime is struggling to stay in control, saying the uprising represents one of the most serious crises in its history as the Iranian people demand change.

Popular protests have taken place in most major towns and cities due to the increasing costs of basic goods and shortages of water, electricity and commodities.

Much of the anger is directed at the country’s clerical leaders, in particular Ali Khamenei, the all-powerful supreme leader, whose decrees have shaped the political, economic and social policies of the theocratic state.  

With a huge drop in the value of the Iranian rial and rising unemployment, the country has seen some of the most open and visible displays of opposition to the government in recent times as protesters question the regime’s ability to run the economy.

While the costs of basics spiral, swathes of central and southern Iran are facing severe water shortages as temperatures soar as high as 50°C.

Mr Shomali said: “The regime seems to be struggling to stay in control and is facing a major existential crisis in its history. It is not an exaggeration that 80 per cent of the Iranian population now clamours for political change.”

He said the population was only held at bay by the “regime’s use of repression and brute force.

“Reports and footage widely emerging from the streets in Iran show a regime clearly wary of the mood prevailing among the people, with a significant deployment of its repressive machinery around central squares, main thoroughfares and transport hubs, watching the population and ready to move in on any sign of dissent,” Mr Shomali said.

Demonstrators have been demanding an end to the clerical regime, chanting defiantly: “Guns and bullets no longer frighten us” as riot police have used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Trade unionists have been targeted after protests over a failure to pay wages and poor working conditions.

But the TPI stressed that unity was essential in bringing about change given the experiences of the protests that erupted in January.

The party called for “the establishment of a united front against the tyrannical regime,” bringing together all democratic forces in the country.