Iran unrest prompts new travel warnings
Shafaq News– Tehran
Five countries issued urgent travel warnings for Iran this week, advising their citizens to leave the country, citing widespread unrest, violent clashes, and risks to foreign nationals.
Between January 5 and January 7, 2026, governments, including Australia, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, updated their travel advisories to the highest levels.
Australia urged its citizens to “leave now” amid widespread protests and fatalities, India advised against non-essential travel, while the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada maintained or upgraded “Do Not Travel” or “Avoid All Travel”.
The protest movement began on December 28 in a mobile phone market and later spread to parts of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, the capital’s main economic hub, after the Iranian rial fell to a record low of more than 144,000 per US dollar.
Read more: Trader protests reshape Iran’s crisis while US signals grow sharper
Earlier today, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian urged security forces not to confront protesters.
The Commander of Iran’s Armed Forces, Amir Hatami, said that the rapid transformation of demonstrations into acts of unrest “does not reflect the awareness of Iranian society,” attributing the escalation to planning by hostile actors. He noted that the Iranian people’s economic demands have no connection to the US president or Israel’s prime minister.
