Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Sunday that the nation and its security forces have ended the wave of unrest linked to anti-government protests that erupted last month.

In a statement on its website, the Guard blamed the unrest on the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as an exiled opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, and supporters of the monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Price hikes sparked protests in a number of cities and towns late last month, and at least 21 people were killed in scattered clashes. The protests, which vented anger at high unemployment and official corruption, were the largest seen in Iran since the disputed 2009 presidential election, and some demonstrators called for the overthrow of the government.

The Revolutionary Guard is a powerful paramilitary force loyal to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Many of the demonstrators protested against the Guard’s massive budget, its costly interventions across the region, and against the supreme leader himself.

Hundreds of people have been detained since the protests began. They include around 90 university students, reformist lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Iranian lawmakers held a closed session on Sunday in which senior security officials briefed them on the protests and the conditions of the detainees, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Lawmakers probed Interior Minister Abdolrahmani Rahmani Fazli, Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani, the parliament’s ICANA website reported.

“It was emphasized that foreign elements, and in particular the United States, played a basic role in forming and manipulating the recent unrest,” IRNA quoted lawmaker Jalal Mirzaei as saying.

Some voiced concern over the internet controls put in place during the unrest, including a ban on Iran’s most popular messaging app, Telegram, which officials said had been used to incite violence.

“The parliament is not in favour of keeping Telegram filtering in place, but it must pledge that it will not be used as a tool by the enemies of the Iranian people,” Behrouz Nemati, spokesman for the parliament’s presiding board, wrote on Instagram, which was also temporarily blocked during the unrest.

Many Iranians use Telegram as their main source of news and a way of bypassing the highly restrictive state media, with almost a third of Iran’s 80 million people using the app daily.

The United States and Israel have expressed support for the protests, which began on December 28 in Iran’s second largest city, Mashhad, but deny allegations of fomenting them.

In recent days, government supporters have held several mass rallies across the country to protest the unrest. </s> DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the country’s people and security forces had put an end to unrest fomented by foreign enemies, as parliament and security officials met to discuss the boldest challenge to the clerical establishment since 2009.

There has been more than a week of unrest in Iran in which 22 people have died and more than 1,000 arrested, according to Iranian officials. The protests spread to more than 80 cities and rural towns as thousands of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at graft, unemployment and a deepening gap between rich and poor.

Residents contacted by Reuters in various cities have said the protests had subsided after the government intensified a crackdown by dispatching Revolutionary Guards forces to several provinces.

“Iran’s revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain (of unrest),” the Guards said in a statement on their Sepahnews website. The Guards said the unrest had been “created ... by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime (Israel), Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites (Mujahideen) and monarchists.”

Parliament met on Sunday to discuss the week of unrest with the ministers of interior and intelligence, Iran’s police chief and the deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, state television said.

Late on Saturday, videos on social media showed a heavy police presence in cities, including Khorramabad in southwestern Iran where on Wednesday evening social media posts showed protesters throwing stones at riot police.

As protests have ebbed, the government has lifted restrictions it imposed on Instagram, one of the social media tools used to mobilise protesters. But access to a more widely used messaging app, Telegram, was still blocked, suggesting authorities remained uneasy about the possibility of further protests.

Parliament spokesman Behrouz Nemati said MPs and security officials had decided that Telegram restrictions should be lifted only after the app committed to ban “hostile, anti-Iranian channels that promote unrest”, state television reported.

Telegram, with 40 million users in Iran, in late December shut down a channel that Iran had accused of encouraging violence, but declined to block other channels and this prompted Tehran to block access to the app.

Many Iranians access Telegram by using virtual private networks (VPNs) and other tools to bypass government filtering of the Internet, residents say.

Thousands of government supporters have staged rallies in a backlash against the anti-government protests which are the biggest since widespread unrest in 2009 over alleged election fraud.

State television showed live pictures of rallies in several cities, including central Shahr-e Kord where hundreds, many clutching umbrellas, had gathered despite heavy snowfall.

“Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Death to Britain” “Death to seditionists”, the demonstrators chanted.

The anti-government protests have attracted largely young people and workers as well as members of the educated middle-class that formed the backbone of a pro-reform revolt almost a decade ago.

A police spokesman said most of those arrested were “duped” into joining the unrest and had been freed on bail, the state news agency IRNA reported. “But, the leaders of the unrest are held by the judiciary in prison.”

Several parliament members and university officials have expressed concern over the fate of students arrested during the protests. Tehran University Vice-President Majid Sarsangi has said the university had set up a committee to track them.

Parliament spokesman Nemati said MPs had asked security officials for a report about the detained students during Sunday’s closed session.

“One of the issues addressed by deputies and the parliament speaker was that of detained students, and it was decided that the Intelligence Ministry would vigorously pursue this and submit a report by next week,” said Nemati, quoted by IRNA.

A member of parliament said earlier about 90 students were detained, 10 of whom were still not accounted for.

Iran has several parallel security bodies and residents say arrests are often not immediately announced.

Videos on social media in the past few days showed relatives of detainees gathering outside prisons seeking information about the fate of their loved ones.

The Revolutionary Guards and their affiliated Basij militia suppressed unrest in 2009, in which dozens of pro-reform Iranians were killed. </s> DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the country’s people and security forces had put an end to unrest fomented by foreign enemies, as parliament and security officials met to discuss the boldest challenge to the clerical establishment since 2009.

There has been more than a week of unrest in Iran in which 22 people have died and more than 1,000 arrested, according to Iranian officials. The protests spread to more than 80 cities and rural towns as thousands of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at graft, unemployment and a deepening gap between rich and poor.

Residents contacted by Reuters in various cities have said the protests had subsided after the government intensified a crackdown by dispatching Revolutionary Guards forces to several provinces.

“Iran’s revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain (of unrest),” the Guards said in a statement on their Sepahnews website. The Guards said the unrest had been “created ... by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime (Israel), Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites (Mujahideen) and monarchists.”

Parliament met on Sunday to discuss the week of unrest with the ministers of interior and intelligence, Iran’s police chief and the deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, state television said.

Late on Saturday, videos on social media showed a heavy police presence in cities, including Khorramabad in southwestern Iran where on Wednesday evening social media posts showed protesters throwing stones at riot police.

As protests have ebbed, the government has lifted restrictions it imposed on Instagram, one of the social media tools used to mobilize protesters. But access to a more widely used messaging app, Telegram, was still blocked, suggesting authorities remained uneasy about the possibility of further protests.

Parliament spokesman Behrouz Nemati said MPs and security officials had decided that Telegram restrictions should be lifted only after the app committed to ban “hostile, anti-Iranian channels that promote unrest”, state television reported.

Telegram, with 40 million users in Iran, in late December shut down a channel that Iran had accused of encouraging violence, but declined to block other channels and this prompted Tehran to block access to the app.

Many Iranians access Telegram by using virtual private networks (VPNs) and other tools to bypass government filtering of the Internet, residents say.

Related Coverage Iran bans English in primary schools after leader's warning

Thousands of government supporters have staged rallies in a backlash against the anti-government protests which are the biggest since widespread unrest in 2009 over alleged election fraud.

State television showed live pictures of rallies in several cities, including central Shahr-e Kord where hundreds, many clutching umbrellas, had gathered despite heavy snowfall.

“Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Death to Britain” “Death to seditionists”, the demonstrators chanted.

The anti-government protests have attracted largely young people and workers as well as members of the educated middle-class that formed the backbone of a pro-reform revolt almost a decade ago.

A police spokesman said most of those arrested were “duped” into joining the unrest and had been freed on bail, the state news agency IRNA reported. “But, the leaders of the unrest are held by the judiciary in prison.”

CONCERNS ABOUT STUDENT ARRESTS

Several parliament members and university officials have expressed concern over the fate of students arrested during the protests. Tehran University Vice-President Majid Sarsangi has said the university had set up a committee to track them.

Parliament spokesman Nemati said MPs had asked security officials for a report about the detained students during Sunday’s closed session.

“One of the issues addressed by deputies and the parliament speaker was that of detained students, and it was decided that the Intelligence Ministry would vigorously pursue this and submit a report by next week,” said Nemati, quoted by IRNA.

A member of parliament said earlier about 90 students were detained, 10 of whom were still not accounted for.

People take part in pro-government rallies, Iran, January 3, 2018. Tasnim News Agency/Handout via REUTERS

Iran has several parallel security bodies and residents say arrests are often not immediately announced.

Videos on social media in the past few days showed relatives of detainees gathering outside prisons seeking information about the fate of their loved ones.

The Revolutionary Guards and their affiliated Basij militia suppressed unrest in 2009, in which dozens of pro-reform Iranians were killed. </s> TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said on Sunday that the nation and its security forces have ended the wave of unrest linked to anti-government protests that erupted last month.

In a statement on its website, the force blamed the unrest on the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as an exiled opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, and supporters of the monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Price hikes sparked protests in a number of cities and towns late last month, and at least 21 people were killed in scattered clashes.

The protests, which vented anger at high unemployment and official corruption, were the largest seen in Iran since the disputed 2009 presidential election, and some demonstrators called for the overthrow of the government.

Authorities have said in the past few days that the protests are waning but The Associated Press could not independently verify that.

The Revolutionary Guard is a powerful paramilitary force loyal to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Many of the demonstrators protested against the Guard’s massive budget, its costly interventions across the region, and against the supreme leader himself.

Hundreds of people have been detained since the protests began. They include around 90 university students, reformist lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Later on Sunday, Tehran prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said that 70 of the detained protesters have been released on bail during the last 48 hours. He added that there would be more releases from detention, except for the main instigators of the riots who will be “dealt with seriously.”

Iranian lawmakers held a closed session on Sunday in which senior security officials briefed them on the protests and the conditions of the detainees, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

“It was emphasized that foreign elements, and in particular the United States, played a basic role in forming and manipulating the recent unrest,” IRNA quoted lawmaker Jalal Mirzaei as saying.

The United States and Israel have expressed support for the protests, which began on Dec. 28 in Iran’s second largest city, Mashhad, but deny allegations of fomenting them.

In recent days, government supporters have held several mass rallies across the country to protest the unrest.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. </s> Iranians hold an Iranian flag during a protest after performing the Friday prayers at Imam Khomeini Mosque following a US statement backing the anti-government protests in Tehran, Iran, on Friday (Anadolu Agency photo)

DUBAI — Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday the country's people and security forces had put an end to unrest fomented by foreign enemies, as parliament and security officials met to discuss the boldest challenge to the clerical establishment since 2009.

There has been more than a week of unrest in Iran in which 22 people have died and more than 1,000 arrested, according to Iranian officials. The protests spread to more than 80 cities and rural towns as thousands of young and working-class Iranians expressed their anger at graft, unemployment and a deepening gap between rich and poor.

Residents contacted by Reuters in various cities have said the protests had subsided after the government intensified a crackdown by dispatching Revolutionary Guards forces to several provinces.

"Iran's revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the intelligence ministry have broken down the chain [of unrest]," the guards said in a statement on their Sepahnews website.

The guards said the unrest had been “created... by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime [Israel], Saudi Arabia, and monarchists”.

Parliament met on Sunday to discuss the week of unrest with the ministers of interior and intelligence, Iran’s police chief and the deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, state television said.

Late on Saturday, videos on social media showed a heavy police presence in cities, including Khorramabad in southwestern Iran where on Wednesday evening social media posts showed protesters throwing stones at riot police.

As protests have ebbed, the government has lifted restrictions it imposed on Instagram, one of the social media tools used to mobilise protesters. But access to a more widely used messaging app, Telegram, was still blocked, suggesting authorities remained uneasy about the possibility of further protests.

Parliament spokesman Behrouz Nemati said MPs and security officials had decided that Telegram restrictions should be lifted only after the app committed to ban “hostile, anti-Iranian channels that promote unrest”, state television reported.

Telegram, with 40 million users in Iran, in late December shut down a channel that Iran had accused of encouraging violence, but declined to block other channels and this prompted Tehran to block access to the app.

Many Iranians access Telegram by using virtual private networks (VPNs) and other tools to bypass government filtering of the Internet, residents say.

Thousands of government supporters have staged rallies in a backlash against the anti-government protests which are the biggest since widespread unrest in 2009 over alleged election fraud.

State television showed live pictures of rallies in several cities, including central Shahr-e Kord where hundreds, many clutching umbrellas, had gathered despite heavy snowfall.

“Death to America”, “Death to Israel”, “Death to Britain” “Death to seditionists”, the demonstrators chanted.

The anti-government protests have attracted largely young people and workers as well as members of the educated middle-class that formed the backbone of a pro-reform revolt almost a decade ago.

A police spokesman said most of those arrested were “duped” into joining the unrest and had been freed on bail, the state news agency IRNA reported. “But, the leaders of the unrest are held by the judiciary in prison.”

Several parliament members and university officials have expressed concern over the fate of students arrested during the protests. Tehran University Vice President Majid Sarsangi has said the university had set up a committee to track them.

Parliament spokesman Nemati said MPs had asked security officials for a report about the detained students during Sunday’s closed session.

“One of the issues addressed by deputies and the parliament speaker was that of detained students, and it was decided that the Intelligence Ministry would vigorously pursue this and submit a report by next week,” said Nemati, quoted by IRNA.

A member of parliament said earlier about 90 students were detained, 10 of whom were still not accounted for.

Iran has several parallel security bodies and residents say arrests are often not immediately announced.

Videos on social media in the past few days showed relatives of detainees gathering outside prisons seeking information about the fate of their loved ones.

The Revolutionary Guards and their affiliated Basij militia suppressed unrest in 2009, in which dozens of pro-reform Iranians were killed. </s> TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's Revolutionary Guard said on Sunday that the nation and its security forces have ended the wave of unrest linked to anti-government protests that erupted last month.

In a statement on its website, the force blamed the unrest on the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, as well as an exiled opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, and supporters of the monarchy that was overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Price hikes sparked protests in a number of cities and towns late last month, and at least 21 people were killed in scattered clashes.

The protests, which vented anger at high unemployment and official corruption, were the largest seen in Iran since the disputed 2009 presidential election, and some demonstrators called for the overthrow of the government.

Authorities have said in the past few days that the protests are waning, but The Associated Press could not independently verify that.

The Revolutionary Guard is a powerful paramilitary force loyal to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Many of the demonstrators protested against the Guard's massive budget, its costly interventions across the region, and against the supreme leader himself.

Hundreds of people have been detained since the protests began. They include around 90 university students, reformist lawmaker Mahmoud Sadeghi was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Later on Sunday, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said that 70 of the detained protesters have been released on bail during the last 48 hours. He added that there would be more releases from detention, except for the main instigators of the riots who will be "dealt with seriously."

Iranian lawmakers held a closed session on Sunday in which senior security officials briefed them on the protests and the conditions of the detainees, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. </s> Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) said in a statement Sunday that the Iranian people and the country's security forces played a role in ending the recent wave of unrest that the IRGC says was fomented by foreign enemies.

 

 The group said in a statement, "The new epic of the proud, conscious, pious, and revolutionary Iranian people, along with the distinguished presence of tens of thousands of loyal Basij volunteer forces in calming the riots and the sincere endeavors of the brethren of the Law Enforcement Force and the Intelligence Ministry have broken the chain woven by America, Britain, the Zionist regime [Israel], the Saudi royal family, the Hypocrites [the banned Mojahedin-e-Karl Organization] and monarchists and eliminated the witchery of a new sedition."

 

 Iran's parliament holds a special session Sunday to discuss the anti-government protests that began December 28 and continued into the following week.

Iran's ISNA news agency reported that Iran's interior minister, head of intelligence and security council chief are all expected to attend. On the agenda are discussions of the root cause of the protests, as well as legal help for protesters jailed during the demonstrations.

 

 The session was called by a group of reformist lawmakers, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In a letter, those lawmakers called for legal assistance for the detained and condemned any outside "interference" in the protests, calling out the United States in particular.

 

 U.S. President Donald Trump is set to soon decide whether to continue waiving sanctions on Iran that were suspended under the 2015 international deal on Iran's nuclear program. The waiver must be renewed every 120 days, according to U.S. law. Trump could decide not to renew, putting U.S. trade sanctions back into effect.

 

 In Europe, supporters of the anti-government protesters in Iran have been gathering to show their support in The Hague, Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, London and Paris.

At least 22 people have died in the protests and more than 1,000 have been arrested. Hard-line cleric Ahmad Khatami told worshipers in a sermon Friday that those arrested should be treated as enemies of Islam, particularly those who have burned the flag. "There should be no mercy for them," he said.

 

 Government official Mansour Gholami has told reporters that about a quarter of those arrested have been released, but he did not provide exact numbers.



 The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting Friday at the urging of the United States.

 

 U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley called the protests "a powerful exhibition of brave people who have become so fed up with their oppressive government that they are willing to risk their lives in protests." She also addressed the Iranian government, saying, "the U.S. is watching what you do."

 

 In response, the Iranian ambassador, Gholamali Khoshroo, said it is a "discredit" to the Security Council to hold such a meeting on Iran in the face of the conflicts taking place in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East. He, along with a number of Security Council members, said the United States is meddling in Iran's domestic affairs.

After the meeting, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted, "The UNSC rebuffed the U.S.'snaked attempt to hijack its mandate ... Another FP [foreign policy] blunder for the Trump administration."

 

 Still, U.S. intelligence officials warn Tehran is at a crossroads, noting the protests are the biggest outpouring of public discontent since Iranians took to the streets in 2009 following a disputed presidential election.

 

 "The protests are symptomatic of long-standing grievances that have been left to fester," an intelligence official told VOA on condition of anonymity. "Will it address the legitimate concerns of its people or suppress the voices of its own populace?"

 

 "What is clear is that these concerns are not going away," the official said.

 

 Critics of Iranian President Nassan Rouhani say he has abandoned the poor, pointing to rising prices for key commodities like fuel, bread and eggs. </s> Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) says antigovernment protests that it blames on foreign instigators have been "defeated."

In a January 7 statement, the IRGC said "Iran's revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain [of unrest] created...by the United States, Britain," Israel, Saudi Arabia, militants, and monarchists.

The IRGC statement was issued after Iran's parliament held a closed-door session on January 7 to discuss the antigovernment protests that have rocked the country for more than a week.

The parliamentary session was called by a reformist faction of lawmakers who questioned security and intelligence officials about the causes of the unrest -- which Iran's government has also blamed on foreigners.

The parliament's ICANA website reported that lawmakers questioned Interior Minister Abdolrahmani Rahmani Fazli, Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi, and the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani.

It said some lawmakers voiced concerns about Internet controls put in place in the midst of the unrest, including a ban on Iran's most popular messaging app, Telegram, which officials said had been used to incite violence.

The government has reportedly lifted restrictions that it imposed on the Instagram social media tool.

But access to Telegram remained blocked on January 7, despite claims from Iran's FARS news agency that the restrictions on Telegram had been "fully lifted."

"The parliament is not in favour of keeping Telegram filtering in place, but it must pledge that it will not be used as a tool by the enemies of the Iranian people," Behrouz Nemati, spokesman for the parliament's presiding board, said.

Almost a third of Iran's 80 million people use the Telegram app as their main source of news and a way of bypassing the highly restrictive state media.

The United States and Israel have expressed support for the protesters, but deny allegations of fomenting them.

Meanwhile, state media on January 7 broadcast live footage of a fifth day of pro-government rallies organized by authorities.

But RFE/RL has received credible reports that protests continued in at least nine cities across Iran on January 6, including Tehran, where social media footage showed gatherings despite a large police presence.

RFE/RL's Radio Farda also obtained credible reports on January 6 from sources in Iran about overnight demonstrations against Iran's clerical rulers in Takestan, Arak, Masjed Soleiman, Mashhad, Qazvin, Rasht, Lahijan, and Khomein, the birthplace of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic.

More than a week of unrest has seen 22 people die and more than 1,700 arrested.

Various Iranian officials said on January 6 that hundreds of detainees had been released, some after agreeing to sign a pledge not to "re-offend," the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.

They include around 90 university students, lawmaker Mahmud Sadeghi was quoted as saying by ISNA.

Later on January 7, Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said that 70 of the detained protesters had been released on bail during the previous 48 hours.

Dolatabadi also said that there would be more releases from detention, except for the main instigators of the riots.

In a rebuke to Iranian government claims that the widespread demonstrations had been organized and/or instigated by foreigners, a group of 16 prominent reformist figures living in Iran issued a statement rejecting that claim.

In the January 6 statement, the signatories said, "Despite the fact the enemies of the country always try to take advantage of such events, we should know that any kind of foreign interference would not be possible without the existence of internal conditions."

They added that in addition to the government claim of foreign involvement being "an insult" to Iranians, it leads to "negligence toward the real causes of the protests."

The reformist letter also went on to condemn "American interference," especially of President Donald Trump, in the "internal affairs of Iran."

Most of the signatories to the statement are former officials or parliamentarians from the time of President Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005).

Iranian émigrés also staged numerous antigovernment demonstrations in front of Iranian embassies around the world during the weekend -- including The Hague, Berlin and Hamburg, Stockholm, London, and Paris.

With reporting by RFE/RL correspondent Golnaz Esfandiari, Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, and Press TV </s> Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it has forcefully ended anti-government protests that officials in the Islamic Republic blamed on “foreign instigators.”

“Iran’s revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain [of unrest] created … by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime [Israel], Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites [Mujahideen] and monarchists,” the IRGC said in a statement posted on Jan. 7 on its Sepah News website.

Contrary to the IRGC’s statement, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said it has received credible reports that protests continued in at least nine cities across Iran on Jan. 6, including Teheran, where social media footage showed gatherings despite a large police presence.

RFE/RL’s Radio Farda also reported it obtained credible reports on Jan. 6 from sources in Iran about overnight demonstrations against Iran’s clerical rulers in Takestan, Arak, Masjed Soleiman, Mashhad, Qazvin, Rasht, Lahijan, and Khomein, the birthplace of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The protests are the largest in Iran since 2009, when widespread unrest erupted over what analysts say was an obviously rigged election in favor of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The IRGC and its Basij militia suppressed the unrest in 2009. Dozens of pro-reform Iranians were killed.

State media has stopped reporting on anti-government protests, but broadcast live footage of a fifth day of pro-government rallies organized by authorities.

While the Iranian government continues to insist the protests have been instigated by foreigners, a group of 16 prominent reformist figures living in Iran issued a statement rejecting that argument.

In the Jan. 6 statement, the signatories said, “Despite the fact the enemies of the country always try to take advantage of such events, we should know that any kind of foreign interference would not be possible without the existence of internal conditions.”

They added that, in addition to the government claim of foreign involvement being “an insult” to Iranians, it leads to “negligence toward the real causes of the protests.”

Meanwhile, access to the social media app Telegram remained blocked on Jan. 7, despite claims from Iran’s FARS news agency that the restrictions on Telegram had been “fully lifted.”

“The parliament is not in favor of keeping Telegram filtering in place, but it must pledge that it will not be used as a tool by the enemies of the Iranian people,” Behrouz Nemati, spokesman for the parliament’s presiding board, said.

Almost a third of Iran’s 80 million people use the Telegram app as their main source of news and as a way of bypassing highly restrictive state media.

Unlike the 2009 Green Movement, anti-government protesters over the last two weeks have garnered support from the United States. President Donald Trump has tweeted his support on several occasions.

The 2009 rebellion’s failure “was assured” by President Barack Obama, Jed Babbin, a deputy undersecretary of defense in the George H.W. Bush administration, noted in a Jan. 7 analysis for The Washington Times.

“Instead of helping the protesters, Obama criticized them, saying that they didn’t represent ‘fundamental change,’ ” Babbin wrote. “He spoke meekly, saying that, ‘The world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was.’ ”

Babbin continued: “As these protests and the Green Movement of 2009 proved, the ayatollahs’ regime is vulnerable. Regardless of what happens to the Iranian protesters in the next weeks, Trump needs to act decisively.

“What Obama forbade in 2009 Trump should authorize in 2018. The CIA will have plans to fund and help the opposition organize fomenting revolution in Iran to oust the ayatollahs and return Iran to a semblance of freedom. That covert action can be authorized by a secret ‘presidential determination,’ which Trump should sign as soon as possible.”

Later this month, Trump will again have to decide on certifying Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal.

“Last October he refused to do that. Now he can do more,” Babbin wrote.

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The Revolutionary Guards announce that Iran broke down the chain of last week's unrest. According to them, the unrest was created "by the United States, Britain, the Zionist regime (Israel), Saudi Arabia, the hypocrites (Mujahideen) and monarchists."